The Supermassive Podcast

We are live at the National Astronomy Meeting in Durham with questions on everything from white holes and fuzzy stars, to solar storms and time travel. Science journalist Izzie Clarke is joined by Dr Ziri Younsi – part of the team that took the first picture of a black hole. Also on the panel, Jim Wild, Professor of Space Physics at Lancaster University and president-elect of the Royal Astronomical Society…and the one and only Dr Robert Massey, Deputy Director of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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Izzie Clarke is joined by Dr Robert Massey to tackle your questions on the shape of space, measuring gravitational waves and planet spotting. We also have another - another! - astronaut: Producer Richard chats to British ESA astronaut Rosemary Coogan about her background as an astrophysicist. 

Join The Supermassive Club for ad-free listening and share your questions, images and more. Or email them to podcast@ras.ac.uk or on Instagram @SupermassivePod.

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham.

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It’s a brave question to put to three astronauts live on stage but it’s a risk we are prepared to take. Recorded in front of a live audience at the UK Space Conference in Manchester, European Space Agency astronauts Tim Peake, Meganne Christian and John McFall discuss the future of human space exploration. Could robots or AI take their place? Will a trip to the Moon be as common as flying across the Atlantic? And can humans be trusted to not mess with Mars?

Host Izzie Clarke asks the big questions, producer Richard Holli...

What would happen if asteroid Bennu impacted Earth? Can we timelapse Saturn's rings developing? Where are Earth's rings? Plus the solar wind on Mars... The Supermassive team answer YOUR questions.

Keep sending questions to podcast@ras.ac.uk, on Instagram @SupermassivePod or join The Supermassive Club for ad-free listening and to support the show.

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Izzie and Dr Becky decided that little ol’ Pluto doesn’t get much attention anymore. So we’re giving the dwarf planet some time in the spotlight. Why isn't Pluto a planet? How small is it? And what makes it so unique?

Thank you to Prof Alan Fitzsimmons from Queens University of Belfast joining us episode.

Join The Supermassive Club for ad-free listening and share you questions, images and more. Or email them to podcast@ras.ac.uk or on Instagram @SupermassivePod.

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What would happen if planets collided at a snail's pace? How much of Avengers Endgame regarding time is scientifically acceptable? Why aren't stars closer together? And the team discuss a listener's theory to terra-form Mars.

Want to support the show? Join The Supermassive Club for exclusive content, star-gazing forums and ad-free listening... supermassive.supportingcast.fm

And keep adding to The Supermassive Mailbox with your pictures and questions for the team. Send them to podcast@ras.ac.uk or follow them on Instagram, @SupermassivePod.

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Start your stopwatches, set your timers, turn back your clocks because Izzie and Dr Becky are talking time. What is it? How, and why, do we measure it? And is time real or a human construct?!

Izzie speaks with Anne Curtis at the National Physical Laboratory who works on one of the world’s most accurate clocks, and editor Richard has been to the very heart of time itself in Greenwich with Finn Burridge at the Royal Observatory.

The Supermassive Club is finally here. Join to support the show and for ad-free listening: htt...

Should astronauts live underground on the Moon or Mars? Black hole jets, rogue planets, the big crunch (or freeze) and the Ontario question. Dr Becky, Izzie and Dr Robert Massey tackle your correspondence from the Supermassive mailbox and producer Richard makes a pronunciation intervention.

The book Becky mentions is Red Rising by Pierce Brown.

Keep sending in your wonderful ponderings. Email them to podcast@ras.ac.uk or via Instagram @Supermassivepod

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham.

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This episode is a weighty one. Some might say massive. It’s all about gravity. What is it? Why does it matter? Izzie and Dr Becky explore Einstein and Newton’s different ideas on the subject, plus Izzie visits the Royal Society to see Isaac Newton's original manuscript for his works on gravity and the laws of motion.

Special thank you to listener Hanna_m_e for suggesting this episode topic and to Professor Tessa Baker, at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth, and to Keith Moore, head of collections at the Ro...

What the bloomin’ hell is a Gravastar? Are fast radio bursts like solar flares on steroids? Plus an interesting question on multiverses that can't be summed up in a short sentence. Izzie Clarke, Dr Becky Smethurst and Dr Robert Massey dive into The Supermassive Mailbox and take on your questions.

Keep sending in your wonderful ponderings. Email them to podcast@ras.ac.uk or via Instagram @Supermassivepod

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham.

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Climb aboard The Supermassive Rocket, Izzie and Becky are (talking about) sending humans back to the moon. Joining them on their trip is European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer and Jacki Mahaffey, the Chief Training Officer for NASA’s Artemis II mission. Plus, Dr Robert Massey, the Deputy Director of the Royal Astronomical Society, is there as well to answer your questions and share his top stargazing tips.

For more supermassive astronaut episodes, here's our episode with Samantha Cristoforetti and another with Gene Cernan.

Keep sending your questions to The Supermassive Podcast at podcast...

If black holes are so dense, how can gamma rays jet shoot out from it? At what point in space does our sun become invisible to the naked eye? And a question about CubeSats, black holes and detecting alien civilisations... It time for Izzie Clarke, Dr Becky Smethurst and Dr Robert Massey to take on your questions!

Got a question to add to The Supermassive Mailbox? Email it to podcast@ras.ac.uk or message us on Instagram, @SupermassivePod. There's no such thing as a silly question. In fact, the sillier, the better!

T...

This time Dr Becky Smethurst and Izzie Clarke discover why it’s touch and go when it comes to returning asteroid samples to Earth and hear how we’ve been exchanging spit with Mars since the dawn of the Solar System.

The team is joined by Dr Sara Russell, a meteorite researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, and Dr Albert Haldemann, Mars Chief Engineer for the European Space Agency.

As ever, Dr Robert Massey is with us to answer your questions and look ahead to the next month in the ni...

Scientists have detected an asteroid that has a small chance of hitting Earth. Resident expert Dr Robert Massey tells Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham why we shouldn't be worried.

Want to suggest a topic to the team? Contact podcast@ras.ac.uk or find us on Instagram @SupermassivePod.

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham

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What are the implications on space exploration with a change of president? Did cosmic inflation come before the Big Bang? Are there sonic booms in space? Izzie, Becky and Robert take on your questions! 

Keep sending your questions to podcast@ras.ac.uk or find us on instagram @SupermassivePod. 

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Hosts Izzie Clarke and Dr Becky Smethurst are starting 2025 with a biggie. The scientific search for extraterrestrial life: 

Where are scientists looking? How do they search for potential signals? And what the heck is the plan if they find one?! The Supermassive team hears from Seth Shostak from the SETI Institute about the search for life beyond Earth, and Dr John Elliot from the University of St Andrews explains what would happen if we were to detect them. 

Thanks for all of your brilliant questions - keep them coming! You can email podcast@ras.ac.uk or...

Our final episode of 2024 is a SUPERMASSIVE Q&A. 

Izzie Clarke, Dr Becky Smethurst and Dr Robert Massey make their way through your questions.  What’s the farthest star we can see with the naked eye? Why do black holes expand and shrink? And what would happen if we accelerated an uncompressed medium sized potato to 99% the speed of light? 

And remember, do not confuse the ISS with Santa's Sleigh in the run up to Christmas. To avoid any confusion, find out when the ISS is flying over your home using https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/home.cfm

From planetary alignment through the galaxy to spacetime expansion, The Supermassive Team answer your questions.

Keep sending us your questions, email us on podcast@ras.ac.uk or find us on instagram @SupermassivePod

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The Supermassive Team are investigating strange blasts of energy in space called Fast Radio Bursts. What are they and where do they come from? Dr Stuart Ryder from Macquarie University in Australia joins Izzie, Dr Becky and Robert to help explain. 

Christmas Present Ideas Astronaut Chris Hadfield’s talk - A Journey into The CosmosAstronomy Photographer of the Year exhibition at Royal Museums GreenwichTelescope SeeStar S50 Image stabilising binocularsCosmos (book) from DKThe Impossible Man by Patchen Barrs. The Little Book of Cosmic Catastrophes by Sarah WebbThe Night Sky Almanac for 2025 by Radmila Topalovic, Storm Dunlop and Wil TirionKeep sendin...

... Potentially the silliest bonus episode we've ever recorded. 

The Supermassive Team takes on your questions; What are Brown Dwarfs? How can photons have different energies? Do frozen stars exist? And they get extremely distracted by the concept of nuclear pasta. Even Producer Richard gets involved. 

Here's the paper mentioned by listener Hanna, Thermodynamics of Frozen Stars

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From pulsating stars to those with diamond cores, Izzie and Dr Becky are exploring weird and wonderful stars. What are the different types of stars in our universe? And what are the oddballs? Plus Dr Robert Massey is here for your top stargazing tips.

With thanks to Professor Andrew Norton from the Open University for joining the team this episode.

Keep sending your brilliant questions and photos to podcast@ras.ac.uk or on Instagram @SupermassivePod. 

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production for the Royal Astronomical Society. The producers are Izzie Clarke a...

Auroras, and comets, and launches... Oh my! Izzie Clarke, Dr Becky Smethurst, and Dr Robert Massey run through a MEGA month for the astronomy community. Plus, there's just enough time to squeeze in a few listener questions. 

Here's our recommendations on news or journals sites to keep up with all things space and science: 

space.com
Universe Today
Astronomy Now
Sky at Night
Sky and Telescope
NASA
ESA
ESO
The RAS Website and Journals
Dr Becky's YouTube channel
Astrobites.org
TheConversation.com 

The Sup...

Izzie and Dr Becky are untangling the cosmic web - the large scale structure of the universe - with help from Dr Chiara Mingarelli from Yale University. What the heck is it? What do we know about it? And can we use gravitational waves to "see" it? Plus, Dr Robert Massey is on hand to answer your questions.

Got a question for the team? Contact us on podcast@ras.ac.uk or find us on Instagram, @SupermassivePod.

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media Production. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham. 

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What happens when a black hole and gravitational wave collide? How will the moon's gravity impact tides with rising sea levels? And "the Supermassive Wise Ones" discuss Einstein vs Newton in this bonus episode. 

Send your questions to podcast@ras.ac.uk. 

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Izzie and Dr Becky complete their tour of the solar system with a trip to Mercury, the space spirograph (copyright: Dr Becky). Join them as they explore what we know about the planet so far and what ESA's current mission, BepiColombo, is hoping to find. Plus, Dr Robert Massey is on hand to answer your questions. 

Special thanks to guests Dr David Rothery from the Open University and Dr Simon Lindsay from the University of Leicester. 

Don't forget to send your questions to the team via podcast@ras.ac.uk or Instagram @SupermassivePod

The Su...

Does an instantaneous star map exist? Where are the perfect spheres in space? How did Venus get so close to the Sun? It's a bonus episode from The Supermassive team. 

Sign the petition and support Herstmonceux Observatory here... https://www.change.org/p/save-the-observatory-science-centre-herstmonceux

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This is Venus’ moment in the supermassive spotlight. What do we know about this hellish planet? And what missions are going there in the near future? 

Izzie and Dr Becky speak with Dr Phillipa Mason from Imperial College London about EnVision, an upcoming mission to Venus, as well as RAS librarian Sian Prosser to explore the archive. Plus Dr Robert Massey is here to take on your questions.

The paper about the sounds on Venus can be found here. 

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production by Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham. 

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The Supermassive Overmassive Podcast has a special bonus episode. Join Izzie, Dr Becky, Dr Robert and Richard as they discuss the last two years of JWST and share their recommendations for Space Book Club. 

Recommendations:Unseen Universe: New Secrets of the Cosmos Revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope by Dr Caroline Harper The Possibility of Life by Jaime GreenWhen Galaxies Were Born - Richard Ellis Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space By Adam Higginbotham

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Have black holes existed since the beginning of the Universe? Could we produce a black hole in the lab? Could we use gravitational waves to probe beyond the event horizon? 

It's a black hole Q&A as Izzie put your questions to Becky and Robert. Plus, author and broadcaster, Marcus Chown, runs through a potted history of discovering black holes. His latest book on the same topic, A Crack In Everything, is out now: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/crack-in-everything-9781804544303/

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production by Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham. 

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In this month's bonus episode Izzie, Dr Becky Smethurst and Dr Robert Massey tackle questions on pulsars, woo woo sounds from black holes, imperfect spheres and alien aurorae. Send your questions to: podcast@ras.ac.uk, and we’re also on instagram @SupermassivePod. 

The Supermassive podcast is produced by Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham and is a Boffin Media production for the Royal Astronomical Society.

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Every 18.6 years, our moon reaches its farthest northern and southern point, known as a major lunar standstill. This month, Izzie and Dr Becky are exploring why this might be significant to Stonehenge in the UK and another historical site in the US called Chimney Rock. With special thanks to Dr Heather Sebire, Dr Amanda Chadburn and Dr Erica Ellingson.

The southernmost Moonrise at Stonehenge will be livestreamed, allowing viewers to witness this celestial spectacle firsthand. Plus, there'll be events throughout the standstill season which include talks, a pop-up planetarium, stargazing sessions, storytelling, and a new exhibition display at...

The UK witnessed the most amazing Northern Lights in years.... And Izzie missed it.

In this bonus episode, Dr Becky Smethurst, Dr Robert Massey and Izzie Clarke talk about those Northern Lights and answer your questions. What is Jupiter's giant blue dot? If the sun is losing mass (by giving out energy) will that affect the gravity and orbit of the solar system? And how do you date a rock? 

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Two of the most remarkable spacecraft ever launched are the stars of this month’s episode: Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Izzie and Dr Becky talk to Dr Jamie Rankin, the mission’s current Deputy project scientist, and editor Richard gets to chat to Ann Druyan, the original Creative Director of the Golden Record project, who worked alongside her husband Carl Sagan.

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production for the Royal Astronomical Society. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham. 

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Can wobbly planets have more than two solstices? Are we earthlings receding from the sun and the other planets? What is dark flow and why is it controversial? When stars die, is their energy lost forever? 

Send your questions to podcast@ras.ac.uk or find us on Instagram @SupermassivePod. 

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production for the Royal Astronomical Society. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Izzie and Dr Becky are venturing into interstellar space. What is it? Where is it? And what do we know about it? 

With special thanks to Professor Martin Barstow from University of Leicester and Professor Chris Lintott from the University of Oxford. Chris' new book "Our Accidental Universe" is out now. 

Check out the RAS's video on Pons Brooks here: https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/12ppons-brooks-how-and-when-see-devil-comet

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production for the Royal Astronomical Society. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham. 

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What is cosmic dust? Could we reignite a dying Sun with a nuclear weapon? How do we know what galaxies stars are in, and can the JWST see streetlights on alien worlds?

If you have a question for the Supermassive team, send them to podcast@ras.ac.uk or find us on Instagram, @SupermassivePod.

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production for the Royal Astronomical Society. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Izzie and Dr Becky are exploring shaky ground, whether that’s on Earth, other planets and even on our neighbour the Moon. This month is all about quakes. 

With special thanks to Mark Panning, the project scientist for NASA's InSight mission, and Dr Jess Johnson from the University of East Anglia.

Join Izzie and the UK Space Education Office for Mars Day on Tuesday 5th March, sign up to the virtual event here. 

Explore the North Tyneside Solar Trail and discover models representing planets from our solar system, 16 & 17 March 2024

The Supermassive Podcast is a...

Do we see black hole mergers as a result of galaxy mergers? What did the night sky look like to the dinosaurs? Is a gas giant just a rocky planet with a huge and dense atmosphere? Do all orbits eventually end up in resonance? 

The Supermassive Team is back with the first bonus episode for 2024! Send in your questions to podcast@ras.ac.uk or find us on Instagram, @SupermassivePod.

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production for the Royal Astronomical Society. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham. 

Ho...

The Supermassive Podcast is back for 2024 and putting the "happy" in Happy New Year! What could be a cheerier start to the year than an episode about the End of the World… Astronomically speaking!?

From supernova explosions, to super volcanoes, Izzie Clarke, Dr Becky Smethurst and Dr Robert Massey are running through the checklist of big bad things that put our planet at risk. Special thanks goes to Professor Chris Impey from the University of Arizona and author of How It Ends, and Dr Mike Cassidy from the University of Birmingham.

Things we promised we'd put in...

Izzie Clarke and Dr Becky Smethurst are rounding off 2023 with a biggie. Arguably the biggest of them all. This episode is ALL about the Multiverse. What is it? What does it mean? Does it even exist?  

A big thank you to Andrew Pontzen from UCL and author of "Universe in a Box" for explaining the basics, Katie Mack from The Perimeter Institute for going from physicist to film reviewer, and to listener Wendy Entwistle who suggested the Supermassive team cover this topic.

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production for the Royal Astronomical Society. The p...