Is there extraterrestrial life? Are they on giant glowing planets? Do they listen to Bach? We explore three papers in the field of astrobiology that take concrete, experimental steps toward an answer. "Everything not forbidden is compulsory,” so we speculate wildly about first contact.

We venture far beyond the local universe, outside our subfields, and back in time to look at galaxies when they just formed for the first time. In doing so, we learn Malena’s beagle was a good boy, Alex has a soft spot for dropouts, and Will’s doppelganger is a more prolific publisher.

What does it mean to be a successful astronomer? In our second Beyond episode, we delve into the notion of personal and professional success in the field, and revisit the constant expectation to "publish or perish".

Water, Earth, Fire, Air. Long ago, we thought these substances were the building blocks for everything except Space. Today we know better. In this episode, we scour the furthest reaches of the Cosmos for the Elementals. Will goes with the flow, Malena keeps us grounded, and NASA Intern Ashley Walker and Alex take us over the (Titan) rainbow.

Little rocks rock! We learn from Will and PhD student Tim Holt that home is where the collision is, from Alex that Pluto is cold-hearted, and from Malena that rocks that orbit together, stay together.

This Memorial Day weekend, we're dusting off the baby photos! We discuss how these snapshots of planets, galaxy clusters, and even the Universe itself can help us to understand where we came from and how the Universe evolved.

This episode takes us as far out as Taurus and as far back as Will’s middle school days as we review exciting research into the chemical composition of our universe. Malena spices up the episode, Alex stays COM and collected, and Will sets his PHAZERs to stun.

In our first Beyond A[S]B episode, we take you all the way back to the beginning...of our research careers. We share the disappointment of unanswered emails, excitement of unexpected opportunities, and hard lessons learned.

In today's episode, we delve into the realm of unpredictable astrophysical phenomena. Will explores chaos and instability in multiplanet systems, Alex explains what happens when >2 black holes don't practice social distancing, and Malena describes the algorithms we use to simulate it all.

Why aren’t galaxies randomly distributed in space? In this episode, we explore this and other questions from the field of cosmology! Malena goes on a hunt for missing baryons, Alex surfs the Cosmic Web, and Will does a deep dive into dark matter.