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Bedtime Astronomy

Bedtime Astronomy

By: Synthetic Universe
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About this listen

 Welcome Bedtime Astronomy Podcast. We invite you to unwind and explore the wonders of the universe before drifting off into a peaceful slumber.

Join us as we take you on a soothing journey through the cosmos, sharing captivating stories about stars, planets, galaxies, and celestial phenomena.

AI-narrated, human-researched. We use synthetic voices to deliver deeply researched scientific content without compromise. The tech just lets us focus on what matters: bringing you mind-expanding content.

Let's go through the mysteries of the night sky, whether you're a seasoned stargazer or simply curious about the cosmos, our bedtime astronomy podcast promises to inspire wonder, spark imagination.


Copyright Synthetic Universe Astronomy Astronomy & Space Science Physics Science
Episodes
  • Finding Aliens by Studying Fireflies: Rethinking the Search for ETs

    Finding Aliens by Studying Fireflies: Rethinking the Search for ETs
    Dec 25 2025
    Scientists are rethinking the search for extraterrestrial intelligence by studying firefly bioluminescence instead of only looking for human-like radio signals. Traditional SETI efforts suffer from anthropocentric bias, assuming aliens would develop technology mirroring our own. Fireflies evolved energy-efficient, structured light signals that stand out distinctly from environmental backgrounds—offering a universal model for how any intelligent civilization might communicate.

    By focusing on mathematical patterns that differ from cosmic noise like pulsars, rather than specific technologies, researchers hope to detect alien signals we'd otherwise miss. This new approach using digital bioacoustics and evolutionary communication principles could help us find civilizations that transmit information in ways humans never imagined.
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    36 mins
  • SPHEREx Maps the Entire Sky in 3D Infrared

    SPHEREx Maps the Entire Sky in 3D Infrared
    Dec 23 2025
    NASA's SPHEREx telescope has created the first complete 3D infrared sky map using 102 wavelengths invisible to human eyes. This revolutionary dataset tracks galaxy evolution and the chemical building blocks of life across hundreds of millions of celestial objects.

    Unlike telescopes studying narrow fields, SPHEREx scans the entire cosmos every six months, measuring distances through spectroscopy to reveal how the universe expanded after the Big Bang.

    The freely available data helps scientists understand how our universe became habitable, with multiple scans planned over two years to enhance observation quality.
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    38 mins
  • Superkilonova: The Dual Cosmic Explosion

    Superkilonova: The Dual Cosmic Explosion
    Dec 21 2025
    A baffling cosmic event, designated AT2025ulz, was detected by LIGO and Virgo and is now considered a candidate for a never-before-seen phenomenon: a superkilonova. This oddball event, which took place 1.3 billion light-years away, initially resembled a kilonova—an explosion caused by the merger of two dense neutron stars. Kilonovae are known to forge the heaviest elements, such as gold and uranium.

    However, after about three days, AT2025ulz started to look more like a supernova, brightening, turning blue, and showing hydrogen in its spectra. The gravitational-wave data indicated that at least one of the colliding objects was less massive than a typical neutron star.

    Astronomers hypothesize that this "superkilonova" was a kilonova spurred by a prior supernova blast. The leading theory suggests that a rapidly spinning, massive star went supernova, birthing two "forbidden" sub-solar mass neutron stars. These newborn stars may have then spiraled together and merged, creating a kilonova. This scenario would explain why the event displayed features of both a supernova and a kilonova, potentially obscuring the initial merger. This potential cosmic rarity challenges our understanding of stellar death and the formation of heavy elements.
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    33 mins
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