Aug. 18, 2024

#444: Cosmic Movements & Solar Mysteries Unveiled

Space Nuts Q&A: Measuring Movement, Sun's Fuel, Mars Hypotheticals, and Wormholes
Join Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson in this lively Q&A episode of Space Nuts, where they tackle listener questions on a range of fascinating topics in...

Show Notes
Transcript

Measuring Movement in the Universe: JR from Ohio asks if everything in the universe moves and how we can measure that. Fred Watson Watson delves into the cosmic web, dark matter, and the fundamental principles of gravity and motion.
- The Sun's Fuel: Rod from Bloomington, Illinois, questions how the Sun can burn 600 million tonnes of hydrogen every second without dimming or shrinking. Fred Watson Watson explains the process of nuclear fusion and the balance between gravity and radiation pressure.
- Mars Hypothetical: Mick from Dublin wonders what would happen if Mars were suddenly removed from the solar system. Andrew and Fred Watson discuss the potential gravitational impacts on Earth and the Moon, and the broader effects on the solar system's structure.
- Wormholes and Gravity: Gergo from Slovakia asks a hypothetical question about the gravitational pull near a wormhole and a black hole. Fred Watson Watson explores the theoretical implications and the stability of wormholes in extreme gravitational fields.
Don't forget to send us your questions for our Q&A episodes via our website... spacenuts.io
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WEBVTT

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Hi there, thanks for joining us. This is a Q

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and a edition of Space Nuts. My name is Andrew Dunkley,

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same as it was last week. Strangely coming up. We've

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got questions to answer. We mentioned recently that everything moves

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in the universe. Fred said that it's prompted a question

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from JR. How do we measure that Rod wants to

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know about the Sun's fuel. Mick has a Mars hypothetical

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for us, and time permitting, we will be looking at

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wormholes and gravity. That's all coming up on this Q

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and a edition of Space Nuts.

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Fifteen in Channel ten nine ignition Space Nuts or three.

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Two one Space Notes as when I reported Neils Good

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and to answer all those questions and much much more, Professor.

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Fred, what's on? Hello Fred?

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Hello Andrew?

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Hello, I'm well a long time no see.

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So you're still called Andrew Duntley. Yes, yes, funny, I'm

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going for prefect now. H well, no one calls me

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day for beebel Brocks. I'll tell you that much.

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I didn't do that.

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If I was in Tasmania, however, I don't go there. Sorry, sorry,

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oh no, I crossed that line. I apologize. What do

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they say in Parliament? With drawn. That's right, that's what

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they say, and they want to insult someone and then

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get out of trouble withdrawn. You're ugly with drawn?

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Yeah.

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I love watching Parliament on TV. Do you ever do it?

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Yes, because it's kind of almost part of my job

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from time to time to know about this sort of thing.

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I don't know.

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I don't know what I get out of it, because

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I just think democracies so broken, and yet here I

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am captivated by these grown human beings tearing strips off

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each other over ideology. Anyway, whatever, Shall we answer some questions? Fred?

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Withdraw them? We can do that too.

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We can do anything good questions?

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Yes, all right, let's do that.

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Our first question today comes from JR. He said, Hi,

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I've been listening to your show for many years, and

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for the first time ever, I thought I should ask

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a question. Yes you should. What's the question, JR. I'm

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listening to episode four hundred and forty one, he says,

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And Fred said something like everything in the universe moves,

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so I might as well too. Is that true that

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everything in the universe moves? How could we measure that?

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Thanks for everything, JR, who's in Ohio. Thanks JR. Lovely

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to hear from you, and I'm looking forward to the

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Bengals season. They're looking pretty schnek for the for the

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football season in America this year. That's beside the point.

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Not necessarily. They probably moved too. I guess they moved

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very very well, very very well.

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I'm not sure about the quarterbacks new haircut, but I

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can live with it if you play as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

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everything moves, yes or no? And I think the answers yes,

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and how do we measure that?

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So we we know everything moved just because the way

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in which everything's formed. If you think of the Big Bang,

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the sort of underlying scaffolding of structure we think was

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imposed on the on the universe very early on, which

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is this what we call the cosmic web, and we

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think it was dark matter. We think it was a

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web of dark matter, which itself is moving because you

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know the effects of gravity or the expansion are always

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to shove things along, and then more especially when objects

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that aren't made of dark matter, in other words, stars

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and galaxies, when they start forming, the formation process naturally

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in parts, the spin to things, and so you've always

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got this interesting balance between motion and gravity. The two

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go together. It's almost a you know, a rule to

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say you can't have gravity without motion, probably more accurate

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to say you can't survive gravity without motion, because and

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I'm talking now about things in space, it's the orbital

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motion of something around a gravitational object or massive object

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that stops it from being pulled in to the center.

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So we are always if you've got objects in orbits,

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if you've got galaxies rotating, if you've got even the

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the you know, the cosmic web has vibrations or has

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movements along it. It's all in motion. So you can

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measure a lot of it. Jay's question is how do

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you measure it? A lot of it we can measure directly.

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We certainly measure the rotation of galaxies accurately. We can

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measure the motion of galaxies in clusters accurately, and on

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the very largest scales we can. We can measure what

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we call the proper motions of things that're sorry, the

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peculiar motions of things, their their own peculiar motion relating

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to the Hubble flow, which is the flow of the

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expansion of the universe, which itself is in motion. So

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there you go. It's all moving.

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It's all moving. It's like clockwork, isn't it, frit Yes,

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very much so, that's right.

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Yeah.

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I want to know who's winding it up there.

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It got wound up in the beginning. That's the that's

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the bottom line. It's a very very long spring.

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Once the Big Bang happened, everything just happened after. It's

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by default, so and it's still happening. It's still going,

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it's still moving. We still see remnants of the Big Bang.

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Gravity's a big factor in the way things are into relating.

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It's a cosmic dance, is what it is. All right,

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Thank you, Jay, We got over that one quick. Yes,

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everything's moving. Yes, and we can measure that because we can,

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that's probably the answer. We've got an audio question for

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this one comes.

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From rod Hi Andrew and Professor Watson. This is Rob

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from Bloomington, Illinois. Question for you about this fuel reserves

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in the sun. If the Sun is consumed means six

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hundred million tons of hydrogen every second, why is it

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not dimming and shrinking? Does this mean that fuel is

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being replenished or are there some hydrogen atoms just waiting

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around to be burned? And five billion years at the

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end of the Life of the Sun. Thanks longtime listener.

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Always enjoyed the show.

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Thanks Rod. I really like this question because I find

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the sun to be quite a mystery because it's burning

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fuel at a rate that would, you know, make a

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tractor unhappy, and you've got to wonder about how it

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survives to such a long period of time if it's

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burning so ferociously.

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Yeah, it's it's a process. It's not so much burning,

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it's nuclear fusion.

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So I was about to say it's probably more to

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do with nuclear activity than it is a pile of matches.

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But yeah, six hundred million times it is a lot.

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But that's not just vanishing into the ether. What you

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get with the basic nuclear reaction that's taking place in

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the core of the sun from that six hundred million tons,

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you get about five hundred ninety six million tons of helium,

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so you know there's something still there. And the deficit

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of four million tons of hydrogen basically are what's converted

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to energy. So it's that four million tons of hydrogen

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per second that makes the sun shine, that makes it

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so bright. Now, that's all happening right down in the

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core of the sun, and the core is actually relatively

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small it's the energy that comes from that that keeps

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the rest of the Sun, most of which is hydrogen,

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from collapsing. So you can think of the core as

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being the furnace and the rest of the Sun being

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the fuel. And basically it will continue to do that

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for yes, a few billion years yet, because the Sun

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is so big and it's reserves of phydrogen are so enormous,

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and so that's that's the basic process. The I can't

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remember that I've said this, but the energy comes out

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mostly in the form of gamma rays an X rays.

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There's other stuff as well, but that's the main thing.

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And you and I've talked before, Andrew, what's your let

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work get? Because I ford prefect there. It's just sent

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me off from a different track altogether, because if you like,

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the last time we spoke about this, effod, we went

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into the the you know, the details of why we

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get light out at the end, and it's because of

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all that radiation that's caught that's generated in the core

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basically is absorbed and re emitted by other atoms over

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a period of what was it seven hundred, one hundred

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and seventy thousand years or something like that, getting off

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for a million years anyway before it actually reaches the

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surface and comes out comes out as sunlight. So interesting stuff.

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But I mean the Sun is stable at the moment.

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The balance between its gravity wanting to pull the hydrogen

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inwards and the radiation pressure coming outwards is perfectly balanced.

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But when that changes, once the Sun starts burning helium,

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which will happen when it runs out of hydrogen, then

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the the basically the nature of the Sun itself will change.

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That's when it'll turn into a red giant star.

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So it will when it starts to deplete its resources

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and changes fuel, it will expand and then when that

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burns out, it'll white dwarf.

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That's right. Actually, this is the envelope that expands. The

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nucleus will be collapsing slowly doing our time until they

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actually it does become a white dwarf star. That's correct.

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Mmm, it'll get pretty cold here on the plain will

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be gone because we'll be absorbed when we will.

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Yes, I think I think it's going to be fairly ugly.

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I think while we're with.

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The well, hopefully we've paid up all our electricity so

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that we can charge the ion engines to get off

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the planet. Yes, they're definitely going to need them. Thank you, Rod.

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Great question. This is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and

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Professor Fred Watson.

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Nuts.

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I must confess Fred that when I prepared this show,

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I got everything locked in, all the questions written up,

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and now I've reached a point where I can't remember

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what this question is from Mick. All I've got written

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down is Mars hypothetical. So drum roll.

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Please, Yes, it's what happens from us gets removed. Oh

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that's right, guys, make air Con Dublin, Ireland.

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I have a technical question and they came up out

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basically because I.

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Was thinking about rope planets.

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So my understanding of the rope planets or cants that

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lost their son.

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And more or less be ejected from their solar system.

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I think this nor only happens during the formation of

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the Solar System.

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I'm not sure, but well, it then me to think

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what would happen if.

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Something strongly happened to Mars, like something out of a

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sci fi movie where it was hit by a mass

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and masteroid or there was some massive explosions. I don't know,

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but let's just say ours suddenly that the Solar System

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what would be the effect on us and the dash Earth.

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Would we start falling in towards the Sun because we

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don't have a palpitational pull from Mars, or would we

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be would we move.

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Out from the Sun?

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And also what would happened to the mood. I suspect

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something would happen to the mood because there must to

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be some pravitational call from Mars on our rule.

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And kan.

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Just thinking out loud while attending I always say that

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message before, So keep up to little work.

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Really love the podcast.

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Sure you guys, Thank you Mike. Love the accent and

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a great question. Thank you for sending it in. I

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was a rogue planet once years ago. Fred I lost

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my son in a supermarket. There you go, that's true

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story scared me. Willi's I found him around the corner

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in another while. But it's a terrible feeling when when

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you lose your son.

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When you lose your son, you're a planet or a parent.

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It's a problem.

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It's a great hypothetical. It's a great hypothetical. And my

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my science fiction brain is suddenly sort of venturing towards

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Mars being obliterated by something and de Mos has, you know,

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making a b line for Earth. That's the first thing

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I thought of.

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Yep, that's right, that's your science fiction brain. So I

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think that the issue for me is that whatever gets

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rid of Mars is going to be the thing that

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makes a big effect on the on the orbits of Earth,

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rather than Mars not being there. I think, you know,

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if if Mars had never been there, maybe the Solar

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System would look similar to what it does now. There

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might be nuances of difference. We know that the planets

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have kind of wound up in a in a particular

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order which is governed by something called Bordher's law, and

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that has always been thought to be coincident rather than

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any real mathematical rule and regulation. But if you took

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Mars out of Bordher's law, well that means Jupiter might

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00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:26.600
want to go where Mars is, or actually the asteroid

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belt would wind up where Mars was in that you know,

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sort of geometrical progression, and it would so the absence

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of Mars would affect the AS orbit because the AS

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orbit is modified slightly by what called gravitational perturbations from

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00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:47.559
from other planets. Now, of course, Mars is not always

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on the on the far side of us, of the

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of the Earth from the Sun. Sometimes it's on the

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other side of the Sun, so it's not always pulling

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us outwards. It's sometimes pulling us inwards, and all of

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that is taken account in the geometry of the Earth's orbit.

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I think that might effect on the Moon. If Mars

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wasn't there would be even smaller. There would be probably

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a tiny gravitational effect again perturbations, But the Moon is

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fairly tightly bound to the Earth in terms of its

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gravitational pool. It's only three hundred and eighty thousand kilometers away,

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so it's hung on to pretty well. So let's imagine

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a solar system without Mars. I think the Earth and

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00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:33.200
the Moon would look much the same as they do.

259
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Already and still be livable as it is.

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Probably, yeah, we might drift. I mean we might. You know,

261
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you kind of got to more imagine rather than imagine

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Mars being dragged away by some mechanism, which inevitably would

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affect the Earth orbit. Whatever that was, it would be

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big enough to modify the Earth orbit. If you imagine

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00:16:58.519 --> 00:17:02.360
just Mars not being there, rather than Mars being dragged away,

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then it may it may change things slightly it may

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change things enough that the Earth does get pushed out

268
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of the Goldilocks zone, but it wouldn't be it wouldn't

269
00:17:13.160 --> 00:17:16.839
be that much. But I think, yeah, that we're in

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such a sensitive balance of heat radiation from the Sun

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and all the rest of it. It's it's a it's

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a very fine line perhaps between humanity being here and

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humanity not.

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Do we You might have entered this in a previous

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episode some time ago, but do we know how wide

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00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:38.960
the Goldilocks zone is?

277
00:17:40.279 --> 00:17:44.000
Yes, you can calculate that, and it's it's it doesn't

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00:17:44.039 --> 00:17:46.039
go as far as Mars, and it doesn't go as

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00:17:46.039 --> 00:17:50.400
far as Venus, so you know, it's it's I don't

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00:17:50.400 --> 00:17:52.759
know what the woods is, but you can calculate it.

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00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:55.920
Yeah, yeah, Well, hopefully we're on the better side of it.

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We are at the moment, but in the middle of it,

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which sense, if Mars didn't exist, things would probably be

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much the same as they are for Earth and the Moon.

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If Mars was destroyed by some evil force let's call it,

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00:18:12.759 --> 00:18:16.640
or the death Star, that that might have a different

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00:18:16.680 --> 00:18:19.720
impact on us because of whatever the force is that's

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00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:24.559
caused this to happen. Yep, maybe quite Yeah, suppose it

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depends on the level of catastrophe.

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Size it all up.

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When you look at other solar systems, their makeup is

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very different. In fact, ours is looking quite quite unique

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00:18:40.559 --> 00:18:42.680
compared to a lot of the solar systems we're seeing,

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which have gas giants in close proximity to their parents

295
00:18:45.599 --> 00:18:47.559
star and the rocket planets are further out.

296
00:18:48.839 --> 00:18:51.559
But bear in mind they're the easiest ones to discover

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00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:55.240
the ones, yes, and so there might be a selection

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00:18:55.279 --> 00:18:57.000
effect path indeed.

299
00:18:58.119 --> 00:19:01.079
Okay, thank you met lovely hear from you, and if

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you ever have another question, please send it in. We've

301
00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:06.680
got one more question I think we can squeeze in

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00:19:07.960 --> 00:19:11.559
and this one comes from Gego in Slovakia. I have

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00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:14.160
a hypothetical question for you. That's the second one today.

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If you would open a wormhole near an object with

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huge gravity, a black hole, for example, would it's gravitational

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paul be transferred through the wormhole or would the bending

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00:19:25.480 --> 00:19:28.640
of space time just end at one end of the

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00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:31.839
wormhole and on the other side there would be only

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the local bending of space time. Thanks for the answer,

310
00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:39.000
love your show. That's from Gego in Slovakia. I think

311
00:19:39.039 --> 00:19:43.480
we've heard audio questions from gego before. I like this

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00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:46.480
one too. I love ye, you know, I love hypothetical spread.

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00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:50.359
Yes, yes, and so what the answer you're getting is

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00:19:50.519 --> 00:19:52.640
also hypothetically.

315
00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:54.200
Well, I guess it would be.

316
00:19:54.640 --> 00:19:54.880
Yeah.

317
00:19:55.000 --> 00:20:01.000
I think I think that the will be would the

318
00:20:01.079 --> 00:20:06.799
wormhole itself survive having something, you know, a huge gravity

319
00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:11.559
next to it? The gravitational field would modify the wormhole,

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00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:15.559
and my guess is the wormhole would fill in because

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00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:20.440
wormholes are just such a special case of gravitational you know,

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00:20:20.799 --> 00:20:24.400
gravitational balancies, if indeed they exist at all, and we've

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00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:28.400
got absolutely no evidence that they do. So my guess

324
00:20:28.480 --> 00:20:32.640
is that, you know, well, the bending of space time

325
00:20:32.640 --> 00:20:34.960
wouldn't just end at one end of the wormhole, which

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00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:40.640
is what was asking. I think the effect of the

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00:20:40.920 --> 00:20:45.079
gravitating body, super massive black hole or whatever would be

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00:20:45.400 --> 00:20:48.440
to distort the black the wormhole and probably just turn

329
00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:53.160
it into another black hole, which would be immediately absorbed

330
00:20:53.160 --> 00:20:55.720
by the by the big by the big one. It

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00:20:55.720 --> 00:20:58.559
would be Yeah.

332
00:20:59.440 --> 00:21:03.279
That in itself sounds like a very feasible probability if

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00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:07.640
a wormhole ever turned up next to sagittary staff, for example,

334
00:21:09.319 --> 00:21:13.200
I suppose, I suppose it depends on how big the

335
00:21:13.240 --> 00:21:14.680
wormhole is there, doesn't it?

336
00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:18.920
Yeah. I don't really know much about wormhole masses and geometry,

337
00:21:19.039 --> 00:21:22.079
but yeah, if you had a big wormhole, I mean,

338
00:21:22.119 --> 00:21:24.200
we'd know about something like that. We don't know how

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00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:26.680
many candidate wormholes anywhere.

340
00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:27.640
You know.

341
00:21:27.680 --> 00:21:31.359
The best way to find a wormhole just look look

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for the little piles of dirt on top of this.

343
00:21:35.200 --> 00:21:36.319
There must be there. That's right.

344
00:21:37.480 --> 00:21:39.880
I find a little pile of dirt in space, and

345
00:21:39.920 --> 00:21:42.720
you know there's a wormhole behind that, and that's the way.

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00:21:43.720 --> 00:21:45.880
So yeah, it's a it's a good question, but it's

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00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:50.079
probably one that's in the realms of science fiction in

348
00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:54.440
terms of deciding what might happen. But yeah, I think

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when it comes to arm wrestles in space, black holes

350
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generally always win.

351
00:21:59.559 --> 00:22:02.559
Yep, it's usually the winners. That's, especially the big ones.

352
00:22:03.559 --> 00:22:06.359
Yes, indeed, all right, Gogo, thanks for your question. Thanks

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00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:08.640
to everyone who sent us questions, and you can send

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00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:13.359
questions too via our website space nuts dot Io. Click

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00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:15.440
on the AMA link at the top to send us

356
00:22:15.480 --> 00:22:18.359
text or audio questions, or on the right hand side

357
00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:20.839
there's another button where you can send us audio questions.

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Don't forget to tell us who you are and where

359
00:22:23.279 --> 00:22:26.279
you're from. We'd love to know, and who your favorite

360
00:22:26.279 --> 00:22:30.119
football team is. And thanks to here in the studio,

361
00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:32.200
who is actually out picking up one of the kids

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00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:35.319
from school, so he's done a great job. Thanks Fred

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00:22:35.400 --> 00:22:37.839
as always nice to catch up. We'll do it again

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00:22:37.880 --> 00:22:38.359
real soon.

365
00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:41.960
I bet we will. I think we will too.

366
00:22:42.440 --> 00:22:46.720
Thanks for sure, see you Fred, Professor Fred Watson, Astronomer

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00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:49.240
at Large, And from me Andrew Dunkley, thanks for joining

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00:22:49.319 --> 00:22:51.480
us on this Q and A episode. We'll be back

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00:22:51.519 --> 00:22:54.519
again real soon with another one. We'll see you then,

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00:22:54.880 --> 00:22:55.279
Bye bye.

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00:22:55.559 --> 00:23:02.119
Thank You'll be listening to the Space Nuts podcast.

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Available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or your favorite podcast player.

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00:23:07.319 --> 00:23:10.640
You can also stream on demand at bytes dot com.

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00:23:10.680 --> 00:23:16.359
This has been another quality podcast production from fights dot com.

#444: Cosmic Movements & Solar Mysteries Unveiled

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