#424: Gravity Waves & Space Junk: Cosmic Queries Unpacked

Hi there, thanks for joining us. This is a Q and a edition of Space Nuts. My name is Andrew Dunkley. Coming up, we're going to be telling Pete he answered his question about space junk. I think we kind of talked about that a bit in the previous episode. Philip wants to know about gravity waves, Gego is asking about matter, and Beverly wants to talk about seeing an eclipse. That's all coming up on this Q and a edition of Space Nuts. Fifteen seconds in channel ten nine ignition siguench space nuts ny or three two space nuts as when I re bought it. Neil's good and he's here again. It's like he never left. Professor Fred, what's an astronomer at La Cello? Fred? I do good to not see you today since we see each other. Yeah, we're flying blind because something's chewing up bandwidth and we thought, well, if we just turn the cameras off, it might improve. But no, technology isn't it great? Now? Fred? We might as well get stuck straight into this. I've got a couple of text questions and a couple of audio questions, and being as clever as I am, I have completely lost the questions. As we speak, which is very unusual for me. So I'm going to switch things around and we will play an audio question first up from Philip Old Fred Nun Philip bape Here originally on Classical to Australia when I was a weird bout air never lost the upset. Two things for your debt, so astly I wanted to give a big show Gilmot, specially agencies who of course to putting old rocket up the northern end of Australia. They're amazing and I wish them all the best in their grand quest. Factly, I get the idea that gravity works by masters attracting each other and exerting a pool like magnets do. But what the heck are gravity waves made of? Then? That can't be made at white book ons but just pushed things around you can they? Is it possible? Despite what Nicholson and morally discovered, that there is indeed some kind of matrix permeating every square micro into the universe that has gravity waves flowing through it, just as waves on the ocean move through water until rising the dump swimmers on the hedge at on thy Beach. If I'm right the I reckon, I could have my Nobel Prize now I'd be happy to share it with you. Bonny lads Ay, love the show and why not just keep recording extra shows so we can be listening to you both century if I'm new cheers Philip. I love the accent, by the way, that sounds great, but one hundred years worth of episodes that did take us a little bit of work or reckon, Fred, that's what it feels like already, and true have to say yes, never mind a great question from Philip, and yes, lovely accent. I thought I detected a little bit of Highland in there, as well as the Glasgow, but anyway, that's a different story. Be in a better position to pick up on that than me. Ireland. Scottish has got a very distinctive sound to it, and there's just a few sounds in Philip's accent there made me wonder anyway. Thank you very much for the question though, And yes, Gilmour Space doing a great job gravitational waves. Philip, you're kind of on the money. Really we accept that, we don't. We no longer think of gravity as being forces between between massive objects. That's what Newton thought, and it's actually very nearly the truth modeling it that way makes it, you know, makes the calculations fit what we see in space generally very well. But there's difficulties, which are what led Einstein back in nineteen fifteen to propose his general theory of relativity, which says that actually what's happening is a massive object distorts the space around it, and that distortion is what we feel as gravity. So here's the Earth sitting in space, a massive object. It's bending the space around it so that the space at your feet has a slightly different shape from the space at your head, and the effect of that is that you feel as though you're being pulled down. It's an extraordinarily different way of looking at things from Newtont's but actually worked very well, and in fact, we've never managed to find a flaw in the theory of general relativity. And it's because of that distortion of space that you can have gravity wave or gravitational wave, because space can distort. So it's not entirely rigid. It's billions of times more rigid than steel. That's actually incredibly rigid, but it's still malleable. It's still bendable by mass, and hence its ability to transmit waves. And so in that regard, what you're saying, Philip is it's not too far from the truth. Yes, because and Marley experiment did show that there was no ether that would transmit light, because that would have shown up. Had the space been permeated by an ether, then you would have been able to see changes in the speed of light depending on which way the Earth was going, you know, in regard to which way the light is going, and those changes were never detected because they don't exist. And that's because the speed of light is an absolute constant that you know, doesn't need an ether to transmit. So the old idea of an ether has now become what we would perhaps refer to as the fabric of space, something which can actually bend. It is a matrix, as you put it, that doesn't fill space. It's not something in space. It just is space, and through that gravitational waves can travel. It's quite esoteric stuff, and I think you're touching on some really deep questions here in terms of the physics that are involved. But suffice it to say that space does have a structure and that it can change if you put mass in it. A few weeks ago we did discuss gravitational wave background in the universe. Is that akin to what Philip was talking about or is that a completely different concept. No, it's a consequence of what we're talking about. Yeah, that you've got the gravitational wave background is exactly as you described it in that lovely analogue that you presented of throwing a handful of pebbles into a pond. So you've got waves. You know, every pebble has its own splash, and you've got all these waves, you know, basically traveling across the surface of the pond, and that would be a background to you know, if you threw a rock in after that, there'd be a very big splash and lots of big waves which will be kind of superimposed on that background of lower level gravitational waves. And that's what the gravitational wave background is about. Okay, Yeah, I love Phillip's question, not only for the accent, but he's obviously been thinking hard about this particular situation and it's spawned some ideas that yeah, he didn't miss the mark at all, really did he, Philip? Your Nobel prizes in the post. It's we're happy to be happy to share it with you. Too, thank you. Yes, absolutely, your name can go first. Philip was your idea. I'm great to hear from you and keep sending your questions into us. So I've got a text question Fred, Hi, Fred, and Andrew. As with all questions submitters, I'm a great fan of the podcast. In recent weeks, there's been multiple mentions of space debris and dealing with it is by burning it up through attempted re entry to Earth's atmosphere. This may well deal with most of the larger physical pieces that could cause damage. However, presumably at least some of the component elements of the junk don't suddenly cease to exist. I'm wondering if burning up is really just another example of what I've heard Karl Krishlnitski say he was told in his early steel meal days. The solution to pollution is dilution. As you often say, space, even just our atmosphere, is really big. But are we kidding ourselves to call burning up the final solution. That's Pete from marmong point. I think Pete's sent questions in before. It is an interesting problem. It is a subject to a lot of discussion globally how we deal with space junk and the people who sends material into space are responsible for it. These days, Jordi knows that, yes, and I yeah. And there are times where space junk comes back to Earth it doesn't get burnt up completely. There was a famous case in the last year or so where a farmer down in the southern Highlands of New South Wales found a piece of a SpaceX rocket. I think it was on his property. There's been all sorts of bits and pieces popping up from time to time. It is a problem, that's right. I think that was if I remember rightly, it was parts of the service module of a Dragon capsule. If I remember rightly, Oh yeah, m yes, but there was, you know, not but roughly at the same time there was it's a huge fuel tan washed up on the beach in Wa which came from an Indian space launch, so that's where it was eventually traced back to. So, yes, you're right, Andrew that. For the bigger objects that you know, maybe way more than a few one hundred kilograms, they often will not burn up completely in the atmosphere until you get debris falling to Earth, and most of it, most of that is controlled. You can sort of control where the spacecraft is going to hit the atmosphere, where the burn up will take place, and where any debris might fall. And there is a particular spot in the Pacific Ocean, the South Pacific Ocean, which it's got a name which I can't remember at the moment, but it's the furthest point from land anywhere on the planet, and at the bottom of that ocean, it's a very deep part of the Pacific Ocean. There's a lot of space debris because that's where you know, you try and if you've got something that you gonna is massive and there is a risk that it will not all burn up in the atmosphere, that's where you want to put it, so that you're far away as possible from any likely damage. But so that's one part of the problem. But I think what Pete's question is really aimed at is the stuff that does burn up, you know, and for a small satellite's like a Starling satellite, which is yes, it's a quarter of aton, but it's still relatively small that will burn up completely in the atmosphere. And what happens is the materials of which it's made are vaporized and they do hang around, and I think we covered a story probably a few weeks ago, maybe a few months ago, that basically amounted to the fact that atomic species have been detected in the upper atmosphere which can only have come from the material of spacecraft. What it's saying is that, yes, the solution to pollution is dilution, but that dilution of the debris by being burned up and turned into vapor, that's not a process that means it disappears. There's still evidence of stuff being around up there in the upper atmosphere, and it's now in an atomic form rather than you know, solid, solid objects, but we can still detect it. So it's a good question that Pete raises. Yep, we are to some extent polluting the upper atmosphere by the amount of re entering debris. Well, the alternative is to just shoot it off into oblivion, I suppose. But yeah, that's probably not as easy as it sounds, that's right, because then you've got to, you know, reach the escape velocity of the Earth that's eleven kilometers per second. What they do at geostationary orbits, So these are the orbits of the geostationary satellites thirty six one thousand kilometers above the surface. When they are no longer being used and regarded as a potential danger to other geestationary satellites, they put them into what are called graveyard orbits. So these are orbits that are pretty stable but a long way out of the way. So it's doing exactly what you just suggested, shooting them off into oblivion. You're putting them in an orbit that where it's in orbit around the Earth, but it's not not going to do any damage down the track. And I think that place in the Pacific that you were referring to is Point Nemo Okay, which is twenty six hundred and eighty eight kilometers from the nearest land, and it's the furthest point from anywhere in the world in terms of solid land. It's at forty eight forty eight degrees fifty two point six minutes south one hundred and twenty three degrees twenty three point six minutes west. If you want to pinpoint it. Nearest land is Dulcey Island, which is part of the Pitcan Group. Apparently there you go. Yeah, so if you need to go looking for space junk, that's the spot. It is all right, thank you, Pete. Love the question, and yes, the problem with space junk continues. This is Space Nuts, not Space Junks. With Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson. Let's take a quick break from the show to tell you about our sponsor, nord VPN. And a virtual private network is something that a lot of people use these days to protect what they're doing online from scammers and hackers and anybody else who wants to download your information and sell it on the dark web, which has become all too common. There's a story recently about millions of people who bought tickets online having all their data now available for sale on the dark web. It's pretty terrifying stuff, isn't it. Of course, identity theft is another big reason that people get hacked, and it just goes on and on and on. So how do you protect yourself? 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And let's face it, we've got so many user names and passwords these days, it's pretty well impossible to remember them all. What a lot of people do is use one password for everything. Not a good idea, but yeah, you can find out more at this URLNRDVPN dot com slash space nuts. Check out their prices, check out their packages, check out what you need and go accordingly. Because the longer you sign up for, the lower the price gets on a monthly basis. But yeah, very much worthwhile, and an extra four months on top of whatever package you buy or whatever timeframe. So a great deal for space Nuts listeners. Nord VP dot com slash space Nuts. Have a look today and get the deal. Now back to the show. Okay, we take a space Nuts now, Fred another text question, Hello Fred and Andrew. This is Geargo from Slovakia. My question is about the matter we have in our universe. If I understand it correctly. All the matter we have is with us since the Big Bang, but energy can be converted to matter, and with the expansion of the universe, new energy, vacuum energy is being added to our universe. Could this vacuum energy be converted into matter, thus creating matter that has not been with us from the very beginning? Thank you in advance for your longer version of no love your show ge goo. Oh, I love that at least is confident. Maybe let's let's modify it slightly and make it perhaps or perhaps not. H So we we have talked before about the process of converting energy into matter. Ah we we we commonly convert matter into energy. That's what happens in nuclear reactors. You're you know, you're turning the mass of your uranium fuel or whatever it is, directly into energy, without needing it to go through other processes chemical processes, for example. And so that's that's where that equivalence come. Excuse me, it comes from equals mc squared the tour are equivalent. There are only a few natural processes and we did talk about them, and I can't remember what they were that work the other way, and I think they only occur in very high intensity energy situations by working the other way, I mean, converting energy directly into matter. There are a few examples of it, but I can't remember what they are. We did cover it, and I remember reading up about it. So you know, the idea of the vacuum energy, the dark energy as we also call it, turning into something solid. It's quite frightening. Actually, you know, space is getting more and more rarefied, and so the vacuum energy is not in any sense in a high energy situation where you might get this process of energy being directly converted into matter. But it is an interesting question, So I hope that's a long enough version of no go. I think back in the sixties thread they looked into this problem of dark energy turning into matter and decided that the only thing that dark energy could turn into was a rolling pin, so usually in a domestic environment. Well, that's really that's black energy. Isn't it very dangerous topic too? That one? It is. Yeah, Sogo, the answer is no ish. No great question. Thank you for it. It was a good question, and one more quick one to finish off. This is a little bit behind the times, but only because of me having to find files that got ditched by my computer without my permission. It happens. This is Beverly. Hello, spetsnuts. This is Beverly from College Station, Texas. I hope to be seeing my first Total Selary clips very soon, and I'm beyond excited. I was wondering if either or both of you had seen a Total Sulery clips. I would mind sharing your experiences and maybe your thoughts, your feelings about seeing Natty clips, and any insight you have. I really appreciate your podcasts and I listened to it in the mornings when I walk. Thank you so much, have a great day. Thank you, Beverly. A lovely question. I threw that one in, Fred because I wanted to see if you could figure out how many you've actually witnessed, because I know you've seen a few. I haven't in person ever witnessed one. Never. Well, you should come with us on one of our clips to us. Actually, you are you are going to you are going to see one in twenty twenty eight. So yes, yes, yes, indeed exactly. I don't have to go anywhere, I just have to wait. But how many of you, saying Fred, I think the April eighth eclipse, which is the one Beverly's talking about. She was before April eight when she recorded that. I think that was the sixth. In fact, I'm sure it was the sixth. One of them, just one was clouded out, and that was the one in the Faroe Islands where they get two hundred days of rain per year, and so we weren't expecting big events. I did see just a little bit of the eclipse phenomena. I saw something called Bailey's beads, which is where the Sun's discs shines through the valleys between the mountains of the Moon. So I did see that through binoculars, but it wasn't a crystal clear experience the one in Texas, and we were probably not that far from Beverly. We were in a little village called I think it was Bristol and British name, but it's not very far from Fort Worth and Dallas. So we had a cloudy morning there and the eclipse was sort of round about the middle of the day and Marley had forecast she'd looked at all the best forecasts that said the sky will clear in tanthony clips and during the period when you're leading up to the total eclipse, which is as the Moon's disc gradually covers the disc of the Sun. It's an extraordinary times sort of building tension and it's just like you know, it's like a live show, Andrew done by the very best impresarios, where you build up people's excitement and then there's a climax of a few minutes of the Sun being blacked out completely. During that period when the Moon was gradually crossing the disc of the Sun, we were seeing quite a lot of it through holes in the cloud, but it was still basically cloudy. And then seconds before totality, the sky completely cleared. It just cleared totally and we had the most perfect view of the total eclipse that you could expect. And then throughout the afternoon it was clear. It was sensational and just turning to what bever Is asked about the you know, the emotional it is almost a spiritual experience, if I can put it that way, Andrew, where you recognize that something deep and profound is happening. You've got this exact alignment between your spot on the Earth, and it's not there for everybody. It's only where the Moon's shadow crosses passes across the Earth and the moonshadow is only typically one hundred kilometers or so wide. You've got that alignment between your spot on the Earth, the moon itself, and the Sun, and it's the geometry of that that it just somehow breathtaking, that it gives you this unique experience of a black disk surrounded by the corona of the Sun and sometimes, as we saw on the eighth of April, Prominence's pink dots around the edge of the Sun which are clouds of glowing hydrogen. So it is, Yes, it's quite all inspiring. People burst into tears, you know, there's so much emotion tied to it. Of that is just the build up as the you know, as the thing gradually takes place, and you see all these interesting phenomena as the sky gets darker. You see things called shadow buns, which are little bunds of shade that race across the surface of the Earth caused by turbulence in the upper atmosphere. It's the whole excuse me, a whole array of different phenomena that's well worth watching for so, yes, very very rare. Indeed. Yeah. The next total solar eclipse is the twelfth of August twenty twenty six, which will start I would basically up in the northern Arctic region, and then we'll move down across the Atlantic into southern Europe by the look of it, and then the next one is the twenty twenty seven August, and then ours in twenty twenty eight, the twenty second of July. In fact, I'm just looking at the future map for total eclipses for it, and this is an interesting phenomenon. There'll be two in a row that will cross the will cross continental Australia and they will actually intersect around about southwest Queensland, northwest New South Wales and probably northeast South Australia. So that particular spot will get two in a row in twenty twenty eight and twenty thirty, which will be very exciting. That'd be the place to go. Yeah, there's actually five if you I think there's four more if you include the one on the twenty third of April last year which was off the which just touched the Exmouth, the coast at Exmouth in western Australia. Including that one, there are five coming up in the next twenty years or so, I think up to twenty thirty five. So quite right. They are really interesting. They passed to across in an unusual way that is related to the sort of cycles that determine how eclipses work, because you know, everything in the in the Solar system is cyclic going round each other, so they do repeat in a sort of complex way. Twenty twenty seven. Sorry, the one in twenty twenty seven will intersect with the one in twenty thirty four, so there'll be another place where you can go to the same place twice. But I found the interesting one that also the twenty twenty seven eclipse will end where the twenty twenty eight clips will begin. Oh that was interesting. Yeah, I think it is a click phenomena. We're going to be in Gibraltar for the twenty twenty six eclipse, I believe. Nice, So the southern tip of southern tip of Spain if you're interested, Yes, yeah, it could be the go. Yeah, I can see that one on the screen here. That one's going to stretch out over the Arctic and then move down through the Atlantic Ocean by the look of it, or that area anyway. But yeah, a lot of them do start in the ocean. But that's just because seventy five percent of the surfaces ocean. I suppose it's just the way it works out exactly, but Beverly, yeah, I hope you've got great joy out of witnessing your eclipse. I'm still waiting for my first one, so one ahead of me. And don't forget to keep sending your questions in. You can do that via our website, space nuts podcast dot com or space nuts dot io. You can send text and audio questions via the AMA tab up the top and on the right hand side you'll see a little green sideways button that says send us your or send us your questions. If you hover over that, it turns purple. Extraordinary. Never seen that before. Exciting. I'm easily amused. But yes, don't forget to tell us who you are aware you're from. If you've got a device with a microphone, you're all set. And don't forget to subscribe to us on YouTube and to send in your reviews via your favorite podcasting platform. Fred, we are done. Thank you so much, great pleasure, Andrew always good to chat and thanks for all the questions. Everybody wonderful. It's fabulous. We'll talk to you soon. Fred Fred Watson, Astronomer at Large and Hugh in the studio is doing what he does best and I don't know what that is, but thanks anyway, Hugh, and from me Andrew Dunkley, thanks for your company on this episode. Catch you on the next episode of Space Nuts soon. Bye bye Spacenuts. You'll be listening to the Space Nuts podcast available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or your favorite podcast player. You can also stream on demand at bites dot com. 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