NordVPN - Secure your online presence with our exclusive offer for Space Nuts listeners. Check out www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts for details.
In this engaging Q&A episode of Space Nuts, Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson dive into listener inquiries that span the cosmos. From the intriguing concept of black hole evaporation to the mysteries of Jupiter's atmosphere and the latest on the Artemis 2 mission, this episode is packed with fascinating insights and scientific discussions.
In this episode:
- The mechanics of black hole evaporation and how cosmic microwave background radiation affects their lifespan.
- An exploration of Jupiter's thin atmosphere and how it compares to the dense atmospheres of moons like Titan and planets like Venus.
- Insights into the Artemis 2 mission and the implications of visual observations of meteorite impacts on the moon's far side.
- A look ahead at upcoming solar missions and the cutting-edge technology being deployed to study our sun.
- The significance of cosmic rays and their impact on human perception in space.
Resources & Links:
- [Parker Solar Probe](https://www.nasa.gov/content/parker-solar-probe) - NASA's mission to study the sun's outer atmosphere.
- [Artemis Program](https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/) - NASA's initiative to return humans to the moon.
- [The Cosmic Microwave Background](https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_cmb.html) - Understanding the remnants of the Big Bang.
- [Titan and Its Atmosphere](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/titan/overview/) - NASA's insights into Saturn's largest moon.
Join Andrew and Fred Watson as they unravel the complexities of space science and encourage curiosity about the universe. Don't forget to send in your questions for future episodes!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts-astronomy-insights-cosmic-discoveries--2631155/support.
(00:00) Andrew Dunkley takes audience questions on this week's Space Nuts
(02:53) If black holes are colder than cmb, how much does this lengthen
(09:12) Fred: Does Jordy have an unusually thin atmosphere for a rocky planet
(10:48) Titan has a much higher atmospheric pressure than our own planet Jordy
(17:16) Michael from Switzerland claims Artemis 2 astronauts saw meteorite flashes on moon
(24:55) Houston has had a main B undervolt problem
(25:07) Final question today comes from somebody who forgot to tell us their name
(34:04) Andrew Dunkley: Thanks for your company. Bye. You're listening to the Space Nuts podcast
00:00:00 --> 00:00:01 Professor Fred Watson: Hi there.
00:00:01 --> 00:00:03 Andrew Dunkley: Andrew Dunkley here, and you're listening to
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 Space Nuts. It's a Q and A edition. This is
00:00:05 --> 00:00:08 where we take audience questions. We put them
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 in a barrel, we pluck one out and we go, now
00:00:10 --> 00:00:12 that's too hard. And we just keep doing that
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 over and over again until we find four easy
00:00:15 --> 00:00:18 ones. Uh, today we've got questions about
00:00:18 --> 00:00:20 black hole evaporation.
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 Simple. Uh, Jordy atmosphere,
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 uh, Artemis 2, and those, uh, moon
00:00:27 --> 00:00:29 meteorites that they witnessed. Somebody's
00:00:29 --> 00:00:31 thrown in a question about that. And missions
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 to the sun. Don't forget your sunscreen.
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 That's all coming up on this episode of space
00:00:37 --> 00:00:37 nuts.
00:00:37 --> 00:00:39 Professor Fred Watson: 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.
00:00:40 --> 00:00:42 10, 9. Ignition
00:00:42 --> 00:00:45 sequence start. Space nuts. 5, 4, 3,
00:00:45 --> 00:00:46 2.
00:00:46 --> 00:00:46 Speaker C: 1.
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 Professor Fred Watson: 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2,
00:00:49 --> 00:00:49 1.
00:00:49 --> 00:00:51 Andrew Dunkley: Space nuts.
00:00:51 --> 00:00:53 Professor Fred Watson: Astronauts report it feels good.
00:00:53 --> 00:00:56 Andrew Dunkley: And joining us to try and solve all of those
00:00:56 --> 00:00:58 little riddles is Professor Fred Watson,
00:00:58 --> 00:00:59 astronomer at large. Hello, Fred.
00:01:00 --> 00:01:02 Professor Fred Watson: Good day, Andrew.
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 Andrew Dunkley: Nearly say good morning or good afternoon or
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 good evening. Because it might not be that.
00:01:07 --> 00:01:09 When people listen to us, on the
00:01:09 --> 00:01:11 Professor Fred Watson: other hand, it is a day. I could say good
00:01:11 --> 00:01:11 night.
00:01:11 --> 00:01:12 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, yeah.
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 Professor Fred Watson: Anyway, it's certainly a day. Daytime here.
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 Andrew Dunkley: All is well with you, I assume?
00:01:19 --> 00:01:22 Professor Fred Watson: Um, apparently, um, still seem to have.
00:01:22 --> 00:01:23 That's a good answer I'm supposed to have.
00:01:23 --> 00:01:26 Yes. Well, it can only be apparently, because
00:01:26 --> 00:01:28 you never really know, do you? What's going
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 on inside, what's going on?
00:01:32 --> 00:01:33 The things that you haven't found out about
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 yet. Yes, all well so far.
00:01:37 --> 00:01:40 Andrew Dunkley: I recently had a profile piece
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 done by the Cancer Council in Australia for
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 Men's Health Week because of what You've been
00:01:45 --> 00:01:46 dealing with the last three and a half years.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:49 So, uh, to encourage men to
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 go and get their PSA tests and, uh,
00:01:52 --> 00:01:55 get their, let's just say, junk
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 checked out to make sure that they're free
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 and clear. And, um, I
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 think it's a very important message. But one
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 of the things I've learned, uh, through the
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 treatment and discussions I've had over the
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 last three and a half years in regard to
00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 prostate cancer is that because I have
00:02:12 --> 00:02:14 now had it, there is a possibility
00:02:15 --> 00:02:17 that my three children have a
00:02:17 --> 00:02:19 50% higher chance of developing it in their
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 lives. So it's not just about you.
00:02:23 --> 00:02:24 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, exactly.
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 Andrew Dunkley: It's not just about you as an individual.
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 If you've got, um, sons, it's
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 about them too. So it makes it even more
00:02:32 --> 00:02:33 important to get tested.
00:02:34 --> 00:02:35 Professor Fred Watson: Absolutely.
00:02:35 --> 00:02:36 Andrew Dunkley: And you don't just have to be in Australia.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 This can happen to any male on the planet.
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 So go and get
00:02:42 --> 00:02:44 that, uh, Prostate test done
00:02:45 --> 00:02:45 for peace of
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 Mendham, lecture
00:02:48 --> 00:02:51 over. Uh, let's deal with
00:02:51 --> 00:02:52 some questions, Fred.
00:02:53 --> 00:02:56 Um, we will go to our first one. This is a
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 pretty short and sweet one, but it's, um,
00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 a complicated issue really. Uh, black holes
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 are gaining Massey, if
00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 they are colder than the cmb,
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 how much does this lengthen the
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 time before they evaporate? That's a
00:03:13 --> 00:03:14 question from Bob.
00:03:15 --> 00:03:18 Professor Fred Watson: So I'm interested in who this question has
00:03:18 --> 00:03:20 come from because I've got a very old friend
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 by the name of Bob Argyle, uh, which is the
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 name on the email you sent me.
00:03:25 --> 00:03:26 Andrew Dunkley: It is.
00:03:26 --> 00:03:28 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, we worked together in the Royal Greenwich
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 Observatory, uh, at a place called
00:03:30 --> 00:03:32 Herstmonceux Castle in the south of England
00:03:32 --> 00:03:35 in the early 70s. Uh, now, Bob went
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 to Cambridge and I think he's still there. I
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 wondered if there was any clue to his
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 whereabouts in your email.
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 Andrew Dunkley: Um, no, because what you see
00:03:45 --> 00:03:46 is what you get.
00:03:46 --> 00:03:47 Professor Fred Watson: What you get. Okay.
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 Anyway, well, if it's Bob. G', day, Bob.
00:03:52 --> 00:03:55 Good to hear from you. We should email
00:03:55 --> 00:03:58 one day. Yes, um, it's good, Good to
00:03:58 --> 00:03:59 hear he's still going strong, if it is. And
00:03:59 --> 00:04:02 if it's not, um, I apologise that I'm mixing
00:04:02 --> 00:04:05 you up with somebody else. Uh, but it's a
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 great question and it's one that, uh,
00:04:08 --> 00:04:10 I had to, um, do some homework
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 on before, um, before the, before the show.
00:04:14 --> 00:04:16 Um, and the,
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 the bottom line is, first of all, what's the
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 cmb? The cosmic microwave background. That
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 is the, basically the flash of the
00:04:25 --> 00:04:28 Big Bang, which we still see. Uh,
00:04:29 --> 00:04:31 when that light was emitted, it was bright,
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 white light. Uh, as the universe has
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 expanded, that radiation has expanded
00:04:37 --> 00:04:39 also. It's been stretched, the waves have
00:04:39 --> 00:04:41 been stretched into microwave
00:04:42 --> 00:04:45 waves. So we see this background
00:04:45 --> 00:04:48 of, um, microwave light over the
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 whole sky and we can deduce lots of things
00:04:50 --> 00:04:53 from it. Um, it corresponds to a time, I
00:04:53 --> 00:04:55 think it was about 380 years after the
00:04:55 --> 00:04:58 Big Ban, when the universe basically,
00:04:59 --> 00:05:02 um, stopped being bright and a fog of
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 radiation, uh, everywhere, which it
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 was until that time. So that's the cmb. Now,
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 what the CMB does is give space
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 a temperature. And the temperature
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 is 2.73
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 degrees Kelvin, uh, degrees above
00:05:19 --> 00:05:22 absolute zero. And
00:05:22 --> 00:05:25 so, uh, that is when
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 you compare it with the temperature of
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 a black hole. And we've discussed this
00:05:30 --> 00:05:33 before, Andrew, uh, on The Q&As,
00:05:33 --> 00:05:36 black hole temperatures are very, very
00:05:36 --> 00:05:38 cold. Um, typically,
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 um, a few tens of nanokelvin.
00:05:42 --> 00:05:45 That means a few tens of billionths of
00:05:45 --> 00:05:47 a degree above absolute zero. Compared with
00:05:47 --> 00:05:50 the 2.73 degrees. And so,
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 um, that, uh, that temperature.
00:05:53 --> 00:05:56 What that means then is that,
00:05:56 --> 00:05:59 uh, photons of cosmic microwave
00:05:59 --> 00:06:02 background radiation, uh, can
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 be added to the mass of a black
00:06:05 --> 00:06:06 hole because,
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 uh, the temperature of the black hole is
00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 colder than the temperature of the background
00:06:13 --> 00:06:16 radiation. So,
00:06:17 --> 00:06:20 uh, there is an issue, uh,
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 which is one that Bob raises.
00:06:23 --> 00:06:26 Uh, I've lost my question here. It is, how
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28 much does this lengthen the time before they
00:06:28 --> 00:06:31 evaporate? So if you've got a situate, we
00:06:31 --> 00:06:33 know that black holes evaporate. Um,
00:06:34 --> 00:06:36 the situation that was highlighted by
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 Stephen Hawking back in the 70s. Black holes
00:06:39 --> 00:06:41 evaporate over very, very long
00:06:41 --> 00:06:44 periods of time. Uh, but what Bob's
00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 saying or asking is, does the fact
00:06:47 --> 00:06:50 that they're gaining mass because the cosmic
00:06:50 --> 00:06:52 microwave background is warmer than the black
00:06:52 --> 00:06:54 hole, does that extend this time
00:06:54 --> 00:06:57 significantly? Uh, I had to go
00:06:57 --> 00:07:00 to AI to answer this question because it's
00:07:00 --> 00:07:02 got some very, very lengthy
00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 calculations. Uh, but the answer
00:07:05 --> 00:07:08 is, uh, it's, um.
00:07:08 --> 00:07:11 Well, as the AI tool I used says, it
00:07:11 --> 00:07:14 was practically negligible. Oh, um,
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 uh, changing the final lifespan by less than
00:07:17 --> 00:07:20 one part in 10 to the power 50. So
00:07:20 --> 00:07:22 that is definitely negligible. Uh,
00:07:23 --> 00:07:25 and it's because of the,
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 uh. It's about the length of
00:07:28 --> 00:07:30 time that the
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 cosmic microwave background radiation feeds
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 the black hole. And it turns out that,
00:07:37 --> 00:07:39 um, the black hole is
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 effectively evaporating
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 faster than the stuff that it's. That's
00:07:45 --> 00:07:47 feeding it. And so it
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 basically extends the life of the black
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 hole by a very, very small amount
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 indeed. Uh, there's plenty on the web
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 about this if you really want to get into the
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 nitty gritty of it. But, um, it is a
00:08:01 --> 00:08:04 really interesting question, one
00:08:04 --> 00:08:07 that I have to say, Andrew, had not occurred
00:08:07 --> 00:08:09 to me before. Uh, so I'm very,
00:08:10 --> 00:08:13 uh, glad that Bob has raised it and I
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 appreciate him doing that. And if it is you,
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 Bob, I've still got your record of Das
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 Rheingold in my record cabinet behind
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 me. The one that you gave me back in
00:08:23 --> 00:08:24 1973.
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 Andrew Dunkley: Well, he doesn't want it back. No, that's the
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 other thing that said in the email. Don't
00:08:29 --> 00:08:32 send that back. It's rubbish. No, I don't
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 know. But maybe Bob could message us again
00:08:34 --> 00:08:36 just to confirm or deny.
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, I know nothing of Fred Watson.
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42 Andrew Dunkley: Yes, never met him. I don't want to.
00:08:42 --> 00:08:43 Professor Fred Watson: I don't want to know.
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 Andrew Dunkley: Um, the other interesting thing that comes
00:08:46 --> 00:08:49 from that is, uh, because of, uh, how cold a
00:08:49 --> 00:08:51 black hole is, um, if you get too Close. You
00:08:51 --> 00:08:53 turn not only into spaghetti, but cold
00:08:53 --> 00:08:56 spaghetti and that. Have you ever eaten that?
00:08:56 --> 00:08:57 It's horrible.
00:08:57 --> 00:08:59 Professor Fred Watson: It's not nice. No, you're right. It's the
00:08:59 --> 00:09:00 worst of all worlds, isn't it?
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 Andrew Dunkley: Gosh, it just gets worse. These black holes
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 are just starting to m. Make things even more
00:09:04 --> 00:09:07 horrible. Yeah, thanks, Bob.
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 Great question and thanks for sending it in
00:09:10 --> 00:09:12 and we, uh, look forward to hearing from you
00:09:12 --> 00:09:12 again.
00:09:12 --> 00:09:15 Our next question, Fred, comes from
00:09:15 --> 00:09:18 Greg. Uh, hello, Fred and Andrew. It's Greg
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 from Minnesota. Coincidentally,
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 Greg is the only Greg in
00:09:23 --> 00:09:24 Minnesota.
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 Professor Fred Watson: That's just as well, I believe.
00:09:28 --> 00:09:31 Andrew Dunkley: Maybe not. Uh, he says Titan is just a
00:09:31 --> 00:09:33 moon of Saturn. I mean just a moon of Saturn.
00:09:33 --> 00:09:34 That's all it is. It's nothing important.
00:09:35 --> 00:09:37 Anyway, it has an atmosphere so thick the
00:09:37 --> 00:09:40 pressure is 1 1/2 times Jordy
00:09:40 --> 00:09:43 Venus is just a bit smaller than Jordy and
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 its atmospheric pressure is 90 times
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 Jordy give or take. Uh, does Jordy have an
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51 unusually thin atmosphere for a rocky planet
00:09:51 --> 00:09:54 this size? If so, could our
00:09:54 --> 00:09:56 wispy atmosphere be because it all got
00:09:56 --> 00:09:59 blown away by fear? Love the
00:09:59 --> 00:10:02 show. Uh, thank you, Greg. Uh, the one and
00:10:02 --> 00:10:03 only Greg in Minnesota.
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 Um, that's a really interesting question.
00:10:07 --> 00:10:09 Uh, I've never really thought of Jordy
00:10:09 --> 00:10:12 atmosphere as maybe being, you know,
00:10:12 --> 00:10:15 thin and wispy. Thin and wispy. But, um,
00:10:16 --> 00:10:18 it generally is. When you look at photos of
00:10:18 --> 00:10:20 Jordy from space and you
00:10:21 --> 00:10:24 identify the atmosphere, oh, it makes
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 you cringe a bit because you think, is that
00:10:26 --> 00:10:27 it? Is that all it is?
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 Professor Fred Watson: I mean, 10 kilometres, you're above
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 75% of it. It's scary
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 in that regard. So you're you
00:10:38 --> 00:10:40 when you're in a jet, you're above most of
00:10:40 --> 00:10:43 the atmosphere. Uh, quite extraordinary.
00:10:44 --> 00:10:47 Yes, it's thin and wispy, exactly as
00:10:47 --> 00:10:47 Greg says.
00:10:48 --> 00:10:49 Um, so
00:10:52 --> 00:10:54 let's deal with these objects first.
00:10:54 --> 00:10:57 Titan. Uh, and yes,
00:10:57 --> 00:11:00 just a moon. It's the second largest moon in
00:11:00 --> 00:11:02 the solar system. It's bigger than the planet
00:11:02 --> 00:11:05 Mercury. Uh, it's got, but
00:11:05 --> 00:11:07 it does have about one and a half times the
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 atmospheric pressure of our own planet
00:11:10 --> 00:11:12 and that's largely due
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 to the difference in temperature between
00:11:15 --> 00:11:17 Jordy and Titan. Um,
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 so Titan has
00:11:21 --> 00:11:23 temperatures, it's in the surface
00:11:23 --> 00:11:25 temperatures around about minus 180,
00:11:26 --> 00:11:29 minus 190 Celsius. And of
00:11:29 --> 00:11:32 course that's cold enough for its surface
00:11:32 --> 00:11:34 to be solid ice, water ice and to have
00:11:34 --> 00:11:37 liquid natural, uh, gas, ethane and
00:11:37 --> 00:11:40 methane lakes on its surface, lakes and
00:11:40 --> 00:11:43 seas. Uh, it's also got this very thick
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 atmosphere. Um, so these,
00:11:45 --> 00:11:48 the molecules of Gas in
00:11:49 --> 00:11:52 Titan's atmosphere are very cold
00:11:52 --> 00:11:55 and so they don't sort of bubble
00:11:55 --> 00:11:58 up to be the. To get up to
00:11:58 --> 00:12:01 escape velocity. And so basically you've
00:12:01 --> 00:12:02 got an entrapment of this,
00:12:04 --> 00:12:06 um, atmosphere. Um, of
00:12:07 --> 00:12:10 m. I think it's mostly nitrogen. Thinking,
00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 uh, about it. Um, actually it
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 is just checking a number here. It's 90, uh,
00:12:15 --> 00:12:18 5% nitrogen, uh, and the rest is
00:12:18 --> 00:12:21 methane and other hydrocarbons. So,
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 yes. So it's um. The
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 nitrogen atmosphere, very, very cold,
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 doesn't have enough energy to sort of
00:12:29 --> 00:12:31 disappear off into space. So its pressure is
00:12:31 --> 00:12:34 much higher than Jordy Um, it's a
00:12:34 --> 00:12:37 similar storey in regard to Venus,
00:12:37 --> 00:12:40 only kind of more so. Uh,
00:12:40 --> 00:12:42 because, um, with
00:12:42 --> 00:12:45 Venus we have the situation
00:12:46 --> 00:12:47 that, um.
00:12:48 --> 00:12:49 Uh,
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53 excuse me, sorry, I've just CLOiD the page I
00:12:53 --> 00:12:56 was looking at here. Uh, which is not what I
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 wanted to do. Um, let me
00:12:59 --> 00:13:00 just bring it back.
00:13:00 --> 00:13:03 Andrew Dunkley: So we've all been there, Fred. We've all done
00:13:03 --> 00:13:03 that.
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. So, um, we've got a pressure.
00:13:06 --> 00:13:09 It's roughly 90 times
00:13:10 --> 00:13:12 Jordy uh, which is, uh,
00:13:13 --> 00:13:16 kind of unbelievable. Um, why is
00:13:16 --> 00:13:18 that? It is because the atmosphere is
00:13:18 --> 00:13:21 mostly carbon dioxide, which is a
00:13:21 --> 00:13:24 dense gas. As you know, it's uh, uh, heavier
00:13:24 --> 00:13:27 than air. Um, and so that
00:13:28 --> 00:13:30 basically, uh, increases the
00:13:30 --> 00:13:33 atmospheric pressure. Uh,
00:13:33 --> 00:13:36 we know that, uh, it's had this, you know,
00:13:36 --> 00:13:38 runaway greenhouse effect because there is so
00:13:38 --> 00:13:41 much carbon in the atmosphere
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44 and that's essentially the carbon dioxide
00:13:44 --> 00:13:46 traps the heat. You've got the runaway
00:13:46 --> 00:13:48 greenhouse effect. So you've got a surface
00:13:48 --> 00:13:50 temperature which I think is in the region of
00:13:51 --> 00:13:54 460 degrees Celsius.
00:13:54 --> 00:13:57 Um, so the question, I guess
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 the real nub of Greg's question
00:14:01 --> 00:14:04 is why isn't the Jordy like that? Was it all
00:14:04 --> 00:14:07 blown away by theia? And the answer
00:14:07 --> 00:14:10 is maybe,
00:14:10 --> 00:14:13 probably not, but maybe in a way because
00:14:13 --> 00:14:15 what keeps our atmosphere
00:14:16 --> 00:14:18 temperate, uh, is what's
00:14:18 --> 00:14:21 called the carbon cycle. It's the fact that
00:14:21 --> 00:14:24 we have, uh. Basically we've got a planet
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 whose surface is divided into tectonic
00:14:26 --> 00:14:29 plates. Those plates slide around one
00:14:29 --> 00:14:32 another and you get a, uh, volcanism,
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35 uh, putting carbon into the atmosphere.
00:14:35 --> 00:14:38 That carbon sinks down into the
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 ocean and eventually gets subsumed back
00:14:41 --> 00:14:43 underneath. Uh, the, um,
00:14:45 --> 00:14:47 uh, continental plays. Uh, that's the
00:14:47 --> 00:14:50 mechanism. And that, uh, circulation of
00:14:50 --> 00:14:53 carbon acts as a kind of thermostat. It's
00:14:53 --> 00:14:55 what keeps the Jordy uh, temperature
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57 reasonable. Uh, uh.
00:14:58 --> 00:15:00 The reason why I said there might be a link
00:15:00 --> 00:15:03 with THEIA is I guess it's possible that
00:15:03 --> 00:15:05 THEIA had something to do with the Origin of
00:15:06 --> 00:15:08 tectonic plates. Although my understanding.
00:15:09 --> 00:15:11 Andrew Dunkley: So not a direct correlation,
00:15:11 --> 00:15:14 but maybe something, you know, an after
00:15:14 --> 00:15:14 effect.
00:15:14 --> 00:15:17 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, that's right. The consequences. We've
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 got tectonic plates, uh, which
00:15:19 --> 00:15:22 stabilise the atmosphere and that might have
00:15:22 --> 00:15:24 something to do with Theia. Although my
00:15:24 --> 00:15:27 understanding of the Theia impact is that the
00:15:27 --> 00:15:29 Jordy at that time was probably
00:15:29 --> 00:15:32 um, basically a magma world. It was, it
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35 probably had a molten surface.
00:15:35 --> 00:15:38 Andrew Dunkley: So would it have not had an
00:15:38 --> 00:15:40 atmosphere at all or maybe just something
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42 really sinister and nast?
00:15:43 --> 00:15:44 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, I think it had pretty nasty stuff in
00:15:44 --> 00:15:45 its atmosphere. There would have been an
00:15:45 --> 00:15:48 atmosphere there which was probably highly
00:15:48 --> 00:15:51 toxic and uh, not good for
00:15:51 --> 00:15:53 future planet Jordy So
00:15:54 --> 00:15:56 um, there could be a link with Theia.
00:15:57 --> 00:16:00 I suspect not. As I said, I think my
00:16:00 --> 00:16:03 understanding of the latest idea on the Thea
00:16:03 --> 00:16:06 impact is that the Jordy had basically a
00:16:06 --> 00:16:08 magma ocean when the impact took place. And
00:16:08 --> 00:16:10 that's why, um,
00:16:13 --> 00:16:15 the structure of the moon, the isotopes in
00:16:15 --> 00:16:17 the moon are more related to
00:16:18 --> 00:16:21 the Jordy uh, isotopes than
00:16:21 --> 00:16:24 what THEIA might have had. We don't know what
00:16:24 --> 00:16:26 isotopic ratios there were on Theia. We don't
00:16:26 --> 00:16:29 know exactly what elements were there. Uh,
00:16:29 --> 00:16:32 but the moon is made of stuff largely similar
00:16:32 --> 00:16:34 to the Jordy Okay, all right.
00:16:34 --> 00:16:37 Andrew Dunkley: Um, but yes, we do live on
00:16:37 --> 00:16:40 a planet with a um, thin and
00:16:40 --> 00:16:43 wispy atmosphere and we, we should
00:16:43 --> 00:16:45 do as much as we can to protect it.
00:16:45 --> 00:16:46 Professor Fred Watson: Keep it there. That's right.
00:16:46 --> 00:16:49 Andrew Dunkley: Although, although you did, um, you gave me
00:16:49 --> 00:16:51 an idea. I mean if, if carbon comes out of
00:16:51 --> 00:16:53 the volcanoes, goes back into the ocean and
00:16:53 --> 00:16:55 then eventually gets sucked back down through
00:16:55 --> 00:16:58 the tectonic plates. We're not
00:16:58 --> 00:17:00 wrong to throw all our rubbish in the ocean.
00:17:00 --> 00:17:02 By the sound of a threat, we should keep
00:17:02 --> 00:17:03 doing that.
00:17:04 --> 00:17:07 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, yes, I think there
00:17:07 --> 00:17:08 might be arguments against that. Yeah,
00:17:08 --> 00:17:09 probably are.
00:17:09 --> 00:17:11 Andrew Dunkley: Yes, yes, don't, don't do anything usually
00:17:11 --> 00:17:14 wrong. Uh, but thank, uh, you very much,
00:17:14 --> 00:17:16 Greg for sending in your question.
00:17:16 --> 00:17:19 This is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and
00:17:19 --> 00:17:20 Professor Fred Watson.
00:17:23 --> 00:17:25 Speaker D: Three, two, one.
00:17:26 --> 00:17:29 Andrew Dunkley: Space Nuts. Okay Fred, we got a couple
00:17:29 --> 00:17:32 of audio questions, uh, so let's get into
00:17:32 --> 00:17:34 those. The first one comes, uh, this one
00:17:34 --> 00:17:35 comes from Switzerland.
00:17:38 --> 00:17:40 Speaker D: Hello Fred and Andrew, this is Michael from
00:17:40 --> 00:17:43 Switzerland. I have a
00:17:43 --> 00:17:46 question for you regarding the
00:17:46 --> 00:17:49 Artemis 2 mission. So, uh,
00:17:50 --> 00:17:52 there it is claimed that they have
00:17:53 --> 00:17:56 visuals of meteorite impacts
00:17:56 --> 00:17:59 on um, the moon's far side.
00:18:00 --> 00:18:03 So uh, my question is how
00:18:03 --> 00:18:05 do we discriminate uh, these
00:18:06 --> 00:18:09 uh, one person side things
00:18:09 --> 00:18:12 from physiological, uh, impact
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 of uh, high energy
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 radiation with the human retina
00:18:17 --> 00:18:20 in in space,
00:18:21 --> 00:18:23 um, one person,
00:18:23 --> 00:18:26 visual, uh, to my knowledge, is
00:18:26 --> 00:18:29 not a scientific evidence. So you need uh,
00:18:29 --> 00:18:31 at least two or more
00:18:32 --> 00:18:35 individual, uh, sightings of the
00:18:35 --> 00:18:38 same event, uh, or at
00:18:38 --> 00:18:40 least a technical, um,
00:18:41 --> 00:18:44 sighting. So, uh, what is your
00:18:44 --> 00:18:46 opinion on that? Because this
00:18:47 --> 00:18:49 makes uh, big wave, uh, in the,
00:18:50 --> 00:18:52 in the community. And uh,
00:18:53 --> 00:18:56 I'm not sure whether they really have seen
00:18:56 --> 00:18:59 meteorite impact or just were fooled by their
00:18:59 --> 00:19:02 own side. Thank you for
00:19:02 --> 00:19:05 answering and love your show. Bye.
00:19:05 --> 00:19:05 Bye.
00:19:05 --> 00:19:08 Andrew Dunkley: Thank you. Michael. Uh, I
00:19:08 --> 00:19:11 mean, it's a good question to ask because,
00:19:11 --> 00:19:13 uh, all I've heard is that
00:19:14 --> 00:19:17 there were four astronauts on Artemis 2,
00:19:17 --> 00:19:18 uh, that went around the moon,
00:19:19 --> 00:19:22 um, as far as I'm aware,
00:19:22 --> 00:19:25 and I've just double checked it, all four of
00:19:25 --> 00:19:28 them witnessed this event.
00:19:30 --> 00:19:32 So it wasn't just one,
00:19:32 --> 00:19:34 as far as we're aware.
00:19:35 --> 00:19:37 Professor Fred Watson: Um, it's a bit more complicated than that,
00:19:37 --> 00:19:38 Andrew.
00:19:38 --> 00:19:39 Andrew Dunkley: I had suspected it would be.
00:19:39 --> 00:19:40 Speaker C: Yeah.
00:19:42 --> 00:19:43 Professor Fred Watson: So there were
00:19:44 --> 00:19:47 the Gary.com of four and
00:19:47 --> 00:19:50 six impact flashes were
00:19:50 --> 00:19:53 observed, uh, uh, and I
00:19:53 --> 00:19:55 think there is a breakdown, um,
00:19:56 --> 00:19:58 which I have had, but
00:19:58 --> 00:20:01 can't lay my hands on it as to. Oh, here
00:20:01 --> 00:20:04 we are. Yeah. Um, Reid Wiseman
00:20:04 --> 00:20:07 was the commander. He saw
00:20:07 --> 00:20:10 two impacts. Jeremy
00:20:10 --> 00:20:12 Hansen observed another two.
00:20:13 --> 00:20:15 And uh,
00:20:16 --> 00:20:19 I think also the other two
00:20:19 --> 00:20:21 Gary.com members observed some.
00:20:22 --> 00:20:25 But, uh, the bottom line here is
00:20:25 --> 00:20:27 Andrew Dunkley: they only saw them one at a time.
00:20:27 --> 00:20:29 Professor Fred Watson: Were they. Yes. Were they
00:20:30 --> 00:20:32 seen together? And,
00:20:33 --> 00:20:36 um, once again my AI assistant,
00:20:36 --> 00:20:39 uh, says the specific number of flashes
00:20:40 --> 00:20:42 definitively witnessed by more than one
00:20:42 --> 00:20:45 astronaut at the exact same moment has
00:20:45 --> 00:20:48 not been isolated from the total Nally by
00:20:48 --> 00:20:50 nas. So we
00:20:50 --> 00:20:53 don't know whether any of them
00:20:53 --> 00:20:56 saw the same, you know, more than one of them
00:20:56 --> 00:20:58 saw the same flash.
00:20:59 --> 00:21:02 And in that regard, Michael's got a very good
00:21:02 --> 00:21:04 point. I think because one
00:21:05 --> 00:21:07 visual sighting isn't really
00:21:08 --> 00:21:10 a scientific observation. It needs to be,
00:21:11 --> 00:21:14 uh, somehow corroborated. And you know,
00:21:14 --> 00:21:15 one way of doing that would have been
00:21:15 --> 00:21:18 photography. Uh, but I don't think there were
00:21:18 --> 00:21:21 any photographic or imaging records
00:21:21 --> 00:21:24 of these flashes. So I think he's right to
00:21:24 --> 00:21:27 raise the question, uh, because we do know
00:21:27 --> 00:21:30 that, uh, subatomic particles, and this
00:21:30 --> 00:21:33 is particularly cosmic rays, pass through the
00:21:33 --> 00:21:36 body and can uh, essentially
00:21:37 --> 00:21:39 give you a flash on the retina as they go
00:21:39 --> 00:21:42 through one of your retinal cells. They can
00:21:43 --> 00:21:45 basically excite it, uh, and you see a flash
00:21:45 --> 00:21:47 of light. I'm pretty sure You've been them
00:21:47 --> 00:21:50 myself. A single flash
00:21:51 --> 00:21:54 against a black background. Certainly
00:21:54 --> 00:21:56 the electronic detectors that we used to use
00:21:57 --> 00:21:58 at Siding Spring Observatory, they're
00:21:58 --> 00:22:01 probably better these days. Were Very
00:22:01 --> 00:22:03 susceptible to these cosmic ray events. So
00:22:03 --> 00:22:06 when you took an image, uh, you found that a
00:22:06 --> 00:22:08 lot of flashes, sometimes lines where the
00:22:08 --> 00:22:11 cosmic ray has gone. Actually
00:22:11 --> 00:22:13 entered in the plane of the detector. So it's
00:22:13 --> 00:22:16 gone through many pixels and excited them
00:22:16 --> 00:22:18 all. Um, so it's a real phenomenon.
00:22:19 --> 00:22:19 Now,
00:22:22 --> 00:22:25 my instinct would be that there might be
00:22:25 --> 00:22:28 a differentiation in the duration of these
00:22:28 --> 00:22:30 flashes. Because cosmic ray flashes on your
00:22:30 --> 00:22:33 retina are, uh, extremely brief. Uh,
00:22:33 --> 00:22:36 but I think the flashes observed by
00:22:36 --> 00:22:39 the Artemis astronauts were also
00:22:40 --> 00:22:42 extremely brief, uh, in
00:22:42 --> 00:22:45 the region of milliseconds, probably.
00:22:46 --> 00:22:48 Um, and that's. You probably
00:22:48 --> 00:22:50 would not be able to tell the difference
00:22:50 --> 00:22:53 between one and the other. And, uh,
00:22:53 --> 00:22:56 again, they're in a high radiation
00:22:56 --> 00:22:57 environment. They are,
00:22:58 --> 00:23:01 uh, in orbit around the moon. They are,
00:23:02 --> 00:23:05 um, shaded from the radiation field
00:23:05 --> 00:23:07 of the sun, the direct radiation field of the
00:23:07 --> 00:23:09 sun, because the moon's in the way. Uh, they
00:23:09 --> 00:23:11 were looking at these on the dark side of the
00:23:11 --> 00:23:14 moon, but the cosmos as a whole was open to
00:23:14 --> 00:23:15 them. And that's where cosmic rays come from.
00:23:15 --> 00:23:17 They come from the universe, generally.
00:23:18 --> 00:23:21 So I, uh, think Michael raises a good point,
00:23:21 --> 00:23:24 and it's one. It'd be nice to get a bit
00:23:24 --> 00:23:26 more knowledge of this to see if we can get
00:23:27 --> 00:23:29 some eyewitness accounts from the Artemis
00:23:29 --> 00:23:32 astronauts. They may be writing their memoirs
00:23:32 --> 00:23:35 or whatever at the moment. It would be very
00:23:35 --> 00:23:37 good to see if any of them can corroborate
00:23:38 --> 00:23:40 these millisecond long, uh,
00:23:40 --> 00:23:41 flashes of light.
00:23:42 --> 00:23:44 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. It says a lot though, about the
00:23:44 --> 00:23:46 sensitivity of the human eye though, doesn't
00:23:46 --> 00:23:46 it?
00:23:46 --> 00:23:49 Professor Fred Watson: It does, yes. Yes. Well, it all does, we
00:23:49 --> 00:23:52 think, um, there have been experiments done,
00:23:52 --> 00:23:55 uh, quite some time ago that suggest that the
00:23:55 --> 00:23:57 human eye can almost detect individual
00:23:57 --> 00:24:00 photons, kind
00:24:00 --> 00:24:03 of, you know, perhaps groups of five or
00:24:03 --> 00:24:05 something like that are, ah, detectable. I
00:24:05 --> 00:24:07 can't remember the details of it, but yeah, a
00:24:07 --> 00:24:09 good, uh. Well, well thought out, um,
00:24:10 --> 00:24:13 uh, question from Michael there. To which we
00:24:13 --> 00:24:15 don't really have the exact answer. No.
00:24:15 --> 00:24:18 Andrew Dunkley: I Space if, um, they do
00:24:18 --> 00:24:21 write a report or something, they might be
00:24:21 --> 00:24:24 able to, um, clarify what
00:24:24 --> 00:24:27 exactly was seen and who saw it and how
00:24:27 --> 00:24:29 many of them at the same time, etc.
00:24:29 --> 00:24:32 Uh, but if it turns out that they only each
00:24:32 --> 00:24:35 saw this phenomenon
00:24:35 --> 00:24:38 individually, then probably, uh, it remains
00:24:38 --> 00:24:41 just a, um, I don't know, a casual
00:24:41 --> 00:24:43 observation, not a, A scientific
00:24:44 --> 00:24:44 thing.
00:24:45 --> 00:24:47 Professor Fred Watson: That's. That's correct. Yes, exactly.
00:24:48 --> 00:24:50 Andrew Dunkley: All right, great question, Michael. Well
00:24:50 --> 00:24:52 done. Uh, and thanks for sending that one in.
00:24:55 --> 00:24:57 Okay, We've had a problem here.
00:24:57 --> 00:24:58 Speaker D: This is Houston.
00:24:58 --> 00:25:00 Professor Fred Watson: Say again, please. Houston, we've had about.
00:25:00 --> 00:25:02 Andrew Dunkley: We've had a main B undervolt. Roger, main B
00:25:02 --> 00:25:04 undervolt. Okay, standby 13. We're looking at
00:25:04 --> 00:25:07 it. Stay sputs F5.
00:25:07 --> 00:25:10 Final question today comes from somebody who
00:25:10 --> 00:25:11 forgot to tell us their name.
00:25:13 --> 00:25:16 Speaker C: Hi guys. Um, You've been listening to the
00:25:16 --> 00:25:18 show for many many years. Um,
00:25:19 --> 00:25:21 I'm a Brit obviously. You've been wondering
00:25:21 --> 00:25:24 about how to ask a question. I've had several
00:25:24 --> 00:25:26 questions in the past. Uh, the question I
00:25:26 --> 00:25:29 have now is is there anything else that I
00:25:29 --> 00:25:31 haven't found that is going to go and
00:25:32 --> 00:25:35 observe the sun at such or even at
00:25:35 --> 00:25:37 a longer thing? Because my favourite
00:25:37 --> 00:25:40 spacecraft in the world, Parker Solar
00:25:40 --> 00:25:42 Probe and I think it is
00:25:43 --> 00:25:46 done such an amazing job and I was just
00:25:46 --> 00:25:48 wondering if there was anything else that you
00:25:48 --> 00:25:51 guys knew that might um, be
00:25:51 --> 00:25:54 more exciting. So there we
00:25:54 --> 00:25:56 go. Anyway, thank you very much for this. Um,
00:25:56 --> 00:25:59 the podcast has been fantastic for me. It's
00:25:59 --> 00:26:02 kept me going through several nights, months
00:26:02 --> 00:26:05 and years and that was the best
00:26:05 --> 00:26:05 question I could come up with.
00:26:07 --> 00:26:09 Andrew Dunkley: Fair enough. And uh, it's a good one. Uh,
00:26:09 --> 00:26:11 thanks for sending it in. Don't know your
00:26:11 --> 00:26:14 name but um, we know where you are. We know
00:26:14 --> 00:26:17 where you are. Um,
00:26:17 --> 00:26:20 now he mentioned the Parker Solar Probe. Um,
00:26:20 --> 00:26:22 that's also uh, achieved the fastest speed by
00:26:22 --> 00:26:25 a human made object ever I think.
00:26:26 --> 00:26:28 Um, fairly recently. Uh, there are
00:26:28 --> 00:26:31 several uh, probes out there
00:26:31 --> 00:26:34 sort of doing the solar thing. The Solar
00:26:34 --> 00:26:36 Orbiter which is an ESA mission. There's also
00:26:36 --> 00:26:38 the Solar Dynamics Dynamics Observatory,
00:26:38 --> 00:26:41 although I don't is it, is it up there or is
00:26:41 --> 00:26:42 it on Jordy I can't remember. It's a NASA
00:26:42 --> 00:26:45 observatory, uh, soho,
00:26:46 --> 00:26:49 uh, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.
00:26:49 --> 00:26:52 Uh, stereo, uh that's we've talked about
00:26:52 --> 00:26:54 stereo. It's two spacecraft um,
00:26:54 --> 00:26:57 orbiting the sun from different angles uh, so
00:26:57 --> 00:27:00 that they can get a um, 360 degree view
00:27:00 --> 00:27:02 of the star. And the JAXA
00:27:02 --> 00:27:03 NASA mission.
00:27:07 --> 00:27:08 Professor Fred Watson: That's right, yeah.
00:27:08 --> 00:27:10 Andrew Dunkley: Uh, which is focusing on magnetic fields. Um,
00:27:11 --> 00:27:13 so they're the ones that I'm aware of at the
00:27:13 --> 00:27:15 moment. Are they more exciting? I Space in
00:27:15 --> 00:27:17 their individual ways they've all got
00:27:17 --> 00:27:19 something different to contribute. So they'd
00:27:19 --> 00:27:22 all be exciting in one way or another.
00:27:24 --> 00:27:27 Professor Fred Watson: Um, that's right. And uh, there are some
00:27:27 --> 00:27:29 upcoming ones as well that I think qualify
00:27:29 --> 00:27:31 for being exciting. Um, but
00:27:32 --> 00:27:34 just backstory of the Parker Solar
00:27:34 --> 00:27:37 Probe, uh, the reason why it goes so fast is
00:27:37 --> 00:27:39 that it comes so close to the sun and
00:27:39 --> 00:27:41 anything that's in orbit, um, and an
00:27:41 --> 00:27:44 elliptical orbit is at its fastest when it's
00:27:44 --> 00:27:46 at uh, perihelion, the nearest point to the
00:27:46 --> 00:27:49 sun. Uh and in fact that near point
00:27:49 --> 00:27:52 um takes it through the
00:27:52 --> 00:27:54 sun's inner corona. Uh and I think
00:27:54 --> 00:27:57 I read um, this last week
00:27:57 --> 00:27:59 it had its um. Was it its 28th
00:28:01 --> 00:28:03 uh, flyby of the solar
00:28:03 --> 00:28:05 corona? I think that's right.
00:28:05 --> 00:28:07 Um, uh
00:28:08 --> 00:28:10 yes. Uh, on the 11th of
00:28:11 --> 00:28:14 June it completed its
00:28:14 --> 00:28:17 28th close approach to the sun, sorry on the
00:28:17 --> 00:28:20 8th of June, uh matching its record distance
00:28:20 --> 00:28:23 of 3.8 million miles or about
00:28:23 --> 00:28:26 5 million kilometres, something like that. So
00:28:26 --> 00:28:28 that's why that's exciting because it gets
00:28:28 --> 00:28:30 fried nearly every time it goes that close to
00:28:30 --> 00:28:32 the sun. But I think there are some coming up
00:28:33 --> 00:28:36 which are uh, um, also pretty exciting.
00:28:36 --> 00:28:39 Uh, ESA's Vigil spacecraft
00:28:40 --> 00:28:42 uh, which will launch in 2031.
00:28:42 --> 00:28:45 That's going to be at the L5 point. Andrew.
00:28:45 --> 00:28:48 So it's one of the two Lagrange
00:28:48 --> 00:28:51 points which shares the same orbit as the
00:28:51 --> 00:28:53 Jordy and it's actually the one behind the
00:28:53 --> 00:28:55 Jordy in terms of uh, the
00:28:55 --> 00:28:58 way the Jordy uh circulates in its orbit. So
00:28:58 --> 00:29:01 it's 60 degrees behind the Jordy
00:29:02 --> 00:29:04 Uh and what it sees from that vantage point
00:29:04 --> 00:29:07 is a different view of the sun because it
00:29:07 --> 00:29:09 sees uh, the side of the sun
00:29:10 --> 00:29:13 that is invisible to us but is about
00:29:13 --> 00:29:15 to become visible as the sun rotates.
00:29:16 --> 00:29:17 So it will see the sun
00:29:19 --> 00:29:22 uh several days before
00:29:22 --> 00:29:25 it moves into our view from
00:29:25 --> 00:29:27 Jordy So what it's doing is giving you
00:29:27 --> 00:29:30 advanced warning of all the kind of
00:29:30 --> 00:29:32 activity that we see on the sun's surface.
00:29:32 --> 00:29:35 Uh, coronal Massey, ejections,
00:29:35 --> 00:29:38 solar flares, all of that stuff will be
00:29:38 --> 00:29:41 visible before it comes uh, into
00:29:41 --> 00:29:43 our uh, um before it points
00:29:43 --> 00:29:46 towards the Jordy Uh where some of
00:29:46 --> 00:29:48 these things could actually have an effect on
00:29:48 --> 00:29:51 us. On Jordy Um, there's
00:29:51 --> 00:29:54 ah, something called Prober
00:29:54 --> 00:29:57 3 which is two satellites
00:29:57 --> 00:29:59 and this I think is pretty exciting as well.
00:30:00 --> 00:30:03 Uh they're in Jordy orbit but they uh,
00:30:03 --> 00:30:06 basically give you an artificial eclipse
00:30:06 --> 00:30:09 in space. Oh wow. So um, you have
00:30:09 --> 00:30:12 one which is shaped like a disc
00:30:12 --> 00:30:14 in as much as you can see it in the direction
00:30:14 --> 00:30:17 towards the sun that sits in front of the
00:30:17 --> 00:30:19 sun, the other one's some distance behind.
00:30:20 --> 00:30:22 Uh, and the two of them uh
00:30:23 --> 00:30:25 let you see the inner corona of the sun. So
00:30:25 --> 00:30:28 that's also exciting. Uh,
00:30:29 --> 00:30:31 I uh, don't know when that's uh, planned to
00:30:31 --> 00:30:33 be launched but I Beg your pardon, that is
00:30:33 --> 00:30:35 already in orbit. Uh, that's one that's
00:30:35 --> 00:30:38 already in orbit. It's a very
00:30:38 --> 00:30:41 highly precise formation, um,
00:30:41 --> 00:30:43 pair of satellites. I think we've talked
00:30:43 --> 00:30:46 about it before actually now I've come to
00:30:46 --> 00:30:46 remember.
00:30:46 --> 00:30:47 Andrew Dunkley: Sounds familiar.
00:30:47 --> 00:30:50 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. And then once again another uh
00:30:51 --> 00:30:53 there's a NASA, a set of satellites called
00:30:53 --> 00:30:56 Punch, uh four satellites um
00:30:56 --> 00:30:59 which basically are ah in what's called a sun
00:30:59 --> 00:31:01 synchronous orbit. They're always uh
00:31:01 --> 00:31:04 moving along the line between day and night
00:31:05 --> 00:31:07 and again that will give us uh
00:31:07 --> 00:31:10 3D observations because there are four
00:31:10 --> 00:31:12 satellites more than and they're in different
00:31:12 --> 00:31:15 places uh there's going to be an Indian one
00:31:15 --> 00:31:18 I think there's all sorts of really exciting
00:31:18 --> 00:31:20 stuff coming up up for solar astronomy which
00:31:20 --> 00:31:23 we'll uh learn from a whole new fleet of
00:31:23 --> 00:31:26 spacecraft. So once again uh, I'm sorry I
00:31:26 --> 00:31:28 don't know your name but it's a good question
00:31:28 --> 00:31:30 and a great one to ask indeed.
00:31:30 --> 00:31:32 Andrew Dunkley: Uh and not forgetting all the land based
00:31:32 --> 00:31:35 solar observatories and one that You've been
00:31:35 --> 00:31:37 that um I visited there last year or
00:31:37 --> 00:31:40 drove past it anyway was on uh Mount Tedi
00:31:40 --> 00:31:43 in Tenerife. Yes it's
00:31:44 --> 00:31:46 a solar observatory, the Gregor
00:31:47 --> 00:31:49 Professor Fred Watson: Observatory I think, I think that's right,
00:31:49 --> 00:31:51 yes. And there's also the Daniel K Inouye
00:31:51 --> 00:31:53 telescope uh which is on the summit of
00:31:53 --> 00:31:56 Haleakala on Maui uh we
00:31:56 --> 00:31:58 got married in front of it Marnie and I um
00:31:59 --> 00:32:01 and uh that's the biggest solar telescope at
00:32:01 --> 00:32:03 the moment. Uh I think there's a bid to try
00:32:03 --> 00:32:05 and build a bigger one but the Daniel uh K
00:32:05 --> 00:32:08 inoue telescope, a 4 metre telescope looking
00:32:08 --> 00:32:10 at the sun. So we've got the most exquisite
00:32:10 --> 00:32:12 detail on the sun's surface coming from the
00:32:12 --> 00:32:13 telescope.
00:32:13 --> 00:32:15 Andrew Dunkley: You can't keep China out of it because
00:32:15 --> 00:32:17 they've got the Chinese Large Solar Telescope
00:32:17 --> 00:32:20 um which is um quite a big
00:32:20 --> 00:32:22 one and the list is long. There are many,
00:32:22 --> 00:32:24 many on the, on the actual
00:32:25 --> 00:32:27 surface of the planet that are dedicated to
00:32:27 --> 00:32:30 solar observatory so and for the record
00:32:30 --> 00:32:33 the Parker solar probe uh achieved the
00:32:33 --> 00:32:36 fastest speed by any human made
00:32:36 --> 00:32:39 object on 24th December 2024
00:32:39 --> 00:32:42 when at perihelion it achieved a speed
00:32:42 --> 00:32:45 of 430
00:32:45 --> 00:32:48 miles per hour which is
00:32:48 --> 00:32:51 692 kilometres hour
00:32:51 --> 00:32:54 and uh, yes everyone's been arrested now
00:32:56 --> 00:32:58 Professor Fred Watson: quite right too, yes
00:32:58 --> 00:33:00 Andrew Dunkley: um, that's, that's, that's extraordinary
00:33:00 --> 00:33:03 speed though. It really is um, quite an
00:33:03 --> 00:33:06 amazing feat but um, thanks for sending it
00:33:06 --> 00:33:08 uh in your question uh whoever you are but
00:33:08 --> 00:33:11 we know where you live uh and that brings us
00:33:11 --> 00:33:13 to the end. Fred thank you very much.
00:33:13 --> 00:33:16 Professor Fred Watson: Pleasure Andrew good uh to talk again and
00:33:16 --> 00:33:17 we'll speak again soon.
00:33:17 --> 00:33:20 Andrew Dunkley: We will indeed. Professor Fred Watson,
00:33:20 --> 00:33:22 Astronomer at large. And if you would like to
00:33:22 --> 00:33:24 send a question in for our Q A episodes,
00:33:24 --> 00:33:27 please do. Just, uh, go to our website, space
00:33:27 --> 00:33:30 nutspodcast.com spacenuts IO
00:33:30 --> 00:33:33 Click on the AMA link at the top where you
00:33:33 --> 00:33:35 can send text and audio questions and we'll
00:33:35 --> 00:33:38 do our very best to ignore them, but then
00:33:38 --> 00:33:40 again, we'll probably answer them. Uh,
00:33:40 --> 00:33:42 sometimes we get people that double up and
00:33:42 --> 00:33:45 triple up. And, uh, so if we don't answer
00:33:45 --> 00:33:46 your question, it's probably because someone
00:33:46 --> 00:33:48 else already beat you to the punch. But, uh,
00:33:48 --> 00:33:50 you know, I do my best to go through them and
00:33:50 --> 00:33:53 make sure we don't miss anybody. But, um,
00:33:53 --> 00:33:56 yes, I try to share it around. So it's, um,
00:33:56 --> 00:33:58 different people all the time as well. So
00:33:58 --> 00:34:00 there's all these bureaucratic things I've
00:34:00 --> 00:34:03 got to deal with. And, uh, thanks also
00:34:03 --> 00:34:04 to Hugh in the studio.
00:34:04 --> 00:34:07 Uh, now, our last, um, question came from,
00:34:07 --> 00:34:10 um, a fellow who said he was looking into
00:34:10 --> 00:34:13 how to ask a question. And that got Hugh
00:34:13 --> 00:34:15 thinking, so he went to look it up and he's
00:34:15 --> 00:34:17 still trying to figure out how to ask a
00:34:17 --> 00:34:19 question. That's why he couldn't be with us
00:34:19 --> 00:34:21 today. And from me, Andrew Dunkley. Thanks
00:34:21 --> 00:34:22 for your company. We'll see you on the next
00:34:22 --> 00:34:24 episode of Space Nuts. Bye. Bye.
00:34:26 --> 00:34:28 You're listening to the Space Nuts podcast,
00:34:30 --> 00:34:33 available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
00:34:33 --> 00:34:35 iHeartRadio or your favourite podcast
00:34:35 --> 00:34:38 player. You can also stream on demand at
00:34:38 --> 00:34:39 Bitesz.com.
00:34:39 --> 00:34:41 Professor Fred Watson: Um, this has been another quality podcast
00:34:41 --> 00:34:43 production from Bitesz.com.
00:34:43 --> 00:34:44 Andrew Dunkley: Um,