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It’s Time to welcome our Space Brothers.


Is there intelligent life elsewhere in the universe? It’s a question that has been debated for centuries, if not millenia. But it is only recently that we’ve had an actual chance of finding out, with initiatives such as Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) using radio telescopes to actively listen for radio messages from alien civilisations.

What should we expect to detect if these searches succeed? My suspicion is that it is very unlikely to be little green men—something I speculated about at a talk at a Breakthrough Listen (a Seti project) conference.

Suppose there are other planets where life began and that it followed something like a Darwinian evolution (which needen’t be the case). Even then, it’s highly unlikely that the progression of and technology would happen at exactly the same pace as on Earth. If it lagged significantly behind, then that planet would plainly reveal no evidence of extraterrestrial life to our . But around a star older than the Sun, life could have had a head start of a billion years or more.

Even swarms of self-replicating robots.

If alien civilizations exist, they may have opened a Pandora’s box.

It may sound far-fetched, but self-replicating probes from an alien civilization could become a serious nuisance to budding societies like ours. While this is pure speculation, we have an ace in the hole: China’s new massive radio telescope might be capable of detecting swarms of alien probes, also called von Neumann probes, at relatively vast distances from our sun, according to a recent study shared on a preprint server.

What if none of this is real? What if everything we see, hear, touch, taste, smell, and perceive is part of a gigantic simulation designed to keep us contained? And what if the beings who built this simulation are part of a highly advanced alien species that created the simulation so they could study us and keep us under control.

This is the essence of the “Zoo Hypothesis,” which is a proposed resolution to the Fermi Paradox. It is also sometimes referred to as the “Planetarium Hypothesis” as a way of clarifying that the intention of the big simulation is not to protect but to control. Moreover, the zookeepers in this scenario have designed the simulation so that humanity won’t suspect they are living in a cage.

This week’s episode is brought to you by The Space Force. For more information, please go to http://www.spaceforce.com #sponsored.

How much of your life is touched by space? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice break down the newest branch of the US military, The Space Force, with Charles Liu, Major General DeAnna Burt, and Dr. Moriba Jah. Is this one step closer to Star Wars?

Discover the alliance between astrophysics and the military. What ways are there to destroy a satellite? Charles Liu teaches us about electromagnetic pulses– EMPs– and how they disrupt electronics. Can people be safe from a detonated EMP, like in the movies? How do we protect ourselves against EMPs?

Next, we speak with Major General DeAnna Burt about her role within The Space Force and what it’s like to form an entire branch of the military from scratch. Who came up with the name Space Force? Is the creation of The Space Force an escalation of military tensions in the world? Is it a step towards war in space? Find out about geosynchronous robotic arms, kinetic kill vehicles, and what The Space Force really does to protect us against threats that exist already. We discuss satellites and just how much of daily life on earth is touched by space. How far does space go? Is The Space Force for the domain of the universe itself?

What’s the potential for warfare in space? Or the possibility of Star Wars? How do we work together to ensure fights don’t extend into space? Moriba Jah breaks down the objects we’re tracking in our orbit. What do you do when an object is on track to hit another object in orbit? We also discuss the Kessler Effect and what it means for the future of our orbits. How do you regulate and track the booming private satellite industry? All that plus, what about non-human threats?

Thanks to our Patrons Lisa Cotton, Luis Stark, Oscar h, Travis Mansfield, Justin Thomas, Josh Wise, and Astaroth for supporting us this week.

There might be billions, even trillions, of rogue planets in the Milky Way. Could they support life? How can we find out?


The search for potentially habitable planets is focused on exoplanets—planets orbiting other stars—for good reason. The only planet we know of with life is Earth and sunlight fuels life here. But some estimates say there are many more rogue planets roaming through space, not bound to or warmed by any star.

Could some of them support life?

The term ‘Rogue Planet’ is a colourful term used to describe what are actually interstellar objects (ISOs). But in the case of rogue planets, the ISOs are planetary-mass objects, rather than less massive objects like ‘Oumuamua or 2I/Borisov, the only two confirmed ISOs to enter our Solar System.