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Cosmic Conundra

Presenter: Seth Shostak, SETI Institute
When: December 7, 2015 12PM PST

Admit it – the universe is cool, but weird. Just when you think you’ve tallied up all the peculiar phenomena that the cosmos has to offer – it throws more at you. We examine some of the recent perplexing finds.

Could massive asteroid impacts be as predictable as phases of the moon? Speaking of moons – why are some of Pluto’s spinning like turbine-powered pinwheels? Plus, we examine a scientist’s claim of evidence for parallel universes.

And, could the light patterns from a distant star be caused by alien mega-structures?

Guests:

Mike Rampino – Professor of biology and environmental studies at New York University
Mark Showalter – Senior research scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California
Ranga-Ram Chary – Astronomer, U.S. Planck Data Center, California Institute of Technology

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