The Dark Energy Survey results are in, an asteroid strike on the Moon would be a boon to science, Mercury might not be totally dead, and NASA continued to test its nuclear rockets. And in Space Bites+ solving the mystery of cosmic expansion close to home.

Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube https://youtu.be/NK-zu5eMvJU

BONUS PART START AT 17:21

👉 Escape Velocity Space News (EVSN) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDtUsDJGqiI&list=PLo1j35Qh8M1xuXThFgWMJNdHYNBb9gf4U

• 00:00 Intro

• 00:15 4% Change of YR4 Hitting the Moon https://www.universetoday.com/articles/asteroid-2024-yr4-has-a-4-chance-of-hitting-the-moon-heres-why-thats-a-scientific-goldmine

• 02:15 NASA's nuclear rockets are back https://www.universetoday.com/articles/nasa-fires-up-nuclear-future-for-deep-space-travel

• 04:57 Big results from the Dark Energy Survey https://www.universetoday.com/articles/dark-energy-survey-data-reveals-the-tighest-estimates-yet-on-cosmic-expansion

• 10:06 It's ALIVE (maybe) https://www.universetoday.com/articles/mercury-may-not-be-dead-after-all

• 11:01 TESS spies 3I/ATLAS https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/3iatlas/2026/01/27/nasas-tess-reobserves-comet-3i-atlas/

• 12:06 Vote results https://www.youtube.com/@frasercain/posts

• 12:34 Super-Eddington limit black holes https://www.universetoday.com/articles/this-rapidly-growing-black-hole-is-challenging-super-eddington-accretion

• 14:37 Circinus Galaxy https://www.universetoday.com/articles/nasas-webb-telescope-peers-into-the-heart-of-the-circinus-galaxy

• 16:24 Huge gravitational lens https://www.universetoday.com/articles/an-almost-famous-galaxy-cluster-is-the-jwsts-picture-of-the-month

• 17:12 More space news

What will happen when Earth's magnetic poles flip? Is Andromeda launching hypervelocity stars at us? Can Vera Rubin find a new target for New Horizons? And in Q&A+, could ants evolve to develop space travel?

BONUS QUESTION STARTS AT 13:52

Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QMf2wHMyDWc

Here's a link to the full, unedited livestream: https://youtube.com/live/ojaiPqDdsXU?feature=share

Magnetars are a special sauce of neutron stars. They are extremely violent with crazy magnetic fields. But how are they created? Do kilonova neutron star collisions produce them? What do we really know about that? Finding out in this interview.

Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Q3JGdARjzTA

BONUS PART STARTS AT 28:29

🟣 Guest: Dr. Genevieve Schroeder
https://astro.cornell.edu/genevieve-schroeder https://sites.northwestern.edu/genevieveschroeder/ https://bsky.app/profile/genevieveschroeder.bsky.social

📜 No Sign of a Magnetar Remnant Following the Kilonova-Producing Long GRB 211211A ∼1.7 Years Later https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.09744

• 00:00 Intro

• 01:58 GRB 211211A

• 09:37 How can you get a magnetar

• 12:30 Searching for magnetars

• 16:28 Findings from GRB 211211A

• 24:01 What happens next

• 28:29 Off-axis Gamma-Ray Bursts

• 39:03 Current obsessions

• 43:18 Final thoughts

How would a rover for an icy moon look like? Which moon should we replace the Moon with? Why put a telescope on the Moon? And what's the probability of Artemis II launching this February? All this and more in this week's Q&A.

Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fLMnLaR1wlo

Here's a link to the full, unedited livestream: https://youtube.com/live/ojaiPqDdsXU?feature=share

Artemis II rolls out to the launch pad, Europe’s comet interceptor mission could fly a little earlier, NASA is racing to build a nuclear reactor for the Moon, and in Space Bites+, bacteriaphages evolved in space learn to kill bacteria in new ways.

Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube https://youtu.be/o9kb5caf7vw

• 00:00 Intro

• 00:19 Comet Interceptor Accelerated https://spacenews.com/esas-comet-interceptor-mission-moves-up-launch/

• 02:11 Artemis II Rollout https://www.universetoday.com/articles/nasa-enters-final-preparations-for-artemis-ii-mission

• 04:14 Chang'e-6 Samples https://www.universetoday.com/articles/analysis-of-change-6-samples-addresses-mysteries-about-the-far-side-of-the-moon

• 05:50 Moon Reactor Race https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-2030-race-for-a-moon-reactor

• 08:08 Vote results https://www.youtube.com/@frasercain/posts

• 08:31 Potential Ocean Habitability of Enceladus https://www.universetoday.com/articles/enceladus-plumes-may-hold-a-clear-clue-to-ocean-habitability

• 10:33 Helix Nebula https://www.universetoday.com/articles/gazing-into-the-eye-of-sauron-with-the-jwst

• 11:48 Lupus-3 https://www.universetoday.com/articles/hunting-for-t-tauri-stars-in-a-dark-cloud

• 12:43 Galaxy Evolution https://www.yorku.ca/news/2025/12/18/canadian-astronomers-use-webb-to-uncover-milky-ways-turbulent-youth-through-galactic-twins/

• 14:50 More space news

• 17:00 My new smart telescope

Which space object would I want to see with my own eyes? Can you meaningfully contribute to science without an Astronomy degree? Has dark matter always been around? And in Q&A+, my weird relationship with Venus as a planet.

BONUS QUESTION STARTS AT 17:39

Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube:

Here's a link to the full, unedited livestream: https://youtube.com/live/SiGmJkeCPl8?feature=share

Europa is considered one of the most promising places in the solar system to look for extraterrestrial life. But new studies suggest that we were wrong. That the sub-surface ocean is most probably uninhabitable and lifeless. Why is it so and what does it mean for future missions and search for life? Finding out in this interview.

BONUS PART STARTS AT 43:02

🟣 Guest: Dr. Paul Byrne
https://bsky.app/profile/theplanetaryguy.bsky.social

📜 Europa May Be Lifeless and Unihabitable After All https://www.universetoday.com/articles/europa-may-be-lifeless-and-unihabitable-after-all

Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Sj3JwQde-b8

• 00:00 Intro

• 00:57 Why life could exist on Europa

• 10:48 Details of the research

• 17:57 Potential conditions for life

• 23:52 Crushing hopes

• 30:21 What it means for other sub-surface ocean worlds

• 36:30 The emotional response

• 43:02 Venus updates

• 56:32 Current obsessions

• 01:02:35 Final thoughts

Has AI already written any good science papers? Which are the primary targets for the Extremely Large Telescope? Which is scarier, finding aliens or not finding them? And in Q&A+, what happens if you keep feeding a black hole forever?

BONUS QUESTION STARTS AT 16:54

Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/55VE01fptAM

Here's a link to the full, unedited livestream: https://youtube.com/live/SiGmJkeCPl8?feature=share