We know how the stars shine, but how do you make a star? We take an all-night ride on a high-flying jet – an airborne NASA observatory called SOFIA – to watch astronomers investigate how a star is born. (Listen to the show in the player above, and read our reporter Emma Bentley’s account of her adventure here.)
As for how the universe was born, we know about the Big Bang but modern physics suggests that similar cosmic explosions may be happening all the time, and even hint that we could – in principle – create a new universe in a laboratory. What does this mean, and how could we do it?
From stars to universes, how it all came to be.
Guests:
-
Zeeya Merali – Journalist and editor for the Foundational Questions Institute, author of A Big Bang in a Little Room: The Quest to Create New Universes
-
Nick Veronico – Manager of SOFIA Communications for NASA Ames Research Center and Universities Space Research Association
-
Felix Reimann – Freelance photographer
-
Huub Rottgering – Director of Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands
-
Dietmar Lilienthal – Manager, DLR SOFIA Institute, Germany
-
Cornelia Pabst – Astronomer, Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands
-
Charlie Kaminski – Engineering and Maintenance Manager, SOFIA
-
David McAllister – Deputy Program Manager for Operations, SOFIA, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center
Segments:
Part 1: A Night with SOFIA
Part 2: Zeeya Merali / DIY Universe
Part 3: Zeeya Merali / The Multiverse
originally aired March 20, 2017
