The origins of Earth's atmosphere are an enduring mystery – but by looking at the formation of atmospheres on planets outside our solar system, we may be able to unravel it. That's the hope of Dr George Zhou, from the University of Southern Queensland, who is looking to win time on the James Webb Space Telescope to see how a young planet is having its atmosphere stripped away. Dr Zhou, who has already used the Hubble Space Telescope for his research, is hoping Webb will give him an even better idea of how atmospheres come to be. On this episode of the Space Connect podcast, he speaks to Jake Nelson on his research and what he hopes to learn from Webb.

Earlier this week, Space Connect reported how astronomers at Curtin University followed up their landmark discovery of a pulsating stellar object last year by finding a second.

The team believe it could be an ultra-long period magnetar, a rare type of star with strong magnetic fields that can produce powerful bursts of energy.

Here, Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker, who led the study, talks through the research and reveals how her team used the MWA telescope in Western Australia to spot the object.

Plus, she discusses what comes next and analyses the theories as to exactly what it could be.

This month, Space Connect reported how a University of Southern Queensland PhD student was among a team of scientists who calculated the age of a white dwarf going through crystallisation.

Alexander Venner's world-first discovery on HD 190412 C came only three years after researchers in the UK discovered the first evidence of the unique phenomenon.

On this episode, Venner tells host Adam Thorn about the importance of the crystallisation process and how the team made the breakthrough.

Plus, they discuss where future research could go next.

Dr Simon Murphy uses pulsations detected in data from NASA missions to make inferences about stars.

What this means is that he can use the stellar pulsations like clocks, discovering new binary systems in a way that would be impossible with other techniques.

In this episode, Dr Murphy discusses how he can use these pioneering techniques to take the guesswork out of finding new planets, speeding up the process.

Dr Scott Sleap is a veteran STEM educator and space luminary who recently returned from a fellowship program in the US, where he visited aerospace sites such as NASA, Boeing, and the Smithsonian. He believes Australia is in need of a National Space and Deep Tech Centre to boost our sovereign space capabilities and help our domestic space industry compete on the global stage.

Scott speaks to the SpaceConnect podcast on his learnings from the US trip and how he believes they can be applied to the Australian space industry. He also offers his insights from decades of STEM teaching on how to get people involved in the space sector and the best way to educate them.

In 2003, regularly updated maps of recently burnt areas of our bush were uploaded onto a website hosted by Charles Darwin University, known as the North Australian Fire Information service, or NAFI.

Twenty years on, NAFI's maps of active fires and burnt areas underpin fire management across northern Australia.

The maps are used for planning, response, implementation, and reporting.

This week, Rohan Fisher joins Space Connect Podcast host Adam Thorn to talk through more about how it works.

Researchers using the 36-dish ASKAP telescope have made a discovery that challenges the hypothesis around how "fast radio bursts" form. Fast radio bursts are intense bursts of radio emission that can last just milliseconds and were only first detected in 2007. The exact processes that cause them have long been shrouded in mystery. Traditionally, they have only been recorded in colliding galaxies, but now, an Australian-based team have detected them in a much calmer galactic environment. In this episode, Curtin University's Marcin Glowacki, who led the study, and Dr Karen Lee-Waddell, explain the significance of the findings.