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Unexplainable

That's no moon...

Unexplainable

Vox

Life Sciences, Science, Natural Sciences

4.62.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It's a quasi-moon. Or, a quasi-satellite. Whatever you want to call it, it's hanging out near Earth. And it could be the source of some fascinating new science. Guests: Nick Moskovitz, astronomer at Lowell Observatory For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And please email us! ⁠⁠⁠unexplainable@vox.com⁠⁠⁠ We read every email. Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/members ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Support for the show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine.

0:06.0

Earth's final days are near, and the clock is ticking for members of the Phoenix colony.

0:11.0

All they need to do is upload their minds back into the quantum computer.

0:15.0

Simple enough, but their plan is disrupted by digital duplicates of their own minds

0:20.0

that could destroy their stored

0:21.7

consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Roscoe Cadulian

0:27.7

in this follow-up to the audible hit sci-fi thriller The Downloaded by Canada's most

0:32.4

decorated sci-fi author Robert J. Sawyer. What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

0:38.5

Find out in the thought-provoking sequel that downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine.

0:42.5

Available now, only from Audible.

0:47.5

It's time for Black Friday at Dell Technologies.

0:50.3

Save big on PCs like the Dell 16 Plus featuring Intelcore Ultra Processors.

0:55.0

Shop now at Dell.com.E.K. forward slash Black Friday.

0:59.0

Last August, astronomers detected a small object in space.

1:05.0

This thing that has been hanging out near us, apparently, for decades, doing vaguely moon-like sorts of things.

1:13.6

People got excited about it.

1:16.5

But there was this kind of terminological kerfuffle around what to call it.

1:22.8

In articles, on TikToks, on news shows, people were pretty quick to say that it was not a second moon.

1:29.4

But then they would throw out different terms.

1:32.8

So people would talk about quasi-moons and quasi-satellites,

1:36.6

sometimes also explaining related terms like mini-moons.

1:41.5

And it all gets a little confusing. So for now, let's just call this object by its name.

...

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