The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu

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

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

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

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?

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.