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Hi there, Thanks for joining us on a Q and
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A edition of Space Nuts. My name is Andrew Uncley,
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your host. Always good to have your company. And that
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was Fread's chair coming up in this episode. You're not
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supposed to be on yet. Coming up with this episode,
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what if the expansion of the universe slowed down? Somebody
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wants to know. We've also got a triple headed question
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from Chris about three Sun systems merging black holes and attraction,
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and we'll be answering a question about whether or not
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we've collected matter from the coronal mass ejection, not the
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a coronal mass ejection, because they happen a lot, and
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if we've got time, we'll throw in another one, but
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we'll work with what we've got in this Q and
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A edition of Space Nuts.
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Fifteen, Channel ten nine Ignition Space Nuts or three two.
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Space Nurse.
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When I bought it Neil Good, I didn't realize he
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was here. He's so quiet. He's Professor Fred. What's on?
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Hello Fred?
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I apologize for my creaking chair, explained the chair was here,
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but I wasn't. Well.
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Yes, no, there it is. Mine doesn't do that, but
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the microphone does. Don't think. No, it's not doing it now.
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It's like taking a car to the mechanic. Oh, I've
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got this noise. No you haven't. Yeah, I think.
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Maybe I'll try a w D fourty or something.
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Yes, and it's good stuff that I put it on
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my breakfast. Now, let's let's get into some questions and
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we've got it. We've got a few here. I think
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we'll start off with Dave from the beautiful town of
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Inverrel in northwestern New South Wales, which is known for
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its gems. Gem fossicking very popular up there, Hi, Andrew
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and Fred. Previously on the show, you've discussed how the
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universe is expanding faster than the speed of light. Some
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theories propose this expansion may continue, while others suggest the
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expansion might eventually slow down. If the latter is correct,
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could the expansion of the universe slow down to less
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than the speed of light, therefore allowing light to overtake
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the edge of the universe? Is this possible and could
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light exist outside the universe? Day from Inverurrell. I've got
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a feeling you're going to talk about the speed of
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the expansion of the universe because it was faster than
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the spread of light. Initially, but then it did slow down,
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didn't it.
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Yeah, it's a difficult one to discuss this because when
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you talk about the expansion of the universe being faster
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than the speed of light, what do you mean. What
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you might mean is that two objects a certain distance
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apart moving away from each other faster than the speed
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of light, so that so that one will never see
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the other. And that's the best way to think of it.
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You're quite right that we think that during the first
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tent to minus thirty three of a second or thereabouts,
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a tiny, tiny length of time at the beginning of
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the universe, after immediately after the Big Bang, we think
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the expansion was colossal. That it, you know, the universe
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changed shape by our changed size by ten to the
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power fifteen ten to the minus thirty three of a second,
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what we call the inflation period. We're always undername things here,
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and certainly parts of you know, the universe. Bits of
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the universe would have separated from other bits that faster
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than the speed of light, which doesn't contravene special relativity,
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as we've said before, because the universe can do anything
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it likes. What we know is that things can't travel
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through the universe faster than the speed of light, so
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that theory that the universe might collapse in on itself
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was really knocked on the head in nineteen ninety eight
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with the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe
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by my colleague Branch Bitt here in Australia and others
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are overseas in the United States in fact, so that
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basically said, no, we don't think the universe is going
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to collapse an anymore. But in a way we're already
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in the situation that Chris describes because the most distant
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thing we can see, which is the cosmic microwave background radiation,
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and that is a distance you know, effectively a thirteen
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point eight billion years or look back time of thirteen
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point eight billion years, that is not receding from us
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fastened the speed of light, and in fact it's receding
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from us at the speed of light, and we can
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still see it. And of course everything between us and
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that is stuff that is nearer than the cosmic microwave
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background radiation. So by definition all that stuff is not
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moving at the speed of light, we can see it.
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So it's all about horizons, what you can see and
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what you can't see. And the horizon that really limits
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our visibility now is the flash of the Big Bang.
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You're looking so far back in time that you're seeing
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that wall of radiation. It's now microwave radiation, hence the
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name the cosmic microwave background radiation, and it's traveling away
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from us. Yes, at the speed of light.
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There you go. And he also wanted to know if
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light could exist outside our universe. That's I guess that's
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a speculator.
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Yeah. Yeah, we really don't know much about the outside
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of the universe, because universe by definition is everything that
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we can perceive or think about. But yes, there are
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people who think that I was might be just one
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of many universes, maybe were immersed in a higher dimensional void,
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which would perhaps would have light. It might be more
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appropriate to think, though, that outside the universe might not
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have light, but might have gravity, because I think you
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and I have talked about this before. The force of
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gravity compared with the other fundamental forces in the universe,
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and that's electromagnetic force and the strong and weak nuclear forces,
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it's hundreds of billions of times weaker. The force of
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gravity is much much, much weaker, and some people speculate
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that that's because it leaks out of our universe space
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between them.
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Right, Gosh, wouldn't you love to figure out what's they
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out there? Go out there and it would answer so
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many questions, I think. But all we can do is
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speculate and wonder, and you know, we can't even see
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past certain parts of the universe. So no, no, we've
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got no idea. Really, it could be just you know,
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some kind of void, or could be a used car
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sales lot for all we know.
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It's yes, it is. It called the void in Doctor Who.
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I remember Michael Day. Yeah, maybe that's what snapped into
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my brain.
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Yeah, scientists call it the bulk. Actually, ah right, cosmology
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physics name is the bulk, the bulk, it's the void
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for doctor Who, Doctor Who?
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Yes, indeed, Okay, Dave, thanks for your question. I hope
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we managed to help you out there. Let's go to
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our next question. This is this is a big question.
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Chris has never asked us a question before, so he's
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asked basically eight years worth of questions in one hit.
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Take it away, Chris and he Professor Watson.
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My name is Christopher Blue. I'm coming from coming to
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from Hey. You go to North Carolina and the United
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States of America. I love you guys podcasts. I work
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as an infectious disease technologist, so I'm not allowed to
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touch my phone. So what I do is I listened
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to your podcast or eight hours a day, a days
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a week, and I loved it. I'm not want to
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change anything. I actually he's speaking to you from the past.
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I'm on episode two thirty seven, and I held held
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off on asking questions this entire time because I asked
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you all say it could be a question that was
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already answered, but I just defined, you know, to heck
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with that. I'm just ask a question anyway, moving on,
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don't have a lot of time. Don't want to take
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up your time either. But if there was a planetary
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system that orbited or a future if there was a
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plan in that or orbited three suns. You know how
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some systems have binary systems and possible to have three
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three sons.
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And if that was the case, is it.
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Possible for those funds to go into sysgy and cause
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something something like the gravity from all three of those
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sons added up would lift them off the planet. I
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actually saw that in this show called three Body Problem.
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If you haven't seen. It's on Netflix, The Great Show.
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You will love it.
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Also, this is all based on my very small understanding
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cut off you God's favorite subject, black holes. But black
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holes are a singularity, infinitely small point in space, and
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black holes can merge with those singularities, become one one
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singularity or.
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Do they collide?
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And if they collide, would that be like the Big Bang? Okay,
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but now I just wanted to know that. And last question,
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I promise for now if he if everything has an attraction,
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all planets have an attraction, would everything when space be
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attracted towards if nothing else in space had that attraction
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besides Earth with all the planets and everything out there,
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just come towards Earth almost like a holing beacon and
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crash into it. But that's all my questions from now.
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Like I said, love you guys podcast, I really appreciate it.
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Actually it actually urged me to get back into college.
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I told myself I was never going back, but inspired
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me to go back. And I do appreciate it. So
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you guys take it easy.
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And have a great day.
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USA sign and off.
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Thank you Chris. Wow, that was a lot. I was
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gobsmacked that you went back to college because of us.
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I'm humbled by that. Fred, what do you think?
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Yeah, it's great. It's just great to hear it, Chris.
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And good luck with the way it's going, all the
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studies and everything, and keep up the good work with
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infectious disease technology.
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That's yes, So he can't touch his phone while he's
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so he listens to us. Yeah, well, oh look there's
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a terrible disease. Oh no, that was just Fred.
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I think you're the I think you're the one with
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the terrible.
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I've got yes, super pollination, that's what it's called, super pollination.
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That could be a thing.
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Now.
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Chris is questions three different questions. The first one is
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a triple header in itself a three sun system. What
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sort of a problem would a planet have orbiting a
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three sun system? And yes, he mentioned the TV series
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three Body Problem, which is based on a book by
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a Chinese writer. I still haven't finished the first book.
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It's a trilogy, and I'm struggling with it because he's
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really it's a difficult read. They've turned it into a
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fabulous TV show which is very accurate compared to the book,
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which I'm pleased to see so far. But Yeah, the
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problem in the TV series is you've got a planet
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that's trying to evolve and intelligent life keeps developing, but
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then being destroyed by the problem of trying to survive
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in a three sun system. It just can't maintain equilibrium,
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I suppose would be the way to describe it. Is
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that a real thing or are they just making it up?
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No, I was going to say, because I, as you know,
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I watched the three Body problem. But as I was
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listening to Chris's question, though, I thought this would not
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be stable. A planet orbusing three stars which were themselves
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orbitsing their common center of mass almost certainly would be
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very destructive from a gravitational point of view. That it
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wouldn't be a stable situation. And so I think Chris's
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question is first question, what if they all lined up
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in what we call Sissygy. Yeah, that would certainly provide
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an interesting bit of gravitational force on the on the
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poor planet. If that was also in Sissigy with these
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three stars, you might expect very very intense gravitational effects
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which are caused by one side of the planet getting
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pulled more than the other. So so it might, you know,
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if it was near enough, it might even get spaghettified,
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like you get when you get too near a black hole.
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So yes, really quite quite damaging, I think, but it's
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possible it could happen. We've we've covered stories before of
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planets both orbiting the individual members of a binary star system,
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a pair of stars, or the whole thing, and we've
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commented before, I think on how unstable though some of
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those orbits must be, just because the complex and gravitational pools.
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Yeah, well, they do portray the issues very well in
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that TV series three Body Problem, And yes, they do
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actually have scenes of people being lifted off the ground
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because of the gravitational effects of the stars that are
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controlling this planet's fate. Unfortunately, it's very mad for the people,
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very bad for the well.
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I think it would be. Yeah, if you were going
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to be lifted off the ground, you'd almost certainly get
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spaghetti fight.
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I think, Yeah, it's pretty messed up. Chris's next question
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was about merging black holes. What basically happens? Do they
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become one? Do they collide? Yes? What they do? Is
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it like a mini Big Bang? Well we know it
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causes gravitational waves, so yeah, it does make a hell
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of a bang that makes this sound. Yes, so yeah,