Category
Space & the universe
Rocket launches, new telescopes, old light. The universe and our attempts to understand it.
In this category
Who owns space? The coming fight over mining the Moon and asteroids
Companies and nations are preparing to extract water and metals from the Moon and asteroids, but the treaties governing space were written for a different era. Examine the unresolved law of who can claim and profit from what's out there.
12 min
Megaconstellations: the fight over low-Earth orbit
Tens of thousands of satellites are now reshaping global internet access, military communications, and the night sky. Explore the technology, the astronomy it disrupts, and the geopolitics of who controls the orbits closest to Earth.
12 min
How reusable rockets collapsed the cost of reaching space
For decades, rockets were thrown away after a single flight. Trace the engineering and economics of landing and reflying boosters, and how it upended the launch industry and who can afford orbit.
12 min
The new Moon race: why everyone is going back
After decades away, the US, China, and a wave of private companies are racing to return to the Moon. Unpack what's actually at stake — water ice, strategic position, prestige — and how this race differs from the last.
12 min
Hunting planets you can't see, and the search for a second Earth
The ingenious methods astronomers use to detect worlds orbiting distant stars they cannot directly image, and what it would take to find a truly Earth-like planet.
12 min
Neutron stars: matter at the edge of collapse
What happens when a dying star crushes itself into a sphere so dense a sugar cube's worth would outweigh a mountain — and the extreme physics that governs these bizarre objects.
12 min
The accidental discovery of the Big Bang's afterglow
How two engineers troubleshooting a noisy antenna stumbled onto the cosmic microwave background — the faint radiation left over from the birth of the universe — and won a Nobel Prize for it.
12 min
Dark matter and dark energy: the 95% of the universe we can't see
How astronomers discovered that everything we can observe is a tiny fraction of what's out there, the evidence for the invisible majority, and why its true nature remains one of physics' deepest open problems.
12 min
About Space & the universe
The universe and our attempts to understand it. The stream follows the new Moon race and the fight over low-Earth orbit, how reusable rockets collapsed the cost of reaching space, and the deep questions underneath: the Fermi paradox, dark matter and the 95% of the cosmos we can't see, neutron stars at the edge of collapse. Launches and telescopes as they happen, old light explained whenever you're ready.
Fylom episodes are researched and written by AI. Automated checks help catch inaccuracies, but episodes aren't reviewed by a human and AI can still get things wrong. Treat them as a starting point, not a source of record — more in our accuracy disclaimer.