#428: Dark Matter Mysteries & Sci-Fi Innovations: Listener Queries Answered

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Hello again, thanks for joining us. This is Space Nuts Q and A.

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My name is Andrew Dunkley and good
to have your company again. Questions

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today coming from Michael, Rennie,
Joseph, and Ralph. Michael wants to

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look at dark matter. We've got
a big bang question. We'll talk about

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the early universe and that three body
problem has come up again. That's all

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to be discussed on this episode of
Space Nuts fifteen in Channel ten nine ignition

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Space Nuts NY or three two Space
Nuts. As when I reported Neil's good

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and he's back again for more.
Professor Fred Watson, astronomer at LA Tellofred.

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Yeah, just send those questions and
we'll get onto them. Yep,

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yep. Just can't just can't get
enough start. This first question comes from

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my in Illinois, Michael and Illinois
gentlemen. What a fantastic podcast. Which

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one are you talking about? Michael, Absolutely absolutely fabulous for the space nuts

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like me who love space but just
have just enough knowledge to be dangerous.

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Two questions. Can dark matter be
the fabric of space time? I don't

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think so because you've addressed this topic, but I can't, for the life

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of me recall what you said.
What technological advances would you most like to

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say? This is his second question, what technological advances would you most like

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to see happen within the foreseeable future. Here's the kicker. It has to

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have appeared in science fiction stories.
Mine is a space elevator, which Arthur

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C. Clark described in the Fountains
of Paradise, published in nineteen seventy nine.

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That comes from Michael and Illinois.
We'll get to that in a minute.

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Yeah, Okay, dark matter,
the fabric of space time is no,

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it's no. And that's because we
can map dark matter. We can

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map where it is by looking at
the you know, the fact that it

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it warps space itself. It warped
space rather than being the fabric of space.

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And that warping can be revealed by
looking at what it does to galaxies

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beyond beyond the once of the warp, there's there's somebody warping in the background.

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Yeah, good old Jordy. Oh
shut up, Jordy, I love

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it. We've got our very own
space warp here. So yeah, so

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dark matter warped space, so we
can map where it where it is,

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and we know that galaxies are immersed
in these huge blobs of dark matter.

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So dark matter is something definitely something
within space rather than the fabric of space

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itself, and it's still a puzzle. It's still you know, unknown actually

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what it is. And we we'd
believe it's some species of sub atomic particle

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that is invisible in every way except
by its gravity, and we are still

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looking for it. We're looking for
the particles. We know that they We

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know that for every kilogram of normal
matter in the room that you're in,

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in the room that I'm in,
there's five kilograms a dark matter as well.

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What do we do about that?
We don't know what it is.

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Yeah, wow, it's hard to
get your head around that. I can

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understand people trying to come up with
answers for this because it's not an easy

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one to wrap the mind around,
and some of the best experts in the

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world still can't agree on what this
is exactly, and there's some widely you

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know, disparate views of what it
might be. We have many times raised

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the issue of MOND the theory of
modified Newtonian dynamics, which suggests that our

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understanding of gravity is wrong and it's
not that this dark matter exists, But

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I think that's still regarded as speculative
by mainstream science. I think most astronomers

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are convinced that there are these sub
atomic particles that we are yet to find.

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M all right, I think Michael
go on, no, IM just

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going to say it's one of the
reasons for you know that the Largechadron Collider

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at Cerne in the on the Swiss
French borders, the European Nuclear Research Center

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that was the collider where the Higgs
boson was found back in twenty twelve.

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They've got plans for something called the
FCC, the Future Circular Collider, which

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will make the Large Chadron Glider look
very small. One of the reasons for

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doing that is to look at subatomic
particles with higher energies with the hope that

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they will reveal whatever the particles are
that make up dark matter. So there

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are plans to try and sort it
out, but it's still very much an

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open question. Sure is okay,
Michael? That was part one of your

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question. Part two, what technological
advances would you most like to see happen

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within the foreseeable future. He's the
kicker it has to have happened in science

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fiction stories. He likes the space
elevator that was written about by Arthur C.

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Clarke. We've talked about space elevators
before, Fred, What is it

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for you? I had a long
think about this and I'm still pondering.

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Have you come up with anything,
you know the kind of thing. So

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my go to place in science fiction, of course, is done There,

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back in the nineteen fifties, Done
There, the Pilot of the Future,

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and so much of what Frank Hampson, the author of dun There and a

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great, fabulous artist and illustrator,
but also a man with a good command

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of science. The sorts of things
that he was talking about were little personalized

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flying machines. Well, we're seeing
those already. You can now buy You

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can buy a jets and one which
is basically a flying machine that you can

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sit in the twenty minutes of flight
up two hundred kilometers an hour. The

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waiting list is quite long. I
think you won't get you if you order

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one now, you won't get it
until twenty twenty six. And the other

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one, you know that Dan Dare
used all the time, was a watch

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that let you talk to people with. Well, I've got one of those

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now. It's incredible. So a
lot of what was forecast back there in

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the nineteen fifties is basically happening to
us now. I guess the technological advance

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for me that would really really dramatically
change our entire existence would be for the

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manipulation of gravity. I mean,
we've talked about that before. How can

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you tweak gravity so it does things
for you that you wanted to do?

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At the moment, we're just stuck
with it. Any massive body distorts the

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space around it, and we feel
that there's gravity, Could you warp space

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to let you move, you know, more readily through the universe, the

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good old wormhole technique and things of
that sort. I know that's very much

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on the you know, well beyond
the horizon of anything that we're thinking about

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at the moment. But just a
quick comment on Michael's favorite, the space

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elevator probably won't happen just because of
the debris that we're surrounded by Earth orbit.

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And it was a guy called buzz
Aldrin who told me that that dinner

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once, when I was lucky enough
to have dinner with it. He said,

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yeah, space elevator is a great
idea, but it won't happen.

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And that's because every bit of space
jump crosses the equator twice, and it's

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all bit if you've got to have
the space elevator on the equator, else

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it doesn't work. So you're always
going to get collisions. And so he

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wrote it off. He knows certain
terms disappointing. Really it is rather but

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not surprising. We humans have a
tendency to make a mess. And did

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you do so what was your technological
advance, Andrew? What did you do

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when you kind of touched on it
with when you mentioned high speed travel?

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I think let's steal one from Star
Trek. I think if you could achieve

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warp speed, that would be for
me a wonderful innovation in terms of even

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just traveling within our Solar system.
And I know they're working on different kinds

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of engines. NASA's looking at different
types of engines to try and increase travel

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speed, and we talked about it
recently being able to get to Mars in

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two months instead of six to nine
months. I would dearly love to see

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that kind of technology perfected so that
we could get around our own neighborhood very

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fast. And that was portrayed well
in a TV series which I watched for

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a second time recently. Called the
Expanse, where they had developed a way

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to travel within the Solar System and
you could do a trip from Mars to

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Pluto or something in a few weeks
versus many, many, many many years.

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To me, would be a great
innovation. It would make exploration of

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the Solar System so much easier and
people would be able to move around with

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expediency, which we cannot do at
the moment. So I think that would

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be you know, whether or not
it's warp speed or some kind of pulse

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engine technology that makes us smooth faster. It would have to be highly efficient

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as well, but I know they're
working on it, so that to me

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would be the next big thing.
But you know, the other one I'd

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like to see is space tourism happen. I think it's already started with little

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sort of trips up and back,
but I think having a space motel,

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for example, in orbit, I'd
love to see that happen. I think

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that would be the next big thing
in tourism and it would be a lot

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of fun. This precursors up there
already, so is it. Bigelow the

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company is a very big company of
a hotel chains within America. Back in

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the early two thousands, they developed
an inflatable In fact, they launched too.

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I think I think they're still in
orbit. There was one that was

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also attached to the International Space Station
and it was for exactly that. Think

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about space hotels, the bigger old
inflatable space modules. Mmmm, that just

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scares me there, just yeah,
do you want to be in a balloon

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in space? You know? Yeah, I'm not, especially with all that

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junk flying around the Actually, all
right, they did say that it was

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more resilient to impacts by small pieces
of space debrits because I'm like a piece

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of metal when you get a hole
in it. The holes there, some

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of these fabrics that they used in
the in the test modules actually heal themselves

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so that the whole blocks up very
quickly. That's interesting. Actually, one

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thing we learned when we were in
China we went and visited a silk factory.

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I used to have silk worms as
a kid. But they were telling

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us that the strength and durability of
silk is so so strong they can actually

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they actually use it in bulletproof vests. Yeah. I didn't know that remotable.

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Incredible stuff. Okay, thank you, Michael, let's go to a

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question from Rennie Troub, how energetic
was the Big Bang in comparison to the

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most powerful supernova's or gamma ray bursts
ever discovered. Science is exciting, Renny

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says, it is, and that's
why we're still doing it, plus the

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fact that it's helpful occasionally. Look, I don't know the strict answer to

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this in terms of, you know, a million times or anything like that,

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but the Big Bang was the Big
Bang, so it was the you

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know, the energy that was released
in that means that even the most powerful

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supernova really pales into insignificance. Although
supernova are often described as the biggest bang

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since the Big Bang, but they're
vastly less energetic than what was involved in

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the creation of the universe. As
you kind of expect it to be,

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a super and ova leaves these a
debris cloud around it to enriched material,

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you know, the chemical reactions that
take place in the heat of the super

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and ova create some elements that are
quite rare, but that's just spread around

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its locality, whereas the Big Bang
created everything. So yes, it's the

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ratio of one or the other is
a very big number. Indeed, I

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don't know what it is, but
I'll try and check it up, but

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I'm not sure that I'll find the
answer. Yeah, I imagine the difference

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would be just staggering, like we'd
be talking billions upon billions upon trillions of

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megatons in variation between a super and
over and the Big Bang. I imagine

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the Big Bang was Well, look, we're still seeing the after effects of

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it. It's still going technically,
let's try it thirty point ten million years

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later. Yeah, so, yeah, a short answer to that question,

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Rennie. But yeah, it's chalk
and cheese basically. By the sound of

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it, this is space nuts.
Addred Ugley here with professor Fred what's a

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three space nuts? All right,
let's keep rolling with the questions. Hey,

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space nuts. Given the early universe
was believed to be a dense hot

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plasma, could it be that at
this time large, gargantuan level primordial black

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holes formed, which could explain the
recent James where images of very distant,

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enormous and distant black holes. They
could have formed at the very start of

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the universe, before the black holes
that formed from more recent star collapses.

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And also, further to this,
could it be a source of naked singularities

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as well as as well that may
have formed from failed black holes in this

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early time. Could these naked singularities
be so numerous and widespread that they account

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for the missing mass we infer but
cannot see. Could this be all the

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dark matter? Love the show,
keep up the great work, and hope

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to see around Dubbo in twenty twenty
eight for the eclipse. Joseph from Melbourne.

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Yeah, we've got to spare bed, Joseph, So that's possible.

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I'm gonna I'll take bits, take
deep bids. Yeah. Yeah, interesting

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thought. Now, so let's do
the second bit first. But the idea

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of naked singularities or black holes effectively
representing the missing mass by the missing mass,

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I think we mean the dark matter
missing mass is slightly different. That's

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a normal matter that should be there
that seem to be missing, but we

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think we've failed it now in the
electrons between the galaxies. But dark matter,

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yes, as we've been talking about, it is just something that is

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invisible, only revealed by its gravity. And the reason why we don't think

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it's lots and lots of primordial black
holes is because of some experiments that were

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done in the nineteen nineties. We
used to think that there might be things

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called matchos m acho, which was
massive compact halo objects, and that meant

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exactly what we're talking about, black
holes that were lurking around the outer regions

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of our galaxy. But in an
experiment, which funnily enough, was also

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called Matcho, done with one of
the telescopes actually at the Mount Stromlo Observatory

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in Canberra, as well as other
places throughout the world. Well, the

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many experiments were done to try and
identify whether mat chos were the dark matter.

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They failed to see enough what's called
gravitational lensing. If we had these

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little black holes everywhere that were enough
of them to make up the dark matter,

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we'd see lots of instances of these
passing in front of a distant star

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and acting as a magnifying glass because
of the gravitational distortion around it, So

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you'd see a gravitational lensed image of
the star. It would suddenly get brighter

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and then fade away with a particularly
characteristic light curve. The weather light behaves

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over time, and they weren't seen
in enough numbers. They did see some,

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so they knew that the technique was
working, but they didn't find anywhere

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near enough to make matchos the dark
matter, and that's why it became whips,

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which is what we now think they
are weekly interacting massive particles. And

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so the answer is no, probably
not. And then going back to Joseph's

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first question, I think he's kind
of on the money with this and really

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looking at research that's only been in
publication for two or three months whether which

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came first, galaxies or black holes
or the super massive black holes, And

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exactly as he says, James Webb
telescope shows images of galaxies which have probably

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have very large, supermassive black holes
at the center. And the conventional wisdom

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has always been that the super massive
black holes probably formed by lots and lots

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of stars reaching the ends of their
lives, exploding into supernova, creating a

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black hole which then gets absorbed into
another one, and you've got super massive

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black hole at the end of it. We are now seeing doubt cast on

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that by a paper which was led
by a well known cosmologist called Joe Silk

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another Joseph, He and his colleagues
have postulated that maybe the black holes were

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actually formed in the Big Bang,
and these black holes became the nuclei of

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galaxies. I'm hoping actually to find
out a bit more about this theory later

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in the year, Andrew, because
one of Joseph Silk's collaborators on that paper

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is an old friend and colleague of
mine. Dr oh sorry, Professor Rosemary

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Wise. She's at Johns Hopkins University
in the United States, and she's coming

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to Australia to help us celebrate the
fiftieth birthday of the Anglo Australian Telescope.

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So I'm going to try and bend
her ear about that and find out what

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it's all about. Yeah, wow, that'd be great. Yeah, all

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right. So the answers to Joseph's
questions were no, no, yes,

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well perhaps and no. I think
of the answers to take them in the

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order that Joseph set them fair enough, Thank you, Joseph. Pretty deep

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question, but we like to try
and tackle them. We don't always have

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the answer, but that's because probably
nobody does have the answer a lot of

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the time. One final thought,
Fred, This comes from Ralph, who's

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messaged me before about the story three
Body Problem, which is originally a book

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series by a Chinese author, but
it's now been turned into a TV series.

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Andrew thanks for your advice on the
Three Body Problem book. What I

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suggested he do was get his device
to read it to him rather than struggling

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through it himself, because I taught
mine how to read to me, so

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I just because it is a really
tough read in the original manuscript. Anyway,

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Ralph says, I gave up on
the book, but I want to

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know what you're up to on the
mountain, so I have the I want

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to know what they're up to on
the mountain. This is where they made

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their first communication with the aliens.
So I have the audiobook on hold from

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the Indianapolis Public Library. I hope
to get it soon. Ralph. Yeah,

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I guess with the series coming out, it's become popular and people are

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grabbing audio books because the read is
really tough. I'm still pushing on with

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it, Ralph. I haven't finished
it yet. I find myself sort of

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reading a few chapters and then having
to have a rest and a lie down

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with a headache tablet. But it
is a tough It is a tough read,

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but I'm persisting. I want to
finish it, so I'll keep going

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on it. But whatever you can
do to get through it is my advice,

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and Ralph's found a way, So
let me know how you go with

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it, Ralph. I have heard
on the grapevine, Ralph that they've decided

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to continue with the series. I
think it's on Netflix. They originally we're

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going to only make two seasons.
In fact, they were just going to

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run the second season as an add
on to the first season and just do

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it as one series. But now
the latest is they've decided to make three

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series, so it will follow the
three books in the written series as a

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TV series, and they're going to
follow it as closely as possible, and

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from what I've read so far,
they're sticking to the actual manuscript. So

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yeah, that's what I've heard about. Three Body problem. Three body problem.

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Basically, Fred I think I've explained
before is these aliens live in a

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or come from a planet that is
unfortunately in orbit around three stars. And

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when you get three big bodies with
all the gravitational influence that they possess,

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fighting over a tiny little planet,
it's not a nice place to live.

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And so they've decided to move out
and we made ourselves known, which Stephen

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Hawking always said could be a problem. Well, that's basically the situation in

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this book. But it is a
really great series and I'm enjoying the book.

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As difficult as it is to read, it is super technical, and

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it's so technical that he's got reference
numbers all through the manuscript of the book,

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so if you're not sure what he's
talking about, you can click on

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the number and it will take you
to the reference page so you can understand

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what he's trying to tell you.
It's a really tough read, a really

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tough read for someone as meager as
me in terms of technicality. I did.

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Anyway, there's the update I did
recently. Andrew come across a website.

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It might have been on the Conversation
which was about the science of the

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Three Body Problem book, and I
thought of book marks. I've just been

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looking through my bookmarks and I can't
find it. But if I find it

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out, I meant to send that
to me. Yeah, I meant to

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send you the link. And that
was a couple of months ago. Actually

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a cap forgetting to send it to
you. But I'll find it and drop

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it along too. Yeah, all
right, blumme it. Thanks Ralph,

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and thanks to everyone who contributed.
Don't forget if you've got a question for

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us, send it in through our
website Space Nuts podcast dot com. You

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00:24:18.599 --> 00:24:22.839
can just click on the links the
AMA tab at the top for text and

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00:24:22.920 --> 00:24:26.839
audio questions, or to send us
your questions button on the right hand side.

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00:24:26.079 --> 00:24:29.880
If you've got a device with a
microphone, you are all set.

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Don't forget to tell us who you
are and where you're from. Thanks Fred,

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as always, it's a pleasure,
Andrew. Always good to talk and

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especially when you've been away somewhere.
Yeah. Yeah, just that little trip

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to China. Not much scar stargazing
to do in China. It's not many

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clear days, although I had to
laugh. Our guide on the first few

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days said, we've been cleaning up
our act. We've been mourning, moving

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industry away so that the city of
Beijing can enjoy blue skies like today.

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Looked up and went, oh,
here there's a patch. There's a tiny

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little patch of Yeah, but look
they're working on it. Thanks Brad,

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will catch you soon, And of
course we also like to thank our stand

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in producer Jordie this week in the
absence of you and from me Andrew Uncley,

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thanks for your company. Catcher on
the next episode of Space Nuts Bye,

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00:25:22.640 --> 00:25:29.559
Byepacenuts. You'll be listening to the
Space Nuts podcast, available at Apple

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00:25:29.640 --> 00:25:34.279
Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or
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stream on demand at bides dot com. This has been another quality podcast production

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from nights dot com.