About NASA’s Curious Universe Podcast

Come get curious with NASA. As an official NASA podcast, Curious Universe brings you mind-blowing science and space adventures you won’t find anywhere else. Explore the cosmos alongside astronauts, scientists, engineers, and other top NASA experts who are achieving remarkable feats in science, space exploration, and aeronautics. Learn something new about the wild and wonderful universe we share. All you need to get started is a little curiosity.

NASA’s Curious Universe is an official NASA podcast hosted by Padi Boyd and Jacob Pinter

Discover more ad-free, original NASA shows at nasa.gov/podcasts

Find the full NASA’s Curious Universe catalog at nasa.gov/curiousuniverse

Introducing the Sun Series

Meet the Sun. Even if you think you know our star, our new miniseries from NASA’s Curious Universe will show you why Sun science is heating up in 2024—and why NASA experts have so much more to discover. Get ready for the hair-raising experience of a total solar eclipse, and learn how anyone can pitch in through citizen science. See the vibrant and sometimes chaotic close-up details of the Sun, and hear how NASA keeps astronauts and spacecraft safe from solar outbursts. And go inside a pioneering mission to touch the Sun’s atmosphere and investigate some of its biggest unanswered questions. NASA’s Curious Universe is an official NASA podcast. Discover more adventures with NASA experts at nasa.gov/curiousuniverse 

 

[Song: “Crystal Skies” by Brandon Seliga] 

Joe Westlake: Every day you wake up, see the Sun hopefully, and it’s an amazing thing that we take for granted.  

HOST JACOB PINTER: It’s time to get reacquainted with the Sun.  

HOST PADI BOYD: You may think you know our star. But with NASA’s Curious Universe, you’ll see the Sun the way NASA scientists do.  

Joe Westlake: As you get closer and closer to the Sun, it goes from being this beautiful, timid yellow ball of gas to being this very exciting, very powerful, chaotic surface where something’s always going on.  

HOST JACOB PINTER: This spring, learn what the Sun is actually up to.  

Joe Westlake: You know it almost looks like, to me, like volcanic eruptions.  

[Sound of coronal mass ejection from Parker Solar Probe]  

Joe Westlake: But then it follows these paths—beautiful paths—across the surface.  

HOST PADI BOYD: And follow the people finding new ways to look at one of humanity’s oldest companions.   

Nour Raouafi: Scientists in a way are weird creatures. People usually look for the easy life. Scientists, they are always looking for problems.  

HOST PADI BOYD: In our new mini-series, you’ll learn why 2024 is a big year for sun scientists. Get ready for a total solar eclipse, when the cosmic machinery of the solar system creates an unforgettable experience. 

Kelly Korreck: An eclipse is all about being at the right place… 

Fred Espenak: The hair on the back of my neck is standing up.  

Kelly Korreck: … at the right time…  

Fred Espenak: My heart is racing.  

Kelly Korreck: … and things literally aligning just with you. 

Fred Espenak: And you just get a visceral feeling in your gut that something is wrong. This does not seem natural.  

HOST JACOB PINTER: Learn how radiation from the Sun creates dazzling displays, like auroras.   

Liz MacDonald: So when you go outside at night, especially if you’re far up at the poles, you can see this sort of dancing curtain of light.  

Hannahbella Nel: Once you’ve seen it, it’s really addictive! You want to see it again, and you want to know why and how and all the rest. 

HOST JACOB PINTER: … and how NASA protects spacecraft and astronauts from that same radiation.  

Launch announcer: Five, four, three … 

HOST PADI BOYD: Plus, go inside the NASA probe—  

Launch announcer: Liftoff of the mighty Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, a daring mission … (fades out) 

HOST PADI BOYD: —that’s done something no spacecraft ever has: touch the Sun and live to tell the tale. 

Nour Raouafi: This is probably the highest-risk mission NASA ever built. But still it is working so, so beautifully.  

HOST PADI BOYD: And later this year, it’s making its closest approach yet.  

HOST JACOB PINTER: Find these stories and more, coming soon to NASA’s Curious Universe. 

HOST PADI BOYD: … A podcast so bright, you’re going to need sunglasses.