Oct. 5, 2025
Cosmic Collapses, Black Hole Illusions & Antimatter Mysteries
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Sponsor Details:
This episode is brought to you with the support of NordVPN....enhance your online privacy with the best in the game. Tiy get our special Space Nuts price and bonus deal, visit www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts or use the code SPACENUTS at checkout.
Cosmic Questions: Black Holes, Antimatter Stars, and Meteor Photography
In this enlightening Q&A episode of Space Nuts, hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson tackle a series of fascinating listener queries. From the enigmatic nature of black holes to the potential existence of antimatter stars, and practical tips for capturing meteors on camera, this episode is a treasure trove of cosmic insights and practical advice.
Episode Highlights:
- Collapse of the Universe: Listener Nate raises an intriguing question about the future of the universe and the concept of the Gnab Gib, or the reverse Big Bang. Andrew and Fred Watson discuss how gravity might pull everything back together and what happens to light during this cosmic collapse.
- The Nature of Black Holes: Tad's thought-provoking question leads to a discussion on gravitational time dilation and the observer's perspective of black holes. The hosts explore how black holes form and why it appears as if nothing ever falls into them from our vantage point.
- Antimatter Stars: Mark from London and Canada revisits the idea of antimatter stars, prompting a conversation about their potential existence and how we might detect them through unique gamma ray emissions.
- Astrophotography Tips: Dave from Inverel shares his passion for nighttime photography and seeks advice on capturing meteors. Andrew and Fred Watson provide practical tips on the best times and techniques for successful meteor photography, including the benefits of using specific apps.
For more Space Nuts, including our continuously updating newsfeed and to listen to all our episodes, visit our website. Follow us on social media at SpaceNutsPod on Facebook, X, YouTube Music, Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok. We love engaging with our community, so be sure to drop us a message or comment on your favourite 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.
Got a question for our Q&A episode? https://spacenutspodcast.com/ama
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts-astronomy-insights-cosmic-discoveries--2631155/support.
This episode is brought to you with the support of NordVPN....enhance your online privacy with the best in the game. Tiy get our special Space Nuts price and bonus deal, visit www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts or use the code SPACENUTS at checkout.
Cosmic Questions: Black Holes, Antimatter Stars, and Meteor Photography
In this enlightening Q&A episode of Space Nuts, hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson tackle a series of fascinating listener queries. From the enigmatic nature of black holes to the potential existence of antimatter stars, and practical tips for capturing meteors on camera, this episode is a treasure trove of cosmic insights and practical advice.
Episode Highlights:
- Collapse of the Universe: Listener Nate raises an intriguing question about the future of the universe and the concept of the Gnab Gib, or the reverse Big Bang. Andrew and Fred Watson discuss how gravity might pull everything back together and what happens to light during this cosmic collapse.
- The Nature of Black Holes: Tad's thought-provoking question leads to a discussion on gravitational time dilation and the observer's perspective of black holes. The hosts explore how black holes form and why it appears as if nothing ever falls into them from our vantage point.
- Antimatter Stars: Mark from London and Canada revisits the idea of antimatter stars, prompting a conversation about their potential existence and how we might detect them through unique gamma ray emissions.
- Astrophotography Tips: Dave from Inverel shares his passion for nighttime photography and seeks advice on capturing meteors. Andrew and Fred Watson provide practical tips on the best times and techniques for successful meteor photography, including the benefits of using specific apps.
For more Space Nuts, including our continuously updating newsfeed and to listen to all our episodes, visit our website. Follow us on social media at SpaceNutsPod on Facebook, X, YouTube Music, Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok. We love engaging with our community, so be sure to drop us a message or comment on your favourite 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.
Got a question for our Q&A episode? https://spacenutspodcast.com/ama
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts-astronomy-insights-cosmic-discoveries--2631155/support.
WEBVTT
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Andrew Dunkley: Hi there. Welcome to a Q and A edition of
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Space Nuts. My name is Andrew Dunkley, your
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host. Good to have your company again. Uh,
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questions coming today from Pete. Uh, he's
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looking at the collapse of the universe.
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Wants to know where he needs to be when it
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happens, so he gets a good view. Actually, I
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think it's about something else. Uh, we've
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also got a question from Tad, who has
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brought up a really interesting point about
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falling into a black hole. From an observer's
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perspective. If we were to watch someone or
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something do, uh, really is a.
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A great piece of science to talk about. Uh,
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Mark is, uh, bringing up something from an
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episode four years ago, I think. Antimatter,
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uh, stars. And Dave, um,
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wants to know about the best time and place
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to aim a camera for low, uh, light
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astrophotography. Uh, that
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is a great question. Uh, I've had so much
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trouble with that myself. We'll get stuck
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into it right now on this edition of space
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nuts.
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Voice Over Guy: 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.
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10, 9. Ignition
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sequence start. Space nuts. 5, 4, 3.
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2. 1. 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4,
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3, 2, 1. Space nuts. Astronauts
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report it feels good.
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Andrew Dunkley: And here he is again. Professor Fred Watson
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Astronomer at large. Hello, Fred
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Professor Fred Watson: Hello, Andrew. Fancy seeing you here.
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Andrew Dunkley: Yes, yes. And we're in similar coloured
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shirts today.
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Professor Fred Watson: That's right. I think we're very chic.
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Andrew Dunkley: Judy reckons green's my colour, but I've
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never really liked green. But
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anyway, she's more of a
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fashionista than I am, so I'll take her word
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for it. Uh, how you been?
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Professor Fred Watson: Very well, thank you. Yes, um, all seems to
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be going well so far.
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Andrew Dunkley: You look and sound as well as the last time I
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saw you.
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Professor Fred Watson: Well, that's right. I've, you know, uh,
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it's, uh, it's. It seems like only
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a few minutes ago. It does, doesn't it?
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Andrew Dunkley: Funny that, um. That's because of a black
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hole.
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Professor Fred Watson: It could be a black bill.
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Andrew Dunkley: Although we must point out that this will be
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your last show for a short while. You're
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taking a bit of a trip which will take, um,
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you into time zones that are just not
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compatible with life on Earth in Australia.
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So, um, uh, we will be, uh,
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bringing our, uh, stand in Jaunty Horner in
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to look after things while you're away for
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about 7ish weeks, something like that.
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We, we knew this was going to happen this
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year with me away for three months and you
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away for, uh, a couple of months. So we knew
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this was going to happen and we, we planned
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ahead so that the show could go on. So,
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um, anyway, we'll um, we'll look forward to
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chatting with, with Jonty and wish, uh, you
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well on your trip. Um, where.
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Professor Fred Watson: We'Ve got about two and a half weeks in
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Japan. Uh, then we're back in
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Australia very briefly and then we're off up
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to Ireland for a Dark sky conference and,
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uh, skipping over to the UK to hang out
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with my family for a little bit in the uk and
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uh, that'll take us to the end of November.
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Andrew Dunkley: Why wouldn't you? It's just a short hop,
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isn't it, really?
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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. It's stupid. Going
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to uk. That's right, yeah. So we'll do
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a few, uh, things. We're going to, uh.
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Marnie's got a nice itinerary for us. We're
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going to go to places that I have wanted to
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go ever since I was a child and never made it
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in the uk. So that's fantastic. We'll tell
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you about it when we get back.
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Andrew Dunkley: Love to hear about it. Um, we better get
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into, uh, the questions.
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Professor Fred Watson: Yes, yes.
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Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. Yeah.
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Our first question's an audio question
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coming, uh, from Pate Fred Watson and
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Andrew.
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Pete: Pete from Longpoint got a question.
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I know that there's
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contested as to what's going to happen in the
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future with the universe. The kind of
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dang, or however it's pronounced, or
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expansion or the Big Rip or whatever. The
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question if, if the universe is going to
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collapse back in itself. I get the concept
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of the gravity
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bringing sort of physical matter back
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together and I know that's only what, 5% of
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the universe, but I don't understand how
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that would work with
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the. Basically pulling light
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backwards. So you have light is
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expanding ever increasingly,
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obviously at the speed of light. Um,
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basically what happens with that in the event
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there is a collapse back to another
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singularity? Um, yeah, I'm
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confused. Thanks guys.
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Andrew Dunkley: I think a lot of people are, uh, um, yeah, he
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was referring to the Gnab Gib, which is the
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reverse Big Bang. Yeah. Uh, but it's
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an interesting question because if, if it
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does happen, rather than a Big Rip, uh, the,
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the universe stops expanding and then starts
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receding back in on itself. What does
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happen to the light and the dark matter
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and all that other stuff that we don't
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understand.
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Professor Fred Watson: So, um,
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uh, this. No, thanks very much,
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Pete.
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Great question. Uh, which has arisen because
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I, um, think it might be. While you were
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away, Andrew, we covered the new
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observations that have come from the dark
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energy, uh, instrument, um,
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which is on a, on a, on the
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mail telescopes, a telescope very similar to
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our Anglo Australian telescope which is uh,
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which has been surveying the universe as you
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do with such instruments, um, getting the
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redshifts, which means the distances of all
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the galaxies and building up a map. And that
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map um, has just the first hint
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that dark, the acceleration of the
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universe which we attribute to this dark
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energy, whatever it is, uh, that the
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acceleration of the universe is actually
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slowing down. It's still only a hint, it's
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not confirmed yet. But if the acceleration
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is slowing down then it does
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raise once again the possibility that we
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talked about a lot in the 1970s and 80s.
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Uh, the idea of an eventual collapse, a
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reversal of the expansion of the universe to
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a collapse. Uh, and the end product of
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that often called the Big Crunch. But we
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like the GNAB gib. That was the name that
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Brian Schmidt gave to it. It's a great name.
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So what happens in the Gnab gib? Well, um,
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it is interesting. You've got gravity taking
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over and it doesn't just
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sort of bring together
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the objects in space, it doesn't just
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collapse all the galaxies towards one place,
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it actually collapses space time with it.
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Um, because the, you know, the,
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the matter bend space. We know and that
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bending is effectively what you, what you
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would call the collapse uh, in the run
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up to the, or the run down to the Ganab gib.
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And so in a sense, uh, the light,
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uh, so, so what I'm saying is that
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um, the, the distances that, that across
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the, the distances that we measure between
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galaxies becomes less. But, but
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it's because the space time has shrunk
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basically. Uh, and so not just that
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the galaxies have got closer together.
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And that means uh, that yes, light will still
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continue to travel through space time at
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300,000 kilometres per second, but that
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space time has got less space in it.
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Um, and so the light just shrinks with the
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universe. It doesn't kind of escape or
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anything that many gazillions
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of photons that are currently traversing the
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universe and will continue to do that, uh, as
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long as things are shining and there's energy
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to provide that they will have shorter
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distances to go. Uh and we will find
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that the universe just gets smaller. As it
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gets smaller, the light goes with it and we
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end up with a bundle of stuff, uh, subatomic
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particles, including photons, particles of
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light, a whole lot of stuff that is going to
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hit an almighty singularity,
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uh, uh, which we might call the GNAB
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gib. Yeah, wow.
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Andrew Dunkley: Um, correct Me if I'm wrong, but didn't
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we talk in the past about a time where the
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universe will become dark and
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cold and there won't be
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any light?
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Professor Fred Watson: Well, um, that's right. If the universe
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continues expanding, then eventually
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there will be light there, but it won't be
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able to reach you because it'll be beyond
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your. Your horizon. Uh,
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so, uh, the light will still be going through
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the universe, but that light source will
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be receding from us, um,
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too fast for the light ever to get to us.
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So, yes, it becomes dark and dreary. Uh, but,
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yeah, light is still there.
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Andrew Dunkley: Uh, all right, there you go, Pete. Um,
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it will all be cataclysmic and horrible, and,
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uh, we'll all be a lot shorter.
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Professor Fred Watson: Every dimension.
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Andrew Dunkley: Indeed, yes. Although I'm starting to like
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the idea of a big rip. Because a big rip
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might open us to another universe and we
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could all escape.
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Professor Fred Watson: Well, yeah, maybe. Well, of course, you with
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the big. The gnab gib, you could get the big
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bounce. Uh, you know, it could just bounce
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back. So you've suddenly got an expanding
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universe immediately.
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Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, it's hard to get your head around. And
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I understand why Pete feels confused, because
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it really is beyond our imagination in many
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ways, isn't it?
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Professor Fred Watson: That's right.
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Andrew Dunkley: Thanks, Pete. Great question. Hope you're
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well.
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Uh, let's go to a question from Tad.
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Uh, this one's really interesting. Uh, we
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understand that due to extreme gravitational
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time dilation, from the perspective of an
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outside observer, anyone falling into a black
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hole takes an infinite amount of time to
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cross the event horizon, even if, from that
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person's perspective, they actually do in
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real time. Uh, if this is true, how
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do black holes and their event horizons even
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form in the first place, from an outsider's
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perspective? And does this mean that
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technically nothing has ever fallen into a
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black hole from our perspective here on
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Earth? I love this question. Thank you, Tad.
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Uh, he's bringing up the point
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where if you're watching someone fall into
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the. Into a black hole because of
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the. The effect, the gravitational effect on
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time space, it never happens,
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but that person
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experiences it in real time until they get
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spaghettified. So, um,
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yeah. How come we see black holes
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when this effect should
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suggest we. We should never see it happen?
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Is that. Is that what I'm. Is that what he's
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saying?
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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, yeah. How do black holes form in the
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first place?
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Andrew Dunkley: Uh.
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Professor Fred Watson: So it, uh, yes. So in that regard,
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that time dilation is a kind of optical
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illusion because the thing has crossed the
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event horizon, whatever it is. Uh, has
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contributed to the mass of the black hole.
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So, uh, the reality is, yes,
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you're, you know, if it's you, you get
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spaghettified and then you get absorbed by
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the black hole itself a gazillionth of a
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second later. Um, it's from the outside
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perspective. Uh, I've always struggled with
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this actually in trying to envisage it
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because, yeah, you imagine some poor person
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who's fallen into a black hole. Um,
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it's be like the, um, you know those,
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uh, chalk things on the road where
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somebody's got hit by a car. There'd
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be this chalk mark of somebody, uh, on the
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surface of the event horizon.
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Um, uh, but they'd
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also, uh, uh, along with that person, there'd
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be everything else that's gone into it. And
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black holes are notorious for accreting
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material. So all the stuff that's spiralling
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into it from an outsider's perspective just
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ends up looking as though it's stuck on the
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surface of the event horizon, even though
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it's actually been absorbed by the
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black hole. So it is a kind of optical
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illusion. Yes, it's very weird. It, uh, just
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means that from, you know, what it highlights
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is, uh, it's all about your
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reference frame. Uh, our reference frame is
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an, um, observer looking out, looking in from
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the outside. If you've got the reference
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frame of the person who's falling into the
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black hole, things are a lot different. We,
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uh, can watch, um, you know, from the
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sidelines and cheer people on as they fall
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through the black hole event horizon. All,
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uh, we see is them frozen on the
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event horizon. Uh, which must be a very messy
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place with all the stuff that's falling into
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it.
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Andrew Dunkley: Yeah.
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Professor Fred Watson: So, um, I, yeah,
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I, you know, it to me, that transforms what
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the event horizon might look like. It's
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probably not that nice sphere of darkness
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that we imagine, but it's got splattered with
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lots of stuff. And in fact, we know that the
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magnetism of a black hole actually plays a
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huge role in, um,
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directing material so that some of the stuff
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is actually accelerated perpendicular to the
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accretion disc, uh, backward, up, upwards
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and downwards. And that in itself is a
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process. It's very hard to get your head
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around how stuff that's swirling in towards a
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black hole suddenly gets dragged up, uh,
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and shot out the poles of the
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black hole, top and bottom. Um, so a
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lot of hard work to conjecture. I hope that
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helps Tad to envisage what's going on.
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Uh, um, because it's all about your
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perspective, basically.
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Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, yeah. Uh, so the black hole,
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uh, has happened.
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My brain had an idea and it just fell into a
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black hole. Now, um, I can't remember, but,
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uh, we. We see the black hole
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because it's already happened. Is that.
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Professor Fred Watson: Well, yeah, the black. The black hole's been
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created in. I mean, typically in the collapse
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of a. Of a star at the end of
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its life. Uh, so that's a
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straightforward gravitational collapse. The
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material of the star, uh, basically collapses
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down so that nothing will hold it out
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and it becomes this singularity, a point of
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infinite density, which is how we define it.
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Um, and that's. It's during that collapse
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that the event horizon forms. And you've got
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that. As I said, it's an optical illusion.
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That's the main point to recognise. It's an
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optical illusion as seen from the outside,
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um, that nothing reaches a black hole.
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M Mm.
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Andrew Dunkley: I'm sure we'll get some more questions on
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this one, but, uh, you've probably opened a
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can of spaghetti there, Tad.
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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, which is great because Jonty can deal
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with all of that.
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Andrew Dunkley: Yes, he can. Yeah. Yes, that's for
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sure.
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M All right, Tad. Thank you for the question.
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This is Space Nuts, a Q A edition with Andrew
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Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson Watson.
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Three, two, one.
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Space Nuts. Now, uh, our next
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question's an audio question. It comes
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from Mark.
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Mark: Hi, it's Mark in London and Canada.
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I just listened to an episode from
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March 2021 and Fred Watson mentioned the
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possible existence of an antimatter
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star and how. Obviously we wouldn't want to
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get, uh, anywhere near it,
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but I was wondering, is it. Is it possible?
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Do they exist? Uh, and how could we tell if
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we're looking at a star from Earth, can we
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tell if it's regular matter or antimatter
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or. What if the entire Andromeda Galaxy
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was antimatter, would we have a way of,
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uh, figuring that out?
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Professor Fred Watson: Thanks.
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Mark: Bye.
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Andrew Dunkley: M Uh, I would ask my Auntie
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Shirley, but she wouldn't know either. Um,
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thank you, Mark. Antimatter stars. We did. I
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remember us talking about them. Uh, we do
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know there is antimatter.
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Professor Fred Watson: There's just a hell of a lot.
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Andrew Dunkley: Less of it than actual matter, if I recall
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correctly. But if you've got, um, a molecule
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of matter and a molecule of antimatter and
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they collide, they just cease to exist.
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Is that how it goes?
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Professor Fred Watson: Yes, that's right, yeah. Um, what you get,
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um, is so if you. The
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difference between a normal matter
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particle, like, uh, an electron,
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and. And, uh, its antimatter equivalent
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is the electrical charge is the opposite.
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So the antimatter equivalent of an electron
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is a positron. Um, it's got positive
397
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electrical charge. Uh, and
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when two
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particles like that meet, they
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annihilate. And what you get is a
401
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gamma ray. You get a photon of gamma ray
402
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energy which has a uh,
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characteristic, a uh,
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characteristic frequency, um
405
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distribution. In gamma rays we call it
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energy. Uh, in light we think of it as
407
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wavelength, in radio waves we think it as
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frequency. Uh, but it's the same thing
409
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basically, uh, different, different levels of
410
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energy. So you get these gamma rays which
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will be emitted with a specific and
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characteristic frequency and that's the way
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that you might be able to detect
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an antimatter star.
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Andrew Dunkley: Um.
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Professor Fred Watson: I think this story actually goes back, it
417
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does go back to 2021. I've just found the
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article that we referred to. Stars made of
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antimatter might be lurking in the universe.
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It's from Scientific American, a very
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authoritative source. Um,
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but what they were starting the story
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with was something that happened in 2018
424
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when uh, one of the
425
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experiments on the outside of the
426
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International Space Station which we talked
427
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about in the last episode with great warmth
428
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and admiration. Um,
429
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it's one of those experiments may have
430
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detected uh, two
431
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basically uh, nuclei of anti helium. Um,
432
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these are anti helium particles.
433
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And so you mix that with normal helium
434
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and you get the gamma rays.
435
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Um, and so the question
436
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is where, where does
437
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that come from? And that was
438
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the um, the outcome of this, the, the
439
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suggestion that the easiest way to produce
440
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anti helium is inside anti stars.
441
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Um, which we don't, still
442
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don't know whether they exist or not. Uh, but
443
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really the, the point of Marx question is a
444
00:18:37.430 --> 00:18:39.980
good one. Um, I don't think we know much more
445
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about this uh,
446
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since that you know that speculation.
447
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Um, but what they're
448
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suggesting, uh, I might actually read
449
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uh, from that Scientific American article
450
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and acknowledge the source there.
451
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It was written by
452
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Leto Supuna who's the author
453
00:19:02.940 --> 00:19:05.820
of that. Um, and I think it
454
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sort of puts it a lot better than I can.
455
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Antistars would shine much as normal ones do,
456
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producing light of the same wavelengths, but
457
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they would exist in a matter dominated
458
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universe. And so as particles and
459
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gases made of regular matter fell into
460
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an antistar's gravitational pull and made
461
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contact with its antimatter, the resulting
462
00:19:27.180 --> 00:19:29.300
annihilations would produce a flash of high
463
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energy light. That's the gamma rays I
464
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mentioned. We can see this light as a, There
465
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you go. We can see this light as a specific
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colour of gamma rays. Um, and
467
00:19:38.630 --> 00:19:40.270
so one of the teams that they're Talking
468
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about took 10 years of data, uh,
469
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which amounted to roughly 6,000 light
470
00:19:45.750 --> 00:19:47.510
emitting objects. They paired the list down
471
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to sources that shone with the right gamma
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ray frequency and that were not ascribed to
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previously catalogued astronomical objects.
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Um, so this left us with
475
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14 candidates. This is one of the authors,
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uh, talking, which in my opinion and my co
477
00:20:02.510 --> 00:20:04.770
author's opinion, two are, uh, not antistars.
478
00:20:05.550 --> 00:20:08.410
Um, yeah, but they say
479
00:20:08.410 --> 00:20:11.170
if all those sources were such stars, that
480
00:20:11.170 --> 00:20:13.090
means one anti star would exist for every
481
00:20:13.090 --> 00:20:15.530
400,000 ordinary ones in our stellar neck of
482
00:20:15.530 --> 00:20:18.490
the woods. So we're still
483
00:20:18.490 --> 00:20:20.610
struggling to get our heads around this and
484
00:20:20.610 --> 00:20:23.330
I'm not sure whether any more of uh,
485
00:20:23.330 --> 00:20:26.290
these characteristic gamma ray flashes,
486
00:20:27.050 --> 00:20:29.970
uh, have been observed or what the latest
487
00:20:30.050 --> 00:20:32.410
is on this topic. But it is a very
488
00:20:32.410 --> 00:20:34.260
interesting one, I think. Um, thank you,
489
00:20:34.410 --> 00:20:35.970
Mark, for raising it again because it's one
490
00:20:35.970 --> 00:20:37.450
we should perhaps look at in a bit more
491
00:20:37.450 --> 00:20:40.010
detail. Might try and dig out some
492
00:20:40.010 --> 00:20:42.970
stories for when I return to space nuts on
493
00:20:42.970 --> 00:20:45.890
um, antistars and see what we've got
494
00:20:45.890 --> 00:20:46.610
in that. Uh.
495
00:20:47.130 --> 00:20:48.890
Andrew Dunkley: Do you think they could exist for him?
496
00:20:49.290 --> 00:20:51.930
Professor Fred Watson: I do think they could exist, yeah. Um, I mean
497
00:20:52.250 --> 00:20:53.970
it's one of the big puzzles of the universe
498
00:20:53.970 --> 00:20:56.690
as to why there's so much matter and so
499
00:20:56.690 --> 00:20:59.610
little antimatter. When our best theories of
500
00:20:59.610 --> 00:21:01.370
the origin of the universe suggest that
501
00:21:01.560 --> 00:21:04.520
antimatter and matter were created in equal,
502
00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:07.400
you know, in equal proportions. So
503
00:21:07.570 --> 00:21:10.160
uh, it's, it's one of these, it is, it's one
504
00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:12.640
of these issues that um, is, keeps on
505
00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:15.600
bubbling up and uh, you know, challenging
506
00:21:15.600 --> 00:21:16.440
our understanding.
507
00:21:16.680 --> 00:21:19.680
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, uh, well, I'm probably dredging up
508
00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:21.280
the same joke I used four and a half years
509
00:21:21.280 --> 00:21:23.160
ago, but there's a lot of, there's a lot of
510
00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:25.720
doesn't matter in astronomy as well.
511
00:21:27.890 --> 00:21:30.610
Professor Fred Watson: See, I can hear Jordy. You got a lot of Jordy
512
00:21:30.610 --> 00:21:31.170
there. Yeah.
513
00:21:32.970 --> 00:21:35.970
Andrew Dunkley: Um, but yeah, antimatter stars are
514
00:21:35.970 --> 00:21:38.450
right up there with white holes. Uh, we've
515
00:21:38.450 --> 00:21:41.010
never seen one. But there's, you know,
516
00:21:41.010 --> 00:21:43.930
there's certain elements of
517
00:21:43.930 --> 00:21:45.890
science that think these things exist.
518
00:21:46.610 --> 00:21:49.330
Um, but we've just never found the,
519
00:21:50.050 --> 00:21:52.050
the direct evidence or proof, have we?
520
00:21:52.530 --> 00:21:54.690
Professor Fred Watson: No, that's. Excuse me. That's correct.
521
00:21:54.910 --> 00:21:57.460
Um, just along those lines, there's
522
00:21:58.100 --> 00:22:00.940
something, um, that cropped, um, up about a
523
00:22:00.940 --> 00:22:03.340
week ago or two weeks ago. Um, it's a
524
00:22:03.340 --> 00:22:06.100
gravitational wave event which I think
525
00:22:06.100 --> 00:22:08.820
dates back to 2019. And you know,
526
00:22:08.900 --> 00:22:11.840
gravitational waves measured by LIGO and uh,
527
00:22:12.180 --> 00:22:14.980
Kagra and Virgo, the three big gravitational
528
00:22:14.980 --> 00:22:17.970
wave detectors in the world. They um,
529
00:22:18.970 --> 00:22:21.500
uh, this particular, most Most gravitational
530
00:22:21.500 --> 00:22:23.180
waves come from, uh, either neutron stars
531
00:22:23.180 --> 00:22:24.860
colliding or neutron stars colliding with
532
00:22:24.860 --> 00:22:27.100
black holes or black holes colliding. And
533
00:22:27.100 --> 00:22:28.880
they always have characteristic signature.
534
00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:31.200
They spiral together and then when they come
535
00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:32.720
together at the end they produce this
536
00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:35.280
characteristic chirp, um,
537
00:22:35.840 --> 00:22:37.570
which is when they merge. Um,
538
00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:41.280
and, uh, that usually lasts a few seconds
539
00:22:41.520 --> 00:22:44.440
that, um, run up to the chirp. Uh, but
540
00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:47.400
this one in 2019 only lasted, I think
541
00:22:47.400 --> 00:22:50.160
it was a tenth of a second. Uh, and
542
00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:54.780
one interpretation of that is that,
543
00:22:55.260 --> 00:22:58.060
uh, it was two very massive
544
00:22:58.060 --> 00:22:59.540
black holes. I think. I think that's the way
545
00:22:59.540 --> 00:23:01.220
around. It goes. Could be the other way
546
00:23:01.220 --> 00:23:04.060
around. Anyway, a,
547
00:23:04.220 --> 00:23:06.460
um, recent paper from China, and I think this
548
00:23:06.460 --> 00:23:09.300
was two weeks ago, proposed that you could
549
00:23:09.300 --> 00:23:12.100
get nearly the same modelling, which,
550
00:23:12.100 --> 00:23:14.260
because they model these gravitational wave
551
00:23:14.260 --> 00:23:17.260
phenomena if, uh, it turned out
552
00:23:17.260 --> 00:23:18.740
that what you were looking at was not
553
00:23:18.740 --> 00:23:21.260
colliding black holes but a collapsing
554
00:23:21.260 --> 00:23:24.100
wormhole. Um, and that's
555
00:23:24.100 --> 00:23:26.300
the first evidence that I think anybody has
556
00:23:26.300 --> 00:23:28.940
put forward for the existence of wormholes.
557
00:23:28.940 --> 00:23:31.820
But it's still very conjectural because,
558
00:23:32.340 --> 00:23:34.900
um, the likelihood, you know, the model of
559
00:23:34.900 --> 00:23:36.980
just two black holes colliding actually fits
560
00:23:36.980 --> 00:23:39.420
the data slightly better than the model of
561
00:23:39.420 --> 00:23:41.740
the collapsing wormhole. But people are still
562
00:23:41.740 --> 00:23:43.420
looking at these things as they are for white
563
00:23:43.420 --> 00:23:45.860
holes and, um, I hope also for
564
00:23:45.860 --> 00:23:46.940
antimotor stars.
565
00:23:47.490 --> 00:23:50.490
Andrew Dunkley: Yes. Yeah. Well, um, I suppose
566
00:23:50.490 --> 00:23:53.210
there's so much to consider in the
567
00:23:53.210 --> 00:23:56.050
universe that some things just don't get the
568
00:23:56.050 --> 00:23:58.170
amount of time and attention they probably
569
00:23:58.170 --> 00:24:01.170
deserve. But the workforce
570
00:24:01.170 --> 00:24:03.369
is spread so thin in astronomy and space
571
00:24:03.369 --> 00:24:05.330
science, I would imagine so,
572
00:24:06.220 --> 00:24:08.930
um. Yeah, it's hard to deal with everything.
573
00:24:09.170 --> 00:24:11.010
Professor Fred Watson: With everything. That's right. There's
574
00:24:11.010 --> 00:24:13.130
certainly enough questions to keep us busy
575
00:24:13.130 --> 00:24:15.210
for a long time. The world of astronomy.
576
00:24:15.370 --> 00:24:16.170
Absolutely.
577
00:24:16.170 --> 00:24:19.050
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. All right, Mark, thank you. Hope
578
00:24:19.050 --> 00:24:20.490
all is well in Canada.
579
00:24:23.290 --> 00:24:24.690
Roger, you're live right here.
580
00:24:24.690 --> 00:24:26.170
Professor Fred Watson: Also, space nuts.
581
00:24:26.490 --> 00:24:29.460
Andrew Dunkley: Our final question comes from Dave. And, uh,
582
00:24:29.460 --> 00:24:32.450
Dave is from Inverel in Northern, uh, New
583
00:24:32.450 --> 00:24:34.970
South Wales, Australia. As someone who is
584
00:24:34.970 --> 00:24:37.010
lucky enough to enjoy fairly low light
585
00:24:37.010 --> 00:24:39.690
pollution where I live, I like to
586
00:24:39.770 --> 00:24:42.290
attempt some nighttime photography now and
587
00:24:42.290 --> 00:24:45.000
then. Lately I've been using the nightcap
588
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:47.440
app on my phone. I've got that one as well.
589
00:24:47.920 --> 00:24:50.640
Uh, with, uh, the meteor setting, he says
590
00:24:50.640 --> 00:24:53.120
to try and capture some meteor photos.
591
00:24:53.680 --> 00:24:55.520
Uh, I find the best time to see a great
592
00:24:55.520 --> 00:24:58.200
falling star is just as I'm getting the phone
593
00:24:58.200 --> 00:25:00.160
set up, ready to start shooting.
594
00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:04.000
Just wondering if you have any advice for
595
00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:06.640
when to try and capture a meteor on camera.
596
00:25:07.760 --> 00:25:09.840
Example, uh, time of night, direction, et
597
00:25:09.840 --> 00:25:12.480
cetera. Or should I just uh, wait until a
598
00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:15.340
good meteor shower turns up. Uh, and how many
599
00:25:15.340 --> 00:25:18.340
meteors would we expect to see collide in
600
00:25:18.340 --> 00:25:20.860
our atmos, uh, collide with our atmosphere on
601
00:25:20.860 --> 00:25:23.700
any given night. Um, also,
602
00:25:23.900 --> 00:25:25.580
uh, great to hear you back Andrew and
603
00:25:25.580 --> 00:25:28.440
hearing. Enjoy, uh, hearing your travels. Uh,
604
00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:31.380
when you talk of Iceland, it makes me very
605
00:25:31.380 --> 00:25:32.100
keen to return.
606
00:25:32.180 --> 00:25:34.820
Can I ask which company you cruised with?
607
00:25:34.820 --> 00:25:37.060
Dave from Inverel. Yes, you can.
608
00:25:38.720 --> 00:25:41.650
Uh, the uh, the answer, uh, is Princess.
609
00:25:41.650 --> 00:25:44.650
It was Princess Cruises. Uh, we made the
610
00:25:44.650 --> 00:25:47.490
news early in the cruise when we got smashed
611
00:25:47.490 --> 00:25:50.210
just um, southwest corner of Australia by
612
00:25:50.290 --> 00:25:52.330
a squall that knocked the ship over, not
613
00:25:52.330 --> 00:25:55.290
completely 7 degree list which
614
00:25:55.290 --> 00:25:57.690
we took three hours to straighten up. I had
615
00:25:57.690 --> 00:25:59.330
to go up to the bridge and help the captain
616
00:25:59.570 --> 00:26:02.250
by, you know, using my weight to stand at
617
00:26:02.250 --> 00:26:04.740
the. No, I didn't. Uh, but uh, it was um,
618
00:26:05.330 --> 00:26:07.570
pretty hair, uh, raising for a while there.
619
00:26:07.730 --> 00:26:09.170
We uh, made the news all over Australia
620
00:26:09.250 --> 00:26:11.370
apparently. But um, yeah, it was the Princess
621
00:26:11.370 --> 00:26:14.150
Cruise Line. Um, and we've been with them
622
00:26:14.150 --> 00:26:16.450
many times on other cruises and they're uh.
623
00:26:16.510 --> 00:26:19.110
I, I really enjoy them. Um, they
624
00:26:19.110 --> 00:26:21.910
probably uh, it's debatable but I
625
00:26:21.910 --> 00:26:24.030
think food wise they're probably the best.
626
00:26:24.510 --> 00:26:27.350
But yes, um, now, and you
627
00:26:27.350 --> 00:26:29.510
mentioned the. Sorry, go on. Br.
628
00:26:29.510 --> 00:26:31.230
Professor Fred Watson: I was just going to say if you want to avoid
629
00:26:31.340 --> 00:26:33.590
uh, the rigours of sea travel, you could come
630
00:26:33.590 --> 00:26:36.030
with Dark Sky Traveller. We go up to Iceland
631
00:26:36.030 --> 00:26:37.910
pretty regularly too. Yes, well, there's a
632
00:26:37.910 --> 00:26:38.190
thought.
633
00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:38.800
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah.
634
00:26:39.040 --> 00:26:39.520
Professor Fred Watson: Yeah.
635
00:26:39.520 --> 00:26:42.240
Andrew Dunkley: So the downside of cruising is it's slow.
636
00:26:42.560 --> 00:26:44.600
Yeah, I mean it's very relaxing. But if you
637
00:26:44.600 --> 00:26:47.040
do want to get somewhere in a hurry, it's
638
00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:49.470
probably not the way to do it. Um,
639
00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:53.440
and uh, Dave also mentioned the nightcap app.
640
00:26:53.620 --> 00:26:55.920
Uh, I do have that one on my phone. I haven't
641
00:26:55.920 --> 00:26:58.080
had an opportunity to really use it because
642
00:26:58.640 --> 00:27:01.480
it's um, there's too much light around
643
00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:01.840
here.
644
00:27:02.600 --> 00:27:04.600
Professor Fred Watson: Uh, what does it do, Andrew? What's the,
645
00:27:04.600 --> 00:27:06.450
what's the purpose of the nightcap?
646
00:27:06.770 --> 00:27:09.130
Andrew Dunkley: I haven't got my phone with me but uh, you
647
00:27:09.130 --> 00:27:10.530
can preset it to
648
00:27:11.570 --> 00:27:13.090
photograph in low light
649
00:27:14.690 --> 00:27:17.530
and, and you can either put it in manual
650
00:27:17.530 --> 00:27:19.890
mode or you can have this series of presets
651
00:27:19.890 --> 00:27:22.210
where you can, if you know what you want to
652
00:27:22.210 --> 00:27:24.610
photograph, it will set up the phone
653
00:27:25.250 --> 00:27:27.770
to create the exact situation you need to
654
00:27:27.770 --> 00:27:29.850
take that particular photograph. Yeah, yeah,
655
00:27:29.850 --> 00:27:32.210
it's really, it's really good software. Um,
656
00:27:32.470 --> 00:27:35.390
but I haven't really had a chance to use
657
00:27:35.390 --> 00:27:38.070
it properly. But it can do time lapse and all
658
00:27:38.070 --> 00:27:40.710
sorts of things. It's really good gear.
659
00:27:41.480 --> 00:27:44.390
Uh, so yeah, when and where
660
00:27:44.390 --> 00:27:47.270
and how to take low light
661
00:27:47.750 --> 00:27:49.750
photographs, Fred Watson, of meteors.
662
00:27:49.990 --> 00:27:52.630
Professor Fred Watson: That was meteors crucial thing. Yeah. From
663
00:27:52.950 --> 00:27:55.830
Dave's question. And yeah, so Dave up
664
00:27:55.830 --> 00:27:58.610
in Verrel will have pretty easy
665
00:27:58.610 --> 00:27:59.850
access to dark skies.
666
00:28:00.100 --> 00:28:01.850
Andrew Dunkley: Uh, yeah, that's, you know why? You know why?
667
00:28:01.850 --> 00:28:04.130
Because they're not putting the electricity
668
00:28:04.130 --> 00:28:06.090
on up there for another 10 years.
669
00:28:06.970 --> 00:28:08.090
Professor Fred Watson: Okay. Uh, sorry.
670
00:28:08.410 --> 00:28:11.050
Andrew Dunkley: Everyone asks, in the 30
671
00:28:11.130 --> 00:28:12.850
odd years I've lived here people have often
672
00:28:12.850 --> 00:28:14.570
asked do you have electricity where you are?
673
00:28:15.100 --> 00:28:17.450
Um, so I couldn't help that joke.
674
00:28:17.530 --> 00:28:20.330
Professor Fred Watson: No. Well you do. We did in Kun Durban as well
675
00:28:20.330 --> 00:28:22.650
but we were at the end of the line and uh, so
676
00:28:22.650 --> 00:28:24.490
if ever there was a thunderstorm we usually
677
00:28:24.490 --> 00:28:26.090
left our electricity, they were gone.
678
00:28:26.270 --> 00:28:28.550
Andrew Dunkley: Ah yeah, we had that problem the first 15
679
00:28:28.550 --> 00:28:29.550
years we lived here.
680
00:28:31.390 --> 00:28:33.590
Professor Fred Watson: Um, but they do have electricity in Varel and
681
00:28:33.590 --> 00:28:35.910
they also have dark skies. Relatively easily
682
00:28:35.910 --> 00:28:38.830
accessible by just driving up a few
683
00:28:38.910 --> 00:28:41.030
few kilometres further up the highway one way
684
00:28:41.030 --> 00:28:41.550
or the other.
685
00:28:42.130 --> 00:28:44.820
Um, so, so meteors. Um,
686
00:28:45.070 --> 00:28:46.950
yeah. Dave's question, how many meteors are
687
00:28:46.950 --> 00:28:49.870
coming in? Uh, quite a large number. We think
688
00:28:49.870 --> 00:28:52.750
it's something like 100 tonnes, 50 to 100
689
00:28:52.750 --> 00:28:55.670
tonnes a day meteoritic material hits the
690
00:28:55.670 --> 00:28:58.270
atmosphere that's worldwide. Uh, but that
691
00:28:58.270 --> 00:29:00.430
means there are billions of meteors streaking
692
00:29:00.430 --> 00:29:01.790
through the atmosphere because most of them
693
00:29:01.790 --> 00:29:04.670
are specks of dust. Um, and they
694
00:29:04.670 --> 00:29:07.070
can, yeah, sporadic meteors as they're
695
00:29:07.070 --> 00:29:08.870
called, they can whiz through the earth's
696
00:29:08.870 --> 00:29:11.110
atmosphere at any time. People talking about
697
00:29:11.190 --> 00:29:13.950
this stargazing I was doing at uh, Sea
698
00:29:13.950 --> 00:29:16.810
Lake uh in rural Victoria last week, um,
699
00:29:17.190 --> 00:29:19.470
quite a few people were spotting meteors as
700
00:29:19.470 --> 00:29:21.110
they flashed through the sky. I was looking
701
00:29:21.110 --> 00:29:23.790
at screens so I missed a, most of them. Um,
702
00:29:24.180 --> 00:29:27.060
but uh, probably the
703
00:29:27.140 --> 00:29:29.540
time to uh,
704
00:29:30.740 --> 00:29:33.580
really concentrate on uh, if you serious and
705
00:29:33.580 --> 00:29:35.580
I think you kind of need an all sky lens
706
00:29:35.580 --> 00:29:38.460
effectively for good meteor photography. Um,
707
00:29:39.110 --> 00:29:42.100
um, uh, the new generation of
708
00:29:42.660 --> 00:29:45.620
phones do have very wide angle lenses
709
00:29:46.180 --> 00:29:48.220
but they're not fisheye in the sense that you
710
00:29:48.220 --> 00:29:50.860
can see the whole sky. Uh, but they're wide
711
00:29:50.860 --> 00:29:53.580
enough probably to use the
712
00:29:53.580 --> 00:29:55.980
snag with them is that they've got a low
713
00:29:56.710 --> 00:29:59.340
uh, uh aperture. So a
714
00:29:59.660 --> 00:30:02.460
high focal ratio, uh, you know
715
00:30:02.540 --> 00:30:05.460
the ratio of the focal length to aperture and
716
00:30:05.460 --> 00:30:07.539
what you need is a low focal ratio to give
717
00:30:07.539 --> 00:30:09.620
you fast imaging, it's what we call a fast
718
00:30:09.620 --> 00:30:12.020
lens. Whereas these wide angle ones tend not
719
00:30:12.020 --> 00:30:15.020
to have that. Uh, and so you're tossing up
720
00:30:15.020 --> 00:30:17.820
you know, the relative merits of a very
721
00:30:17.820 --> 00:30:19.660
wide angle view or
722
00:30:20.820 --> 00:30:23.220
likely to capture more meteors or a narrow
723
00:30:23.220 --> 00:30:25.300
angle of view. But greater sensitivity, so
724
00:30:25.300 --> 00:30:27.450
you'll see fainter meteors. So, um,
725
00:30:28.020 --> 00:30:29.780
that's, you know, taking all that into
726
00:30:29.780 --> 00:30:32.260
consideration. I, um, haven't tried meteor
727
00:30:32.260 --> 00:30:33.980
photography with my phone. I've done a lot of
728
00:30:33.980 --> 00:30:36.219
aurora borealis photography with it and that
729
00:30:36.219 --> 00:30:38.260
works really well because they're sensitive.
730
00:30:38.420 --> 00:30:40.500
But it will be an interesting thing to try.
731
00:30:40.890 --> 00:30:43.500
Uh, it's the fact that you need the shutter
732
00:30:43.500 --> 00:30:45.020
open for a long time. But I guess what you
733
00:30:45.020 --> 00:30:47.890
can do is just keep on taking short
734
00:30:47.890 --> 00:30:50.890
snapshots. Um, the point I was going to
735
00:30:50.890 --> 00:30:53.720
get to is when you think about the Earth, uh,
736
00:30:54.010 --> 00:30:56.010
in its orbit around the sun,
737
00:30:56.730 --> 00:30:59.490
uh, the forward facing side of the orbit
738
00:30:59.490 --> 00:31:01.450
is where you are after midnight.
739
00:31:02.250 --> 00:31:05.130
So after midnight means that you're
740
00:31:05.130 --> 00:31:07.970
on the leading edge of the Earth and that's
741
00:31:07.970 --> 00:31:09.770
where you're going to get the most meteors.
742
00:31:09.850 --> 00:31:12.690
Basically, uh, as the Earth, uh, ploughs
743
00:31:12.690 --> 00:31:14.700
through the various clouds of dust, you've
744
00:31:14.700 --> 00:31:17.260
got meteor showers which come from big clouds
745
00:31:17.260 --> 00:31:19.820
of dust that the Earth goes through. But
746
00:31:19.820 --> 00:31:22.420
these things are always best seen in the
747
00:31:22.420 --> 00:31:24.820
early morning, um, when you're on the side
748
00:31:24.820 --> 00:31:27.340
after midnight. So that's the best advice I
749
00:31:27.340 --> 00:31:28.860
can give. I'd be interested to hear how you
750
00:31:28.860 --> 00:31:31.220
get on Dave and, uh, what sort of results you
751
00:31:31.220 --> 00:31:31.740
might get.
752
00:31:31.900 --> 00:31:34.060
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, yeah. And if you do get a couple of
753
00:31:34.060 --> 00:31:35.780
good ones, send them in and we'll, we'll, um,
754
00:31:36.100 --> 00:31:38.260
post them on our Facebook page or you can
755
00:31:38.260 --> 00:31:39.860
post them yourself on the Facebook group,
756
00:31:39.860 --> 00:31:41.940
whatever you like. Um, love to see what you
757
00:31:41.940 --> 00:31:44.300
come up with. We do get, um, some great
758
00:31:44.620 --> 00:31:46.770
astronauts of photography from space, uh,
759
00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:48.720
arts listeners on the Facebook group
760
00:31:48.720 --> 00:31:51.320
sometimes. So, yeah, um, more than happy to,
761
00:31:52.170 --> 00:31:54.920
uh, have you, uh, post them
762
00:31:55.160 --> 00:31:57.920
on that page, Dave, and
763
00:31:57.920 --> 00:31:59.930
hopefully that will help. But, uh, yeah, uh,
764
00:31:59.930 --> 00:32:01.640
the idea of having to get up and do it at the
765
00:32:01.640 --> 00:32:03.550
middle of night, not, not appealing. But, uh,
766
00:32:03.800 --> 00:32:05.400
that's life in astronomy, isn't it,
767
00:32:05.400 --> 00:32:05.800
Fred Watson?
768
00:32:06.040 --> 00:32:07.080
Professor Fred Watson: Tis a bit, yeah.
769
00:32:08.280 --> 00:32:11.000
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. All right, Dave, thanks very much for
770
00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:12.400
your question. Don't forget, if you've got a
771
00:32:12.400 --> 00:32:14.960
question, send it in to us because we'd love
772
00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:17.720
to try, uh, and answer it. No guarantees, of
773
00:32:17.720 --> 00:32:19.960
course, uh, but you go to our website,
774
00:32:19.960 --> 00:32:22.880
spacenutspodcast.com spacenuts
775
00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:25.770
IO Click on the AMA tab and you can send, uh,
776
00:32:26.150 --> 00:32:28.760
uh, questions there, audio or text. Just
777
00:32:28.760 --> 00:32:30.520
remember to tell us who you are and where
778
00:32:30.520 --> 00:32:33.360
you're from and we'll do the rest. Or
779
00:32:33.360 --> 00:32:36.120
Huw in the studio will, if he ever turns up
780
00:32:36.120 --> 00:32:38.720
again. He didn't turn up today.
781
00:32:39.360 --> 00:32:41.760
I don't know what he was doing. Probably
782
00:32:41.760 --> 00:32:43.880
trying astrophotography in the middle of the
783
00:32:43.880 --> 00:32:46.510
day. Just never listens to us.
784
00:32:46.750 --> 00:32:49.150
That's his problem. Uh, Fred Watson, thank
785
00:32:49.150 --> 00:32:52.110
you as always and, uh, bon voyage.
786
00:32:52.110 --> 00:32:54.990
Have a safe journey. Uh, enjoy your time in,
787
00:32:54.990 --> 00:32:57.950
in Japan and Ireland and the, uh, UK
788
00:32:58.190 --> 00:33:00.670
and uh. Yeah, and, and look forward to
789
00:33:00.670 --> 00:33:02.350
hearing about your travels when you get back.
790
00:33:02.830 --> 00:33:05.830
And we will welcome, uh, Jonty Horner from
791
00:33:05.830 --> 00:33:08.320
the University of Southern Queensland, uh,
792
00:33:08.510 --> 00:33:11.360
with, um, Space Nuts for the
793
00:33:11.360 --> 00:33:13.320
foreseeable future. So take care,
794
00:33:13.320 --> 00:33:14.600
Fred Watson, and thank you.
795
00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:17.240
Professor Fred Watson: Thank you, Andrew. Uh, I'll miss you all,
796
00:33:17.240 --> 00:33:19.750
but, um, I'll be glad to come back and, uh,
797
00:33:19.750 --> 00:33:21.720
talk to you sometime before Christmas.
798
00:33:21.880 --> 00:33:23.950
Andrew Dunkley: Okay, catch you then, professor, uh,
799
00:33:23.950 --> 00:33:25.680
Fred Watson Watson, astronomer at large, and
800
00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:27.400
from me, Andrew Dunkley. Thanks again for
801
00:33:27.400 --> 00:33:29.240
your company. We'll see you on the very next
802
00:33:29.240 --> 00:33:31.960
episode of Space Nuts. Until then, bye
803
00:33:31.960 --> 00:33:32.280
bye.
804
00:33:33.400 --> 00:33:35.600
Voice Over Guy: You've been listening to the Space Nuts
805
00:33:35.600 --> 00:33:38.220
Podcast. Available
806
00:33:38.300 --> 00:33:40.620
at Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
807
00:33:40.780 --> 00:33:43.540
iHeartRadio or your favourite podcast
808
00:33:43.540 --> 00:33:45.220
player. You can also stream on
809
00:33:45.220 --> 00:33:48.220
demand at bitesz.com This has been another
810
00:33:48.220 --> 00:33:50.300
quality podcast production from
811
00:33:50.300 --> 00:33:51.340
bitesz.com
0
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Andrew Dunkley: Hi there. Welcome to a Q and A edition of
1
00:00:02.600 --> 00:00:05.160
Space Nuts. My name is Andrew Dunkley, your
2
00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:07.660
host. Good to have your company again. Uh,
3
00:00:07.660 --> 00:00:10.520
questions coming today from Pete. Uh, he's
4
00:00:10.520 --> 00:00:12.960
looking at the collapse of the universe.
5
00:00:13.280 --> 00:00:15.400
Wants to know where he needs to be when it
6
00:00:15.400 --> 00:00:17.840
happens, so he gets a good view. Actually, I
7
00:00:17.840 --> 00:00:19.520
think it's about something else. Uh, we've
8
00:00:19.520 --> 00:00:22.280
also got a question from Tad, who has
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brought up a really interesting point about
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falling into a black hole. From an observer's
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perspective. If we were to watch someone or
12
00:00:29.270 --> 00:00:31.870
something do, uh, really is a.
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A great piece of science to talk about. Uh,
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Mark is, uh, bringing up something from an
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episode four years ago, I think. Antimatter,
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uh, stars. And Dave, um,
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00:00:44.670 --> 00:00:46.590
wants to know about the best time and place
18
00:00:46.590 --> 00:00:49.150
to aim a camera for low, uh, light
19
00:00:49.230 --> 00:00:52.110
astrophotography. Uh, that
20
00:00:52.580 --> 00:00:54.820
is a great question. Uh, I've had so much
21
00:00:54.820 --> 00:00:56.540
trouble with that myself. We'll get stuck
22
00:00:56.540 --> 00:00:59.140
into it right now on this edition of space
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nuts.
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Voice Over Guy: 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.
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10, 9. Ignition
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sequence start. Space nuts. 5, 4, 3.
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2. 1. 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4,
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3, 2, 1. Space nuts. Astronauts
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report it feels good.
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Andrew Dunkley: And here he is again. Professor Fred Watson
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Astronomer at large. Hello, Fred
32
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Professor Fred Watson: Hello, Andrew. Fancy seeing you here.
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Andrew Dunkley: Yes, yes. And we're in similar coloured
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shirts today.
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Professor Fred Watson: That's right. I think we're very chic.
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Andrew Dunkley: Judy reckons green's my colour, but I've
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never really liked green. But
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anyway, she's more of a
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fashionista than I am, so I'll take her word
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for it. Uh, how you been?
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Professor Fred Watson: Very well, thank you. Yes, um, all seems to
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be going well so far.
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Andrew Dunkley: You look and sound as well as the last time I
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saw you.
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00:01:49.960 --> 00:01:52.830
Professor Fred Watson: Well, that's right. I've, you know, uh,
46
00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:55.880
it's, uh, it's. It seems like only
47
00:01:55.960 --> 00:01:57.880
a few minutes ago. It does, doesn't it?
48
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Andrew Dunkley: Funny that, um. That's because of a black
49
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hole.
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Professor Fred Watson: It could be a black bill.
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Andrew Dunkley: Although we must point out that this will be
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your last show for a short while. You're
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00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:12.320
taking a bit of a trip which will take, um,
54
00:02:12.480 --> 00:02:14.160
you into time zones that are just not
55
00:02:14.160 --> 00:02:16.480
compatible with life on Earth in Australia.
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So, um, uh, we will be, uh,
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bringing our, uh, stand in Jaunty Horner in
58
00:02:22.200 --> 00:02:23.960
to look after things while you're away for
59
00:02:23.960 --> 00:02:26.960
about 7ish weeks, something like that.
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We, we knew this was going to happen this
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year with me away for three months and you
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away for, uh, a couple of months. So we knew
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this was going to happen and we, we planned
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ahead so that the show could go on. So,
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um, anyway, we'll um, we'll look forward to
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chatting with, with Jonty and wish, uh, you
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well on your trip. Um, where.
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Professor Fred Watson: We'Ve got about two and a half weeks in
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00:02:51.420 --> 00:02:54.260
Japan. Uh, then we're back in
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00:02:54.260 --> 00:02:56.260
Australia very briefly and then we're off up
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to Ireland for a Dark sky conference and,
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uh, skipping over to the UK to hang out
73
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with my family for a little bit in the uk and
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uh, that'll take us to the end of November.
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Andrew Dunkley: Why wouldn't you? It's just a short hop,
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isn't it, really?
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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. It's stupid. Going
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to uk. That's right, yeah. So we'll do
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a few, uh, things. We're going to, uh.
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Marnie's got a nice itinerary for us. We're
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going to go to places that I have wanted to
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go ever since I was a child and never made it
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in the uk. So that's fantastic. We'll tell
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you about it when we get back.
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Andrew Dunkley: Love to hear about it. Um, we better get
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into, uh, the questions.
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Professor Fred Watson: Yes, yes.
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Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. Yeah.
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Our first question's an audio question
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coming, uh, from Pate Fred Watson and
91
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Andrew.
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Pete: Pete from Longpoint got a question.
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I know that there's
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contested as to what's going to happen in the
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future with the universe. The kind of
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dang, or however it's pronounced, or
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expansion or the Big Rip or whatever. The
98
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question if, if the universe is going to
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collapse back in itself. I get the concept
100
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of the gravity
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bringing sort of physical matter back
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together and I know that's only what, 5% of
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the universe, but I don't understand how
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that would work with
105
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the. Basically pulling light
106
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backwards. So you have light is
107
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expanding ever increasingly,
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obviously at the speed of light. Um,
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basically what happens with that in the event
110
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there is a collapse back to another
111
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singularity? Um, yeah, I'm
112
00:04:36.870 --> 00:04:38.390
confused. Thanks guys.
113
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Andrew Dunkley: I think a lot of people are, uh, um, yeah, he
114
00:04:41.910 --> 00:04:44.670
was referring to the Gnab Gib, which is the
115
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reverse Big Bang. Yeah. Uh, but it's
116
00:04:47.670 --> 00:04:49.709
an interesting question because if, if it
117
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does happen, rather than a Big Rip, uh, the,
118
00:04:52.470 --> 00:04:55.430
the universe stops expanding and then starts
119
00:04:55.510 --> 00:04:58.350
receding back in on itself. What does
120
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happen to the light and the dark matter
121
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and all that other stuff that we don't
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understand.
123
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Professor Fred Watson: So, um,
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uh, this. No, thanks very much,
125
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Pete.
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Great question. Uh, which has arisen because
127
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I, um, think it might be. While you were
128
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away, Andrew, we covered the new
129
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observations that have come from the dark
130
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energy, uh, instrument, um,
131
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which is on a, on a, on the
132
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mail telescopes, a telescope very similar to
133
00:05:32.250 --> 00:05:35.190
our Anglo Australian telescope which is uh,
134
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which has been surveying the universe as you
135
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do with such instruments, um, getting the
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redshifts, which means the distances of all
137
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the galaxies and building up a map. And that
138
00:05:45.050 --> 00:05:47.530
map um, has just the first hint
139
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that dark, the acceleration of the
140
00:05:50.930 --> 00:05:53.330
universe which we attribute to this dark
141
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energy, whatever it is, uh, that the
142
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acceleration of the universe is actually
143
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slowing down. It's still only a hint, it's
144
00:05:59.130 --> 00:06:01.930
not confirmed yet. But if the acceleration
145
00:06:01.930 --> 00:06:04.370
is slowing down then it does
146
00:06:05.010 --> 00:06:07.490
raise once again the possibility that we
147
00:06:07.490 --> 00:06:10.050
talked about a lot in the 1970s and 80s.
148
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Uh, the idea of an eventual collapse, a
149
00:06:13.290 --> 00:06:15.610
reversal of the expansion of the universe to
150
00:06:15.610 --> 00:06:18.410
a collapse. Uh, and the end product of
151
00:06:18.410 --> 00:06:21.320
that often called the Big Crunch. But we
152
00:06:21.320 --> 00:06:23.720
like the GNAB gib. That was the name that
153
00:06:23.720 --> 00:06:25.880
Brian Schmidt gave to it. It's a great name.
154
00:06:26.360 --> 00:06:28.670
So what happens in the Gnab gib? Well, um,
155
00:06:30.440 --> 00:06:33.080
it is interesting. You've got gravity taking
156
00:06:33.080 --> 00:06:35.880
over and it doesn't just
157
00:06:36.360 --> 00:06:37.560
sort of bring together
158
00:06:39.960 --> 00:06:42.520
the objects in space, it doesn't just
159
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collapse all the galaxies towards one place,
160
00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.320
it actually collapses space time with it.
161
00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:50.820
Um, because the, you know, the,
162
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the matter bend space. We know and that
163
00:06:53.740 --> 00:06:56.180
bending is effectively what you, what you
164
00:06:56.180 --> 00:06:59.140
would call the collapse uh, in the run
165
00:06:59.140 --> 00:07:01.820
up to the, or the run down to the Ganab gib.
166
00:07:02.220 --> 00:07:05.100
And so in a sense, uh, the light,
167
00:07:05.840 --> 00:07:08.380
uh, so, so what I'm saying is that
168
00:07:08.760 --> 00:07:11.500
um, the, the distances that, that across
169
00:07:11.900 --> 00:07:13.940
the, the distances that we measure between
170
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galaxies becomes less. But, but
171
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it's because the space time has shrunk
172
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basically. Uh, and so not just that
173
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the galaxies have got closer together.
174
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And that means uh, that yes, light will still
175
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continue to travel through space time at
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300,000 kilometres per second, but that
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space time has got less space in it.
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Um, and so the light just shrinks with the
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universe. It doesn't kind of escape or
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anything that many gazillions
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of photons that are currently traversing the
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universe and will continue to do that, uh, as
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long as things are shining and there's energy
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to provide that they will have shorter
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distances to go. Uh and we will find
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that the universe just gets smaller. As it
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gets smaller, the light goes with it and we
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end up with a bundle of stuff, uh, subatomic
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particles, including photons, particles of
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light, a whole lot of stuff that is going to
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hit an almighty singularity,
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uh, uh, which we might call the GNAB
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gib. Yeah, wow.
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Andrew Dunkley: Um, correct Me if I'm wrong, but didn't
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we talk in the past about a time where the
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universe will become dark and
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cold and there won't be
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any light?
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Professor Fred Watson: Well, um, that's right. If the universe
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continues expanding, then eventually
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there will be light there, but it won't be
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able to reach you because it'll be beyond
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your. Your horizon. Uh,
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so, uh, the light will still be going through
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the universe, but that light source will
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be receding from us, um,
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too fast for the light ever to get to us.
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So, yes, it becomes dark and dreary. Uh, but,
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yeah, light is still there.
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Andrew Dunkley: Uh, all right, there you go, Pete. Um,
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it will all be cataclysmic and horrible, and,
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uh, we'll all be a lot shorter.
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Professor Fred Watson: Every dimension.
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Andrew Dunkley: Indeed, yes. Although I'm starting to like
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the idea of a big rip. Because a big rip
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might open us to another universe and we
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could all escape.
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Professor Fred Watson: Well, yeah, maybe. Well, of course, you with
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the big. The gnab gib, you could get the big
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bounce. Uh, you know, it could just bounce
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back. So you've suddenly got an expanding
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universe immediately.
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Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, it's hard to get your head around. And
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I understand why Pete feels confused, because
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it really is beyond our imagination in many
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ways, isn't it?
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Professor Fred Watson: That's right.
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Andrew Dunkley: Thanks, Pete. Great question. Hope you're
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well.
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Uh, let's go to a question from Tad.
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Uh, this one's really interesting. Uh, we
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understand that due to extreme gravitational
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time dilation, from the perspective of an
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outside observer, anyone falling into a black
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hole takes an infinite amount of time to
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cross the event horizon, even if, from that
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person's perspective, they actually do in
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real time. Uh, if this is true, how
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do black holes and their event horizons even
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form in the first place, from an outsider's
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perspective? And does this mean that
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technically nothing has ever fallen into a
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black hole from our perspective here on
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Earth? I love this question. Thank you, Tad.
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Uh, he's bringing up the point
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where if you're watching someone fall into
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the. Into a black hole because of
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the. The effect, the gravitational effect on
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time space, it never happens,
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but that person
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experiences it in real time until they get
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spaghettified. So, um,
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yeah. How come we see black holes
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when this effect should
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suggest we. We should never see it happen?
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Is that. Is that what I'm. Is that what he's
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saying?
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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, yeah. How do black holes form in the
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first place?
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Andrew Dunkley: Uh.
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Professor Fred Watson: So it, uh, yes. So in that regard,
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that time dilation is a kind of optical
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illusion because the thing has crossed the
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event horizon, whatever it is. Uh, has
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contributed to the mass of the black hole.
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So, uh, the reality is, yes,
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you're, you know, if it's you, you get
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spaghettified and then you get absorbed by
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the black hole itself a gazillionth of a
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second later. Um, it's from the outside
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perspective. Uh, I've always struggled with
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this actually in trying to envisage it
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because, yeah, you imagine some poor person
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who's fallen into a black hole. Um,
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it's be like the, um, you know those,
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uh, chalk things on the road where
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somebody's got hit by a car. There'd
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be this chalk mark of somebody, uh, on the
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surface of the event horizon.
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Um, uh, but they'd
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also, uh, uh, along with that person, there'd
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be everything else that's gone into it. And
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black holes are notorious for accreting
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material. So all the stuff that's spiralling
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into it from an outsider's perspective just
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ends up looking as though it's stuck on the
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surface of the event horizon, even though
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it's actually been absorbed by the
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black hole. So it is a kind of optical
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illusion. Yes, it's very weird. It, uh, just
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means that from, you know, what it highlights
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is, uh, it's all about your
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reference frame. Uh, our reference frame is
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an, um, observer looking out, looking in from
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the outside. If you've got the reference
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frame of the person who's falling into the
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black hole, things are a lot different. We,
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uh, can watch, um, you know, from the
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sidelines and cheer people on as they fall
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through the black hole event horizon. All,
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uh, we see is them frozen on the
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event horizon. Uh, which must be a very messy
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place with all the stuff that's falling into
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it.
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Andrew Dunkley: Yeah.
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Professor Fred Watson: So, um, I, yeah,
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I, you know, it to me, that transforms what
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the event horizon might look like. It's
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probably not that nice sphere of darkness
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that we imagine, but it's got splattered with
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lots of stuff. And in fact, we know that the
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magnetism of a black hole actually plays a
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huge role in, um,
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directing material so that some of the stuff
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is actually accelerated perpendicular to the
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accretion disc, uh, backward, up, upwards
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and downwards. And that in itself is a
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process. It's very hard to get your head
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around how stuff that's swirling in towards a
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black hole suddenly gets dragged up, uh,
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and shot out the poles of the
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black hole, top and bottom. Um, so a
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lot of hard work to conjecture. I hope that
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helps Tad to envisage what's going on.
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Uh, um, because it's all about your
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perspective, basically.
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Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, yeah. Uh, so the black hole,
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uh, has happened.
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My brain had an idea and it just fell into a
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black hole. Now, um, I can't remember, but,
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uh, we. We see the black hole
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because it's already happened. Is that.
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Professor Fred Watson: Well, yeah, the black. The black hole's been
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created in. I mean, typically in the collapse
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of a. Of a star at the end of
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its life. Uh, so that's a
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straightforward gravitational collapse. The
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material of the star, uh, basically collapses
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down so that nothing will hold it out
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and it becomes this singularity, a point of
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infinite density, which is how we define it.
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Um, and that's. It's during that collapse
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that the event horizon forms. And you've got
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that. As I said, it's an optical illusion.
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That's the main point to recognise. It's an
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optical illusion as seen from the outside,
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um, that nothing reaches a black hole.
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M Mm.
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Andrew Dunkley: I'm sure we'll get some more questions on
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this one, but, uh, you've probably opened a
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can of spaghetti there, Tad.
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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, which is great because Jonty can deal
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with all of that.
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Andrew Dunkley: Yes, he can. Yeah. Yes, that's for
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sure.
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M All right, Tad. Thank you for the question.
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This is Space Nuts, a Q A edition with Andrew
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Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson Watson.
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Three, two, one.
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Space Nuts. Now, uh, our next
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question's an audio question. It comes
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from Mark.
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Mark: Hi, it's Mark in London and Canada.
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I just listened to an episode from
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March 2021 and Fred Watson mentioned the
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possible existence of an antimatter
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star and how. Obviously we wouldn't want to
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get, uh, anywhere near it,
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but I was wondering, is it. Is it possible?
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Do they exist? Uh, and how could we tell if
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we're looking at a star from Earth, can we
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tell if it's regular matter or antimatter
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or. What if the entire Andromeda Galaxy
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was antimatter, would we have a way of,
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uh, figuring that out?
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Professor Fred Watson: Thanks.
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Mark: Bye.
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Andrew Dunkley: M Uh, I would ask my Auntie
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Shirley, but she wouldn't know either. Um,
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thank you, Mark. Antimatter stars. We did. I
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remember us talking about them. Uh, we do
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know there is antimatter.
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Professor Fred Watson: There's just a hell of a lot.
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Andrew Dunkley: Less of it than actual matter, if I recall
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correctly. But if you've got, um, a molecule
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of matter and a molecule of antimatter and
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they collide, they just cease to exist.
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Is that how it goes?
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Professor Fred Watson: Yes, that's right, yeah. Um, what you get,
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um, is so if you. The
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difference between a normal matter
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particle, like, uh, an electron,
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and. And, uh, its antimatter equivalent
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is the electrical charge is the opposite.
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So the antimatter equivalent of an electron
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is a positron. Um, it's got positive
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electrical charge. Uh, and
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when two
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particles like that meet, they
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annihilate. And what you get is a
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gamma ray. You get a photon of gamma ray
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energy which has a uh,
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characteristic, a uh,
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characteristic frequency, um
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distribution. In gamma rays we call it
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energy. Uh, in light we think of it as
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wavelength, in radio waves we think it as
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frequency. Uh, but it's the same thing
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basically, uh, different, different levels of
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energy. So you get these gamma rays which
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will be emitted with a specific and
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characteristic frequency and that's the way
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that you might be able to detect
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an antimatter star.
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Andrew Dunkley: Um.
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Professor Fred Watson: I think this story actually goes back, it
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does go back to 2021. I've just found the
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article that we referred to. Stars made of
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antimatter might be lurking in the universe.
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It's from Scientific American, a very
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authoritative source. Um,
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but what they were starting the story
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with was something that happened in 2018
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when uh, one of the
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experiments on the outside of the
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International Space Station which we talked
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about in the last episode with great warmth
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and admiration. Um,
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it's one of those experiments may have
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detected uh, two
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basically uh, nuclei of anti helium. Um,
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these are anti helium particles.
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And so you mix that with normal helium
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and you get the gamma rays.
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Um, and so the question
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is where, where does
437
00:18:17.310 --> 00:18:20.030
that come from? And that was
438
00:18:20.030 --> 00:18:22.950
the um, the outcome of this, the, the
439
00:18:22.950 --> 00:18:25.830
suggestion that the easiest way to produce
440
00:18:25.830 --> 00:18:28.550
anti helium is inside anti stars.
441
00:18:29.240 --> 00:18:32.070
Um, which we don't, still
442
00:18:32.070 --> 00:18:34.670
don't know whether they exist or not. Uh, but
443
00:18:34.670 --> 00:18:37.430
really the, the point of Marx question is a
444
00:18:37.430 --> 00:18:39.980
good one. Um, I don't think we know much more
445
00:18:39.980 --> 00:18:41.640
about this uh,
446
00:18:42.700 --> 00:18:45.180
since that you know that speculation.
447
00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:48.300
Um, but what they're
448
00:18:48.460 --> 00:18:51.420
suggesting, uh, I might actually read
449
00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:54.460
uh, from that Scientific American article
450
00:18:54.699 --> 00:18:56.860
and acknowledge the source there.
451
00:18:57.500 --> 00:18:58.620
It was written by
452
00:18:59.980 --> 00:19:02.940
Leto Supuna who's the author
453
00:19:02.940 --> 00:19:05.820
of that. Um, and I think it
454
00:19:06.060 --> 00:19:08.860
sort of puts it a lot better than I can.
455
00:19:09.100 --> 00:19:12.060
Antistars would shine much as normal ones do,
456
00:19:12.060 --> 00:19:14.540
producing light of the same wavelengths, but
457
00:19:14.540 --> 00:19:16.860
they would exist in a matter dominated
458
00:19:16.860 --> 00:19:19.500
universe. And so as particles and
459
00:19:19.500 --> 00:19:22.380
gases made of regular matter fell into
460
00:19:22.380 --> 00:19:24.860
an antistar's gravitational pull and made
461
00:19:24.860 --> 00:19:27.180
contact with its antimatter, the resulting
462
00:19:27.180 --> 00:19:29.300
annihilations would produce a flash of high
463
00:19:29.300 --> 00:19:30.900
energy light. That's the gamma rays I
464
00:19:30.900 --> 00:19:33.790
mentioned. We can see this light as a, There
465
00:19:33.790 --> 00:19:35.670
you go. We can see this light as a specific
466
00:19:35.670 --> 00:19:38.630
colour of gamma rays. Um, and
467
00:19:38.630 --> 00:19:40.270
so one of the teams that they're Talking
468
00:19:40.270 --> 00:19:42.840
about took 10 years of data, uh,
469
00:19:43.190 --> 00:19:45.750
which amounted to roughly 6,000 light
470
00:19:45.750 --> 00:19:47.510
emitting objects. They paired the list down
471
00:19:47.510 --> 00:19:49.670
to sources that shone with the right gamma
472
00:19:49.670 --> 00:19:51.710
ray frequency and that were not ascribed to
473
00:19:51.710 --> 00:19:53.910
previously catalogued astronomical objects.
474
00:19:54.510 --> 00:19:57.350
Um, so this left us with
475
00:19:57.350 --> 00:20:00.230
14 candidates. This is one of the authors,
476
00:20:00.350 --> 00:20:02.510
uh, talking, which in my opinion and my co
477
00:20:02.510 --> 00:20:04.770
author's opinion, two are, uh, not antistars.
478
00:20:05.550 --> 00:20:08.410
Um, yeah, but they say
479
00:20:08.410 --> 00:20:11.170
if all those sources were such stars, that
480
00:20:11.170 --> 00:20:13.090
means one anti star would exist for every
481
00:20:13.090 --> 00:20:15.530
400,000 ordinary ones in our stellar neck of
482
00:20:15.530 --> 00:20:18.490
the woods. So we're still
483
00:20:18.490 --> 00:20:20.610
struggling to get our heads around this and
484
00:20:20.610 --> 00:20:23.330
I'm not sure whether any more of uh,
485
00:20:23.330 --> 00:20:26.290
these characteristic gamma ray flashes,
486
00:20:27.050 --> 00:20:29.970
uh, have been observed or what the latest
487
00:20:30.050 --> 00:20:32.410
is on this topic. But it is a very
488
00:20:32.410 --> 00:20:34.260
interesting one, I think. Um, thank you,
489
00:20:34.410 --> 00:20:35.970
Mark, for raising it again because it's one
490
00:20:35.970 --> 00:20:37.450
we should perhaps look at in a bit more
491
00:20:37.450 --> 00:20:40.010
detail. Might try and dig out some
492
00:20:40.010 --> 00:20:42.970
stories for when I return to space nuts on
493
00:20:42.970 --> 00:20:45.890
um, antistars and see what we've got
494
00:20:45.890 --> 00:20:46.610
in that. Uh.
495
00:20:47.130 --> 00:20:48.890
Andrew Dunkley: Do you think they could exist for him?
496
00:20:49.290 --> 00:20:51.930
Professor Fred Watson: I do think they could exist, yeah. Um, I mean
497
00:20:52.250 --> 00:20:53.970
it's one of the big puzzles of the universe
498
00:20:53.970 --> 00:20:56.690
as to why there's so much matter and so
499
00:20:56.690 --> 00:20:59.610
little antimatter. When our best theories of
500
00:20:59.610 --> 00:21:01.370
the origin of the universe suggest that
501
00:21:01.560 --> 00:21:04.520
antimatter and matter were created in equal,
502
00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:07.400
you know, in equal proportions. So
503
00:21:07.570 --> 00:21:10.160
uh, it's, it's one of these, it is, it's one
504
00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:12.640
of these issues that um, is, keeps on
505
00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:15.600
bubbling up and uh, you know, challenging
506
00:21:15.600 --> 00:21:16.440
our understanding.
507
00:21:16.680 --> 00:21:19.680
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, uh, well, I'm probably dredging up
508
00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:21.280
the same joke I used four and a half years
509
00:21:21.280 --> 00:21:23.160
ago, but there's a lot of, there's a lot of
510
00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:25.720
doesn't matter in astronomy as well.
511
00:21:27.890 --> 00:21:30.610
Professor Fred Watson: See, I can hear Jordy. You got a lot of Jordy
512
00:21:30.610 --> 00:21:31.170
there. Yeah.
513
00:21:32.970 --> 00:21:35.970
Andrew Dunkley: Um, but yeah, antimatter stars are
514
00:21:35.970 --> 00:21:38.450
right up there with white holes. Uh, we've
515
00:21:38.450 --> 00:21:41.010
never seen one. But there's, you know,
516
00:21:41.010 --> 00:21:43.930
there's certain elements of
517
00:21:43.930 --> 00:21:45.890
science that think these things exist.
518
00:21:46.610 --> 00:21:49.330
Um, but we've just never found the,
519
00:21:50.050 --> 00:21:52.050
the direct evidence or proof, have we?
520
00:21:52.530 --> 00:21:54.690
Professor Fred Watson: No, that's. Excuse me. That's correct.
521
00:21:54.910 --> 00:21:57.460
Um, just along those lines, there's
522
00:21:58.100 --> 00:22:00.940
something, um, that cropped, um, up about a
523
00:22:00.940 --> 00:22:03.340
week ago or two weeks ago. Um, it's a
524
00:22:03.340 --> 00:22:06.100
gravitational wave event which I think
525
00:22:06.100 --> 00:22:08.820
dates back to 2019. And you know,
526
00:22:08.900 --> 00:22:11.840
gravitational waves measured by LIGO and uh,
527
00:22:12.180 --> 00:22:14.980
Kagra and Virgo, the three big gravitational
528
00:22:14.980 --> 00:22:17.970
wave detectors in the world. They um,
529
00:22:18.970 --> 00:22:21.500
uh, this particular, most Most gravitational
530
00:22:21.500 --> 00:22:23.180
waves come from, uh, either neutron stars
531
00:22:23.180 --> 00:22:24.860
colliding or neutron stars colliding with
532
00:22:24.860 --> 00:22:27.100
black holes or black holes colliding. And
533
00:22:27.100 --> 00:22:28.880
they always have characteristic signature.
534
00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:31.200
They spiral together and then when they come
535
00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:32.720
together at the end they produce this
536
00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:35.280
characteristic chirp, um,
537
00:22:35.840 --> 00:22:37.570
which is when they merge. Um,
538
00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:41.280
and, uh, that usually lasts a few seconds
539
00:22:41.520 --> 00:22:44.440
that, um, run up to the chirp. Uh, but
540
00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:47.400
this one in 2019 only lasted, I think
541
00:22:47.400 --> 00:22:50.160
it was a tenth of a second. Uh, and
542
00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:54.780
one interpretation of that is that,
543
00:22:55.260 --> 00:22:58.060
uh, it was two very massive
544
00:22:58.060 --> 00:22:59.540
black holes. I think. I think that's the way
545
00:22:59.540 --> 00:23:01.220
around. It goes. Could be the other way
546
00:23:01.220 --> 00:23:04.060
around. Anyway, a,
547
00:23:04.220 --> 00:23:06.460
um, recent paper from China, and I think this
548
00:23:06.460 --> 00:23:09.300
was two weeks ago, proposed that you could
549
00:23:09.300 --> 00:23:12.100
get nearly the same modelling, which,
550
00:23:12.100 --> 00:23:14.260
because they model these gravitational wave
551
00:23:14.260 --> 00:23:17.260
phenomena if, uh, it turned out
552
00:23:17.260 --> 00:23:18.740
that what you were looking at was not
553
00:23:18.740 --> 00:23:21.260
colliding black holes but a collapsing
554
00:23:21.260 --> 00:23:24.100
wormhole. Um, and that's
555
00:23:24.100 --> 00:23:26.300
the first evidence that I think anybody has
556
00:23:26.300 --> 00:23:28.940
put forward for the existence of wormholes.
557
00:23:28.940 --> 00:23:31.820
But it's still very conjectural because,
558
00:23:32.340 --> 00:23:34.900
um, the likelihood, you know, the model of
559
00:23:34.900 --> 00:23:36.980
just two black holes colliding actually fits
560
00:23:36.980 --> 00:23:39.420
the data slightly better than the model of
561
00:23:39.420 --> 00:23:41.740
the collapsing wormhole. But people are still
562
00:23:41.740 --> 00:23:43.420
looking at these things as they are for white
563
00:23:43.420 --> 00:23:45.860
holes and, um, I hope also for
564
00:23:45.860 --> 00:23:46.940
antimotor stars.
565
00:23:47.490 --> 00:23:50.490
Andrew Dunkley: Yes. Yeah. Well, um, I suppose
566
00:23:50.490 --> 00:23:53.210
there's so much to consider in the
567
00:23:53.210 --> 00:23:56.050
universe that some things just don't get the
568
00:23:56.050 --> 00:23:58.170
amount of time and attention they probably
569
00:23:58.170 --> 00:24:01.170
deserve. But the workforce
570
00:24:01.170 --> 00:24:03.369
is spread so thin in astronomy and space
571
00:24:03.369 --> 00:24:05.330
science, I would imagine so,
572
00:24:06.220 --> 00:24:08.930
um. Yeah, it's hard to deal with everything.
573
00:24:09.170 --> 00:24:11.010
Professor Fred Watson: With everything. That's right. There's
574
00:24:11.010 --> 00:24:13.130
certainly enough questions to keep us busy
575
00:24:13.130 --> 00:24:15.210
for a long time. The world of astronomy.
576
00:24:15.370 --> 00:24:16.170
Absolutely.
577
00:24:16.170 --> 00:24:19.050
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. All right, Mark, thank you. Hope
578
00:24:19.050 --> 00:24:20.490
all is well in Canada.
579
00:24:23.290 --> 00:24:24.690
Roger, you're live right here.
580
00:24:24.690 --> 00:24:26.170
Professor Fred Watson: Also, space nuts.
581
00:24:26.490 --> 00:24:29.460
Andrew Dunkley: Our final question comes from Dave. And, uh,
582
00:24:29.460 --> 00:24:32.450
Dave is from Inverel in Northern, uh, New
583
00:24:32.450 --> 00:24:34.970
South Wales, Australia. As someone who is
584
00:24:34.970 --> 00:24:37.010
lucky enough to enjoy fairly low light
585
00:24:37.010 --> 00:24:39.690
pollution where I live, I like to
586
00:24:39.770 --> 00:24:42.290
attempt some nighttime photography now and
587
00:24:42.290 --> 00:24:45.000
then. Lately I've been using the nightcap
588
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:47.440
app on my phone. I've got that one as well.
589
00:24:47.920 --> 00:24:50.640
Uh, with, uh, the meteor setting, he says
590
00:24:50.640 --> 00:24:53.120
to try and capture some meteor photos.
591
00:24:53.680 --> 00:24:55.520
Uh, I find the best time to see a great
592
00:24:55.520 --> 00:24:58.200
falling star is just as I'm getting the phone
593
00:24:58.200 --> 00:25:00.160
set up, ready to start shooting.
594
00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:04.000
Just wondering if you have any advice for
595
00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:06.640
when to try and capture a meteor on camera.
596
00:25:07.760 --> 00:25:09.840
Example, uh, time of night, direction, et
597
00:25:09.840 --> 00:25:12.480
cetera. Or should I just uh, wait until a
598
00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:15.340
good meteor shower turns up. Uh, and how many
599
00:25:15.340 --> 00:25:18.340
meteors would we expect to see collide in
600
00:25:18.340 --> 00:25:20.860
our atmos, uh, collide with our atmosphere on
601
00:25:20.860 --> 00:25:23.700
any given night. Um, also,
602
00:25:23.900 --> 00:25:25.580
uh, great to hear you back Andrew and
603
00:25:25.580 --> 00:25:28.440
hearing. Enjoy, uh, hearing your travels. Uh,
604
00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:31.380
when you talk of Iceland, it makes me very
605
00:25:31.380 --> 00:25:32.100
keen to return.
606
00:25:32.180 --> 00:25:34.820
Can I ask which company you cruised with?
607
00:25:34.820 --> 00:25:37.060
Dave from Inverel. Yes, you can.
608
00:25:38.720 --> 00:25:41.650
Uh, the uh, the answer, uh, is Princess.
609
00:25:41.650 --> 00:25:44.650
It was Princess Cruises. Uh, we made the
610
00:25:44.650 --> 00:25:47.490
news early in the cruise when we got smashed
611
00:25:47.490 --> 00:25:50.210
just um, southwest corner of Australia by
612
00:25:50.290 --> 00:25:52.330
a squall that knocked the ship over, not
613
00:25:52.330 --> 00:25:55.290
completely 7 degree list which
614
00:25:55.290 --> 00:25:57.690
we took three hours to straighten up. I had
615
00:25:57.690 --> 00:25:59.330
to go up to the bridge and help the captain
616
00:25:59.570 --> 00:26:02.250
by, you know, using my weight to stand at
617
00:26:02.250 --> 00:26:04.740
the. No, I didn't. Uh, but uh, it was um,
618
00:26:05.330 --> 00:26:07.570
pretty hair, uh, raising for a while there.
619
00:26:07.730 --> 00:26:09.170
We uh, made the news all over Australia
620
00:26:09.250 --> 00:26:11.370
apparently. But um, yeah, it was the Princess
621
00:26:11.370 --> 00:26:14.150
Cruise Line. Um, and we've been with them
622
00:26:14.150 --> 00:26:16.450
many times on other cruises and they're uh.
623
00:26:16.510 --> 00:26:19.110
I, I really enjoy them. Um, they
624
00:26:19.110 --> 00:26:21.910
probably uh, it's debatable but I
625
00:26:21.910 --> 00:26:24.030
think food wise they're probably the best.
626
00:26:24.510 --> 00:26:27.350
But yes, um, now, and you
627
00:26:27.350 --> 00:26:29.510
mentioned the. Sorry, go on. Br.
628
00:26:29.510 --> 00:26:31.230
Professor Fred Watson: I was just going to say if you want to avoid
629
00:26:31.340 --> 00:26:33.590
uh, the rigours of sea travel, you could come
630
00:26:33.590 --> 00:26:36.030
with Dark Sky Traveller. We go up to Iceland
631
00:26:36.030 --> 00:26:37.910
pretty regularly too. Yes, well, there's a
632
00:26:37.910 --> 00:26:38.190
thought.
633
00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:38.800
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah.
634
00:26:39.040 --> 00:26:39.520
Professor Fred Watson: Yeah.
635
00:26:39.520 --> 00:26:42.240
Andrew Dunkley: So the downside of cruising is it's slow.
636
00:26:42.560 --> 00:26:44.600
Yeah, I mean it's very relaxing. But if you
637
00:26:44.600 --> 00:26:47.040
do want to get somewhere in a hurry, it's
638
00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:49.470
probably not the way to do it. Um,
639
00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:53.440
and uh, Dave also mentioned the nightcap app.
640
00:26:53.620 --> 00:26:55.920
Uh, I do have that one on my phone. I haven't
641
00:26:55.920 --> 00:26:58.080
had an opportunity to really use it because
642
00:26:58.640 --> 00:27:01.480
it's um, there's too much light around
643
00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:01.840
here.
644
00:27:02.600 --> 00:27:04.600
Professor Fred Watson: Uh, what does it do, Andrew? What's the,
645
00:27:04.600 --> 00:27:06.450
what's the purpose of the nightcap?
646
00:27:06.770 --> 00:27:09.130
Andrew Dunkley: I haven't got my phone with me but uh, you
647
00:27:09.130 --> 00:27:10.530
can preset it to
648
00:27:11.570 --> 00:27:13.090
photograph in low light
649
00:27:14.690 --> 00:27:17.530
and, and you can either put it in manual
650
00:27:17.530 --> 00:27:19.890
mode or you can have this series of presets
651
00:27:19.890 --> 00:27:22.210
where you can, if you know what you want to
652
00:27:22.210 --> 00:27:24.610
photograph, it will set up the phone
653
00:27:25.250 --> 00:27:27.770
to create the exact situation you need to
654
00:27:27.770 --> 00:27:29.850
take that particular photograph. Yeah, yeah,
655
00:27:29.850 --> 00:27:32.210
it's really, it's really good software. Um,
656
00:27:32.470 --> 00:27:35.390
but I haven't really had a chance to use
657
00:27:35.390 --> 00:27:38.070
it properly. But it can do time lapse and all
658
00:27:38.070 --> 00:27:40.710
sorts of things. It's really good gear.
659
00:27:41.480 --> 00:27:44.390
Uh, so yeah, when and where
660
00:27:44.390 --> 00:27:47.270
and how to take low light
661
00:27:47.750 --> 00:27:49.750
photographs, Fred Watson, of meteors.
662
00:27:49.990 --> 00:27:52.630
Professor Fred Watson: That was meteors crucial thing. Yeah. From
663
00:27:52.950 --> 00:27:55.830
Dave's question. And yeah, so Dave up
664
00:27:55.830 --> 00:27:58.610
in Verrel will have pretty easy
665
00:27:58.610 --> 00:27:59.850
access to dark skies.
666
00:28:00.100 --> 00:28:01.850
Andrew Dunkley: Uh, yeah, that's, you know why? You know why?
667
00:28:01.850 --> 00:28:04.130
Because they're not putting the electricity
668
00:28:04.130 --> 00:28:06.090
on up there for another 10 years.
669
00:28:06.970 --> 00:28:08.090
Professor Fred Watson: Okay. Uh, sorry.
670
00:28:08.410 --> 00:28:11.050
Andrew Dunkley: Everyone asks, in the 30
671
00:28:11.130 --> 00:28:12.850
odd years I've lived here people have often
672
00:28:12.850 --> 00:28:14.570
asked do you have electricity where you are?
673
00:28:15.100 --> 00:28:17.450
Um, so I couldn't help that joke.
674
00:28:17.530 --> 00:28:20.330
Professor Fred Watson: No. Well you do. We did in Kun Durban as well
675
00:28:20.330 --> 00:28:22.650
but we were at the end of the line and uh, so
676
00:28:22.650 --> 00:28:24.490
if ever there was a thunderstorm we usually
677
00:28:24.490 --> 00:28:26.090
left our electricity, they were gone.
678
00:28:26.270 --> 00:28:28.550
Andrew Dunkley: Ah yeah, we had that problem the first 15
679
00:28:28.550 --> 00:28:29.550
years we lived here.
680
00:28:31.390 --> 00:28:33.590
Professor Fred Watson: Um, but they do have electricity in Varel and
681
00:28:33.590 --> 00:28:35.910
they also have dark skies. Relatively easily
682
00:28:35.910 --> 00:28:38.830
accessible by just driving up a few
683
00:28:38.910 --> 00:28:41.030
few kilometres further up the highway one way
684
00:28:41.030 --> 00:28:41.550
or the other.
685
00:28:42.130 --> 00:28:44.820
Um, so, so meteors. Um,
686
00:28:45.070 --> 00:28:46.950
yeah. Dave's question, how many meteors are
687
00:28:46.950 --> 00:28:49.870
coming in? Uh, quite a large number. We think
688
00:28:49.870 --> 00:28:52.750
it's something like 100 tonnes, 50 to 100
689
00:28:52.750 --> 00:28:55.670
tonnes a day meteoritic material hits the
690
00:28:55.670 --> 00:28:58.270
atmosphere that's worldwide. Uh, but that
691
00:28:58.270 --> 00:29:00.430
means there are billions of meteors streaking
692
00:29:00.430 --> 00:29:01.790
through the atmosphere because most of them
693
00:29:01.790 --> 00:29:04.670
are specks of dust. Um, and they
694
00:29:04.670 --> 00:29:07.070
can, yeah, sporadic meteors as they're
695
00:29:07.070 --> 00:29:08.870
called, they can whiz through the earth's
696
00:29:08.870 --> 00:29:11.110
atmosphere at any time. People talking about
697
00:29:11.190 --> 00:29:13.950
this stargazing I was doing at uh, Sea
698
00:29:13.950 --> 00:29:16.810
Lake uh in rural Victoria last week, um,
699
00:29:17.190 --> 00:29:19.470
quite a few people were spotting meteors as
700
00:29:19.470 --> 00:29:21.110
they flashed through the sky. I was looking
701
00:29:21.110 --> 00:29:23.790
at screens so I missed a, most of them. Um,
702
00:29:24.180 --> 00:29:27.060
but uh, probably the
703
00:29:27.140 --> 00:29:29.540
time to uh,
704
00:29:30.740 --> 00:29:33.580
really concentrate on uh, if you serious and
705
00:29:33.580 --> 00:29:35.580
I think you kind of need an all sky lens
706
00:29:35.580 --> 00:29:38.460
effectively for good meteor photography. Um,
707
00:29:39.110 --> 00:29:42.100
um, uh, the new generation of
708
00:29:42.660 --> 00:29:45.620
phones do have very wide angle lenses
709
00:29:46.180 --> 00:29:48.220
but they're not fisheye in the sense that you
710
00:29:48.220 --> 00:29:50.860
can see the whole sky. Uh, but they're wide
711
00:29:50.860 --> 00:29:53.580
enough probably to use the
712
00:29:53.580 --> 00:29:55.980
snag with them is that they've got a low
713
00:29:56.710 --> 00:29:59.340
uh, uh aperture. So a
714
00:29:59.660 --> 00:30:02.460
high focal ratio, uh, you know
715
00:30:02.540 --> 00:30:05.460
the ratio of the focal length to aperture and
716
00:30:05.460 --> 00:30:07.539
what you need is a low focal ratio to give
717
00:30:07.539 --> 00:30:09.620
you fast imaging, it's what we call a fast
718
00:30:09.620 --> 00:30:12.020
lens. Whereas these wide angle ones tend not
719
00:30:12.020 --> 00:30:15.020
to have that. Uh, and so you're tossing up
720
00:30:15.020 --> 00:30:17.820
you know, the relative merits of a very
721
00:30:17.820 --> 00:30:19.660
wide angle view or
722
00:30:20.820 --> 00:30:23.220
likely to capture more meteors or a narrow
723
00:30:23.220 --> 00:30:25.300
angle of view. But greater sensitivity, so
724
00:30:25.300 --> 00:30:27.450
you'll see fainter meteors. So, um,
725
00:30:28.020 --> 00:30:29.780
that's, you know, taking all that into
726
00:30:29.780 --> 00:30:32.260
consideration. I, um, haven't tried meteor
727
00:30:32.260 --> 00:30:33.980
photography with my phone. I've done a lot of
728
00:30:33.980 --> 00:30:36.219
aurora borealis photography with it and that
729
00:30:36.219 --> 00:30:38.260
works really well because they're sensitive.
730
00:30:38.420 --> 00:30:40.500
But it will be an interesting thing to try.
731
00:30:40.890 --> 00:30:43.500
Uh, it's the fact that you need the shutter
732
00:30:43.500 --> 00:30:45.020
open for a long time. But I guess what you
733
00:30:45.020 --> 00:30:47.890
can do is just keep on taking short
734
00:30:47.890 --> 00:30:50.890
snapshots. Um, the point I was going to
735
00:30:50.890 --> 00:30:53.720
get to is when you think about the Earth, uh,
736
00:30:54.010 --> 00:30:56.010
in its orbit around the sun,
737
00:30:56.730 --> 00:30:59.490
uh, the forward facing side of the orbit
738
00:30:59.490 --> 00:31:01.450
is where you are after midnight.
739
00:31:02.250 --> 00:31:05.130
So after midnight means that you're
740
00:31:05.130 --> 00:31:07.970
on the leading edge of the Earth and that's
741
00:31:07.970 --> 00:31:09.770
where you're going to get the most meteors.
742
00:31:09.850 --> 00:31:12.690
Basically, uh, as the Earth, uh, ploughs
743
00:31:12.690 --> 00:31:14.700
through the various clouds of dust, you've
744
00:31:14.700 --> 00:31:17.260
got meteor showers which come from big clouds
745
00:31:17.260 --> 00:31:19.820
of dust that the Earth goes through. But
746
00:31:19.820 --> 00:31:22.420
these things are always best seen in the
747
00:31:22.420 --> 00:31:24.820
early morning, um, when you're on the side
748
00:31:24.820 --> 00:31:27.340
after midnight. So that's the best advice I
749
00:31:27.340 --> 00:31:28.860
can give. I'd be interested to hear how you
750
00:31:28.860 --> 00:31:31.220
get on Dave and, uh, what sort of results you
751
00:31:31.220 --> 00:31:31.740
might get.
752
00:31:31.900 --> 00:31:34.060
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, yeah. And if you do get a couple of
753
00:31:34.060 --> 00:31:35.780
good ones, send them in and we'll, we'll, um,
754
00:31:36.100 --> 00:31:38.260
post them on our Facebook page or you can
755
00:31:38.260 --> 00:31:39.860
post them yourself on the Facebook group,
756
00:31:39.860 --> 00:31:41.940
whatever you like. Um, love to see what you
757
00:31:41.940 --> 00:31:44.300
come up with. We do get, um, some great
758
00:31:44.620 --> 00:31:46.770
astronauts of photography from space, uh,
759
00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:48.720
arts listeners on the Facebook group
760
00:31:48.720 --> 00:31:51.320
sometimes. So, yeah, um, more than happy to,
761
00:31:52.170 --> 00:31:54.920
uh, have you, uh, post them
762
00:31:55.160 --> 00:31:57.920
on that page, Dave, and
763
00:31:57.920 --> 00:31:59.930
hopefully that will help. But, uh, yeah, uh,
764
00:31:59.930 --> 00:32:01.640
the idea of having to get up and do it at the
765
00:32:01.640 --> 00:32:03.550
middle of night, not, not appealing. But, uh,
766
00:32:03.800 --> 00:32:05.400
that's life in astronomy, isn't it,
767
00:32:05.400 --> 00:32:05.800
Fred Watson?
768
00:32:06.040 --> 00:32:07.080
Professor Fred Watson: Tis a bit, yeah.
769
00:32:08.280 --> 00:32:11.000
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. All right, Dave, thanks very much for
770
00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:12.400
your question. Don't forget, if you've got a
771
00:32:12.400 --> 00:32:14.960
question, send it in to us because we'd love
772
00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:17.720
to try, uh, and answer it. No guarantees, of
773
00:32:17.720 --> 00:32:19.960
course, uh, but you go to our website,
774
00:32:19.960 --> 00:32:22.880
spacenutspodcast.com spacenuts
775
00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:25.770
IO Click on the AMA tab and you can send, uh,
776
00:32:26.150 --> 00:32:28.760
uh, questions there, audio or text. Just
777
00:32:28.760 --> 00:32:30.520
remember to tell us who you are and where
778
00:32:30.520 --> 00:32:33.360
you're from and we'll do the rest. Or
779
00:32:33.360 --> 00:32:36.120
Huw in the studio will, if he ever turns up
780
00:32:36.120 --> 00:32:38.720
again. He didn't turn up today.
781
00:32:39.360 --> 00:32:41.760
I don't know what he was doing. Probably
782
00:32:41.760 --> 00:32:43.880
trying astrophotography in the middle of the
783
00:32:43.880 --> 00:32:46.510
day. Just never listens to us.
784
00:32:46.750 --> 00:32:49.150
That's his problem. Uh, Fred Watson, thank
785
00:32:49.150 --> 00:32:52.110
you as always and, uh, bon voyage.
786
00:32:52.110 --> 00:32:54.990
Have a safe journey. Uh, enjoy your time in,
787
00:32:54.990 --> 00:32:57.950
in Japan and Ireland and the, uh, UK
788
00:32:58.190 --> 00:33:00.670
and uh. Yeah, and, and look forward to
789
00:33:00.670 --> 00:33:02.350
hearing about your travels when you get back.
790
00:33:02.830 --> 00:33:05.830
And we will welcome, uh, Jonty Horner from
791
00:33:05.830 --> 00:33:08.320
the University of Southern Queensland, uh,
792
00:33:08.510 --> 00:33:11.360
with, um, Space Nuts for the
793
00:33:11.360 --> 00:33:13.320
foreseeable future. So take care,
794
00:33:13.320 --> 00:33:14.600
Fred Watson, and thank you.
795
00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:17.240
Professor Fred Watson: Thank you, Andrew. Uh, I'll miss you all,
796
00:33:17.240 --> 00:33:19.750
but, um, I'll be glad to come back and, uh,
797
00:33:19.750 --> 00:33:21.720
talk to you sometime before Christmas.
798
00:33:21.880 --> 00:33:23.950
Andrew Dunkley: Okay, catch you then, professor, uh,
799
00:33:23.950 --> 00:33:25.680
Fred Watson Watson, astronomer at large, and
800
00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:27.400
from me, Andrew Dunkley. Thanks again for
801
00:33:27.400 --> 00:33:29.240
your company. We'll see you on the very next
802
00:33:29.240 --> 00:33:31.960
episode of Space Nuts. Until then, bye
803
00:33:31.960 --> 00:33:32.280
bye.
804
00:33:33.400 --> 00:33:35.600
Voice Over Guy: You've been listening to the Space Nuts
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00:33:35.600 --> 00:33:38.220
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