Cosmic Coffee Time with Andrew Prestage
Episodes
#85 Skywatch December 2025. Geminid Meteor Shower, Supermoon vs. Pleiades and Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
30 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAs the year winds down, let’s take a look at what the night sky has on offer in December 2025. The highlight has to be the Geminid Met...
#84 Before exoplanets comes a protoplanetary disc, we’ve found heavy water in one of these. What does this mean for the history of planetary water?
31 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe’ve detected many exoplanets and exoplanetary stems, they orbit stars in other parts of the galaxy. These planets form the same way ...
#83 Two black holes collided a billion light years away, we detected it on Earth just this year, and it was the biggest ever recorded.
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textA billion light years away, a billion years ago, two black holes spiralled toward each other and collided, we detected its gravitational...
#82 Apollo-Soyuz at 50! It’s been a half century since this incredible project. The first international space mission.
31 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn 1975, an incredible and unlikely partnership resulted in the docking of a NASA Apollo capsule and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in Earth ...
#81 After centuries of Earth’s rotation slowing down, it’s now speeding up and making the days shorter. But you’d never notice.
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textEarth’s days had been getting longer since observations began. Every century, the length of the day would increase by about two millis...
#80 Plants on the Moon. An Australian team of biologists and engineers are really sending a mini greenhouse to the Moon.
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAn Australian team of botanists and engineers are working on a project that might make or break the future of long term, long distance s...
#79 Launched in 1972 for Venus, Kosmos 482 failed to escape Earth orbit — and finally returned in May 2025, after 53 years in space
31 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textKosmos 482, was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1972 on a mission to Venus, but a technical glitch meant it never made it past Earth orb...
#78 The Andromeda Galaxy is a cosmic neighbour that’s going to collide with our Milky Way Galaxy. Should we panic?
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textNo need to panic. Yet! We’ll be fine for the next 4 or 5 billion years, but Andromeda is heading our way. The Andromeda Galaxy was the...
#77 The stranded astronauts are finally home after 9 months in space. Let’s see how Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore got home
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textTheir planned 8 day visit to the International Space Station was turned on its head when NASA announced their Boeing Starliner capsule w...
#76 The Apollo program was the high point of the space age. From test flights, to lunar landings and the moon buggies
28 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAfter everything learned through Mercury and Gemini culminated in the seventeen Apollo missions. The first ten were all testing and rehe...
#75 NASA's Project Gemini was a spectacular program that bridged the gap from Project Mercury to Apollo. Gemini developed the incredible technology and techniques needed for the lunar program
31 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textNasa had accomplished spaceflight with Project Mercury but the gap to Apollo was still huge. How do you dock two spacecraft in flight an...
#74 At the beginning of the space race, Project Mercury was NASA’s first human crewed spaceflight program, and it was a significant step on the road to the moon. Let’s dive into the vault and check it out.
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textBack in the late 1950s, NASA was formed. Its first job was to put together a human crewed spaceflight program and put an astronaut into ...
#73 NASA’s Project Mercury Monument has turned 60! It’s a tribute to America's first attempt at human space flight. The monument has a time capsule that is scheduled to stay sealed for 500 years! Let’s check out what's inside.
30 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textProject Mercury was NASA’s first attempt at human crewed space flight. It sent Alan Shepard into space, and John Glenn into orbit, amo...
#72 The space pioneers from Earth weren’t humans, what? That’s right, long before humans launched into space, there were a whole team of dogs, monkeys, chimps, insects and more, who rode rockets to space. All in the name of research.
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWhen Yuri Gagarin blasted into orbit in 1961 to become the first human in space, he was already 14 years behind the first animals from E...
#71 Earth has a new moon! For about the next 8 weeks... Asteroid 2024 PT5 will be captured by Earth's gravity before returning to its normal solar orbit.
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textEarth has a new moon! well, for about 8 weeks anyway. Asteroid 2024 PT5 has been captured by Earth’s gravity and will be in orbit unti...
#70 The Boeing Starliner capsule's first crewed test flight has left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station. What went wrong, and how are they going to get home?
31 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textBoeing’s Starliner space capsule blasted off for its first crewed test flight in early June. Great news right? Turns out, no. After ar...
#69 NASA's Curiosity rover has just made the most incredible discovery of its 12 years on Mars. By running over a rock!
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textNASA's Curiosity rover touched down on Mars in August 2012, and it's been exploring the Red Planet all that time. There have b...
#68 A piece of space history was written this month, a sample from the far side of the moon! Let's check out the Chang'e 6 lunar lander and it's history-making mission.
30 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAs I write this, just a couple of days have passed since the Chang'e 6 sample return capsule touched down with its historic payload...
#67 OSIRIS-REx NASA mission scientist Greg Brennecka brings us up to date on the incredible early findings from the Bennu asteroid sample.
31 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn September 2023, Greg Brennecka stopped by to preview the return to Earth of the OSIRI-REx asteroid Bennu sample return capsule. The s...
#66 Saturn’s largest moon Titan is an incredible place, but could anything live there? Canadian Astrobiologist Dr Catherine Neish led a study on Titan’s habitability. She joins us for a fascinating chat about what she found.
30 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textTitan. The largest moon in the Saturnian system has been a candidate as a habitable world ever since NASA’s Cassini mission sent back ...
#65 Spaghettification? This really is a thing. It happens if you get too close to a black hole, but what is it? And how did it get that name?
31 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSpace and cosmology throws up some strange effects sometimes, none stranger than spaghettification. Stephen Hawking coined the term for ...
#64 The Odysseus Moon Lander. The first private moon lander has touched down, but is it still ok?
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textHouston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines produced the first private mission to land on the moon. The Odysseus lander is just 3...
#63 Space Ethics. How do we navigate the ethical challenges of our journey beyond Earth?
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSo we pollute the upper atmosphere with rocket exhaust, is it worth the benefits of communications satellites and GPS? What about space ...
#62 The iconic Earthrise photograph. Is this the most influential picture from the Apollo era?
31 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textApollo 8 orbited the Moon in December 1968, seven months before the first moon landing. Even though Apollo 8 never landed on the Moon, i...
#61 Will Saturn’s rings really disappear from view in 2025? What’s going on with that?
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn the news lately, you might have seen reports that the rings of Saturn are going to disappear from view. What could make that happen? ...
#60 Astrophotography. It's photography with a completely different technique. How do the pros do it, and what can I do with my smartphone?
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textPhotographing the night sky is a completely different technique to photographing almost anything else. There's hardly any light, th...
#59 India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft became the first spacecraft to land in the south polar region of the moon. Let's see why the this incredible spacecraft and rover could be instrumental for the future of human spaceflight.
30 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIndia’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover have landed in the south polar region of the moon. Some cra...
#58 Resident space rock expert Greg Brennecka is back to preview the return to Earth of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft with a sample of asteroid Bennu.
31 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textCosmic Coffee Time’s resident space rock expert and NASA mission scientist Greg Brennecka is back again to preview the return to Earth...
#57 Space junk! Most of the human made objects orbiting Earth aren’t functional. Some of them are incredible objects that have outlasted their mission durations by years. How will these fascinating relics affect future spaceflight?
31 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAround 80% of the human made objects in orbit are mission left overs. Some of it is real junk, but some of it has an incredible story to...
#56 The June solstice, it defines the Arctic circle, the Tropic of Cancer and the Antarctic circle. It has the longest daylight hours in the northern hemisphere, shortest in the southern. But why do those things happen on one day every year?
30 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAround the 21st of June every year is the June solstice. We might know that it’s the longest or shortest day of the year – depending...
#55 The spectacular Aurora Borealis and its southern partner Aurora Australis. The astronomical light show is such a cool thing to see, but its science was a mystery until the 20th century.
31 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAsk an eastern Australian about the Southern Aurora, and they might think you’re talking about the old overnight express train between...
#54 NASA’s VERITAS mission to Venus. There’s some good news, there’s some bad news and there’s one incredible discovery hidden for thirty years.
30 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn 2021, NASA announced the VERITAS mission to Venus, NASA’s first voyage to Earth’s twin planet since the early 90’s. Things have...
#53 The Hayabusa2 Asteroid Ryugu sample return mission. Space rock expert Greg Brennecka joins us for an incredible up-close look at real life asteroid material.
31 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOur favourite space rock expert Greg Brennecka joins us to talk about the amazing Hayabusa2 mission, the sample return mission to astero...
#52 Hundreds of years before GPS there was celestial navigation. Let's see how astronomy and some basic equipment kept old time mariners on course.
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textRecently, we took a look at GPS and the space science that makes it work. This time, we're going back to an era when navigators had...
#51 NASA's astronaut class of 1978. We have a compelling chat with Meredith Bagby about this ground breaking group of space shuttle astronauts, and her fascinating book The New Guys
06 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn 1978, NASA changed the rules around who could be selected as an astronaut. Civilian engineers, doctors and scientists could be select...
#50 We all love GPS, but what space science makes it work?
31 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe all love GPS. The Global Positioning System helps us navigate across country and across town, and it also shows us where our rideshar...
#49 The new Mars meteorite impact. NASA Insight has detected a new meteorite impact on Mars! Meteorite expert Greg Brennecka returns to talk about this breathtaking new discovery.
30 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textFriend of Cosmic Coffee Time and expert meteoriticist Greg Brennecka returns to talk about the breathtaking detection of a new meteorite...
#48 Caroline Herschel - So much more than just the sister of the guy who discovered Uranus
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textCaroline Herschel is probably best known as the sister of William Herschel, the person credited with the discovery of planet Uranus, but...
#47 Have you ever heard of moonquakes? Let's take a look at how different they are from earthquakes.
30 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textFor a long time we speculated that there might have been earthquakes on the moon, we call them moonquakes. How did we eventually detect ...
#46 Meteorite expert Greg Brennecka returns to the podcast to talk about the Nadir crater. An exciting new discovery that could be a 66 million year old meteorite impact.
31 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textExpert meteoriticist and friend of Cosmic Coffee Time Greg Brennecka returns to talk about an exciting development in the meteorite impa...
#45 NASA's Dragonfly mission to Saturn's moon, Titan. A drone is going to fly in the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon. Incredible!
31 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textNASA is planning to fly a drone in the atmosphere of the second largest natural satellite in the solar system, Saturn's Titan. What...
#44 About that black hole at the centre of our galaxy... Now we've got a picture! Sagittarius A*
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textScientists have long held a theory that there was a black hole in the centre of our milky way galaxy. This was proved some years ago but...
#43 Let's take a look at Sunspots. What are those darker spots on the surface of the sun?
31 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSunspots are darker and cooler areas on the surface of the sun. What causes them? How long do they last? And how do they fit into the 11...
#42 Pulsars. What are these incredible objects and what makes them pulse?
30 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textYou might have heard of pulsars. They're objects that emit regular pulses of radiation. But what are they, how do they form, and wh...
#41 Galileo. His observations in 1610 changed a lot of what we knew about astronomy. Let's see what he found.
31 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textGalileo Galilei Made some incredible observations of the moon and was a real pioneer in calculating the height of some of the moon'...
#40 Binary stars. Would you believe that most of the stars we see aren't just single stars? Incredible I know!
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAs many as 80% of the stars we see in the night sky could be part of a binary system, two or more stars orbiting each other.So what it a...
#39 Meteorites! We meet with noted meteoriticist Greg Brennecka to talk meteorites, the origins of life on Earth, and his new book 'Impact'
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textUntil the Apollo moon landings, our only samples of material from space were in the form of meteorites. These meteorites gave us an insi...
#38 The amazing Mars Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter. Let's take a look at the Mars 2020 project
31 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textFrom Mars rovers that were the size of a microwave oven back in the 90s, we now have the Perseverance rover that's the size of a ca...
#37 What's in that unexpected gap between Mars and Jupiter? Let's take a look at the asteroid belt - a fascinating element of our solar system
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThere's a strange gap between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, a gap where Bode's law says we would expect the fifth planet to ...
#36 The Voyager spacecraft. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the furthest travelled objects ever made by humans. What did they find on the grand tour of the solar system? And where are they now?
31 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textVoyager 1 took the famous photograph the Pale Blue Dot. It's the furthest travelled machine ever made by people. At 23 billion km, ...
#35 Planet Neptune. The most distant major planet in our solar system and the first to be located by mathematical calculations. Let's take a look.
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textNeptune. Something was perturbing Uranus' orbit, turns out it was the eighth planet, Neptune. Neptune was the first planet to have ...
#34 Planet Uranus. Is that how you say it? The ice giant that was the first planet that needed to be 'discovered'.
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textUranus. Stop giggling, is the first planet to be discovered by telescope. The inner planets have always been known about, but Uranus nee...
#33 Planet Jupiter. It's more than twice the mass of all the other planets combined and it's a gas giant. What makes Jupiter different from the rocky terrestrial planets, and does it really have planetary rings?
31 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJupiter is the first of the gas giant planets. Let's take a look at what makes these planets different from the inner planets. It h...
#32 Kate the Chemist special. We meet with Dr. Kate Biberdorf to talk STEM, TV's Ice Road Truckers, and her new book It's Elemental
12 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textHow do you keep a chemistry class's attention in the age of smart phones? Explosions, loud noises and passion! That's how Kate...
#31 A conversation with Earl Swift about NASA's lunar rovers and his new book - Across the Airless Wilds
05 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe have a great chat with Earl Swift about NASA's lunar rovers and his new book Across the Airless Wilds. It's a fascinating d...
#30 Planet Mars. Lets take a look at the friendliest planet beyond Earth and some of the cool spacecraft that have been there
30 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThere's a lot about Mars that is very Earth-like, from the length of a day to the kinds of seasons it has. Being a neighbouring pla...
#29 Planet Earth. Let's take a look at our home - as a planet, in a solar system.
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textEarth. It's home to every living thing we've ever known, but what if we really take a step back and study our planet the same ...
#28 Planet Venus. It's Earth's twin - but somehow remains mysterious. Let's take a look.
30 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textPlanet Venus is sometimes called Earth's twin. It's the same size and in planetary terms it's close by, but why isn'...
#27 Planet Mercury normally keeps a low profile, but let's take a closer look at the first planet from the sun.
31 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe don't get to hear much about planet Mercury. It took us a long time to learn much about it and only two spacecraft have ever bee...
#26 What's the matter? Really, what is the matter that makes up 80% of the mass of the universe but can't be observed directly. The strange story of dark matter
28 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSo back in the 1930's, astronomers noticed that there didn't seem to be enough mass in galactic clusters to hold them together...
#25 A conversation with David W. Brown about his new book The Mission, and Jupiter's icy ocean moon Europa
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJoin us for a discussion with David W. Brown about his new book The Mission, the true story of NASA's bold Europa Clipper mission a...
#24 What went wrong with the Hubble Space Telescope?
31 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSo way back in the 90s, NASA launched the bus-sized Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. But it had a huge problem, it couldn't focus...
#23 Meteors and meteorites, what are they and why do they burn up?
31 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textMeteors, they're not falling stars, but what are they? Where do these objects come from and why do they 'burn up' in the ...
#22 The Sun. How does it it produce so much energy? And what does the future hold?
30 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textLet's take a closer look at the Sun - but not literally. How does it it produce so much energy and why can it do this for billions ...
#21 Let's take a look at the Moon part 5 - Artemis and the future of human Moon exploration
31 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe've had a look at the history of human lunar exploration, but this time we're going to look to the future. We're going ...
#20 Let's take a look at the Moon - part 4
30 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe love the moon. Sometimes we just step outside and it's there waiting for us. There's so much to explore with the moon, we&a...
#19 Let's take a look at the Moon - part 3
31 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThere's so much to explore with the moon. It's our little companion in space, like our next door neighbour. We're going t...
#18 Let's take a look at the Moon - part 2
31 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThere's so much to explore with the moon. It's our little companion in space, like our next door neighbour. We're going t...
#17 Let's take a look at the Moon - part 1
30 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThere's so much to explore with the moon. It's our little companion in space, like our next door neighbour. We're going t...
#16 The incredible tale of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. A special first birthday quadruple episode.
31 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIt's Cosmic Coffee Time's first birthday, and what better way to celebrate than with a quadruple episode exploring the four Ga...
#15 So are we really alone in the Universe? Where is everyone? And what are we doing to find extraterrestrial life?
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textEver since we started using radio to communicate on Earth, we've wondered if we could use it to communicate with other civilization...
#14 So an asteroid caused the mass extinction of the dinosaurs? Let's find the crater!
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSo an asteroid fell from space and caused a mass extinction of the dinosaurs. But where is the crater? We know impacts have left craters...
#13 Comets? I know Halley's, but what other cool comet stuff should I know?
29 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textHalley's Comet comes around once every 76 years. You might have missed its last visit in 1986, but it'll be back in around 40 ...
#12 Proving Einstein's relativity in outback Australia. A cracking tale of spacebending gravity
30 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSo Einstein's theory of general relativity predicted black holes, or more specifically, that gravity could warp spacetime. But how ...
#11 So there are planets orbiting the stars? Tell me more about exoplanets!
31 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe love our Earth, (and we love our coffee), we love all the planets in our solar system. But what if I told you that some of the stars ...
#10 How cool is Saturn. I mean really.
30 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSometimes your favourite coffee cup leaves a ring on the table, or on that important document! But rings that you're always happy t...
#9 Hey tell me about the International Space Station
31 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSo many questions about the International Space Station. What do the astronauts do in their free time? Why did they do that twin study? ...
#8 So Earth's magnetic field will make my compass needle point south one day?
31 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textGot five minutes for a coffee? Grab your favourite cup, and hit play to take a closer look at Earth's magnetic field, it's str...
#7 A black hole sounds pretty weird
30 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textBlack coffee and black holes, get caffeinated for this one. Black holes are some of the weirdest things in the universe, so let's u...
#6 Why isn't Pluto a planet any more?
17 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textPluto is famous these days for not being a planet. What happened? You've got a coffee, we've got some of the answers.Episodes ...
#5 NASA Deep Space Communication Network
17 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textCoffee break time again. So we see all these amazing pictures from rovers on Mars, and flybys of distant planets, but how do those pictu...
#4 You've got to love an eclipse of the sun
17 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textYou've got your coffee, we've got some pretty cool facts about eclipses. If you've ever wondered about how a solar eclips...
#2 Big bang and the bookends of the universe
16 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThe biggest question - and a coffee break. How did the universe begin? Why can't we talk about what happened before the universe be...
#3 What's with leap years anyway?
16 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textCoffee smells nice today, and why do we need a leap year? When did we start doing the leap day and what would happen if we didn't b...
#1 How much space is in space?
16 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe hear a lot about the size of the planets in the solar system and beyond, but how far apart are they? Let's grab a coffee and fin...