Space is fundamentally quite weird, and seldom as weird as the thousands of “exoplanets” that – we’ve fairly recently discovered – exist outside of our solar system. We’re all familiar with the likes of Tatooine from Star Wars and Krypton from Superman, but what are the REAL exoplanets like? And how do filmmakers turn these planets from figments of imagination into something immersive that look and feel real to audiences? 

To find out, Emma Kennedy talks to Lisa Kaltenegger, world-leading astronomer and author of Alien Earths: The Search for Life in the Cosmos and Paul Franklin, Oscar-winning Visual FX Supervisor and co-founder of the digital effects company DNEG.  

Buy Lisa Kaltenegger’s Alien Earths: The Search for Life in the Cosmos through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund WHY? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. 

WHY? is presented by Emma Kennedy. Produced by Eliza Davis Beard. Audio production and theme music by Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. Artwork by James Parrett. Additional music is from Artlist.io. WHY? is a Podmasters Production. 

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