Oct. 21, 2024

#462: Dark Matter Mysteries, Gravitons & Interferometry Insights

#462: Dark Matter Mysteries, Gravitons & Interferometry Insights

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Space Nuts #462 Q&A Edition
Join Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred...

This episode is brought to you with the support of NordVPN. For our special Black Friday deal complete with 30 day money back guarantee, visit www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts.
Space Nuts #462 Q&A Edition
Join Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson in another enlightening Q&A episode of Space Nuts, where they tackle intriguing questions from listeners around the globe. From the perplexing nature of dark matter and dark energy to the possibility of interferometry using Space and ground-based telescopes, this episode is packed with cosmic curiosities and insightful discussions.
Episode Highlights:
- Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Solar System: Trent from St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, questions why dark matter and dark energy, which comprise 96% of the universe, are not factored into the movements of our solar system. Fred Watson Watson explains the scale and influence of these mysterious forces.
- Interferometry with Space Telescopes: Bo from Victoria wonders if it's theoretically possible to perform interferometry using Space telescopes like Hubble and James Webb, combined with ground-based telescopes. Explore the current limitations and future possibilities of this technology.
- The Mystery of Gravitons: Vincent questions the existence of gravitons and their potential to form self-propagating waves. Delve into the intersection of quantum theory and relativity as Fred Watson Watson discusses this theoretical particle.
- Biblical Floods and Astronomical Events: Christopher from Bayville, North Carolina, inquires about the possibility of biblical floods being linked to astronomical events. Discover the fascinating connections between historical events and cosmic phenomena.
For more Space Nuts, including our continually updating newsfeed and to listen to all our episodes, visit our website at www.spacenutspodcast.com. Follow us on social media at SpaceNutsPod on facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. We love engaging with our community, so be sure to drop us a message or comment on your favourite platform.
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Stay curious, keep looking up, and join us next time for more stellar insights and cosmic wonders. Until then, clear skies and happy stargazing.

 

 

WEBVTT

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Hi there, it's Andrew Duncley from Space Nuts. Here we

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go again with a Q and A episode.

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I hope you're well.

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Thanks for joining us once again, and on this episode

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we are going to be answering questions about dark matter

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and dark energy. However, the twist on this is how

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do we predict movement in our solar system without accounting

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for dark energy and dark matter. That's a good question. Interferometry.

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Somebody wants to know if we can use space telescopes

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for that, and they're also asking about the life of Brian.

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We'll get into that shortly. Gravitons and whether or not

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they are responsible for gravitational waves and biblical floods. That's

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all coming up on a Q and A edition of

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Space Nuts fifteen.

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Second guidance is in Terannal ten nine ignition Space Nuts

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or three two nice as when I report it.

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Neil's good and joining us once again is his good self,

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Professor Fred what's an astronomer at large? Hello Fred, Hello.

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Andrew, good to see you.

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Good to see you too. And the voice is still struggling,

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so please forgive me. I might sound like what's like

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a famous news reader.

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If I keep that.

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Yes, I can bang it on at the moment, but

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hopefully it'll go away real soon.

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Shall we get started.

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We've got a lot to get through, So we've got

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a couple of text questions, a couple of audio questions.

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I think we'll just just plunge on in. Our first

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question comes from Trent Hello from Saint John's, Newfoundland, Canada.

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It's my understanding the existence of dark matter and dark

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energy first became necessary to explain why stars at the

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edges of galaxies are unable to escape the gravity of

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the galaxy.

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They live in.

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However, the existence of dark energy and dark matter is

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not necessary to accurately predict the relationships between the bodies

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and our own solar system. If dark energy and dark

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matter make up ninety six percent of the universe, why

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is it not necessary to predict the relationships between the planets, moons,

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et cetera in our solar system? Is its existence kept

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to a minimum within the bubble that is our solar system? Also,

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I have a question for Andrew. Is Hugh a real person?

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If so, what do you have him on some dime?

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I love the podcast, Please don't stop making it. Love

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you guys, Love you too. Trent I'll answer the second

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question first. Yes, Hugh is a real person. There, he

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is there. Look, can't just see him? Hang on, My

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name is Hugh. It is good to be a part

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of the show.

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No, he's real. He is real.

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He runs the whole company actually, and he's been with

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it since the very beginning. And yeah, he just sits there.

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And yes, look, we have asked him to come on

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the show and he declines, can't.

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Look.

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You know, he's an old radio man from way back.

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I actually met Hugh at a radio station in Newcastle

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when I was in high school and did job experience.

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This is a true story. I'd written him a letter

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asking him how to get in radio and he never

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answered me. And I confronted him on that when I

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was doing job experience and he said, oh, well, too bad, and.

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I thought, oh, very nice.

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Anyway, he ended up becoming my boss at the ABC,

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and here we are now working together on this podcast.

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I mean, it's a crazy world the way it all

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works out. I saved that story up because he didn't

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remember me, but I recognized him and finally put two

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and two together. The first time I saw him coming

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up the driveway at the radio station in Dubohre and

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I went, oh my gosh, I know.

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Who that is.

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And it all sort of unfolded from there. But I

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saved the story until the day I left the ABC

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and I emailed Hugh and said, guess.

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What and told him that story. Yeah. So yes, Israel Israel.

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Whether or not it'll ever come on the show remains

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to be seen, but put enough pressure on and you

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just never know your luck. Lovely bloke, and we really

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appreciate him, and I won't say anything nice about him

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ever again. Now, let's let's try and tackle Trent's question

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about dark energy dark matter and why it doesn't influence

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the movements of our planets within our solar system, given

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the fact that dark energy and dark matter makeup ninety

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six percent of the universe or thereabouts.

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Yeah, it's great questions, and it sort of comes about

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in terms of mutters of scale, if I put it

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that way. So, dark energy is something whose existence only

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becomes apparent when you're looking at things which are millions

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of light years away, and it's you know, it is.

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It is a Its effect is to cause the expansion

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of the universe to accelerate. Neither that expansion nor acceleration

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are prominent on scales that you know, are small enough

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to think about planets and stars or even galaxies actually,

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so you know, our galaxy is not being torn apart

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because the expansion of the universe, and that's because gravity

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is by far the most significant force over that kind

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of scale length. When it comes to dark matter, that's

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an interesting one and basically the Solar System is immersed

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in dark matter. It's a it's in a blob of

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dark matter, which is kind of the size of the galaxy,

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and so it is on scales relating to planets, it

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is perfectly uniform and so there it doesn't have any

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gravitational influence. We're sort of inside it, this uniform volume

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of dark matter. So the it's the even though it's

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you know, it's it outweighs normal matter when you look

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at the sum totals, when you when you look at

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the way objects in the Solar System behave, it's simply

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the gravitational pull of the the objects themselves that become important.

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That background, if I put it that way, of dark

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matter is irrelevant because it's completely uniform. So it's but

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there are interesting questions, and you know, the the existence

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of dark matter and dark energy is not just because

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we see galaxies that would tear themselves apart if they

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was nothing there other than what you can see. Galaxy

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clusters are the same, They would fly apart if all

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you could see was all that there is. It's not

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just those that tell us about the existence of dark matter.

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We've got gravitational lensing effects which come from dark matter,

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and we can look at the universe as at all.

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We were talking in the last episode about the angle

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Australian telescope and the way it's mapped the galaxies around it.

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The structure of material within those galaxies also tell you

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about dark energy and dark matter. In the science of cosmology.

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It's quite complicated stuff, but it actually reveals that both

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of them are real phenomena, and so it is still

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a mystery. It's still the biggest mystery that we confront

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I think in exploring the universe, with the exception of

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are we alone, it's an even bigger one. But yeah,

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dark matter and dark energy pretty good.

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Yeah, and a lot of work being done to try

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and unravel the mystery. But so far we yeah, we

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get more questions than answers. But yeah, one day we'll

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figure it out, hopefully sooner rather than later, but you

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just never know.

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We may never find out.

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Hopefully that won't be the case, but there's so much

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to learn.

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Thank you, Trent.

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Great question. As always, Our next question comes from Sunny Queensland.

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I think, hello, Fred and Andrew, it's blow here. I'm Welburn.

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Do you hold up the shortest.

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Name you listen?

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What is?

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I have a question for you. It's a keoretical one.

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I was wondering if it is theoretically possible to interferometry

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with the space telescopes and ground based telescopes. So we

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have the Hubble telescope, we have the Jam's web, and

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we'll have a number of large ground based telescopes. Can

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we actually do an intraferometry imaging of a star away

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object using these objects? Using these telescopes, That's how we

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got the center drop the black hole in Sagittarius a star,

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and I think we can do something similar with those

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two space telescopes and and then brought the ground based telescopes.

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I was wondering if that's to really be possible. Speaking

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of theories, has anybody done a study or between the

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correlation of the name Brian and astronomy. I'll give you

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four data points. There's Brian May, Brian Cox, Brian Schmidt

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and Brian Green. Surely they're not consequences anyway, looking forward

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to your response.

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Thanks Bo.

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There's also Brian from Sunny Queensland. Sorry, Bro, I don't

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know why I thought you were from Queensland. Maybe because

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I've got friends visiting from Queensland at the moment, queens

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and stuck in my head. But no, you're from Sunless Victoria.

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So yes, thanks for the Thanks for the question, Bo,

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what did he say? The shortest name in our in

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our listening audience. But you'd have to be careful because

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you know, admitting that your name is b oh, it's

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probably probably not the safest bed.

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In the world.

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He could get ridiculed for that one bow. But thanks

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very much for the question. Let's go with the Brian

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angle first, Fred, Brian's in astronomy.

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I love this. Yeah, this.

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Bunch for former Director of the Australian Astronomical Observatory, Brian Boyle. Now, yeah,

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you Zealand tall O'Brian. If you're listening, you don't think

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he does, but if he does, that's where he is.

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So but you could say the same for Fred, you know,

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because Fred Hoyle. Yeah, Fred.

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Fred Kepler, No, I moved that up.

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There are also got one.

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I've got one. I'll go one.

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Freddie Mercury.

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There you were, Freddie Mercury.

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Yeah.

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No, it's not far off, is it. Brian May and

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Freddie Mercury like that. They were. They were a lot

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of quite interesting. There are a lot of astronomers with

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Fred as their middle name, including David Marley, actually David

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Frederick Marlin. There were other Fredericks too, So I suspect

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there's not a link that you can make. I think

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a more interesting one is not to do with names.

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But I do remember many years ago when the old

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Siding Spring Lodge still existed, the one that burned down

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in the One Belong fire in twenty thirteen. We used

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to have evening dinners there for all the astronomers who

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were on the mountain because they were staying at the lodge.

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They used to have a.

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Dinner every evening, and conversations that those dinners were where

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many many collaborations were dreamed up, was quite extraordinary. So

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sometimes there were twenty astronomers around the table. I do

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remember one time sitting there and all of the all

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of the astronomers on one side of the table, everyone

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was eating soup. All of them on one side of

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the table were left handed. Yeah, And I thought, surely

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that was telling us something about astronomers and the way

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their brains are, because I've left hand too.

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So maybe all of all the threads were left handed,

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and all the bright right.

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Right could be it anyway, So curious collaboration, Sorry, curious

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correlationident I'm looking for Regarding interferometry. Let's come back to

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it for a minute. Even though we're talking about space.

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It's it.

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With current technology, it's not possible. And that is, you know,

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given that you can combine was it eight radio observatories

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to make the EHT the event Horizon Telescope, all facing

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one side of the Earth. They were all linked together

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by very accurate timing. The clocks were the vital part

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of that. And that's because in radio astronomy, the frequencies

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are low enough that you can actually you can interrogate

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the phase of the wave that's coming in. So a

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wave coming in has a phase, and that means you

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can concentrate on one particular or determine which part of

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the wave you're looking at a high bit or a

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low bit or whatever. Now you can do that in

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radio astronomy. The frequencies are low enough that you can

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actually analyze those phases as they're going through, and then

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you can mix them later in such a way that

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the phases actually add or subtract from the different telescopes

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that you're looking at around the world. But that's the whole,

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you know, that's the whole, not the rezon data. But

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00:13:58.279 --> 00:14:01.480
it's very much the mode of operation of radio telescopes.

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They all operate, with the exception of single dishes. All

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the arrays operate on that principle of being able to

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00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:11.600
know what phase your signal is at and then add

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or subtract at that instant the other ones to form

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00:14:14.759 --> 00:14:18.759
an interferometer, which lets you measure very small angles and

240
00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:21.919
identify detail on very small scales. The reason why you

241
00:14:21.960 --> 00:14:24.840
can't do that with optical astronomy is simply that the

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00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:28.559
frequencies are too high. There is no technology at the

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00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:33.879
moment that can sample the frequencies of light waves in

244
00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:40.039
a way that will be reliable enough to add the

245
00:14:40.200 --> 00:14:42.759
signal coming from say the Hubble telescope or the Games

246
00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:46.960
web telescope. It may not be far away though, that

247
00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:50.919
we do have that technology, because I've seen papers on

248
00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:55.720
the use of what's called heterodyne methods, which are what

249
00:14:55.799 --> 00:14:59.320
they're used in radio astronomy, trying to apply those to

250
00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:02.960
optical seas, even though the frequencies are very high. It's

251
00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:06.279
very challenging, but it may one day be possible. It's

252
00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:10.360
not at the moment, but it's an interesting idea. And yeah,

253
00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:12.159
a nice suggestion book.

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00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:16.879
Yes, indeed, thank you, BO, and good luck defending yourself

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00:15:16.879 --> 00:15:20.320
from the bullies with the name B. This is Space

256
00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:26.480
Nuts Andrew Dunkley here with Professor Fred Watson. Let's take

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00:15:26.519 --> 00:15:28.639
a quick break from the show so I can tell

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Now back to the show.

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00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:37.680
Space Nuts.

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00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:42.599
Well, now our next question Fred, Sorry bo our next

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00:17:42.599 --> 00:17:44.000
fresh question Fred.

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00:17:43.799 --> 00:17:45.079
Comes from Vincent.

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00:17:46.599 --> 00:17:51.400
Photons are the force carrying particle that mediates the electromagnetic

294
00:17:51.480 --> 00:17:55.240
force governing the behavior of things like magnetic fields. But

295
00:17:55.599 --> 00:18:00.799
they can also form into self propagating electromagnetic field, which

296
00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:05.799
we call light. If the hypothetical graviton were to exist,

297
00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:11.880
could it also form into analogous self propagating graviton waves?

298
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What would those be?

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00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:18.480
I say graviton waves to distinguish them from what we

300
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know as gravity waves under relativity, since I think they

301
00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:26.240
would be two different things. Or are they one and

302
00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:29.839
the same? Vincent, mm, good question.

303
00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:32.279
It is a good question.

304
00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:35.759
I'm going to be I'm going to make a comment

305
00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:41.400
from pedants corner here, Andrew, because gravity waves are things

306
00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:46.240
that happen in atmospheres. Gravitational waves, however, are the wabbling

307
00:18:46.359 --> 00:18:50.440
of space and time that we can detect. And yes,

308
00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:53.799
I told it was from pedance corner. I'm sorry about that. Apologies, Vincent,

309
00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:58.279
you know what I mean. So that's an interesting question.

310
00:18:58.319 --> 00:19:02.640
And what we're talking about here is, you know that

311
00:19:02.759 --> 00:19:10.759
nexus between quantum theory and relativity, because relativity is what

312
00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:18.000
determines gravity as a waveform, the gravitational waves, whereas quantum

313
00:19:18.119 --> 00:19:24.839
mechanics would be what would determine the behavior of gravitons.

314
00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:30.799
I don't actually think, though, that there is any need

315
00:19:30.920 --> 00:19:38.039
to distinguish the speed of gravitons, which is the same

316
00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:43.279
as the speed of photons, light sym atomic electromagnetic particles.

317
00:19:44.119 --> 00:19:48.000
I don't think there's any need to distinguish that from

318
00:19:48.599 --> 00:19:52.079
the speed of gravitational waves, which we know is also

319
00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:57.559
the speed of light. I do understand, you know, the

320
00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:01.720
direction that Vincent's coming from in terms of separating these

321
00:20:01.960 --> 00:20:09.200
the analogue between that electromagnetic force and the gravitational force,

322
00:20:11.079 --> 00:20:14.400
and the analogue between photons and gravitoons. Sadly, we don't

323
00:20:14.440 --> 00:20:17.279
actually know whether gravisoons exist or that they likely who

324
00:20:17.319 --> 00:20:20.119
knows that they do, but we have no theory for it.

325
00:20:20.359 --> 00:20:24.440
But that's interesting thinking. I suspect the answeres know that

326
00:20:24.519 --> 00:20:27.920
they are one and the same, as you've suggested.

327
00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:32.240
Okay, yeah, it's just one of those mysteries that we

328
00:20:32.839 --> 00:20:38.519
are yet to resolve. The particle physics, i suppose, is

329
00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:43.599
probably one of the most mysterious areas of space science

330
00:20:43.640 --> 00:20:47.599
because we've been trying to you know, we've been trying

331
00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:52.920
to capture things, We've been trying to study things, the

332
00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:59.200
Higgs boson, for example, And yeah, they make these little discoveries,

333
00:20:59.240 --> 00:21:01.519
but then they come up with so many different questions

334
00:21:01.559 --> 00:21:05.400
as to why and how and what they actually discovered.

335
00:21:05.559 --> 00:21:09.559
It's a little bit weird, to say the very latest.

336
00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:14.799
The weirdest thing I read recently, which comes from a

337
00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:22.000
quantum physicist, is a paper that suggests and actually I

338
00:21:22.039 --> 00:21:24.240
think it was carried there was an interview with this

339
00:21:24.599 --> 00:21:29.359
gentleman carried by a new scientist magazine. But this person,

340
00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:32.319
who is at the one of the universities in Spain,

341
00:21:34.279 --> 00:21:42.079
he suggests that the laws of physics aren't really there.

342
00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:47.119
There's something to do with subjective consciousness, and that is

343
00:21:47.160 --> 00:21:52.559
a really spooky idea. And he's a quantum physicist. So yeah,

344
00:21:52.599 --> 00:21:56.160
but I'm afraid I think a lot of this code

345
00:21:56.240 --> 00:22:00.559
goes into philosophy as well, sort of metaphysics and things,

346
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.119
and some of the terminology I'm afraid lost me go

347
00:22:04.240 --> 00:22:06.720
to Wikipedia to look up several of the words that

348
00:22:06.759 --> 00:22:15.480
I was reading, and I didn't understand what Wikipedia said either, So.

349
00:22:14.759 --> 00:22:17.440
It sort of seems to occasionally cross into the realm

350
00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:22.200
of we live in a world that's actually just been

351
00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:27.799
created by a mass consciousness rather than being a physical reality.

352
00:22:28.279 --> 00:22:30.440
Well, I think that's where this I think that's where

353
00:22:30.440 --> 00:22:31.759
this argument was heading.

354
00:22:32.519 --> 00:22:35.839
Yeah, because there are some that actually think that's a

355
00:22:35.880 --> 00:22:42.240
thing that we we've basically imagined ourselves into existence. That's

356
00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:47.000
that's why I think there's a book in that somewhere,

357
00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:52.680
but I'm not writing it. I could way too m

358
00:22:53.480 --> 00:22:55.599
So what was the answer to Vincent's question, Dono?

359
00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:01.240
It was maybe? Maybe? Probably, I mean basically I think

360
00:23:01.240 --> 00:23:01.480
it was.

361
00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:03.039
I think it's the one, the one in the same

362
00:23:03.079 --> 00:23:05.240
spade of gravital is going to be the speed of gravitation.

363
00:23:05.480 --> 00:23:07.839
Words. Yeah, very good.

364
00:23:08.119 --> 00:23:20.799
Thanks, excuse me, thanks Vincent, Okay, space nuts. Our final question, well,

365
00:23:20.839 --> 00:23:26.079
sort of a question the stiatementy weedy thing, which is

366
00:23:26.759 --> 00:23:27.799
coming from Christopher.

367
00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:32.640
Hello, gentlemen, my name is Christopher Blue, contacting you all

368
00:23:32.680 --> 00:23:37.880
again from Bayville, North Carolina, and I just want to

369
00:23:37.880 --> 00:23:42.279
tell if y'all had ever heard or read anything about

370
00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:46.599
the reasons there were floods. I think this was back

371
00:23:46.599 --> 00:23:50.160
in biblical times, but it was because the solar system

372
00:23:50.839 --> 00:23:54.400
had ejected a planet, and it had whizzed by Earth,

373
00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:58.799
leaving like a snakelike serpent of light across the sky.

374
00:23:59.200 --> 00:24:01.519
I didn't know if y'all had heard anything about that,

375
00:24:01.720 --> 00:24:04.119
or if I'm just having like a fever drink. But

376
00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:09.519
keep it up, guys, love the show, and hey, may

377
00:24:09.599 --> 00:24:10.359
it forth me with you?

378
00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:12.680
Thanks you, thank you, Christopher.

379
00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:15.200
And then I've got a terrible one line in response

380
00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:25.079
to Christopher, No way we're doing that, the boom tishmites. Indeed,

381
00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:28.640
hang on, I've got that sound effect. I think I

382
00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:30.880
think I've got that sound effect. I can't remember what

383
00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:34.319
it's called, though, it's got a weird name, but oh,

384
00:24:34.359 --> 00:24:35.200
hang on, is this it?

385
00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:38.839
There? It is? You can quick love it. What's it called.

386
00:24:39.720 --> 00:24:40.839
It's called rim shot.

387
00:24:41.400 --> 00:24:43.319
Oh yeah, well here's a riot. That's right.

388
00:24:43.599 --> 00:24:44.400
Yeah, that's right.

389
00:24:45.960 --> 00:24:54.759
Look, you can draw some events in history to astronomy,

390
00:24:54.839 --> 00:24:57.359
like the Christmas Star, which we've talked about in the past,

391
00:24:58.640 --> 00:25:01.559
and there wasn't anomally and as peronomic a normally around

392
00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:02.240
that time.

393
00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:04.240
That is well documented.

394
00:25:05.240 --> 00:25:09.119
So yeah, the question of whether or not these biblical

395
00:25:09.160 --> 00:25:14.160
floods that Christopher refers to could have been coincided with

396
00:25:14.200 --> 00:25:17.640
some sort of an astronomical event. Probably not that big

397
00:25:17.640 --> 00:25:21.359
a stretch, if you can get the timeline and the proofing.

398
00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:24.720
Yes, I think that's right. I think you've got to

399
00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:27.480
look at these with an open mind in regard to

400
00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:31.279
whether they're describing something that that happened. And there's a

401
00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:31.960
good chance.

402
00:25:31.799 --> 00:25:32.720
That there were.

403
00:25:34.279 --> 00:25:37.160
I draw the line at the Solar System ejecting a

404
00:25:37.240 --> 00:25:44.200
planet and a serpent like light across the sky. I think,

405
00:25:44.279 --> 00:25:53.720
though so, Christopher's question reminds me of a book written

406
00:25:53.759 --> 00:25:58.960
by two colleagues of mine, the Rod Observatory in Edinburgh. Suddenly,

407
00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:01.720
I don't actually have a copy of that book. I

408
00:26:01.759 --> 00:26:04.240
used to have one because they wrote a nice dedication

409
00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:07.799
in it, but I lent it to somebody. It was

410
00:26:07.880 --> 00:26:13.640
called The Cosmic Serpent, and that's what Christopher was saying

411
00:26:13.720 --> 00:26:16.480
is what reminded me of it. And it's by Victor

412
00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:20.359
Klub and William Napier to colleagues. In fact, Victor Club

413
00:26:20.519 --> 00:26:22.720
was my boss, and as far as I know, Victory

414
00:26:22.759 --> 00:26:28.359
is still going strong, living in retirement in by Year

415
00:26:28.799 --> 00:26:33.079
in northern France, in a castle where we visited him

416
00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:37.519
about a decade ago. Anyway, the Cosmic Serpent was the

417
00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:42.480
book that these two gentlemen wrote in the wake of

418
00:26:42.519 --> 00:26:46.920
their discovery that the Earth has probably been bombarded by

419
00:26:46.960 --> 00:26:49.680
comics and asteroids. This was all at the end of

420
00:26:49.720 --> 00:26:54.240
the nineteen seventies, and unfortunately somebody else kind of picked

421
00:26:54.279 --> 00:26:56.400
up the qudos for that discovery. They did write a

422
00:26:56.440 --> 00:27:00.839
paper which was published in Nature magazine in nineteen seventy nine,

423
00:27:00.920 --> 00:27:04.960
I think, called a Theory of Terrestrial Catastrophism, and it

424
00:27:05.039 --> 00:27:07.240
was all about things that may well have hit the

425
00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:12.200
Earth and how, you know, not just wiping out the dinosaurs,

426
00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:14.480
which was the new idea at that time, and it

427
00:27:14.519 --> 00:27:18.359
was that that caused the media star But there may

428
00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:23.759
have been episodes in historical times that have caused catastrophes

429
00:27:23.960 --> 00:27:26.680
of one sort or another that may have accounted for

430
00:27:26.759 --> 00:27:32.480
things like the flood to be ensconced in the certainly

431
00:27:32.839 --> 00:27:37.119
initially in the folklore, but eventually in the Pentateuke, the

432
00:27:37.119 --> 00:27:38.039
books of Moses.

433
00:27:38.559 --> 00:27:41.640
So it's it was.

434
00:27:41.599 --> 00:27:45.400
An interesting theory. I think things have probably moved on

435
00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:48.240
quite a lot since then. But these two were hard

436
00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:51.400
nosed scientists and they were prepared to look at a

437
00:27:51.400 --> 00:27:54.279
lot of the history of Earth in terms of how

438
00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:58.480
things like impacts from asteroids might have generated the kind

439
00:27:58.519 --> 00:28:03.160
of phenomena that we that we saw. So yeah, it's

440
00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:06.039
something that I think we as scientists need to be

441
00:28:06.079 --> 00:28:09.160
open minded about. And you know, it goes into other

442
00:28:09.200 --> 00:28:15.000
cultures as well as evidence that there was an impact,

443
00:28:15.079 --> 00:28:18.759
probably a large meteorite, which gave rise to some of

444
00:28:18.799 --> 00:28:21.480
the dream time stories of our first nations people. Here

445
00:28:21.480 --> 00:28:25.319
in Australia, certainly up in the Northern Territory, there are

446
00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:29.680
stories that tally with a potential impact about ten thousand

447
00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:32.000
years ago. You've got a culture here which goes back

448
00:28:32.039 --> 00:28:35.960
sixty thousand years so that culture is a living culture

449
00:28:35.960 --> 00:28:40.200
with a lot of verbal tradition in it and that's

450
00:28:40.240 --> 00:28:45.640
how you know the phenomena like a catastrophic event like

451
00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:49.240
a meteorite hitting the ground could be preserved in the

452
00:28:49.279 --> 00:28:51.240
stories that they have, the dream type stories.

453
00:28:52.119 --> 00:28:56.440
Fascinating. Yeah, it just reminded me. For this has got

454
00:28:56.599 --> 00:28:59.200
nothing to do with Christopher's question, but you were talking

455
00:28:59.200 --> 00:29:06.279
about ancient beliefs and ancient events and not to dismiss them.

456
00:29:06.279 --> 00:29:09.480
But while we were in Turkey the other day, we

457
00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:13.240
visited the ruins of Ephesus. I don't know if you've

458
00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:16.480
heard of the city of Ephesus, fascinating. Got the walk

459
00:29:16.559 --> 00:29:22.279
the original streets of Ephesus and saw the temple, and

460
00:29:22.839 --> 00:29:25.039
one of the things that I spotted there that was

461
00:29:25.680 --> 00:29:30.400
pointed out to us was the statuette of Artemis.

462
00:29:31.079 --> 00:29:34.039
They got us of, got us of the moon.

463
00:29:35.440 --> 00:29:40.680
Yepo relation to Apollo relation.

464
00:29:40.839 --> 00:29:45.640
He was, yeah, yeah, and so yeah, the statuette of

465
00:29:46.279 --> 00:29:51.640
Artemis is in Ephesus and still still exists there today.

466
00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:54.880
A Roman statue made around one hundred a d. I think,

467
00:29:56.119 --> 00:30:00.880
which still sits on a plints in in the city

468
00:30:00.920 --> 00:30:07.440
of Ephesus in Turkya. But you blink and you miss it,

469
00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:09.160
but it's there.

470
00:30:09.400 --> 00:30:10.880
Amongst all the ruins.

471
00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:14.720
But you can still see how the city existed and

472
00:30:14.880 --> 00:30:18.119
was laid out, and all the buildings. And one of

473
00:30:18.160 --> 00:30:21.359
the buildings that remains prominent and has still got quite

474
00:30:21.400 --> 00:30:27.759
a solid structure is the brothel, which is right near

475
00:30:27.799 --> 00:30:30.880
the road to the port. Because the ocean used to

476
00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:35.079
actually reach where Ephesis is no longer nearby because of

477
00:30:35.119 --> 00:30:39.359
the changes in earthquakes and things. But yeah, there was

478
00:30:39.400 --> 00:30:42.440
a road leading from the port into Ephesus, and one

479
00:30:42.440 --> 00:30:44.640
of the first buildings you come to is the brothel.

480
00:30:45.240 --> 00:30:49.799
So yes, but fascinating place, really interesting place. Has so

481
00:30:49.839 --> 00:30:55.279
many interesting ruins in Europe and in Asia and Turkey

482
00:30:55.319 --> 00:31:00.279
is no exception. Christopher, thanks for the question about biblical floods. Yeah,

483
00:31:00.440 --> 00:31:05.759
probably something somewhere has crossed paths with astronomy or space

484
00:31:05.799 --> 00:31:11.359
science that's created that possibility. Indeed, and thanks to everyone

485
00:31:11.400 --> 00:31:14.720
who's sending questions. Don't forget you can send in questions

486
00:31:14.759 --> 00:31:17.519
to All you have to do is jump on our website,

487
00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:20.960
Space Nuts podcast dot com or space Nuts dot io

488
00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:23.519
and go to the AMA link where you can send

489
00:31:23.559 --> 00:31:25.759
us text or audio questions. If you've got a device

490
00:31:25.799 --> 00:31:28.440
with a microphone, that's all you need to send us

491
00:31:28.440 --> 00:31:30.960
an audio question. We'd love to hear from you. Don't

492
00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:34.079
forget to tell us who you are and where you're from. Fred,

493
00:31:34.160 --> 00:31:36.960
thanks as always for answering everybody's questions.

494
00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:38.240
Much appreciated.

495
00:31:39.400 --> 00:31:41.920
I appreciate being here too. Thanks Andrew, take care and

496
00:31:41.960 --> 00:31:45.039
the hook Husky voice goes back to normal.

497
00:31:44.839 --> 00:31:48.559
Soon hopefully, Yes, and thanks to hear in the studio

498
00:31:48.640 --> 00:31:53.240
for not pestering us with questions. And from me Andrew Dunkley,

499
00:31:53.359 --> 00:31:55.680
thanks for joining us. Hope you can join us again

500
00:31:55.759 --> 00:31:58.920
on the very next episode of Space Nuts. Until then,

501
00:31:59.599 --> 00:32:00.319
Bye bye.

502
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:02.960
I'm the man.

503
00:32:05.920 --> 00:32:12.480
By there you go, And when I find the when

504
00:32:12.519 --> 00:32:15.359
I find the intro, I'll hit it and I again

505
00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:18.720
say from me and Fred and you bye bye.

506
00:32:19.400 --> 00:32:24.440
You'll be listening to the Space Nuts podcast, available at

507
00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:29.759
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, or your favorite podcast player.

508
00:32:29.920 --> 00:32:33.240
You can also stream on demand at fights dot com.

509
00:32:33.240 --> 00:32:36.640
This has been another quality podcast production from the Nights

510
00:32:36.720 --> 00:32:38.960
dot Com
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