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Cosmic Curiosities: Probing the Depths of Our Universe
In this enlightening Q&A episode of Space Nuts, host Heidi Campo and the ever-insightful Professor Fred Watson tackle some of the most thought-provoking questions from our listeners. From the nature of light speed in alternate universes to the intriguing concept of protoplanetary disks and the potential for life beyond Earth, this episode is packed with cosmic insights and fascinating discussions.
Episode Highlights:
- Light Speed Across Universes: Heidi and Fred delve into a listener's question about whether an observer from a different universe would measure the speed of light differently. The implications of varying fundamental constants across universes are explored, igniting a discussion about the fine-tuning of our own universe for life.
- Protoplanetary Disks and Water: The duo examines the structure of protoplanetary disks and whether Earth could have formed in a belt where liquid water existed. Fred explains the Goldilocks zone and how temperature variations influence planet formation and the presence of water.
- Population III Stars: A question from Ron about the existence of Population III red dwarf stars leads to a fascinating exploration of the earliest stars formed after the Big Bang. Fred explains the characteristics of these stars and why red dwarfs likely did not emerge until later generations.
- Life Beyond Earth: The episode wraps up with a discussion about the most promising locations in our solar system to search for life beyond Earth. From Mars to the icy moons of Europa and Enceladus, Fred and Heidi weigh the possibilities of finding microbial life in these intriguing environments.
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Stay curious, keep looking up, and join us next time for more stellar insights and cosmic wonders. Until then, clear skies and happy stargazing.
(00:00) Welcome to Space Nuts with Heidi Campo and Fred Watson
(01:20) Discussion on light speed in alternate universes
(15:00) Exploring protoplanetary disks and water formation
(25:30) Population III stars and their characteristics
(35:00) The search for life beyond Earth in our solar system
Link to the L'Space Program: https://www.lspace.asu.edu/
For commercial-free versions of Space Nuts, join us on Patreon, Supercast, Apple Podcasts, or become a supporter here: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts-astronomy-insights-cosmic-discoveries--2631155/support.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Heidi Campo: Welcome back to another Q and A session of
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 Space Nuts. I'm your host for this
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 American summer, an Australian winter,
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 Heidi Campo. And joining us today to
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 answer all of your questions is Professor Fred
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 Watson, astronomer at large.
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 Generic: 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.
00:00:19 --> 00:00:21 10, 9. Ignition
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 sequence start. Space nets 5, 4,
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 3, 2, 1. 2, 3, 4, 5, 5,
00:00:27 --> 00:00:30 4, 3, 2', 1. Space nuts
00:00:30 --> 00:00:31 astronauts report it feels.
00:00:33 --> 00:00:33 Heidi Campo: Fred, how are you doing?
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 Professor Fred Watson: Oh, pretty well, thanks Heidi. Nearly as well as
00:00:37 --> 00:00:39 I was the last time I saw you.
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 Heidi Campo: Oh, inside jokes. For those of you regular
00:00:44 --> 00:00:46 listeners, you know what's going on.
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. Because you were
00:00:49 --> 00:00:50 a bit under the weather before.
00:00:50 --> 00:00:53 Heidi Campo: I, I am. So if you guys hear my voice sounds a
00:00:53 --> 00:00:56 little bit scratchy, I apologize. I was doing some
00:00:56 --> 00:00:59 traveling recently and I was probably picked up a
00:00:59 --> 00:01:02 little germ at the airport. But that's I, I,
00:01:02 --> 00:01:04 I'll be okay. I think I'll survive this time.
00:01:05 --> 00:01:06 Professor Fred Watson: Hopefully.
00:01:06 --> 00:01:09 Heidi Campo: Hopefully. Yeah, I don't know. I guess you never know. Could
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 be, could be. didn't like you think
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 about those crazy cases where it's like didn't Bob, Bob
00:01:15 --> 00:01:17 Marley died from skin cancer and it's like, I guess you really never know.
00:01:19 --> 00:01:20 Professor Fred Watson: That's true.
00:01:21 --> 00:01:23 Heidi Campo: Well, hey, here's something that hopefully you can
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 answer for us, Fred.
00:01:26 --> 00:01:28 Rennie from S.A. sunny West
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 Hills, CA asks
00:01:31 --> 00:01:33 theoretically, if an observer
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 scientist outside our universe was able to
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 look into our universe, would that
00:01:39 --> 00:01:42 observers re research on light
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 speed and other phenomenon match our
00:01:45 --> 00:01:46 scientists findings?
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 Professor Fred Watson: It's a great question, Rennie. Rennie's one
00:01:52 --> 00:01:55 of our regular questioners and always asks the
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58 provocative ones. I like it very much
00:01:59 --> 00:01:59 so.
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 Professor Fred Watson: We'Ve got to envisage an observer that's in
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 some other universe where the light
00:02:08 --> 00:02:10 speed and other, you know, other
00:02:11 --> 00:02:14 fundamental quantities, speed
00:02:14 --> 00:02:17 of light, mass of the electron, things like that, they might be
00:02:17 --> 00:02:20 quite different. so you would
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 have to basically
00:02:23 --> 00:02:26 think outside the box. We're talking now about the
00:02:26 --> 00:02:28 biggest boxes that could exist. If we're talking about
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 separate universes, you'd have to
00:02:31 --> 00:02:34 look into our universe and use yardsticks that
00:02:34 --> 00:02:37 were basically part and parcel of
00:02:37 --> 00:02:40 our universe in order to measure those
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 fundamental quantities. So
00:02:43 --> 00:02:46 you'd need to have a way of determining distance,
00:02:46 --> 00:02:49 and that way you could perhaps use
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 a way of determining time to determine the
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 speed of light. you might well be able to
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 determine that the speed of light in our universe was different
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 from the speed of light in your universe, which will be a very
00:03:01 --> 00:03:04 interesting property. and it's actually
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 one of the reasons why People speculate,
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 Heidi, that, there might be other universes. The
00:03:09 --> 00:03:12 fact that those physical parameters in our own
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 universe are so well suited
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 to, the formation of stars,
00:03:18 --> 00:03:19 galaxies, planets,
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 stability that, would allow
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 molecules to be created that could eventually
00:03:25 --> 00:03:28 turn into living organisms. One of the reasons
00:03:28 --> 00:03:31 astronomers think there might be other universes is
00:03:31 --> 00:03:34 because those properties of our own universe
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 are so well tuned to life that maybe there are
00:03:37 --> 00:03:39 other universes where that is not the case.
00:03:40 --> 00:03:43 And so if you were standing in one of those universes and looking back
00:03:43 --> 00:03:46 at our own, you might well say, well, that's
00:03:46 --> 00:03:49 ridiculous. The speed of light, there's only 300 kilometers
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 per second. It's much faster than that here.
00:03:52 --> 00:03:54 So, you know, you could be looking at different parameters. So I think,
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 Rennie, it's an interesting thought experiment
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 and, thank you very much for the question.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 Heidi Campo: It's very, interstellar when he goes into the
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 dimension where they're looking through a different
00:04:06 --> 00:04:06 plane.
00:04:07 --> 00:04:10 Our next question is from Dean, and
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 Dean says, I believe you all
00:04:13 --> 00:04:15 had mentioned previously that in a,
00:04:15 --> 00:04:18 protoplanetary disk, heavier
00:04:18 --> 00:04:20 elements reside closer to the star,
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 which is the reason the interior planets of our
00:04:23 --> 00:04:26 system are, quote, rocky. The
00:04:26 --> 00:04:29 protostar is too hot for volatile
00:04:29 --> 00:04:32 materials to become solid, and the solar
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 wind blows the lighter elements away. My
00:04:35 --> 00:04:38 question was Earth in
00:04:38 --> 00:04:41 a belt of protoplanetary disk
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 where liquid or water orbited? Could such
00:04:44 --> 00:04:47 a belt exist in protoplanetary disk?
00:04:49 --> 00:04:52 Professor Fred Watson: yeah. It is another great
00:04:52 --> 00:04:55 question. And I suppose what Dean is
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57 saying is, is there
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 a Goldilocks zone in the protoplanetary disk?
00:05:01 --> 00:05:04 because the protoplanetary disk is
00:05:04 --> 00:05:06 where the planets were formed. and
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 yes, the temperature of material in that disk
00:05:09 --> 00:05:12 will vary. It'll be much hotter near the star itself
00:05:13 --> 00:05:14 and much colder outside. And
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 we do see, just in the way the
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 planets of our solar system are distributed, with the four rocky
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 ones internally and then the four,
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 gaseous ones and icy ones further out,
00:05:27 --> 00:05:30 we see that effect of,
00:05:31 --> 00:05:33 the Goldilocks zone. So Mars
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 sits just within the sun's
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 ice. what's it called? The ice
00:05:39 --> 00:05:42 limit? Can't remember.
00:05:42 --> 00:05:45 Anyway, it's something like that. It's
00:05:45 --> 00:05:47 where, water ceases to be a vapor
00:05:48 --> 00:05:50 and becomes ice. so
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 beyond the orbit of Mars,
00:05:54 --> 00:05:56 things, things basically freeze.
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 if, if, if you've got water vapor. and
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 that is thought to be why the gas giants
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 grew so big, the four gas giants,
00:06:05 --> 00:06:08 because, the fact that their water is
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 actually the commonest two element molecule in the whole
00:06:10 --> 00:06:13 universe. so if the water
00:06:13 --> 00:06:16 vapor becomes something solid, beyond
00:06:16 --> 00:06:18 that that ice limit, then, then
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 you're going to get the collection
00:06:21 --> 00:06:24 of much more mass in
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27 a planet that's being built by this process of
00:06:27 --> 00:06:30 accretion. so because the water is now in
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 a solid form, you can build a much bigger planetary
00:06:33 --> 00:06:36 core. and that is why you
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 can then get something big enough that it actually hangs onto the
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 gases surrounding it and you've got a gas giant.
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 So that's the picture that we imagine is
00:06:45 --> 00:06:47 the way planets form. So
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 just turning to Dean's question. Was Earth in a
00:06:52 --> 00:06:54 belt of the protoplanetary disk where liquid water
00:06:55 --> 00:06:57 orbited? it wouldn't have been liquid because
00:06:58 --> 00:07:00 you can't have liquid in a
00:07:00 --> 00:07:03 vacuum. but you can get water
00:07:03 --> 00:07:05 molecules in vapor form
00:07:06 --> 00:07:08 basically or in the form of ice.
00:07:09 --> 00:07:11 And yes, there would have been a step there I think in the
00:07:11 --> 00:07:14 protoplanetary disk where the ice
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 solidified, where you've got solid ice. so
00:07:17 --> 00:07:20 I think that's a really good question and I
00:07:20 --> 00:07:23 believe I've seen some
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 papers recently, which suggest that
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 we are actually observing that in fact, very
00:07:29 --> 00:07:32 recently, I think it might even have been last week, Heidi, there
00:07:32 --> 00:07:35 was a paper that reported the detection
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 of ice in a protoplanetary disk.
00:07:38 --> 00:07:41 so that's one to check out. it's yeah,
00:07:41 --> 00:07:43 it's there and in the inner regions it's
00:07:43 --> 00:07:46 probably too warm for it to exist as a
00:07:46 --> 00:07:47 solid material.
00:07:48 --> 00:07:51 Heidi Campo: So Dean's, Dean's onto something. We get a lot
00:07:51 --> 00:07:54 of really smart people who follow along this show too.
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 Andrew Dunkley: Let's take a break from the show to tell you about our
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00:09:23 --> 00:09:24 Now back to the show.
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 Generic: Three, two, one.
00:09:28 --> 00:09:29 Space Nuts.
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32 Heidi Campo: Our next question comes from Ron. And he
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 says hello from upstate New York. Ron. That is
00:09:35 --> 00:09:38 where my husband is from. I wonder if you're from the Catskills
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 area. Beautiful place, if any of you guys ever get to
00:09:41 --> 00:09:41 visit.
00:09:42 --> 00:09:42 Generic: Hello.
00:09:42 --> 00:09:45 Heidi Campo: Ron says hello from upstate New York. I was
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 wondering, with the extreme lifetime of red
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51 dwarf stars being one of the
00:09:51 --> 00:09:54 order of trillions of years, could there be any
00:09:54 --> 00:09:56 population of, I think that says of
00:09:57 --> 00:10:00 population three. Sorry, Population three red dwarf
00:10:00 --> 00:10:03 stars. Maybe I should ask first, do we think
00:10:03 --> 00:10:06 red dwarf stars were formed right after the Big
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 Bang to be a part of the population 3 stars?
00:10:09 --> 00:10:12 Thank you for considering my question and
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 always informative podcast from Ron.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:18 Professor Fred Watson: Thanks, Ron. and greetings to upstate New
00:10:18 --> 00:10:20 York. yeah, that's another.
00:10:21 --> 00:10:24 They're all great questions that we count space
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 nuts. and it's a very
00:10:26 --> 00:10:29 intelligent one as well. And just to sort of give the
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 backstory of this Population three stars,
00:10:32 --> 00:10:34 and it's usually written as a Roman three
00:10:35 --> 00:10:38 stars. They're what we think of as being
00:10:38 --> 00:10:40 the first stars to form in the
00:10:40 --> 00:10:43 universe back probably within the
00:10:43 --> 00:10:46 first 2 or 300 million years of the Big
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 Bang, which we believe happened 13.8 billion
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 years ago. so we.
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 What would signify a population three star? It would be
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 a star, whose spectrum, when you
00:10:58 --> 00:11:01 analyze its light, reveals only the
00:11:01 --> 00:11:04 presence of hydrogen and helium, because they were the
00:11:04 --> 00:11:07 elements that were predominantly produced in the Big Bang. There were
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 a few other things produced in very, very small
00:11:09 --> 00:11:12 quantities, like
00:11:12 --> 00:11:15 lithium, but really it was mostly
00:11:15 --> 00:11:17 hydrogen and helium that were produced in the Big Bang.
00:11:18 --> 00:11:21 And so population 3 stars will be stars that
00:11:21 --> 00:11:24 only show the signatures of those
00:11:24 --> 00:11:27 chemical elements in their spectrum. We
00:11:27 --> 00:11:30 haven't actually found any yet. We found some that look
00:11:30 --> 00:11:33 very nearly like Population 3 stars, but they still
00:11:33 --> 00:11:36 have a little trace of iron in them, the ones that have been found,
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 and iron is formed, in the
00:11:38 --> 00:11:41 interior of stars. And so you know that anything that
00:11:41 --> 00:11:44 shows up iron is not the first generation of stars
00:11:44 --> 00:11:47 ever to exist because other stars have been there
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50 first, and have formed the iron. So
00:11:50 --> 00:11:53 population three stars are a bit of a holy grail, actually.
00:11:53 --> 00:11:56 Trying to find Them, I've worked with, people
00:11:56 --> 00:11:59 here in Australia whose sole scientific
00:11:59 --> 00:12:02 mission has been to find population, three stars. And they've come
00:12:02 --> 00:12:04 pretty near it with these very early, what we call
00:12:04 --> 00:12:07 metal pore stars. Metals, unlike
00:12:07 --> 00:12:10 the way we think of metals in everyday life,
00:12:11 --> 00:12:14 things that contribute steel and brass and
00:12:14 --> 00:12:16 stuff like that, metals are anything other than hydrogen and
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 helium. To an astronomer it's a very curious
00:12:19 --> 00:12:22 expression. so metal poor stars are ones
00:12:22 --> 00:12:25 that don't have much of anything other than hydrogen, helium.
00:12:25 --> 00:12:28 So the cutting to the nub of
00:12:28 --> 00:12:31 Ron's question though, we think the very
00:12:31 --> 00:12:33 first generations of stars to form
00:12:34 --> 00:12:37 in the universe were not, were
00:12:37 --> 00:12:40 not red dwarfs. we don't think they were dwarf
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 stars at all. We think they were
00:12:43 --> 00:12:46 very massive stars, perhaps 20,
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49 maybe even up to 100 times the mass of the sun,
00:12:49 --> 00:12:51 that had very short lives, and
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54 exploded, you know, within perhaps less than a
00:12:54 --> 00:12:57 million years. Such a short life that,
00:12:57 --> 00:13:00 remember our sun is four, and a half
00:13:00 --> 00:13:03 billion years old and it's in its sort of middle age,
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06 midlife, not a crisis, but a midlife term.
00:13:07 --> 00:13:10 So red dwarfs probably did not form in the early
00:13:10 --> 00:13:13 universe. And in any case, what
00:13:13 --> 00:13:15 categorizes a red dwarf star, is
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17 actually the fact that
00:13:18 --> 00:13:21 it has seen many generations of
00:13:21 --> 00:13:24 stars before it because they're rich
00:13:24 --> 00:13:27 in all kinds of different chemical elements,
00:13:27 --> 00:13:29 not just hydrogen and helium. they are
00:13:30 --> 00:13:33 basically, you know, cool
00:13:33 --> 00:13:36 stars, which show the characteristic
00:13:36 --> 00:13:39 signatures of all sorts of things, even molecules.
00:13:39 --> 00:13:42 I think some molecules. Molecules don't usually exist in
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44 stars because they get torn apart. The atoms get torn apart by
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 the heat. But I think red dwarf stars have some
00:13:47 --> 00:13:50 molecular signatures as well. so the answer
00:13:50 --> 00:13:53 is, I think no. red dwarf stars weren't formed right
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56 after the Big Bang. And there probably aren't
00:13:56 --> 00:13:59 any population three red dwarf stars. But you're absolutely right
00:13:59 --> 00:14:02 that the lifetime of red dwarf stars is very, very long.
00:14:02 --> 00:14:05 Maybe, up to trillions of years as you've suggested. Ron,
00:14:05 --> 00:14:06 thanks very much for the question.
00:14:07 --> 00:14:10 Heidi Campo: Very interesting, very interesting indeed.
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 Andrew Dunkley: Okay, we checked all four systems.
00:14:15 --> 00:14:16 Professor Fred Watson: Space nets.
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 Heidi Campo: Our very last question is another
00:14:20 --> 00:14:23 great question from Jake Johnston.
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 He says. Hey, space nuts, quick question.
00:14:27 --> 00:14:29 While it is totally possible that there is no
00:14:29 --> 00:14:32 life in our solar system except for on Earth, if
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35 you had to guess where the most likely
00:14:35 --> 00:14:38 other place in our solar system is to find
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 either current or ancient life,
00:14:41 --> 00:14:44 what would you choose? Titan. Mars.
00:14:44 --> 00:14:45 Thanks.
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51 Professor Fred Watson: let's give you a shot at this one, Heidi. What do you think the answer to
00:14:51 --> 00:14:52 that would be?
00:14:52 --> 00:14:55 Heidi Campo: Oh, you know, I was actually thinking in my head of playing a joke
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 and just saying some random planet and then going, oh,
00:14:58 --> 00:14:59 oops, he must have meant this for you.
00:15:01 --> 00:15:03 I don't know. I really think that
00:15:05 --> 00:15:07 it's gonna, for some
00:15:07 --> 00:15:10 reason I think there's probably something on a moon
00:15:10 --> 00:15:12 somewhere because
00:15:13 --> 00:15:14 I'm just imagining
00:15:15 --> 00:15:18 primordial solar system, everything's
00:15:18 --> 00:15:21 crashing into each other and when
00:15:21 --> 00:15:24 it, when that matter ends up on a
00:15:24 --> 00:15:27 planet it's getting churned through its
00:15:27 --> 00:15:30 core and getting heated up and everything that
00:15:30 --> 00:15:33 maybe existed, even bacteria, is just getting cooked and
00:15:33 --> 00:15:35 destroyed. But on a moon it's not getting
00:15:35 --> 00:15:38 that turnover. So I would assume,
00:15:39 --> 00:15:41 and this is with my background not in this at all, I would
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43 assume that we would find something on a moon.
00:15:45 --> 00:15:47 Professor Fred Watson: I think you're right actually. so I
00:15:47 --> 00:15:50 guess the most obvious
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 places to look, first of all Mars,
00:15:53 --> 00:15:56 Mars we know has been warm and wet
00:15:56 --> 00:15:59 in the past. we know that it was warm and wet at a time
00:15:59 --> 00:16:01 when the first living organisms were forming on Earth.
00:16:02 --> 00:16:05 So if all you need is the right atmospheric conditions
00:16:05 --> 00:16:07 while they were there on Mars. And so
00:16:07 --> 00:16:10 Mars may show signs of ancient
00:16:10 --> 00:16:12 microbial life. Unfortunately we don't at the moment have the
00:16:12 --> 00:16:15 wherewithal to find it. We've got samples
00:16:16 --> 00:16:19 of rocks and soil that have been taken by the
00:16:19 --> 00:16:22 Perseverance rover on Mars which are stashed away for a
00:16:22 --> 00:16:24 future mission to go and collect them. Sadly
00:16:25 --> 00:16:27 that mission is a bit in doubt at the moment because it's
00:16:27 --> 00:16:30 turned out to be very expensive. but there may be evidence
00:16:30 --> 00:16:33 on Mars. but you're
00:16:33 --> 00:16:36 absolutely right that some of the moons of the solar
00:16:36 --> 00:16:38 system are perhaps the next on the list
00:16:38 --> 00:16:41 because first of all, and this is the
00:16:41 --> 00:16:44 one that's really the poster child of looking for life on moons
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 in the solar system is Europa.
00:16:47 --> 00:16:49 Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, which we
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 know has a rocky core, it's got a liquid water
00:16:52 --> 00:16:55 ocean over that core, and that is
00:16:55 --> 00:16:58 sealed in by a layer of solid ice on top of
00:16:58 --> 00:17:00 it. And we have seen evidence of
00:17:00 --> 00:17:02 geysers of ice,
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 crystals coming through that
00:17:07 --> 00:17:09 layer of ice because of cracks in it.
00:17:10 --> 00:17:12 there is evidence as well that there are
00:17:13 --> 00:17:16 quite complex carbon containing molecules,
00:17:16 --> 00:17:19 on the surface of Europa got a
00:17:19 --> 00:17:22 reddish brown colour which looks as though
00:17:22 --> 00:17:24 it's the effect of sunlight
00:17:25 --> 00:17:28 and solar radiation on these carbon containing molecules.
00:17:28 --> 00:17:31 So the ingredients for life might very well be there.
00:17:32 --> 00:17:34 likewise, further out in the solar system,
00:17:34 --> 00:17:37 Enceladus, Saturn's moon which was explored
00:17:37 --> 00:17:40 by Cassini, that definitely has these geysers of
00:17:40 --> 00:17:43 ice crystals because we've seen them and in fact Cassini
00:17:43 --> 00:17:45 flew through them and measured some of the contents,
00:17:45 --> 00:17:48 of them. in terms of it's mostly water
00:17:48 --> 00:17:51 ice, but there's also molecular hydrogen and some other
00:17:51 --> 00:17:53 really interesting ingredients that suggest that there are
00:17:53 --> 00:17:56 geothermal vents down at the bottom of
00:17:56 --> 00:17:59 Enceladus oceans. Maybe that is where
00:17:59 --> 00:18:02 life could have kicked off. We think life might have
00:18:02 --> 00:18:05 kicked off on Earth down in hydrothermal vents, maybe
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08 on Enceladus too. And you know, Dean
00:18:08 --> 00:18:10 mentions also Titan. I, beg your
00:18:10 --> 00:18:13 pardon, Jake. I'm sorry, Jake, the wrong name
00:18:13 --> 00:18:16 there. Jake also mentions Titan, which
00:18:16 --> 00:18:19 is another of these ice worlds with the same sort of
00:18:19 --> 00:18:22 structure and a liquid ocean, but it's also got
00:18:22 --> 00:18:24 these lakes of methane and ethane, natural
00:18:24 --> 00:18:27 liquefied natural gas. The only
00:18:27 --> 00:18:30 place we know anywhere in the universe other than
00:18:30 --> 00:18:33 Earth where there's liquid in equilibrium
00:18:33 --> 00:18:36 with an atmosphere. And Titan has a thick
00:18:36 --> 00:18:39 atmosphere, mostly carbon dioxide, but hydrocarbons in there
00:18:39 --> 00:18:41 as well. So these are all great
00:18:41 --> 00:18:44 candidates for living organisms. and if I had
00:18:44 --> 00:18:47 to pick one, let's go with Titan
00:18:47 --> 00:18:50 because I think you get two shots at it there. There might
00:18:50 --> 00:18:53 be water, based life in the oceans
00:18:53 --> 00:18:56 underneath the surface, but there might also be carbon,
00:18:56 --> 00:18:59 some weird carbon based life in the
00:18:59 --> 00:19:02 liquid, natural gas, lakes and seas on
00:19:02 --> 00:19:05 Titan. And we might find that when the Dragonfly
00:19:05 --> 00:19:07 spacecraft visits Titan later, in.
00:19:07 --> 00:19:10 Heidi Campo: The decade, these are
00:19:10 --> 00:19:11 all very exciting.
00:19:11 --> 00:19:14 I mean there is just so much happening in space
00:19:14 --> 00:19:17 right now. Every single week we are closer
00:19:17 --> 00:19:19 and closer to new breakthroughs and new
00:19:19 --> 00:19:22 discoveries. and I'll even share a program
00:19:22 --> 00:19:25 that I'm a part of that anybody who is a
00:19:25 --> 00:19:28 high school, or like if you're in high school,
00:19:28 --> 00:19:31 if you're doing your undergrad graduate or early career
00:19:31 --> 00:19:34 professional, you can join this too. It's called the L
00:19:34 --> 00:19:37 space, so l apostrophe space
00:19:37 --> 00:19:40 program. And it is a competitive proposal
00:19:40 --> 00:19:43 writing program where they select
00:19:43 --> 00:19:46 different individuals. So you can apply. I'm in the summer program right
00:19:46 --> 00:19:49 now, but you can apply for the fall program. But all of
00:19:49 --> 00:19:52 us got put into different interdisciplinary teams
00:19:52 --> 00:19:54 and we are going to be coming up with a
00:19:54 --> 00:19:57 proposal that is going to address one of
00:19:57 --> 00:20:00 NASA's gaps. And they have a whole
00:20:00 --> 00:20:03 training on how to write proposals the way NASA wants
00:20:03 --> 00:20:06 them written and the taxonomy of everything they're looking
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08 for. And the gaps that need to get filled. But the
00:20:08 --> 00:20:11 cool thing is, is that, the proposals
00:20:11 --> 00:20:14 that we come up with, one, of them will be selected as the
00:20:14 --> 00:20:17 winner. And the winner will get thousands of dollars of
00:20:17 --> 00:20:20 grant money and it will probably go on to become a
00:20:20 --> 00:20:22 real project. So if you are
00:20:22 --> 00:20:25 an engineer, even a high school or early
00:20:25 --> 00:20:28 career professional or anyone in between who
00:20:28 --> 00:20:31 feels like you have a lot of good ideas for discovering
00:20:31 --> 00:20:34 these kinds of things, like I've been co hosting
00:20:34 --> 00:20:37 now for a while and I've seen how smart you guys are.
00:20:37 --> 00:20:39 So I would really encourage you to all get involved
00:20:39 --> 00:20:42 and use your, creativity to help
00:20:42 --> 00:20:45 push humanity forward into the stars.
00:20:45 --> 00:20:48 Because every single one of you has something to add.
00:20:48 --> 00:20:51 And never, ever, ever let imposter syndrome get in the way of
00:20:51 --> 00:20:53 that. Because every creative mind
00:20:54 --> 00:20:56 add something to all of this. And that's my,
00:20:56 --> 00:20:58 that's my rah rah for this week.
00:20:59 --> 00:21:01 Professor Fred Watson: Remind us again what the program's called.
00:21:02 --> 00:21:04 Heidi Campo: It's L Space. So it's an L
00:21:04 --> 00:21:07 apostrophe and then S, P, A, C, E.
00:21:07 --> 00:21:10 And the program that I'm in, they have several different programs.
00:21:10 --> 00:21:13 So I'm in the, proposal writing.
00:21:13 --> 00:21:15 So np, W, E, E.
00:21:15 --> 00:21:18 NASA Proposal writing Experience.
00:21:19 --> 00:21:21 Something, something, something, something. It's.
00:21:22 --> 00:21:23 They love, they love acronyms.
00:21:25 --> 00:21:28 They just. They, But yeah, L, Space. and you can look
00:21:28 --> 00:21:30 that up. I can probably send the link to that
00:21:30 --> 00:21:33 to you guys to post, in the
00:21:33 --> 00:21:36 link and the description of this episode if anybody is
00:21:36 --> 00:21:38 interested in adding to
00:21:39 --> 00:21:41 their contributions into space.
00:21:42 --> 00:21:45 Professor Fred Watson: Fantastic. great program. and
00:21:45 --> 00:21:47 I look forward to checking out on the Web.
00:21:47 --> 00:21:50 Heidi Campo: On the Web, absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Fred. This
00:21:50 --> 00:21:53 has been another wonderful Q A
00:21:53 --> 00:21:56 session of Space Nuts. We'll catch you.
00:21:56 --> 00:21:56 Professor Fred Watson: Thank you.
00:21:57 --> 00:22:00 Heidi Campo: We'll catch you all next week. Bye for now.
00:22:01 --> 00:22:04 Generic: You've been listening to the Space Nuts podcast,
00:22:05 --> 00:22:08 available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
00:22:08 --> 00:22:11 iHeartRadio, or your favorite podcast player.
00:22:11 --> 00:22:14 You can also stream on demand at bitesz.com
00:22:14 --> 00:22:17 this has been another quality podcast production from
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