Back to Show
PBS Space Time
Can Viruses Travel Between Planets?
Season 6
Episode 18
In the midst of a pandemic, we sure are thinking about viruses a lot. That’s right, even astrophysicists are pondering these bizarre little critters. In fact, astrovirology, although very new, is actually an emerging subfield of astrobiology. And that’s because it turns out viruses don’t just influence organisms - they’re incredibly important on a planetary scale. Perhaps an interplanetary scale.
Support Provided By

16:35
What if the Big Bang was just an endless cycle?

19:39
Why are billions suddenly being pumped into fusion startups?

16:36
The universe should've collapsed after the Big Bang, but a light Higgs boson let us exist.

14:30
Maybe dark energy doesn't exist?

18:32
Dark matter has eluded us for many decades but we may be able to discover more now.

15:35
What do you get if you combine something that’s infinitely massive and negative infinitely massive?

13:39
What does an electron really look like?

16:35
Is there a limit to how much energy you can cram into, or pull out of one patch of space?

17:19
I’d like to invite you to an even higher level of nerdom!

11:43
Gravitational tsunamis exist and we’re on the verge of being able to detect them.

18:40
Will we ever become a Kardeshev Type-1 civilization and how can we get there?

14:05
New data is telling us that Neutron stars may make one of the most popular dark matter candidates.