April 8, 2026

Artemis 2 Success, ESO Fallout & The Intriguing World of X-Ray Binaries

Artemis 2 Success, ESO Fallout & The Intriguing World of X-Ray Binaries

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Artemis 2 Launch, Australian Astronomy Setbacks, and the Mystery of X-Ray Binaries
In this thrilling episode of Space Nuts, hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson dive into the latest advancements in space exploration and the challenges faced by the Australian astronomy community. The successful launch of Artemis 2 marks a significant milestone for humanity's return to the Moon, while a recent government decision leaves Australian astronomers concerned about their future access to critical telescopes. The episode also explores the intriguing discovery of an X-ray binary that defies conventional understanding, revealing new mysteries in the cosmos.
Episode Highlights:
- Artemis 2 Launch: Andrew and Fred share their excitement over the successful launch of Artemis 2, discussing the mission's significance and the historic achievements of the crew as they become the first humans to travel further than Apollo 13.
- Australian Astronomy Challenges: The hosts delve into the Australian government's decision to discontinue its partnership with the European Southern Observatory, examining the potential impact on local astronomers and the future of optical astronomy in Australia.
- X-Ray Binary Discovery: A fascinating conversation unfolds around the discovery of two peculiar X-ray binaries that challenge existing theories, leading to discussions about the nature of these celestial objects and what they reveal about stellar evolution.
- Future of Astronomy: Andrew and Fred reflect on the implications of these developments for the broader astronomy community, contemplating the balance between funding, scientific advancement, and international collaboration.

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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.

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WEBVTT

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Hello again, thanks for joining us on this yet another

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edition of Space Nuts where we talk astronomy and space science.

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My name is Andrew Dunkley, your host's great to have

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your company coming up on a fresh episode Arfamus two

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making headlines for all the right reasons. What a sigh

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of relief that was. Did you watch the launch? I

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sure did, But some bad news for the Australia ESO

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deal which has got astronomer's upset one in particular, I

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can think of what's his name again? And the discovery

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of an X ray binary. That's all coming up in

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this edition of Space Nuts fifteen, Channel ten nine Ignition, Squench,

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Space Nuts NI or three two Space Notes as can

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I reported, Neil's good. I just wondering what an X

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ray binary is. It sounds like something you could get

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arrested for. And joining us to talk about all of

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that is professor free. What's an astronomer at large?

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Hello friend, Hello Andrew, and I pick you up on

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that because I nearly got arrested once for doing astronomy

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with an old brass telescope in the front garden which

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the neighbors thought was a bazooka, and so I had

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a visit from a very large policeman. I think I

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was sixteen or seventeen at.

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The time, because these days you'd get accused of being

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a peeping tom or something, but back then they thought

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it was a weapon. They do have weapon like you know,

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looks they don't.

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Yeah, they look like a gun, that's right. The reason

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why I didn't I didn't get any complaints about being

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a peeping tom was that our front garden overlooked the

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cemetery and there wasn't anybody around to complain.

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That's yeah, okay, lots of things come to mind that

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I'll just I won't go there. I won't go there. Yes, yeah,

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when when was that?

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The early nineteen sixties, long after the Second World War,

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which is where where bazookas were on people's minds.

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Yeah, yeah, everyone was still super sensitive. I guess Fred.

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It's been an exciting week. I know this is podcast,

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so some people will hear this well after the fact.

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But the other day Artemis two lifted off very successfully,

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which was very very exciting, and I watched it live

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on NASA Live, which a lot of people did. There

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were tens of thousands of people logged on and the

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system held up and I just watched the whole thing.

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I had it on my computer. I sat there and

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I just I watched the whole hour build up to

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the launch and watched it all unfold, and it went something.

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Like this ten nine E seven forres twenty five injuries

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four three two one booster, ignition and lift off. The

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crew of Artemis two now bound for the Moon. Humanity's

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next great voyage begins.

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How cool is that? How cool? And those engines, the

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sound of those engines, even over the over the internet

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on a shonky microphone because NASA can't really afford good stuff,

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it sounded you want to hear that again? That that

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that that just the sound of the engines. All right, No,

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that was just me blowing into the microphone. But yeah,

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fantastic stuff. It was so exciting to watch. I really

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got a big kick out of it. And you could

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hear the crowd cheering. At one stage it was so

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loud that the microphones picked up the crowd. And yeah,

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it was an amazing moment. And of course, as we

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speak today, they have reached the Moon and done their lap.

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They went onto the dark side, and all that lo

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O S talk was being spoken of with lots of

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I mean, I will blocked that out by a big rock,

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and they achieved so much I think. Yeah, it's been

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a pretty exciting week, hasn't it for it?

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You can say that again, and that's that live broadcast

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that you're talking about. I've still got it on in.

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Afternoon.

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Yeah, we're getting updates all the time. And you know,

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this is kind of NASA at his best, isn't it.

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Really.

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It's just such a fantastic achievement for us to see

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this mission going so profoundly well. As you said, the

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traverse behind the Moon has taken place. Now, there was

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a forty minute loss of signal, which you'd expect for

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exactly the reason that you mentioned. The Moon is a

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big rock and gets in the way of radio signals.

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But also what the astronauts on board artemists saw was

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an eclipse of the Sun, so the Moon's disc actually

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cover the Sun. Now, from our vantage point on Earth,

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the Sun and the Moon look to be the same size.

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It's one of the most curious cosmic coincidences that we've

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got satellite and our star which have the same angular

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size half a degree in the sky. But of course,

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from the vantage point of the Artemis astronauts, who are

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roughly six thousand kilometers from the Moon's surface. At the moment,

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the Moon is a lot bigger, and so yes, they

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did see an eclipse. And as the Moon covered the

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disc of the Sun, they would see first of all,

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the inner atmosphere of the Sun, what we call the chromosphere,

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which often has pink, glowing hot clouds of hydrogen on it.

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But more especially they would have seen the corona, the

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Sun's outer atmosphere, which is what captivates eclipse goes whenever

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they go and see a total eclipse of the Sun.

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And I can't resist. They're a plug for twenty second

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of July twenty twenty eighth, when a total eclipse of

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the Sun will see the moon shadow passing over both

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way you sitting at the moment in double and where

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I'm sitting at the moment in Sydney. That's going to

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be a huge event. Perhaps not quite as momentous as

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seeing it from a spacecraft on the far side of

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the Moon, but still pretty good. And you know, the

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astronauts are indeed now on their way home. They in

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a sense, they've been on their way home ever since

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they left Earth orbit because the trajectory that the rocket

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was inserted into, the translunar insertion move which took place

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above the Earth's surface. That really placed them on a

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path that inevitably would take them in a figure of

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eight loop around the Moon and bring them back to Earth.

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Now there are mid course connection. Sorry corrections. I think

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there is one plan for later today, after which I

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think the astronauts are going to be given some time

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to themselves because they've been pretty hard at work in

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the last twenty four hours with the lunar far side flyby.

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Absolutely, they've achieved so much. Today the four astronauts Reed Weisman,

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Victor Glover, Christina Coke or Kosh depending on how you

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want to pronounce it Jeremy Hansen, have become the first

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humans to go beyond where Apollo thirteen set the record

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for the first furthest distance for humans from Earth. So

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they are now world record holders. Is it a world

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record when you're not on the world. I don't know.

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It's a Solar system record. Yeah, yes. Indeed, the distance

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four hundred and seven thousand kilometers from Earth, which and

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I think it was about four hundred thousand that the

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Apollo thirteen astronauts flew out, so it's a significant increase

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from that more than six.

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Thousand kill me. So the most isolated humans in history

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in real terms, Yes, and that's.

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Right sense, And they probably felt like that when they

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were out of communication for that forty minutes when they

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were in the Moon, shutdow from radio signals from Earth.

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Yeah. And while I was listening to the live broadcast

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this afternoon our time, I heard them talking about seeing

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meteorite flashes on the surface of the Moon. They spotted

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three four impacts while they were rounding the Moon, which

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I find astounding, and it was really exciting for everybody,

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especially the science team that we're talking to at that moment.

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No, I didn't hear, So that's great, that's.

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Great, quite incredible. Yeah, so you know, things are happening

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that you just you wouldn't And apparently they were. These

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impacts happened people on Earth who were observing the Moon

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at the time may well have seen them too. So

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I don't know if it's just a coincidence we just

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happened to have a spaceship right there at the time,

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or this happens a lot.

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I think it's happening a lot. I think that's the

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bottom line. It's you know, these things have been observed

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actually since the nineteen fifties, when they were called transient

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lunar events, which we now know, as you said, meteorite impacts.

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I also noted that two relatively fresh and unnamed crators

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have been given a name by the astronauts. One is Integrity,

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which is the name of the spacecraft, and the other

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is Carol, which is the name of Reedweismann's late wife

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who died a few years ago.

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Yeah. That's lovely, lovely stuff. Yeah, and more to be written.

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I suppose as this mission unfolds and so far, so good,

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and a whole new generation feeling the same excitement we

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did back in the sixties and seventies when the Apollo

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missions did exactly the same thing. This flyby is probably

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a replication, you know what, Apollo eight. I think very

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much on this.

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Yeah, very similar to Apollo eight December nineteen sixty eight.

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I remember it well. It was Yeah, that's right, Christmas Eve.

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I think it might have been, But it depends on

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your time zone. It's sort of occurred to me a

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couple of times. I'm kind of rambling a bit now,

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but in a perhaps a quaisised Trumpian manner, But I

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think it's really interesting to me because my career in astronomy,

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my working career in astronomy, is kind of bookended by

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lunar missions, because it was early in my career that

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we were watching all the Apollo flights. And I don't

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think anyone, even with the best will in the world

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would deny that. I'm now late in my career and

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we've got the Artemis excitement coming as well.

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It's just great stuff. It is fabulous stuff, and you

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can read all about it or even watch it live

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as it happens, which we really couldn't do back in

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the sixties and seventies, not like this. We had to

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rely on television. But now you can just log onto

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NASA Life and watch it all happen in real times.

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Fantastic stuff. Yeah, so more to talk about down the track,

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I'm sure, but if you've been following it, you probably

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know more than we do. This is Space Nuts with

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Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred What's a Let's take a

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short break from Space Nuts to tell you about our sponsor,

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The crew of Ortemis two now bound for the Moon,

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Humanity's next great voyage begins space nuts.

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Now, Fred, wee go from excitement to something quite upsetting

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for Australian astronomers, including yourself, and that is an announcement

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by the Australian government to discontinue the deal with the

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European Southern Observatory. It's all over red River by the

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sound of it.

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Yes, yes, we still hope for something to come out

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of all this. But the backstory here is that Australian

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astronomers since twenty seventeen have had access to the best

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telescopes in the Southern Hemisphere, without question, the best optical

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telescopes anywhere, visible light telescopes which are operated by the

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European Southern Observatory, whose headquarters are in Munich and whose

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telescopes are in northern Chile, and those principally the biggest

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telescopes are the four eight point two meter components of

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what's called the VLT, the very large telescope, which have

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been you know, so which Australian astronomers have had access

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to since twenty seventeen and has been a highly productive arrangement,

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not just for the astronomers but also because our instrument

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builders here in Australia. The people who build the fancy

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instruments that go on the back of telescopes are they

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have have excelled themselves with what they've achieved because of

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the you know, the opportunities to build a kit for

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these giant telescopes. So and plus all the spin offs

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in terms of education and STEM and outreach and all

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the rest of it which we've tried to capitalize on.

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But that partnership was always going to be a ten

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year deal, so twenty seventeen to twenty twenty seven. It

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comes to an end in December next year, and we

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in the astronomy community. I started worrying about this actually

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in twenty eighteen, what was going to happen next, and

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to make a case for the next step, which would

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have to be according to the rules of the European

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Southern Observatory, would have to be full membership. And that

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is the stumbling block because whilst whilst ten years of

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strategic partnership were valued at one hundred and twenty nine

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million Australian dollars, ten years of full membership is four

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hundred million dollars nearly half a billion, and that is

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something that governments don't like big numbers. Like that, and

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especially in times of financial stringency, which we understand. However,

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we do think that the government could have looked rather

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more constructively at other possible opportunities before making this announcement,

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and there maybe still scope for that. You know, we've

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discussed things like Australian astronomers making in kind contributions to

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ESO European Southern Observatory by for example, building instruments, including

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the possibility of a new telescope here in Australia that

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could be actually installed in the site near the site

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where the VLT very Large Telescope Unit instruments are situated,

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at a place called Sarah Paranal. Perhaps the most galling

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thing about this, though, Andrew, is that we have our membership.

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If we were to become members of ESO, would give

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us access to what is going to be the most

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stupendous telescope in the world when it comes on stream

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early in twenty twenty nine. That is the European Southern

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Observatory's ELT.

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Or extremely the telescope.

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Sorry what that's the one that's as good a title,

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because that's what it's going to be. Thirty nine meter

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diameter mirror. That mirror diameter is ten times that of

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the biggest telescope in Australia, the Australian Telescope that I

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used to be astronomery in charge of it. It's ten

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times bigger, which gives you one hundred times the sensitivity

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in terms of light gathering power and plus many other

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benefits that will come on stream twenty twenty nine. It

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is sure to generate Nobel prizes. Australian astronomers will be

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barred from that. And the great pity of that is

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that Australian astronomers have access to the square kilometer array

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which will come online at about the same time. And

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to have those two things together under the the auspices

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of Australian astronomy would have given them a head start

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over the whole world in terms of discoveries. Because the

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two things are absolutely dovetail together, the SKA and the

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EESOELT that is not now going to happen, and we

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feel that's a wasted opportunity. And I might just add

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one more thing if because this is this is a

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you know, it is something very close to my heart.

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I've worked very hard on this for the last almost decade.

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There is there was a report that came out last

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month written by one of the country's senior economists, a

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man named Professor Richard Holden, and he's at the University

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of New South Wales here in Australia. He has done

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an analysis of the economic benefits of astronomy, not just

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about you know, the deals that you can do where

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you get money to build instruments and things of that sort.

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It's about the value of ideas, the spin offs that

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we have. All of those things are taken into account

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in a report he wrote, and he makes the point

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in conclusion in that report that Australian astronomy adds about

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three hundred and thirty million dollars per year to the

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country's economy, which makes forty million dollars a year for

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the ESO deal seem really quite proportionate. There will be

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a huge return on that forty million dollars in terms

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of other benefits. I think the government's missing out on.

300
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Yeah. I think when we talked about this a few

301
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episodes ago, because we knew which is coming up, I

302
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said something flippant like, you know, the left hand probably

303
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won't know what the right hand's doing. So the cost

304
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benefit versus cost the benefit versus cost analysis may not

305
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get on the right desk and the decision could go

306
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against you. And I was bringing a smarty pants. But

307
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it kind of looks like that's what's happened.

308
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Yeah, I don't actually, I think it's different from that

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because we made sure that the people who are making

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the decisions and it's not Jordi by the way, but

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he makes his own decisions. I don't know if you

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heard that. The people, Yeah, the people who are making

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the decisions had access to that report. We made that

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very clear as soon as it came out. Now I

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suspect that the Minister and his science advisors would also

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have had access to it. So what they've done is

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they've turned their backs on that, and they've turned their

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backs on something that is very exciting in relation to

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our exploration of the universe at the very time when

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everybody else is looking skyward because of Artemis. We had

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this news on the day of the Artemis two launch.

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Couldn't have been a bigger contrast between the two stories.

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And where does this leave the likes of Australian Space Agency,

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for example, I mean the government's established that, or a

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former government did, and they've been pouring money into it.

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Now they've sort of shut the door in your face

327
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in regard to the europe the words of an observatory,

328
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Yes exactly. You know where does this put everything? And

329
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we so kind of going back to the dark ages? Yeah,

330
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no pun intended, no.

331
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Pun intended. No, we are going back probably several decades

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for Australian optical astronomy. But the Space Agency has been

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likewise chastised, if I can put it that way. They

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had a large budget taken off them by the present

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government about three two three years ago. And I actually

336
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wonder if some of this is political because the Space

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Agency was initiated by a previous government and the ESO

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Strategic Partnership was initiated by a previous government of opposite

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flavor to what we have now, so there might be

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a political side to it. I'm sure the Minister would deny.

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That, of course you would. But I've seen politics in

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action and I can tell you quite clearly. I'll give

343
00:22:01.039 --> 00:22:03.119
you an example. We were going to get a big

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sports hub in Dubbo and it was announced by our

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local member who was also the leader of his party

346
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at the time, and when they lost the next election,

347
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the new premier of the opponent party took the money

348
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away and said no, you can't have it. Yeah, and

349
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that was purely political, just basically just slap an opposition

350
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leader in the face. And yes they would deny it,

351
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but it's absolutely that's just the way the game is

352
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played all over the world. This is really sad, really

353
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really sad that it's come to this. Any any hope,

354
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fred of some turnaround, some chance of hope. Maybe not

355
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after what I just said, but you know, I'm not

356
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an astronomer.

357
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No nobody listens to.

358
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Look.

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I am hopeful we have some discussions coming up that

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I hope might emerge from which might emerge some perhaps

361
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what you might call more affordable options, which might still

362
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involve a So the problem is ESO has its own rules,

363
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and ESO is I think it's seventeen member countries, and

364
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if you do a special deal for Australia, they're all

365
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going to say, well, why don't we get a special

366
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deal like that as well? And that's understandable. So ESO

367
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has to tread very carefully in this kind of thing.

368
00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:37.799
Yeah, that makes sense, all right, Well, hopefully common sense

369
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will prevail sometime in the next two years. And somebody

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changes their mind and sees the benefits rather than just

371
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looking at the dollar science looking at the dollars. That's right, Okay,

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this is space. That's Andrew Unkley with Professor Fred what's

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an We've had a couple of cardiac or reth down

374
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here too, be spice nuts, all right. Our final story

375
00:24:10.200 --> 00:24:13.799
takes us quite a way away from the planet, a

376
00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:16.680
little bit further than Artemis two has traveled. In fact,

377
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the discovery of an X ray binary thread. Now I'm

378
00:24:21.240 --> 00:24:26.519
not sure what this is, but yes, I know there's

379
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all sorts of you know, radio wave type signals flying

380
00:24:31.119 --> 00:24:35.880
around the universe, X rays, gamma rays, AC DC, you

381
00:24:35.960 --> 00:24:40.039
name it. But it's all out there. What is an

382
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X ray binary?

383
00:24:43.240 --> 00:24:45.759
That's a great question because this is this is a

384
00:24:45.799 --> 00:24:49.440
story about an X ray binary that isn't a binary.

385
00:24:50.440 --> 00:24:53.200
So just to complicate things further, so what's an X

386
00:24:53.279 --> 00:24:57.440
ray binary? If you've got a star which has got

387
00:24:57.960 --> 00:24:59.880
a star a bit like the Sun, actually these are

388
00:25:00.079 --> 00:25:02.960
normal stars like the Sun, gets to the end of

389
00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:07.880
its life and after usually something in the region of

390
00:25:07.880 --> 00:25:12.799
ten billion years, what happens is it puffs off its

391
00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:16.240
outer a layers because the nuclear reactions change in its interior,

392
00:25:16.519 --> 00:25:20.000
and eventually it's core collapses to become something we call

393
00:25:20.039 --> 00:25:22.279
a white dwarf star. We've talked about them before. They're

394
00:25:22.279 --> 00:25:24.759
about the size of the Earth with about the mass

395
00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:29.680
of a star, and they've basically exhausted their fuel. They're

396
00:25:29.680 --> 00:25:35.680
still shining because they're very hot. So that's a white

397
00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:36.279
dwarf star.

398
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Now.

399
00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:41.799
Often that will happen in what's called a binary system,

400
00:25:41.960 --> 00:25:46.240
two stars orbiting around their common center of gravity, and

401
00:25:46.319 --> 00:25:50.519
a binary is actually almost the most common form of

402
00:25:50.559 --> 00:25:54.880
stars in the galaxy. Many many stars that we observe

403
00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:58.200
almost fifty percent are actually part of a binary pair.

404
00:25:58.319 --> 00:25:59.359
They's part of a duo.

405
00:26:00.079 --> 00:26:01.119
So if you've got.

406
00:26:00.920 --> 00:26:05.359
A star that's collapsed into a white dwarf star, which

407
00:26:05.400 --> 00:26:08.279
has intense gravity, not quite as intense as a black hole,

408
00:26:08.319 --> 00:26:11.519
but pretty intense, and it's being orbited by another star

409
00:26:11.640 --> 00:26:14.720
that hasn't got to that stage in its evolution, then

410
00:26:14.759 --> 00:26:17.640
what you get is the white dwarf is sucking matter

411
00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:21.640
off the other star and spiraling it inwards. A white

412
00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:24.839
dwarf's eating it up, and eventually, if the white dwarf

413
00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:27.240
has enough of that stuff, it becomes unstable and turns

414
00:26:27.240 --> 00:26:29.680
into what we call a type one a super nova

415
00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:35.839
and exploding star. But during that process, while your white

416
00:26:35.880 --> 00:26:39.160
dwarf and your normal star in this dance around each

417
00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:42.680
other with stuff being pulled off the normal star, that

418
00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:45.119
stuff will be accelerated by the gravity of the white

419
00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:48.160
dwarf and it will emit X rays because it is

420
00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:55.559
being so highly excited by the energy that's basically being

421
00:26:55.559 --> 00:26:57.240
imparted to it as it gets pulled in. It's a

422
00:26:57.279 --> 00:27:00.160
bit like the accretion disc of a black hole of

423
00:27:00.200 --> 00:27:04.240
calm down version of that. So the letter makes sense,

424
00:27:05.480 --> 00:27:08.400
I'm glad it does. That's that's where the X ray

425
00:27:08.440 --> 00:27:11.480
bit comes from. So an X ray binary, it's two stars.

426
00:27:11.720 --> 00:27:14.759
One's a normal star having its surface sucked away by

427
00:27:14.759 --> 00:27:18.119
a white dwarf, and that sucking away of material causes

428
00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:20.799
the X rays. So that's how you discover it. So

429
00:27:20.880 --> 00:27:21.799
what has happened?

430
00:27:22.359 --> 00:27:25.519
But this isn't what's happening now? Is it? No?

431
00:27:25.519 --> 00:27:29.039
No, But that's the that's the backstory, if I can

432
00:27:29.039 --> 00:27:34.359
put it that way. What has happened now is there

433
00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:37.680
are two of them, actually two stars that have been

434
00:27:38.279 --> 00:27:44.119
discovered which show all the signs of being an X

435
00:27:44.240 --> 00:27:47.319
ray binary in terms of the X rays that they emit.

436
00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:52.200
But there's no other star there. There's there's no you know,

437
00:27:52.319 --> 00:27:55.640
there's there's there's only the white dwarf. There's there's nothing else,

438
00:27:57.279 --> 00:27:59.960
And that means it's an X ray binary that isn't

439
00:28:00.039 --> 00:28:04.039
a binary. And two of these things have been discovered

440
00:28:05.400 --> 00:28:08.960
by a group of scientists who actually look for these things.

441
00:28:10.079 --> 00:28:13.079
They've got interesting names, perhaps a bit more imaginative than

442
00:28:13.119 --> 00:28:17.599
the usual astronomical names. One it's called Gandalf and the

443
00:28:18.160 --> 00:28:22.160
other it's called Moon sized. They were discovered at different times,

444
00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:26.839
but they're basically, you know, they are part of the

445
00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:30.160
same survey. So they've got the signature of X rays

446
00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:37.960
but no companion object that is basically telling you that

447
00:28:38.039 --> 00:28:40.119
it's a normal bind X ray binary.

448
00:28:40.440 --> 00:28:44.119
So it's very Does that mean there's something else there

449
00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:45.559
that it's feeding off on?

450
00:28:46.200 --> 00:28:51.799
That's correct. It looks as though that what they have

451
00:28:52.759 --> 00:28:59.480
is a half ring of material actually circulating around the

452
00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:05.160
white world. So and that this is the debris from

453
00:29:06.279 --> 00:29:09.559
basically a star being swallowed up another star being swallowed

454
00:29:09.599 --> 00:29:13.559
up by the by the white dwarf. It's very very

455
00:29:13.599 --> 00:29:16.200
odd and very unusual and quite hard to get your

456
00:29:16.200 --> 00:29:21.319
head around this Uh, this this moving ring, which as

457
00:29:21.400 --> 00:29:25.079
the white dwarf itself spins and generates a magnetic field,

458
00:29:25.359 --> 00:29:28.240
is not actually aligned with where we think the magnetic

459
00:29:28.279 --> 00:29:28.759
field is.

460
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:32.559
So it's it's.

461
00:29:33.839 --> 00:29:36.240
It's a puzzle. I'm going to quote one of the

462
00:29:36.279 --> 00:29:40.759
authors of one of these papers who says to note

463
00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:46.359
white dwarfs of similar age and evolutionary stage are typically

464
00:29:46.440 --> 00:29:52.000
non magnetic, while highly magnetic white dwarf remnants are already

465
00:29:52.039 --> 00:29:56.960
an exception. Gandolf is now only one one of only

466
00:29:57.039 --> 00:30:02.480
two known merger remnants to feature a symmetric magnetization. That's

467
00:30:02.519 --> 00:30:05.920
all gobbledegook for saying, this is a very very peculiar

468
00:30:05.960 --> 00:30:08.599
pair of objects that we that we see, and there

469
00:30:08.599 --> 00:30:10.759
are different parts of the universe. They're not related to

470
00:30:10.799 --> 00:30:12.599
each other. There are different parts.

471
00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:15.359
So this is a really.

472
00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:19.759
Interesting episode because it looks as though a completely new

473
00:30:19.799 --> 00:30:22.960
class of stars has been discovered here, something that really

474
00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:25.200
is not the norm stuff that we know about and

475
00:30:25.240 --> 00:30:28.400
there familiar and love. It's just not part of that.

476
00:30:28.559 --> 00:30:29.640
It's something quite new.

477
00:30:31.160 --> 00:30:35.599
As you're explaining it, my thought just went to, could

478
00:30:35.599 --> 00:30:39.319
this just be the end of the partnership, Like it's yeah,

479
00:30:39.599 --> 00:30:43.160
the stars pretty well just you know, there's hardly anything left.

480
00:30:43.240 --> 00:30:46.279
You're still getting that X ray deal going on, but

481
00:30:46.759 --> 00:30:51.519
you knows there's hardly any material left. And see a

482
00:30:51.599 --> 00:30:53.480
lad alligator and.

483
00:30:53.559 --> 00:30:56.559
What's what's there is spread into half a ring, which

484
00:30:56.599 --> 00:30:58.720
seems to be the case. Yeah, I think that's I

485
00:30:58.720 --> 00:31:01.119
think that is probably the the bottom line of this,

486
00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:04.079
which is figured.

487
00:31:03.799 --> 00:31:07.400
Something out, perhaps figured something out. Yepm a Nobel prize.

488
00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:10.599
I think I've got it here in this draw, so

489
00:31:11.559 --> 00:31:17.920
I put it away last week. Yes, it's Look, it's

490
00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:21.440
great that we've got an entirely new category of highly

491
00:31:21.440 --> 00:31:25.960
magnetized white dwarf, which is something that's not been seen before.

492
00:31:26.720 --> 00:31:29.720
Yes, indeed, very exciting. If you'd like to read about that,

493
00:31:29.799 --> 00:31:33.319
you can see it on one of the best websites

494
00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:37.240
around when it comes to science and astronomy, and that's

495
00:31:37.319 --> 00:31:40.039
fizz dot org. Not f I double z, it's p

496
00:31:40.279 --> 00:31:44.240
h y s dot org. Fizz dot org. Great story.

497
00:31:45.079 --> 00:31:46.799
We had a bit of a sandwich. They're good news,

498
00:31:46.799 --> 00:31:48.519
bad news, good news, I think.

499
00:31:48.519 --> 00:31:52.599
Yes, Yeah, that's right. We do our best. We aim

500
00:31:52.599 --> 00:31:54.440
to please, don't we. I mean, we're we're only out

501
00:31:54.440 --> 00:31:56.440
to quick, but we do aim to please at some level.

502
00:31:56.960 --> 00:31:59.799
We do. Yes, you know, it depends which part of

503
00:31:59.799 --> 00:32:01.920
it you listening to us, So what there's using and

504
00:32:02.319 --> 00:32:07.160
wasn't I think it was self evident. Yes, indeed we're

505
00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:10.279
all done for it. Thank you very much, great pleasure.

506
00:32:10.319 --> 00:32:13.880
Andrew always good to my grievances as well as talk

507
00:32:13.960 --> 00:32:16.160
about the latest in science news.

508
00:32:16.680 --> 00:32:18.960
You see you next time. Yes, we will catch you

509
00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:21.119
on the next episode of Q and a episode coming

510
00:32:21.359 --> 00:32:24.720
your way very very soon. And while you're online, have

511
00:32:24.759 --> 00:32:27.440
a listen or have a look around on our website

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517
00:32:42.319 --> 00:32:49.880
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518
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They help us a lot and we really would appreciate it.

519
00:32:55.480 --> 00:32:57.799
I think we mostly get reasonably good ones, you know,

520
00:32:57.799 --> 00:33:01.160
two and a half three stars woo. No, we've had

521
00:33:01.160 --> 00:33:03.880
a few bigger than that, and thanks to Hue in

522
00:33:03.920 --> 00:33:06.519
the studio. We've just come out of a long weekend

523
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here in Australia and Hugh's been away and he was

524
00:33:09.559 --> 00:33:12.839
running late because he was at a convention of White Dwarfs.

525
00:33:13.400 --> 00:33:16.319
And from me Andrew Dunkley, thanks for your company. We'll

526
00:33:16.319 --> 00:33:19.640
see you on the next episode of Space Nuts. Bye bye.

527
00:33:21.039 --> 00:33:22.799
Listening to the Space Nuts.

528
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Podcast available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or your favorite

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531
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