The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu

Our Weird, Wondrous Universe with Erika Hamden

How do distant galaxies form? If you have two distant clouds of hydrogen, why does one turn into a star and another doesn’t? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Dr. Erika Hamden, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Arizona. If Erika looks familiar, that might be because her TED Talk or “New Frontiers,” the TV show she hosts on Arizona Public Media.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, Artemis II, our first manned mission around the moon since 1972. Chuck, Allen and Erika share their excitement watching the mission, and especially the landing, while we watch the “only good video of the moon ever taken with a phone” that Reid Wiseman shot on his iPhone.
Dr. Hamden tells us about her research into how distant stars and galaxies form. To fill in the blanks of this cosmic puzzle, she observes hydrogen in its elemental or molecular form – not looking at the stars themselves, but the emissions from hydrogen atoms. You’ll learn about star formation in our galaxy and how Erika discerns the moment that a new star “first turns on.”
Then it’s time for our first audience question. Emma B. asks, “How many galaxies are there?” Erika says that in the observable universe, it’s an outrageously large number, probably hundreds of billions or more. We take a look at the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image, which reflects a “tiny, tiny part of the sky,” where every dot except for the 3 stars is a galaxy. And that’s just the universe we can see.
Chuck asks Erika to tell us about her book, “Weird Universe: Everything We Don’t Know about Space (and why it’s important).” Professor Hamden shares her belief that anyone can understand anything if it’s explained the right way to them. She talks about a poem by Rebecca Elson called “Responsibility to Awe” and the responsibility scientists have to share the wonders of the world with everybody.
For our next audience question, Ava asks, “What is the craziest job in Astronomy that you have seen AI take over from humans?” Erika talks about using LLMs to review the digitized photographic plates of stars and the massive amount of data from the Vera Rubin Observatory, and also which activities still require human creativity.
Speaking of creativity, it turns out that before becoming an astrophysicist, Erika got a diploma at Le Cordon Bleu in London and had a career as a professional chef. She still loves to cook and shares her recipe (below) for the Swedish-style cardamom buns she shows us in the episode.
Finally, before we go, we congratulate Emily on recently being awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. She shares some wisdom and advice she’s learned on her journey that she also tells her students, but according to her it’s a bit “cheesy” so we’ll let her tell you in the show.
If you’d like to know more about Dr. Hamden, you can keep up with her research, follow her on her social media accounts, and find out about her book by visiting her website.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
 
Erika’s Cardamom Bun Recipe
You can find the original recipe here on Cecilia Tolone’s Substack.
Erika’s Modifications:
“My changes are that I add more milk- about 75 grams more, because American flour is drier and Tucson is especially dry! And I played around with adding chiltipin flakes (a local, very spicy pepper) to the filling to make it kind of spicy. It’s great! Finally, I use whole cardamom seeds from Penzey’s that I grind before putting in.”
 
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
Artemis II end of mission splashdown. – Credit: NASA/ Bill Ingalls.
Artemis II astronaut Reid Wiseman’s iPhone video of the Earth and the Moon with his iPhone 17 ProMax, using 8x zoom, which he said is comparable to what he was seeing from the Artemis II capsule. – Credit: NASA /Reid Wiseman
Hydrogen observed in the Milky Way Galaxy. – Credit: HI4PI Collaboration
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field. – Credit: NASA/ESA
Example of a photographic plate of stars, including notation marks, aka a Schmidt ammonia-sensitized, near-IR (Kodak I-N) objective-prism plate exposed for 1 hr. – Credit: STScI/ESO/Carnegie.
 
Additional Credits:
A Responsibility to Awe, by Rebecca Elson
 
CHAPTERS
00:00 - We welcome University of Arizona Astrophysics Prof. Dr. Erika Hamden
02:43 - Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing: Artemis II Mission and Return
08:14 - How Do Distant Stars and Galaxies Form?
15:46 -How Many Galaxies Are There?
18:25 - Weird Universe and Scientists’ Responsibility to Awe
24:06 - What Jobs in Astronomy Has AI Taken Over from Humans?
31:33 - Chef Erika and her Swedish-style Cardamom Buns
39:10 - Parting Advice and Wisdom from Professor Erika Hamden
 
#LIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AstronomyPodcast #ErikaHamden #GalaxyFormation

Ruby Raindrops and Painted Peacocks with Munazza Alam

Are there really exoplanets with where it rains ruby and emerald raindrops? How do we measure the atmospheres of exoplanets light years away?
To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Dr. Munazza Alam of the Space Telescope Science Institute. The STScI performs science operations for the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope when it launches in 2026.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing. On Feb 24, 2026, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory activated the alert system it will use to notify astronomers of noteworthy events and sent out 800,000 alerts on that single day!
Munazza tells us about how she studies the atmospheres of exoplanets like Wasp 121-b, a gas giant thought to have ruby and sapphire rain. Dr. Alam describes exoplanets with surface oceans made of magma, and she and Chuck talk about the importance of plate tectonics.
You’ll hear about Hot Jupiters, Super-Earths, and Sub-Neptunes – and the theories about why we don’t have any of them in our solar system despite the fact that they’re incredibly common in the Milky Way galaxy.
Then it’s time for audience questions, which for this episode come from students at Notre Dame Academy on Staten Island, where Munazza is an alum. Not only does past guest Dr. Betty Jensen teach there, as well, but she was a critical influence on Munazza’s career path. (You can listen to our episode with Dr. Jensen here.)
The first question is from Charlotte, who asks, “How far have we gone in space?” Munazza, Allen, and Chuck discuss Voyager 1, which at a current distance of nearly 16 billion miles is the man-made object that has gone furthest from Earth.
Next up, Gabby asks, “What was the best advice you were given when you were preparing for college?” Dr. Alam’s answer: Pick something you enjoy and are good at - in spite of any pressure you might get from friends, family, and others.
A second piece of advice Munazza got was to maintain your breadth, i.e., developing other interests besides your primary focus. For Munazza, that was art and writing, and she shares some of her art later in the show.
Finally, Gisella asks if it was hard picking a college. Dr. Alam shares her process, with the caveat that it might not be good advice for everyone.
Charles and Munazza reflect on the tradition of scientific exploration, observation, discovery and analysis of which she’s part. Munazza recounts the excitement when JWST observations of transmission spectra of the exoplanet Wasp 39b confirmed their predictions – and also detected something unexpected: sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere of the planet which is a by-product of photochemistry between light from its star and water molecules in the atmosphere of the planet.
Finally, Chuck asks Munazza to share some of her art. She shows us one of the first paintings she ever did, a peacock, and tells us a little about it and a portrait she has displayed at the Lowell Observatory.
If you’d like to know more about what Dr. Alam is up to, you can follower her on LinkedIn or visit her website .
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
 
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
Artist impression of Wasp 121-b, an exoplanet thought to have ruby and sapphire rain. – Credit: NASA, ESA, Q. Changeat et al., M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)
Quake epicenters Digital Tectonic Activity Map of the Earth (DTAM). – Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Illustration comparing the sizes of sub-Neptune exoplanets TOI-421 b and GJ 1214 b to Earth and Neptune. – Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Dani Player (STScI)
Illustration of the inferred size of the super-Earth CoRoT-7b (center) in comparison with Earth and Neptune. – Credit: Creative Commons / Aldaron
Location of the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft. – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
JWST transmission spectra of the exoplanet Wasp 39b. – Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
Radial velocity method to detect exoplanets. – Credit::ESA
Transit method for discovering exoplanets (animation). – Credit: NASA PlanetQuest
Artist's concept of WASP-107b, a gas giant, orbiting a highly active K-type star about 200 light-years from Earth. – Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, M. Kornmesser
 
CHAPTERS
00:00 - We welcome Dr. Munazza Alam of the Space Telescope Science Institute
02:50 - Joyfully cool cosmic thing: Vera C. Rubin Observatory Alert System
07:00 - How Do We Know What Exoplanets Are Like?
10:37 - The Importance of Plate Tectonics
11:45 - Hot Jupiters, Super Earths, and Sub-Neptunes
19:56 - How Far Have We Gone In Space, i.e., Where is Voyager now?
22:44 - Best advice when preparing for college?
25:32 - Was it hard picking a college?
31:00 - Confirming Theories and Discovering the Unexpected
36:33 - Munazza Alam Shares Her Painting of a Peacock
38:49 - What data and measurements are used to study exoplanets?

Astrophotography with Astronaut Don Pettit

Can the physics you learned in High School take you to the stars? Who is behind many of your favorite pictures of space? What is it actually like to live and work in space? You might be surprised to know how much of it comes down to the physics you probably learned in class and thought to yourself, “When will this ever be useful?”
To answer those questions and more, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Dr. Don Pettit –NASA astronaut, astrophotographer, chemical engineer, and genuinely one of the most interesting people alive, who was also a science consultant for the movie Project Hail Mary. As you’ll see, the complex physics of space could be critical to your future endeavors in the world of tech, space, and astrophysics.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, which was the famous DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test). It’s a mission where NASA crashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid (Dimorphos) to see if they could literally change the orbit of an asteroid in space. This mission was successful, changing the asteroid’s orbit by nearly 30 mins. This is certainly joyfully cool, as it shows we can take planetary defense measures to change the path of an impending asteroid.
Throughout the episode, Don, Chuck, and Allen ping pong back and forth with the following topics:
Why he chose chemical engineering (and how that led to becoming an astronaut by consistently choosing passion and innovation over money)
Whether being an astronaut is even worth it financially
How cities look different from orbit over time (yes, you can literally see lighting technology evolve)
The physics behind astrophotography from space (and why those images look so insane)
How astronauts drink coffee in zero gravity!
Just wait, there is even more that we dive into: from lunar bases, to Antarctica meteorite hunts, to a casual mention of driving a lunar rover simulator like it’s nothing.
There’s a lot here that feels huge and abstract, but also weirdly human, like choosing passion over money, or just wanting your morning espresso in space. While Don always had a love for chemistry, he ultimately pursued chemical engineering because he thought he wouldn't be able to get a good job without higher ed (relatable or what?). Then he got a PhD anyway, following his passion.
Don also discusses the coffee cup he invented, which is widely used in space and lets you drink espresso like normal. He designed a cup that lets astronauts drink normally in zero gravity using fluid physics.
Toward the end of the episode, he talks about going to Antarctica to collect meteorites and what that tells us about the chemistry of space.
During this episode, Don’s intrinsic love for creation and scientific innovation shines through. If you like physics, space, or just hearing someone explain complicated things in a way that actually makes sense, you’ll absolutely love this.
If you want to know more about Dr. Don Pettit, you can find him on NASA’s website. For the latest updates on his many projects and dazzling astrophotography, check out his Instagram @astro_pettit. (We’ve included some of those photos in the episode - just another reason to watch on YouTube!)
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
 
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
Photo of asteroids Didymos and Dimorphus, NASA’s DART mission target. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL
Lunar map depicting craters on the south pole of the Moon. Credit: USGS
Don Pettit taking photos on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
Chicago as seen from the ISS. Credit: NASA/Don Pettit
Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, as seen from the ISS. Credit: NASA/Don Pettit
Sao Paulo, Brazil, at Night, April 12, 2003 as seen from the ISS. Credit: NASA/Don Pettit
Star trail time exposure, taken for approximately 30 minutes during orbital night, assembled from multiple 30 second exposures. Credit: NASA/Don Pettit/Babak Tafreshi
The first prototype of Don Pettit’s capillary cup. Credit :NASA
Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti drinking from Don Pettit’s cup on the ISS. Credit: NASA
ANSMET meteorite hunters in Antarctica. Credit: NASA
Cross-section of a carbonaceous chondrite, the 4.5-billion-year-old Allende meteorite formed along with the solar system. Credit: AMNH/Creative Commons
Spaceborne - Don Pettit’s photography book. Credit: Don Pettit / Press Syndication Group
 
Special thanks to Eleanor Adams for writing this episode description.
 
 
CHAPTERS
0:00 - Introduction of Astronaut Don Pettit
3:19 - Asteroid Defense Explained (DART Mission & Saving Earth)
10:49 - Don Pettit’s Early Life
14:50 - How Much Does It Pay to Be an Astronaut?
17:11 - What It’s Really Like Living in Space for Months
19:49 - Physics Behind Astrophotography: LEDs and Light Pollution
30:00 - Space Coffee Cup Invention
41:00 - Astrochemistry and Antarctica

Finding the “Bubbles” Exoplanet and Crocheting Dinosaurs with Victoria DiTomasso

How do we find exoplanets? What is the Milky Way’s “Thick Disk” and what makes it so special? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Harvard astronomer Dr. Victoria DiTomasso, who has discovered an exoplanet system that includes exoplanet HD60079 b, which she sometimes calls “Bubbles.”
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, a paper just recently published about the exoplanet Teegarden Star b. Dr. DiTomasso explains the difference in exoplanet research between the observational studies she does and the theoretical modeling represented in the paper.
She goes on to discuss recent, exciting theoretical work coming out of UCLA that posits that rather than have our water brought to Earth by comets, we started out as a larger, sub-Neptune planet with a larger hydrogen-helium envelope that we’ve lost over time. This is a pattern seen in some exoplanets, especially given the fact that Super Earth and sub-Neptune planets are the most common types of planets we’ve found, yet we have none in our solar system.
After we find out why a planet Chuck studied was called Flagellan, it’s time to find out how Victoria goes looking for exoplanets, and how she found Bubbles – with an assist from a team of citizen scientists. You’ll learn about using the transit method for discovering exoplanets and identifying potential targets with TESS, the Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite and other instruments.
Dr. DiTomasso explains the differences between the Milky Way’s younger “Thin Disk,” the older “Thick Disk,” and the oldest of all, the Milky Way’s “Halo.” Victoria studies the chemistry of stars to categorize them and their planets by age. She’s found 4 stars in the thick disk that have “Hot Jupiters” so far, which is more impressive when you learn that we only knew about one before her work.
Then it’s time for a question from the audience. Grace asks, “Has the environment ever been as bad as it is now, and can it heal by itself?” Chuck, Allen and Victoria discuss changing environments on exoplanets and on Earth, the difference between long and short term change, and the possibility of recovery.
Finally, Chuck asks Victoria what she does outside of astronomy, and we learn all about her new hobby, crocheting. Don’t miss her show and tell, which includes Fred, the cutest crocheted dinosaur to ever appear on The LIUniverse. Victoria also talks about her other hobby, visiting museums – especially art museums. If you’re watching this episode on YouTube, you get to see one of her current favorite exhibits, which consists of semi-abstracted felted wool sculptures of creatures and supernatural beings (yōkai) at the MassArt Museum (MAAM) in Boston.
If you’d like to know more about Dr. Victoria DiTomasso, you can find her on LinkedIn . But to see her latest telescope photos that she took during her observing trip to the Canary Islands, check out her Instagram @victoriaditomasso. (We’ve included some of those photos in the episode - just another reason to watch on YouTube!)
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
Radial velocity measurements graphic depicting the Radial velocity method to detect exoplanets. – Credit: ESA.
Artist concept of the exoplanet Teegarden's Star b, also known as Teegarden b. – Creative Commons/ Bubblesong.
Illustration comparing sizes of sub-Neptune exoplanets with Earth and Neptune. – Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Dani Player (STScI).
Transit method for discovering exoplanets (animation). – Credit: NASA PlanetQuest.
All-sky image showing the flat plane of the Milky Way galaxy. – Credit: E. L. Wright/UCLA, The COBE Project, DIRBE, NASA.
Illustration of the Milky Way’s halo. – Credit: Halo stars: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, T Donlon et al. 2024; Background Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds: Stefan Payne-Wardenaar.
Masako Miki's "Midnight March" features semi-abstracted felted wool sculptures of creatures and supernatural beings (yōkai) at the MassArt Museum (MAAM) in Boston. – Credit: Masako Miki/MAAM
Photos from Victoria DiTomasso’s observing trip to the Canary Islands. – Credit: @victoriaditomasso on Instagram.
 
CHAPTERS
00:00 - Intro and Let’s Meet Dr. Victoria DiTomasso
03:53 - Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing of the Day: Exoplanet Teegarden Star B
06:20 - Super Earth and Sub-Neptune Exoplanets
12:46 - The Discovery and Naming of Bubbles the Exoplanet
20:32 - The Difference Between Milky Way’s Thin Disk, Thick Disk, and Halo
27:58 - Audience Question: Has the Environment Ever Been this Bad?
36:51 - Crocheted Dinosaurs and Giant Felt Museum Creatures
45:14 - Victoria DiTomasso’s Observing Trip to the Canary Islands
 
#LIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AstronomyPodcast #VictoriaDiTomasso #Exoplanets

Supernovas and Space Gold with Dr. Ashley Villar

How do stars die? And what happens when they do? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Dr. Ashley Villar, who teaches astronomy at Harvard and whose team studies supernovas as they happen.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, the release of a set of new Hubble Space Telescope images of the Crab Nebula and the pulsar at its center. Needless to say, it’s a great start to an episode about a team of scientists who actually study the moment a star explodes and the immediate aftermath.
Ashley explains how they have been able to use LIGO, the gravitational wave detector, as a sort of early warning detector that twice gave them enough time to set up their instruments to observe the explosion over the next few hours and days as it unfolds.
Professor Villar talks about how neutron star mergers and magnetars may be the source of heavy elements like gold and uranium. Or, as Chuck says, “A gold-filled smoke ring puffing off of a highly spinning, highly magnetic neutron star - what a great picture that would be.”
Ashley is looking forward to how the Vera Rubin Observatory is going to change the observation of these events. In the process of explaining, Professor Villar answers an audience question from Jamison, who asks how often stars explode in space. It turns out, in our observable universe, there’s a supernova every 2 seconds! We currently detect about 10,000 of these explosions every year - Vera Rubin will be able to detect 10,000 of these explosions in just two weeks.
In order to get a handle on this flood of data, Dr. Villar and her team will be looking for these exotic physics needles in a haystack using machine learning models to look for patterns and abnormalities and “go fishing.”
Charles asks Ashley for her take on AI and whether we should be afraid of it or not.(And yes, take the opportunity to plug co-host Allen Liu’s forthcoming book, “The Handy Artificial Intelligence Answer Book.”) Allen and Ashley discuss the difference between how a chatbot like ChatGPT operates and how she trains her models.
There was a second part to Jamison’s question about exploding stars: Are we in any danger. Dr. Villar explains that when we just look at our Milky Way, supernovas occur only once a century, so we’re not in any danger.
Next, Jessie asks, “How do we know the universe is infinite?” Our answer is, we don’t. That doesn’t stop us from discussing it, though, and the conversation takes us to, among other places, the Nazca lines in Peru and the quantum effect that creates iridescent blue butterfly wings. (You can read the scientific research mentioned in the episode here: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8959)
We end with a discussion about supernovas, neutrinos, space dust, gamma ray bursts, and what kind of event it would take to interrupt the normal activities of space telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope or the Vera Rubin and hijack them for a disruptive observation. And we get a book recommendation from Ashley, “Katabasis” by R. F. Kuang, about a grad student who journeys to hell to get a letter of reference from her deceased advisor.
If you’d like to know more about what Professor Villar is up to, you can check out her lab’s website at http://astrotimelab.com/.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
New Hubble mosaic of the Crab Nebula. – Credit: William P. Blair et al 2026 ApJ 997 81
Previous Hubble photo of the Crab Nebula. – Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)
The Vera Rubin Observatory. – Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/P. Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava), CC BY 4.0
Nazca line “The Condor”. – Credit: Photo by Roger Canals
Blue butterfly wings in an electron microscope. – Credit: Radislav A. Potyrailo et al.
Aragonite plates in a shell. – Credit:  Fabian Heinemann
SN 1987A (Bright central “star”). – Credit: European Southern Observatory
Artist’s illustration of Gamma Ray Burst jets. – Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva; Image processing: M. Zamani (NSF's NOIRLab)
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Welcome to The LIUniverse
02:14 - Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing of the Day - Hubble Crab Nebula Images
07:06 - Neutron Star Mergers, Magnetars, and Space Gold
09:18 - How Often Do Stars Explode?
12:35 - Can AI Help Us Find Supernovas?
17:11 - Are We In Danger From Exploding Stars?
19:48 - How Do We Know the Universe Is Infinite?
24:01 - How Does Quantum Physics Impact Color in Butterflies and Supernovas?
31:16 - How to Hijack a Space Telescope

Building Worlds with Luke Skywatcher

How do planetary systems form? If you wanted to observe them, where would you look and what would you look for?
To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Luke Keller, professor of Astronomy and Physics at Ithaca College, who together with his team has identified 9 of these early solar systems.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: a recently published paper that determined that at any given time, it is likely that a couple of extrasolar objects like 3I/ATLAS and Oumuamua would be present in our solar system. The real issue is detecting them.
For context, Luke, whose science has focused over the years on finding debris from solar systems, explains how protoplanetary discs can eject matter that ends up orbiting that star. He’s especially fond of cosmic dust, “the catalyst for the formation of planets and asteroids and comets…”
Then it’s time for a question for Luke from the audience, from Elisa: “I heard that the James Webb Space Telescope sees infrared light. How does that work? Does that mean it couldn't see the Sun?”
Luke breaks down the various wavelengths of light and our Sun. He also explains how the JWST works and why it never looks at the sun.
It turns out that Luke has built a variety of astronomical instruments including imaging and spectroscopic tools with for large observatories. He’s also used information from instruments like JWST in his studies of the formation of stars and solar systems.
Luke explains how his teams search for preplanetary solar systems, what they’re looking for, and where they’re currently looking: associations of stars in the direction of the constellations Taurus, Scorpius and Chamaeleon. All told so far Luke and his team have identified 9 of these early solar systems. He then breaks down the current thinking on how planetary systems form from clouds of dust. He explains some of the processes that involves, along with the types of planets that may form.
For our next audience question, Joan asks, “What do you think is the most interesting constellation?” Luke picks two: first, Ursa Major, aka “The Big Dipper,” because he grew up in Alaska and saw it all the time – along with “auroras all the time.” The second constellation he picks is Orion, aka “The Hunter,” because it contains some of the closest star forming regions of our galaxy.
Luke unpacks the difference between “watching the sky” and “observing the sky” – and why he encourages the latter to both his students and the general public. And before the episode is over, we get to hear about Luke’s live show, Spacetime, where he collaborates with poet David Gonzalez and guitarist Álvaro Domene in a stage performance that’s equal parts astrophysics, poetry, and music.
If you’d like to know more about Luke’s show, Spacetime, check it out at https://spacetimeshow.org/.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
Image of a young sun-like star encircled by its planet-forming disk of gas and dust. – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech edited by Invader Xan.
Artist's impression of the interstellar interloper 1I/ʻOumuamua making a visit to our solar system. – Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Olmsted and F. Summers (STScI).
Spectral distribution of sunlight. – Credit: Creative Commons / Rhwentworth.
The Taurus-Auriga association, also known as the Taurus-Auriga molecular clouds, is a stellar association located around 140 parsecs (420 ly) from Earth in the constellation of Taurus. It is the nearest large star formation region to Earth. – Credit: ESA/Herschel/NASA/JPL-Caltech; acknowledgement: R. Hurt (JPL-Caltech)
The constellation Taurus as seen by the naked eye. The constellation lines have been added for clarity. – Credit: Creative Commons/ Till Credner - Own work, A Visual Guide to the Constellations.
Artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk in which planets are forming. – Credit: European Southern Observatory.
Illustration comparing the sizes of various exoplanets with Earth, Mercury and the Moon. – Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
The constellation Ursa Major as it can be seen by the unaided eye.– Credit: Creative Commons / Till Credner - Own work: AlltheSky.com.
Composite image comparing infrared and visible views of the famous Orion nebula and its surrounding cloud, an industrious star-making region located near the hunter constellation's sword. The picture at left was taken with the Infrared Array Camera on board NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and the picture at right is from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, headquartered in Tucson, Ariz. – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Toledo/NOAO.
Image showing Betelgeuse (top left) and the dense nebulae of the Orion molecular cloud complex. – Credit: Creative Commons / Rogelio Bernal Andreo

Chuck GPT: Astrotech

How can a helicopter fly in space? How does LIGO detect gravitational waves? How do quantum electronic devices like Josephson junctions work? Could AI turn evil and destroy humanity? What about those grabby aliens? In this episode of Chuck GPT, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu answer audience questions about the technology of astronomy, astrophysics, and the future.
To read those questions, we welcome back our executive producer Leslie Mullen, community director Stacey Severn, and intern Eleanor Adams.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: the ESA’s new Deep Space Antenna in Australia. This fourth antenna in ESA’s network will be used to manage communications for their slate of upcoming missions.
For our first audience question, Anna asks, “How is it possible that a helicopter can work in space? I heard that NASA launched a helicopter to Mars and is going to send one to Saturn in a few years.”
Leslie, who worked at JPL, talks about the Perseverance Rover and its helicopter, Ingenuity. She explains that they’re not actually flying in space, but in the atmospheres of a planet or a moon. Even so, the thin atmosphere of Mars (less than 1% of Earth’s) created unique problems that don’t exist on Earth. Leslie got to interview the inventor of Ingenuity, Bob Balaram, in her JPL podcast episode, “Flying with Ingenuity.” She describes how JPL tested the helicopter here on Earth, and what it was like the moment Ingenuity actually took flight.
The team discusses Dragonfly, the helicopter that will be flying on Saturn’s moon Titan, and how Titan’s thick methane atmosphere creates an entirely different set of engineering problems than Ingenuity faced on Mars.
Stacey reads our next question, from Joe: “Gravitational wave detectors like LIGO are said to detect changes in the length of space by less than the width of a proton. But how is that possible, if all the atoms that make up LIGO are so much bigger than protons?” Chuck explains interferometry (the I in LIGO!) and Allen offers a great analogy using a ruler.
Eleanor reads a question from TikTok, which Esmeregildo asked in response to our video about Josephson Junctions and the Nobel Prize in Physics: “What is the purpose of the insulating barrier?” Chuck’s answer takes us down a quantum tunneling rabbit hole, filled with superconductors, insulators, and quantum computing.
Diane asks: “Professor, you say that astronomers have used AI for a long time so you're not afraid of AI. But AI isn't being used by just scientists anymore, and corporations are using AI to make money now rather than to make scientific advances. So should we be afraid of AI today? Could AI turn evil soon and destroy humanity?” Allen, co-author of a soon-to-be published book about AI, offers a mostly hopeful answer, although Chuck compares AI to nuclear power and Leslie brings up real world problems AI is already creating.
Our last question from our audience is, “Hi Dr. Liu, I heard you talking about grabby aliens recently. Could you explain the concept a little more? For example, would humans be grabby aliens if we explore space and colonize Mars and we find there's life there? Would we have to destroy grabby aliens right away if we find them, or would we have to hide from them?” It’s the perfect way to end this edition of Chuck GPT!
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Image Credits:
ESA’s first and fourth Deep Space Antennas. Credit: European Space Agency
Map showing locations of ESA tracking (Estrack) stations as of 2017. Credit: European Space Agency
Video of Perseverance landing on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Ingenuity on the surface of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Anatomy of the Mars helicopter Ingenuity. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Ingenuity’s Test Chamber. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Ingenuity in the Test Chamber. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Video of Ingenuity altimeter data and the first flight as seen from Perseverance. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Dragonfly space probe concept art. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins-APL
Titan’s thick methane atmosphere gives it a fuzzy yellow look. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Tuned Mass Damper used to stabilize buildings during earthquakes. Credit: CC
Josephson Junction. Credit: Public Domain
Josephson junction array chip developed by the National Institute of Standards & Technology. Credit: Public Domain
CHAPTERS
03:08 - Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing of the Day –New ESA Deep Space Antenna
07:36 - How Can the Ingenuity Helicopter Fly on Mars?
16:26 - How Can the Dragonfly Helicopter Fly on Saturn’s Moon Titan?
19:44 - How does LIGO detect gravitational waves?
26:01 - Josephson Junctions, Quantum Tunneling, and Superconductors Explained
36:00 - Could AI Turn Evil Soon and Destroy Humanity?
44:48 - Would Humans Be Grabby Aliens if We Explore Space and Colonize Mars?
 
#LIUniverse #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #LIGO #ArtificialIntelligence

Chuck GPT: Answering Eerie Questions

Is universal expansion slowing? What is the Bubble Universe Theory? Will we control AI, or will AI control us? In this special Chuck GPT episode of The LIUniverse, we answer questions from the Annual Global Summit in Erie, Pennsylvania where Dr. Charles Liu gave a talk on “2050 - The Future of Humanity.”
To help ask those questions, Chuck and co-host Allen Liu welcome Stacey Severn, our Social Media Manager/Community Director; and physics student Eleanor Adams, our first intern.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, suggested by Stacey: the recent discovery of one of the most distant and earliest known galaxies observed, existing just 570 million years after the Big Bang. It’s got a supermassive black hole 20 times the mass of ours and was found via gravitational lensing by the Canadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS) using the James Webb Space Telescope.
Then it’s time for the main event. Eleanor reads the first Erie audience question from William W., age 13, who asks, “In Bubble Universe Theory, is the force splitting universes apart the same force causing the expansion of the universe, also known as dark energy?”
Chuck explains Bubble Universe Theory, aka “Eternal Inflation,” and then how dark energy is different than the forces that cause expansion.
Next question: “Have you seen the latest research from South Korea stating universal expansion is actually slowing, thus reducing greatly the amount of dark matter? If it's correct, what are the implications?”
Chuck explains the current state of research around the issue, starting with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey at the Kitt Peak National Observatory telescope. DESI gave indications of a change in the amount of dark energy being produced; this new study raises questions about how we measure the expansion of the universe using type 1a Supernova.
Next question: “What percentage of our global warming does science attribute to man-created activities vs. a natural progression? Even though the world is getting warmer, wouldn’t it be worse if the temperature were getting colder?”
Chuck looks at the natural progression of the increase of carbon dioxide and compares it with the larger and more rapid increase in CO2 levels since the Industrial Revolution began. As to whether warming or cooling is better, Allen says that while it’s a question of magnitude, neither extreme is desirable.
Mark M’s question is next: “Will we achieve control or effective management of AI, or will it control, or even define, our daily lives?
Allen, whose book on AI is coming out soon, says the answer is far from clear cut. He explains that while there are many efforts to ensure we maintain control, there’s no guarantee that we’ll succeed.
Next question from Erie: “How do we prepare our young children to be successful in the Age of AI?” Eleanor talks about how, like social media, you can’t stop or avoid AI, but also, like social media, parents can give their children the tools to help them use it.
Next: “Many advanced countries have declining populations, while third world countries are gaining population. How do we get tomorrow’s scientific leaders from third world education systems?”
Chuck says the best way to ensure an ongoing stream of scientific leaders is for advanced countries to continue to welcome immigrants, while Allen points out it is also important to improve the educational systems and opportunities for research in those third world countries. Stacey reminds us about the impact the internet is having on this issue.
With time running out, we squeeze in one last question from Erie: “How can the average person influence science policy in a positive direction?” Our consensus answer: people need to participate, speak out, and support others when they do, too.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse. Please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
Location of CANUCS-LRD-z8.6. – Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. Rihtaršič (University of Ljubljana, FMF), R. Tripodi (University of Ljubljana, FMF)
Type 1a Supernova. Shown: G299.2-2.9, a type 1a supernova remnant in the Milky Way.  – Credit: NASA/CXC/U.Texas
Concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the last 40,000 years, from the Last Glacial Maximum to the present day. – Creative Commons / Renerpho
Chapters:
00:00 - Welcome – Call Me Chuck
01:02 - Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing of the Day – CANUCS-LRD-z8.6
08:25 - Chuck Answers Questions from Annual Global Summit, Erie, PA
09:58 - Bubble Universe Theory and Dark Energy
14:17 - Is Universal Expansion Is Slowing?
19:30 - Global Warming
27:28 - Will We Control AI or It Will Control Us?
30:14 – How Can We Prepare Our Children To Succeed in the Age of AI?
36:28 - Where Will Future Scientific Leaders Come From?
42:09 - How Can Individuals Influence Science Policy?

Serving Cosmic Brunch with Thresa Kelly

How do supermassive black holes actually form in the early universe? Is the Cosmological Constant not so constant after all? And what would be on the astrophysical menu at a Cosmic Brunch? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome astrophysicist Thresa Kelly, who is a second year grad student working on her PhD at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, one of the recent studies made using the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, aka DESI, located at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. According to the DESI team’s research, there is a about a 95% chance that the dark energy levels in the universe have changed over cosmic time. This “Dynamical Dark Energy model” offers the first, tiny hint that the Cosmological Constant may not be so constant after all.
Thresa, who is using DESI and other sources for her work putting together a catalog of AGNs, or active galactic nuclei – the supermassive black holes found at the center of galaxies, tells us about what DESI is trying to do and why it’s so important. The end goal of Thresa’s project is to estimate the black hole masses of AGNs, and she’s gotten spectra data on over 2,000 objects that have been observed using DESI. Thresa can’t get into the details of her catalog, which hasn’t been published yet and includes about 14,000 objects, but Allen and Chuck join her in a discussion of what’s going on with black hole masses, accretion discs, Eddington Luminosity, black hole growth, galactic evolution, and more.
Our first audience question comes from Kathryn, who asks, “When we look through a standard telescope looking at "past" versions of planets/stars/etc., how far back in the past are we observing?” Thresa explains how we use red shift to measure how long light from a galaxy takes to reach us to help us determine how far in the past the objects are. For instance, an AGN with a red shift of 7 can reach back to the period of “Cosmic Dawn” or, as Thresa puts it, “Cosmic Brunch” taking place 12 billion years ago.
Thresa talks about her experience in an REU, or “Research Experiences for Undergraduates,” funded by the NSF, which enabled her to spend time studying at the University of Hawaii and cemented her desire to go to grad school, get a PhD, and become a “real scientist.” She explains how each step of her career brought her from Kansas to where she is today.
Our next audience question comes from Walter: “If a quasar's jets are aimed directly away from Earth, would we then not be able to see the supermassive black hole?” Thresa says that depends on how you define “seeing” a black hole, and that even without visible light, you can discern black holes by looking at other wavelengths like x-rays and ultraviolet rays which are generated by different component areas of the black hole like the corona, accretion disk, or the torus.
Chuck notices a shelf of games behind Thresa and asks her about them. She pulls out Stardew Valley, a farming simulator she plays with her fiancé and her fellow grad students. It’s not long until Chuck, Allen and Thresa are geeking out about Dungeons and Dragons.
Finally, Chuck asks Thresa to speculate on a specific scientific discovery that may come out of her PhD thesis work. Her answer: figuring out how supermassive black holes actually form in the early universe.
If you’d like to know more about Thresa Kelly, you can find her on LinkedIn.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
DESI - The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. – Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld
DESI data map of celestial objects from Earth to billions of light years away.. – Credit: Claire Lamman/DESI collaboration.
Montage of dwarf active galactic nuclei candidates. – Credit: DESI collaboration.
Map of galaxies based on redshift data. – Credit: Creative Commons / M. Blanton and Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Quasar PKS 1127-145, a luminous source of X-rays and visible light. – Credit: NASA/CXC/A.Siemiginowska(CfA)/J.Bechtold(U.Arizona).
Model of AGN. – Credit: Creative Commons.

2025 Year-End Special

What were our joyfully cool cosmic things of 2025? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome three members of The LIUniverse production team: Jon Barnes, our Editor and self-proclaimed “#1 LIUniverse Fan,” Stacey Severn, our Social Media Manager/Community Director, and physics student Eleanor Adams, the show’s first intern.
Unlike nearly every episode so far, this time, rather than limit ourselves to one joyfully cool cosmic thing, the team is going to each share their individual joyfully cool cosmic things of 2025. Chuck’s saving his for later, so instead, we’re just going to jump right into everyone’s favorite “cosmic thing of the year”, starting with our co-host, Allen Liu.
Allen picks the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Allen and Chuck, who is also on the Rubin’s Science Advisory Committee and has been involved in the development of the Observatory for over a quarter century, discuss how truly amazing the images are in terms of detail and resolution.
Allen shares that he’s most excited to see images of transients like asteroids and gravitational lensing, since the Rubin will be taking images of the same areas twice with a gap of one week. Chuck talks about the citizen science aspect of the Rubin and encourages each of you in our audience to try and discover something on your own.
We hear about some of Allen’s published papers, including one on using VR for scientific research. The group talks about VR (including Beat Saber) and Jon shares his experience using VR technology to record his senior project at the Harold Ramis Film School at Second City, and the difficulty he had with the audio.
For Eleanor, this year’s cool cosmic thing was highly personal: her studies in modern physics this year, learning more than ever about what we don’t know, like the gap between classical and quantum physics! As she puts it, “the matter-antimatter asymmetry…broke my mind.” She also shares a little inspiration from Cal Sagan’s Cosmos.
Stacey’s cosmically cool thing of the year is relatively current: Comet C/2025 K1 ATLAS, which recently broke into 3 parts. The team compares this with the breakup of all breakups: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which broke up in 1994 on its way to a collision with Jupiter.
Jon’s joyfully cool cosmic year end thingamabob is about the new science fiction show Pluribus created by Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul), and he’s got a question for Chuck. How long would it take a signal like the one in Pluribus to travel from a star 600 light years away, like Betelgeuse or Antares? Without dropping any spoilers, the team ponders why an alien race would have reached out to Earth based on what they might have seen around the time of Charlemagne, and whether being subsumed in a hive mind would be good or bad.
This is a bittersweet episode, though, because we officially bid farewell to the show’s long time editor, Jon Barnes, who is moving on to a gig as a full-time content creator for a meal prep company that will involve lots of Jon cooking and filming himself while he does.
Finally, it’s time to wrap up the episode with Chuck’s Picture of the Year, which is related to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, but not in a way you might expect. It’s a photo of Vera Rubin when she was 10 years old. As Chuck puts it, “Who would have known that 25 years later, she would change our understanding of the cosmos itself?”
Happy New Year from The LIUniverse crew!
If you’d like to know more about what Jon’s up to post-LIUniverse, you can check out his TikTok @iheartjonbarnes.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images and Music Used in this Episode:
Galaxies imaged by the Vera Rubin Observatory. – Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory
Artist illustration of gravitational lensing. – Credit: Public Domain
Comet C/2025 K1 ATLAS. – Credit: Creative Commons / Dimitrios Katevainis
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. – Credit: NASA, ESA, and H. Weaver and E. Smith (STScI)
Impacts on Jupiter from the broken-up comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. – Credit: Hubble Space Telescope Comet Team and NASA
Image collage of Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion. – Credit: ESO, P.Kervella, Digitized Sky Survey 2 and A. Fujii
Image of astronomer Vera Rubin, age 10. – Credit: Vera Rubin family, used with permission
Music Used In This Episode: Goin' Home, derived from Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, performed by the United States Air Force Band. – Credit: Public Domain.
#LIUniverse #AstronomyPodcast #CometC2025K1ATLAS #CometShoemakerLevy9 #VeraRubin