#452: Early Universe Mysteries, Galactic Demise & Dark Matter Interactions

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_03]: Hello once again, this is Space Nuts. It's a Q&A edition. You know what that means. We ask nothing and you do the rest. All we ask of you is to send us questions and you do that and we try to answer them including a question from Bob about the older universe, which Fred remembers.

[00:00:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Sean has a question about galaxies and their demise. James is talking about the origin of life on Earth and Michael does dark matter interact with itself? Those are the questions that we'll be tackling today on a Q&A edition of Space Nuts.

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER_05]: 15 seconds, guidance is internal.

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_05]: Space Nuts

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_05]: 5, 4, 3, 2, Space Nuts

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_05]: Astronauts report it feels good.

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_03]: He's back again for more. His name is Professor Fred Watson. Hello Fred.

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_03]: Hello and his name is Professor Andrew Dunkley.

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't think I'll ever get that kind of title.

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_03]: Sir Andrew Dunkley, how's that?

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_03]: What, Geordie like that?

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_03]: He's barking mad about the idea.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_03]: That's what I think.

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_04]: Barking mad full of stuff, I can tell you.

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh yes, well, yeah.

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_03]: He's a terrier isn't he? All terriers are barking mad.

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_03]: Well yes, no, no, he's barking mad but he's a poodle.

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_03]: A poodle, oh yeah. Well they're of a similar ilk.

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_04]: They are a similar ilk.

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_03]: I think all those kinds of dogs suffer from small dog syndrome.

[00:01:38] [SPEAKER_03]: That's what I think. It's just angry because they're tiny.

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, that's just a theory, not a dog person so I don't know.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_03]: Shall we try to answer some questions Fred?

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh I thought we were just going to have a chat.

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_03]: Well we can do that.

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_03]: About dogs and cats living together.

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Or we can answer this question from Bob.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Gentlemen, Bob from Central Florida in the United States.

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_00]: It occurs to me that as we look back at the older and older parts of the universe,

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_00]: it seems that the galaxies that far away should be farther back in time but closer together.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Does that make sense from our perspective?

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_00]: This is the surface of a sphere far away and we're at the center of it

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_00]: and yet back then the universe hadn't been expanding as long.

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you very much.

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you Bob. Sounds like he was at the mall. I could hear music in the background.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_03]: I've listened to the question a few times.

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not quite sure where he's coming from and maybe it's just me but what's the question about Fred?

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_03]: No offense Bob, I'm not having a crack at you.

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_04]: Bob's right.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_04]: So what Bob's saying is okay we live in a universe that's 30.8 billion years old.

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_04]: It's been expanding for the whole of that time

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_04]: and now we have the capability with the James Webb telescope

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_04]: and other things coming on stream before too long

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_04]: to see back probably 13 billion of those years.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_04]: You know, we can see very early galaxies.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_04]: And so Bob's comment is okay the universe has expanded by a large fraction over that time.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_04]: You know, factors like 20 something like that, 12 to 20 thereabouts.

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_04]: Shouldn't the galaxies look closer together?

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_04]: And they do.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_04]: But it's a little bit more subtle

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_04]: because the way we know that they look closer together,

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_04]: wait till you get this one.

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_04]: Oh boy.

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_04]: If you thought Bob's comment was strange, it gets even stranger.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_04]: The galaxies actually look bigger.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_04]: With the expanding universe you look further back in time

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_04]: and eventually I mean galaxies start to look smaller as you look out in the distance.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_04]: You expect that, that's the way everything works in normal space.

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_04]: But the universe isn't normal space, it's been expanding and it's got curious properties.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_04]: And you get to a certain point which I don't think we've actually reached yet.

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_04]: I'm not sure that this is something that's been proven

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_04]: but the theory says that the galaxies should look bigger.

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_04]: And that's because they're closer together.

[00:04:37] [SPEAKER_04]: So what it is, is the space between them is smaller

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_04]: and that means the galaxies look...

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_04]: It sounds completely cock eyed

[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_04]: but that is what the relativistic model of the universe tells you.

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_03]: So what's the answer?

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_03]: The answer is Bob's right.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_03]: Alright, okay.

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_04]: Well done Bob.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_04]: And I was in Florida not that long ago and it was great.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I love Florida.

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_03]: We'll be there next year as a matter of fact.

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_04]: Lucky you.

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_03]: I think we go in March.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_03]: Although I'm a little bit confused because we're going to Miami via Vancouver.

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh yeah.

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_04]: Figure that one out.

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_04]: Funnily enough, that's what we did.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_04]: That's the long haul.

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_04]: Yes, but we had a fortnight in between them.

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_03]: Alright.

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Good trend.

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_03]: We've done Vancouver so we're just going to jump off one plane and jump onto the other.

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_03]: Vancouver's a lovely city.

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_03]: It is beautiful.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_03]: The Vancouver Marathon was on while we were there.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_04]: Oh okay, yeah.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_03]: So you had to go.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_03]: I got to watch because it was just behind our hotel.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_03]: It was lovely and went through the park and had a look around.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_03]: It's a beautiful city.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you Bob for your question.

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_03]: Our next question comes from Sean.

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Speaking of Canada, he's from British Columbia.

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_03]: Question.

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_03]: Are all galaxies eventually going to get sucked into their central supermassive black holes?

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_03]: If so, then what?

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Or then what?

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_04]: Get the inflection right.

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_04]: I think then what is correct.

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_04]: Then what?

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_04]: As in now what?

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_04]: No, probably not.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_04]: Because black holes, they do suck stuff in, but only if it happens to be kind of lying around.

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_04]: And so a black hole compared with the size of a galaxy is very, very small.

[00:06:42] [SPEAKER_04]: So I think what will happen in the longer term is galaxies will lose all their hydrogen fuel because that will go into making stars.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_04]: Stars will live their lives.

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_04]: They'll create heavier elements.

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_04]: They'll blow up and either create black holes or white dwarfs or neutron stars or one of the end products of stellar evolution.

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_04]: And eventually they'll just become dark.

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_04]: They'll run out of energy.

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_04]: They'll become cold and dark, but not necessarily getting sucked into the supermassive black hole.

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_04]: They may well just orbit around it and continue doing that until the big rip occurs or whatever is going to happen to space time, the expanding universe.

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_04]: Or the Gnabgib.

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_04]: The Gnabgib, that's right.

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_04]: Okay, well that's it.

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I mean we see galaxies which are devoid of their hydrogen fuel.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_04]: We call them elliptical galaxies because they're quite different from the spiral galaxies.

[00:07:38] [SPEAKER_04]: They're blobs of stars shaped like a football elongated quite often.

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_04]: And they don't have any star formation going on in them.

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_04]: Not much gas to speak of.

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_04]: Probably a supermassive black hole at the middle, but not doing much in terms of eating stuff up because it's eaten it all up.

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_04]: What's available and is surrounded by a retinue of stars that it can't touch because they're too far away.

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, very good.

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, Sean.

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_03]: This is Space Nuts.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_03]: Andrew Dunkley here with Professor Fred Watson.

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_03]: Let's take a break from the show to tell you about our sponsor, Incogni.

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_03]: And I'll be giving you a special Space Nuts URL so you can get up to 60% off Incogni.

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[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_03]: And that is just such a viral thing that's happening around the world at the moment.

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[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Now back to the show.

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_05]: Three, two, one.

[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_03]: Space Nuts.

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_03]: And you're listening to a Q&A edition and yes, we love it when you send us your questions.

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_03]: So well, you can do that via our website to give you all the details at the end of the program.

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Our next question, Fred, comes from James.

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Good day, gentlemen.

[00:10:38] [SPEAKER_02]: This is James from the mountains of Maine.

[00:10:41] [SPEAKER_02]: I have enjoyed your podcast since your first episode.

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_02]: Please keep doing what you do.

[00:10:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Here is my question.

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_02]: I've been reading recently that there is now tantalizing evidence that life may have begun on Earth as far back as 4.1 billion years ago.

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_02]: I believe this overlaps with the heavy bombardment period of our Earth's history.

[00:11:04] [SPEAKER_02]: If this is truly the case and we find microbial life elsewhere in our solar system, is it possible or perhaps even likely that it originally came from Earth?

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Thanks again for keeping the nerd in me alive.

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Our great pleasure, James.

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_03]: And thanks for the question.

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_03]: The origin of life on Earth.

[00:11:28] [SPEAKER_03]: There are those that say it probably came in from all sorts of different sources and got mixed up and voila, there we are.

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's a tough one to answer because we've got evidence of life on Earth.

[00:11:45] [SPEAKER_03]: But how on Earth did it actually originate?

[00:11:49] [SPEAKER_03]: It needed the right formula.

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_03]: It needed the right environment.

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_03]: It needed the right substances to mix with.

[00:11:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:11:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Could it have already been here, get ready to flourish during the early bombardment?

[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_03]: Good question.

[00:12:08] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[00:12:08] [SPEAKER_04]: So I mean, you know, James is postulate that maybe life was in existence on the Earth as early as 4.1 billion years.

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_04]: I think the evidence is still fairly tenuous on that.

[00:12:23] [SPEAKER_04]: But certainly 3.8 billion years there are rocks that show evidence that there was life there.

[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_04]: So it is very old.

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_04]: Now, the idea of life coming to Earth from elsewhere is called the panspermia theory.

[00:12:42] [SPEAKER_04]: And that is one that is not generally favored by astrobiologists.

[00:12:50] [SPEAKER_04]: I think most astrobiologists think a little bit as James has suggested that life formed on the Earth itself because we had the right conditions and the right

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_04]: prebiotic chemicals, all those organics that we've already found out in space, the fats and lipids that you need to hold cell walls together and all of that sort of thing.

[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_04]: So maybe life did kick off on Earth.

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_04]: If we find it elsewhere, like for example, Perseverance on some of those little capsules that it's got left on the planet surface on Mars,

[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_04]: if bringing some of those back found that, yes, there is life living organisms in there or even fossilized ones,

[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_04]: if we could somehow sequence the DNA of those and found that it had factors in common with life on Earth,

[00:13:41] [SPEAKER_04]: then you could be pretty sure that that's what's happened.

[00:13:44] [SPEAKER_04]: That the late heavy bombardment has stirred things up enough that you've got life spreading throughout the solar system.

[00:13:51] [SPEAKER_04]: And we're not at a stage in the history of our exploration of the solar system that we can yet say that.

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_04]: We've still got a long way to go, but it is possible that that might turn out to be the case.

[00:14:04] [SPEAKER_04]: So it's not impossible, James. It's a good suggestion.

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I just want to follow up on his suggestion that life could have been in existence 4.1 billion years ago.

[00:14:15] [SPEAKER_03]: And you're saying, well, no, probably not that far back, but 3.8, 3.7.

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't sound like that's a big gap, but I suppose it realistically is in terms of the development of life.

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_04]: 300 million years. Well, it's not. No, you're right.

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_04]: Because life didn't do much until only about...

[00:14:35] [SPEAKER_03]: It still doesn't.

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_04]: Well, you know, in terms of evolution.

[00:14:39] [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, right.

[00:14:41] [SPEAKER_04]: It didn't do much until about 700 million years ago when we started getting all these multi-celled organisms.

[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_04]: So you've got this huge gap, you know, more than 3 billion years where all you had was single celled slime, probably just slime.

[00:14:58] [SPEAKER_04]: And so if we, yes, 3.8 billion year old slime and 4.1 billion year old slime might not be very different, if I can put it that way.

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_04]: So, but you know, James's point is correct that that's the period when the light heavy bombardment was in full swing.

[00:15:23] [SPEAKER_04]: Things were charging about all over the solar system.

[00:15:25] [SPEAKER_04]: We think it's when most of the big maria on the moon were created and the Aitken South Pole Basin, that biggest of all impact craters that we know about in the solar system.

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_04]: So it was a wild and woolly place.

[00:15:38] [SPEAKER_04]: And it may well be that debris spread into space carrying microbes may have evolved into other things on Mars or even Venus.

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_04]: You know, Venus may well have had a very different climate back then.

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, we've spoken in the past about the fact that scientifically they've suggested that at one stage there were three liveable planets in the solar system.

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_03]: Venus, Earth and Mars.

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, that's a possibility.

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER_03]: And as you say, the interesting thing will be if Perseverance finds evidence of past life on Mars or we find evidence of life somewhere else in the solar system, maybe beneath the surface of some of the ice moons.

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_03]: And we can do a DNA test and find out who it's related to.

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_03]: That's right.

[00:16:33] [SPEAKER_03]: And the big revelation will be, yes, it's the same as life on Earth.

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_03]: It's come from the same source or it's completely different.

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_03]: That's right.

[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_04]: That's the big question.

[00:16:45] [SPEAKER_04]: And if it's completely different, you could probably assume that it's fairly common throughout the universe because you've got, you know, widely different circumstances in which life might have taken hold in the solar system.

[00:16:59] [SPEAKER_04]: And if it's completely different, then that'll lead you to the conclusion that it might form everywhere almost.

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:17:07] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, wouldn't that be something?

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_03]: We just got to find it.

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_03]: That's just got to get out there and find it.

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_03]: Indeed.

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, James.

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_03]: Great question.

[00:17:18] [SPEAKER_03]: Love those early life questions.

[00:17:20] [SPEAKER_03]: And we've got one more question to tackle today from Michael who lives in Illinois.

[00:17:26] [SPEAKER_03]: I've just now listened to the dark matter story in the most recent podcast, which is no longer the most recent podcast.

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_03]: Naturally, I'm now prompted to ask yet another dark matter question.

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Does dark matter gravitationally interact with itself?

[00:17:45] [SPEAKER_03]: As always your best, Michael.

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, Michael.

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_03]: We don't often get dark matter questions.

[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_03]: So thanks for that.

[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_04]: That's right.

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_04]: So I'm looking now at an article.

[00:18:03] [SPEAKER_04]: When was it published?

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_04]: 4.1 billion years ago.

[00:18:09] [SPEAKER_04]: So the model that we have of dark matter, this is the standard model and dark matter, we don't know what it is.

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_04]: So you're always working in the dark here, if I can put it that way.

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_04]: Like dark photons, weakly interactive, interacting massive particles, primordial black holes, all of those things.

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_04]: But the model that we have of the basically the way the building blocks of matter work,

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER_04]: the model suggests that whatever it is, dark matter doesn't interact with itself.

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_04]: And because it can only interact with gravity, but not in itself.

[00:18:58] [SPEAKER_04]: But the article I'm looking at is from a paper, a set of papers.

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_04]: I'm not going to go through it in detail, but you can find it on Universe Today.

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_04]: It is called evidence of dark matter interacting with itself in El Gordo merger.

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_04]: El Gordo is the name of a galaxy cluster, if I remember rightly.

[00:19:20] [SPEAKER_04]: And it's one merging with another one.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_04]: And so there is some evidence of dark matter interacting with itself from that that that galaxy cluster.

[00:19:33] [SPEAKER_04]: And it comes from gravitational lensing.

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_04]: You can plot where the dark matter is by looking at the gravitational lensing.

[00:19:39] [SPEAKER_04]: So the answer yesterday would have been no, it doesn't interact with itself.

[00:19:43] [SPEAKER_04]: But since I saw this article today, it's well maybe it does.

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_03]: OK. And then what would that interaction entail?

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_04]: Basically, it means well, the way that they have drawn that conclusion is that when you plot where the dark matter is in these two galaxy clusters,

[00:20:03] [SPEAKER_04]: normally what we see, and there are a number of examples of this, you can look at galaxy clusters that are merging.

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_04]: They're colliding.

[00:20:11] [SPEAKER_04]: You can see that the stars and the gas all pile up into central region.

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_04]: But the dark matter just keeps on going as though nothing had happened.

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_04]: We see that.

[00:20:22] [SPEAKER_04]: But there is some evidence in this particular one that shows some sort of streaming between the two blobs of dark matter associated with these two clusters colliding.

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_04]: And that's that's what has led to this suggestion that perhaps dark matter does interact with itself.

[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_04]: I'm not sure whether this might be a story we covered, actually, Andrew.

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_04]: It was not very long ago, as I've said last June.

[00:20:50] [SPEAKER_04]: We perhaps should put it on the agenda to talk about in a little bit more detail.

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_03]: Possibly so, yes.

[00:20:58] [SPEAKER_03]: There's that much research going into this kind of thing.

[00:21:02] [SPEAKER_03]: There's always something to talk about when it comes to dark matter and always a question or two to answer.

[00:21:09] [SPEAKER_03]: We get the occasional one ourselves.

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, Michael.

[00:21:12] [SPEAKER_03]: But the answer is possibly yes at this stage.

[00:21:17] [SPEAKER_03]: So the answers today went yes, no, not likely.

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_03]: And yes, that's right.

[00:21:26] [SPEAKER_03]: I think it's a good two and a half.

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, this is not bad.

[00:21:30] [SPEAKER_03]: It would have been a much shorter episode if I just went yes, no, yes, maybe not.

[00:21:35] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, done would have been over in a minute.

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, could have done.

[00:21:41] [SPEAKER_03]: Wouldn't help much.

[00:21:42] [SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, Michael.

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_03]: Great to hear from you.

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_03]: If you've got a question for us, go to our website because that's where you can send it through.

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_03]: Spacenutspodcast.com, spacenuts.io.

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_03]: Up the top there's a little tab that says AMA and you click on that and you can submit a text question or you can record if you've got a device with a microphone.

[00:22:03] [SPEAKER_03]: Wham bam, thank you ma'am.

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[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_03]: Don't forget to tell us who you are and where you're from.

[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_03]: I haven't mentioned this in a while, but if you are listening to us through whatever platform, please leave a review.

[00:22:20] [SPEAKER_03]: Reviews are very helpful.

[00:22:22] [SPEAKER_03]: If it's only got one star, well we know we've got to lift our game.

[00:22:27] [SPEAKER_03]: If it's got a few, that's great.

[00:22:28] [SPEAKER_03]: If it's got five, thanks for lying.

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_03]: But it's all good.

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[00:22:38] [SPEAKER_03]: They help us to be found.

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER_03]: So do that as well if you will.

[00:22:44] [SPEAKER_03]: Fred, we're done.

[00:22:44] [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you very much.

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_03]: It's a pleasure.

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, Andrew.

[00:22:48] [SPEAKER_03]: And we'll talk soon.

[00:22:50] [SPEAKER_03]: We will indeed.

[00:22:51] [SPEAKER_03]: Professor Fred Watson, astronomer at large and Hugh in the studio.

[00:22:55] [SPEAKER_03]: I don't think he surfaced today.

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_03]: So one star.

[00:22:58] [SPEAKER_03]: One star for you, Hugh.

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_03]: And from me, Andrew Dunkley, thanks for listening.

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER_03]: We'll see you next time on another edition of Spacenuts.

[00:23:06] [SPEAKER_03]: Bye bye.

[00:23:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Spacenuts.

[00:23:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Your Venus to the Spacenuts podcast.

[00:23:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio or your favorite podcast player.

[00:23:18] [SPEAKER_01]: You can also stream on demand at Bytes.com.

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_01]: This has been another quality podcast production from Bytes.com.