BONUS - Can we gravitationally "hitch hike" out of the Solar System?
The Supermassive Podcast
Izzie Clarke
4.6 • 556 Ratings
🗓️ 11 April 2025
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What the bloomin’ hell is a Gravastar? Are fast radio bursts like solar flares on steroids? Plus an interesting question on multiverses that can't be summed up in a short sentence. Izzie Clarke, Dr Becky Smethurst and Dr Robert Massey dive into The Supermassive Mailbox and take on your questions.
Keep sending in your wonderful ponderings. Email them to podcast@ras.ac.uk or via Instagram @Supermassivepod
The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to another bonus episode of the Supermassive podcast from the Royal Astronomical Society. |
| 0:09.3 | With me, science journalist, Izzy Clark, astrophysicist Dr Becky Smithurst and the Society's deputy director, Dr Robert Massey. |
| 0:18.0 | We are ready and waiting to answer your questions that you sent in. Keep them |
| 0:22.3 | coming. You can send us a question by emailing us at podcast. rass.ac.uk or messaging us on |
| 0:28.1 | Instagram at supermassive pod. I'm not going to lie. We have had a flurry of quite difficult questions. |
| 0:33.6 | Oh gosh. They are they're very good. |
| 0:37.9 | Excellent. |
| 0:39.4 | They're very good. |
| 0:40.5 | But I'm just going to let people know that if you're sending in other questions, we do |
| 0:44.2 | take silly ones as well. |
| 0:46.1 | Yes, easier ones. |
| 0:47.5 | Easy ones too. |
| 0:48.8 | Once I don't make my head hurt. |
| 0:50.8 | I have the easier job. |
| 0:52.7 | I'm just the messenger. |
| 0:56.8 | It's great. Okay. So buckle up, Becky and Robert. |
| 1:02.7 | Becky, let's start with this one from Peter in the Netherlands, who is pondering about leaving the solar system. His email says, Hi, Dr. Becky talked about interstellar passing objects in her |
| 1:08.7 | December edition of Night Sky News on YouTube. And now I find |
| 1:12.8 | myself wondering, with the idea in the back of my mind that we are pretty much flying to and |
| 1:18.9 | from asteroids, landing there and bringing back samples, and that the best plan to avoid an asteroid |
| 1:26.4 | collision on Earth is to gravitationally |
| 1:28.9 | alter their orbit slightly with a spacecraft, how much of a stretch would it be to gravitationally |
... |
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