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Collision Course? And the Mysteries of the Aurora
In this captivating episode of Space Nuts, hosts Heidi Campo and Professor Fred Watson delve into a range of astronomical topics that illuminate our understanding of the universe. From the latest findings regarding the fate of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies to the enchanting phenomena of auroras, this episode is sure to spark your cosmic curiosity.
Episode Highlights:
- Milky Way and Andromeda Collision: The episode kicks off with an exciting update on the potential collision between our galaxy and Andromeda. Fred discusses new research suggesting that gravitational influences from nearby galaxies may alter the predicted course of this cosmic encounter, making the odds of a disastrous collision lower than previously thought.
- Understanding Fiducial Models: Heidi and Fred explore the concept of fiducial models in astronomical predictions, clarifying their role in understanding complex orbital dynamics and the challenges of measuring motion across vast cosmic distances.
- The Flying Banana and Aurora Chasers: The duo transitions to a whimsical story about a laser-emitting train dubbed the "Flying Banana," which inadvertently confused aurora hunters with its blue light. Fred shares insights into the aurora borealis and the technology used to monitor and study these stunning natural displays.
- Japanese Moon Mission Setback: The episode also covers the recent setback of the Japanese lunar lander mission, highlighting the challenges faced by space exploration endeavors and the lessons learned from failures.
- Mars Odyssey's Stunning Views: Lastly, Fred discusses the Mars Odyssey orbiter's recent capture of breathtaking images of Martian volcanoes peeking above morning clouds, showcasing the ongoing exploration and discoveries being made on the Red Planet.
For more Space Nuts, including our continually updating newsfeed and to listen to all our episodes, visit our website. Follow us on social media at SpaceNutsPod on Facebook, X, YouTube Music Music, Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok. We love engaging with our community, so be sure to drop us a message or comment on your favorite platform.
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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 the Milky Way and Andromeda collision predictions
(15:00) Exploring fiducial models in astronomy
(25:30) The Flying Banana and aurora phenomena
(35:00) Japanese moon mission failure and its implications
(45:00) Mars Odyssey's stunning volcanic views
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 --> 00:00:02 Heidi Campo: And blast off. We are
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 launch. We are go for launch on another
00:00:05 --> 00:00:08 amazing out of this world episode of space
00:00:08 --> 00:00:08 nuts.
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 Voice Over Guy: 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 10, 9. Ignition
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 sequence start. Space nuts. 5, 4, 3,
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 2. 1. 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4,
00:00:20 --> 00:00:23 3, 2, 1. Space nuts. Astronauts
00:00:23 --> 00:00:24 report it feels good.
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 Heidi Campo: I am your host for this lovely
00:00:27 --> 00:00:30 evening. For me morning for Fred your host,
00:00:30 --> 00:00:33 Heidi Campo. And joining us is
00:00:33 --> 00:00:35 Professor Fred Watson, astronomer at large.
00:00:36 --> 00:00:38 Professor Fred Watson: Hey, Fred, how are you doing? Heidi,
00:00:39 --> 00:00:41 it's great to see you after our
00:00:42 --> 00:00:43 trepidations yesterday.
00:00:45 --> 00:00:48 Heidi Campo: We are coming to you on schedule, but we
00:00:48 --> 00:00:51 are a day late. But the stories
00:00:51 --> 00:00:53 are still the same high quality you can
00:00:53 --> 00:00:54 expect.
00:00:54 --> 00:00:54 Professor Fred Watson: That's right.
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 Heidi Campo: we had a little bit of troubleshooting to do,
00:00:57 --> 00:01:00 but just like, the folks over at NASA,
00:01:00 --> 00:01:02 failure for getting this episode out was not
00:01:02 --> 00:01:05 an option. And we put our brains
00:01:05 --> 00:01:06 together and figured it out.
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 Professor Fred Watson: So I think you did most of the brain work
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 there, Heidi. I don't think I qualify as
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 being included in that. I just, watched the
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 magic happen when you finally appeared on my
00:01:15 --> 00:01:16 screen, which was good.
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 Heidi Campo: Half of it was luck. I think I just clicked
00:01:19 --> 00:01:20 on the right buttons in the right order.
00:01:22 --> 00:01:24 but speaking of luck and a little bit of
00:01:24 --> 00:01:27 magic, it looks like our first story this
00:01:27 --> 00:01:28 week is some good news.
00:01:30 --> 00:01:32 We are not going, going to be crashing
00:01:33 --> 00:01:34 into the Andromeda Galaxy.
00:01:35 --> 00:01:38 Professor Fred Watson: so we believe. That's right. So,
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 the mantra among astronomers
00:01:43 --> 00:01:44 for probably
00:01:45 --> 00:01:48 decades has been, hang on
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 to your hats, folks, because one day we're
00:01:50 --> 00:01:52 going to crash into the Andromeda Galaxy,
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 probably in about three and a half billion
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 years. The Andromeda galaxy, just to
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 remind people, is the largest,
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 the nearest large galaxy to our own.
00:02:06 --> 00:02:08 Ah. And it is, actually rather bigger than
00:02:08 --> 00:02:11 our own galaxy. and so we,
00:02:11 --> 00:02:14 have measured the speed of,
00:02:14 --> 00:02:17 what we call the radial velocity, the closing
00:02:17 --> 00:02:19 speed between our galaxy and the Andromeda
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 Galaxy. That was a measurement that was
00:02:21 --> 00:02:23 probably made getting on for 100 years ago,
00:02:23 --> 00:02:26 actually, and maybe more. and the
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 two are closing up now. We do get questions
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 occasionally on space knots from people
00:02:31 --> 00:02:33 saying, if the universe is expanding,
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 why aren't galaxies all being drawn
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 apart? And. Well, they are, but that's
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41 on the sort of mega scale. That's on the
00:02:41 --> 00:02:43 bigger scale of the universe. When you look
00:02:43 --> 00:02:46 at galaxies in the local environment,
00:02:46 --> 00:02:49 they are, sort of their motions are
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 dominated by gravitational forces rather than
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 by the expansion of the universe. And that's
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 why in what we call our Local group, which is
00:02:56 --> 00:02:59 a group of about two dozen galaxies, the two
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 Biggest are ourselves and Andromeda. they
00:03:01 --> 00:03:03 have motions that do not reflect the
00:03:03 --> 00:03:05 expansion of the universe because we're
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 looking on too small a scale. It's when you
00:03:07 --> 00:03:09 look on the big scale that you see all
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 galaxies, whizzing away from us.
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 So, as I said, an easy observation to make. a
00:03:14 --> 00:03:17 long, long time ago, astronomers deduced
00:03:17 --> 00:03:19 that, yes, the Andromeda Galaxy is heading
00:03:19 --> 00:03:20 towards us. I can't actually remember. The
00:03:20 --> 00:03:22 figure I should have checked it out is
00:03:22 --> 00:03:24 something like 200 in the region of 200
00:03:24 --> 00:03:27 kilometers per second, which sounds fearsome,
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 excep, but it's two, and a
00:03:30 --> 00:03:32 half million light years away. So there's
00:03:32 --> 00:03:34 quite a long time to go, which is why we're
00:03:34 --> 00:03:36 talking about three and a half billion years.
00:03:37 --> 00:03:39 So bringing us a little bit up to date,
00:03:40 --> 00:03:43 more than a decade ago now, a European Space
00:03:43 --> 00:03:46 Agency spacecraft called Gaia was launched.
00:03:46 --> 00:03:49 And Gaia was an astrometry satellite. And
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 what that means is it measured very
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 accurately the positions of stars on
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 the sky, their celestial coordinates, the
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 kind of equivalent of latitude and longitude
00:03:59 --> 00:04:02 that we call right ascension and declination,
00:04:02 --> 00:04:04 just to give them fancy names. so,
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 that spacecraft, measured, of course,
00:04:08 --> 00:04:10 many, in fact, billions of stars in our
00:04:10 --> 00:04:12 galaxy. It's been one of the most productive
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 spacecraft. It's now been switched off. but,
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 it also had a look at the Andromeda Galaxy.
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 And the reason for that was to see
00:04:19 --> 00:04:22 whether there was any possibility that you
00:04:22 --> 00:04:24 might pick up what we call a transverse
00:04:24 --> 00:04:27 motion. So what you measure,
00:04:27 --> 00:04:29 what's been measured for a long time, is the
00:04:29 --> 00:04:31 radial velocity. That's the velocity along
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 the line of sight. And yes, Andromeda's
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 coming towards us in that dimension.
00:04:36 --> 00:04:39 But there's, of course, also possibly, a
00:04:39 --> 00:04:41 motion across the line of sight. We call it
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 the transverse motion. And if that was big
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 enough, then you'd get a miss. The Andromeda
00:04:46 --> 00:04:49 Galaxy would, by the time it reached us, be
00:04:49 --> 00:04:51 somewhere else. It wouldn't be along the same
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 line of sight. So, that was measured by
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 Gaia. And sure enough, I think what they did
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 was put up a limits on the transverse motion
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 because it's a very hard thing to do for an
00:05:02 --> 00:05:04 object 2 1/2 million light years away.
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 So, the results, from the Gaia
00:05:08 --> 00:05:10 analysis were that the collision is
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 inevitable. It's going to happen three and a
00:05:13 --> 00:05:15 half billion years ago. Put it in your diary,
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 everybody. however, a new analysis.
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 And this is getting to the point now, by
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 astronomers, if I remember rightly, yes, the
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 University of Helsinki in Finland.
00:05:26 --> 00:05:28 A, place where we know we've got many Space
00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 nuts listeners, which is great. What they've
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 done is they've said, okay, that's all
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 fine and dandy. Those Gaia measurements are
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 interesting. They seem to suggest that it is
00:05:39 --> 00:05:42 actually coming our way. but what they've
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 said is, wait a minute. we are, not the only
00:05:44 --> 00:05:47 kids on the block. the Andromeda Galaxy and
00:05:47 --> 00:05:50 our own are not the only large objects in the
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 Local Group. There are others, including
00:05:53 --> 00:05:56 a, galaxy with the marvelous name of M. M33,
00:05:56 --> 00:05:58 in the constellation of Triangulum, another
00:05:58 --> 00:06:01 nearby. A nearby galaxy, not as big as
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 our galaxy or Andromeda, but it's
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 big enough to have its own gravitational
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 forces. It'll have a significant
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 gravitational pull on both ourselves and
00:06:10 --> 00:06:13 Andromeda. And they also folded in
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 one, of the two Magellanic Clouds. These, are
00:06:16 --> 00:06:18 small dwarf galaxies which are in orbit
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 around our own galaxy. In fact, they're being
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 swallowed up by our own galaxy. The Large
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 Magellanic Cloud is, a, galaxy
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 containing probably a few billion stars
00:06:28 --> 00:06:29 rather than the few hundred billion that we
00:06:29 --> 00:06:32 would get in a big spiral galaxy. so
00:06:32 --> 00:06:35 they've taken, the gravity of that object
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 into account as well. And when they do,
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 they, find that the gravitational
00:06:40 --> 00:06:43 forces of those two other galaxies
00:06:44 --> 00:06:46 might well pull the,
00:06:47 --> 00:06:49 you know, the two colliding galaxies aside
00:06:50 --> 00:06:52 so that they don't collide.
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 they've reported this in, actually one of the
00:06:56 --> 00:06:58 most prestigious journals, Nature Astronomy.
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 their, article in that journal is
00:07:01 --> 00:07:04 called no Certainty of a Milky Way Andromeda
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 Collision. So what they've done is they've
00:07:07 --> 00:07:08 kind of, you know,
00:07:10 --> 00:07:12 put the odds of a collision at lower than we
00:07:12 --> 00:07:14 thought they were before. Still could be a
00:07:14 --> 00:07:16 collision. We won't be here to find out.
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 But they've put the odds lower than before.
00:07:20 --> 00:07:22 So maybe we can breathe a sigh of relief.
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 Heidi Campo: Yeah, Well, I actually pulled up the article,
00:07:25 --> 00:07:27 the scientific article itself, and I have it
00:07:27 --> 00:07:29 pulled up, and I was just browsing over it.
00:07:30 --> 00:07:33 and this really is fantastic because I do
00:07:33 --> 00:07:36 love reading the actual science as it's
00:07:36 --> 00:07:37 written by the scientists.
00:07:38 --> 00:07:40 And there is one thing that I'm seeing here
00:07:40 --> 00:07:42 that maybe you can clarify for me and our
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 listeners. it looks like they use something
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 and I'm going to butcher this name. Half of
00:07:46 --> 00:07:47 you are going to laugh at me, and the other
00:07:47 --> 00:07:49 half of you are going to go, I don't know.
00:07:49 --> 00:07:50 Sounded right to me. A
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 fiducill Fidical. Fidical
00:07:53 --> 00:07:54 model.
00:07:54 --> 00:07:55 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, fiducial.
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 Heidi Campo: Fiducial. I was not close at all.
00:07:59 --> 00:08:01 a fiducial model. So what is the difference
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 between a fiducial model for predicting
00:08:03 --> 00:08:06 these, orbits or collision
00:08:06 --> 00:08:09 courses versus what, what else might
00:08:09 --> 00:08:09 be used?
00:08:10 --> 00:08:13 Professor Fred Watson: I'm just looking at, ah, the context. Are you
00:08:13 --> 00:08:14 reading that from the abstract?
00:08:15 --> 00:08:17 Heidi Campo: I'm reading that it's actually down under
00:08:17 --> 00:08:19 predicting. It's in the main body of the
00:08:19 --> 00:08:21 article under predicting the future.
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 Professor Fred Watson: A fiducial model based on the most accurate
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 values available. That's a really interesting
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 term. I haven't heard that term, used in this
00:08:28 --> 00:08:31 context before. Usually, a fiducial
00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 is a, A kind of marker. You call it a
00:08:34 --> 00:08:36 fiducial mark, which is
00:08:37 --> 00:08:40 giving you a zero point. And maybe that's the
00:08:40 --> 00:08:42 context in which that's being used. But,
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 Yeah, great question there,
00:08:45 --> 00:08:48 Heidi. I should look through the paper myself
00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 in more detail. I did have a quick look at
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 the abstract. I don't usually get down
00:08:53 --> 00:08:55 into the detail, but, I don't know why they
00:08:55 --> 00:08:56 call it a fiducial model.
00:08:56 --> 00:08:59 Heidi Campo: That's, I think that's the dirty secret of so
00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 many scientists. It's like we, we, we are
00:09:01 --> 00:09:04 also guilty of reading the abstract and if it
00:09:04 --> 00:09:06 looks interesting, we'll read the methods and
00:09:06 --> 00:09:09 everything else. But yeah, it's, you know,
00:09:09 --> 00:09:12 unless you're a super nerd, we're not always
00:09:12 --> 00:09:15 reading the entire article. For me, if I'm
00:09:15 --> 00:09:17 reading science, I, I read the headline.
00:09:17 --> 00:09:19 Okay, is this even in my, Is this even in my
00:09:20 --> 00:09:22 wheelhouse of something I'm interested in or
00:09:22 --> 00:09:24 need to know more about? Then I'll read the
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 abstract. If the abstract catches my
00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 attention, then I will actually
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 jump ahead. I'll skip the intro and
00:09:31 --> 00:09:33 background because if it's something I know
00:09:33 --> 00:09:34 about, then I usually already know what
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 they're talking about. And I'll go straight
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 into the methods and I'll be like, okay, well
00:09:38 --> 00:09:39 what did they do to get their information?
00:09:40 --> 00:09:42 Then I'll jump ahead to their,
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 results and I'll see, okay, you know, do
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 their results make sense? And then I'll read
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51 their dissemination of those results to see
00:09:51 --> 00:09:53 if I agree with their conclusions.
00:09:55 --> 00:09:56 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, I've just been,
00:09:58 --> 00:10:00 Exactly. You've described the way I look at
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 these things as well. I've just been googling
00:10:02 --> 00:10:03 a fiducial model.
00:10:05 --> 00:10:08 And as it says, fiducials are marks or points
00:10:08 --> 00:10:11 of reference applied to, well, in this case,
00:10:11 --> 00:10:13 images to present a fixed
00:10:13 --> 00:10:16 standard of reference. So that was kind of
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 my assumption of what the word
00:10:19 --> 00:10:21 means. But a fiducial model gives you,
00:10:22 --> 00:10:24 obviously a fixed standard of reference to
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 start from, which is tricky when you're
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 talking about colliding galaxies, because
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 which of them's moving? Well, they're both
00:10:30 --> 00:10:32 moving. So, you know, where's your reference
00:10:32 --> 00:10:34 point? Where is your stationary standard
00:10:34 --> 00:10:34 point?
00:10:35 --> 00:10:38 Heidi Campo: Yeah, and maybe this can be, you know, you
00:10:38 --> 00:10:39 know, and as scientists, we can say, okay,
00:10:39 --> 00:10:41 you know, this was published in a prestigious
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 article, so we can assume that the
00:10:44 --> 00:10:47 methods were good enough to get published,
00:10:47 --> 00:10:49 because the process of getting published is
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 already so rigorous. But this could be
00:10:51 --> 00:10:53 another point where we go and we're like,
00:10:53 --> 00:10:55 hey, you know, is that mathematical model
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 something that you would agree with?
00:10:58 --> 00:11:00 The results, you know, is like you just said,
00:11:00 --> 00:11:02 is a fixed model really going to tell us
00:11:03 --> 00:11:04 what's moving? Well, what's not?
00:11:04 --> 00:11:05 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, that's right.
00:11:06 --> 00:11:08 Heidi Campo: Take. This stuff's kind of interesting.
00:11:10 --> 00:11:13 Roger, your labs are here. Also space nuts.
00:11:13 --> 00:11:16 But, you know, fiducial models,
00:11:16 --> 00:11:19 mathematic algorithms and flying
00:11:19 --> 00:11:21 bananas is my next question, Because
00:11:23 --> 00:11:26 a flying banana is the topic of our next
00:11:26 --> 00:11:27 article. And this is going to be another
00:11:27 --> 00:11:29 thing I need you to define, because if I'm
00:11:29 --> 00:11:32 thinking of a flying banana, I'm thinking
00:11:32 --> 00:11:35 that somebody's kid at the grocery store is
00:11:35 --> 00:11:38 throwing a fit and they're throwing food. But
00:11:38 --> 00:11:41 in this article, we're talking about, aura
00:11:41 --> 00:11:41 chasers.
00:11:42 --> 00:11:45 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. Yes. So I'll, get to the flying banana
00:11:45 --> 00:11:46 in a minute
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50 because that's, kind of nickname.
00:11:50 --> 00:11:53 But, what I love about this story is
00:11:53 --> 00:11:55 it combines two passions of mine, one
00:11:55 --> 00:11:58 of which is the, aurora borealis, the
00:11:58 --> 00:12:01 northern light, which, we make regular trips
00:12:01 --> 00:12:03 up to the far northern Arctic to watch and
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 take our tour guests up there to be
00:12:06 --> 00:12:09 awed by the aurora. We get southern lights
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 down here, in the southern hemisphere as
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 well, the aurora australis. Heidi. And
00:12:13 --> 00:12:14 there's actually been some quite good
00:12:14 --> 00:12:17 sightings recently of the aurora australis
00:12:17 --> 00:12:20 from southern Australia. we're not anywhere
00:12:20 --> 00:12:23 near far enough south to see the aurora
00:12:23 --> 00:12:25 overhead as you do from Alaska or far
00:12:25 --> 00:12:28 northern Scandinavia. but nevertheless, you
00:12:28 --> 00:12:31 can see the aurora. So that's one passion is
00:12:31 --> 00:12:33 the aurora. but, this is.
00:12:34 --> 00:12:37 It's a report that comes initially from
00:12:37 --> 00:12:40 fellow aurora hunters. And these are people
00:12:40 --> 00:12:41 in the United Kingdom, actually in
00:12:41 --> 00:12:44 Oxfordshire in England. and they were, you
00:12:44 --> 00:12:46 know, basically out on a clear night looking
00:12:46 --> 00:12:48 for, the northern lights, the aurora
00:12:48 --> 00:12:51 borealis. But what they saw was this
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54 strange blue beam of light sort of
00:12:54 --> 00:12:57 slicing through the night sky and
00:12:57 --> 00:13:00 apparently moving. and in fact
00:13:00 --> 00:13:03 these are sort of, you know, very high
00:13:03 --> 00:13:05 level aurora hunters because they've got an
00:13:05 --> 00:13:08 all sky camera, and fixed cameras that
00:13:08 --> 00:13:11 have captured this strange blue light moving
00:13:11 --> 00:13:13 through the sky. Excuse me. the reason
00:13:13 --> 00:13:16 why the. Well two things told
00:13:16 --> 00:13:19 them that it wasn't an aurora. One is that
00:13:19 --> 00:13:22 most aurorae aren't blue. the colors you get
00:13:22 --> 00:13:25 typically are green, and red
00:13:25 --> 00:13:28 which come from oxygen atoms. you get
00:13:28 --> 00:13:31 purples and magenta and a few other
00:13:31 --> 00:13:33 colors coming from nitrogen molecules. But a
00:13:33 --> 00:13:36 pure blue light is something that
00:13:36 --> 00:13:39 no you don't actually see. and so
00:13:39 --> 00:13:42 what they wondered was what is this?
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44 It's clearly not a natural national
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 phenomenon. Sorry, a natural phenomenon
00:13:47 --> 00:13:49 because it's the wrong color and it's moving
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 too quickly. So they did some
00:13:52 --> 00:13:55 they did some research, and
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57 it turns out that what they had seen
00:13:58 --> 00:14:01 was a very fat, a wide
00:14:01 --> 00:14:04 laser beam pointing upwards that
00:14:04 --> 00:14:06 came from the flying banana. And what
00:14:06 --> 00:14:09 is the flying banana? It's a railway
00:14:09 --> 00:14:12 train. and it's called that because it
00:14:12 --> 00:14:15 is yellow. It's very, very yellow
00:14:15 --> 00:14:17 indeed. The flying banana. its
00:14:17 --> 00:14:20 technical term is the nmt, the new
00:14:20 --> 00:14:22 measurement train. And what it does
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 is at speeds of up to
00:14:24 --> 00:14:27 125mph getting
00:14:27 --> 00:14:30 on for 200km an hour in our measure.
00:14:30 --> 00:14:32 it flies,
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 runs over the track. Sorry about our little
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 puppy in the background. I don't know whether
00:14:37 --> 00:14:39 you can hear him barking but he's excited
00:14:39 --> 00:14:40 about the Flying Banana as well.
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 this train runs over the track 125
00:14:46 --> 00:14:49 miles an hour with lasers pointing downwards
00:14:49 --> 00:14:52 to analyze in real time the
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 state of the track. So it's all about the
00:14:54 --> 00:14:57 safety of railway passengers in the UK and
00:14:57 --> 00:14:59 what it's doing is it's analyzing things like
00:14:59 --> 00:15:01 the separation of the rails, whether
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 something's moved in the foundations of the
00:15:04 --> 00:15:06 rails, the sleepers or ties as you call them
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 in the US that hold them together, whether
00:15:09 --> 00:15:12 the rails themselves are distorted. They can
00:15:12 --> 00:15:14 check the shape of the rails, they can check
00:15:14 --> 00:15:16 all sorts of aspects of it at a very high
00:15:16 --> 00:15:19 speed. But, and this is the trick,
00:15:19 --> 00:15:22 it also checks the overhead
00:15:22 --> 00:15:24 electrical wiring because railways in
00:15:24 --> 00:15:26 Britain, many of them certainly the main
00:15:26 --> 00:15:28 lines are driven by electric
00:15:29 --> 00:15:31 traction. So they've got what's called the
00:15:31 --> 00:15:33 overhead, the overhead wire which is picked
00:15:33 --> 00:15:35 up, from which the electricity is picked up
00:15:35 --> 00:15:38 by the trains. So as I understand it,
00:15:38 --> 00:15:41 it, this laser is also looking
00:15:41 --> 00:15:44 upwards to sense what the condition of the
00:15:44 --> 00:15:46 Overhead wire is hence the blue light
00:15:46 --> 00:15:49 traveling through the landscape.
00:15:50 --> 00:15:53 and, just before, Sorry, I'm not letting you
00:15:53 --> 00:15:55 get many words in here, Heidi, but.
00:15:55 --> 00:15:57 Heidi Campo: No, I'm listening. This is wonderful.
00:15:58 --> 00:16:01 Professor Fred Watson: Well, to, bring back an experience
00:16:01 --> 00:16:03 we had. So back in January this year,
00:16:04 --> 00:16:05 some of our listeners know, I think, you
00:16:05 --> 00:16:07 know, Marnie and I were doing one of our,
00:16:07 --> 00:16:10 Aurora Borealis tours up in the far north
00:16:10 --> 00:16:13 of the world. We were in northern
00:16:13 --> 00:16:16 Norway, Scandinavia, sorry, Norway, Sweden,
00:16:16 --> 00:16:19 Iceland and eventually Greenland, which
00:16:19 --> 00:16:21 was enchanting. But, that's not why I'm
00:16:21 --> 00:16:24 mentioning it. in a place called Abisko,
00:16:25 --> 00:16:27 which is in far northern Sweden, one
00:16:27 --> 00:16:30 night we were aurora watching and we saw
00:16:31 --> 00:16:33 this vertical green beam of
00:16:33 --> 00:16:36 light, which puzzled me
00:16:36 --> 00:16:39 completely. it was just pointing
00:16:39 --> 00:16:41 upwards. It was apparently stationary. It did
00:16:41 --> 00:16:44 not last very long. I had my trusty
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 Aurora camera, ready to take photographs, but
00:16:46 --> 00:16:49 it had gone before, I had
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 a chance to take any. but I'm guessing
00:16:52 --> 00:16:54 now that that was the same
00:16:54 --> 00:16:57 sort of thing because Abisco is
00:16:57 --> 00:17:00 on the main line between. The main railway
00:17:00 --> 00:17:03 line between, Kiruna, and
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 Narvik. It was buil built,
00:17:06 --> 00:17:09 more than a century ago to carry iron ore
00:17:09 --> 00:17:11 from the big mine, which is still operational
00:17:11 --> 00:17:13 in Kiruna, to the port in Narvik, where
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 it's exported all over the world to your
00:17:15 --> 00:17:18 country and mine, it's one of the biggest
00:17:18 --> 00:17:21 producers of iron ore in the world. And so
00:17:21 --> 00:17:23 that railway line has been there for a long
00:17:23 --> 00:17:26 time. And my guess is that maybe
00:17:26 --> 00:17:29 there is an equivalent in Sweden of the
00:17:29 --> 00:17:32 Flying Banana, which shines a green,
00:17:32 --> 00:17:35 laser beam up at the overhead wires to
00:17:35 --> 00:17:37 see, what the condition is. And so I'm
00:17:37 --> 00:17:40 putting out to our Scandinavian listeners, on
00:17:40 --> 00:17:41 space nuts, because I know a lot of them are
00:17:41 --> 00:17:44 railway buffs as well. Tell us if there is
00:17:44 --> 00:17:47 such a thing as a new measurement train
00:17:47 --> 00:17:50 in Scandinavia that looks at the overhead,
00:17:50 --> 00:17:52 catenaries or, ah, the overhead, power lines
00:17:52 --> 00:17:55 for trains. So we look forward to
00:17:55 --> 00:17:57 hearing your answers, folks.
00:17:57 --> 00:17:59 Heidi Campo: Yeah, and that's, you know, and that's just
00:17:59 --> 00:18:01 such a fun story. And it makes me, you know,
00:18:01 --> 00:18:04 cause trains, trains are
00:18:04 --> 00:18:07 such, an incredible feat of
00:18:07 --> 00:18:10 engineering that changed the world. I think
00:18:10 --> 00:18:11 trains accelerated
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 expansion and growth more than almost
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 anything else. And I'm sure you and most of
00:18:17 --> 00:18:19 the listeners know the correlation between
00:18:19 --> 00:18:21 rocket ships and trains.
00:18:23 --> 00:18:25 Professor Fred Watson: Okay, tell me what you're thinking of.
00:18:25 --> 00:18:28 Heidi Campo: Okay, so,
00:18:30 --> 00:18:32 now I might be butchering this here because I
00:18:32 --> 00:18:34 Think it's, something about the
00:18:34 --> 00:18:36 rockets. The size of them
00:18:37 --> 00:18:39 is a certain size. And
00:18:39 --> 00:18:42 that size is determined because of
00:18:42 --> 00:18:45 the standard size of. See, what is it? What
00:18:45 --> 00:18:46 is it? Because I know you probably have it
00:18:46 --> 00:18:47 down to the figures.
00:18:48 --> 00:18:51 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. So you're absolutely right. It's
00:18:51 --> 00:18:53 railway lines and railway tunnels, that
00:18:53 --> 00:18:56 dictate the size of things. I
00:18:56 --> 00:18:57 don't know the exact thing that you're
00:18:57 --> 00:19:00 talking about, but limited. All sorts of
00:19:00 --> 00:19:02 weird things like the size of the biggest
00:19:02 --> 00:19:03 telescope mirror that you can take from one
00:19:03 --> 00:19:06 place to another is limited by the size of
00:19:06 --> 00:19:08 the track, the railway tunnels that carry
00:19:08 --> 00:19:10 them around. It might well be something
00:19:10 --> 00:19:12 similar that you're thinking of in terms of
00:19:12 --> 00:19:12 rockets.
00:19:12 --> 00:19:15 Heidi Campo: And if you keep going back far enough. The
00:19:15 --> 00:19:18 size of the railroad was determined
00:19:18 --> 00:19:20 by the average size of two horses
00:19:21 --> 00:19:23 side by side. So the joke is two
00:19:23 --> 00:19:26 horses asses is what determines the
00:19:26 --> 00:19:29 size of our rockets in space today.
00:19:29 --> 00:19:32 And trains, which is just such a
00:19:32 --> 00:19:34 funny little thing to think of. And just
00:19:35 --> 00:19:37 again, amazing feats of engineering and
00:19:37 --> 00:19:39 there's nothing new that's ever built. We're
00:19:39 --> 00:19:41 always just building and expanding on, the
00:19:41 --> 00:19:43 prior knowledge we already have. So hopefully
00:19:43 --> 00:19:46 our ancestors have done pretty good work.
00:19:48 --> 00:19:49 Professor Fred Watson: Okay.
00:19:49 --> 00:19:50 Andrew Dunkley: We checked all four systems and being.
00:19:50 --> 00:19:53 Heidi Campo: With a girl, space nets, and
00:19:53 --> 00:19:56 sometimes, you know, things are, are
00:19:56 --> 00:19:58 unsuccessful. You know, we have amazing
00:19:58 --> 00:20:01 things, we have things that fall apart. And
00:20:01 --> 00:20:03 there was, you know, that's the case of what
00:20:03 --> 00:20:06 happened with the Japanese company
00:20:06 --> 00:20:09 abandoning, their moon mission. So tell
00:20:09 --> 00:20:11 us what happened with that. Just kind of been
00:20:11 --> 00:20:12 a blur.
00:20:13 --> 00:20:15 Professor Fred Watson: Lovely segue there, Heidi. I love your
00:20:15 --> 00:20:17 segues. From one story to another.
00:20:19 --> 00:20:22 And you're right, this is an endeavor which,
00:20:22 --> 00:20:24 you know, again, is being carried out with
00:20:24 --> 00:20:26 the highest levels of technical knowledge,
00:20:26 --> 00:20:29 with the highest enthusiasm, and all the
00:20:29 --> 00:20:32 skill, that has been learned from,
00:20:32 --> 00:20:35 well, more than 50 years now of space travel
00:20:35 --> 00:20:37 in terms of robotic spacecraft, as
00:20:38 --> 00:20:40 Newton said, standing on the shoulders of
00:20:40 --> 00:20:42 giants. I think every, every one of us is
00:20:42 --> 00:20:43 doing that one way or another in the
00:20:43 --> 00:20:46 technology that we make use of. So, in fact,
00:20:46 --> 00:20:49 some of that technology is just going past my
00:20:49 --> 00:20:51 office door at the moment. that's called
00:20:51 --> 00:20:53 Grimace. Grimace is our robotic vacuum
00:20:53 --> 00:20:56 cleaner. And Grimace makes a lot of
00:20:56 --> 00:20:58 noise. So if you hear a, whining sound, it's
00:20:58 --> 00:21:00 not me, it's our vacuum cleaner.
00:21:00 --> 00:21:03 Heidi Campo: I named my robotic vacuum, Rosie
00:21:03 --> 00:21:04 after the Jetsons.
00:21:04 --> 00:21:06 Professor Fred Watson: Okay, good, that's great.
00:21:07 --> 00:21:08 Heidi Campo: Robotic made was Rosie.
00:21:09 --> 00:21:10 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, yeah, you've got to give them names.
00:21:10 --> 00:21:13 Ours is called Grimace because A grimace is
00:21:13 --> 00:21:15 the expression on its face. It doesn't have a
00:21:15 --> 00:21:17 face, but it just looks as though it's, you
00:21:17 --> 00:21:20 know, it's got a very stern expression.
00:21:20 --> 00:21:23 Anyway, turning back to the Japanese company
00:21:23 --> 00:21:26 Ispace, they have. And as
00:21:26 --> 00:21:28 you've said, it doesn't always work. and
00:21:29 --> 00:21:31 in this case, this does not. This has not
00:21:31 --> 00:21:34 worked. what they have done is,
00:21:34 --> 00:21:37 sent to the moon, basically, a
00:21:37 --> 00:21:39 lunar lander which
00:21:40 --> 00:21:42 indeed had on board a rover,
00:21:42 --> 00:21:45 a little rover. The lander,
00:21:45 --> 00:21:48 if I remember rightly, is called Resilience.
00:21:48 --> 00:21:50 and the rover had a name too, which you can't
00:21:50 --> 00:21:52 remember, but it's something similar. so the
00:21:52 --> 00:21:55 idea of, this company is to
00:21:55 --> 00:21:58 be one of the first, companies
00:21:58 --> 00:22:01 in the world to achieve a
00:22:01 --> 00:22:04 landing, a soft landing on the moon. And
00:22:04 --> 00:22:06 it would certainly have been the first one to
00:22:06 --> 00:22:08 have the first private company to have a
00:22:08 --> 00:22:10 rover on them moon. sadly, the mission
00:22:11 --> 00:22:13 was not successful. This was last week, as we
00:22:13 --> 00:22:15 are recording this episode now.
00:22:16 --> 00:22:18 everything went perfectly well with,
00:22:18 --> 00:22:21 Resilience, until it got close to the lunar
00:22:21 --> 00:22:24 surface. And then there was a technical fault
00:22:24 --> 00:22:26 that meant that it didn't decelerate
00:22:26 --> 00:22:29 quickly enough, for it to make a soft
00:22:29 --> 00:22:32 landing. So it actually, basically had
00:22:32 --> 00:22:34 a hard landing on the moon, which we usually
00:22:34 --> 00:22:36 call a collision. and that, was the end
00:22:36 --> 00:22:39 of the mission. they're very enthusiastic
00:22:39 --> 00:22:42 though, about keeping going
00:22:42 --> 00:22:44 with their, endeavors. Unfortunately, it's
00:22:44 --> 00:22:46 their second failure. I think a couple of
00:22:46 --> 00:22:49 years ago they had another mission, landing
00:22:49 --> 00:22:52 on the moon, which did not, make it.
00:22:52 --> 00:22:55 It landed, but sort of fell over. It was, at
00:22:55 --> 00:22:57 the wrong angle, so didn't get,
00:22:58 --> 00:23:00 any kind of sunlight on its solar panels. I
00:23:00 --> 00:23:02 think I'm thinking of the right one there.
00:23:02 --> 00:23:04 And by the way, the rover rover was called
00:23:04 --> 00:23:07 Tenacious, built in Luxembourg in
00:23:07 --> 00:23:10 fact, but carried, some equipment on board.
00:23:10 --> 00:23:12 Sadly, that was never deployed. So,
00:23:13 --> 00:23:16 you know, a story that's got good parts to
00:23:16 --> 00:23:18 it because I'm sure they learned a lot from
00:23:18 --> 00:23:21 this mission, but not as successful as
00:23:21 --> 00:23:22 everybody had hoped.
00:23:23 --> 00:23:25 Heidi Campo: I always have a little soft spot for the
00:23:25 --> 00:23:27 rovers. Ever since they had, the Mars
00:23:27 --> 00:23:30 rover sing Happy Birthday to itself. I've
00:23:30 --> 00:23:32 always kind of humanized them ever since
00:23:32 --> 00:23:34 that. I don't know why I'm like, oh, poor
00:23:34 --> 00:23:37 rover. Maybe it was Pixar's Wall E that
00:23:37 --> 00:23:39 gave me a soft spot for these, robots. Good
00:23:39 --> 00:23:41 old Wall E. But, you know, here's another
00:23:41 --> 00:23:42 segue for you.
00:23:42 --> 00:23:44 Speaking of Mars rovers, the Mars
00:23:44 --> 00:23:47 Orbiter capture. This is our final
00:23:47 --> 00:23:50 story for today, but the NASA Mars Orbiter
00:23:50 --> 00:23:53 saw some pretty cool
00:23:54 --> 00:23:56 sites. You want to tell us a little bit about
00:23:56 --> 00:23:57 these volcanoes?
00:23:57 --> 00:24:00 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, that's right. So this is
00:24:01 --> 00:24:03 it's a piece of history almost. This is one
00:24:03 --> 00:24:05 of the longest running
00:24:06 --> 00:24:09 orbiters around Mars. I think
00:24:09 --> 00:24:12 it's been in orbit since 2001 or it
00:24:12 --> 00:24:15 certainly was launched in 2001. And it is
00:24:15 --> 00:24:17 called Mars Odyssey. it's a NASA
00:24:17 --> 00:24:20 spacecraft, one of several in orbit around
00:24:20 --> 00:24:23 Mars. but this is quite a venerable one.
00:24:23 --> 00:24:25 It's been around for a long time but it's
00:24:25 --> 00:24:27 still active and it's still doing the
00:24:27 --> 00:24:30 kind of research that it was basically built
00:24:30 --> 00:24:32 to do. looking at the upper atmosphere of
00:24:32 --> 00:24:35 Mars and basically you know,
00:24:35 --> 00:24:38 studying the surface. the reason why it's
00:24:38 --> 00:24:41 made the headlines this week is because
00:24:41 --> 00:24:44 it captured a beautiful view
00:24:45 --> 00:24:47 of one of Mars's tall
00:24:47 --> 00:24:50 volcanoes. Mars has ah, an
00:24:50 --> 00:24:53 area called the Tarsus Rise. It's a high
00:24:53 --> 00:24:55 level or Tarsis Montesquieu, the Tharsis
00:24:55 --> 00:24:58 Mountains. it's a high level region which
00:24:58 --> 00:25:01 has ah, four really
00:25:01 --> 00:25:04 prominent volcanoes on it. They are extinct.
00:25:04 --> 00:25:06 They probably have not erupted for 3 billion
00:25:06 --> 00:25:09 years or so. they're taller than most
00:25:09 --> 00:25:11 volcanoes on Earth, 20 kilometers or so.
00:25:12 --> 00:25:15 the biggest is Olympus Mons, very famous, the
00:25:15 --> 00:25:17 largest mountain in the solar system. but
00:25:17 --> 00:25:20 what they've captured with the Odyssey
00:25:20 --> 00:25:23 spacecraft is a view of Mars
00:25:23 --> 00:25:25 in the early morning. It's in the dawn
00:25:26 --> 00:25:28 sky and sorry, the dawn landscape.
00:25:29 --> 00:25:32 but the surface of Mars is covered with
00:25:32 --> 00:25:34 cloud. Now Mars does
00:25:34 --> 00:25:37 have clouds. They are fairly thin clouds
00:25:37 --> 00:25:38 because its atmospheric pressure is only
00:25:39 --> 00:25:42 0.6% of the atmospheric pressure
00:25:42 --> 00:25:45 on Earth. And there is very little moisture
00:25:45 --> 00:25:47 in the atmosphere. There is some, there's
00:25:47 --> 00:25:48 enough to form clouds and they're made of
00:25:48 --> 00:25:51 ice, basically water ice. so there's
00:25:51 --> 00:25:53 enough just to form these. But here's this
00:25:53 --> 00:25:56 wonderful view. Encourage people to look
00:25:56 --> 00:25:59 at one of the NASA websites. Actually it's
00:25:59 --> 00:26:02 the main NASA website actually NASA.gov if
00:26:02 --> 00:26:05 you Google NASA Mars Orbiter
00:26:05 --> 00:26:07 captures volcano peaking above morning cloud
00:26:07 --> 00:26:09 tops that's exactly what you see. this is
00:26:10 --> 00:26:13 Asia Mons which is one of the other four
00:26:13 --> 00:26:15 volcanoes in that region. And you can see its
00:26:15 --> 00:26:18 crater, its caldera, the summit
00:26:18 --> 00:26:20 of the mountain, poking above the low
00:26:20 --> 00:26:22 clouds on the surface of Mars. It's an
00:26:22 --> 00:26:24 extraordinary view. It's one that we've not
00:26:24 --> 00:26:27 seen before. And it was, made because the
00:26:27 --> 00:26:29 mission scientists managed to turn Mars
00:26:29 --> 00:26:31 Odyssey on its side so it could look
00:26:31 --> 00:26:33 horizontally at the landscape rather than
00:26:33 --> 00:26:36 looking vertically downwards on the surface
00:26:36 --> 00:26:36 of Mars.
00:26:37 --> 00:26:39 Heidi Campo: Yeah, this is a great photo. That's, one of
00:26:39 --> 00:26:41 those ones that's going to be hanging up in,
00:26:41 --> 00:26:44 someone's office, one day or
00:26:44 --> 00:26:46 a school, you know, in a science building. I
00:26:46 --> 00:26:48 mean, that really is a really neat photo.
00:26:48 --> 00:26:51 Like you said. I mean, what,
00:26:52 --> 00:26:54 ah, crazy, ah, series of
00:26:54 --> 00:26:57 stories today from the things that we've
00:26:57 --> 00:26:59 discovered and the technology and
00:27:00 --> 00:27:03 everything that humans, have done and they're
00:27:03 --> 00:27:06 still doing. it's really. And I
00:27:06 --> 00:27:08 think that's one reason why we're space
00:27:08 --> 00:27:11 nuts here. I mean, all of us here get so
00:27:11 --> 00:27:14 excited about space because there's, I think
00:27:14 --> 00:27:16 for the people who are space enthusiasts,
00:27:16 --> 00:27:18 it's because there's still so much to do
00:27:19 --> 00:27:21 and so many other, fields of
00:27:23 --> 00:27:25 anything. There's so much that's already been
00:27:25 --> 00:27:27 explained and discovered. We're not
00:27:27 --> 00:27:29 discovering any new laws of physics anymore.
00:27:29 --> 00:27:32 That's kind of those are written, but in
00:27:32 --> 00:27:35 space it's wide open and we're always coming
00:27:35 --> 00:27:38 up with new mathematical formulas and
00:27:38 --> 00:27:40 feats of engineering and discovery.
00:27:41 --> 00:27:43 We have our highs, we have our lows. But
00:27:45 --> 00:27:48 it's so exciting for the people who are still
00:27:48 --> 00:27:51 curious and want to know more about
00:27:51 --> 00:27:53 the universe we live in.
00:27:54 --> 00:27:57 Professor Fred Watson: Isn't it just. And, you know, I guess that
00:27:57 --> 00:27:58 curiosity is one of the things that drives
00:27:58 --> 00:28:01 the million or so downloads a year that we
00:28:01 --> 00:28:03 get of space nuts. Because we've got people
00:28:03 --> 00:28:05 out there who love to hear about this sort of
00:28:05 --> 00:28:07 thing just as we love talking about it.
00:28:07 --> 00:28:10 Everything from flying bananas to colliding
00:28:10 --> 00:28:10 galaxies.
00:28:10 --> 00:28:13 Heidi Campo: We do everything and we
00:28:13 --> 00:28:14 just want to, you know, I guess we'll just
00:28:14 --> 00:28:16 say thank you to our listeners. Thank you for
00:28:16 --> 00:28:19 making, this, this a show worth recording. We
00:28:19 --> 00:28:21 really do appreciate you guys. And thank you
00:28:21 --> 00:28:23 for letting me come on as your substitute
00:28:23 --> 00:28:26 host while Andrew is on holiday.
00:28:26 --> 00:28:29 he will be back with you in a
00:28:29 --> 00:28:31 few weeks, so don't you worry. If you guys
00:28:31 --> 00:28:33 are missing him dearly, he will be back. I am
00:28:33 --> 00:28:36 just filling in for now, but, Go ahead,
00:28:36 --> 00:28:36 Peter.
00:28:37 --> 00:28:40 Professor Fred Watson: Let me just add, forgive me, I
00:28:40 --> 00:28:42 think our producer Huw might well,
00:28:42 --> 00:28:45 include in this podcast, a little
00:28:45 --> 00:28:47 recording that Andrew has sent on his
00:28:47 --> 00:28:50 progress around the world. So, listen
00:28:50 --> 00:28:52 on, folks. You might well hear, Andrew's
00:28:52 --> 00:28:55 voice telling us where he's Got to on his
00:28:55 --> 00:28:56 round the world trip.
00:28:56 --> 00:28:58 Andrew Dunkley: Hi Heidi. Hi Fred. Hi Huw in the studio,
00:28:59 --> 00:28:59 it's Andrew.
00:29:00 --> 00:29:02 we've embarked on our around the world trip
00:29:02 --> 00:29:05 on the Crown Princess. we left
00:29:05 --> 00:29:08 Sydney a couple of days ago and we got out
00:29:08 --> 00:29:11 of the heads and it was rough as guts. I
00:29:11 --> 00:29:14 mean it was heavy seas. the
00:29:14 --> 00:29:17 pilot couldn't even get off the ship and we
00:29:17 --> 00:29:18 had to drop him off at Eden down near the
00:29:18 --> 00:29:21 Victoria border, yesterday. So yeah,
00:29:21 --> 00:29:23 things calmed down a bit after that. But it
00:29:23 --> 00:29:26 was a pretty rough on first night. last
00:29:26 --> 00:29:28 night we slept quite well. It was very, very
00:29:28 --> 00:29:31 calm. we went through Bass Strait. I was
00:29:31 --> 00:29:33 very hopeful that we'd be able to see Aurora
00:29:33 --> 00:29:35 Austral Australis. There's been a fair bit of
00:29:35 --> 00:29:38 sun activity lately and I was very
00:29:38 --> 00:29:40 hopeful. There'd been a bit about it in the
00:29:40 --> 00:29:43 news recently but unfortunately
00:29:43 --> 00:29:45 we've not seen anything and in fact they're
00:29:45 --> 00:29:48 not letting us up on the the decks at the
00:29:48 --> 00:29:50 moment because, because of the conditions
00:29:51 --> 00:29:53 which are deteriorating again as we approach
00:29:54 --> 00:29:57 Spencer Gulf and head to Adelaide. So
00:29:57 --> 00:29:58 we'll be dropping off at Adelaide tomorrow
00:29:58 --> 00:30:01 and visiting the German town of Haendorf.
00:30:02 --> 00:30:05 activities on board have been fun. it's a fun
00:30:05 --> 00:30:07 crowd, a fun crew. We're having a good time.
00:30:07 --> 00:30:10 Yes, I got seasick once. We ordered
00:30:10 --> 00:30:12 breakfast and then cancelled it, then ordered
00:30:12 --> 00:30:14 again and got three breakfasts.
00:30:15 --> 00:30:18 So there's you know, you know, a few glitches
00:30:18 --> 00:30:19 here and there. But we're having a great
00:30:19 --> 00:30:22 time. I hope all is going well. I'll report
00:30:22 --> 00:30:25 in semi regularly as we, as we do things
00:30:25 --> 00:30:28 around the ship and around the world. So for
00:30:28 --> 00:30:30 now I'll see you later and
00:30:30 --> 00:30:33 have fun with Space Nuts while I'm away.
00:30:33 --> 00:30:36 Heidi Campo: So fun. Thank you Fred. Talk to you next
00:30:36 --> 00:30:36 week.
00:30:36 --> 00:30:38 Professor Fred Watson: It's a great pleasure Heidi. Thanks very
00:30:38 --> 00:30:40 much. Space Nuts. you'll be listening to the
00:30:40 --> 00:30:43 SpaceNuts podcast Missing Point,
00:30:43 --> 00:30:45 available at Apple Podcasts.
00:30:45 --> 00:30:48 Andrew Dunkley: Spotify, iHeartRadio or your
00:30:48 --> 00:30:49 favorite podcast player.
00:30:49 --> 00:30:52 Professor Fred Watson: You can also stream on demand@bytes.com
00:30:53 --> 00:30:53 this.
00:30:53 --> 00:30:55 Andrew Dunkley: Has been another quality podcast production
00:30:55 --> 00:30:57 from bytes.um com.