Sept. 5, 2024

#449: 20,000 Black Holes, Polaris Dawn's Spacewalk & New Horizons' Deep Dive

#449: 20,000 Black Holes, Polaris Dawn's Spacewalk & New Horizons' Deep Dive

Join Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson in this enthralling episode of Space Nuts, where they delve into groundbreaking discoveries and missions in the cosmos.
Episode Highlights:

- Swarm of Black Holes: Explore the astonishing possibility of a...

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Join Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson in this enthralling episode of Space Nuts, where they delve into groundbreaking discoveries and missions in the cosmos.
Episode Highlights:

  • Swarm of Black Holes: Explore the astonishing possibility of a swarm of up to 20,000 black holes in a well-known region of Space. Once thought to contain a single intermediate-mass black hole, new findings suggest a much more complex scenario.
  • - Polaris Dawn Mission: Discover the exciting details of the Polaris Dawn mission, potentially the first crewed mission to achieve a polar orbit around Earth. Learn about their ambitious plans, including the first privately conducted spacewalk, and the technical challenges they face.
  • - New Horizons Mission: Find out what the New Horizons spacecraft is up to 18 years after its launch. After its historic flyby of Pluto, the mission continues to break new ground by examining the darkness of Space, providing insights into the cosmic optical background.
  • - 00:00:00 Andrew Dunkley: Coming up on this episode of Space Nuts
  • - 00:01:32 You can't go bluetooth through this panel I've got because of time delay
  • - 00:02:35 Geordie says he got hay fever from living in England
  • - 00:04:28 Astronomers have been hunting for intermediate black holes for decades
  • - 00:15:00 The world will have to come up with a collective noun for black holes
  • - 00:16:14 Professor Fred Watson talks to Andrew Dunkley about the Polaris dawn mission
  • - 00:23:22 Andrew Dunkley dives into black hole; hopes all goes well
  • - 00:24:26 New Horizons spacecraft has been sent off to examine darkness of night sky
  • - 00:32:17 Professor Fred Watson: Thanks for your company, Andrew Dunkley
  • For more Space Nuts, including our continually updating newsfeed, visit our website at spacenutspodcast.com. Follow us on social media at SpaceNutsPod on facebook, X, YouTubeMusic, and TikTok. We love engaging with our community, so be sure to drop us a message or comment on your favourite platform. For more Space and Astronomy News Podcasts, visit our HQ at www.bitesz.com. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts/support.Stay curious, keep looking up, and join us next time for more stellar insights and cosmic wonders. Until then, clear skies and happy stargazing.
Episode References:
Hubble Space Telescope
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html
Polaris Dawn mission
https://polarisprogram.com/
New Horizons spacecraft
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html
Sky & Telescope
https://skyandtelescope.org/
French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
https://www.cnrs.fr/en
Leiden Observatory
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/science/astronomy
Royal Observatory Edinburgh
https://www.roe.ac.uk/
SpaceX Crew Dragon
https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/dragon/
Falcon 9
https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/falcon-9/
Astronomy AstroDailyPod
https://astronomydaily.io/

 

 

WEBVTT

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Hello again, thanks for joining us on a new episode

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of space That's My name is Andrew Dunkley, your host,

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and it's good to have your company. And coming up

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on this episode, we've got some fascinating stories as always,

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and one is about a possible swarm of black holes

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that might have been discovered in a rather well known

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region of space too. I might add they thought there

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was one, now they think there might be twenty thousand.

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I'm not exaggerating. We're also going to look at the

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Polaris Dawn mission. Now, by the time this podcast is released,

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it may well have happened, but it might not, just

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depends on technical issues. They're sitting on the platform at

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the moment playing scrabble, waiting for things to get fixed

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and the pufu valves to be unvalved and all that

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sort of thing.

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We also look at the New Horizons mission.

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It's eighteen years long now and nine years since it

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did its I buy Pluto, but it's still working. What's

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it working on?

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Darkness?

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That's all coming up on this episode of Space Nuts.

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Fifteen seconds in Channel ten nine ignition.

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Squench Space Nuts or three.

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Two red ones Space Notes as then report it feels

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good and joining us again to unravel all of that

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and much much more is Professor Fred.

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What's an hello thread?

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Hello Andrew. Unraveling is our business. We're pretty good at

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raveling as well, especially when it comes to things like

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headphone leads and things of that sort.

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Yes, I've got one of those stretchy ones.

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There you go it.

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It does a good job, except it keeps getting in

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the wrong place and it's a bit annoying.

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But it can't go wireless.

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You can't go bluetooth through this panel I've got because

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of the time delay. Just to make things difficult, So

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you'll talk to me and I wan't hear it for

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a second and a half, which is.

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Not you know, that's the deal.

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It might be going via the moon, could be from

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you from your desktop to your headphones via the moon.

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That would be more like two and a half seconds.

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Yeah.

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Well, when I bought them, it said if you if

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you choose to go bluetooth, you may discover that it

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doesn't work the way you want it to. And that's

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exactly what happens.

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Interesting, So it's not all bells and whistles, not all perfect.

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Tell you what else is in perfect? Well, the weather's

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been perfect lately, but so's the hay fever.

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It's Jean ripping through.

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Us at the moment. My word, Yeah, yep, I'm a

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terrible sufferer. And I thought it was just because of

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where we lived. So when we went to England many

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years ago and got off the plane, I wasn't even

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off the Gangway or the skybridge or whatever call it,

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and I was sneezing. I thought, oh no, I thought

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I escaped all this by coming to the exact opposite

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side of the planet. But no, it just got me.

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So now I know it doesn't matter where I am.

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I'm going to get hay for you if there's pollen

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in the air. Quite so, I'd like someone to do

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a study on why it develops later in life because

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I never had it as a kid.

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No, I did, neither. Neither did Jeordie.

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As you know he loves to contribute, does Jeordie, Yes

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he does.

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So, Yeah, the same thing happened to me, but mine

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was a bit more obvious because I grew up in

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the North of England and studied in Scotland and kind

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of hung around the North of England for the first

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twenty odd years of my life. And then moved to

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the south where which is verdant and green and grassy,

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and immediately got terrible hay fever. Yeah, which I now

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know is an allergy to rye grass.

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What it will be for me too. There's a lot

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of rye grass out here. Yeah.

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So I haven't had it. I haven't been tested, but

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I I'm making that assumption. Also allergic to cats. There

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you go, grew up with a cat, never had a problem.

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Now I can't, you know, I can no longer rub

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my face in there, for which is so disappointing, So disappointing.

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Let's try rubbing your face in muscats fur it te

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your eyes out.

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Yeah, that's the other problem. That is the other problem

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that may explain the itchy. Now let's get down to business.

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This story is interesting because it really changes the way

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we're looking at one particular piece of space. And it's

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an area where we thought there was an intermediate mass

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black hole?

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Was it? Now they think it's not. It's not a

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black hole.

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It's a multi faceted number of black holes in possibly

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the tens of thousands. This is quite extraordinary.

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It is it's a story that I mean, we've been

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following the intermediate mass black called story for quite some time,

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and just to fill in the details for anybody new

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to the issue, we find we commonly find what we

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call stellar mass black holes, black holes with the massive

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you know, up to twenty stars, up to twenty sons,

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and we commonly find super massive black holes, which are

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sometimes twenty billion times the mass of the song. But

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there doesn't seem to be anything in between. The intermediate

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mass black holes have been elusive, and one place we

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think we might find them is in the center of

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these really spectacular gigantic star clusters that we call globular

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clusters because they're globular in shape. That name was given

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to them by William Hershall a couple hundred years ago

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or more. And we have by we, I mean the

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world of astronomy has basically been hunting for intermediate black

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holes in the centers of some globular clusters, and with

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sort of varying degrees of success in the sense that

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some of these findings are more certain than others. But

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one that we covered recently was a finding that yeah,

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we were pretty sure about for a while, and that

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is the globular cluster Omiga centaury it's the biggest of them.

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Our Milky Way Galaxi's retinue of globular clusters one hundred

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and sixty or two hundred of them, and this one

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is the biggest of them. Distance of seventeen thousand light

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years as the crow flies in the constellation of Centaurus,

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which is why it's called Umiga Centaury, and visible just

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about to the naked eye. In fact, it's this time

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of the year where we start seeing it quite well

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from here in the southern hemisphere. It's a deep south

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object invisible from the southern hemisphere. So what's the story. Well, scientists,

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in fact European scientists who were using i think something

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like twenty years worth of images from the Hubble Space

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telescope which allowed them to plot the motions of stars

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within Omega Centaury, and in particular they let them map

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the motions of stars near its center, which seem to

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have quite high velocities and which are symptomatic of something

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massive around which they're orbiting. So you've got stars with

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high velocities. In particular, the kind of velocities that were

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being talked about. I think they're in the region of

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three four, five, six kilometers per second thereabouts, if I

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remember rightly, those velocities. If there wasn't something massive of

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the middle would be enough to catapult them out of

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the globular cluster and they belong gone, they'd be interstellar,

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you know, the interstellar stars if I put it that way,

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stars between the stars, but more there will be within

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the halo of our galaxy, which is where the globular

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clusters lie, the halo being that sort of spherical shell

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of all stars and globular clusters. So that was the

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story as we reported it. The evidence that there's possibly

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something like a twenty thousand solar mass black hole the

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middle of Omega centaury.

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Yeah, and we were really.

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Excited by that because I think we'd only just sort

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of concluded that there aren't any and then we've found one.

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Yes, that's right, And then now we haven't. We've unfound it.

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We've an't found it because another group of scientists, using

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similar data I think they've basically analyzed the same data set,

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have suggested that the motions of the stars do not

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tie down that central mass as being a single object.

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They're what they're saying is that it's like it could

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equally and that's perhaps the best way to phrase it. It

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could equally be a large cluster of much smaller objects.

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It's there's still black holes because you can't see anything

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of them. There's no there's nothing massive visible there in

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any of the wavelengths. But we can tell by the

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motions of the stars that there is something there. And

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so what they are suggesting is that it's not a

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single lots a single intermediate black intermediate mass black hole.

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It's not that it is more likely or as likely,

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if I can put it that way, to be something

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between ten or twenty thousand stellar mass black holes. In

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other words, the smaller variety, right, And you know, that's

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the bottom line. And the group that's suggesting this, one

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of the team members of Francesca Calori from the French

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National Center for Scientific Research, says, the possibility of an

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intermediate mass black hole in Obena Centaury still exists. Our

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analysis does not rule out an intermediate mass black hole,

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but rather sets a limit on its mass, predicting an

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upper limit of six thousand solar masses, which is less

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than what the earlier team estimated. And so they, yes,

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they're trying to work out what that discrepancy is but yes,

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the you know that the later paper, the new research

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Calori etel. Is saying it might not be a single object.

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It could be you know, lots of lots of smaller objects.

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Yeah, and that's been backed up by another gentleman at

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Leiden Observatory I think, who agrees, even though he wasn't

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part of the study, agrees it's probably a multitude of

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stellar mass black holes rather than an intermediate mess black hole.

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That's correct. And actually there's an old friend of mine

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who was also commenting on this, Jerry Gilmore, who I've

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known now for forty years. He's a very big name

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in the University of Cambridge. He is a key. We

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actually came to the UK to work at the Role

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Observatory in Edinburgh, where I was working. We became good

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friends and still are. Jerry, he wasn't involved with the

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study either, and he thinks that stellar mass black holes

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are likely to be common in comparison with intermediate mass

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black call. So I think he's a favor. He's favoring

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the idea that the latest research, the idea that this

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is perhaps a whole lot of smaller black holes rather

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than one big one, and as you say, there's there's

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comments from Leiden Observatory Simon Porte Year's art if I'm pronouncing.

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That right, you know you did better than I would have.

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Finds the potential discovery of an intermediate blass glass black

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hole super exciting, but suggests that the evidence isn't quite

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there yet. So I think the opinion of the astronomical

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community is let's wait and see what future measurements bring out.

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It doesn't look as though we've nailed down the Omiga

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centaury intermediate black mass black hole yet, and it may

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not be there at all.

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That's it though.

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How unusual is it to find between ten and twenty

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thousand stellar mass black holes in a globular cluster.

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Yeah, that in itself I think is interesting. If you could,

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you know, if you could independently verify that these are

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singular objects rather than one big object, I think you

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have another new discovery on your hands. So what you're

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talking about here is going to be the remnants of

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dead stars, And what you're talking about with an intermediate

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mass black hole is the remnant of what might have

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become a super massive black hole if that globular cluster

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had not been torn to shreds by getting mixed up

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with our Milky Way galaxy the gravitational pull. Because we

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think the globular clusters are the central nuclears of galaxies

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that have been basically demolished by gravitational interaction with our own.

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And so that's why people are looking for intermediate mass

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black holes inside globular clusters. Because the thinking is, if

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you've got something that you know, under normal circumstances would

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eventually grow into a super massive black hole by the

226
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time the universe is thirty point eight billion years old,

227
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which is its current age, if you have that structure,

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but then you stop the evolution process because you tear

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the galaxy to pieces because it interacts, it gets basically

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sucked into the Milky Way galaxy. What you're going to

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be left is is something you know, it's like a

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wanna be supermassive black hole, which is why it's a

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good place to look for intermediate mass black holes, ones

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that didn't quite make it.

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So if it turns out it's not an intermediate mess

236
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black hole, does that mean we still haven't found any

237
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or were there are other candidates?

238
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There are other candidates. As I recall, I would like

239
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to pin down without looking them up as to what

240
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they are. But there are other candidates, so it isn't

241
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just this one, but this one, you know, Omega Centauri

242
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is the biggest and most spectacular lobby of the cluster

243
00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:47.000
in the sky. As I said, it's visible to the

244
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naked eye. It looks terrific. Even with a pair of binoculars.

245
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It looks good.

246
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You can tell it's something different from the stars around it.

247
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Through a larger telescope, it looks sensational because you can

248
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see all the individual stars resolved in it.

249
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This is a new problem, Fred, what's that? Well, if

250
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it is.

251
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Stellamass black holes they've found, and there are ten to

252
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twenty thousand of them, which is what they're suggesting, the

253
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world will have to come up with a collective noun

254
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for black holes because there isn't one. It will, ah, right,

255
00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:22.000
there isn't one. Surprised, Yeah, I was too, But I've

256
00:15:22.039 --> 00:15:25.000
found a couple of articles which state, no, there isn't.

257
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There's a collective noun for asteroids, it's a belt of asteroids, which, yeah,

258
00:15:30.440 --> 00:15:33.639
it's a good one, but there is no collective noun

259
00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:34.200
that I'm.

260
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Aware of for black holes.

261
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Maybe a space, not of black holes like that. Yeah,

262
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I was going to say nothingness.

263
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Yes, there isn't. There isn't nothingness. There isn't. It's a

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little bit of a problem, but it's not the biggest

265
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problem with fights. But yeah, I was surprised there wasn't one.

266
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Me too, Yeah, IM surprised. Also.

267
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Anyway, the jury is still out. Could be one, could

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be the others.

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We're not sure. We're not sure yet.

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But if you want to read up on that, it's

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a great article in Sky and Telescope dot org. This

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is Space Nuts Andrew Dunkley with Professor Fred.

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What's a.

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Okay? We take all forces of being with.

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Their Space Nuts now Fred to the Polaris Dawn mission.

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And this is a very exciting mission. It may well

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have lifted off since the release of this particular podcast,

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because we're working a bit ahead at the moment, because

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I've got to take a trip and we need to

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get a whole bunch of episodes in the can. So

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they say so, yes, this particular mission may well have

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lifted up at the moment.

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As we speak.

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They have some technical issues and they're stuck on the

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ground and they're all getting pretty tired of scrabble, but

286
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could be monopoly, could be monopoly, could just be who

287
00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:06.720
know who knows or drafts. Yes, oh gosh, getting desperate.

288
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But this is an exciting mission for several reasons. There'll

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be some major firsts that will be achieved. And yeah,

290
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they're doing things a little bit differently, and they're planning

291
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a space walk, which will be the first private space

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walk I believe, privately conducted. There's so much that it's

293
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exciting about this mission, Fred.

294
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Yeah, there is, and you're right. It's partly technical issues,

295
00:17:36.039 --> 00:17:38.799
partly the weather in fact that's been holding them up

296
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the splash down, So yes, exactly, it's not so much about.

297
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Getting off but getting back on the planet.

298
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Indeed, what's exciting about it, Well, it is going to be.

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It may even be the first crude mission that is

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going into a polar orbit around the Earth.

301
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Wow.

302
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I think that is correct. So it's an orbital direction

303
00:18:06.920 --> 00:18:13.599
that hasn't been explored before with crewed space launches. It's

304
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also not going anywhere. It is not going to the

305
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International Space Station, as you wouldn't be able to if

306
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you were in a port polar orbit because you need

307
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an orbit very similar to the International Space Station if

308
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that's where you're going. And that means that the time

309
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that the crew will be on board, and I'm actually

310
00:18:33.799 --> 00:18:37.039
not sure how long it is planned to be, but

311
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they are that they're going to be in the spacecraft

312
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for the whole time, except when they make the first

313
00:18:45.359 --> 00:18:53.839
privately operated extra vehicular activity, because what they have to

314
00:18:53.880 --> 00:18:59.200
do then is climb out of the SpaceX crew Dragon capsule.

315
00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:02.559
Two of the members of the crew. There are before

316
00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:06.319
people in the crew of Polarist Polarist doorm two of

317
00:19:06.359 --> 00:19:10.039
each gender, and they will two of them will climb

318
00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:15.319
out of the capsule for the first private space walk.

319
00:19:15.480 --> 00:19:17.680
And what that means is you've got to let this.

320
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You've got to let space into your capsule. You've got

321
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to vent all the air out of it. So everybody

322
00:19:23.279 --> 00:19:24.480
has to wear their spacesuit.

323
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Super scary. It's super scary opening the front door because

324
00:19:29.160 --> 00:19:34.440
they have airlocks in other spacecraft and the International Space Station.

325
00:19:35.319 --> 00:19:38.359
This one, you open the lid and space. You're in

326
00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:39.799
space before you even get out.

327
00:19:40.640 --> 00:19:41.759
Yes, that's right.

328
00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:45.599
So you've got to vent, haveaven you and then space

329
00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:48.519
it first. And then I mean, I'm sure there will

330
00:19:48.519 --> 00:19:53.599
be a very you know, it will be a pretty.

331
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Careful venting, just to make sure everything's solding together before

332
00:19:57.880 --> 00:19:58.920
you let all the air out.

333
00:19:59.079 --> 00:20:01.240
Yeah, it's not like the fish tank, that's.

334
00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:07.160
For sure, although if you find fish floating around it,

335
00:20:07.400 --> 00:20:12.880
you might be anyway. It's yes, So it really is interesting.

336
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And the fact that they're not visiting this space station

337
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or going anywhere near it means they have to be

338
00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:24.640
pretty secure in their plans for this mission because all

339
00:20:24.680 --> 00:20:30.920
the supplies for the crew, food, water, oxygen, everything that

340
00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:34.799
all has to ride with them in their crew dragon capsule.

341
00:20:35.720 --> 00:20:42.160
And so it's a very very demanding, you know, highly

342
00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:47.079
demanding scenario. It's five days the mission.

343
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Just too Yes, add to what I was saying, I

344
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just looked at up myself.

345
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And the other thing that they'll do is they'll go

346
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further from Earth than any human since Apollo seventeen back

347
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in nineteen ten, because their orbits is very elliptical. It's

348
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you know, an elongated orbit which will be close to

349
00:21:08.640 --> 00:21:12.200
Earth and it's Perry g the closest point, but a

350
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long way off at Apergee. I am not sure what

351
00:21:15.839 --> 00:21:19.680
the target Apogee is, but it is more than we've

352
00:21:19.720 --> 00:21:23.160
ever done before in terms of you know, a mission

353
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of this kind.

354
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So what's holding it up?

355
00:21:26.279 --> 00:21:30.279
Well, as I mentioned earlier, the weather, and as you said, yes,

356
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it's the weather at the landing site, but also the

357
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fact that within the last forty eight hours, certainly if

358
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not twenty four hours as we are recording, Falcon nine

359
00:21:41.839 --> 00:21:45.319
has been grounded. The Falcon nine launch vehicle that will

360
00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:49.759
they will use has been grounded by the Federal Aviation

361
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Authority due to a failed booster landing attempt, I think

362
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on Wednesday this past week. So it's you know, this

363
00:22:02.079 --> 00:22:07.359
is basically a risk minimization procedure. As soon as anything

364
00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:13.440
goes wrong that booster, the Falcon nine, the whole Falcon

365
00:22:13.559 --> 00:22:17.640
nine fleet is grounded until you know what the problem was. Yeah,

366
00:22:18.039 --> 00:22:19.599
I think one of the interesting things I think I

367
00:22:19.640 --> 00:22:23.480
read a little while ago that booster that failed. I

368
00:22:23.480 --> 00:22:27.920
think it was its twenty third mission, so it'd been

369
00:22:28.039 --> 00:22:31.640
used twenty three times. Now, originally they said they'd only

370
00:22:31.799 --> 00:22:34.680
reused them ten times, then it went to twenty times.

371
00:22:35.079 --> 00:22:37.640
Suspect now it's aimed at thirty times, but maybe twenty

372
00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:39.119
three is as far as it goes.

373
00:22:40.039 --> 00:22:42.319
Yeah, we'll stop at fifteen, just to be safe, by

374
00:22:42.359 --> 00:22:43.319
the sad that's right.

375
00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:47.119
Yeah, certainly if it was a human space flight, I

376
00:22:47.160 --> 00:22:49.079
think you would want to make sure that you were

377
00:22:49.160 --> 00:22:52.400
using a pretty new, pretty new booster orcket to get

378
00:22:52.440 --> 00:22:53.039
you up there.

379
00:22:54.359 --> 00:22:59.160
Indeed, and I believed, I'll be doing about forty experiments

380
00:22:59.160 --> 00:23:01.799
you might have already said that, which will all test

381
00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:05.200
everything from human spaceflight research to micro gravity.

382
00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:06.400
Uh.

383
00:23:06.440 --> 00:23:10.079
And I'll be using brand new space.

384
00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:13.319
Suits to do the spacewalk and do and they'll be

385
00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:16.160
I guess they'll be testing those, and let's hope they go, oh,

386
00:23:16.240 --> 00:23:17.599
hang on, this thing doesn't.

387
00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:22.200
Work before they've been the spacecraft.

388
00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:24.079
I'll be taking that back to Low's.

389
00:23:24.759 --> 00:23:24.880
Ye.

390
00:23:26.279 --> 00:23:29.880
Sorry for your overseas listeners, that's a mental store so

391
00:23:30.039 --> 00:23:33.000
that you know, automatically becomes sexist because half the crew

392
00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:33.680
is female.

393
00:23:35.160 --> 00:23:35.839
Sorry about that.

394
00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:40.039
Keep on keep on digging, Andrew, You'll be Yeah, I

395
00:23:40.039 --> 00:23:41.960
can't see I can't see out of the hole anymore.

396
00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:46.599
It's a black hole, very deep one. It's a stellar

397
00:23:46.680 --> 00:23:47.759
mass black hole.

398
00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:48.720
Stellar mass black hole.

399
00:23:48.759 --> 00:23:52.079
That's right at the moment, fast approaching intermediate mass.

400
00:23:52.440 --> 00:23:56.160
Yes. Also that swear that.

401
00:23:55.400 --> 00:23:57.799
That's where it is right below me and above me

402
00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:01.640
and around me. Yeah, but let's hope all goes well,

403
00:24:01.680 --> 00:24:04.359
and by the time people hear this, they're up and

404
00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:10.279
around the planet in an elongated polar orbit and doing

405
00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:11.279
some wonderful work.

406
00:24:12.119 --> 00:24:14.880
We'll see how it all transpires. Fingers crossed.

407
00:24:15.319 --> 00:24:18.440
This is the Space and That's Podcast with Andrew Dunkley

408
00:24:18.599 --> 00:24:20.799
and Professor Fred Watson.

409
00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:26.000
Broad Piacemuts.

410
00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:30.480
Now Fred to our final story, and this one takes

411
00:24:30.519 --> 00:24:34.400
us a long, long way out of the Solar System.

412
00:24:35.200 --> 00:24:36.079
This is our story.

413
00:24:36.160 --> 00:24:40.640
We've been following well since it's exciting flyby of Pluto.

414
00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:48.759
It's the New Horizons spacecraft. But since it successfully executed

415
00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:53.279
its primary mission, it's been sent off to do a

416
00:24:53.279 --> 00:24:56.119
few other things, and one of those things was to

417
00:24:56.200 --> 00:25:01.599
examine darkness. This sounds this sounds sinister, This sounds like

418
00:25:01.640 --> 00:25:02.759
the plot of horror movie.

419
00:25:03.079 --> 00:25:03.599
But it's not.

420
00:25:03.799 --> 00:25:06.880
It's a very interesting question which they think they might

421
00:25:06.920 --> 00:25:07.480
have answered.

422
00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:11.359
Yes, that's right, and I think you and I have

423
00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:14.400
been talking about New Horizons since its launch eighteen years

424
00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:19.559
ago because we used to talk on ABC Radio, didn't

425
00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:22.599
we did? All the Space That's program came into being,

426
00:25:23.880 --> 00:25:27.799
So New Horizons, yes, fly by Pluto in was it

427
00:25:27.880 --> 00:25:34.960
July I think twenty fifteen? Fly by our It used

428
00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:38.559
to be called Ultimate Tully, and it's now called Arakoth,

429
00:25:39.799 --> 00:25:44.039
a small kayper belt object which it flew by probably

430
00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:46.200
about three or four years ago. Now it's quite a

431
00:25:46.200 --> 00:25:50.000
while ago. In fact, it's longer than that, because the

432
00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:52.079
fly by was at Christmas and this object looked like

433
00:25:52.119 --> 00:25:55.880
a snowman until we realized it's actually two pancakes joined

434
00:25:55.880 --> 00:25:58.440
together rather than two balls joined together. Anyway, it is

435
00:25:58.480 --> 00:26:03.680
now seven point three billion kilometers from Earth, a long

436
00:26:03.720 --> 00:26:08.079
way away, not as far as our old friend Voyager one,

437
00:26:08.319 --> 00:26:12.119
but still still a long way out. The difference though,

438
00:26:12.119 --> 00:26:15.319
between New Horizons and Voyager one is that New Horizons

439
00:26:15.319 --> 00:26:18.119
has telescopes on board. Yeah, of course we used to

440
00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:23.000
scan Pluto and care on Pluto's main moon and some

441
00:26:23.039 --> 00:26:26.240
of the other moons as well. But what they've been

442
00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:30.480
able to do, though, is to make measurements of the

443
00:26:30.519 --> 00:26:35.400
blackness of the night sky. And hear you saying, wait

444
00:26:35.400 --> 00:26:39.920
a minute, black is black? Well, it's not really, and

445
00:26:40.039 --> 00:26:42.200
why should you want to do that from seven point

446
00:26:42.279 --> 00:26:45.759
three billion kilometers away from Earth. The answer is that

447
00:26:46.079 --> 00:26:50.759
the Solar system is very dusty, and that dust concentrates

448
00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:54.799
towards the center of the Solar system, so you know

449
00:26:54.839 --> 00:26:59.400
what we see as meteors. Shooting stars are a measure

450
00:26:59.400 --> 00:27:02.359
of the dust that is around us in the vicinity.

451
00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:07.799
That dust scatters light, and we can actually see that

452
00:27:07.960 --> 00:27:10.359
in the form of the what's called the zodiacal light,

453
00:27:11.160 --> 00:27:15.319
which is a glow on the horizon eastern and western

454
00:27:15.359 --> 00:27:19.279
horizon after sunset and before sunrise. What you're seeing there

455
00:27:19.319 --> 00:27:22.759
is light scattered from dust in the inner Solar system.

456
00:27:22.799 --> 00:27:25.039
It's an olor of light quite spectacularly. You need a

457
00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:28.319
dark sky to see it. I've seen it many times

458
00:27:28.359 --> 00:27:30.880
from our dark sky sights here in Australia, but I

459
00:27:30.920 --> 00:27:33.000
only ever saw it once in the UK, and that

460
00:27:33.079 --> 00:27:35.000
was in a particularly dark part of the UK. It

461
00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:38.519
was quite see a long time ago as well. Anyway,

462
00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:41.519
So the Inner Solar system is very dusty. That dust

463
00:27:41.559 --> 00:27:43.960
scatters light, and that means that if you want to

464
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:47.839
make a measurement of just how bright, how intrinsically bright,

465
00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:50.440
the night sky is, you've got to get away from

466
00:27:50.440 --> 00:27:53.279
the inner Solar system, and that's where New Horizons is.

467
00:27:54.079 --> 00:27:58.200
So what they've done is they've measured what they're calling

468
00:27:58.880 --> 00:28:03.759
the cosmic optic called background. We talk a lot on

469
00:28:03.839 --> 00:28:09.119
space Nuts about the cosmic microwave background radiation, and this

470
00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:14.000
is the background to the night sky in microwaves, which

471
00:28:14.039 --> 00:28:17.400
we recognize as having been caused by the Big Bank.

472
00:28:17.720 --> 00:28:20.839
We're still seeing the flash of the Big Bang. The

473
00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:28.799
cosmic optical background, though, is basically a background haze of

474
00:28:28.920 --> 00:28:33.799
light that comes from all the galaxies that have ever

475
00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:36.200
existed over the lifetime of the universe.

476
00:28:36.359 --> 00:28:36.839
Wow.

477
00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:44.480
And so this light is the light of galaxies. Turns

478
00:28:44.519 --> 00:28:48.319
out to be just the right brightness. I mean, it's

479
00:28:48.319 --> 00:28:50.880
been measured. The blackness of the night sky has been

480
00:28:50.880 --> 00:28:54.920
measured by New Horizons. The answer they get is exactly

481
00:28:54.920 --> 00:28:57.960
what you predict from what we assume is the known

482
00:28:58.160 --> 00:29:01.440
number of galaxies in the universe, which is in the

483
00:29:01.559 --> 00:29:05.680
region of two trillion if I remember ran So really

484
00:29:05.839 --> 00:29:12.519
quite a nice piece of work complemented on by New

485
00:29:12.519 --> 00:29:15.680
Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern and an no friend of

486
00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:22.599
this program. He says, this newly published work is an

487
00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:26.880
important contribution to fundamental cosmology and really something that could

488
00:29:26.920 --> 00:29:30.599
only be done with the far away spacecraft like New Horizons.

489
00:29:31.400 --> 00:29:34.039
And it shows that our current extended mission is making

490
00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:37.160
important scientific contributions far beyond the original intent of this

491
00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:41.160
planetary mission designed to make the first close spacecraft explorations

492
00:29:41.160 --> 00:29:44.480
of Pluto and Copper Belt objects. So there you go.

493
00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:49.680
It's got the impromato of the Boss of New Horizons,

494
00:29:49.720 --> 00:29:54.359
Alan Stern. And it's a really interesting result that, you know,

495
00:29:54.440 --> 00:29:57.920
the amount of light in the universe adds up with

496
00:29:58.039 --> 00:30:00.240
the number of galaxies that we think it.

497
00:30:00.759 --> 00:30:05.240
And yet and yet we shouldn't be surprised because where

498
00:30:05.240 --> 00:30:07.359
else could the light have come from?

499
00:30:07.759 --> 00:30:14.319
Well that's right, except that the one of the scientists

500
00:30:14.839 --> 00:30:19.599
who's involved with this work has basically raised that question,

501
00:30:20.960 --> 00:30:23.319
could it come from something we haven't thought of yet?

502
00:30:24.880 --> 00:30:28.920
And so the fact that it it, you know, everything

503
00:30:28.920 --> 00:30:32.640
adds up suggests that there isn't anything that we haven't

504
00:30:32.720 --> 00:30:36.359
thought of yet, although you can bet your life that

505
00:30:36.440 --> 00:30:39.200
one day we'll be surprised that there's something else going on.

506
00:30:39.680 --> 00:30:42.519
But yeah, you know, it's at the moment we think

507
00:30:42.599 --> 00:30:45.880
these that these all add up the amount of light

508
00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:50.359
that's exactly what you'd expect from the number of galaxies

509
00:30:50.400 --> 00:30:53.240
we assume the universe contains from galaxy counts.

510
00:30:53.279 --> 00:30:57.400
In fact, I know one source they haven't considered the

511
00:30:57.480 --> 00:30:59.880
laser beams shooting from my wife's eyes.

512
00:30:59.720 --> 00:31:00.799
When she is angry with me.

513
00:31:01.079 --> 00:31:05.440
That's that's one light source that hasn't been factored in.

514
00:31:06.759 --> 00:31:13.400
You're dead keen on getting into halls today. I'm not

515
00:31:13.480 --> 00:31:14.920
going to go there at all, I think.

516
00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:16.680
No, I wish I hadn't.

517
00:31:16.920 --> 00:31:24.039
That pretty exciting stuff for new Horizons will continue on

518
00:31:24.160 --> 00:31:29.480
its journey doing more scientific studies, imaging the Kuiper Belt

519
00:31:29.559 --> 00:31:36.799
and the outer heliosphere and making observations from a vantage

520
00:31:36.799 --> 00:31:37.160
point that.

521
00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:39.640
No, it's unique.

522
00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:42.880
It's the only spacecraft in the position to be able

523
00:31:42.880 --> 00:31:45.839
to do anything like this. Even James Webb and Hubble

524
00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:49.559
can't do the kinds of things that you Horizons is achieving.

525
00:31:49.640 --> 00:31:54.200
So that's, uh, we'll be talking about again, I think, Fred.

526
00:31:54.599 --> 00:31:56.200
Yeah, sure, it might.

527
00:31:56.079 --> 00:31:58.599
Take a while, has still got a long way to go.

528
00:31:58.759 --> 00:32:01.880
Yes, that's right. It's it's one of the five space

529
00:32:01.880 --> 00:32:04.079
craft leaving the Solar System. Yeah, but I think it's

530
00:32:04.119 --> 00:32:07.319
the best equipped to do to make observations like this.

531
00:32:08.559 --> 00:32:12.559
Indeed, all right, that story available at fizz dot org

532
00:32:12.599 --> 00:32:16.279
phy s dot org if you want to check it

533
00:32:16.279 --> 00:32:18.519
all out. And that brings us to the end of

534
00:32:18.519 --> 00:32:20.400
the show. Just a reminder too, if you would like

535
00:32:20.440 --> 00:32:23.000
to visit our website, you can do that at Space

536
00:32:23.079 --> 00:32:26.759
Nuts podcast dot com or space space Nuts dot io.

537
00:32:27.160 --> 00:32:31.319
You can visit the shop or you can send us questions.

538
00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:34.920
You can get the daily news feed through Astronomy Daily.

539
00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:40.359
You can even support us through the support space Nuts button.

540
00:32:40.400 --> 00:32:44.240
Here you are and yeah, there's all sorts of things

541
00:32:44.279 --> 00:32:48.000
to see and do on our page Space nuts podcast

542
00:32:48.039 --> 00:32:50.240
dot com or spacenuts dot io.

543
00:32:50.720 --> 00:32:51.720
And if you're a.

544
00:32:51.599 --> 00:32:54.720
Social media follower and you watch or listen to us

545
00:32:54.799 --> 00:32:59.000
on YouTube, don't forget to hit the subscribe button down below.

546
00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:02.279
Thank you as always, Fred, it's been a great pleasure.

547
00:33:03.680 --> 00:33:06.559
Yes, it's been a pleasure for me too. And that's

548
00:33:06.839 --> 00:33:09.599
long long mate, continue. Not many people say that to me.

549
00:33:10.039 --> 00:33:14.960
Thank you, especially today. Thank you Fred, don't worries see

550
00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:18.759
you soon, see yea Professor Fred Wartson, a storm at large.

551
00:33:18.799 --> 00:33:20.640
And thanks to Hue in the studio and from me

552
00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:23.400
Andrew Dunkley, thanks for your company. We'll catch you soon

553
00:33:23.559 --> 00:33:25.400
on another episode of Space Nuts.

554
00:33:25.799 --> 00:33:26.759
Bye bye.

555
00:33:27.640 --> 00:33:32.680
You'll be listening to the Space Nuts podcast available at

556
00:33:32.720 --> 00:33:38.000
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, or your favorite podcast player.

557
00:33:38.200 --> 00:33:41.319
You can also stream on demand at bytes dot com.

558
00:33:41.519 --> 00:33:45.240
This has been another quality podcast production from Nights dot

559
00:33:45.240 --> 00:33:47.119
com
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