March 3, 2025

Big Bang Theories & Andromeda Collisions: #500 - Your Questions Answered in Our Milestone Episode

Big Bang Theories & Andromeda Collisions: #500 - Your Questions Answered in Our Milestone Episode

Space Nuts Episode 500: Celebrating 500 Episodes with a Q&A Extravaganza
Join Andrew Dunkley, Professor Jonti Horner, and Professor Fred Watson in this monumental 500th episode of Space Nuts! In a special Q&A format, the team tackles a range...

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Space Nuts Episode 500: Celebrating 500 Episodes with a Q&A Extravaganza
Join Andrew Dunkley, Professor Jonti Horner, and Professor Fred Watson in this monumental 500th episode of Space Nuts! In a special Q&A format, the team tackles a range of audience questions that span the cosmos, including the mysteries of the Big Bang, the impending collision of Andromeda with the Milky Way, and the fascinating phenomenon of cold welding in space. With humor and insight, they reflect on the journey of the podcast and share their thoughts on exciting upcoming missions that could redefine our understanding of the universe.
Episode Highlights:
- The Big Bang and the Universe: A listener's question about whether the Big Bang occurred in an already existing universe sparks a deep discussion about time, space, and the nature of our cosmos. Andrew, Jonti, and Fred explore the complexities of cosmological theories and the philosophical implications behind them.
- Andromeda's Approach: The team dives into the future collision between the Andromeda galaxy and the Milky Way, discussing how gravitational forces will start to influence each galaxy long before they physically collide. They clarify the likelihood of solar systems colliding and the dramatic cosmic events that will unfold.
- Understanding Cold Welding: A curious listener asks about cold welding in the vacuum of space, leading to an exploration of how metals can fuse together and its implications for planet formation and spacecraft design. The experts share their insights on this unique process and its significance.
- Favorite Upcoming Missions: In a heartfelt segment, Andrew, Jonti, and Fred reveal their favorite upcoming space missions, including the Europa Clipper and Dragonfly missions, discussing their potential to uncover extraterrestrial life and explore alien worlds.
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 Music Music, Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok. We love engaging with our community, so be sure to drop us a message or comment on your favorite platform.
If you'd like to help support Space Nuts and join our growing family of insiders for commercial-free episodes and more, visit spacenutspodcast.com/about
Stay curious, keep looking up, and join us next time for more stellar insights and cosmic wonders. Until then, clear skies and happy stargazing.
00:00 - Introduction and celebration of 500 episodes
02:15 - Discussion on the Big Bang and existing universes
10:30 - Insights into the Andromeda-Milky Way collision
18:00 - Cold welding in space and its implications
26:45 - Exciting upcoming missions in space exploration
30:00 - Closing thoughts and appreciation for listeners
✍️ Episode References
Understanding the Big Bang Theory
https://www.nasa.gov/bigbang
Andromeda and Milky Way Collision Studies
https://www.space.com/andromeda-milky-way-collision
Cold Welding in Space
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013468618301234

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WEBVTT

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Hello again, thanks for joining us and welcome. This is

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Believe It or Not Episode five hundred of Space Nuts.

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Can you believe it?

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And what have we got in store for you today?

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Absolutely nothing. We didn't have time to organize anything, but

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we will be answering audience questions. It's a Q and

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A episode. We have got a few remarks.

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That have come in.

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I always scared of remarks, but anyway, we'll deal with that.

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We've got a question about Big Bang theory. We've got

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another question about the collision with Andromeda, cold welding. I've

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never tried it, but I'm willing to give it a go.

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And a question from Mike, who's asking all of us

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about our favorite upcoming missions.

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That'll be fun.

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It's all coming up on this episode five hundred of

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Space Nuts fifteen Channel ten nine Ignition Space Nuts two.

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Space Nurse when I recorded Neil's good and.

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Joining us for this auspicious occasion, or it's just another episode,

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whichever way you want to look at it is. Johnny Horner,

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Professor of astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland.

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Hello, Johnny, good evening, how are you going good?

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Thank you?

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And Professor Fred what's an astronomer at large?

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Back in the chair.

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Hello, Hello Andrew, and.

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Nice to be Buck. It's the answered help. Obviously, it's

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all right. It'll come back to you. You've had plenty

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of time to forget how we do this, but it'll

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come back good and properly again. Yes, it reminds me now,

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who was it? Graham Garden who was with the Goodies? Remember, yes,

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I do. He was on another TV shoe show once

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and they were I can't remember what the circumstance answers are,

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but they were all doing pick up pick up lines

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at nursing homes, and Gray of Garden went, hello, who

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am I.

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It was? It was the radio show.

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It was.

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I'm sorry, I haven't a clue.

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That's what it was, which is fut brilliant stuff, brilliant stuff.

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You probably did that stuff up on YouTube or somewhere

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these days.

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Very funny, very funny radio.

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Now I want to start off with not so much

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a question but a comment that was in.

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An academic conference. This is more of a comment than

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a question.

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Yes, my guys, I'm Michael from Glasgow, Scotland. Thanks for

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your great show.

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That was the comment.

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No, thanks for your great show, which I've been listening

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to for several years. Now here's my thoughts on a

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subject much discussed. We know that words are powerful, the

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powerful equals energy, and that energy equals matter. My theory

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is that dark matter is the mass equivalent of all

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the bad one liners, dad jokes and awful puns that

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Andrew has collected.

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And shared the years.

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Dark energy is simply the rest of the universe trying

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to get away before he delivers the punchlines. Should I

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collect a Nobel Prize or a coat? On my way out?

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Wishing you and you.

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Were nearest and dearest the best for well the festive season.

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See how long it's taken me to get to this

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one and for twenty twenty five Michael. Thanks Michael, great comment.

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I appreciate it, and just watch my boot on your

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way out.

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I think that it actually a good one.

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It allows me to segue into a fabulous British author

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who is dearly missed, in the form of Terry Pruptchett.

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Sir Terry Pratchett, who, when he was knighted, forged his

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unsold out of Star Metal, which is kind of awesome.

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And Prutchet was an incredible author and incredible visionary, but

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he came up with this very similar concept. There's a

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bit in Guards Guards, which is I think the eighth

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of the Discworld Books, where the librarian of the Unseen University,

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who is an orangutan for various reasons, is trying to

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go back to figure out who's stole a book. And

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there's this beautiful paragraph about how collections of books and

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collections of knowledge distort space and time, and perhaps he says,

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you know, the relevant equation is knowledge equals power equals

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energy equals matter equals mass. A good bookshop is just

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a genteel black hole that knows how to read this

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space into polyfractal l space in which everywhere is also

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everywhere Else. Basically goes on to allow the librarian to

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travel back through the hidden shells of l space to

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work out who had committed the heinous act of stealing

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a book, which is clearly a crime far more important

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than murder or anything else that the what she's dealing

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with at the time. Fabulous books, but he often had

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science the inflected humor in there, and yeah, it's lovely

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to be able to reminisce and think back to him

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thanks to what's a fabulous comment.

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I think he also invented my wife salta ego Granny Ogg. Yes,

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because Manny Argue is the person to whom I'm married

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and accuse. Yeah, choose a step Granny.

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I perhpoually got sat on my desk.

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Here the first real discworld best book that has been

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come out other than for Terry Pratchett, which is put

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together by his daughter Rihanna, which is tifpity Akin's Guard

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to Being a Witch. And yeah, Granny weather Ax and

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Nanny Og feature prominently in the.

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Beautiful cover art there.

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So yes, Okay, now we have get in commission for that,

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so well you might so to our first question, is

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there any conclusive evidence that the Big Bang did not

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occur in an already existing universe? I love your show

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and never miss an episode. Keep up the good work,

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Joe from Washington. So is there any conclusive evidence that

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the Big Bang did not occur in an already existing universe.

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I've got you on record as saying when I've asked

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the question what was there before the Big Bang? And

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you said nothing? Well, you answered it, but your answer

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was nothing.

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Well, just I'm going to throw this one direct to

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John T and see why, he says in answer to it,

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my answer is that we don't know.

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That.

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Our best theory for the way the universe works is

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general relativity, and general relativity says that time started with

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the Big Bang and so there wasn't a universe there before.

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But that theory is challenged by people who think there

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might be a multiverse, and by quantum mechanics who think

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that you've got to have time before the Big Bang

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for quantum mechanics to work, and so it's all a

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bit messy. But there's there's no evidence. In fact, really

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there's no evidence either way.

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When will But we're a bit back to more Pratchett,

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aren't we. In the beginning there was nothing which exploded

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the hard part for this, And again I'm not a cosmologist.

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I think our wonderful colleagues down the hill at the

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University of Queensland would be well placed to also fail

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to answer this question, but they's straight from a position

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of much more knowledge than I have. But I take

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on this is that space and time are inherently of

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the universe. So when people ask me a question that's

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related to this, which is what's outside the universe or

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what's before the universe in the framework that our cosmological

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friends have come up with those questions of meaningless, because

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you can't be outside the universe couset. To be outside,

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you need to be in some where that is spacial,

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so you're actually still in the universe. The idea is

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that if everything in the universe when you rewind t

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back ends up in exactly the same place, but that

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place is everywhere all at once, then having that been

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something that is already in existing universe outside that falls

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into that same philosophical problem. And it's where I think

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cosmology and philosophy blur together, because if the Big Bang

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creates space and time, then the concept of outside the

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Big Bang is the same as before the Big Bang,

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and it becomes meaningless.

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It's like a divide by zero error. What that probably.

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Means is I don't understand the theories as well as

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I should do. But it also probably means that our

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theories are not yet at the final evolution of them,

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because there are questions we still can't answer. And this

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is something we see with kind of the literative nature

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of science, is that you get a theory that explains

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everything you can observe and everything you can ask that

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does a really good job for a real long time,

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until you get better at studying the universe and you

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start to find the cracks. And I think this is

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one of the questions that's illustrating cracks that we haven't

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explained yet. So we can give you our best imagination

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of what it could be. But the reality is, as

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Fred says, we just don't know. That's why people are

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doing the research. You know, if we knew the outro already,

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it wouldn't be researched, it wouldn't be worth doing.

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Yeah, we've had questions about this many many times over

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the years, and even people with their own theories. Could

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the Big Bang be the result of a previous universe

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collapsing in on itself, so the gnab gibb creates a

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big bang? That one's been tossed at us and a

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few other thoughts. Look, yeah, I don't know. Answer sits

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pretty well with me at the moment, because how could

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we possibly figure it out? That's another question a.

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Lot that hurts my head as well, because I occasionally

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come up to this. We know an incredible amount about

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the universe, and we've worked a whole heap out with

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a couple of kilos of mushy goo mushy carb and

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it's amazing what you can work out. But the still

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more to learn. And that's a good thing because otherwise

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we wouldn't be implanted.

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Yeah, that's a very good point, come to think of.

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I'm not employed anything.

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Is So the cracks are interesting, I mean, and perhaps

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it's just worth highlighting what led to the idea of

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multiverses in the first place, which are one is the

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fact that it's what's it called, I can't remember the word.

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I'm jet lagged.

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Anyway, and the fact that we seem to have a

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universe that's fine tuned for life to exist. That's what

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I thought. It was anthropic, but my brain said, no,

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it's something else anyway, that's all right, And you know

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that that's what led people like Martin Reese, who I

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think coined the term multiverse to this Toronto Royal to

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to postulate that maybe there are other universes out there

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that are not fine tuned for life to exist, and

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the one we live in happened to be the only

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one that has that is. And the other thing that

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intrigues p is, you know, the fourth fundamental forces of

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nature that weak and strong nuclear forces them, electromagnetic force,

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and gravity. Gravity is hundreds of billions of billions of time,

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weaker at times, weaker than the others, any of the others,

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and so some have suggested that maybe gravity leaks out

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into whatever the void is between our universe and nextdoors universe,

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which I think cosmologists.

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Call the bulk.

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I've got a feeling doctor who called it the void,

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Is that right? I can't remember anyway, it's the space

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between universes, which must exist in a higher dimension. And

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we don't know about high dimensions yet, but if we

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did find out about higher dimensions, then we might start

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thinking of answers to this exact question.

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I doly never know.

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One day, maybe somebody will make a breakthrough and we'll

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know exactly what happened.

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But I'm not holding them my bred. Okay, thanks Joe.

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Great question, as always is. Yeah, it's one of the

220
00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:06.120
more regular questions we get on space, and it's about

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the Big Bang right up there with dark energy and

222
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black holes and dark matter. Question two, with the collision

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of Androboda and the Milky Way some four and a

224
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half billion years from now.

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It's in my diary.

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How close to each other. Will it take the two

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galaxies to start affecting one one another and to add

228
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to that, will solar systems likely collide or is there

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so much space between everything that that part won't happen.

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Thanks guys, Dan from the Gold Coast in Australia up

231
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in Queensland, not far from you, Johnty. I, yeah, this

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is a good one. I think we've talked about the

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00:12:48.039 --> 00:12:55.039
slow motion effect that's going to be the collision. But yeah,

234
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are they are they going to affect each other before

235
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it happens or are they maybe affecting each other already?

236
00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:05.120
Exactly, absolutely, And it's a matter of how big an

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effect you want the effect to be before you recognize it.

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If you think the diameter of the Milky Way is

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usually scopt has been about one hundred thousand light years,

240
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So that means something that is on the edge of

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our galaxy that is nearest to Andromeda is about fifty

242
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thousand light years from the middle of the Milky Way

243
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and about two hundred about two point five million light

244
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years from Andromeda roughly, So Andromeda is a lot further away,

245
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but Andromed is.

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A bit more massive.

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What that means is that Andromeda is exerting a force

248
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on those stars in the Milky Way, but it's exerting

249
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a differential force across the Milky Way, so the stars

250
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up one side of the Milky Way feel Andromeda pulling

251
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more strongly on us than the other. So that means

252
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that there will, in a very realistic sense, be a

253
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tidal effect on our galaxy caused by Andromeda at the

254
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distance away that it is now. Now whether we've actually

255
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detected that yet or not is another matter, because we've

256
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got a lot of words going on with our galaxy.

257
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It's got other galaxies interfering with it as well, like

258
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the many satellite galaxies we've got. So I think the

259
00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:10.879
answer is that they will already be interfering with each other.

260
00:14:10.919 --> 00:14:13.559
They'll already be affecting each other. But it's likely that

261
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the scale of that at the minute is too small

262
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for us to readily detect. But it doesn't mean that

263
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it isn't happening. I guess much the same way as instantaneously,

264
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the gravitational pull of the Moon is affecting you, but

265
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you don't ever notice it because it's such a small effect.

266
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As they get closer together.

267
00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:34.279
That becomes a bigger and bigger effect, and they will

268
00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:38.000
start to noticeably distort each other before they're physically in contact. So,

269
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if you were on the outside looking at the disks,

270
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there are stars from our galaxies further out than the

271
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disc they're's not many of them, so you don't see them.

272
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But they will start distorting and affecting each other long

273
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before they are physically coming into contact. But then when

274
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they do, everything in them is so spread out in

275
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space is so big that it isn't like planets will

276
00:14:56.799 --> 00:14:59.440
collide with planets and stars with stars. I think I

277
00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:01.919
saw someone worked out statistics at some point that said

278
00:15:01.960 --> 00:15:04.759
if one star from Andromeda colydes with one star in

279
00:15:04.799 --> 00:15:08.039
the Milky Way, that would be unusual. And our galaxy's

280
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got four hundred thousand million stars, Andromeda's got about one

281
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thousand thousand million stars. But especially is just so big

282
00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:18.639
that they'll pass through each other without physical collisions. The

283
00:15:18.679 --> 00:15:21.399
gas and dust will collide, will get a starburst event,

284
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so loads of new stars will form. It will be

285
00:15:24.200 --> 00:15:27.360
interesting times, but the Earth is unlikely to be hit

286
00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:28.799
by an Andromeda Earth.

287
00:15:29.960 --> 00:15:33.200
Ah, all right, yeah, it was an interesting thought. But

288
00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:35.440
if the stars are going to miss each other, then

289
00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:39.360
the solar systems are not going to collide either, are they,

290
00:15:39.639 --> 00:15:43.320
And that'll just and I think you did describe it

291
00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:46.440
as as sort of a slow motion ballet type of

292
00:15:46.440 --> 00:15:46.879
an event.

293
00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:47.279
Three.

294
00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:52.200
That's right, because the two objects kind of spiral around

295
00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:55.879
one another because before they merge to become milk commoda

296
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milk confider or commoda.

297
00:15:59.399 --> 00:16:01.399
And then everything gets very boring a bit after that

298
00:16:01.799 --> 00:16:04.600
star gets rid of all the gas and dusts and

299
00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:07.320
the galaxy just quadreens up as a pretty amorphous blob

300
00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:08.039
of doom.

301
00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:11.080
Yeah, dead cass. The sky will be very different though,

302
00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:11.480
weren't it.

303
00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:15.279
Well, Eventually it'll start off being a lot more dramatic,

304
00:16:15.799 --> 00:16:17.480
and Romda will get quite big in the sky.

305
00:16:17.559 --> 00:16:18.759
Then the Milky Way will.

306
00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:22.519
Get noticeably distorted but noticeably brighter with old star formation.

307
00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:25.639
But then when it all dies down, you'll just end

308
00:16:25.720 --> 00:16:27.320
up with instead of the Milky Way, kind of a

309
00:16:27.360 --> 00:16:29.960
morphous blobby. You know, half of the sky is a

310
00:16:29.960 --> 00:16:32.200
big blood because our galaxy will end up as a

311
00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:36.320
big spherical galaxy with very little star formation like Mess

312
00:16:36.399 --> 00:16:42.080
eight sevens the archetypal elliptical galaxy, and that is essentially

313
00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:44.720
galactic Synesians so that's when the milky Way goes off

314
00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:47.360
into a nursing home complaining about how as good as

315
00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:47.879
it used to be.

316
00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:52.759
Well, yeah, and it also the theory that beauty fades

317
00:16:52.799 --> 00:16:53.399
with age, so.

318
00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:56.519
That's probably where it's coppy.

319
00:16:57.200 --> 00:17:03.960
Speak for yourself, Andrew, FREDI daw is an exception. Okay,

320
00:17:04.079 --> 00:17:08.000
thank you, Dan. I hope we adequately answered your question.

321
00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:10.759
This is space that it's Andrew Dunkley here with Professor

322
00:17:10.759 --> 00:17:19.519
Fred Watson and Professor John T. Hornader Space Nuts. Next

323
00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:23.640
question on episode five hundred comes from Sean. He's in Oliver,

324
00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:28.119
British Columbia, Canada. I just became aware of the concept

325
00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:31.720
of cold welding, where the same kinds of metal fuse

326
00:17:31.799 --> 00:17:34.640
together in the vacuum of space. I'm hoping you can

327
00:17:34.759 --> 00:17:37.400
talk a bit about that. It seems to me that

328
00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:41.119
it is a critical process in planet formation, and I'm

329
00:17:41.279 --> 00:17:46.160
wondering if the role this I'm wondering about the role

330
00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:49.319
this may play after a star explodes and all these

331
00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:53.119
newly formed elements clumped together. Love the show, miss Fred

332
00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:55.680
and Johnty is a great addition to the team. Well,

333
00:17:55.720 --> 00:17:56.680
you're lucky, Sean.

334
00:17:56.480 --> 00:17:57.480
Because they're both here.

335
00:18:01.319 --> 00:18:04.000
So cold welding. Have you heard that term before, either

336
00:18:04.039 --> 00:18:04.240
of you?

337
00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:04.720
I have.

338
00:18:05.759 --> 00:18:09.039
It's an interesting one. I mean, I've seen little video

339
00:18:09.079 --> 00:18:10.799
clips to do with this, and it is to do

340
00:18:10.880 --> 00:18:13.079
with blocks of metals. So my understanding and Fred can

341
00:18:13.119 --> 00:18:15.039
correct me when I'm wrong, and I think it is

342
00:18:15.079 --> 00:18:17.240
a when rather than an if in this case. But

343
00:18:17.319 --> 00:18:20.039
my understanding is it's with lumps of metal in particular.

344
00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:24.079
So lumps of water ice walk cold well to the

345
00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:27.119
same degree, you'll get some degrees stickiness between them. But

346
00:18:27.240 --> 00:18:30.480
with lumps of metal, this sink can have such a

347
00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:33.359
strong effect that you don't even see a join. There

348
00:18:33.400 --> 00:18:37.880
is that degree of agglomeration of sticking together, and it's

349
00:18:37.960 --> 00:18:41.160
to do with how metals behave and how free the

350
00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:44.880
electrons are to move, which is part of what allows

351
00:18:44.920 --> 00:18:48.640
the metal to be incredibly conductive. It means that metals

352
00:18:48.680 --> 00:18:52.039
can essentially stick together incredibly strongly because of the electrons

353
00:18:52.079 --> 00:18:54.880
moving freely between them. That's kind of mild dose understanding

354
00:18:54.920 --> 00:18:55.200
of it.

355
00:18:55.880 --> 00:18:57.039
Now, why that is.

356
00:18:57.039 --> 00:18:59.920
A too critical for planet formation is metals are wrong

357
00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:02.960
a small part of that. So if you've got two

358
00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:06.119
lumps of metal come together very very gently, they would

359
00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:09.319
kind of cold well together but they will kind of

360
00:19:09.319 --> 00:19:11.319
be tending to bounce off each other unless they have

361
00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:14.319
something causing them to stick. So if they hook together

362
00:19:14.359 --> 00:19:17.440
a bit, this could help them agglomerate into a single piece.

363
00:19:18.039 --> 00:19:20.759
But I don't think it would help the much bigger

364
00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:24.119
scale solid material stuff that's going on to do with dust,

365
00:19:24.160 --> 00:19:28.519
grains and ISOs. So I don't think called welding works

366
00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:30.640
if you're in a situation where you don't have that

367
00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:34.000
mobility of the electrons, where you don't have that conductivity essentially.

368
00:19:34.720 --> 00:19:37.039
So that's why I don't think it seems to be

369
00:19:37.039 --> 00:19:39.759
a critical process in planet formation, but I suspect it

370
00:19:39.799 --> 00:19:43.640
will have happened at times in planet formation and since

371
00:19:44.279 --> 00:19:47.799
for example, if you've got and this is quite an

372
00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:50.160
extended series of events that will cause this, but you

373
00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:55.480
get asteroids form that become large enough to differentiate, so

374
00:19:55.519 --> 00:19:58.680
they get high in their interior. The metal sinks, the

375
00:19:58.759 --> 00:20:00.440
rocky ce flows like we've got on the Earth. So

376
00:20:00.440 --> 00:20:02.119
you get a core on a mantle on the crust.

377
00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:04.759
Then you smash them apart. That's how you get the

378
00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:07.519
different types of meteorites we get that have been processed,

379
00:20:08.119 --> 00:20:10.920
so you get the evolved material, get the stony meteorites,

380
00:20:11.160 --> 00:20:14.440
the stoney irons which come from the mantle core interface,

381
00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:17.440
and then you get the metal meteorites. And the biggest

382
00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:20.160
object like that is possibly Psychic that we know about,

383
00:20:20.160 --> 00:20:23.119
which is a mission going to at the minute. If

384
00:20:23.160 --> 00:20:26.319
you did that and then you shattered that enormous metal

385
00:20:26.359 --> 00:20:29.559
asteroid psych but you shattered it fairly gently, so the

386
00:20:29.599 --> 00:20:32.200
bits still came and bucketed against each other, they could

387
00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:35.240
then cold well back together, which gives you almost this

388
00:20:35.319 --> 00:20:38.000
image of the kind of terminator style asteroid that you

389
00:20:38.079 --> 00:20:41.319
cannot destroy. And that's the kind of scenario where I

390
00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:44.119
could see this happening. But in general, I think it

391
00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:47.279
would be a very niche area that wouldn't happen often

392
00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:49.400
in planet formations, so it wouldn't be that critical. I

393
00:20:49.400 --> 00:20:51.480
don't know, Fred, if you want to add to that

394
00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:54.759
or if you have additional thoughts to do with it.

395
00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:59.200
No, Yeah, you've absolutely nailed it, John T. The only

396
00:20:59.240 --> 00:21:03.279
thing I was going to is that certainly in the

397
00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:05.480
process of planet building, it's going to be hot welding.

398
00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:10.400
It's basically just metal chunks of metal fusing together, if

399
00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:15.359
that you know, if you fusing together because they're mixed

400
00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:19.440
up with the dusty and silicate stuff and the ices

401
00:21:19.880 --> 00:21:24.160
it's it's and so those collisions actually heat the material.

402
00:21:25.319 --> 00:21:28.759
If there are metallic components, they will fuse, but it'll

403
00:21:28.759 --> 00:21:30.880
be mixed up with all that other stuff until as

404
00:21:30.920 --> 00:21:34.319
exactly as John Ty says, it differentiates and all the

405
00:21:34.359 --> 00:21:38.039
metal sinks to the middle and gives you a solid

406
00:21:38.200 --> 00:21:41.400
core if it cools down. And maybe I think your

407
00:21:41.799 --> 00:21:44.640
analysis of what happens after that is right as well,

408
00:21:44.920 --> 00:21:49.839
that if you get something smashing into into a a

409
00:21:49.880 --> 00:21:53.440
protoplanet or more likely planet ism or the smaller stage,

410
00:21:54.119 --> 00:21:59.640
then you might get lumps of metal literally on contaminated metal,

411
00:21:59.680 --> 00:22:03.000
if I can put it that way, that could cold fuse.

412
00:22:03.960 --> 00:22:07.720
I think it's not an important process in the whole

413
00:22:08.039 --> 00:22:09.480
scenario of planet formation.

414
00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:11.039
Yeah.

415
00:22:11.079 --> 00:22:13.680
Where it is important, though, I think, is spaceflight, and

416
00:22:13.720 --> 00:22:17.200
it's important. That's something you want to avoid now, you know,

417
00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:19.839
if this is why you would paint your metal surfaces.

418
00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:22.079
I mean, if you think about the arm that used

419
00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:24.200
to come out of the Space Shuttle to grab onto things,

420
00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:26.960
when that falls up, you don't want it welding itself

421
00:22:27.039 --> 00:22:29.559
solid so it can't move anymore. And I guess that's

422
00:22:29.559 --> 00:22:32.079
part of the reason you pent all those things. So

423
00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:34.480
it's something people have to be very aware of with

424
00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:36.400
spacecraft design in vacuum space.

425
00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:41.960
So his second part of the question about exploding stars,

426
00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:43.680
super and ov, what are going to call it creating

427
00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:48.559
all those elements? Those elements could clump together, but as

428
00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:52.160
you say, not a critical process in ment formation.

429
00:22:52.279 --> 00:22:54.000
Yeah, I think this will be a very small and

430
00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:56.920
minor thing. I wouldn't rule it out happening occasionally, particularly

431
00:22:56.960 --> 00:22:59.920
when you get to the size scales that you know,

432
00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:02.799
long the thinking of individual molecules, but you're thinking lumps

433
00:23:02.839 --> 00:23:05.480
of stuff. But when you're not big enough for the

434
00:23:05.559 --> 00:23:08.000
lumps of stuff to become molten when they hit each other,

435
00:23:08.519 --> 00:23:11.920
and when those lumps of stuff hit each other very gently,

436
00:23:11.960 --> 00:23:15.039
so they just nestle up together. And you know, if

437
00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:17.240
you can have two bits of metal that nestle up

438
00:23:17.240 --> 00:23:20.279
against one another, then this will happen. But that's going

439
00:23:20.319 --> 00:23:22.039
to be a very minor part of the process, if

440
00:23:22.119 --> 00:23:23.440
it's significant at all.

441
00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:26.000
Okay, very good, thanks Sean.

442
00:23:26.119 --> 00:23:27.839
Great to hear from you, I hope all as well

443
00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:31.599
in British Columbia.

444
00:23:32.119 --> 00:23:36.079
Great space nuts.

445
00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:39.960
We've got time for one more question. It's an audio

446
00:23:40.119 --> 00:23:43.920
question and it's sort of an open ended question which

447
00:23:43.960 --> 00:23:47.200
will become self explanatory. It comes from Mike.

448
00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:50.079
Fred and Andrew Hi. It's Mike Cupit a from the

449
00:23:50.119 --> 00:23:52.759
northwest of England in the UK, and I have a

450
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:55.880
little bit of a wishy washy question for you if I

451
00:23:56.240 --> 00:24:00.400
many now, you guys have always a firm that spacexploration

452
00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:03.799
is slow. You can't start a mission and expect it

453
00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:06.200
to yield results for a week or two. Everything you

454
00:24:06.279 --> 00:24:09.880
doused to take years. However, there seems to be an

455
00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:12.480
awful lot going on at the moment, just off the

456
00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:14.799
top of my head, without even scratching the surface.

457
00:24:15.599 --> 00:24:16.680
We're trying to work.

458
00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:19.079
Out what's going on with dark matter and dark energy

459
00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:21.799
and what it actually is and what's causing it. We're

460
00:24:21.839 --> 00:24:24.599
talking about saying or pre permanent move based. We're talking

461
00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:27.880
about manset foot on Mars. We're talking about the search

462
00:24:27.960 --> 00:24:31.480
for sort of extraterrestrial life within our Solar system and

463
00:24:31.599 --> 00:24:36.799
further afield. It's just absolutely mind blowing. Now, my question

464
00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:40.680
for both of you, if that's okay, if you had

465
00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:44.279
to pick one field of research or one mission that

466
00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:48.319
gets you more excited than anything else, the favor of

467
00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:51.559
your favorite thing that's going on at the moment, What

468
00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:54.880
would it be and what you hope it yields in

469
00:24:54.920 --> 00:24:59.119
the next sort of ten or fifteen years. What do

470
00:24:59.119 --> 00:25:01.720
you think the results going to be a lot of

471
00:25:01.720 --> 00:25:06.119
what you guys say absolutely astonishes me, just absolutely my mind,

472
00:25:06.119 --> 00:25:08.559
and I'm sure a lot the only one book. I

473
00:25:08.759 --> 00:25:11.160
just really want to know what blows your mind?

474
00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:12.359
What gets you excited?

475
00:25:13.319 --> 00:25:14.960
Thank you very much for the show. I don't think

476
00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:17.359
I've ever missed a single episode. I think you've been

477
00:25:17.400 --> 00:25:21.240
absolutely brilliant. I hope it never stops. Thank you very

478
00:25:21.279 --> 00:25:23.680
much for your work, and yeah, keep it up.

479
00:25:24.640 --> 00:25:25.279
Thank you. Mike.

480
00:25:25.799 --> 00:25:28.720
Love that question, and I love these open ended ones

481
00:25:28.759 --> 00:25:31.279
where they throw it back at us and Mike, it's

482
00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:36.039
you a lucky day because we've got two people here

483
00:25:36.079 --> 00:25:38.759
that can shed a bit a lot on what they

484
00:25:38.799 --> 00:25:42.599
think is their favorite upcoming mission. Can I go first,

485
00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:44.400
just so we can get the lame stuff out of

486
00:25:44.440 --> 00:25:44.720
the way.

487
00:25:46.920 --> 00:25:48.200
I actually wrote.

488
00:25:47.960 --> 00:25:54.319
Down three things that excite me obviously Artemis two that

489
00:25:54.880 --> 00:25:57.279
to me sort of takes me back to my childhood

490
00:25:57.319 --> 00:26:00.720
watching the Apollo missions, and so I'm really excit about that.

491
00:26:01.920 --> 00:26:04.160
I'm very this is not so much a mission as

492
00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:07.160
something that I'm really looking forward to that you and I,

493
00:26:07.680 --> 00:26:11.119
all of us have spoken about in previous episodes, and

494
00:26:11.160 --> 00:26:11.480
that's the.

495
00:26:13.599 --> 00:26:16.000
Commissioning of the Vera Rubin Telescope.

496
00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:19.799
But my favorite, which we've already talked about in the

497
00:26:19.880 --> 00:26:22.799
last episode or two, this is the one I'm really

498
00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:27.640
excited about, is the Europa Clipper mission. I think we've

499
00:26:27.640 --> 00:26:31.960
already mentioned it today. I'm excited about that because of

500
00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:37.240
the potential that the possibility they may be able to

501
00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:40.920
confirm the existence of life on an ice moon in

502
00:26:40.960 --> 00:26:46.039
our Solar system. I hope they can. That's my big hope, Mike,

503
00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:51.160
that this mission will without doubt be able to nail

504
00:26:51.279 --> 00:26:53.720
down the fact that we are not alone in the universe.

505
00:26:53.839 --> 00:26:55.680
We might be sharing it with a couple of germs

506
00:26:55.680 --> 00:27:00.839
on an icy planet or an icy body, or maybe krill.

507
00:27:01.160 --> 00:27:05.039
I don't know, but it's the fact that we have

508
00:27:05.519 --> 00:27:10.319
been discovering more and more bodies in our Solar system

509
00:27:10.359 --> 00:27:14.400
that have oceans is extraordinary, and we spoke about one

510
00:27:14.440 --> 00:27:19.640
in the last episode Callisto, and now we're going out

511
00:27:19.640 --> 00:27:22.960
there to see what we can find. That that really

512
00:27:23.720 --> 00:27:27.279
gets me ramped up. I can't wait to see how

513
00:27:27.319 --> 00:27:30.680
this goes. I'm really really hopeful that they will be

514
00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:35.599
able to go Yep, we found a frog and it'll

515
00:27:35.640 --> 00:27:39.279
be ribbitted. Yes, it's film a lotted noise about that.

516
00:27:39.799 --> 00:27:42.720
So that that's the one for me, Mike, that is

517
00:27:42.759 --> 00:27:47.799
the one rope And you said it and I can't

518
00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:50.200
remember that the European Space Agency.

519
00:27:49.960 --> 00:27:54.480
Shoes was Jupiter Simons Explorer, which is what I'm watching

520
00:27:54.519 --> 00:27:57.680
with interest because I was one of the first little

521
00:27:57.799 --> 00:28:00.000
meetings when that was being plumbed buck in two thousand

522
00:28:00.119 --> 00:28:02.559
and for just after I sat in my first ever

523
00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:05.359
post stock and I ended up needing to borrow ten

524
00:28:05.400 --> 00:28:08.119
euros from a really senior scientist to get a taxi

525
00:28:08.240 --> 00:28:10.920
because the cash point wouldn't give me money or something

526
00:28:10.960 --> 00:28:12.799
like that. So it was an interesting experience for me.

527
00:28:13.759 --> 00:28:19.880
Excellent, all right, So that's mine, Johnny.

528
00:28:19.480 --> 00:28:21.519
What do you I've got a couple.

529
00:28:21.559 --> 00:28:23.799
I mean, it's worth mentioning juice because of that personal

530
00:28:23.880 --> 00:28:26.759
connection to it, even though it's a very brief personal connection.

531
00:28:27.279 --> 00:28:29.240
The fact that twenty one years after I was at

532
00:28:29.279 --> 00:28:31.119
that meeting, the thing is still on its end, hasn't

533
00:28:31.160 --> 00:28:33.799
got there yet, tells you how long these things take

534
00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:35.759
and what a big part of people's lives. They are

535
00:28:36.519 --> 00:28:38.039
the two that I wanted.

536
00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:39.880
To flag up. I talk a lot about very Rubin.

537
00:28:39.960 --> 00:28:41.599
We talk a lot about things like the Rosnell and

538
00:28:41.640 --> 00:28:45.319
Franklin Land are going to Mars, the Icy Moons Explorers,

539
00:28:45.319 --> 00:28:47.160
both of them going out to Jupiter. But the two

540
00:28:47.200 --> 00:28:51.720
that catch my eye are the Comet Interceptor mission. So

541
00:28:51.960 --> 00:28:54.279
you know, my first love has always been comets and metias,

542
00:28:54.279 --> 00:28:57.599
and this is a mission that was proposed in the

543
00:28:57.640 --> 00:29:00.720
aftermath of the interstellar objects we so entry. So mau

544
00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:04.440
Mao and Borisov, a team of researchers put together a

545
00:29:04.559 --> 00:29:06.759
very basic thing saying, would it be awesome if we

546
00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:11.319
had a spacecraft sat in a holding orbit ready to

547
00:29:11.400 --> 00:29:13.720
go when we find a comic that's interesting to actually

548
00:29:13.720 --> 00:29:17.119
go visit it. Now, in the past, we've been to comets,

549
00:29:17.119 --> 00:29:19.119
and we've been to the ones that we could predict coming,

550
00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:21.759
so we knew in advance we could trundle off there

551
00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:23.640
and captain because we have plenty of warning. And that

552
00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:27.079
means we've seen comets that are old, comments that are evolved,

553
00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:30.200
that have had a lot going on, and in reality,

554
00:29:30.279 --> 00:29:32.680
probably comets that have their origins in the edge with

555
00:29:32.759 --> 00:29:35.839
Copper Belt beyond Neptune. We've never really been able to

556
00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:37.960
visit an oat cloud, comet, a comic coming in for

557
00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:42.200
the first time, or an interstellar object. And so this

558
00:29:42.319 --> 00:29:45.359
mission was devised, which is hopefully going to launch in

559
00:29:45.400 --> 00:29:48.480
twenty twenty nine, possibly on the same spaceship as Aeriel,

560
00:29:48.960 --> 00:29:52.279
which is a planet characterization mission that europe are putting

561
00:29:52.279 --> 00:29:54.839
together that is also going to be awesome, and then

562
00:29:54.880 --> 00:29:57.799
it's going to hang out there in space part there

563
00:29:57.880 --> 00:30:01.079
until the right object is discovered. Now, thanks to Vera

564
00:30:01.200 --> 00:30:03.480
Rubin will get much more notice of the right object.

565
00:30:03.559 --> 00:30:05.839
We'll probably find in to seller objects by the dozen

566
00:30:05.960 --> 00:30:08.799
rather than just two that we've ever had. And this

567
00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:11.680
thing will be there ready to go, so even when

568
00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:14.839
it's launched, we won't know where it's going. And then

569
00:30:14.839 --> 00:30:16.519
we'll sit and we'll wait and the right thing will

570
00:30:16.519 --> 00:30:18.920
be discovered and then it will jet off to intercept it.

571
00:30:19.119 --> 00:30:22.640
And I think that's just a fabulous step forward in technology.

572
00:30:22.640 --> 00:30:26.960
The other one is the Dragonfly mission, which is scheduled

573
00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:29.480
to launch in a few years time. We'll probably get

574
00:30:29.519 --> 00:30:32.759
to Saturn in the mid twenty thirties, and it's says

575
00:30:32.759 --> 00:30:35.039
seem to go to Titan. Now, Titan's the only other

576
00:30:35.079 --> 00:30:38.599
object in the Solar System than the Earth that experiences

577
00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:41.759
rain and weather in that sense, so it probably feels

578
00:30:41.839 --> 00:30:44.640
very much like the previous caller from the northwest of

579
00:30:44.680 --> 00:30:46.960
England like their day to day life. To be honest,

580
00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:48.880
it's gray and overcast and there's a lot of stuff

581
00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:52.119
falling from the sky. Titans are really bizarre place. So

582
00:30:52.160 --> 00:30:56.400
on Titan you've got the water ice is harder than granite,

583
00:30:56.480 --> 00:30:59.400
so the rocks are made from water ice. But you've

584
00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:02.279
got rivers and oceans and rainfall made of liquid methane

585
00:31:02.279 --> 00:31:05.599
and liquid ethane. And it's a fascinating world. And the

586
00:31:05.640 --> 00:31:09.279
only time we've ever touched its surface was the Huygens lander,

587
00:31:09.279 --> 00:31:11.920
which landed with a little penetrometer spike on the bottom.

588
00:31:12.519 --> 00:31:15.039
Confused colleagues of mine who were at the Open University,

589
00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:16.920
who were the first to handle the day to big said,

590
00:31:16.920 --> 00:31:19.720
when all these drop tests of different materials that the

591
00:31:19.720 --> 00:31:22.079
surface of Titan could resemble, and none of them worked,

592
00:31:22.440 --> 00:31:25.200
and then they thought, try Creme broulet, And that's what

593
00:31:25.240 --> 00:31:27.400
it was, because it's got a firm, crisp top and

594
00:31:27.400 --> 00:31:30.839
then a soggy bottom. Essentially that's the only time we've

595
00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:32.880
ever spent there, and that was a very brief fleeting

596
00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:35.160
touch on the surface. Whereas Dragonfly is going to be

597
00:31:35.200 --> 00:31:39.079
something comparable in size to a golf cart that is

598
00:31:39.400 --> 00:31:42.920
a quad copter, but with eight rotors instead. So I

599
00:31:42.920 --> 00:31:45.920
think that makes it an octocopter, which sounds like something

600
00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:47.920
out of a bad sci fi movie, you know, helicopter

601
00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:50.000
with quentacles, and it's.

602
00:31:49.839 --> 00:31:51.200
Gonna fly around.

603
00:31:51.240 --> 00:31:55.200
It'll have this huge radioisotope generator and during the day

604
00:31:55.480 --> 00:31:59.559
it will fly around, take observations, visit new places, check

605
00:31:59.599 --> 00:32:02.839
out what's happening, search for things like the possible evidence

606
00:32:02.839 --> 00:32:06.279
of life in this totally alien place, send back weather

607
00:32:06.319 --> 00:32:08.359
reports saying you've got I've gone to another world and

608
00:32:08.400 --> 00:32:11.319
it's raining here as well, you know, welcome to Manchester.

609
00:32:12.200 --> 00:32:15.000
And then at night it will land and it will recharge,

610
00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:17.480
and the nights on Titan takes seven earth days to

611
00:32:17.519 --> 00:32:20.799
complete recharge from the radio astop generator and then be

612
00:32:20.920 --> 00:32:24.119
ready to go the next day. So for however long

613
00:32:24.160 --> 00:32:27.319
this mission lasts, we're going to be getting live weather

614
00:32:27.359 --> 00:32:29.880
reports from another planet, and we're getting live images from

615
00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:34.400
a place we've never really visited before, exploring it's going

616
00:32:34.480 --> 00:32:37.880
to be absolutely breathtaking. And the technology challenge of this

617
00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:40.279
is bonkers because this environment where you're going to build

618
00:32:40.279 --> 00:32:43.559
a quad copter that will have so many moving parts

619
00:32:43.559 --> 00:32:47.079
that can fly, is one hundred and eighty degrees below freezing,

620
00:32:47.160 --> 00:32:50.039
So you talk about cold welding, those kind of things

621
00:32:50.039 --> 00:32:52.079
are a problem. A lot of the materials we use

622
00:32:52.119 --> 00:32:55.440
on Earth won't work, they'll be too brittle. So there's

623
00:32:55.519 --> 00:32:58.640
huge technological challenges for this, but it's in development. I

624
00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:01.000
think it's currently scheduled to law two or three years

625
00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:04.519
time from now. We'll have a mystasted seven year crews

626
00:33:04.519 --> 00:33:06.920
to get there, and then we'll fly fly back and

627
00:33:06.920 --> 00:33:08.680
you'll be able to get a live weather report from

628
00:33:08.920 --> 00:33:11.240
Titan another world on which it runs. So I'm very

629
00:33:11.240 --> 00:33:12.440
excited about that.

630
00:33:12.440 --> 00:33:16.039
That's amazing. Yeah, that sounds really exciting. Fred.

631
00:33:16.240 --> 00:33:22.480
What's your favorite or upcoming mission that tickles your fancy?

632
00:33:22.599 --> 00:33:27.319
Okay, two things day, isn't it interesting?

633
00:33:27.359 --> 00:33:28.359
We can't settle on.

634
00:33:28.200 --> 00:33:31.640
One, No, we can't know. Well, they're both close to

635
00:33:31.680 --> 00:33:36.599
my heart actually for different reasons. So one's got its

636
00:33:36.599 --> 00:33:41.079
feet firmly on the ground. Costs much less than a

637
00:33:41.119 --> 00:33:44.359
space mission. One sixth of the cost of the James

638
00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:48.079
Web Space Telescope, but many many times bigger. And that's

639
00:33:48.119 --> 00:33:52.720
the ELT, which is taking shape on Sarah Amazonas in

640
00:33:52.799 --> 00:33:55.759
northern Chile, and the way they're progressing with it is

641
00:33:55.920 --> 00:34:00.240
just astonishing. It's looking like a finished telescope. Now it

642
00:34:00.240 --> 00:34:04.119
hasn't got its seven hundred and ninety eight mirror segments yet,

643
00:34:04.880 --> 00:34:09.599
but it will have. So the ELT, the extremely large telescope,

644
00:34:10.199 --> 00:34:14.800
the European Southern Observatory's flagship instrument, which we still expect

645
00:34:14.920 --> 00:34:19.880
to come onstream in twenty twenty eight, and that will

646
00:34:19.920 --> 00:34:22.920
be you know, a date to look out for and

647
00:34:22.960 --> 00:34:24.599
we'll cover it in Space Notes, John T.

648
00:34:24.800 --> 00:34:26.840
You have I was just going to flag up with that.

649
00:34:26.920 --> 00:34:29.320
The numbers with that actually bond. So we're in Australia

650
00:34:29.320 --> 00:34:32.440
where we've got the biggest telescope in Australia is the

651
00:34:32.440 --> 00:34:35.719
Youngle Australian Telescope, which has a primary mirror of three

652
00:34:35.800 --> 00:34:40.559
point nine meters diameter. The ELT's mirror will be thirty

653
00:34:40.639 --> 00:34:43.559
nine meters in biometers, so the primary of this telescope

654
00:34:43.599 --> 00:34:46.360
is ten times a diameter, so that's one hundred times

655
00:34:46.360 --> 00:34:49.880
a collecting area. The secondary mirror of this telescope is

656
00:34:49.920 --> 00:34:53.159
bigger than the mirror on the Angle Australian Telescope. The

657
00:34:53.239 --> 00:34:56.519
tertiary mirror is still three point nine meters, So the

658
00:34:56.599 --> 00:34:58.760
third mirror on this thing is nearly as big as

659
00:34:58.800 --> 00:35:01.880
the biggest mirror on the big telescope in Australia, just

660
00:35:01.880 --> 00:35:03.400
to put into perspective how big it is.

661
00:35:03.480 --> 00:35:07.719
So yeah, that actually the thing that blows my mind,

662
00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:11.559
because of course I was the astronomer in charge of

663
00:35:11.599 --> 00:35:15.400
that telescope, so I know it's enclosure very well. But

664
00:35:15.480 --> 00:35:18.480
the mirror diameter of the ELT is three meters bigger

665
00:35:18.519 --> 00:35:21.679
than the diameter of the dome of the Anglo Australian Telescope.

666
00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:25.599
And it is a very generous dome, it is. It's

667
00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:27.280
one of the biggest domes.

668
00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:27.519
In the world.

669
00:35:28.199 --> 00:35:32.039
Looking at at the moment of the progress, because yeah,

670
00:35:32.440 --> 00:35:35.880
it spanning, it's an amazing to quite you fraid, it's

671
00:35:35.880 --> 00:35:37.000
an amazing piece of kid.

672
00:35:37.199 --> 00:35:37.480
Yes.

673
00:35:37.559 --> 00:35:41.280
Well, the fact that having walked around that catwalk on

674
00:35:41.320 --> 00:35:44.800
the edge of the observatory, I'm thinking that that catwalk

675
00:35:44.920 --> 00:35:46.960
is smaller than the mirror is going to be in the.

676
00:35:49.519 --> 00:35:52.119
It's mind blowing, isn't it. So yes, So that's to

677
00:35:52.159 --> 00:35:56.480
come twenty twenty eight, we'll see first light. It might

678
00:35:56.480 --> 00:35:59.079
happen before that with a fewer number of segments of

679
00:35:59.119 --> 00:36:02.960
the mirror, but looking forward to that because it will

680
00:36:03.639 --> 00:36:09.519
pretty well revolutionize all aspects of astronomy. It's gonna you know,

681
00:36:09.559 --> 00:36:15.880
it's got the whole textbook of astronomy to basically rewrite.

682
00:36:15.960 --> 00:36:17.840
And I'm sure it will something.

683
00:36:17.599 --> 00:36:21.639
A little bit more sorry timed with Vera Rubin, because

684
00:36:21.719 --> 00:36:22.519
Vera Ruben.

685
00:36:22.280 --> 00:36:24.039
Will find stuff and then the ELT.

686
00:36:23.840 --> 00:36:27.239
Will want it. Family and as atenship synergy there.

687
00:36:27.440 --> 00:36:30.039
That's correct, and that highlights what I was about to

688
00:36:30.039 --> 00:36:32.559
say that you need, what you really need is a

689
00:36:32.599 --> 00:36:37.840
survey telescope to find the really exciting objects. And that

690
00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:41.360
was the symbiosis between the United Kingdom Schmidt telescope, which

691
00:36:41.400 --> 00:36:43.480
is what brought me to Australia in the first place,

692
00:36:43.880 --> 00:36:46.679
and the Angle Australian telescope. They work perfectly well together,

693
00:36:46.760 --> 00:36:49.199
one with a wide angle camera and the other with

694
00:36:49.320 --> 00:36:52.920
the capability of homing in on the details of the

695
00:36:52.920 --> 00:36:56.599
objects that were being discovered. And it's the wide angle

696
00:36:56.599 --> 00:37:03.079
aspect that excites me. With my final mission that I

697
00:37:03.119 --> 00:37:06.800
think is going to be very important, and what is

698
00:37:06.960 --> 00:37:12.239
brilliant is that that launches in three days time. It's

699
00:37:12.239 --> 00:37:17.440
a spacecraft called sphere X, and sphere X is an acronym,

700
00:37:17.480 --> 00:37:20.519
as you might guess, each short for spectra photomata. For

701
00:37:20.599 --> 00:37:24.480
the history of the universe, epoch of reionization, an ice

702
00:37:24.599 --> 00:37:28.840
is explorer. It's a bit convoluted, but that's what it is.

703
00:37:28.880 --> 00:37:32.119
It's a relatively small telescope. It will go into orbit.

704
00:37:32.960 --> 00:37:35.360
But what it will do, because it's basically a wide

705
00:37:35.400 --> 00:37:38.480
angle telescope in the infrared, it's like a wide angle

706
00:37:38.599 --> 00:37:43.559
James Web telescope. It will take images of a billion galaxies,

707
00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:48.079
one hundred million stars, and ten thousand asteroids. And that

708
00:37:48.880 --> 00:37:54.079
is in order to look at the three particular aspects

709
00:37:54.119 --> 00:38:00.400
that this spacecraft is being launched for. One is the

710
00:38:00.400 --> 00:38:04.519
the cosmology questions, the big questions, how did the universe begin?

711
00:38:05.039 --> 00:38:10.000
In particular, was the epoch of inflation. That's that time

712
00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:12.719
a gazillient of a second after the Big Bang, when

713
00:38:12.760 --> 00:38:15.599
it became ten to the fiftieth times bigger than it

714
00:38:15.800 --> 00:38:20.079
was a gazillion of a second ago. Was that real?

715
00:38:20.280 --> 00:38:23.159
We have every reason to believe it was, because it's

716
00:38:23.159 --> 00:38:25.440
the only way we can make the theories work, but

717
00:38:25.559 --> 00:38:29.960
this spacecraft will measure the geometry of the universe in

718
00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:32.800
such a way that we will get insights into that process,

719
00:38:32.840 --> 00:38:35.599
the inflation process. You will also look in detail at

720
00:38:35.639 --> 00:38:38.599
the evolution of galaxies, the way they string out along

721
00:38:38.639 --> 00:38:42.280
the filaments of the cosmic web. But coming closer to home,

722
00:38:42.440 --> 00:38:50.440
it will be looking for ices, for carbon containing organic molecules,

723
00:38:50.840 --> 00:38:54.960
all of that stuff which is really designed to look

724
00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:57.840
again at the question that we all have on our

725
00:38:57.920 --> 00:39:01.119
lips at at the moment, I have done probably for

726
00:39:01.199 --> 00:39:05.519
the last four hundred years, we alone other living organisms,

727
00:39:05.559 --> 00:39:08.280
because we'll see the building blocks of life in detail

728
00:39:08.440 --> 00:39:11.400
and see where they are not only in our own galaxy,

729
00:39:11.440 --> 00:39:14.960
but probably in galaxies beyond. So this Friday, sphere X

730
00:39:15.039 --> 00:39:18.920
launches and we might have some answers before well before

731
00:39:19.079 --> 00:39:20.000
twenty twenty six.

732
00:39:20.559 --> 00:39:23.679
Yeah, very exciting, very exciting, and best of all, sphere

733
00:39:23.840 --> 00:39:26.719
X gets off the ground a day before SpaceX, So

734
00:39:26.880 --> 00:39:34.800
that's thank goodness for that. Yes, that brings us to

735
00:39:35.159 --> 00:39:37.920
the end of episode five hundred. Look, we had big

736
00:39:37.960 --> 00:39:42.280
plans for a very exciting special guest, but here in

737
00:39:42.320 --> 00:39:44.679
the studio I said, no, so what can you do?

738
00:39:45.400 --> 00:39:51.440
But all jokes aside, though, I want to say special

739
00:39:51.440 --> 00:39:54.800
thanks to our sponsors who have been on board with this,

740
00:39:55.280 --> 00:39:58.159
some of them for years. I especially want to thank

741
00:39:58.199 --> 00:40:02.679
the audience for backing us up for for so long. Fred,

742
00:40:02.800 --> 00:40:04.880
you know as well as I do. When we started,

743
00:40:04.880 --> 00:40:07.800
we didn't think we'd last a few weeks. We really

744
00:40:07.840 --> 00:40:11.239
didn't believe that it would make up and we've been

745
00:40:11.360 --> 00:40:15.880
enjoying a very long ride at the crest of a

746
00:40:15.920 --> 00:40:19.239
couple of waves on the various platforms out there that

747
00:40:19.840 --> 00:40:25.679
are well known, sometimes number one or number two on

748
00:40:25.719 --> 00:40:29.760
the iTunes Science list. So we couldn't be more thrilled

749
00:40:29.760 --> 00:40:33.000
with that kind of success. And that's because of you,

750
00:40:33.320 --> 00:40:36.360
the people who download us week in week out, despite

751
00:40:36.599 --> 00:40:41.559
Apple updates. And I give him a hard time, but

752
00:40:42.320 --> 00:40:47.320
Hugh Drury, who is the brains and the brawn behind

753
00:40:48.239 --> 00:40:51.679
not only this podcast but several others in the stable

754
00:40:51.920 --> 00:40:56.079
that you'll find on bytes dot com. Hugh's a tireless

755
00:40:56.159 --> 00:41:00.119
worker and I'll often get emails from him from one

756
00:41:00.159 --> 00:41:03.920
o'clock in the morning because he's sitting in on a conference,

757
00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:06.960
or he's or he's learning something, or he's putting the

758
00:41:06.960 --> 00:41:08.599
final touches on a show.

759
00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:10.480
He does a fabulous job.

760
00:41:10.280 --> 00:41:13.039
And I did say once before I'd never say anything

761
00:41:13.119 --> 00:41:15.519
nice about him again, but he deserved it.

762
00:41:15.639 --> 00:41:16.920
He works so hard.

763
00:41:17.760 --> 00:41:20.800
But it could not be done without the likes of

764
00:41:21.559 --> 00:41:24.599
Johnty Horner and Professor Fred Watson.

765
00:41:24.679 --> 00:41:25.400
Thank you both.

766
00:41:25.599 --> 00:41:28.119
I'm glad we could all be together for episode five

767
00:41:28.199 --> 00:41:32.760
hundred too. I know, I am in awe of what

768
00:41:32.840 --> 00:41:36.400
you do and it's such a thrill for me to

769
00:41:36.440 --> 00:41:40.480
be able to team up with you guys every week

770
00:41:40.679 --> 00:41:44.119
and talk about this stuff that has just got people

771
00:41:44.159 --> 00:41:48.400
around the world thinking, wondering and coming up with ideas

772
00:41:48.480 --> 00:41:51.880
that they throw at us about you know, could this

773
00:41:52.400 --> 00:41:55.639
be the answer to black to dark matter or dark

774
00:41:55.760 --> 00:42:01.119
energy or black holes or whatever, and emails from people

775
00:42:01.159 --> 00:42:05.039
saying we've published this paper because we listen to your podcast.

776
00:42:05.840 --> 00:42:07.480
That happened while you're a way, Fred, but I.

777
00:42:07.480 --> 00:42:11.440
Sent you the I mean that just you know, that

778
00:42:11.559 --> 00:42:16.079
is probably one of the greatest thrills that I could experience,

779
00:42:16.159 --> 00:42:19.119
that we have inspired people like that. So I'm so

780
00:42:19.119 --> 00:42:22.000
so happy to be a part of it. And you know,

781
00:42:23.199 --> 00:42:25.760
five hundred down, many many more.

782
00:42:25.639 --> 00:42:29.480
To come, I hope. Thank you, Thank you so much, gentlemen, appreciate.

783
00:42:29.599 --> 00:42:32.280
And thanks to you Andrew, the man with the silken

784
00:42:32.360 --> 00:42:36.800
voice that keeps this icing running and does the world

785
00:42:37.400 --> 00:42:40.760
for probably the universe's worst dad jokes thrown in for nothing.

786
00:42:42.719 --> 00:42:44.320
Without them, they'd be nothing.

787
00:42:45.719 --> 00:42:48.599
Well done, Andrew, and thank you jain Grone.

788
00:42:49.119 --> 00:42:51.840
It's been a pleasure, and congratulations Buff. It's a great achievement.

789
00:42:52.639 --> 00:42:54.840
Thank you Joddy, and thank you for filling in for

790
00:42:54.920 --> 00:42:57.199
these last several weeks and we look forward to getting

791
00:42:57.239 --> 00:42:58.360
you back on again real.

792
00:42:58.239 --> 00:42:59.840
Throon appreciate it sounds good.

793
00:43:00.800 --> 00:43:04.320
Professor Fred Watson, Astronomer at Large and Professor John dy Horner,

794
00:43:04.679 --> 00:43:07.960
Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland. And

795
00:43:08.039 --> 00:43:11.639
from me Andrew Dunkley, thank you again and we'll look

796
00:43:11.679 --> 00:43:14.719
forward to your company. On the very next episode of

797
00:43:14.840 --> 00:43:17.760
Space Nuts hie Byepauts.

798
00:43:18.039 --> 00:43:21.360
You'll be listening to the Space Nuts podcast.

799
00:43:22.360 --> 00:43:28.360
Available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or your favorite podcast player.

800
00:43:28.559 --> 00:43:31.880
You can also stream on demand at bides dot com.

801
00:43:31.880 --> 00:43:37.559
This has been another quality podcast production from nights dot com.
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