Nov. 4, 2024

#466: Mysterious Spacecraft Sounds, Big Bang Beliefs & Saturn's Ring Dynamics

#466: Mysterious Spacecraft Sounds, Big Bang Beliefs & Saturn's Ring Dynamics

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Space Nuts Q&A Edition - Episode 466
Join Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson in this...

This episode is brought to you by Saily. Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily eSIM
data plans! Download Saily app and use code 'spacenuts' at checkout.
Space Nuts Q&A Edition - Episode 466
Join Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson in this captivating episode of Space Nuts, where they address intriguing questions from our audience. From unexplained spacecraft noises to the mysteries of the Big Bang, this episode is filled with fascinating insights and cosmic discussions.
Episode Highlights:
- Unexplained Spacecraft Noises: Dive into the mystery of strange noises reported on various spacecraft, including the Boeing Starliner and historical incidents on Space Shuttle Discovery and Shenzhou 5. Explore potential explanations and the quirks of space acoustics.
- Challenging the Big Bang Theory: Join the debate as listener Binny shares his scepticism about the Big Bang and proposes an alternative theory involving a massive rotating black hole. Delve into the evidence for the Big Bang and the cosmic microwave background radiation.
- Planetary Gyroscopes: Discover what happens if a planet is tilted off its axis and whether it could behave like a giant gyroscope. Learn about gravitational forces and the dynamics of planetary rings, with insights into Saturn and Uranus.
- The Electromagnetic Spectrum in Astronomy: Explore the different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum and their significance in scientific discoveries. Professor Fred Watson shares his insights on the most interesting and impactful wavelengths, from visible light to the 22-centimetre line of hydrogen.
For more Space Nuts, including our continually updating newsfeed and to listen to all our episodes, visit our website. Follow us on social media at SpaceNutsPod on facebook, X, YouTube, Tumblr, 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.

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This is Space Nuts where we talk astronomy in space science.

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Every couple of episodes, we hand it to the audience

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and we answer their questions, well we pretend to. We

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just take the questions and basically ask more questions. But

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on today's episode we will be talking about those strange

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noises that are heard on spacecraft. We recently talked about

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the Boeing Starliner and some of the weird noises coming

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from that. Well, apparently there have been others. According to Seth,

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he wants answers, so we'll last see if we can

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figure that one out. Binny has come back to us

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saying he doesn't believe in the Big Bang.

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He has another theory which we will discuss.

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Jacob wants to know what happens if you tilt a

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planet off its rotation and whether or not it could

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become a planet sized gyroscope and drag everything along with it.

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And electromagnetism is Nate's topic of discussion on this episode

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of Space Nuts Channel ten nine Ignition.

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Sequence Space Nuts or three two one Space Nurse.

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As when I reported Neil Good.

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And here with the desire to decipher is Professor Fred

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what's an astronomer at La Tello friend.

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Hi Andrew, Good to see you again.

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Good to see you too. I'm still wearing the same shirt,

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so I told you it's the only one I've got.

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It is so yeah, weird.

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I've got two shirts.

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Now.

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We've got a bunch of questions. This first one comes

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from Seth, who is from Rhode Island in the United States.

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Seth says, on episode four hundred and fifty one, you

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spoke of noises on Boeing Starliner that were chalked up

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to audio feedback. However, there have been two reported similar events.

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Ellison on a super in nineteen eighty five on Space

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Shuttle Discovery, he reportedly mentioned hearing strange, knocking or metallic

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sounds while in orbit. A similar story is tied to

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a Chinese astronaut Yang Liu or li Ui, who reported

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hearing unexplained knocking sounds during his two thousand and three

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flight on Shenju five. How were those explained? What are

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your thoughts, Seth?

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I have I have.

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I think I figured it out Fred til Ever since

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that first story about the bowing star Liner, I've been wondering.

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I think it was Sandra Bullock.

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Oh really, yes, that would answer the question, wouldn't it,

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because that was an obvious yes, let me.

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In that's what That's what I reckon. Should that not

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be a plausible theory? What what else could it be?

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Well, I didn't actually know about those earlier episodes of

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noises coming from spacecraft, so I'm really glad that says

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raised our you know, raised our awareness of them. My

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guess is it could be the same sort of thing, though,

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because feedback loops occur all over the place and can

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produce some very strange acoustic effects, as with the Starliner,

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and occasionally you and I get feedback loops that don't

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do us any good. They don't sound like knocking noises.

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They usually sound more like a you know, repeated sentences

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or something like that. But I would I would say

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that was will be a strong contender for what they

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might be. Other than that. You know, if you if

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you hear some regular noise coming from within a spacecraft,

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it's clearly not just a single you haven't hit a

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micrometeoroid or something like that, something with a more repeatability

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to it. So a feedback loop would seem to me

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to be the best way to explain it.

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The description of the noise on.

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The Chinese spacecraft that Seth mentioned was described as the

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sound of a hammer heating an iron bucket. It doesn't

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sound doesn't sound like the feedback does sound like Sandra Bullock,

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it doesn't sound like feedback. And if it's happened more

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than once, yeah, Now, the story I've read is they

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never found the source of the sound. Okay, so that

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makes it easy for us to answer Seth's question. In

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that regard, we don't know because they don't know, but

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it is it is a documented incident.

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Yeah, you know, in earthly circumstances. The thing that's sounds

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most like somebody hitting a bucket with a hammer is

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when you get a water hammer in your pipes at home.

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Whether you've ever had a water hummer, but I yes, yes,

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it's quite It sounds quite terrifying. Actually, somebody's battering the

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house with a battering rum. Now there will be fluid

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pipes on board spacecraft. Whether you could get a fluid

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hammer set up like that, I don't know, but it's

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it's that sort of thing again, that's the sort of

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feedback book. It's a kind of resonance of the pressures

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within the within the pipework.

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Yeah, could be that.

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I'm trying to find the other spaceship that he referred to,

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but nine eighty five it was, so that's going back

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a fair way. But yeah, there have been metallic sounds

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reported on several spacecraft that have been logged since nineteen

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sixty one, so yeah, it could It could be the

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water circulation system, It could be that could be the toilet.

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You know, best of all those early ones didn't have toilets.

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Yeah, oh yeah, you just had to do it in

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the suit. Yeah, well that would make me make grinding sounds.

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I'm pretty sure of that.

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But it's it's a good theory, though, Fred, I don't

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think they've ever really figured them out, except for the

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Boeing star Liner, which they did put down to feedback

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loop through the audio system. So yes, Seth, we can't

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give you an absolute answer on that, but Fred's theory

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could hold water.

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Oh I'm not the job. No, I'll still side with

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Sandra Bullock though. Thanks Seth. Great, great question.

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Let's go to our next question from.

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Hello, Professor Watson and Andrew. This is Binnie Matthew momnums

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engineered by profession. I accidentally started listening to your podcast,

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and I love every episode of it. Since then, I've

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never stopped listening to it. It gets me out of

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boredom when I'm working alone in my department. I love

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your show. Keep up the good work. And my question is,

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I don't believe in a big bang. I don't think

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the universe started up just by a big back, no

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matter whatever the cosmic peic way, background evidence shows, or

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whatever it is.

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But I don't believe in that.

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Maybe if you look at the astronomical things, everything rotates everything,

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So I think the universe is like a planet which

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is rotating, a big Matthew black hole, which may explain

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the dark energy or the matter.

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Can you put some late on it?

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Thanks thanks for the getting me to give you the

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questions and love you.

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Sure, thank you, Thank you, Benny.

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If it's a large black hole, no, we can't put

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any light on it.

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I'm gonna I'm just going to say something tongue in cheek.

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It's not it's not an insult, but it reminds me

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of an old joke that a comedian told years and

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years ago about a player in the Indian cricket team

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whose name was Benny, and he referred to him as

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rubbish Bennie, and I you know.

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I was.

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Your questions rubbish Bnny. But I'm just kidding around.

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It doesn't it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean.

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No, I don't know. Billy Birmingham was the comedian's name.

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He used to do these these these augmented cricket commentary

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comedian things, and there were Yeah, he gave you all

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all the names of the players, so they were a

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little bit insulting. And there was one player in the

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Indian team that he used to call rubbish Binni, because

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his name was Binnie. So anyway, I thought, just as

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soon as I heard Binni's name, that popped into my head.

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Sorry about that. So no big bang. Oh, and Bennie said,

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he accidentally found us. That's how everyone finds us. No

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one actually tries to find us on purpose.

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Binni. It's just not done.

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But it's lovely that you've become a space not aficionado. Indeed,

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welcome to the family.

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Now he's just left us. I've insulted.

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Probably after all that I will be surprised.

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No big bang, but a big black hole at the

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center of the universe.

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That we are rotating around.

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Yeah, it's interesting thinking. I do think anybody who throws

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away the Big Bang has got to have a plausible

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explanation for the cosmic microwave background radiation. I knew you'd

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get there, Yeah, knew it. Yeah, well, yeah, it's where

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where you'd go. You're a cosmologist as well, Andrew, you

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know the answer to all these so and until so

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when I when I was at school, you know, in

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the early sixties, there were.

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It was an eighteen sixties current.

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Well, yes, actually that's what it felt like.

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It was.

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There were two competing theories for the for the the universe.

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One was the Big Bang theory, which was not new

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but had been postulated in the late twenties and early thirties,

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so thirty years before or something like that, there was

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a Big Bang theory, but also the steady state theory.

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And the steady state theory said that the universe is expanding,

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but it never had a beginning, and space is being

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created all the time, and matters been created all the time.

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And it was.

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Espoused by some big names in the world of astronomy

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and astro physics. One of them was Professor Sir Fred Hoyle,

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who was one of the most notable physicists of his day,

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astronomers of his day, and actually a leading lie in

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creating the Angle of Australian Telescope. He was the person

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who first greeted the Prince of Wales and then Prince

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of Wales now the King when he turned up to

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open the telescope in nineteen seventy four. So a very

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big name, but a ficionado of the steady state theory.

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And in fact it's due to Fred that we have

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the term a big bang, because he mocks it on

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a BBC radio program which later had turned into a

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little book. It's upon the shelves behind me there.

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Oh yes, they's I'm.

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Glad you did it, and it quotes that, you know,

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a big bang in inverted commas. Oh they call it

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the big Bang. But what clinched the big Bang was

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just a few years later nineteen sixty six, if I

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remember rightly, was the discovery of this background of microwaves

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from the whole sky, which had been predicted by people

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who were, you know, believe that there had been a

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Big bang theory. So the cosmic microwave background radiation is

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what not the steady state theory on the head and

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there are still a few people who espouse it, and

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maybe Bini is one, but it's very hard to explain

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the cosmic micro background radiation.

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Somebody opened the door before they stopped cooking.

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Oh, that's what usually happens. That's the old Periton theory

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as well. Yes, from Parks. But there are some modern

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scientists who do espouse the idea of the universe being

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a black hole. So it's I think Roger Penrose is

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one his theory says that I think he still has

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big bangs in them though I think they're exploding black holes.

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But basically everything's a black hole. Yes, yeah, so it's interesting,

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interesting to hear your your thoughts, been here and technical

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notice of the awful things that Andrew says about people's names.

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Fair point.

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But maybe maybe he can go back and start digging.

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Up some proof and we'll talk about it against.

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The question is always where's the evidence?

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Where's the evidence? Yes?

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Yes, thanks Benny, great to hear from you. Don't let

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anything I said stop you from asking questions again in

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the future.

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Place. Lovely, lovely for you to have contacted us.

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This is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson.

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Let's take a little break from the show to.

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Tell you about our new sponsor, Saley Now. As you

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probably wear, my wife and I have done a fair

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bit of traveling in recent times. One of the pitfalls

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in our show notes. Now back to space Nuts.

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00:16:27.720 --> 00:16:31.600
Three space nuts.

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00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:37.360
Our next question comes from Jacob living in Sydney. I

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00:16:37.360 --> 00:16:40.879
think that's his name, not where he's from. As as

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we can see, despite space being three D a lot

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of our space tends to prefer being two D discs,

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whether it be a galaxy or a protoplanetary disc. My

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question is would these discs act as gyroscopes. Let's say

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I rotate Satin ninety degrees about its acts that aligns

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with its that aligns with its disc. Would the disc

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follow and eventually lie on the extra ninety degrees or

273
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would it be unaffected? I think I know what he's saying.

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So you've got satin, you've got the discs. If you

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tilt the planet, does the disc follow in a gyroscopic manner?

276
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Yes, so it does actually to till onto the last

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part first, but it's not to do with gyroscopic forces.

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And galaxies, for example, don't exhibit gyroscopic forces because they're

279
00:17:37.799 --> 00:17:43.240
they're not solid objects. They're just individual objects orbiting a

280
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center center of the right. But with planets, so if

281
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you if you did tilt Saturn on its side and

282
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it kept on rotating that way so its axis was

283
00:17:55.400 --> 00:17:59.359
basically pointing towards the Sun for example, what would happen

284
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to the rings? Eventually the rings would follow it because

285
00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:10.119
it's the fact that Saturn is rotating which gives it

286
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an equatorial bulge. Its shape is something called an oblaatez feroid,

287
00:18:15.079 --> 00:18:18.000
so it's fatter at the equator at the poles. That

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means that the gravitational pull is very much orientated towards

289
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the equator, and that's what pulls the rings into an

290
00:18:27.119 --> 00:18:31.440
equatorial orbit. And again, the rings are made of they're

291
00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:34.480
solid objects, but they're sorry, the rings are not solid objects.

292
00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:38.559
They're made of individual particles, gazillions of them, mostly ice

293
00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:45.039
in fact. And it's that gravitational influence of Saturn's equatorial

294
00:18:45.079 --> 00:18:47.920
bulge that makes the ring system so thin that it's

295
00:18:47.960 --> 00:18:51.359
only one hundred meters thick and you know, two hundred

296
00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:55.920
and fifty thousand kilometers across. It's a very weird shape, indeed,

297
00:18:56.240 --> 00:19:00.799
blade like structure in space. So gyros, what what we

298
00:19:00.920 --> 00:19:05.279
normally think of as gyroscopic forces, don't come into play.

299
00:19:05.319 --> 00:19:09.279
They're replaced by other forces basically, So you could almost

300
00:19:09.359 --> 00:19:13.160
you know, if you were so super being watching such

301
00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:14.920
and tilt on east side and you could see what

302
00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:16.839
the rings would do. It would almost look like that

303
00:19:16.839 --> 00:19:19.519
that they'd follow because of gyroscopic motion, but it's actually

304
00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:24.160
because it's because they're they're being pulled towards the equator such.

305
00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:29.200
A okay, yeah, okay, so it's more gravitational or yeah

306
00:19:29.240 --> 00:19:33.319
that's right, yeah, okay. Also he was right it would happen,

307
00:19:33.359 --> 00:19:35.720
but not for the same reasons he's considering. There is

308
00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:37.599
an example of it, though, isn't there with.

309
00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:42.279
The ring around Uranus?

310
00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:46.359
And that is because it's it's on its side and

311
00:19:46.519 --> 00:19:48.759
the ring around that plan is ver vertical.

312
00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:51.880
Yeah, the ring there is a follows the equator of

313
00:19:52.039 --> 00:19:53.039
Urinus here yep.

314
00:19:53.359 --> 00:20:01.160
Indeed, all right, that spun me out that one, Thank you, Jacob. Okay,

315
00:20:01.359 --> 00:20:06.480
technical space nuts. We have one more question, and this

316
00:20:06.519 --> 00:20:08.559
one comes from night.

317
00:20:09.160 --> 00:20:11.559
Hey for Andrew, it's night from the Glass House Mountains

318
00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:14.359
back again with him their question. This one's a three parter,

319
00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:18.200
but it's an opinion piece for Officer Watson. So the

320
00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:21.680
first one is which part of the electromagnetic spectrum, so

321
00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:26.079
like infrared, visible, ultraviolet, et cetera, et cetera, did you

322
00:20:26.279 --> 00:20:30.039
find most interesting to analyze and work with in your

323
00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:33.799
professional career? And then the second third might get you

324
00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:36.599
in some hot water with some of your colleagues because

325
00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:42.880
I want you to pick one specific part, but which

326
00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:46.279
part of the electromagnetic spectrum do you think has contributed

327
00:20:46.319 --> 00:20:50.759
most significantly to scientific discoveries thus far? And then lastly,

328
00:20:51.279 --> 00:20:55.200
which part do you think will contribute most to science

329
00:20:55.359 --> 00:20:58.720
astronomy and physics going forward? Thanks guys, love the podcast.

330
00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:00.359
Wow, that's a different ques question.

331
00:21:00.759 --> 00:21:04.079
That's really I think it's one of the best questions

332
00:21:04.119 --> 00:21:04.759
we've had, is that?

333
00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:07.039
Wow? Good call?

334
00:21:07.319 --> 00:21:11.079
Yeah, yeah, yep, I like that very much, So well done.

335
00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:17.680
Yes, all right, most interesting em spectrum, as I think

336
00:21:17.720 --> 00:21:18.960
the first part of his question.

337
00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:24.480
So I have to say all my comments from here

338
00:21:24.519 --> 00:21:26.480
on are going to be biased by the fact that

339
00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:30.359
my career has been spent in the optical spectrum. But

340
00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:35.920
a few books, a few wanderings on meanderings into the infrared,

341
00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:38.720
which is the redder than red part of the optical spectrum.

342
00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:43.160
But the technology that astronomers use, certainly in the past,

343
00:21:43.240 --> 00:21:47.279
tended to limit them to having expertise in just one

344
00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:49.920
type of astronomy. So you've got radio astronomers, you've got

345
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:53.359
X ray astronomers, you've got gamma ray astronomers, and all

346
00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:56.799
the rest of it. Microwave astronomers. Now we have access

347
00:21:56.799 --> 00:22:00.200
to all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. The bit I

348
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:04.440
know best is visible light the optical spectrum, but it

349
00:22:04.559 --> 00:22:07.480
is also and I'm not just saying this because I

350
00:22:07.640 --> 00:22:11.599
worked in it, it's the best bit as well for

351
00:22:11.720 --> 00:22:20.119
two reasons. One is that the optical spectrum is very,

352
00:22:20.279 --> 00:22:27.240
very rich in the chemical signatures of atoms. So if

353
00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:30.000
you want to find out, you know what, where the

354
00:22:30.079 --> 00:22:36.599
hydrogen is in a in a in the universe, should

355
00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:40.799
perhaps should perhaps let me pick another example, oxygen rather

356
00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:43.240
than hydrogen or sodium. I'll get back to hydrogen in

357
00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:43.880
a minute.

358
00:22:44.519 --> 00:22:45.200
All of those.

359
00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:48.359
Things they emit their light in the optical spectrum when

360
00:22:48.359 --> 00:22:52.119
they get excited, as do most atoms. Actually, you get

361
00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:57.359
an optical spectrum of the light. It's so that's why,

362
00:22:57.400 --> 00:23:02.160
for example, we see those characteristics orange yellow street lights

363
00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:05.480
which were the out of fashion now, but they were

364
00:23:05.720 --> 00:23:10.440
formed by glowing sodium. So that's you know, that's telling

365
00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:13.319
us that the sodium there because of the specific colors

366
00:23:13.319 --> 00:23:16.799
that you've got in that. And likewise, throughout the whole

367
00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:19.640
optical spectrum there's the signature of pretty well all the

368
00:23:19.680 --> 00:23:24.440
elements in there. Now, when it comes to molecules, signatures

369
00:23:24.440 --> 00:23:27.440
of molecules tend to be more in the infrared spectrum.

370
00:23:27.559 --> 00:23:31.640
Because because molecules come together in cooler environments than the

371
00:23:31.640 --> 00:23:34.240
atmosphere of a star, some stars are cool enough that

372
00:23:34.279 --> 00:23:37.319
you can form some molecules to tenium oxide.

373
00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:37.440
To one of them.

374
00:23:37.880 --> 00:23:41.960
But if you want to analyze molecules, you go to

375
00:23:41.960 --> 00:23:44.640
the infrared. But for the elements themselves, and that's the

376
00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:48.480
most important bit, really, the chemical elements, you've got to

377
00:23:48.519 --> 00:23:53.200
go to the optical spectrum. So now the next bit

378
00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:56.920
of Nate's question, if I remember rightly, was what part

379
00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:00.440
of the spectrum do you think has made the biggest contribute.

380
00:24:02.920 --> 00:24:03.200
To that?

381
00:24:03.400 --> 00:24:09.359
And I'm going to split here into two because it's

382
00:24:09.400 --> 00:24:13.480
certainly true that without optical spectroscopy we wouldn't have known

383
00:24:13.480 --> 00:24:17.559
about the chemistry of stars at all. And it was

384
00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:21.279
the first person who turned a spectroscope to analyze the

385
00:24:21.359 --> 00:24:24.240
light of the coming from the stars, might called William

386
00:24:24.279 --> 00:24:27.599
Huggins back in the eighteen sixties, if I remember rightly,

387
00:24:28.079 --> 00:24:32.400
he observed the stars with the spectroscope and realized that

388
00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:35.240
the chemical elements in the stars had the same signature

389
00:24:35.240 --> 00:24:37.759
as chemical elements here on Earth. So he was the

390
00:24:37.799 --> 00:24:39.480
person who was able to say, we know what the

391
00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:42.920
stars are made of. And that was the birth of astrophysics,

392
00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:47.039
so that clearly is of paramount importance. But I nominate

393
00:24:47.160 --> 00:24:48.039
a second one.

394
00:24:49.119 --> 00:24:52.279
Let me get, let me get the indigo bit.

395
00:24:55.319 --> 00:25:00.720
The indigo Bit's god, it's not real. Used to be, yeah,

396
00:25:00.759 --> 00:25:03.319
it used to be ROYGBIV, didn't it. Richard of York

397
00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:07.119
gained battles in vain red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet,

398
00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:10.680
except indigo was something put in so that you could

399
00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:16.119
make it sound alright, it's not really there. It goes red.

400
00:25:16.279 --> 00:25:18.759
So six spectrum colors rather than seven. I'm sure people

401
00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:21.200
chose seven just because seven is a sort of magic

402
00:25:21.279 --> 00:25:22.920
number with days of the week and all the rest

403
00:25:22.960 --> 00:25:29.000
of it. Anyway, exact, that's another story I'd nominate, and

404
00:25:29.240 --> 00:25:31.559
perhaps would nominate this as being the one that's going

405
00:25:31.599 --> 00:25:34.759
to be most important in the future as well, and

406
00:25:34.799 --> 00:25:41.079
that is the twenty two centimeter line of hydrogen. By that,

407
00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:46.839
what I mean is a it's a signal that has

408
00:25:46.839 --> 00:25:52.519
a specific wavelength twenty two centimeters four hundred and fourteen

409
00:25:52.599 --> 00:25:57.519
hundred and twenty megahertz, if I remember rightly, most radio

410
00:25:57.519 --> 00:26:03.519
astronomers thinking frequencies rather than wavelength. But that is a

411
00:26:03.559 --> 00:26:07.960
feature in the radio spectrum that is produced by cold hydrogen.

412
00:26:08.599 --> 00:26:11.559
So you don't need hydrogen to be excited by stars,

413
00:26:11.799 --> 00:26:14.720
You just need it to be sitting there in space cold,

414
00:26:15.559 --> 00:26:19.960
and what you get is this signal, and that emits

415
00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:23.160
the wavelength of twenty two centimeters. It's in the near

416
00:26:23.319 --> 00:26:27.359
radio spectrum, the short wavelength radio spectrum, and that has

417
00:26:27.400 --> 00:26:30.319
allowed us to map the gas in the universe, the

418
00:26:30.359 --> 00:26:33.079
cold gas in the universe, and in particular our Milky Way.

419
00:26:34.200 --> 00:26:36.559
We know about the spiral structure of the Milky Way

420
00:26:36.559 --> 00:26:40.920
because we can trace the cold hydrogen which that lies

421
00:26:40.920 --> 00:26:43.799
along the spiral arms. The reason why I'm pointing it

422
00:26:43.839 --> 00:26:46.720
as being something important for the future is that the

423
00:26:46.759 --> 00:26:49.920
square kilometer array the biggest telescope in the world. That

424
00:26:49.960 --> 00:26:51.079
was Jordi agreeing with me.

425
00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:52.119
I heard.

426
00:26:53.240 --> 00:26:56.759
Yeah. Actually, remind me to tell you some other news

427
00:26:56.799 --> 00:26:59.680
about pets in a minute. But yeah. The reason why

428
00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:05.599
it's in for the future is that the squarekelimeter array

429
00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:08.200
is basically built so that it can look at that

430
00:27:08.440 --> 00:27:12.519
wavelength different redshifts. In other words, see it as it

431
00:27:12.640 --> 00:27:16.359
was emitted before the first stars formed, so you can

432
00:27:16.400 --> 00:27:19.440
look back in time to when the early universe was

433
00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:22.839
just filled with glowing with cold hydrogen that wasn't glowing,

434
00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:27.160
and that hydrogen can be traced by this twenty two

435
00:27:27.200 --> 00:27:29.359
centimeter light, so we can map it will be able

436
00:27:29.400 --> 00:27:32.200
to map the hydrogen in the universe before the stars

437
00:27:32.519 --> 00:27:35.640
first stars formed, which is going to be quite extraordinary.

438
00:27:36.119 --> 00:27:39.559
So yeah, a great question from Nate there, and interesting

439
00:27:39.559 --> 00:27:40.400
answers as well.

440
00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:44.440
I think, yeah, yeah, so yeah, I think he covered

441
00:27:44.440 --> 00:27:46.920
everything for him. In fact, that last answer covered the

442
00:27:46.960 --> 00:27:49.079
two parts of the half of the question.

443
00:27:49.200 --> 00:27:50.319
So that's really.

444
00:27:50.079 --> 00:27:53.319
Good because I know what prompted Nate to ask this question.

445
00:27:53.400 --> 00:27:55.559
He's in the Glasshouse Mountains, so on a sunny day

446
00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:57.160
they do see a lot of spectrums.

447
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.680
It's a really interesting landscape up there, it is, isn't it. Yeah,

448
00:28:05.079 --> 00:28:08.480
very driving through it, you go, what this just doesn't

449
00:28:08.519 --> 00:28:13.799
look right? Something weird going on here. They're quite striking mountains,

450
00:28:13.799 --> 00:28:17.559
they are. You said, just you had some information. Yeah,

451
00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:20.400
just a little bit of news. Yes, yesterday. So yesterday

452
00:28:20.599 --> 00:28:27.160
was my last day at Industry House in Canberra. But

453
00:28:27.400 --> 00:28:30.039
it's sadly it was also a Muscat's last day on

454
00:28:30.119 --> 00:28:35.200
Earth because away yesterday he's been suffering from kidney failure

455
00:28:35.400 --> 00:28:37.799
and he'd reached the end of the road. So it

456
00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:41.119
was a very sad day on a double count there. So, yeah,

457
00:28:41.160 --> 00:28:45.039
theis feels very very empty at the moment without must

458
00:28:45.359 --> 00:28:46.039
pottering around.

459
00:28:46.599 --> 00:28:48.039
That must have been Jordi crying.

460
00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:52.559
Yeah, Jordy. I think Jordy's noticed. You know that there's

461
00:28:52.640 --> 00:28:56.319
little chub, isn't there. They didn't have the best of relationships,

462
00:28:56.359 --> 00:28:58.200
but they kind of tolerated one another.

463
00:28:58.960 --> 00:28:59.200
Yeah.

464
00:28:59.559 --> 00:29:02.519
Well, it's generally how it goes in most households, even

465
00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:04.160
I think joined husbands and wives.

466
00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:09.200
That's another story I'm sorry to hear about. Muscat.

467
00:29:11.119 --> 00:29:14.559
Indeed, thank you Nate, thank you Jacob, Binnie and Seth

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for contributing.

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Don't forget. If you would like to send us questions.

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00:29:17.640 --> 00:29:20.920
You can do that on our website. Just go to

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00:29:21.079 --> 00:29:24.279
space nutswopast dot com, orspacenuts dot io.

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00:29:24.519 --> 00:29:25.240
If you click on.

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00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:27.680
The AMA tab or the AMA link.

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00:29:27.480 --> 00:29:30.680
At the top, it will give you an option to

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00:29:30.680 --> 00:29:31.960
send a text question.

476
00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:34.359
Or you can if you've got a device with a microphone,

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00:29:34.440 --> 00:29:37.000
hit the start recording button and you'll be able to

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00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:39.240
record a question. Don't forget to tell us in either

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00:29:39.279 --> 00:29:39.839
case who.

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00:29:39.720 --> 00:29:40.640
You are and where you're from.

481
00:29:41.039 --> 00:29:44.880
And while I'm at it, if you are listening to

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00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:48.759
us on whatever podcast platform, please leave a review. They

483
00:29:48.799 --> 00:29:50.640
always help. I don't know how, I don't know why,

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00:29:50.680 --> 00:29:51.599
but apparently they do.

485
00:29:52.680 --> 00:29:54.640
Thank you. Fred is always great to talk.

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00:29:55.279 --> 00:29:57.119
We'll talk again soon. A great.

487
00:29:57.359 --> 00:30:00.960
I think that's a good idea. Let's do that. Let's

488
00:30:01.039 --> 00:30:03.279
I was just going to not do it again, but yeah,

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00:30:03.440 --> 00:30:04.079
I think we should.

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00:30:05.400 --> 00:30:08.240
Professor pred Watson an astronomer large and thanks to you

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00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:12.400
in the studio for being there and not here.

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00:30:12.559 --> 00:30:15.680
And from me, and thanks for your company.

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00:30:15.759 --> 00:30:18.240
Catch you on the very next episode of Space Nuts.

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00:30:18.319 --> 00:30:20.000
Bye byepacenuts.

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00:30:20.279 --> 00:30:23.559
You'll be listening to the Space Nuts podcast.

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00:30:24.599 --> 00:30:29.720
Available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, or your favorite

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00:30:29.720 --> 00:30:30.640
podcast player.

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00:30:30.839 --> 00:30:34.119
You can also stream on demand at bytes dot com.

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00:30:34.160 --> 00:30:39.759
This has been another quality podcast production from sites dot com.
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