Moons: The Solar System’s Secret Worlds

Moons: The Solar System’s Secret Worlds

The most intriguing places in our solar system might not be planets at all. This week we turn our attention to some of the most fascinating and unusual worlds in our solar system: its moons.

For most of human history, we assumed moons were quiet, lifeless companions like our own. But as spacecraft ventured deeper into the outer solar system, a very different picture emerged.

Some moons erupt with volcanoes. Some hide vast oceans beneath miles of ice. Some have weather, rivers, and lakes, made not of water, but methane. And a few of them may have the ingredients necessary for life.

We’ll explore these strange worlds, from Io and Europa to Titan and Enceladus, and take a closer look at what makes them so dynamic. Along the way, we’ll revisit Pluto and its surprisingly complex family of moons, and consider why the outer solar system is teeming with these objects while the inner planets remain mostly bare.

Finally, we’ll step outside for a guided tour of the night sky for the week of March 22–28, including a waxing crescent Moon, brilliant Venus in the evening sky, Jupiter and its Galilean moons, and the arrival of spring’s galaxy season. We'll also check in on our book discussion with a look at Chapters 8 and 9 in Nightwatch.

Connect with us on Bluesky @startrails.bsky.social or YouTube @TheStarTrailsPodcast.

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Avsnitt(127)

The Moon That Sends Us Its Ocean

The Moon That Sends Us Its Ocean

Saturn has a moon with a hidden ocean, and that ocean is spraying samples of itself into space.Enceladus is only about 310 miles wide, but beneath its brilliant shell of ice lies a global saltwater oc...

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A Black Hole Is Pointing at Us

A Black Hole Is Pointing at Us

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There Was a Planet That Swallowed a Moon

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27 Sep 32min

Dyson Spheres: The Heat Has to Go Somewhere

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13 Sep 23min

Rivers Through the Dark

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6 Sep 27min

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The James Webb Space Telescope has uncovered hundreds of tiny red points in the early universe. They are extraordinarily compact, unexpectedly bright and strangely quiet in the X-ray and radio wavelen...

30 Aug 27min

Did the Milky Way Flip?

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The Milky Way looks permanent from our place inside it, a great band of stars stretching across the night sky. But new research suggests our galaxy may once have been oriented in a completely differen...

16 Aug 35min

When Black Holes Twist Spacetime

When Black Holes Twist Spacetime

What happens when a black hole spins? According to general relativity, it doesn't simply rotate in space, it actually drags spacetime around with it.This episode explores the strange phenomenon known ...

2 Aug 38min

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