Planetary Science podcasts

University of Arizona planetary scientist Daniel Apai joins Tim Swindle to discuss the Pandora Space Telescope and its potential to reveal the properties of exoplanets and their atmospheres. This Arizona Science episode examines the scientific questions addressed by the observatory as it returns data from Earth orbit. Published on 10 September 2026; listen through Arizona Public Media’s episode page.

Hosted by Tim Swindle

The Supermassive team revisits an interview with Meg Schwamb about the Kuiper Belt and the small bodies beyond Neptune. The conversation explores what these distant objects can reveal about the Solar System’s formation and evolution. This is the explicitly labelled revisited edition published in September 2026.

Nature reporters discuss evidence for a distant Jupiter-mass exosatellite and the discovery of a rare transmissible cancer in wild catfish.

Hal Levison explains how Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids could help distinguish competing accounts of Solar System evolution. The discussion compares scenarios in which giant planets formed near their present orbits with models involving substantial migration from a more compact configuration. It considers why the Lucy spacecraft’s observations can test these ideas and how discoveries of other planetary systems sharpen the questions.

Sean Carroll and astronomer Natalie Batalha discuss the transition from discovering individual exoplanets to systematically understanding planetary populations. They explore how frequently stars host planets, how planetary sizes and orbital distances are distributed, and what observations can reveal about atmospheres and possible habitats for life. Batalha draws on her experience with NASA's Kepler mission to explain what researchers have learned and which questions future observations may answer.

Hosted by Sean Carroll