Q&A: Meteors, Artemis II, and Space Bathtubs
The Supermassive Podcast
Izzie Clarke
4.6 • 556 Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Supermassive Podcast is back for 2026, and we've got a MEGA Q&A.
What happens when two nebulae collide? Where did Neptune and Uranus form? What’s the procedure for a medical emergency on the ISS? And more. Plus, Izzie, Dr Becky, Robert and Richard cover everything you need to know ahead of the launch of Artemis II.
And here are the links to things we promised you in this episode...
- Our episode "How to Time Travel"
- Our episode "Do We Live in a Multiverse?"
- Richard's brilliant Space Boffins podcast
Join The Supermassive Club for ad-free listening, forum access, and extra content from the team. And email your questions to podcast@ras.ac.uk or follow us on Instagram, @SupermassivePod.
The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When I saw this question, I thought, how am I going to describe this? |
| 0:04.7 | You can imagine there are posamonauts on the ground, like, in my day, we didn't evacuate. |
| 0:09.0 | Both Uranus and Neptune were originally significantly closer to the sun. |
| 0:12.5 | Something could have changed drastically between us recording this and this episode going out. |
| 0:19.6 | Hello, welcome to the Supermassive podcast from the Royal Astronomical Society with me, |
| 0:25.3 | science journalist, Izzy Clark and astrophysicist Dr. Becky Smethurst. |
| 0:29.3 | This is our first episode of 2026. |
| 0:32.7 | So what better way to dust off the cognitive cogs, if you will, than with a Q&A episode. |
| 0:40.6 | Oh, I hope you're ready. |
| 0:41.8 | It's been a while since we've got into this. |
| 0:45.0 | I also can't believe that we've been making this show for six years. |
| 0:48.8 | Yeah, that doesn't make sense in my head. |
| 0:50.2 | No, I know. |
| 0:50.8 | I'm like, what has time done? |
| 0:52.5 | Have we actually been through a black hole and done some time travelling ourselves? |
| 0:58.1 | But I did also want to say thank you to everyone that has listened, sent in questions, just generally supported the show. We just really appreciate it. |
| 1:06.8 | Yeah, we really do. And we also wanted to thank everyone that has joined the supermassive Club. Your membership subscription really helps us to keep making this podcast. If you're listening and you want to support the show, then you can join the Supermassive Club for a small monthly fee. Not only do you get ad-free episodes, but there are a few forums on there where we and the other members chat about stargating and book recommendations, and the occasional special episode like our recent bonus. |
| 1:29.4 | Yeah, so if you're interested in joining the club, |
| 1:31.9 | go to supermassive.supportingcast.fm. |
| 1:34.9 | Or there is a link in our episode description. |
| 1:38.3 | Right, let's get into it. |
| 1:40.6 | We obviously couldn't have a show without Dr. Robert Matty, |
... |
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