The Astroholic Explains

Our Christmas special is finally here! This time we have a murder mystery set in a space hotel during a total solar eclipse featuring a full array of suspicious guests. Who among these peculiar characters is a murderer?

Starring (in order of appearance):

Steven Di Costa as the Narrator,  Chris Carpineti as Dafydd Morgan, Suze Kundu as Sonam Vikram, Sheldon Goodman. as Cecil Fox, Sacha Coward as Jules Child, Dean Garland as the Security Guard, Eleanor Armstrong as Emily Lawless, Karl Byrne as Montgomery Colt, Benjamin Couvin as Lucius Jeune, Alfredo Carpineti as Giovanni, Danielle Emina as Theophania, Vaneet Mehta as Malik, and with Katy Evans as the Countess!

It was written and directed by Alfredo Carpineti, with Post-Production by Alfredo and Chris Carpineti, and with special thanks for support and encouragement to Trip Galey, Robert Berg, and Shaun O’Boyle!

Our final episode for season two is another fictional one. Our drama starts on a damaged starship at the edge of the solar system. Its commander has forgotten who she is, what she's doing there, and who the other passengers in this vessel are.

For the final factual episode of season 2, we have crowdsourced many questions about space. Tune in to discover how many atoms are in the universe, how we can tell that galaxies rotate, how we measure the speed of stars, what would happen if we blew up the Moon, and many more questions!

Uranus and Neptune are the Ice Giants of the Solar System. We are joined by Naomi Rowe-Gurney,  who specializes in studying their atmospheres to uncover their mysteries, from their diamond rains to their likely funky smells!

A new fictional episode for you! A billionaire planning to nuke Mars send two hapless idiots to confirm that the planet is sterile. What could go wrong? We are also joined by Anuradha Damale to talk about nuclear weapons & space policy.

In this episode, we answer @BlueMouseEeek's 4-year-old's question regarding planets beyond Earth that can support life as well as facing the issues of a silicon-based life form. 

We are answering more of our listeners' questions in this episode. Jake wonders: how come all the planets in the solar system orbit almost on the same plane? And the answer has a culinary analogy!

We are back with a big apocalyptic question! In this episode, we talk about how the Sun will change and evolve and how that will impact the planets, moons, and space rocks of the Solar System

We have a new fictional episode for you to enjoy, based around first contact with an alien civilization. This is The Message!

This episode was guest-edited by Dr Shaun O’Boyle. Secretary-General of the UN - Prayas Khan was played by Dr Suze Kundu. The Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs - James O’Brian was played by Karl Byrne, and the Chief of Staff - Damien Carré was Ben Couvin. Katelyn Gorrell was Abigail. Alfredo played Dr. Andrea Eco. The story was written by Alfredo with feedback & support from Trip Galey.

In this episode, we are joined by Dr Joby Hollis who is part of the science team of the NASA Perseverance rover to tackle the question of life on the Red Planet, and what to expect from Perseverance when it lands on Mars in 2021.