The Supermassive Podcast

Start your stopwatches, set your timers, turn back your clocks because Izzie and Dr Becky are talking time. What is it? How, and why, do we measure it? And is time real or a human construct?!

Izzie speaks with Anne Curtis at the National Physical Laboratory who works on one of the world’s most accurate clocks, and editor Richard has been to the very heart of time itself in Greenwich with Finn Burridge at the Royal Observato...

Should astronauts live underground on the Moon or Mars? Black hole jets, rogue planets, the big crunch (or freeze) and the Ontario question. Dr Becky, Izzie and Dr Robert Massey tackle your correspondence from the Supermassive mailbox and producer Richard makes a pronunciation intervention.

The book Becky mentions is Red Rising by Pierce Brown.

Keep sending in your wonderful ponderings. Email them to podcast@ras.ac.uk or via...

This episode is a weighty one. Some might say massive. It’s all about gravity. What is it? Why does it matter? Izzie and Dr Becky explore Einstein and Newton’s different ideas on the subject, plus Izzie visits the Royal Society to see Isaac Newton's original manuscript for his works on gravity and the laws of motion.

Special thank you to listener Hanna_m_e for suggesting this episode topic and to Professor Tessa Baker,...

What the bloomin’ hell is a Gravastar? Are fast radio bursts like solar flares on steroids? Plus an interesting question on multiverses that can't be summed up in a short sentence. Izzie Clarke, Dr Becky Smethurst and Dr Robert Massey dive into The Supermassive Mailbox and take on your questions.

Keep sending in your wonderful ponderings. Email them to podcast@ras.ac.uk or via Instagram @Supermassivepod

The Supermassive Podc...

Climb aboard The Supermassive Rocket, Izzie and Becky are (talking about) sending humans back to the moon. Joining them on their trip is European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer and Jacki Mahaffey, the Chief Training Officer for NASA’s Artemis II mission. Plus, Dr Robert Massey, the Deputy Director of the Royal Astronomical Society, is there as well to answer your questions and share his top stargazing tips.

For...

If black holes are so dense, how can gamma rays jet shoot out from it? At what point in space does our sun become invisible to the naked eye? And a question about CubeSats, black holes and detecting alien civilisations... It time for Izzie Clarke, Dr Becky Smethurst and Dr Robert Massey to take on your questions!

Got a question to add to The Supermassive Mailbox? Email it to podcast@ras.ac.uk or message us on Instagram, @Su...

This time Dr Becky Smethurst and Izzie Clarke discover why it’s touch and go when it comes to returning asteroid samples to Earth and hear how we’ve been exchanging spit with Mars since the dawn of the Solar System.

The team is joined by Dr Sara Russell, a meteorite researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, and Dr Albert Haldemann, Mars Chief Engineer for the European Space Agency.

As ever, Dr Robert Massey is...

Scientists have detected an asteroid that has a small chance of hitting Earth. Resident expert Dr Robert Massey tells Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham why we shouldn't be worried.

Want to suggest a topic to the team? Contact podcast@ras.ac.uk or find us on Instagram @SupermassivePod.

The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham