#449: 20,000 Black Holes, Polaris Dawn's Spacewalk & New Horizons' Deep Dive

[00:00:00] Hello again, thanks for joining us on a new episode of Space Nuts. My name is Andrew Dunkley,

[00:00:05] your host and it's good to have your company. And coming up on this episode we've got some

[00:00:11] fascinating stories as always and one is about a possible swarm of black holes that might have

[00:00:18] been discovered in a rather well-known region of space too, I might add. They thought there was

[00:00:25] one, now they think there might be 20,000. I'm not exaggerating. We're also going to look at the

[00:00:31] Polaris Dawn mission now by the time this podcast is released it may well have happened but it might

[00:00:38] not just depends on technical issues they're sitting on the platform at the moment playing

[00:00:44] Scrabble waiting for things to get fixed and the Poofoo valves to be unvalved and all that

[00:00:53] We'll also look at the New Horizons mission it's 18 years along now and nine years since it did

[00:00:59] its flyby of Pluto but it's still working. What's it working on? Darkness. That's all coming up

[00:01:06] on this episode of Space Nuts. 15 seconds guidance is internal 10, 9, ignition sequence start

[00:01:15] 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

[00:01:20] Space Nuts. Astronauts reported, feels good. And joining us again to unravel all of that and much

[00:01:28] much more is Professor Fred Watson. Hello Fred. Hello Andrew unraveling is our business. We're

[00:01:35] pretty good at ravelling as well especially when it comes to things like headphone leads and

[00:01:39] things of that sort. Yes I've got one of those stretchy ones and it does a good job except it

[00:01:48] keeps getting in the wrong place and it's a bit annoying but I can't go wireless you can't go

[00:01:52] Bluetooth through this panel I've got because of the time delay just to make things difficult so

[00:02:01] you'll talk to me and I won't hear it for a second and a half which is not you know

[00:02:07] that probably ideal it might be going via the moon could be from you from your desktop to your

[00:02:14] headphones via the moon that will be more like two and a half seconds yeah well when I bought them it

[00:02:21] said if you if you choose to go Bluetooth you may discover that it doesn't work the way you

[00:02:27] wanted to and that's exactly what happens interesting yeah so it's not all bells and

[00:02:33] whistles not all perfect tell you what else is in perfect so well the weather's been perfect lately

[00:02:39] but so's the hay fever it's genes ripping through us at the moment my word yeah yep I'm a terrible

[00:02:47] sufferer and I thought it was just because of where we lived so when we went to England many

[00:02:54] years ago and got off the plane I wasn't even off the gangway or the skybridge or whatever

[00:02:59] you call it and I was sneezing I thought oh no I thought I escaped all this by coming to the

[00:03:05] exact opposite side of the planet but no it just got me so now I know it doesn't matter where I am

[00:03:10] I'm going to get hay fever if there's pollen in the air right so I'd like someone to do a study on

[00:03:16] why it develops later in life because I never had it as a kid no I didn't I didn't either

[00:03:23] neither did Geordi as you know he loves to contribute does Geordi yes he does um

[00:03:29] so um yeah same thing happened to me I but but mine was a bit more obvious because I

[00:03:34] grew up in the north of England and studied in Scotland and kind of hung around the north of

[00:03:39] England for the first 20 odd years in my life and then moved to the south where which is verdant

[00:03:43] and green and grassy and immediately got terrible hay fever yeah which I now know is an allergy

[00:03:51] to ryegrass it well it will be for me too there's a lot of ryegrass out here yeah so I

[00:03:58] haven't had it I haven't been tested but I'm making that assumption also allergic to cats

[00:04:03] there you go grew up with a cat never had a problem now I can't you know I can no longer

[00:04:09] rub my face in there for which is so disappointing so disappointing uh let's try rubbing your face

[00:04:16] in musk guts furry take your eyes off yeah that's the other problem that is the other

[00:04:21] problem that may that may explain the itch yes let's try now uh let's get down to business uh

[00:04:29] this story is interesting because it really changes the way we're looking at one particular

[00:04:34] piece of space and it's an area where we thought there was an intermediate mass black hole was it

[00:04:42] now they think it's not it's not a black hole it's a multi faceted number of black holes

[00:04:50] uh in possibly the tens of thousands this is quite extraordinary it is uh it's a story that um I mean

[00:04:58] we've been following the intermediate mass black hole story for quite some time and just to fill

[00:05:05] in the details for anybody new to the issue uh we find we commonly find what we call stellar mass

[00:05:11] black holes black holes with a massive you know up to 20 stars up to 20 suns and we commonly

[00:05:17] find supermassive black holes which are sometimes 20 billion times the mass of the sun but there doesn't

[00:05:23] seem to be anything in between the intermediate mass black holes have been elusive and one place we

[00:05:29] think we might find them is in the center of these really spectacular gigantic star clusters that we

[00:05:39] call globular clusters because they're globular in shape that name was given to them by willy

[00:05:43] mercil a couple hundred years ago or more um and uh we have uh by we I mean the world of astronomy has

[00:05:52] has basically been haunting for intermediate black holes in the centers of some globular clusters

[00:05:59] and with with sort of varying degrees of success in the sense that some of some of these findings

[00:06:06] are more certain than others but one that we covered recently was a finding that uh yeah we

[00:06:12] we were pretty sure about for a while uh and that is the globular cluster omega centauri it's the biggest

[00:06:18] of them are milky way galaxies retinue of globular clusters 160 or 200 of them uh

[00:06:27] and this one is the biggest of them distance of 17 000 light years as the crow flies

[00:06:33] in the constellation of centaurus which is why it's called omega centauri and

[00:06:38] visible just about to the naked eye um in fact it's this time of the year where we start seeing

[00:06:45] it quite well from here in the southern hemisphere it's a deep south object uh only visible from

[00:06:51] the southern hemisphere so uh what's the story well uh scientists um in fact european scientists

[00:06:58] who were using I think something like 20 years worth of images uh from the Hubble space telescope

[00:07:06] which allowed them to plot the motions of stars within uh omega centauri and in particular

[00:07:14] let them map the motions of stars near its center which seem to have quite high velocities and which

[00:07:25] which are symptomatic of something massive around which they're orbiting so you got

[00:07:31] stars with high velocities um in particular the kind of velocities that were being talked about

[00:07:37] and I think they're in the region of three four five six kilometers per second they're about

[00:07:42] if I remember rightly those velocities uh if there wasn't something massive at the middle

[00:07:48] will be enough to to catapult them out of the globular cluster and they'd be long gone

[00:07:53] there'd be interstellar you know the interstellar stars if I put it that way stars between the

[00:08:01] stars uh but but more they will be within the halo of our galaxy which is where the globular

[00:08:06] clusters lie the halo being that that um sort of spherical shell of uh old stars and and globular

[00:08:14] clusters so um that was the story as we reported it the evidence that there's possibly uh

[00:08:22] something like a 20 000 solar mass black hole at the middle of omega centauri and that's yeah and we

[00:08:29] were really excited by that because I think we'd only just sort of concluded that there aren't any

[00:08:34] and then we found one yes that's right and then now we haven't we've unfound it we've unfound it

[00:08:41] because another group of scientists using similar data I think they've basically analyzed the

[00:08:47] same data set um have suggested that the motions of the stars uh do not um tie down that central mass

[00:09:01] as being a single object what they're what they're saying is that it's like it could equally and

[00:09:09] that's perhaps the best way to phrase it you could equally be a large cluster of much smaller

[00:09:14] objects it's they're still black holes because you can't see anything of them there's no

[00:09:18] there's nothing massive visible there in any of the wavelengths uh but we can tell by the

[00:09:25] motions of the stars that there is something there and so what they are suggesting is that

[00:09:30] it's not a single large a single intermediate black intermediate mass black hole it's not that

[00:09:38] it is more likely or as likely if I can put it that way yeah to be something between 10 or 20,000

[00:09:45] stellar mass black holes in other words the smaller variety right um and you know that's

[00:09:51] that's the the bottom line and and the group that's uh suggesting this uh uh well one of the

[00:09:59] team members uh Francesca Calori from the French national center for scientific research

[00:10:05] says the possibility of an intermediate mass black hole in Obinga Centauri still exists

[00:10:12] our analysis does not rule out an intermediate mass black hole but rather sets a limit on its mass

[00:10:18] predicting an upper limit of 6,000 solar masses uh which is less than what the earlier team

[00:10:24] estimated uh and so they've yes they're they're trying to work out what that discrepancy is

[00:10:31] but yes the you know that the the later paper the the new research uh Calori et al is saying it might

[00:10:40] not be a single object it could be um you know lots of lots of smaller objects yeah and that's

[00:10:47] been backed up by another gentleman at Sliden Observatory I think who agrees even though

[00:10:56] he wasn't part of the study agrees it's probably a multitude of stellar mass black holes rather than

[00:11:05] an intermediate mass black hole yeah that's correct and he actually there's um an old friend of mine

[00:11:11] who was also commenting on this uh Jerry Gilmore um who I've known now for 40 years

[00:11:19] he's a very big name in the University of Cambridge he is a kiwi actually

[00:11:25] came to the UK to work at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh where I was working we became good

[00:11:29] friends and still are Jerry uh he wasn't involved with the study either and he he thinks that

[00:11:40] stellar mass black holes are likely to be common um in comparison with intermediate mass black holes

[00:11:49] so I think he's a favour he's favouring uh the the latest research the idea that this is perhaps a

[00:11:55] whole lot of smaller black holes rather than one big one and as you say there's um that there's

[00:12:01] comments from uh uh Liden Observatory uh Simon Porteguia's Svart if I'm pronouncing that right

[00:12:09] um you know he did better than I would have

[00:12:13] finds the potential discovery of an intermediate mass mass black hole super exciting but

[00:12:20] suggests that the evidence isn't quite there yet so I think the opinion of the astronomical

[00:12:24] community is uh let's wait and see what future measurements bring out it doesn't look as though

[00:12:32] we've nailed down the omega centauri intermediate black mass black hole yet and it may not be there

[00:12:39] at all that said though how unusual is it to find between 10 and 20 000 stellar mass black holes

[00:12:48] in in a you know globular cluster yeah that in itself I think is interesting if you could

[00:12:54] you know if you could um independently verify that these are singular objects rather than one

[00:13:00] one big object I think you have a another new discovery on your hands so what you're talking

[00:13:06] about here is going to be the remnants of dead stars and what you're talking about with an

[00:13:12] intermediate mass black hole is the remnant of what might have become a supermassive black hole

[00:13:20] if that globular cluster had not been torn to shreds by uh getting mixed up with our Milky Way

[00:13:26] galaxy the gravitational pull because we think the globular clusters are the central nucleus

[00:13:31] of galaxies that have been basically demolished by gravitational interaction with our own

[00:13:37] and so that's why that's why people are looking for intermediate mass black holes inside globular

[00:13:42] clusters because the thinking is if you've got something that um you know under normal circumstances

[00:13:48] would eventually grow into a supermassive black hole uh by the time the universe is 13.8

[00:13:55] billion years old which is its current age uh if you if you have that structure but then you

[00:14:01] stop the evolution process because you tear the galaxy to pieces because it interacts you get

[00:14:07] basically sucked into the Milky Way galaxy what you're going to be left is is something you know

[00:14:13] that it's a like a wannabe supermassive black hole uh which is why it's a good place to look for

[00:14:19] intermediate mass black holes ones that don't quite make it so if it turns out it's not an

[00:14:24] intermediate mass black hole does that mean we still haven't found any or did or were there

[00:14:29] other candidates there are other candidates as I recall um I wouldn't like to pin down without

[00:14:35] looking them up as to what they are but there are other candidates so it isn't just this one but this

[00:14:40] one you know omega centauri is the biggest and most spectacular globular cluster in the sky as I

[00:14:46] said it's visible to the naked eye it looks terrific even with a pair of binoculars it looks

[00:14:49] good you can tell it's something different from the stars around it uh through a larger

[00:14:54] telescope it looks sensational because you can see all the individual stars result in it

[00:14:58] this creates a new problem for it what's that well if it is uh

[00:15:03] stellar mass black holes they've found and there are 10 to 20 000 of them which is what they're

[00:15:08] suggesting uh the the world will have to come up with a collective noun for black holes because

[00:15:15] there isn't one really well ah right there isn't one surprised at that yeah I was too but uh

[00:15:21] I've found a couple of articles which state no there isn't there's a collective noun for

[00:15:26] asteroids it's it's a belt of asteroids which yeah it's a good one but there is no collective

[00:15:33] noun that I'm aware of for black holes maybe uh a space not of black holes will be like that yeah

[00:15:41] I was going to say nothingness uh yes and there isn't nothingness yeah it's a it's a little bit

[00:15:50] of a problem but it's not the biggest problem with fights but uh yeah I was surprised there

[00:15:55] wasn't one yeah me too yeah I'm surprised also anyway uh the jury's still out could be one could

[00:16:02] be the others we're not sure yet we're not sure yet but if you want to read up on that it's uh

[00:16:09] great article in sky and telescope uh dot org this is Space Nuts androduncley with Professor

[00:16:16] Fred what's and okay we checked all four systems and here we go Space Nuts

[00:16:24] now Fred to the Polaris Dawn mission and this is a very exciting mission it may well have lifted off

[00:16:33] since the release of this particular podcast because we're working a bit ahead at the moment

[00:16:38] because I've got to take a trip and we need to get a whole bunch of episodes in the can so

[00:16:43] so they say um so yes this this particular mission may well have lifted up at the moment

[00:16:49] as we speak they have some technical issues and they're stuck on the ground

[00:16:53] and they're all getting pretty tired of scrabble but um could be monopoly could be monopoly could

[00:17:00] just be uno who knows odd troughs yes oh gosh now you're now you're getting desperate uh but um

[00:17:08] this this is an exciting mission for several reasons there'll be some major firsts that

[00:17:13] will be achieved uh and um yeah they're doing things a little bit differently uh and uh they're

[00:17:21] planning a space walk which will be the first private spacewalk I believe privately um conducted

[00:17:27] there's so much that's exciting about this mission Fred yeah there is uh it and um you're

[00:17:34] right it's it's partly technical issues partly the weather in fact that's been holding them up

[00:17:38] the the the splash down so yes exactly it's not so much about getting off but getting back on the

[00:17:45] planet indeed um what's exciting about it well uh it is the gonna be it may even be the first crewed

[00:17:55] mission that is going into a polar orbit around the earth wow I think that is correct so it's

[00:18:02] it's an orbital direction that hasn't been explored before with uh with crewed uh crewed space launches

[00:18:13] it's also not going anywhere uh it is not going to the international space station

[00:18:18] as you wouldn't be able to if you are in a polar orbit because you need

[00:18:22] an orbit very similar to the international space station if that's where you're going

[00:18:25] yeah um and uh that means that the time that the crew will be on board and I'm actually not sure how

[00:18:34] long it is planned to be but they are there that they're going to be in the spacecraft for the

[00:18:41] whole time except when they make the first privately operated um extra vehicular activity

[00:18:51] uh because what they have to do then is climb out of the there's uh SpaceX crew dragon capsule

[00:19:00] two two of the members of the crew there are four people in the crew of Polaris Polaris storm

[00:19:05] two of each gender and they will two of them will climb out of the capsule

[00:19:12] for the first private space walk and what that means is you've got to let this you've

[00:19:18] got to let space into your capsule you've got to vent all the air out of it so everybody has to

[00:19:23] wear their spacesuit super scary super scary opening the front door because they have airlocks

[00:19:30] in other spacecraft and the international space station yep that's one you open the lid and space

[00:19:37] you're in space before you even get out yes that's right so you've got a vent haven't you and then

[00:19:43] you because they come first and then I mean I'm sure there will be a very uh

[00:19:50] you know it would be a pretty careful venting just to make sure everything's holding together

[00:19:57] before you let all the air out yeah it's not like cleaning the fish tank that's for sure

[00:20:01] it's right although that's your fun fish floating around in it you might be anyway it's um

[00:20:13] the fact that they're not visiting this space station or going anywhere near it means

[00:20:18] they have to be pretty secure in their plans for this mission because all the supplies for the crew

[00:20:27] food water oxygen everything that all has to ride with them in their crew dragon capsule

[00:20:34] and so it's uh it's a very very demanding um you know highly demanding scenario

[00:20:44] it's uh it's five days the mission just to add to what I was saying I just looked it up myself

[00:20:49] yeah and um the other thing that they'll do is they'll go further from earth than any human

[00:20:56] since Apollo 17 back in 1972 because their orbit is very elliptical it's uh you know an

[00:21:06] elongated orbit which will be close to earth but it's uh perigee the closest point but a long way off

[00:21:12] at apogee um I am not sure what the target apogee is but it is more than we've ever done before

[00:21:21] in terms of uh you know a mission of this kind so um so what's holding it up well as I mentioned

[00:21:26] earlier the the weather and as you said yes it's the weather at the landing site

[00:21:32] but also the fact that within the last 48 hours certainly if not 24 hours as we are recording

[00:21:40] Falcon 9 has been grounded the Falcon 9 launch vehicle that will they will use

[00:21:46] has been grounded by the federal aviation authority due to a failed booster landing attempt

[00:21:53] uh I think on Wednesday this past week so it's um you know this is a basically a

[00:22:04] risk minimization procedure as soon as anything goes wrong that booster the Falcon 9 the whole

[00:22:13] Falcon 9 fleet is grounded until you know what the problem was yeah one of the I think one of the

[00:22:18] interesting things I think I read um a little while ago that booster that failed I think it was its 23rd

[00:22:25] uh mission so it had been used 23 times now uh originally they said they'd only reuse them 10

[00:22:32] times then it went to 20 times I suspect now it's aimed at 30 times but maybe 23 is as far as it

[00:22:38] goes yeah we'll stop at 15 just to be safe by the sound of it yes that's right yeah certainly if it was a

[00:22:44] human space uh flight I think you would want to make sure that you were using a pretty new pretty

[00:22:50] new booster kit to get you up there indeed um and I believe they'll be doing about 40 experiments

[00:22:59] you might have already said that um which will test everything from human spaceflight research

[00:23:03] to microgravity uh and they'll be using brand new um spacesuits to um to do the spacewalk and do

[00:23:12] and they'll be I guess I'll be testing those and let's hope they go oh hang on this thing doesn't work

[00:23:20] before they've invented the spacecraft I'll be taking that back to Lowe's

[00:23:25] sorry for your overseas listeners that's a menswear store so that you know

[00:23:30] automatically becomes sexist because half the crew is female

[00:23:34] sorry about that um but keep on keep on digging Andrew you'll be on yeah the

[00:23:39] whole yeah I can't see I can't see out of the hole anymore it's a black hole

[00:23:44] very deep one it's a stellar mass black hole stellar mass black hole that's right at the moment

[00:23:50] fast approaching intermediate mass yes oh so that's where they're there that's where it is

[00:23:56] right below me and above me and around me yeah yeah but uh let's hope all goes well and by the time

[00:24:02] people hear this they're up uh up and around um the planet in an elongated polar orbit and

[00:24:09] doing some wonderful work we'll see how it all transpires fingers crossed this is the space nuts

[00:24:16] podcast with android unclean professor fred what's in the rog and I feel fine space nuts uh now

[00:24:27] fred to our final story and this one takes us a long long way out of the uh the solar system

[00:24:34] this is a story we've been following uh well since it's exciting fly by of pluto it's the

[00:24:41] new horizons spacecraft but since it uh success successfully executed its primary mission

[00:24:50] it's been sent off to do a few other things and one of those things was to examine darkness

[00:24:58] this sounds this sounds sinister this sounds like the plot of aura movie but it's not it's a

[00:25:04] very interesting question which they think they might have answered yes that's right and um

[00:25:10] I think you and I have been talking about new horizons since its launch 18 years ago

[00:25:15] because we we used to talk on um abc radio didn't we did all the space nuts program came into being

[00:25:22] so new horizons yes fly by of pluto in uh was it july I think uh 2015 uh fly by of um

[00:25:33] where it used to be called ultimate tuli and it's now called arakoth uh a small

[00:25:40] kiper belt object which it flew by uh probably about three or four years ago now it's quite a while

[00:25:46] ago in fact it's longer than that because uh it the fly by was at christmas and this object looked

[00:25:51] like a snowman yeah until we realized it's actually two pancakes joined together rather than two

[00:25:56] balls joined together anyway it is now 7.3 billion kilometers from earth uh a long way away not

[00:26:04] as far as uh our old friend voyager one but still uh still a long way out the difference though between

[00:26:12] new horizons and voyager one is that new horizons has telescopes on board yeah of course we used to scan

[00:26:19] pluto uh and uh karon pluto's main moon and some of the other moons as well uh but uh what

[00:26:25] they've been able to do though is to make measurements of the blackness of the night sky

[00:26:32] and oh my god here you're saying wait a minute black is black that well it's it's not really um

[00:26:39] and why should you want to do that from 7.3 billion kilometers away from earth the answer is that

[00:26:45] the solar system is very dusty uh and that dust concentrates towards the center of the solar system

[00:26:52] so uh you know what we see as as meteor shooting stars are a measure of the dust that is around us

[00:27:00] in the earth's vicinity uh that dust scatters light uh and we can actually see that in the form of the

[00:27:08] what's called as a diacol light which is a glow on the horizon eastern and western horizon

[00:27:16] after sunset and before sunrise what you're seeing there is light scattered

[00:27:20] from dust in the inner solar system it's a pillar of light quite spectacular you need a dark sky

[00:27:25] to see it um we've seen it many times from our dark sky sites here in australia but i only ever

[00:27:31] saw it once in the uk and that was in a particularly dark part of the uk it was quite interesting

[00:27:35] a long time ago as well anyway so the inner solar system is very dusty that dust scatters light

[00:27:42] and that means that if you want to make a measurement of just how bright how intrinsically

[00:27:47] bright the night sky is you've got to get away from the inner solar system and that's

[00:27:52] where new horizons is yeah so what they've done is they've measured what they're calling um the cosmic

[00:27:59] optical background uh we talk a lot on space nuts about the cosmic microwave background

[00:28:06] radiation uh and this is uh the background to the night sky in microwaves which we recognize

[00:28:14] as having been caused by the big bang we're still seeing the flash of the big bang

[00:28:20] the cosmic optical background though is basically um a background haze of light

[00:28:29] that comes from all the galaxies that have ever existed over the lifetime of the universe wow

[00:28:36] and so uh the um the this light is the light of galaxies turns out to be just the right

[00:28:46] brightness i mean it's been measured the blackness of the night sky has been measured by new horizons

[00:28:53] the answer they get is exactly what you predict from what we assume is the known number of galaxies

[00:28:58] in the universe which is in the region of two trillion if i remember right so uh really quite

[00:29:06] a nice piece of work uh complimented on by uh new horizons principal investigator allen stern and

[00:29:14] not friend of this program uh uh he says this newly published work is an important contribution

[00:29:23] to fundamental cosmology and really something that could only be done with a far away spacecraft

[00:29:29] like new horizons and it shows that our current extended mission is making important scientific

[00:29:34] contributions far beyond the original intent of this planetary mission designed to make the first

[00:29:39] close spacecraft explorations of bluto and kuiper belt objects so there you go it's uh it's got the

[00:29:46] the imprimatur of the the boss of new horizons allen stern uh and it's a really interesting

[00:29:53] result that we you know the the amount of light in the universe adds up with the number of galaxies

[00:29:59] that we think exist and yet and yet we shouldn't be surprised because where else could the light

[00:30:05] have come from well that's right uh except that um the uh one of the scientists uh who was involved

[00:30:15] with this work has basically raised that question um could it come from something we haven't thought

[00:30:22] of yet uh and so um the fact that it you know everything adds up suggests that there isn't

[00:30:31] anything that we haven't thought of yet uh although you can bet your life that one day

[00:30:36] we'll be surprised that there's something else going on yeah but yeah you know it's um at the

[00:30:41] moment we think these that these all add up uh the the amount of light that's there it's just

[00:30:47] exactly what you'd expect from the number of galaxies we assume the universe contains from

[00:30:52] galaxy counts in fact i know one source they haven't considered the laser beams shooting

[00:30:58] from my wife's eyes when she's angry with me that's that's one light source that hasn't been factored in

[00:31:06] you're dead keen on getting into holes today

[00:31:10] yeah i'm not gonna go there at all i think no no i wish i hadn't eaten

[00:31:16] yeah but uh yeah pretty exciting stuff for new horizons will continue on its journey doing more

[00:31:25] scientific studies uh imaging the the kuiper belt and the outer heliosphere and

[00:31:33] making observations uh from a vantage point that no we it's unique it's the only spacecraft in

[00:31:41] the position to be able to do anything like this even james web and hubble can't do the kinds

[00:31:46] of things that uh new horizons is achieving so um let's uh yeah we'll be talking about again

[00:31:53] i think for it yeah i'm sure we will my take a while because it's still got a long way to go

[00:31:58] yes let's try it's uh it's one of the five spacecraft leaving the solar system yeah

[00:32:03] but i think it's the best equip to do uh to make observations like this

[00:32:07] indeed all right uh that story available at fizz.org pys.org if you want to check it all out

[00:32:17] and that brings us to the end of the show just a reminder too if you would like to visit our

[00:32:21] website you can do that at spacenutspodcast.com or space space nuts.io you can visit the shop

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[00:32:57] button down below uh thank you as always fred it's been a great pleasure yes um it's been a

[00:33:04] pleasure for me too and oh that's good long may continue not many people say that to me no

[00:33:09] thank you especially today thank you fred no worries see you soon see yeah professor fred

[00:33:17] watson a storm out large and thanks to hu in the studio and from me andrew dunkley thanks for your

[00:33:21] company we'll catch you soon on another episode of spacenuts bye bye

[00:33:26] space nuts your business to the spacenuts podcast

[00:33:31] available at apple podcasts spotify i heart radio or your favorite podcast player you can also

[00:33:38] stream on demand at bites.com this has been another quality podcast production from sites.com