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BepiColombo's Massive Mission to Mercury
54:23|Eight years after its launch, BepiColombo is finally reaching the planet Mercury!Join Dr Becky Smethurst, Izzie Clarke and Robert Massey as they explore how BepiColombo is going to study Mercury’s surface and what it hopes to reveal about the planet’s magnetosphere.🛰️ ESA's Professor Geraint Jones explains the science of BepiColombo's TWO orbiters; ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter.👀 Dr Valentina Galuzzi explains how the instrument SIMBIO-SYS, aka 'the eyes' of MPO, will give us a detailed view of Mercury's weird surface.Watch The Supermassive Podcast on YouTube and for ad-free listening, join The Supermassive Club on Supporting Cast. Every paying member helps keep the show running.Send us your astronomy attempts and curious questions to podcast@ras.ac.uk, on Instagram at @supermassivepod or post in The Supermassive Club.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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Has dark matter been discovered? And why black holes are black...
23:23|Dr Becky, Izzie and Dr Robert Massey return for another bonus Q and A tackling some of the biggest questions in cosmology. This time, questions on the formation of the solar system, dark matter experimental results and why you can’t escape from a black hole.For ad-free listening, join The Supermassive Club on Supporting Cast. Every paying member helps keep the show running, so thank you!Send us your astronomy attempts, questions (and nonsense!) to podcast@ras.ac.uk, on Instagram at @supermassivepod or post in The Supermassive Club.The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production for @RasOrgUk. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham.Antimatter is Bananas!
52:59|In yet another mind-bending episode, we take on antimatter – What is it? How do you make it? And can you use it to power a spaceship? Dr Becky, Izzie and Dr Robert Massey (he’s back!) are joined by Professor Jeffrey Hangst from CERN in Switzerland, home of an antimatter factory. We also discover that every time you eat a banana, antimatter is being destroyed.For ad-free listening, join The Supermassive Club on Supporting Cast. Every paying member helps keep the show running, so thank you!https://supermassive.supportingcast.fm/Send us your astronomy attempts, questions (and nonsense!) to podcast@ras.ac.uk, on Instagram at @supermassivepod or post in The Supermassive Club. The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production in partnership with the Royal Astronomical Society. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham.More space vampires and tea in orbit
26:09|The bonus Q and A that tackles some of the biggest questions in cosmology including: How many space vampires would you need to explain dark matter? and can you make a decent cup of tea on a space station? Dr Becky, Izzie and producer Richard also tackle questions on neutrinos, Lagrange points and black hole stars. Becky’s cake recipe in strange science units is here.For ad-free listening, join The Supermassive Club on Supporting Cast. Every paying member helps keep the show running, so thank you! Send us your astronomy attempts, questions (and nonsense!) to podcast@ras.ac.uk, on Instagram at @supermassivepod or post in The Supermassive Club. The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production for the Royal Astronomical Society. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham.The Kuiper Belt...Revisited
46:10|Yes, it’s a welcome return for the giant doughnut at the edge of the solar system filled with lumpy space potatoes. Dr Becky and Izzie are joined by Meg Schwamb from Queen’s University to discuss all things Kuiper Belt, the New Horizons mission, Rubin telescope and mysterious planet 9. For ad-free listening, join The Supermassive Club on Supporting Cast. Every paying member helps keep the show running, so thank you! Send us your astronomy attempts, questions (and nonsense!) to podcast@ras.ac.uk, on Instagram at @supermassivepod or post in The Supermassive Club. The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production for the Royal Astronomical Society. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham.Colanders and is space a stew?
28:44|How many colanders can you fit in a field? In, yet another, bonus episode Izzie Clarke, @DrBecky and producer Richard Hollingham share their experiences of the eclipse. Plus is space a stew? Pocket universes, and how fit do you have to be to be an astronaut? For ad-free listening, join The Supermassive Club on Supporting Cast. Every paying member helps keep the show running, so thank you! Here is the visualisation of space that Becky mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrwgIjBUYVc Send us your astronomy attempts, questions (and nonsense!) to podcast@ras.ac.uk, on Instagram at @supermassivepod or post in The Supermassive Club. The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production for the Royal Astronomical Society. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham.Top Tips To See The Eclipse
25:03|There's an eclipse on Wednesday 12th August 2026. So where can you see it? And how do you do that safely? Izzie Clarke, Dr Becky Smethurst and Dr Robert Massey from have it covered. Plus, The Supermassive Book Club makes a return for your summer reading. We're (finally) on Youtube, watch us here. For ad-free listening, join The Supermassive Club on Supporting Cast. Every paying member helps to keep the show running, so thank you!Send us your eclipse photos, questions (and nonsense!) to podcast@ras.ac.uk, on Instagram at @supermassivepod or post in The Supermassive Club.The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production for the Royal Astronomical Society. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham. Hayley Wilson is the video editor.