#444: Cosmic Movements & Solar Mysteries Unveiled

Hi there, thanks for joining us. This is a Q and a edition of Space Nuts. My name is Andrew Dunkley, same as it was last week. Strangely coming up. We've got questions to answer. We mentioned recently that everything moves in the universe. Fred said that it's prompted a question from JR. How do we measure that Rod wants to know about the Sun's fuel. Mick has a Mars hypothetical for us, and time permitting, we will be looking at wormholes and gravity. That's all coming up on this Q and a edition of Space Nuts. Fifteen in Channel ten nine ignition Space Nuts or three. Two one Space Notes as when I reported Neils Good and to answer all those questions and much much more, Professor. Fred, what's on? Hello Fred? Hello Andrew? Hello, I'm well a long time no see. So you're still called Andrew Duntley. Yes, yes, funny, I'm going for prefect now. H well, no one calls me day for beebel Brocks. I'll tell you that much. I didn't do that. If I was in Tasmania, however, I don't go there. Sorry, sorry, oh no, I crossed that line. I apologize. What do they say in Parliament? With drawn. That's right, that's what they say, and they want to insult someone and then get out of trouble withdrawn. You're ugly with drawn? Yeah. I love watching Parliament on TV. Do you ever do it? Yes, because it's kind of almost part of my job from time to time to know about this sort of thing. I don't know. I don't know what I get out of it, because I just think democracies so broken, and yet here I am captivated by these grown human beings tearing strips off each other over ideology. Anyway, whatever, Shall we answer some questions? Fred? Withdraw them? We can do that too. We can do anything good questions? Yes, all right, let's do that. Our first question today comes from JR. He said, Hi, I've been listening to your show for many years, and for the first time ever, I thought I should ask a question. Yes you should. What's the question, JR. I'm listening to episode four hundred and forty one, he says, And Fred said something like everything in the universe moves, so I might as well too. Is that true that everything in the universe moves? How could we measure that? Thanks for everything, JR, who's in Ohio. Thanks JR. Lovely to hear from you, and I'm looking forward to the Bengals season. They're looking pretty schnek for the for the football season in America this year. That's beside the point. Not necessarily. They probably moved too. I guess they moved very very well, very very well. I'm not sure about the quarterbacks new haircut, but I can live with it if you play as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, everything moves, yes or no? And I think the answers yes, and how do we measure that? So we we know everything moved just because the way in which everything's formed. If you think of the Big Bang, the sort of underlying scaffolding of structure we think was imposed on the on the universe very early on, which is this what we call the cosmic web, and we think it was dark matter. We think it was a web of dark matter, which itself is moving because you know the effects of gravity or the expansion are always to shove things along, and then more especially when objects that aren't made of dark matter, in other words, stars and galaxies, when they start forming, the formation process naturally in parts, the spin to things, and so you've always got this interesting balance between motion and gravity. The two go together. It's almost a you know, a rule to say you can't have gravity without motion, probably more accurate to say you can't survive gravity without motion, because and I'm talking now about things in space, it's the orbital motion of something around a gravitational object or massive object that stops it from being pulled in to the center. So we are always if you've got objects in orbits, if you've got galaxies rotating, if you've got even the the you know, the cosmic web has vibrations or has movements along it. It's all in motion. So you can measure a lot of it. Jay's question is how do you measure it? A lot of it we can measure directly. We certainly measure the rotation of galaxies accurately. We can measure the motion of galaxies in clusters accurately, and on the very largest scales we can. We can measure what we call the proper motions of things that're sorry, the peculiar motions of things, their their own peculiar motion relating to the Hubble flow, which is the flow of the expansion of the universe, which itself is in motion. So there you go. It's all moving. It's all moving. It's like clockwork, isn't it, frit Yes, very much so, that's right. Yeah. I want to know who's winding it up there. It got wound up in the beginning. That's the that's the bottom line. It's a very very long spring. Once the Big Bang happened, everything just happened after. It's by default, so and it's still happening. It's still going, it's still moving. We still see remnants of the Big Bang. Gravity's a big factor in the way things are into relating. It's a cosmic dance, is what it is. All right, Thank you, Jay, We got over that one quick. Yes, everything's moving. Yes, and we can measure that because we can, that's probably the answer. We've got an audio question for this one comes. From rod Hi Andrew and Professor Watson. This is Rob from Bloomington, Illinois. Question for you about this fuel reserves in the sun. If the Sun is consumed means six hundred million tons of hydrogen every second, why is it not dimming and shrinking? Does this mean that fuel is being replenished or are there some hydrogen atoms just waiting around to be burned? And five billion years at the end of the Life of the Sun. Thanks longtime listener. Always enjoyed the show. Thanks Rod. I really like this question because I find the sun to be quite a mystery because it's burning fuel at a rate that would, you know, make a tractor unhappy, and you've got to wonder about how it survives to such a long period of time if it's burning so ferociously. Yeah, it's it's a process. It's not so much burning, it's nuclear fusion. So I was about to say it's probably more to do with nuclear activity than it is a pile of matches. But yeah, six hundred million times it is a lot. But that's not just vanishing into the ether. What you get with the basic nuclear reaction that's taking place in the core of the sun from that six hundred million tons, you get about five hundred ninety six million tons of helium, so you know there's something still there. And the deficit of four million tons of hydrogen basically are what's converted to energy. So it's that four million tons of hydrogen per second that makes the sun shine, that makes it so bright. Now, that's all happening right down in the core of the sun, and the core is actually relatively small it's the energy that comes from that that keeps the rest of the Sun, most of which is hydrogen, from collapsing. So you can think of the core as being the furnace and the rest of the Sun being the fuel. And basically it will continue to do that for yes, a few billion years yet, because the Sun is so big and it's reserves of phydrogen are so enormous, and so that's that's the basic process. The I can't remember that I've said this, but the energy comes out mostly in the form of gamma rays an X rays. There's other stuff as well, but that's the main thing. And you and I've talked before, Andrew, what's your let work get? Because I ford prefect there. It's just sent me off from a different track altogether, because if you like, the last time we spoke about this, effod, we went into the the you know, the details of why we get light out at the end, and it's because of all that radiation that's caught that's generated in the core basically is absorbed and re emitted by other atoms over a period of what was it seven hundred, one hundred and seventy thousand years or something like that, getting off for a million years anyway before it actually reaches the surface and comes out comes out as sunlight. So interesting stuff. But I mean the Sun is stable at the moment. The balance between its gravity wanting to pull the hydrogen inwards and the radiation pressure coming outwards is perfectly balanced. But when that changes, once the Sun starts burning helium, which will happen when it runs out of hydrogen, then the the basically the nature of the Sun itself will change. That's when it'll turn into a red giant star. So it will when it starts to deplete its resources and changes fuel, it will expand and then when that burns out, it'll white dwarf. That's right. Actually, this is the envelope that expands. The nucleus will be collapsing slowly doing our time until they actually it does become a white dwarf star. That's correct. Mmm, it'll get pretty cold here on the plain will be gone because we'll be absorbed when we will. Yes, I think I think it's going to be fairly ugly. I think while we're with. The well, hopefully we've paid up all our electricity so that we can charge the ion engines to get off the planet. Yes, they're definitely going to need them. Thank you, Rod. Great question. This is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson. Nuts. I must confess Fred that when I prepared this show, I got everything locked in, all the questions written up, and now I've reached a point where I can't remember what this question is from Mick. All I've got written down is Mars hypothetical. So drum roll. Please, Yes, it's what happens from us gets removed. Oh that's right, guys, make air Con Dublin, Ireland. I have a technical question and they came up out basically because I. Was thinking about rope planets. So my understanding of the rope planets or cants that lost their son. And more or less be ejected from their solar system. I think this nor only happens during the formation of the Solar System. I'm not sure, but well, it then me to think what would happen if. Something strongly happened to Mars, like something out of a sci fi movie where it was hit by a mass and masteroid or there was some massive explosions. I don't know, but let's just say ours suddenly that the Solar System what would be the effect on us and the dash Earth. Would we start falling in towards the Sun because we don't have a palpitational pull from Mars, or would we be would we move. Out from the Sun? And also what would happened to the mood. I suspect something would happen to the mood because there must to be some pravitational call from Mars on our rule. And kan. Just thinking out loud while attending I always say that message before, So keep up to little work. Really love the podcast. Sure you guys, Thank you Mike. Love the accent and a great question. Thank you for sending it in. I was a rogue planet once years ago. Fred I lost my son in a supermarket. There you go, that's true story scared me. Willi's I found him around the corner in another while. But it's a terrible feeling when when you lose your son. When you lose your son, you're a planet or a parent. It's a problem. It's a great hypothetical. It's a great hypothetical. And my my science fiction brain is suddenly sort of venturing towards Mars being obliterated by something and de Mos has, you know, making a b line for Earth. That's the first thing I thought of. Yep, that's right, that's your science fiction brain. So I think that the issue for me is that whatever gets rid of Mars is going to be the thing that makes a big effect on the on the orbits of Earth, rather than Mars not being there. I think, you know, if if Mars had never been there, maybe the Solar System would look similar to what it does now. There might be nuances of difference. We know that the planets have kind of wound up in a in a particular order which is governed by something called Bordher's law, and that has always been thought to be coincident rather than any real mathematical rule and regulation. But if you took Mars out of Bordher's law, well that means Jupiter might want to go where Mars is, or actually the asteroid belt would wind up where Mars was in that you know, sort of geometrical progression, and it would so the absence of Mars would affect the AS orbit because the AS orbit is modified slightly by what called gravitational perturbations from from other planets. Now, of course, Mars is not always on the on the far side of us, of the of the Earth from the Sun. Sometimes it's on the other side of the Sun, so it's not always pulling us outwards. It's sometimes pulling us inwards, and all of that is taken account in the geometry of the Earth's orbit. I think that might effect on the Moon. If Mars wasn't there would be even smaller. There would be probably a tiny gravitational effect again perturbations, But the Moon is fairly tightly bound to the Earth in terms of its gravitational pool. It's only three hundred and eighty thousand kilometers away, so it's hung on to pretty well. So let's imagine a solar system without Mars. I think the Earth and the Moon would look much the same as they do. Already and still be livable as it is. Probably, yeah, we might drift. I mean we might. You know, you kind of got to more imagine rather than imagine Mars being dragged away by some mechanism, which inevitably would affect the Earth orbit. Whatever that was, it would be big enough to modify the Earth orbit. If you imagine just Mars not being there, rather than Mars being dragged away, then it may it may change things slightly it may change things enough that the Earth does get pushed out of the Goldilocks zone, but it wouldn't be it wouldn't be that much. But I think, yeah, that we're in such a sensitive balance of heat radiation from the Sun and all the rest of it. It's it's a it's a very fine line perhaps between humanity being here and humanity not. Do we You might have entered this in a previous episode some time ago, but do we know how wide the Goldilocks zone is? Yes, you can calculate that, and it's it's it doesn't go as far as Mars, and it doesn't go as far as Venus, so you know, it's it's I don't know what the woods is, but you can calculate it. Yeah, yeah, Well, hopefully we're on the better side of it. We are at the moment, but in the middle of it, which sense, if Mars didn't exist, things would probably be much the same as they are for Earth and the Moon. If Mars was destroyed by some evil force let's call it, or the death Star, that that might have a different impact on us because of whatever the force is that's caused this to happen. Yep, maybe quite Yeah, suppose it depends on the level of catastrophe. Size it all up. When you look at other solar systems, their makeup is very different. In fact, ours is looking quite quite unique compared to a lot of the solar systems we're seeing, which have gas giants in close proximity to their parents star and the rocket planets are further out. But bear in mind they're the easiest ones to discover the ones, yes, and so there might be a selection effect path indeed. Okay, thank you met lovely hear from you, and if you ever have another question, please send it in. We've got one more question I think we can squeeze in and this one comes from Gego in Slovakia. I have a hypothetical question for you. That's the second one today. If you would open a wormhole near an object with huge gravity, a black hole, for example, would it's gravitational paul be transferred through the wormhole or would the bending of space time just end at one end of the wormhole and on the other side there would be only the local bending of space time. Thanks for the answer, love your show. That's from Gego in Slovakia. I think we've heard audio questions from gego before. I like this one too. I love ye, you know, I love hypothetical spread. Yes, yes, and so what the answer you're getting is also hypothetically. Well, I guess it would be. Yeah. I think I think that the will be would the wormhole itself survive having something, you know, a huge gravity next to it? The gravitational field would modify the wormhole, and my guess is the wormhole would fill in because wormholes are just such a special case of gravitational you know, gravitational balancies, if indeed they exist at all, and we've got absolutely no evidence that they do. So my guess is that, you know, well, the bending of space time wouldn't just end at one end of the wormhole, which is what was asking. I think the effect of the gravitating body, super massive black hole or whatever would be to distort the black the wormhole and probably just turn it into another black hole, which would be immediately absorbed by the by the big by the big one. It would be Yeah. That in itself sounds like a very feasible probability if a wormhole ever turned up next to sagittary staff, for example, I suppose, I suppose it depends on how big the wormhole is there, doesn't it? Yeah. I don't really know much about wormhole masses and geometry, but yeah, if you had a big wormhole, I mean, we'd know about something like that. We don't know how many candidate wormholes anywhere. You know. The best way to find a wormhole just look look for the little piles of dirt on top of this. There must be there. That's right. I find a little pile of dirt in space, and you know there's a wormhole behind that, and that's the way. So yeah, it's a it's a good question, but it's probably one that's in the realms of science fiction in terms of deciding what might happen. But yeah, I think when it comes to arm wrestles in space, black holes generally always win. Yep, it's usually the winners. That's, especially the big ones. Yes, indeed, all right, Gogo, thanks for your question. Thanks to everyone who sent us questions, and you can send questions too via our website space nuts dot Io. Click on the AMA link at the top to send us text or audio questions, or on the right hand side there's another button where you can send us audio questions. Don't forget to tell us who you are and where you're from. We'd love to know, and who your favorite football team is. And thanks to here in the studio, who is actually out picking up one of the kids from school, so he's done a great job. Thanks Fred as always nice to catch up. We'll do it again real soon. I bet we will. I think we will too. Thanks for sure, see you Fred, Professor Fred Watson, Astronomer at Large, And from me Andrew Dunkley, thanks for joining us on this Q and A episode. We'll be back again real soon with another one. We'll see you then, Bye bye. Thank 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 bytes dot com. This has been another quality podcast production from fights dot com.