Looking Up

In Part 2 of Dean Regas’ investigation into the mysterious death of astronomer Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler is the prime suspect. Is the 400-year-old mystery finally solved? Science writer Dava Sobel, astronomy educator Matthias Schmitt and WVXU newsroom members Tana Weingartner, Maryanne Zeleznik, Becca Costello, Bill Rinehart, and Jennifer Merritt join the search for answers.

On a special episode of Looking Up, host Dean Regas tests a new format as he investigates the mysterious 1601 death of astronomer Tycho Brahe. Science writer Dava Sobel, comedian and actor Thomas Lennon, and WVXU newsroom members Tana Weingartner, Maryanne Zeleznik, Becca Costello, Bill Rinehart, and Jennifer Merritt join the search for answers. Part II publishes Oct. 23, 2026.

When NASA and other space agencies release sounds from space, what are we actually hearing? The answer: data sonifications. Scientists take data from telescopes, often across multiple wavelengths of light, and translate them into audible soundscapes. Host Dean Regas talks with Mara Helmuth, a composer and professor of music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, about how researchers turn cosmic data into music.

The sun is our closest laboratory for understanding how stars work. Decades of space missions have studied the sun, yet its outer atmosphere, the corona, remains a mystery. NASA's Parker Solar Probe was built to change that. Dean Regas talks with Dr. Joe Westlake, heliophysics division director at NASA Headquarters, about what we're learning from humanity's closest approach to a star.

Astronomers say the shiny new Vera C. Rubin Telescope will be able to map the entire universe with remarkable precision in no time. Already, it has located tens of thousands of asteroids close to home. Dean Regas chats with Dr. Mario Jurić, the solar system lead scientist for the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile, to find out more.