Fires on the Moon, Interstellar Glaciers & Mayan Timekeeping Mysteries | Space Nuts: Astronomy...
Fires on the Moon, Interstellar Glaciers, and Mayan Mathematics In this captivating episode of Space Nuts , hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson explore a range of extraordinary topics that bridge the gap between the familiar and the cosmic. From the unexpected phenomenon of fires on the Moon to the discovery of interstellar glaciers, and a deep dive into the mathematical brilliance of the Mayans, this episode is packed with insights that will ignite your curiosity.
Episode Highlights:
- Fires on the Moon: Andrew and Fred Watson discuss NASA's upcoming Flammability of Materials on the Moon Experiment (FM2), designed to investigate how fire behaves in lunar gravity. With safety as a priority, they explore the implications of this research for future lunar habitats and the challenges posed by combustion in a 1/6 gravity environment.
- Interstellar Glaciers: The hosts delve into the findings from NASA's SphereX, which has revealed the presence of galactic ice and the building blocks of life within molecular clouds. They discuss the significance of these discoveries for our understanding of water in the universe and the potential for life beyond Earth.
- The Mayan Calendar and Mathematics: In a fascinating exploration of ancient knowledge, Andrew and Fred Watson examine new research highlighting the sophisticated mathematical techniques used by the Mayans to predict astronomical events. They discuss how this insight reshapes our understanding of their civilization's intelligence and longevity.
- Artemis 2 Records: The episode wraps up with a quirky revelation about the Artemis 2 mission, where the distance between astronauts aboard Artemis and those on the Chinese space station Tiangong set a new record for human separation in space. The hosts reflect on the implications of this milestone for the future of human exploration.
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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.
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Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/33181356?utm_source=youtube
Kind: captions
Language: en
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Hi there. Thanks for joining us on
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another episode of Space Nuts, where we
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talk astronomy and space science. My
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name is Andrew Dunley, your host. And
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it's always good to have your company
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wherever you are, whatever you're doing.
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You might be in traffic, you might be in
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bed, staying awake. We uh we generally
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put people to sleep, but uh staying
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awake. Um or you could be just hanging
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around the house doing whatever you need
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to do. Vacuuming, mowing the lawn.
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Yeah. All of that. Uh coming up in this
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edition, uh we're going to be talking
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about fires on the moon. What? How? Yes,
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it's a thing. Yes, it is, Jordy.
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Uh we're also
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We're also talking Interstellar glacias.
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Wow. Uh the Mayan calendar and another
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Artemus 2 record that's been set. We'll
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find out all about it on this episode of
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Space Nuts.
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>> 15 seconds. Guidance is internal. 10 9
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ignition sequence start.
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>> Space nuts.
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>> 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1
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>> Space Nuts.
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>> Astronauts report. It feels good.
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>> Back again to help us understand all of
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that is Professor Fred Watson,
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astronomer at large. Hello, Fred.
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>> Hi, Andrew. Good to see you and good to
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speak with you.
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>> What's chilly day?
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>> What's up Jord's nose today? Uh, I think
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our um I think somebody's just arrived
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at the door.
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>> That's usually how he welcomes them.
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>> Yeah, it is. It is. I might just um need
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to go and check actually if you don't
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mind.
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>> Oh, okay. Yeah, we can do that.
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>> Yeah, you could talk to yourself for a
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minute.
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>> Yeah, I I'm very good at talking to
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myself. Yes. Um Jord's um I don't know
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what kind of terrier he is. He's a tiny
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little dog, but he's very very loud. And
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whenever anybody turns up, he absolutely
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goes off his buns. And um when Judy and
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I visited there late last year, we um we
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were welcomed by Jordy tearing down the
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stairs and um marked like a maniac. But
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um yeah, he he's harmless. He's
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absolutely harmless.
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>> Uh all is well, Fred. Is he okay?
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>> Yeah. Well, he's all right. Yeah, he's
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uh the people who turned up at the door,
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nobody um nobody opened the door for
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them, so they just let themselves in.
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That's all.
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>> Oh, right. Okay. That
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>> they're well known to us. Come.
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>> Yeah. Queenslanders do that a lot
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apparently.
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>> Oh, do they? When we moved to Queensland
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in 1987 after we got married, um our
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neighbors walked in and introduced
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themselves.
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>> Really?
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>> And we thought, "Oh, that's so weird."
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But no, it's not. It's just the way
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Queenslanders are up in up in the
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northern tropics. Yeah,
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>> completely different mindset, but um you
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get used to it. It's it's a lovely
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lifestyle.
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>> Uh shall we get down to business, Fred?
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>> Well, I suppose so.
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>> If we if we must.
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>> We we we probably should.
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>> Yeah.
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>> Uh let's start off with this um story
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about fires on the moon. Now, I've
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looked at the moon many times. I've
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never seen any brush fires or bush fires
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or forest fires or, you know, dune fires
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or mountain fires or crater fires. Uh, I
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got a suspicion this has got something
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to do with um something
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humanity is going to do uh when they get
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on the moon.
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>> Yep.
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Let's talk about this because uh fires
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on the moon sounds a little bit um I
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don't know impossible but
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it's a it's a thing or will be.
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>> It is a thing. It's it's a thing and
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it's all about understanding how fires
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burn on the moon. Um it's something
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called the flam flammability of
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materials on the moon experiment. uh
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otherwise abbreviated to FM2 uh
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developed by NASA uh in a number of
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their research centers, the Glenn
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Research Center, Johnson Space Center,
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East uh sorry, Case Western Reserve
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University. What they're doing is
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they're sending uh what's called a
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self-contained combustion chamber to the
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moon and it's going on one of these
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commercial lunar payload services
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flights uh that we sort of know about
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from uh from discussions we've had
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before where the you know basically
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private companies provide hardware uh to
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uh send on robotic missions to the moon
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to set up things for when humans are
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exploring the moon um a few years down
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the track. So, it's all about um safety
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actually, Andrew. Uh that's the bottom
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line for this. It's the uh the
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motivation
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because um there is a gap in our
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understanding of how fire works.
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Uh and that is because we understand how
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fire works here on the earth. um how the
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convection brings oxygen into the flame
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and keeps the fire burning. We
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understand how it works in zero gravity
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because experiments have been done uh on
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the International Space Station that uh
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allow uh scientists to uh estimate
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estimate um basically what the behavior
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of a fire would be in zero gravity. that
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um apparently a candle flame in zero
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gravity is just spherical.
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>> I I read that. That's um that's strange.
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And uh I mean we all know how horrible
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fires can be in in terms of um space
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travel that there have been tragedies
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over the years. um uh Apollo one in
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particular, but um uh there have been
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other incidents uh with fires and and uh
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and certain issues, but um what happens
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on Earth and what happens in zero G we
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know about what happens on the moon.
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>> That's what we don't know about.
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>> Yeah.
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>> Uh and so that's the um that's the
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reason for these tests. uh because
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scientists have actually raised concerns
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about the way fire might behave on the
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moon because it is different when you're
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in one sixth of the earth's gravity
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which is basically lunar lunar gravity.
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>> Yeah.
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>> Uh there's there is a standard um that
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is measured by NASA in terms of how
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things burn. It's called NASA-STD-60001B
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and it's what's called a vertical burn
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test. And I'm reading now from uh from a
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Space Daily article that describes this
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all very nicely. The current standard is
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a vertical burn test. A 6-in flame is
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held to the bottom of a vertically
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mounted sample. If the flame climbs more
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than six inches up the sample or if
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molten debris drips off and keeps
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burning, the material fails. It's a
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straightforward repeatable procedure and
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it's kept crews safe on shuttle
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international space station and every
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commercial vehicle that has followed.
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The test has hidden assumptions baked
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in. The buoyancy driven convection will
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behave the same way in flight as it did
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in the lab. For low Earth orbit,
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engineers have patched around this
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assumption with experience. For the
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lunar surface, there is no equivalent
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flight heritage to fall back on. In
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other words, we don't have any
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experience of how things behave in one
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sixth gravity.
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>> So, yeah. So,
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>> I I would I would assume that u knowing
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what we know about fire on Earth and in
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zero gravity with a little bit of
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gravity on the moon, it' be different
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again.
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Yes, that's right. Um, it's it's uh once
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again um looking at uh the space daily
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piece which is very very nicely uh
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encapsulates what these experiments are
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about. Um there have been tests done uh
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inside uh uncrrewed
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um actually they were the signis ones
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not the dragon capsules uh signis cargo
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capsules uh uh before they re-enter and
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burn up in the atmosphere. There have
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been uh what are called sapphire tests
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the spacecraft fire safety series. I
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think you and I spoke about that
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probably a couple of years ago. Mhm.
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>> Um so what you do is you deliberately
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ignite samples of the material uh and
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and look at how the flames behave and
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sometimes actually they they they spread
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in the opposite direction to the way the
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air flows coming. Um and also apparently
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they burn hotter on thinner materials.
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And that's all great, but that's that's
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microgravity. That's effectively zero
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gravity. And it is a different physical
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regime as they put it from partial
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gravity combustion. Uh which is what we
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will experience on the moon. Uh all
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these items uh once again uh a very nice
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summary here. The flame shape, the flow
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structure, the soot chemistry and the
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spread rate all respond nonlinearly to
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the gravitational acceleration.
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So uh you can't really it's not
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something you can simulate. Um you can
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you know you can certainly simulate
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weightlessness either with by dropping
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things off big towers. Uh that's one way
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of simulating weightlessness. Yeah. Um
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and it's what was in Einstein's head
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when he worked out the special the sorry
00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:49.750
the general theory of relativity how
00:09:49.760 --> 00:09:51.829
gravity works. And then there are those
00:09:51.839 --> 00:09:53.829
parabolic aircraft flights that we often
00:09:53.839 --> 00:09:56.790
refer to as the vomit comet uh for um
00:09:56.800 --> 00:09:59.990
for humans. But not none of those are
00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:03.430
long enough period um in in order to to
00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:05.829
simulate how things go when something
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catches fire. Uh and of course they are
00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:12.070
all microgravity. Um so this FM2
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experiment is designed to be
00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:17.990
self-contained. It's a sealed cont
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chamber contains four solid fuel
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samples. uh and they will go to one of
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these commercial lunar program uh uh
00:10:26.560 --> 00:10:29.750
landers uh on the surface. Um and
00:10:29.760 --> 00:10:32.150
apparently the samples, the burning
00:10:32.160 --> 00:10:35.110
samples are lit one after another uh and
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there are all sorts of cameras and
00:10:36.959 --> 00:10:39.350
radiometers and oxygen sensors,
00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:42.230
temperature gauges, all of that stuff to
00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:44.550
look at the the flame geometry and uh
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how much heat comes from it, h how much
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of the oxygen is is consumed. So all
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that is um is going to teach us what
00:10:54.959 --> 00:10:57.110
might happen if something went wrong
00:10:57.120 --> 00:10:59.110
when you have astronauts walking on the
00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:00.870
moon. Uh if you have a you know some
00:11:00.880 --> 00:11:04.389
sort of um habitat uh where a where a
00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:07.829
fire is induced or catches fire whatever
00:11:07.839 --> 00:11:10.470
um we should from from these experiments
00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:12.870
we should know how to deal with it which
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we don't at the moment.
00:11:14.320 --> 00:11:16.150
>> Yeah. Uh, one of the points in the
00:11:16.160 --> 00:11:18.470
article I thought was interesting was
00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:21.590
that uh, there could be materials that
00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:24.230
exist on Earth that are certified, you
00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:27.350
know, agrade fire retardant. You know,
00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:29.750
nothing to worry about here, but that
00:11:29.760 --> 00:11:31.509
might not be the case with the same
00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:33.269
material on the moon.
00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:35.110
>> Exactly. That's right. So, that's what
00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:37.509
this is all about. And it is it's common
00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:39.910
sense really when you think about it.
00:11:39.920 --> 00:11:42.630
It's and it's a lot better to send a a
00:11:42.640 --> 00:11:45.910
self-contained experiment to the moon um
00:11:45.920 --> 00:11:47.670
rather than getting somebody standing on
00:11:47.680 --> 00:11:49.509
the moon to light a match in a habitat
00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:50.949
and see what happens. It's
00:11:50.959 --> 00:11:52.069
>> yes,
00:11:52.079 --> 00:11:53.509
>> that will not be good.
00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:55.590
>> And I I suppose long term we're going to
00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:58.150
see all sorts of facilities on the moon.
00:11:58.160 --> 00:12:00.790
We're going to have as you said habitat,
00:12:00.800 --> 00:12:04.550
but there'll be there'll be um labs, you
00:12:04.560 --> 00:12:07.910
know, um um all sorts of spaces for all
00:12:07.920 --> 00:12:09.110
sorts of different things. probably
00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:11.269
things we haven't even thought of yet.
00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:14.069
Uh there'll be um you know they're
00:12:14.079 --> 00:12:16.150
talking about making rocket fuel on the
00:12:16.160 --> 00:12:19.110
moon. Now there's a fire hazard
00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:20.949
>> if if ever there was one. That's right.
00:12:20.959 --> 00:12:23.110
If you're separating hydrogen and oxygen
00:12:23.120 --> 00:12:25.269
when they come back together they Yep.
00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:27.590
There's a fire hazard. Absolutely right.
00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:29.190
>> Yeah. So there's there's a lot to take
00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:31.990
into consideration. So, it's uh it's
00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:33.829
it's it's obviously something that they
00:12:33.839 --> 00:12:35.509
really need to figure out and this
00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:37.030
sounds like a very good way of doing it,
00:12:37.040 --> 00:12:40.550
a controlled experiment. Um, and and
00:12:40.560 --> 00:12:42.710
they does it say when they're planning
00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:44.150
to do this? It shouldn't be too long
00:12:44.160 --> 00:12:45.110
away.
00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:46.870
>> No, that's right. I think it's on an
00:12:46.880 --> 00:12:49.829
upcoming uh uh one of these commercial
00:12:49.839 --> 00:12:52.470
flights. I can't see a date in it
00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:54.790
>> uh in this piece, but um uh yeah, I'm
00:12:54.800 --> 00:12:56.870
sure we'll we'll find about the results
00:12:56.880 --> 00:12:58.150
when they've when they've actually
00:12:58.160 --> 00:13:01.110
happened. Yeah, indeed. All right. U if
00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:03.110
you'd like to read all about it, you can
00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:06.310
find that story at spaceaily.com
00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:07.829
and you could probably find it on the
00:13:07.839 --> 00:13:10.710
NASA website as well. This is Space Nuts
00:13:10.720 --> 00:13:13.509
with Andrew Dunley and Professor Fred
00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:19.350
Watson
00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:21.509
base here. The angle has landed.
00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:22.949
>> Space nets.
00:13:22.959 --> 00:13:25.430
>> Now, Fred, we move from the moon to
00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:28.949
beyond. Uh we're going way out in fact
00:13:28.959 --> 00:13:31.430
uh to interstellar regions of the
00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:37.670
universe uh where NASA has um discovered
00:13:37.680 --> 00:13:40.710
galactic ice. They're describing them as
00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:43.190
interstellar glacias.
00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:45.190
>> Indeed. That's right. So yes, from fire
00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:47.430
to ice. It's almost almost like being
00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:50.069
being on Iceland where you've got them
00:13:50.079 --> 00:13:53.750
together. Um and this is um uh a story
00:13:53.760 --> 00:13:57.189
that comes from um research that has
00:13:57.199 --> 00:13:59.110
been done using a spacecraft that you
00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:00.870
and I I think we talked about it when it
00:14:00.880 --> 00:14:03.990
was launched um but we don't often
00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:06.230
mention it and it is producing some
00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:08.150
quite significant results. It's called
00:14:08.160 --> 00:14:11.829
Sphere X uh which is an acronym for
00:14:11.839 --> 00:14:14.150
spectrophotometer for the history of the
00:14:14.160 --> 00:14:18.069
universe epoch of reionization and ISIS
00:14:18.079 --> 00:14:22.470
explorer. I would have guessed that.
00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:24.150
>> Yes, I'm sure you would if you were, you
00:14:24.160 --> 00:14:26.069
know, 20 years to think about what it
00:14:26.079 --> 00:14:28.550
might be because I certainly wouldn't.
00:14:28.560 --> 00:14:31.430
>> Um, but what it's been doing is, uh, so
00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:33.670
that it's a basically a survey
00:14:33.680 --> 00:14:35.910
spacecraft. It's got wide angle
00:14:35.920 --> 00:14:40.710
telescopes. uh it has um it's basically
00:14:40.720 --> 00:14:43.110
it takes images but it takes them
00:14:43.120 --> 00:14:46.310
through I think it's 102 different
00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:49.910
different color filters uh which which
00:14:49.920 --> 00:14:53.350
uh these color filters are centered on
00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:56.470
key wavelengths in the spectrum uh which
00:14:56.480 --> 00:15:00.150
allows you to image you know see what
00:15:00.160 --> 00:15:03.269
where all the iron atoms are see where
00:15:03.279 --> 00:15:05.030
all the calcium atoms are see where all
00:15:05.040 --> 00:15:07.509
the hydrogen atoms are see where all the
00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:09.910
oxygen atoms are. All of that stuff
00:15:09.920 --> 00:15:13.350
comes from this ability to see the sky
00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:16.870
in, as I said, 102 colors. Uh they're in
00:15:16.880 --> 00:15:19.269
the infrared, so it's sort of mimics the
00:15:19.279 --> 00:15:23.430
James Web telescope. Um it's however, as
00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:25.189
I said, a wide field telescope, which
00:15:25.199 --> 00:15:26.790
means it's doing surveys rather than
00:15:26.800 --> 00:15:29.509
homing in onto
00:15:29.519 --> 00:15:31.350
small areas of space where you want to
00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:33.030
magnify things so you can see all the
00:15:33.040 --> 00:15:35.990
fine detail. Uh it was launched um only
00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:38.150
a year ago, a year or so ago, March the
00:15:38.160 --> 00:15:40.949
11th, 2025.
00:15:40.959 --> 00:15:44.310
Um and it's already sending back some
00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:47.750
really quite spectacular uh results. So
00:15:47.760 --> 00:15:51.590
by the end of last year um it had uh
00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:53.110
completed
00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:57.269
uh the first of its all sky infrared
00:15:57.279 --> 00:16:00.150
maps of the sky of the universe
00:16:00.160 --> 00:16:00.870
basically.
00:16:00.880 --> 00:16:04.069
>> Mhm. Um and it's it's basically measured
00:16:04.079 --> 00:16:06.790
hundreds of millions of galaxies. Uh it
00:16:06.800 --> 00:16:09.430
does it essentially uh in three
00:16:09.440 --> 00:16:11.910
dimensions rather than two. Uh an
00:16:11.920 --> 00:16:13.990
imaging telescope you might think can
00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:16.949
only see uh everything as as if it was
00:16:16.959 --> 00:16:19.110
plastered on the celestial sphere. And
00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:22.230
that's an imaginary concept of uh you
00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:23.910
know where you say everything's at the
00:16:23.920 --> 00:16:25.350
same distance and it represents a
00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:26.550
sphere. and you can measure the
00:16:26.560 --> 00:16:28.870
positions of objects on that sphere very
00:16:28.880 --> 00:16:30.230
accurately in a science we call
00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:33.590
astrometry. But with all these 102
00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:36.710
filters um you can also use this
00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:39.670
instrument to get uh estimates of red
00:16:39.680 --> 00:16:43.350
shift and by that I mean the effectively
00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:45.670
the the way the spectrum of a a distant
00:16:45.680 --> 00:16:48.230
galaxy is shifted towards the red end of
00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:51.910
the spectrum. Uh and you can do that by
00:16:51.920 --> 00:16:54.629
choosing your filters carefully so that
00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:57.590
um as certain features in the spectrum
00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:00.389
of a galaxy drop in and out as the red
00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:02.629
shift increases, you could get an
00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:04.309
estimate of what the red shift is
00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:06.390
without actually making a spectrum. It's
00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:09.829
um a technique that's been known for
00:17:09.839 --> 00:17:12.789
many years uh essentially called spe um
00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:15.189
photo phototric red shifts. That's what
00:17:15.199 --> 00:17:18.069
we call it. uh and um so what they're
00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:20.150
doing is basically measuring the 3D
00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:22.789
positions of galaxies by the hundreds of
00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:25.350
millions. Uh and that will tell us a lot
00:17:25.360 --> 00:17:29.110
about um the the state of the state of
00:17:29.120 --> 00:17:32.630
the union in uh in galaxies at very
00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:34.470
great distances as well as the nearby
00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:36.470
ones. And it'll tell us about the
00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:40.230
evolution of uh things like uh the
00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:41.669
amount of water that there is in a
00:17:41.679 --> 00:17:43.990
galaxy, the amount of ice essentially.
00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:46.710
Um but they can also use this instrument
00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:48.950
not just to look at distant galaxies but
00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:51.270
to look at the gas clouds in our own
00:17:51.280 --> 00:17:54.390
galaxy. Uh and um that's where this
00:17:54.400 --> 00:17:56.630
story comes from. They've looked at what
00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:59.510
we call molecular clouds which you might
00:17:59.520 --> 00:18:01.590
not be surprised to hear are clouds of
00:18:01.600 --> 00:18:05.669
molecules. Uh and they are they're where
00:18:05.679 --> 00:18:08.710
we think stars are born giant molecular
00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:11.830
clouds. Um they've looked at some of the
00:18:11.840 --> 00:18:14.230
regions uh of the Milky Way which are
00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:18.470
richest in these clouds of gas uh and
00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:21.029
essentially used the fact that infrared
00:18:21.039 --> 00:18:24.390
can penetrate dust rather well at least
00:18:24.400 --> 00:18:26.950
near infrared can as we see when we look
00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:28.310
at some of the pictures from the James
00:18:28.320 --> 00:18:31.750
Web telescope. Uh that um dust
00:18:31.760 --> 00:18:33.669
penetrating ability allows you to see
00:18:33.679 --> 00:18:35.909
deep into some of these giant molecular
00:18:35.919 --> 00:18:38.070
clouds which are otherwise opaque to
00:18:38.080 --> 00:18:41.190
visible light and then you can look at
00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:43.510
what sort of chemicals are there and
00:18:43.520 --> 00:18:48.150
what sort of ices there are in um in in
00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:51.270
these clouds. Um and the ice we we know
00:18:51.280 --> 00:18:53.909
from other studies the ice tends to form
00:18:53.919 --> 00:18:57.510
on on dust grains. These are tiny dust
00:18:57.520 --> 00:18:59.110
grains. We we call them dust. It's
00:18:59.120 --> 00:19:02.390
really smoke uh in space because smoke
00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:04.870
here on Earth is solid particles very
00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:09.190
very tiny. Um that's how dust exists in
00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:11.830
space in these very tiny particles which
00:19:11.840 --> 00:19:15.029
are often coated with ices because the
00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:18.390
ice condenses on these cold cold dust
00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:20.710
particles. One of my former colleagues,
00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:22.789
somebody I actually studied with when I
00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:25.190
was at uni about 100 years ago, uh has
00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:27.750
spent his career in the United States,
00:19:27.760 --> 00:19:29.110
uh looking at this kind of thing,
00:19:29.120 --> 00:19:30.710
looking at interstellar dust and
00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:33.669
interstellar ISIS. I excuse me, I don't
00:19:33.679 --> 00:19:34.950
think he's actually involved with this
00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:37.350
research. Uh but he would have he would
00:19:37.360 --> 00:19:38.870
certainly understand and probably knows
00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:40.710
the people who are working on it uh
00:19:40.720 --> 00:19:42.870
would understand the results. So what
00:19:42.880 --> 00:19:46.470
they found is um a whole range of
00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:49.669
different uh molecules as well as water
00:19:49.679 --> 00:19:54.470
ice um there are uh some of the complex
00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:57.430
molecules like polycyclic aromatic
00:19:57.440 --> 00:19:59.669
hydrocarbons and these are things that
00:19:59.679 --> 00:20:01.430
are I mean they're carbon containing
00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:04.070
which is why they are called organic
00:20:04.080 --> 00:20:07.830
molecules u and finding those really
00:20:07.840 --> 00:20:09.750
gives you an insight into chemistry that
00:20:09.760 --> 00:20:12.070
goes on inside some of these giant
00:20:12.080 --> 00:20:14.310
molecular clouds and indeed we know from
00:20:14.320 --> 00:20:17.029
other studies that some of those ices
00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:19.750
represent the building blocks of life
00:20:19.760 --> 00:20:21.830
that we find all kinds of molecules that
00:20:21.840 --> 00:20:24.070
are important in life processes. So we
00:20:24.080 --> 00:20:25.510
haven't discovered life yet but we
00:20:25.520 --> 00:20:27.590
discovered the the building blocks uh
00:20:27.600 --> 00:20:29.830
and uh and the the point I was going to
00:20:29.840 --> 00:20:31.590
make the point of this story is there
00:20:31.600 --> 00:20:33.830
are huge quantities out there more than
00:20:33.840 --> 00:20:36.230
anybody expected.
00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:38.390
Yeah, we we have talked about the fact
00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:41.590
that water is plentiful in the universe.
00:20:41.600 --> 00:20:43.830
That's certainly something that's um
00:20:43.840 --> 00:20:46.149
becoming more and more evident, but this
00:20:46.159 --> 00:20:50.630
sheds a whole new light on it like um
00:20:50.640 --> 00:20:54.070
it's out there in a in abundance.
00:20:54.080 --> 00:20:57.350
>> Exactly. That's right. Um, I mean it, as
00:20:57.360 --> 00:21:00.070
you and I have said many times, the um
00:21:00.080 --> 00:21:02.230
most common two element molecule in the
00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:03.990
whole universe is water,
00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:06.549
>> H2O. And so it shouldn't surprise us
00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:09.270
that we've got ice everywhere. I mean,
00:21:09.280 --> 00:21:11.029
it's the same in our own solar system.
00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:13.830
We didn't know until comparatively
00:21:13.840 --> 00:21:15.430
recently that ice is abundant,
00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:17.510
particularly in the in the moons of the
00:21:17.520 --> 00:21:21.510
ice outer planets, uh, Saturn, um,
00:21:21.520 --> 00:21:23.190
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:25.350
They've all got moons that are very icy.
00:21:25.360 --> 00:21:27.029
And then you go out to the Kyper belt
00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:28.950
and the trans neptunian objects. They're
00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:30.310
all icy, too.
00:21:30.320 --> 00:21:33.029
>> Uh as are the comets that reside in the
00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:35.669
or cloud. So, it's everywhere. Water is
00:21:35.679 --> 00:21:37.590
absolutely everywhere. And the liquid
00:21:37.600 --> 00:21:41.430
oceans in the ice moons and the list
00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:44.149
goes on. And of course, the the way
00:21:44.159 --> 00:21:47.350
water is ended up in certain places. Uh
00:21:47.360 --> 00:21:50.789
one uh theory we talked about some time
00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:53.110
back is that when earth formed the water
00:21:53.120 --> 00:21:56.710
was already here because like this where
00:21:56.720 --> 00:21:58.390
water is attached to those dust
00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:02.149
particles or the dust molecules. Same
00:22:02.159 --> 00:22:03.830
with all the material that made earth
00:22:03.840 --> 00:22:06.789
and it's just eventually as conditions
00:22:06.799 --> 00:22:09.590
changed seeped into the places where
00:22:09.600 --> 00:22:12.310
it's now become oceans and clouds and
00:22:12.320 --> 00:22:15.909
rivers and created a whole ecosystem.
00:22:15.919 --> 00:22:18.070
Exactly. That's right. That's certainly.
00:22:18.080 --> 00:22:20.390
So, we think maybe the worth the earth's
00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:22.470
water has two sources. One of which
00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:24.870
you've mentioned. It's actually
00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:27.430
hydrolated rocks that um formed the
00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:28.549
earth.
00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:30.310
>> But also the possibility that some of it
00:22:30.320 --> 00:22:32.630
came from comets and we've discussed the
00:22:32.640 --> 00:22:34.310
one of the problems with that theory and
00:22:34.320 --> 00:22:37.029
that um sometimes the comet's uh heavy
00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:38.870
water to normal water ratio doesn't
00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:41.750
match what the oceans of the earth have.
00:22:41.760 --> 00:22:44.070
Uh, and I I think there are some comets
00:22:44.080 --> 00:22:46.630
that do, but some don't. So, it's kind
00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:47.830
of open question.
00:22:47.840 --> 00:22:50.070
>> Doesn't match on Mars either compared to
00:22:50.080 --> 00:22:50.310
Earth.
00:22:50.320 --> 00:22:51.990
>> I believe not. That's right.
00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:53.990
>> Yeah, it's all fascinating. I love it.
00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:55.669
Really, you didn't think water was so
00:22:55.679 --> 00:22:57.350
interesting, but it's pretty pretty
00:22:57.360 --> 00:22:58.950
amazing stuff.
00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:01.430
>> Yeah. Great story this one. You can read
00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:03.750
it at f.org or you can read the paper
00:23:03.760 --> 00:23:06.390
that's been published recently at the
00:23:06.400 --> 00:23:07.909
Astrophysical
00:23:07.919 --> 00:23:11.029
Journal. Space Nuts. This is with Andrew
00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:16.149
Dunley and Professor Fred Watson.
00:23:16.159 --> 00:23:18.390
>> Okay, we checked all four systems and
00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:19.029
with
00:23:19.039 --> 00:23:20.310
>> Space Nuts,
00:23:20.320 --> 00:23:22.789
>> right, Fred, couple of stories to finish
00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:25.590
up. Um, couple of quick ones. Um, I I
00:23:25.600 --> 00:23:27.190
was reading an article the other day and
00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:29.750
it just sort of jumped out at me. A new
00:23:29.760 --> 00:23:32.710
uh paper has been published uh after a
00:23:32.720 --> 00:23:37.029
study into um the way the Mayans used to
00:23:37.039 --> 00:23:39.909
calculate time and used mathematics to
00:23:39.919 --> 00:23:43.830
to um predict um things that most
00:23:43.840 --> 00:23:45.270
civilizations would have thought were
00:23:45.280 --> 00:23:47.909
pretty random and damn scary like
00:23:47.919 --> 00:23:51.430
eclipses and uh seasons and and the list
00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:55.430
goes on. Um, but what the Mayans did was
00:23:55.440 --> 00:23:58.549
probably far superior to most other
00:23:58.559 --> 00:24:02.310
civilizations. Their mathematics was was
00:24:02.320 --> 00:24:04.470
beyond comprehension for most of us. I
00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:06.710
think um this is this is all brand new
00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:08.789
information. I know we know about how
00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:10.950
clever they were, but this kind of sheds
00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:12.870
a bit of new light onto it by the look
00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:14.549
of things.
00:24:14.559 --> 00:24:21.190
>> Um, that's correct. It's uh it's um the
00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:25.909
result of some research that uh goes
00:24:25.919 --> 00:24:28.630
back to a document called the Dresden
00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:32.149
Codeex uh which is a
00:24:32.159 --> 00:24:34.710
essentially a manuscript that dates from
00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:37.590
the Maya civilization which is was
00:24:37.600 --> 00:24:40.630
actually extremely longived. Um, I think
00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:43.909
it sort of kicked off uh something like
00:24:43.919 --> 00:24:49.190
uh 200 BC or BCE uh and lasted until the
00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:53.990
1600s uh uh AD or CE common era.
00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:58.390
>> Uh and um and so that's perhaps a hint
00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:01.590
as to why their mathematics and
00:25:01.600 --> 00:25:06.630
astronomy were so effective because they
00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:09.269
had a long long time
00:25:09.279 --> 00:25:12.070
uh to count the years between certain
00:25:12.080 --> 00:25:16.230
events and to um you know do that over
00:25:16.240 --> 00:25:20.630
over many many years so that you get a
00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:23.029
really accurate idea and the kind of
00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:25.269
thing I'm thinking of Andrew is the um
00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:28.149
what the lunar cycle uh the moon has a
00:25:28.159 --> 00:25:31.830
cycle of 18.6 in six years and on that
00:25:31.840 --> 00:25:34.870
scale eclipses more or less repeat
00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:37.350
throughout the throughout the year. Uh
00:25:37.360 --> 00:25:39.350
they don't exactly repeat so you don't
00:25:39.360 --> 00:25:41.269
get total eclipses occurring in exactly
00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:44.390
the same place but you uh you can use
00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:48.549
that that cycle in order to predict when
00:25:48.559 --> 00:25:50.630
there are likely to be eclipses. So if
00:25:50.640 --> 00:25:52.470
you've got a longestablished
00:25:52.480 --> 00:25:55.510
civilization with a long memory uh that
00:25:55.520 --> 00:25:58.950
18.6 six year cycle would be well known
00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:02.149
and well understood. Uh and I think the
00:26:02.159 --> 00:26:05.110
um what's um made the particular study
00:26:05.120 --> 00:26:06.870
that we're talking about it's published
00:26:06.880 --> 00:26:09.669
in the journal science advances is that
00:26:09.679 --> 00:26:11.830
some of the tables that are in the
00:26:11.840 --> 00:26:15.269
Dresden codeex uh have now been
00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:19.190
interpreted as as being the um method by
00:26:19.200 --> 00:26:22.230
which the Maya people actually did do
00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:23.990
things like eclipse predicting
00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:26.070
predicting eclipses.
00:26:26.080 --> 00:26:30.230
And it it's it differs from from uh uh
00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:32.230
what people thought happened. People
00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:33.990
thought these tables were just sort of
00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:36.470
one-off things that um that that didn't
00:26:36.480 --> 00:26:38.310
really talk to, you know, have anything
00:26:38.320 --> 00:26:40.630
to do with each other, the tabulated
00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:43.830
information. But it now looks as though
00:26:43.840 --> 00:26:45.590
uh it's much more clever than that. a
00:26:45.600 --> 00:26:47.590
kind of iterative approach with tables
00:26:47.600 --> 00:26:52.149
that overlap and um basically as time
00:26:52.159 --> 00:26:55.029
goes on you eliminate any kind of errors
00:26:55.039 --> 00:26:57.029
uh that might be there and so you end up
00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:00.149
with something very accurate indeed. Um
00:27:00.159 --> 00:27:02.630
yeah so it's a quite an interesting
00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:05.110
story uh for people who are interested
00:27:05.120 --> 00:27:07.190
in archa astronomy which we are of
00:27:07.200 --> 00:27:08.149
course on space
00:27:08.159 --> 00:27:10.789
>> yeah I I think it talks about the the
00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:13.750
minds having two two completely
00:27:13.760 --> 00:27:16.549
different systems but when they put them
00:27:16.559 --> 00:27:17.990
together and looked at them they went
00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:21.669
hey wait a minute they work together and
00:27:21.679 --> 00:27:25.350
they they are so incredibly accurate
00:27:25.360 --> 00:27:28.789
>> and um and it opened up a whole new
00:27:28.799 --> 00:27:31.190
realm of uh understanding about how the
00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:34.310
minds did what they did. Uh and I
00:27:34.320 --> 00:27:35.669
suppose when you think about it, they
00:27:35.679 --> 00:27:37.830
had 4,000 years, as you said, they had a
00:27:37.840 --> 00:27:40.149
long period of time to to collect this
00:27:40.159 --> 00:27:41.269
data.
00:27:41.279 --> 00:27:44.390
>> So, um yeah, pretty amazing stuff.
00:27:44.400 --> 00:27:46.470
>> And it it brings me back to that old
00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:49.990
chestnut that we we assume we are all
00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:51.590
knowledgeable. We are, you know, we are
00:27:51.600 --> 00:27:54.070
the cleverest humans that ever existed.
00:27:54.080 --> 00:27:56.470
We're not. We're no more intelligent
00:27:56.480 --> 00:27:59.909
than than the first humans. We've just
00:27:59.919 --> 00:28:02.230
progressed over time to reach the point
00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:04.870
we are. But the Mayans are exhibiting an
00:28:04.880 --> 00:28:09.590
intelligence that predates u the modern
00:28:09.600 --> 00:28:11.190
era if you like.
00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:13.750
>> And that they've shown that the
00:28:13.760 --> 00:28:16.630
intelligence of homo sapiens is long
00:28:16.640 --> 00:28:18.549
lived. It's not just something that's
00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:20.470
happened in the last few hundred years.
00:28:20.480 --> 00:28:23.590
It's it's it's been
00:28:23.600 --> 00:28:25.669
it's always been there is I I guess is
00:28:25.679 --> 00:28:27.029
what I'm saying.
00:28:27.039 --> 00:28:29.430
>> Yes, that's right. So it's that's homo
00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:32.389
sapiens. That's right. It's uh it's we
00:28:32.399 --> 00:28:35.190
are gifted with um a brain of 100
00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:37.430
billion neurons
00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:40.549
>> uh which um can still outdo computers
00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:42.710
and AI although of course AI is catching
00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:46.630
up. Uh but it's still not human. Um and
00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:49.110
uh I don't think it ever will be.
00:28:49.120 --> 00:28:52.950
>> I hope not. I hope not. Judy and I read
00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:55.830
an article the other day about um how
00:28:55.840 --> 00:28:59.110
they're going to use AI robots
00:28:59.120 --> 00:29:02.070
uh in in nursing homes in the not too
00:29:02.080 --> 00:29:06.470
distant future to help people with um
00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:09.350
simple things like uh communication,
00:29:09.360 --> 00:29:11.350
just having a conversation because they
00:29:11.360 --> 00:29:15.029
get lonely. Um and they're going to use
00:29:15.039 --> 00:29:17.510
AI robots to do things like that.
00:29:17.520 --> 00:29:21.029
they'll be able to have intelligent
00:29:21.039 --> 00:29:22.789
one-on-one
00:29:22.799 --> 00:29:25.669
conversations with a human being like
00:29:25.679 --> 00:29:28.310
this just that blows my mind. I know you
00:29:28.320 --> 00:29:30.070
can kind of do that at the moment with
00:29:30.080 --> 00:29:31.830
you know your Google Homes and all these
00:29:31.840 --> 00:29:35.029
but this is a whole new level this
00:29:35.039 --> 00:29:36.310
>> and it looks like they're going to roll
00:29:36.320 --> 00:29:38.950
that out in parts of Australia in the
00:29:38.960 --> 00:29:41.590
not too distant future. So yeah, it's a
00:29:41.600 --> 00:29:44.149
brave new world. Um
00:29:44.159 --> 00:29:45.830
just I hope they remember the three
00:29:45.840 --> 00:29:48.230
laws. We better not forget that. Yeah.
00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:49.350
>> Of robotics.
00:29:49.360 --> 00:29:51.590
>> Yes. The three laws of robotics.
00:29:51.600 --> 00:29:52.630
>> Yeah.
00:29:52.640 --> 00:29:54.230
>> Yeah. Uh but if you want to read about
00:29:54.240 --> 00:29:56.630
that story, it's at uh
00:29:56.640 --> 00:30:00.630
futura-sciences.com
00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:02.870
about the Mayan calendar and their
00:30:02.880 --> 00:30:05.430
mathematical brilliance. One quick one
00:30:05.440 --> 00:30:07.190
to finish off, Fred. We're going back to
00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:10.310
Artemus 2. Uh we we talked about not so
00:30:10.320 --> 00:30:12.149
long ago um not like the whole mission
00:30:12.159 --> 00:30:13.830
and everything they did, but the fact
00:30:13.840 --> 00:30:16.710
that they the astronauts on that
00:30:16.720 --> 00:30:20.149
particular mission were the humans that
00:30:20.159 --> 00:30:22.149
achieved the furthest distance from
00:30:22.159 --> 00:30:24.950
humanity in history because of how far
00:30:24.960 --> 00:30:27.190
out they had to go to loop back around
00:30:27.200 --> 00:30:29.909
the moon. But now they've made another
00:30:29.919 --> 00:30:32.389
quirky little um discovery about a
00:30:32.399 --> 00:30:34.389
record that was set that somebody just
00:30:34.399 --> 00:30:36.310
by chance decided to follow up and went,
00:30:36.320 --> 00:30:38.149
"Oh, hang on a minute. I've actually
00:30:38.159 --> 00:30:41.190
found something. What's this one about?
00:30:41.200 --> 00:30:43.669
>> Oh, well, it's it goes back to um one of
00:30:43.679 --> 00:30:46.070
the veteran commentators on space flight
00:30:46.080 --> 00:30:48.549
and satellites, somebody whose work over
00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:51.190
the decades has been invaluable in
00:30:51.200 --> 00:30:53.750
telling us what the you know how crowded
00:30:53.760 --> 00:30:55.190
space is and things like that. His name
00:30:55.200 --> 00:30:59.909
is Jonathan McDow. Uh he um is always I
00:30:59.919 --> 00:31:02.789
think his head is full of numbers that
00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:07.029
relate to spacecraft. Uh but he he noted
00:31:07.039 --> 00:31:09.590
that um
00:31:09.600 --> 00:31:13.029
the that the there is something
00:31:13.039 --> 00:31:16.310
different from what was being widely
00:31:16.320 --> 00:31:18.710
touted during the Arteimus mission. And
00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:22.070
that is that the distance between the
00:31:22.080 --> 00:31:25.750
humans on board Artemis and uh the
00:31:25.760 --> 00:31:27.510
humans on the International Space
00:31:27.520 --> 00:31:30.870
Station was a record for the separation
00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:35.669
of humans. And it was actually 419,581
00:31:35.679 --> 00:31:38.549
kilometers. That's the integrity to
00:31:38.559 --> 00:31:42.230
International Space Station distance. Uh
00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:44.630
260,715
00:31:44.640 --> 00:31:47.509
12 miles if you want that. But um
00:31:47.519 --> 00:31:50.710
Jonathan McDow took a closer look at
00:31:50.720 --> 00:31:53.110
what was in space at the time and
00:31:53.120 --> 00:31:59.669
realized that uh the um Chinese
00:31:59.679 --> 00:32:02.149
space station Tiangong
00:32:02.159 --> 00:32:04.549
uh was further away with its three
00:32:04.559 --> 00:32:07.909
tyonauts on board. In fact, it's um it's
00:32:07.919 --> 00:32:11.750
about 62 kilometers further away at
00:32:11.760 --> 00:32:14.789
419,643
00:32:14.799 --> 00:32:17.350
km. So that's the maximum separation of
00:32:17.360 --> 00:32:19.990
humans. Uh it was between Chinese
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:23.750
tyonauts on Tiangong and H and the uh
00:32:23.760 --> 00:32:28.950
Artimus crew on board integrity. Uh it's
00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:32.230
it's very typical of Jonathan McDall to
00:32:32.240 --> 00:32:36.070
to pull little statistics like this out
00:32:36.080 --> 00:32:39.509
of the air. But um the he was
00:32:39.519 --> 00:32:42.549
interviewed by space.com uh and um they
00:32:42.559 --> 00:32:45.029
asked him lots of questions like is this
00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:48.070
significant this Arteimus 2 record and
00:32:48.080 --> 00:32:50.149
what he said was uh I think quite
00:32:50.159 --> 00:32:51.830
profound in its own way. I think the
00:32:51.840 --> 00:32:54.149
significance is that it's the beginning
00:32:54.159 --> 00:32:57.029
of a shift from how far from earth are
00:32:57.039 --> 00:32:59.990
our most distant people to how spread
00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:03.029
out is human civilization. Um and he
00:33:03.039 --> 00:33:04.710
said there may come a day when it's
00:33:04.720 --> 00:33:07.190
Mercury to the moons of Saturn. Yeah,
00:33:07.200 --> 00:33:08.230
which is true.
00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:10.630
>> Yeah, I I was going to actually suggest
00:33:10.640 --> 00:33:12.950
that uh you know when we go to Mars, the
00:33:12.960 --> 00:33:16.149
records will be set there. Um and and
00:33:16.159 --> 00:33:18.389
it'll just keep growing. Yeah. And I'd
00:33:18.399 --> 00:33:22.950
say in the next one or 200 years, we'll
00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:25.190
probably have people on Mercury at the
00:33:25.200 --> 00:33:27.110
same time as we have people on Pluto or
00:33:27.120 --> 00:33:29.830
something like that. You know, it's it's
00:33:29.840 --> 00:33:32.310
very possible. Uh so the numbers will
00:33:32.320 --> 00:33:33.909
just keep growing.
00:33:33.919 --> 00:33:34.870
>> Yes. Yeah.
00:33:34.880 --> 00:33:36.389
>> And you know, in time to come, they'll
00:33:36.399 --> 00:33:39.029
probably go beyond that, too. Who knows?
00:33:39.039 --> 00:33:42.950
>> One day, perhaps if we don't uh do
00:33:42.960 --> 00:33:45.269
ourselves a fatal injury before then.
00:33:45.279 --> 00:33:47.990
>> Yeah. Yeah. Like um bust a pufoo valve
00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:49.110
as we're
00:33:49.120 --> 00:33:49.669
>> Yes.
00:33:49.679 --> 00:33:51.190
>> running around the solar system. Yeah.
00:33:51.200 --> 00:33:54.149
Who knows? Um great story. If you'd like
00:33:54.159 --> 00:33:56.310
to read about the statistical separation
00:33:56.320 --> 00:33:59.190
of human beings, it's uh as Fred said,
00:33:59.200 --> 00:34:02.070
it's space.com.
00:34:02.080 --> 00:34:04.630
And we're all done. Fred, thank you very
00:34:04.640 --> 00:34:05.590
much.
00:34:05.600 --> 00:34:07.430
>> Great pleasure, Andrew. Always good to
00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:09.190
chat over these things and I look
00:34:09.200 --> 00:34:11.109
forward to talking about some questions
00:34:11.119 --> 00:34:12.950
with you at sometime down the track.
00:34:12.960 --> 00:34:14.710
>> I think we'll do that very, very soon.
00:34:14.720 --> 00:34:16.869
Probably sooner than most people think.
00:34:16.879 --> 00:34:18.629
Uh, thanks Fred. Professor Fred Watson,
00:34:18.639 --> 00:34:19.990
astronomer at large. Don't forget to
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:22.069
visit us online while you're on the
00:34:22.079 --> 00:34:25.109
interwebs uh at spacenuts.io and
00:34:25.119 --> 00:34:28.710
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00:34:59.040 --> 00:35:01.030
And thanks to Hugh in the studio. So,
00:35:01.040 --> 00:35:03.589
uh, funny story, he saw us log in, so he
00:35:03.599 --> 00:35:06.150
logged out. And from me, Andrew Dunley,
00:35:06.160 --> 00:35:07.990
thanks for your company. We'll see you
00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:09.670
on the next episode of Space Nuts.
00:35:09.680 --> 00:35:10.630
Bye-bye.
00:35:10.640 --> 00:35:11.589
>> Space nuts.
00:35:11.599 --> 00:35:13.670
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00:35:13.680 --> 00:35:15.910
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00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:18.950
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