Spacepod

Marta Bryan shares her new results on exoplanets! She explains how she tested a theory of hot jupiter formation, and how she figured out that planet rotation rates are likely set early on in the planet's lifetime.

Dr. Rahul Patel describes his search for undiscovered disks of dust around other stars. He explains how looking for fainter and fainter debris disks may bring us closer to discovering a planetary system similar to our own.

Dr. Ivy Curren talks about Mars' moon Phobos, and how grooves on its surface indicate that the interior may be fractured. This small, mysterious moon is covered in faults, making it a dicey place for future missions to land.

Dr Roberta Paladini talks about the space-based Herschel Space Observatory, which was the largest infrared telescope ever launched. It looked at the sky in the far infrared, and discovered an abundance of water in star-forming regions.

Dr. Andy Thompson explains how he uses robotic ocean gliders to learn about our planet. He tells us how ocean water interacts with the atmosphere, and how parcels of water can preserve information about that interaction for thousands of years.

As part of the 2016 TED Fellows class, I got to meet cool people and I got to talk about asteroids. My TED talk is now online on www.TED.com (check it out!) and the companion book, "Asteroid Hunters", by me, is now available in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and India. There's also e-book and audiobook versions. This bonus episode contains an excerpt from "Asteroid Hunters".

Dr. Erin Burkett tells us what prairie dog research has to do with an earthquake early alarm system. She also talks about how to motivate people to prepare for earthquakes, and emphasizes the importance of storytelling in science communication.

Dr. Robert Hurt returns to the show to talk about artistic depictions of interstellar travel. We discuss the images of the seven-planet TRAPPIST-1 system he and Tim Pyle created— images that graced the cover of Nature and the front page of the New York Times. We also talk about Star Trek: The Next Generation, and what that TV show got right (and wrong) about the visuals of cruising through outer space.

Professor Mansi Kasliwal talks about the GROWTH project, which uses international teamwork to watch astronomical events around the clock. An individual observer is thwarted by sunrise, but together, an international team can continuously monitor supernovae, neutron stars, and asteroids over 24 hours.

Dr Linda Billings talks about the importance of clear communication across the expert/non-expert boundary. She describes the difference between the words "risk", "hazard" and "threat," as applied to near-Earth objects and gives advice to scientists who want to communicate their research accurately.