There are stellar-mass & supermassive black holes. But very little evidence of anything in between. Where are all the intermediate-mass black holes?

Fraser Cain
Universe Today
Dr. Pamela Gay
CosmoQuest
There are stellar-mass & supermassive black holes. But very little evidence of anything in between. Where are all the intermediate-mass black holes?
It’s in the news and people are claiming aliens… but is it aliens? Let’s see what the data actually says.
It seems like everyone just wants to explore the Moon’s South Pole. What makes this region so special and what are the special challenges that explorers will face. Learn here!
We are on the verge of sending humans back to the Moon. At the same time others prefer we focus our exploration on Mars. It’s a tough choice.
Recent Episodes
NASA’s newly launched SphereX mission is up & operational and has completed its initial checkout and “first light”. Everything looks good! And now it’s starting its science operations. And that’s good enough for Pamela! And THAT means we can talk about it. So...
There are stellar-mass and supermassive black holes. But very little evidence of anything in between. Where are all the intermediate-mass black holes that should be the building blocks of the biggest ones? Actually, the science has been accelerating rapidly and we now...
You’ve heard the news! Astronomers are reporting the discovery of biosignatures at K2-18b. Is this proof of life or should we all be more skeptical? It's in the news and people are claiming aliens... but is it aliens? Let's see what the data actually says. Show Notes...
I’m sure you’ve heard that all eyes are on the Moon’s southern pole. This is where various NASA and Chinese missions are targeting. What makes this region so special and what are the special challenges that explorers will face. From TV shows to real-world...
There is an ongoing debate on where NASA should go next with humans: to the Moon or Mars. (Or maybe an asteroid or one of Mars’ moons). We are on the verge of sending humans back to the Moon. At the same time others would prefer we focus our exploration on Mars. It’s...
Even empty space isn’t empty. It’s filled with the quantum fluctuations of spacetime itself. Which can be measured with famous experiments like the Casimir Effect. There is a surprising amount of energy in space itself, which has led to some interesting theories about...
When enormous stars detonate as supernovae they release a burst of neutrinos that can be the first sign of a coming explosion. Now, astronomers have built a network to watch for that flash of neutrinos, and help direct their telescopes for when the sky show begins....
We thought Dark Energy was constant with time, but new results from DESI say maybe not, and honestly, if it wasn't constant the Hubble Tension would be a whole lot easier to solve. Show Notes Hubble Tension Definition Historical Debate & the current state...
Fast Radio Bursts the briefest of moments, some dead stars can flash brighter than their entire galaxy (in Radio light) and then live to do it again and again. It’s time for an update on fast radio bursts, a phenomenon we’ve only known about for a few decades. In this...
Most planets orbit stars. That’s the rule, right? Well, maybe not. In fact the vast majority of planets could be floating freely through the Milky Way. Today we’re gonna talk about rogue planets. Sometimes planets just go rogue. Let's learn about planets living free...
We have dust storms on Earth and of course the famous dust storms on Mars. There are even dust storms on Titan. What causes these storms and how do they work differently on the worlds in the solar system. But what about the exoplanets? The bane of solar panels,...
New asteroids are found every day, and every day we learn that those asteroids don't have any murderous intentions. But how do we learn that? In this episode we dig into asteroid orbital determination. Show Notes Detection of Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) Discovery...
What time is it? OK, fine, what time is it on the Moon? The Moon orbits the Earth, so it doesn’t fall into a specific time zone. Also, there’s lower gravity on the surface of the Moon, which changes the rate that clocks tick. Well… It’s time to introduce Lunar...
Just a few years ago LIGO detected the first direct evidence of gravitational waves coming from colliding black holes. And there you have it. Boom! Black holes collide! But that wasn’t all we learned from gravitational waves, nor will we learn. Sure, the masses of...
Gravity Waves ... not gravitational waves ... move atmospheres and make pretty clouds. Show Notes Introduction to Atmospheric Gravity Waves: Definition and differentiation from gravitational waves. Their occurrence due to a balance of buoyancy and gravity....
Pollution will ultimately give away a society. And this episodes will shows us the potential indicators of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. Also the various ways such civilizations might unintentionally or intentionally reveal their presence through...
If you’re an astronomer you depend on accurate observations of stars, but there’s a problem. Stars are sneaky! Changing in size, brightness, color, they hide their chemistry, their age and even their companions from all but the cleverest observers. Stars explode...
From little Ingenuity to the future Firefly and all our Earth Science fliers, let's look at the buzzy scientists. NASA’s Mars Ingenuity helicopter showed us how wonderful a flying science platform can be on another world. Soon there’ll be a helicopter flying on Titan,...
What can we hope (or dread) to see in 2025? Last week we talked about the 2024 strangeness. Now we’re gonna talk about the upcoming space stories for 2025 that we’re looking forward to. It’s a nice mix of new rockets, new missions and new fly-bys. Show Notes 2025...
2024 was a strange year! I’ll let your imagination take flight and consider how 2024 was weird for you. But, for space and astronomy we had some interesting, revolutionary, unsettling and downright weird stories pop up. Today let’s talk about them. Show Notes Color of...