On December 24, 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe shattered records: becoming simultaneously the closest a human-made object has ever approached the Sun, and, travelling at 430,000 mph, the fastest object ever built on Earth. This was the culmination of a 70-year long legacy of its namesake, Eugene Parker, who in 1958 transformed our understanding of the Sun from a static ball of fire to a dynamic, magnetic entity capable of ejecting extremely hot winds into vast reaches of space. In this episode, we revisit Parker’s seminal paper and its impact on exploratory missions of the Solar System for decades after.

In 1998, “NASA” sent a team of rag-tag oil drillers to an asteroid hurtling towards Earth, averting an Armageddon. 24 years later, NASA is at it again – but this time, with a somewhat more delicate approach. In September 2022, the DART mission collided with Dimorphos, an asteroid in a binary orbit with its larger companion, Didymos, perturbing its trajectory just enough to show how future threats may be thwarted this way. In this episode of The Open Universe podcast, we revisit this amazing feat of engineering and space technology – and perhaps what the odds are for a blockbuster event worthy of Hollywood to occur in real life!

It is August 1st, 1786, and a starry haze zips through the night sky. As celestial phenomena go, this is just a fleeting event - but not one that evades Caroline Herschel’s Newtonian “sweeper”. Although she doesn’t know it yet, Herschel will soon be renowned as the great discoverer of comets, and one of the most eminent astronomers of her generation. Journey back in time with The Open Universe and meet the great Minder of the Heavens!

For 14 billion years, our Universe has been expanding.

For 5 billion years, its expansion has been accelerating.

But now.... is our Universe slowing down again?

Our exploration continues into the world of CEERS, one of the major flagship surveys of the early JWST data. Now, astronomers are confronted by yet more first generation galaxies that seem to defy scientific consensus -- a group of objects so luminous that their formation should not have been possible based on standard theories of galaxy formation. So, is the Universe truly broken? Or is it simply playing a cruel trick on our ability to locate how far these galaxies actually are....?

It’s July 2022, and JWST is now in full swing – its early images already captivating people the world over. In all this excitement, however, a team of astronomers is struck by one thing in particular... two beacons of light, shining out from the very depths of time: extraordinarily bright galaxies in existence so early as to defy all expectations. But how could galaxies so big exist so soon after the birth of the cosmos? Have we misunderstood galaxy formation all along?

Christmas Day, 2021 offered a once-in-a-lifetime present to the astronomical community: JWST, a revolutionary new space telescope with the potential to transform our understanding of the cosmos. But with every new innovation, there is always room for plenty of surprises….

In our new miniseries on the Open Universe Podcast, we delve into the world of JWST and the incredible observations it’s made in just the first year of its operations – some, perhaps, with the potential to break our understanding of the universe.

The Open Universe goes on tour to Castel Gandolfo, Italy, home of the Vatican Observatory, where we chat with resident astronomer Richard D'Souza on astronomy, faith, and early efforts to map the Milky Way.