Cosmic Coffee Time with Andrew Prestage

#96 The James Webb Space Telescope: The world’s most powerful space telescope, with a 6.5-metre mirror and infrared instruments in a distant orbit. Discover how this remarkable observatory could transform our view of the universe.

Send us Fan Mail The James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful space telescope ever built, designed to look deeper into the universe and further back in time than

#95 Of the enormous number of things that happen in the universe, a few of them throw up some really interesting coincidences. Let’s take a look at some of these.

Send us Fan Mail There are a few really interesting coincidences in space science. From Earth, the sun and moon appear the same size, that’s super unlikely. Earth seems

#94 The Artemis III crew has been selected. Who are they, what are their skills, and what will they do on the next Artemis flight?

Send us Fan Mail NASA has announced the four astronauts who will fly Artemis III, the first crew assigned to test the lunar landing hardware in Earth orbit. They’ll test

#93 What can we do to stop another dinosaur extinction asteroid smashing into Earth?

Send us Fan Mail 66 million years ago, an asteroid smashed into Earth and caused a mass extinction, including nearly all of the dinosaurs. What would we do if another e

#92 Particle physicist and author Dr. Sarah Alam Malik joins us to explore the history of astronomy and the universe. Her new book A Brief History of the Universe takes us from ancient astronomers to modern physics, and the future of the cosmos.

Send us Fan Mail Particle physicist and author Dr. Sarah Alam Malik stops by for an expansive conversation about astronomy, the history of scientific discovery, and our

#91 What’s next for the Artemis program? Artemis 2 was incredible, but let’s take a look at what Artemis 3 & 4 will achieve in the next couple of years. (It’s amazing!)

Send us Fan Mail Artemis 2 was was a breathtaking moment for us all. We were mesmerised by the four astronauts and the images they sent back to Earth. But so much lies a

#90 An Australian backyard astronomer helped NASA find 100 planets! Astronomy award winner Chris Stockdale used his home observatory in Churchill, Victoria to track distant stars and find the planets in their orbit. What a chat.

Send us Fan Mail Chris Stockdale is an award winning astronomer in the Gippsland area of Australia. His contribution to NASA's exoplanet research earned him the Ber

#89 Rogue planets! It's possible that most planets in our galaxy don't orbit a star, like we do with our sun. Rogue planets float through interstellar space in the cold darkness. How do they form? And how do we find a planet at interstellar distances?

Send us Fan Mail We instinctively think of planets as rocky or gaseous bodies orbiting a star like our sun, with sunrise, sunset, heating and maybe even seasons. But wha

#88 Is the Universe Infinite? It’s almost an instinctive question, but maybe it’s unknowable.

Send us Fan Mail Most people have looked to the skies and wondered if the universe has a boundary, or maybe it goes on for ever. The universe might be finite, with and e

#87 The next crewed Moon mission is ready for launch. Let’s preview the historic Artemis II flight, sending humans to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years.

Send us Fan Mail The launch window for Artemis II opens on 6 February 2026. Humans will fly a test mission, swinging around the far side of the moon for the first time s

#86 We all love the Moon, but it hasn’t always been there. Where did it come from, and when did that happen?

Send us Fan Mail The Moon has a history longer than any of the features on Earth, but it isn’t as old as Earth. The Giant Impact hypothesis says that a Mars sized protop

#85 Skywatch December 2025. Geminid Meteor Shower, Supermoon vs. Pleiades and Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

Send us Fan Mail As 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 Meteor Shower. Over a

#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?

Send us Fan Mail We’ve detected many exoplanets and exoplanetary stems, they orbit stars in other parts of the galaxy. These planets form the same way our planetary did,

#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.

Send us Fan Mail A billion light years away, a billion years ago, two black holes spiralled toward each other and collided, we detected its gravitational waves in Januar

#82 Apollo-Soyuz at 50! It’s been a half century since this incredible project. The first international space mission.

Send us Fan Mail In 1975, an incredible and unlikely partnership resulted in the docking of a NASA Apollo capsule and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in Earth orbit. The cold

#81 After centuries of Earth’s rotation slowing down, it’s now speeding up and making the days shorter. But you’d never notice.

Send us Fan Mail Earth’s days had been getting longer since observations began. Every century, the length of the day would increase by about two milliseconds. Like… cloc

#80 Plants on the Moon. An Australian team of biologists and engineers are really sending a mini greenhouse to the Moon.

Send us Fan Mail An Australian team of botanists and engineers are working on a project that might make or break the future of long term, long distance space occupation.

#79 Launched in 1972 for Venus, Kosmos 482 failed to escape Earth orbit — and finally returned in May 2025, after 53 years in space

Send us Fan Mail Kosmos 482, was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1972 on a mission to Venus, but a technical glitch meant it never made it past Earth orbit. Designed to

#78 The Andromeda Galaxy is a cosmic neighbour that’s going to collide with our Milky Way Galaxy. Should we panic?

Send us Fan Mail No 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 first object to b

#77 The stranded astronauts are finally home after 9 months in space. Let’s see how Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore got home

Send us Fan Mail Their planned 8 day visit to the International Space Station was turned on its head when NASA announced their Boeing Starliner capsule was unsafe to use