The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu

How do planetary systems form? If you wanted to observe them, where would you look and what would you look for?

To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Luke Keller, professor of Astronomy and Physics at Ithaca College, who together with his team has identified 9 of these early solar systems.

As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: a recently published paper that determined that ...

How can a helicopter fly in space? How does LIGO detect gravitational waves? How do quantum electronic devices like Josephson junctions work? Could AI turn evil and destroy humanity? What about those grabby aliens? In this episode of Chuck GPT, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu answer audience questions about the technology of astronomy, astrophysics, and the future.

To read those questions, we welcome back our executive produc...

Is universal expansion slowing? What is the Bubble Universe Theory? Will we control AI, or will AI control us? In this special Chuck GPT episode of The LIUniverse, we answer questions from the Annual Global Summit in Erie, Pennsylvania where Dr. Charles Liu gave a talk on “2050 - The Future of Humanity.”

To help ask those questions, Chuck and co-host Allen Liu welcome Stacey Severn, our Social Media Manager/Community Director; and ...

How do supermassive black holes actually form in the early universe? Is the Cosmological Constant not so constant after all? And what would be on the astrophysical menu at a Cosmic Brunch? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome astrophysicist Thresa Kelly, who is a second year grad student working on her PhD at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool co...

What were our joyfully cool cosmic things of 2025? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome three members of The LIUniverse production team: Jon Barnes, our Editor and self-proclaimed “#1 LIUniverse Fan,” Stacey Severn, our Social Media Manager/Community Director, and physics student Eleanor Adams, the show’s first intern.

Unlike nearly every episode so far, this time, rather than limit ourselves to one joyfully c...

Are Coronal Mass Ejections dangerous to life on Earth? When are we finally going to plunge through the sulfuric acid clouds to measure the atmosphere of Venus. And what’s up with 'Oumuamua and 3I/Atlas? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome astrobiologist Dr. David Grinspoon, aka Dr. FunkySpoon.

As always, we start with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: the arrival at Earth of two consecutive Coronal Mass E...

How do planetary ring systems rings form, and what keeps them in line? What exactly is the Dragon Cloud of Saturn? And what’s up with quasi moon 2025 PN7? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Cornell University’s dynamical astronomer Dr. Phil Nicholson for a refresher course in orbital mechanics.

As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, which is right up Phil’s alley: the rece...

Can an ultra-compact dwarf galaxy have a supermassive black hole at its center? Are there galaxies with supermassive black holes that are offset from their galactic centers? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome “the other” Dr. Matt Taylor, an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at the University of Calgary, who joins us from the control room of the largest astronomical telescope in Canada, at the Rothney Astrophy...

How do very small galaxies form? What’s going on inside them? And what happens when black holes collide? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome astrophysicist and “Galaxy Detective” Dr. Charlotte Olsen from New York City College of Technology – and you can call her Chuck, too!

As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, the latest announcement from LIGO about the detection of a gra...

How does a star form? How does the universe form? And how can we use every bit of astronomical data to answer those questions? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome astrostatistician Sabrina Berger, all the way from Melbourne, Australia, where she’s currently pursuing her PhD.

As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, the new radioastronomy photographs of Callisto, one of the mo...

Have we discovered life on Mars? What does the center of our galaxy taste like? To find out, and to kick off Season 5 of The LIUniverse, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu have reached out all the way to Tokyo to chat with Dr. Kelly Blumenthal, the Director of the International Astronomical Union Office for Astronomy Outreach.

As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, a rock found in Sapphire Can...

It’s the end of everything! Welcome back to Part 2 of our season finale featuring Dr. Charles Liu, co-host Allen Liu, and our guest archaeology expert and author, Hannah Liu, MEd. (If you haven’t caught up to Part 1, we highly recommend you do before embarking on the next leg of this journey! Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts!)

We pick right up where we left off, with the next question from our audience. Daniela asks, “...

As our fourth season draws to a close, we’ve got an apocalyptic, 2-part ending lined up. That’s right, we’re talking Armageddon, and we don’t mean the 1998 Bruce Willis blockbuster. And of course, if we’re going to delve into the end of everything, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu are going to need the help of our ever popular archaeology expert and author, Hannah Liu, MEd.

As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyful...

Who are the “Redshift Wranglers” and what can they tell us about the evolution of our universe? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome back astrophysics PhD candidate Sadie Coffin from the Rochester Institute of Technology whose focus is galactic evolution, and in particular, the spectroscopy of galaxies and their lights.

As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: the Lucy spacecr...

If a black hole shreds a star and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Professor Yvette Cendes, (aka u/Andromeda321 on Reddit), a Radio Astronomer studying transient radio signals from space.

As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, a report by the Dark Energy Survey that seems to show that the amount of dark energy originally...

Why is it so difficult to study the evolution of early galaxies? Are metallic D&D dice better than plastic ones? And can you have too many Pokémon tattoos? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Justin Cole, who is currently a grad student at Texas A&M studying the evolution of distant galaxies in pursuit of his PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully co...

What’s it like to stand at the edge of human knowledge, where we don’t know what leap forward in understanding the next technological innovation will herald? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Dr. Melodie Kao, resident radio astronomer at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ, where Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto back in 1930. (And if you’re scratching your heads saying, “What’s a radio astronomer doing a...

What will well-dressed astronauts be wearing on the Artemis III mission? Will AI destroy creativity? Can we actually make leather clothing out of mushrooms?

To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome engineer and futurist Alexia Stylianou, who is designing wearable biometric platforms that can measure human biomechanics to a resolution and degree far beyond what’s accessible to everyday people.

Before we get to intr...

What is a transiting brown dwarf, why are they so rare, and how do you find them? Equally important, how do you make a good French macaron? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome astronomer and astrophysicist Dr. Theron Carmichael.

As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: a recent paper in the Astrophysical Journal possibly linking a supernova that took place millions of years a...