logo
episode-header-image
About this episode
Farmers rely on the accuracy of a crucial NASA and USGS mission, Landsat, to make decisions about crops. Those decisions have far-reaching implications that can impact what you see on your dinner plate! 
Up next
Sep 30
How Webb Illuminates Stars’ Cloudy Origins
In the space between stars, dark clouds of gas, dust, and ice mingle in a chemical laboratory unlike any on Earth. Ewine van Dishoeck, an astronomer who studies molecules in space and who helped develop an instrument aboard NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, explains how Webb is ... Show More
22m 43s
Sep 23
What Webb Is Teaching Us About Our Solar System
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is hard at work answering our biggest questions about the birth of our universe and faraway galaxies. But some astronomers are pointing its powerful eyes much closer to home. In this episode, Caltech astronomer Katherine de Kleer explains how Web ... Show More
27m 32s
Sep 3
Webb's Exoplanet Research Sounds Like Sci-Fi—But It's Real
Some exoplanets—like a gas giant with rain made of glass and 5,000-mile-per-hour winds—sound like worlds dreamed up by a science fiction writer. But they’re real. From light-years away, scientists can uncover details about planets orbiting distant stars and even ask whether some ... Show More
23m 43s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2020
Les salades de l'espace sont-elles comestibles ?
À l'avenir, les astronautes de la station spatiale internationale pourraient bien consommer leurs propres légumes. Cultivées dans un endroit adapté à cet usage, des laitues ont déjà amélioré leur ordinaire. Analysés sur terre, ces végétaux de l'espace seraient parfaitement comest ... Show More
2m 7s
Jul 2022
Space Plants
<p>Can you actually grow potatoes on Mars? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Paul Mecurio explore how to grow plants in space and whether we can farm on the Moon and Mars with space biologists Anna-Lisa Paul and Robert Ferl.</p><p>NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can ... Show More
54m 54s
Dec 2023
From farm to fork with tech
Alasdair Keane is on a farm with a difference exploring the tech helping farmers adapt to changing climates. We'll hear from startups tyring to improve how crops are watered and analysing moisture data from space. We also find out how one ice cream company is warming their freeze ... Show More
27m 17s