Cosmic Fireballs and Astronaut Legends
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Celestial Encounters: Fireballs, Astronauts, and Black Holes
In this captivating episode of Space Nuts, hosts Heidi Campo and Professor Fred Watson embark on a journey through the cosmos, sharing thrilling stories and discoveries that will ignite your curiosity. From witnessing a stunning fireball to celebrating the legacy of astronaut Jim Lovell, this episode is packed with cosmic insights and reflections on the universe's wonders.
Episode Highlights:
- A Meteor Experience: Fred recounts his recent sighting of a bright green fireball while driving to Canberra, discussing its atmospheric origins and the excitement it generated in the media. Heidi shares her own memories of witnessing meteors, sparking a conversation about the sounds and colors associated with these celestial events.
- Remembering Jim Lovell: The hosts pay tribute to astronaut Jim Lovell, known for his pivotal role in the Apollo 13 mission. They reflect on his calm demeanor under pressure and the impact he had on space exploration, drawing lessons from his life that resonate beyond the stars.
- The Cosmic Horseshoe and a Record-Breaking Black Hole: Fred introduces a recent discovery of a black hole estimated to be 36 billion times the mass of the sun, found within the cosmic horseshoe. The discussion delves into gravitational lensing and how this phenomenon allows astronomers to glean insights into distant galaxies.
- Unsticking Mars Rovers: The episode wraps up with an exploration of NASA's rovers and the challenges they face on the Martian surface. Fred shares how recent research has improved our understanding of why rovers get stuck and how engineers can adapt their techniques to navigate the sandy terrain more effectively.
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 Music, Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok. We love engaging with our community, so be sure to drop us a message or comment on your favorite platform.
If you’d like to help support Space Nuts and join our growing family of insiders for commercial-free episodes and more, visit spacenutspodcast.com/about
Stay curious, keep looking up, and join us next time for more stellar insights and cosmic wonders. Until then, clear skies and happy stargazing.
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Heidi Campo: Welcome back to another fun and
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exciting episode of space nuts.
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Generic: 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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Heidi Campo: On your host for this episode, Heidi Campo. And joining
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us today is Professor Fred Watson,
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astronomer at large for. Fred, how are you
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doing today? You've been quite busy.
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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, I've been traveling a little bit. Just uh, down
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to the nation's capital, the city of Canberra, which
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is uh, about three and a half hour drive
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from here on a road that's really pretty good because
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it's sort of dual carriageway all the way, so you
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don't have to worry about not being able to
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pass heavy trucks and things. Um, but it had
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a. The drive down on Sunday evening, uh,
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had a little bit of astronomical interest
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because, uh, as I was
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getting the Acambra, which is down to the south of us,
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um, and approaching the state of Victoria, which is
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still quite a long way away. But never mind, that's where I was approaching.
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Um, I saw a fireball, uh,
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uh, a, uh, bright meteor, very bright
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meteor. Uh, it was, uh, right in my field of
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vision. Uh, so the car must have been pointing kind of
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southwest. Uh, this thing was probably
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15, 20 degrees above the horizon.
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Uh, came in, uh, very bright
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green fireball, green coming
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from partly the atmospheric oxygen, partly from
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the iron in the object. Uh, and
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sort of, I guess it lasted for maybe
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0.9 of a second, something like that,
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uh, and then at the end just disappeared in an orange dot. But,
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uh, the next morning the media were full of this,
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uh, meteor that had been seen in Victoria,
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the state of Victoria, which was probably a good
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300km from where I was. Um, and
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uh, some people said they heard the sonic boom that
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went with it. So there's a big media blitz.
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Yesterday I got a, um, call from
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one of the radio stations to talk about it
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yesterday afternoon actually on the drive back. So,
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yeah, a really exciting thing. Um,
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I've seen, ah, being an astronomer and used to
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work at night, I've seen a lot of those,
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um, well, by a lot, maybe a
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dozen throughout my working life where you see something
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bright enough to light up the landscape. Uh, but
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it's quite a long time since I've seen one. So it was good
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to reconnect with the world of, uh, immediate, uh,
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astronomy where the Earth is plowing up bits of
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dust and debris through the atmosphere.
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Heidi Campo: Well, it really. And when you do see them, it's such an
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amazing experience. I remember I'VE seen a few
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of them in my lifetime. I think just three. But the
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one really brilliant one that I remember,
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um, I want to ask you if my memory has
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inserted this sound into it or if this is possible.
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But it was so bright and it was sparkling, like, like
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magical. Like some animator had put sparkles in the
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sky.
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Professor Fred Watson: Okay.
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Heidi Campo: And it's just sparkling and glitzing across the sky.
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And I can swear in my memory I hear
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like, almost like the firecracker sound or like the sound like a
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sparkler makes as it's going across the sky.
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But I'm like, man, is my memory just inserting that sound
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because that's what it looks like, or did it really make that sound?
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Professor Fred Watson: Um, so the. The issue with these
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things, if that was a meteor and it sounds though it was,
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um, um. And a fireball is a bright meteor,
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there is a definition. I can't remember what it is as to how bright
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it. It has to become to be called a fireball.
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Well, did you see any color in it? In the. In the
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crackles? Could you see any colors or.
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Sorry. In the. I remember pops.
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Heidi Campo: The biggest. The biggest memory I have is the pops of
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color.
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Professor Fred Watson: Like just.
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Heidi Campo: Just like a sparkler.
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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. Um, the thing
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is that, um, where they hit the atmosphere, it's about
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90 kilometers, 60 miles up,
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uh, in the air. And so
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it's too far away to
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technically to hear, um, the
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sound it makes as it's just as it's
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exploding. But, um, the fact that it is
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moving so fast through the atmosphere means that you
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sometimes do get a sonic boom, uh, which
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is the bang. Uh, and it's a single bang rather than
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set of pops. Uh, but that can be
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up to, um. It can be up to 90
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seconds after you've seen the visual thing
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because it takes that long for the sound wave to propagate
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down through the atmosphere from that height. Um,
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so, um, it may well be that you were, uh, hearing
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something else or it was perhaps, um,
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inserted by your brain as you suggested. Usually,
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uh, the sonic boom will be after any noise,
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will be after the event.
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Heidi Campo: Well, that's good education. It's good to
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always have you as our reference to ask us.
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And speaking of bright stars in
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the sky, we lost a big one.
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And that's our first story today. Jim Lovell.
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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, A veteran
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astronaut, Uh, a
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name that, for me, you know,
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in the early years of the space age, following
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every move with, uh,
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intense scrutin. Uh, it's a name that's very familiar.
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Jim Lovell. Uh, the commander, uh, of
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not um, sure whether he was the commander, um, he
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was commander of Apollo 13, but
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his earlier mission was Apollo 8. Uh,
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he was on the classic Apollo 8 mission which we talked about a
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couple of episodes ago, uh with the
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earthrise crater. Apollo 8, 1968.
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Um, so uh, he um, was as
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I said, the commander of Apollo 13.
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Uh, I think it was his voice that um,
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uttered those immortal words.
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Houston, we have a problem. When the fuel
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cell exploded in the service module of Apollo 13.
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So very, very famous uh figure,
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his um, supreme ability
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to cope with disaster uh, I
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think was a big contributor into
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the success of Apollo 13. The fact that um,
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the mission, whilst they didn't touched down
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on the moon. I think everybody knows the story. The fuel cell
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exploded on the way out to the moon. They just did a
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translunar orbit, came back,
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uh, and um, essentially
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um, uh did a direct re entry
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uh of the command module and
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landed safely and were picked up. An
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extraordinary story. Uh, the movie is well worth
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watching. Apollo 13, it's pretty accurate. Uh,
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fairly close to the truth. But yeah, I think a lot of the success
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of that was just the cool head of this
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astonish astronaut, uh, who
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um, I think um, retired from the astronaut
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corps not that long afterwards and
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went into business I think. Um, so
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a very very well known name at the time and
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basically uh, somebody who we've
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now lost a link with those
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early years of the space uh,
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adventures, human spaceflight. He was 97
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when he died. A week or so ago.
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Heidi Campo: Yeah. And you know, and I, I, I think, you know, I don't, I,
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I don't really know what his, his lifestyle or health was like.
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But I do know that those personality types, those
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people who are able to stay calm under
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pressure and manage their stress, it really does
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wonders for your health. And the fact that he made it to 97 I think
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is a little bit of a testament to that. So.
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Professor Fred Watson: That's, that's right.
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Heidi Campo: So these are people that we need to remember. They're not just role models
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in space, but they're role models for like how
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to, how to kind of live our life and conduct ourselves
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here on Earth. I think it's a uh, little bit
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cheesy, but it's like, you know, you think of astronauts is just kind of like
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these larger than life superstars in so many ways. And
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it's like they are the, they are the ones who,
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they have to operate well under pressure. And that's a good
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reminder of how we should handle. You know, if someone
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cuts you off in traffic, it's maybe not as dramatic as
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fuel cell exploding, but how can we
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react, um, to those little crises
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here on Earth?
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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, Yep. Yeah, that's a, that's a really good point, actually.
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Um, you know, it's the whole demeanor of the person that,
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that uh, um,
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it tells you, uh, if you can
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behave like that under those stresses, it, uh,
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tells you that you can probably cope with every. Anything.
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Including being cut off in traffic.
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Heidi Campo: Absolutely. So his character was played by,
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um, Tom Hanks, right?
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Professor Fred Watson: Uh, that's correct. Yes. Yes, indeed.
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In, in the, in the movie. That's right. Um,
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yeah, it just, you know, it's uh,
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it was. And of course it was very early,
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um, in the Apollo missions. It
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was the third mission to land
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on the moon. Apollo 11, the first Apollo 12
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successful. Apollo 13 was going to be the next one. Uh,
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but, um, it didn't happen. Uh,
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and I guess it also illuminated
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not just the character of the person in charge of the
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mission on board the spacecraft, but also the technology
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that was being used. NASA, ah, would have learned lessons
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from that, uh, about the way they handle their fuel
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cells and the design of the fuel cells, just as
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they did with the other major tragedy of the Apollo
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era. Uh, Apollo 1, uh, in which
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three astronauts perished in a fire,
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uh, in the capsule while it was still on the ground. It was
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a sort of dress rehearsal. It wasn't actually a mission.
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Uh, and they were in the space capsule. And um,
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it was at that time that, uh,
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NASA used an all oxygen atmosphere
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within these capsules. But oxygen is very, very
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reactive. It'll burn with anything.
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Uh, and after that they changed that so
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that Apollo 1 actually led to
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major design changes in the Apollo missions,
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uh, as I'm sure Apollo 13 did as.
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Heidi Campo: Yeah, I just, ah, I want to read you guys this last line of the
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article. That was a statement from his family. Um,
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he had four children and his family
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says we will miss his unshakable optimism, his
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sense of humor, and the way he made each of us feel
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like we could do the impossible. I think that's a
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really beautiful line.
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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah.
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Heidi Campo: You know, those are the things that we want to remember when we, when
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these people who are larger than life leave us is,
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you know, who's going to be next? Who? How can they inspire
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us to be the next. The next. You know, as we
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are in the Artemis era now. It's going to
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be that next person to fill those shoes.
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Professor Fred Watson: Yes.
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Andrew Dunkley: Let's take a break from the show now to tell you about our sponsor,
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checkout. Now back to the show.
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Professor Fred Watson: 0T and I feel fine.
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Heidi Campo: Space Nuts and there are big shoes to fill. I
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mean there's so much out there.
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And it looks like our next article here, if we'll
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roll right into that is, we're thinking we may have
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just discovered the biggest black hole ever.
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Professor Fred Watson: That's right.
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Heidi Campo: Uh, is this a recent discovery?
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Professor Fred Watson: It is, yes. So, um,
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it's from an object that is
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known. But uh, the research
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that has led to this, which has been done by British uh,
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astronomers, um,
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they've analyzed what we already know about
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this object. Uh, and
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uh, it's essentially something
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that's very visually appealing to look
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at. Um, and it's well known. It's called the
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cosmic horseshoe. You uh, can find
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it probably on many of the websites.
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Um, uh, uh, because
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uh, it's such a visually inspiring thing to look
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at. What we've got is a field of
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galaxies. These are distant galaxies with one in
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particular that's relatively bright. What we call an
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elliptical galaxy. One that doesn't have structure but
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around it is an almost complete
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circle, uh, of bluish light.
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And that is the image of a more
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distant galaxy, uh, which is
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being distorted by the gravitational field of the
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galaxy in the foreground. Um, so the
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horseshoe is actually a blurred out
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image of a very
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distant object behind the
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blob of light that you can see in the middle of the horseshoe
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because that's the galaxy which is, we call it the lensing
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galaxy because it is actually acting like a
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lens. The space around that galaxy is being
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distorted so that it mimics a lens
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that sort of magnifies and distorts the image
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uh, of the galaxy behind it. And it's an almost
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perfect alignment, uh, where you've got
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uh, a galaxy which is
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very distant with one immediate,
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sorry, one directly in front of it that's much nearer,
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uh, but the two are exactly aligned as
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uh, seen from our uh, vantage point in our own Milky Way
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galaxy. And that alignment produces this
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distortion of the image which we call an Einstein ring
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because they were predicted by Einstein that
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you would see, uh, this distorted
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view of galaxies. Uh, the
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uh, Einstein rings were something he thought we'd never
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see. Uh, but we actually started seeing
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them in the 1970s when telescopes got sensitive enough
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to detect uh, these really
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extraordinary structures in space. So that's what
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we see. That's the basic observation.
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But what has now um,
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uh, emerged is detail of
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the structure of the nearer
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galaxy. The galaxy that's doing the lensing, the one that's
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distorting the space. Um, it's about
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5.6 billion light years from
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our, our own, uh, Milky Way
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galaxy. Uh, and what they've done
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is the scientists have analyzed
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basically the gravitational field, uh,
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around that uh, nearer galaxy,
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that one 5.6 billion years light years
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away. Um, and from, in
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doing that they have been able to estimate
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the size of the, um,
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the, the, excuse me, the, sorry, um,
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I thought it was going to sneeze there, uh, the size of the black
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hole at the center of this galaxy. Uh, with.
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We think that all galaxies have a supermassive black
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hole at their center. If not all of them, certainly most
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of them. And this particular one, uh,
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indeed has uh, a black hole. And by
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analyzing the shape of the cosmic horseshoe, you
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can measure its mass.
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Uh, and this, um,
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I'm just reading this in detail again.
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Um, and I think what I'm saying is
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not, it's, well it's true, it's not the
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real truth of the story, which is the one is
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the galaxy that is beyond the one that is being
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imaged, the one whose image is being distorted by the
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nearer galaxy. Um,
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now the size uh,
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of that object, uh, is
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being estimated from all these distortions.
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I'm not telling this story very clearly, Heidi. I apologize
365
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for that. But the bottom line is that they believe
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that the uh, that mass of the black
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hole at the center of this galaxy, uh, is
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something like 36 billion
369
00:17:30.010 --> 00:17:33.010
times the mass of the sun. Uh, and that
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will be a record that, that will be a record that the one
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at the center of our own galaxy, Sagittarius, uh,
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a star is its name,
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uh, is only, it's
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about 4 million times the mass of
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the sun. So this one is something like 10,
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10,000 times bigger, uh, than the
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one that we are seeing. Uh,
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uh, uh, sorry, the one that, the one that we have at the center of our
379
00:17:59.420 --> 00:18:01.860
own galaxy. So it's uh, really
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00:18:02.170 --> 00:18:04.740
um, quite remarkable that you can
381
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glean this sort of information from
382
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uh, looking at structures in space which are,
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ah, remarkable in their appearance. They're quite beautiful.
384
00:18:14.610 --> 00:18:17.100
Um, but tell you a lot about
385
00:18:17.340 --> 00:18:20.220
what's going on, the absolute, the actual physical
386
00:18:20.220 --> 00:18:22.620
properties of what's going on out there in space.
387
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So a system of two galaxies, one of which has the record
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00:18:26.140 --> 00:18:28.060
breaking black hole at its center.
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00:18:29.260 --> 00:18:31.939
Heidi Campo: That's amazing. Uh, to be the person who
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00:18:31.939 --> 00:18:34.660
discovered that would be pretty exciting. Until
391
00:18:34.660 --> 00:18:36.220
we find another bigger one.
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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, that's right. Um, yeah, there's nothing like a
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00:18:39.060 --> 00:18:41.710
record breaker is there, for kind of
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00:18:41.710 --> 00:18:44.710
attracting people's attention. It's the headline that
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00:18:44.710 --> 00:18:47.350
you always want to be able to make. The biggest or the most
396
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distant or the faintest or the, or
397
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the um, uh, mostest. The mostest.
398
00:18:53.110 --> 00:18:56.030
Yeah. I do remember um, once being able to do
399
00:18:56.030 --> 00:18:58.150
a radio recorder radio program
400
00:18:58.710 --> 00:19:01.710
about the most distant objects known at
401
00:19:01.710 --> 00:19:04.390
that time. This was back in 1982, believe it or not.
402
00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:07.270
Uh, the discovery of a, is actually a
403
00:19:07.270 --> 00:19:10.230
quasar discovered by the Anglo Australian telescope here in
404
00:19:10.230 --> 00:19:13.180
Australia. I was actually in Scotland at the time and I recorded an
405
00:19:13.330 --> 00:19:16.090
interview about this object which was the most
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00:19:16.090 --> 00:19:18.210
distant object ever discovered.
407
00:19:18.680 --> 00:19:21.650
Um, I listened for it on the radio
408
00:19:21.650 --> 00:19:24.610
the following morning, um, but there was no sign of it
409
00:19:24.610 --> 00:19:27.410
because that was the day that Argentina invaded the
410
00:19:27.410 --> 00:19:30.290
Falkland Islands, which was very, very big news
411
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in the uk. So all astronomical stories
412
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just got wiped. So my first radio
413
00:19:36.090 --> 00:19:39.010
interview ended up on the cutting room floor thanks to
414
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geopolitical events beyond my commercial troll.
415
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Heidi Campo: That's a bummer. Well now look at you.
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00:19:45.170 --> 00:19:48.130
Professor Fred Watson: Well, there you go. Yeah, that's right. Indeed,
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00:19:48.210 --> 00:19:48.910
that's true.
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Heidi Campo: Uh, looking at this image, it's called the Horseshoe, but
419
00:19:51.810 --> 00:19:54.770
it almost reminds Me, you nerds out there. If you guys are looking
420
00:19:54.770 --> 00:19:57.769
at this image, you'll appreciate this. It reminds
421
00:19:57.769 --> 00:20:00.650
me of, um, the, the franchise Alien,
422
00:20:00.650 --> 00:20:03.490
of the alien embryo with the tail wrapping around
423
00:20:03.970 --> 00:20:06.930
when it's rolled up in the egg. That's what it looks like to me
424
00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:10.410
is, uh, the alien logo. So that's a, uh,
425
00:20:10.410 --> 00:20:13.120
that's a little bit kind of eerie. What if there's a.
426
00:20:13.600 --> 00:20:15.600
Some kind of creature in there?
427
00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:18.880
Professor Fred Watson: There could be. Who knows, somebody, you know, some,
428
00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:20.560
some creature that likes black holes.
429
00:20:21.360 --> 00:20:22.960
Heidi Campo: Would that be. Would that be something?
430
00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:26.480
Well, one thing we do know finally
431
00:20:26.800 --> 00:20:29.520
is why the rover kept getting
432
00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:32.520
stuck. And we have finally figured out how
433
00:20:32.520 --> 00:20:35.200
to unstuck stick this poor little rover.
434
00:20:36.560 --> 00:20:39.040
Professor Fred Watson: It's true. Um, so,
435
00:20:39.210 --> 00:20:41.600
uh, NASA's rovers
436
00:20:42.080 --> 00:20:44.640
and the four that come to mind are Spirit and
437
00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:46.640
Opportunity in the early 2000s,
438
00:20:47.230 --> 00:20:49.920
uh, and curiosity I think
439
00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:52.560
2012, uh, and
440
00:20:52.800 --> 00:20:55.560
perseverance 2021. Those
441
00:20:55.560 --> 00:20:58.560
are the, what you might call the iconic rovers
442
00:20:59.170 --> 00:21:02.130
on the lunar surface. There are more. Uh, Tianwen 1
443
00:21:02.130 --> 00:21:05.000
is the Chinese one, which I think is now, uh,
444
00:21:05.730 --> 00:21:08.730
defunct. I think, um, its batteries ran
445
00:21:08.730 --> 00:21:11.410
out. And there were other, earlier
446
00:21:11.410 --> 00:21:14.330
NASA ones, if I remember. Sojourner was one of the
447
00:21:14.330 --> 00:21:17.330
first ones. But, um, these rovers,
448
00:21:17.750 --> 00:21:20.450
uh, pretty well all of them have six wheels,
449
00:21:20.850 --> 00:21:23.570
uh, which are sort of independently controlled.
450
00:21:24.130 --> 00:21:26.850
They're fitted with tires that are made of kind of
451
00:21:26.850 --> 00:21:29.530
springy metal, um, with indentations,
452
00:21:30.110 --> 00:21:33.050
uh, in them, uh, in order to
453
00:21:33.290 --> 00:21:36.090
get purchase on the sandy
454
00:21:36.090 --> 00:21:39.050
soil of Mars. But as you say,
455
00:21:39.050 --> 00:21:41.770
they, they do occasionally get stuck.
456
00:21:42.270 --> 00:21:43.850
Uh, and in fact, um,
457
00:21:44.250 --> 00:21:47.250
sometimes that getting bogged, as
458
00:21:47.250 --> 00:21:50.170
we would perhaps call it, is, um, in
459
00:21:50.170 --> 00:21:53.090
Australian parlance, anyway. You got your car bogged,
460
00:21:53.090 --> 00:21:55.530
did you? Yeah, well, you got your rover bogged.
461
00:21:55.770 --> 00:21:58.750
It's um, that's a, uh, basically sometimes
462
00:21:58.750 --> 00:22:01.630
led to the end of the life of some of
463
00:22:01.630 --> 00:22:04.430
these rovers. I think Spirit was one that got
464
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bogged and perhaps, um, Opportunity as well.
465
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Uh, now the reason why this
466
00:22:11.070 --> 00:22:13.870
is, uh, a bit of a pain for
467
00:22:13.950 --> 00:22:16.910
NASA engineers is that when they
468
00:22:16.910 --> 00:22:18.990
do the modeling of how
469
00:22:19.710 --> 00:22:22.270
a rover with the metal
470
00:22:22.270 --> 00:22:24.780
tires will behave in
471
00:22:25.900 --> 00:22:28.780
an environment where the gravity is only a third
472
00:22:28.780 --> 00:22:30.960
of what the Earth's gravity is, uh,
473
00:22:31.740 --> 00:22:34.740
they do the modeling and it says that they shouldn't get
474
00:22:34.740 --> 00:22:37.670
bugged. Um, uh, it's uh,
475
00:22:37.670 --> 00:22:40.220
you know, that they shouldn't actually have this
476
00:22:40.220 --> 00:22:43.130
phenomenon. They uh, shouldn't get stuck, uh,
477
00:22:43.130 --> 00:22:45.750
in the soil of Mars. Uh,
478
00:22:45.980 --> 00:22:48.820
and so they've looked at this
479
00:22:48.820 --> 00:22:50.850
problem again and
480
00:22:51.250 --> 00:22:54.130
essentially solved it. As you've
481
00:22:54.130 --> 00:22:56.930
said, Heidi. Um, what they've done
482
00:22:57.490 --> 00:22:59.970
is look not just at
483
00:23:00.530 --> 00:23:03.450
the way the lower gravity makes the
484
00:23:03.450 --> 00:23:06.330
rover itself behave, but the way the
485
00:23:06.330 --> 00:23:09.050
lower gravity makes the sand that
486
00:23:09.050 --> 00:23:11.250
they're trying to drive through behave.
487
00:23:11.930 --> 00:23:14.770
Uh, and when they use these
488
00:23:14.890 --> 00:23:17.770
uh, simulations, including the gravitational,
489
00:23:17.770 --> 00:23:20.530
the lower gravitational force on the dust particles
490
00:23:20.530 --> 00:23:23.390
themselves, um, then they
491
00:23:23.390 --> 00:23:26.270
realize that why they're getting stuck.
492
00:23:26.590 --> 00:23:29.470
Oh, well, they're obviously going to get stuck if you,
493
00:23:29.470 --> 00:23:32.270
if you do that. Uh, it's a, ah, it's
494
00:23:32.270 --> 00:23:35.030
a. Basically they've used, this is a number
495
00:23:35.030 --> 00:23:37.869
of uh, uh, scientists who've
496
00:23:37.869 --> 00:23:40.510
used a, a, uh, physics
497
00:23:40.510 --> 00:23:43.310
engine, um, Project Chrono it's
498
00:23:43.310 --> 00:23:45.550
called. Uh, and they've used that to
499
00:23:46.030 --> 00:23:47.650
essentially disentangle uh,
500
00:23:49.100 --> 00:23:51.740
what causes this bogging the
501
00:23:52.060 --> 00:23:54.980
wheels to get stuck. And that's the conclusion
502
00:23:54.980 --> 00:23:57.780
they've come to. If you take into account uh,
503
00:23:57.820 --> 00:24:00.780
the lower gravity and its
504
00:24:00.780 --> 00:24:02.620
effect on the sand particles themselves,
505
00:24:04.010 --> 00:24:06.740
uh, you're going to get stuck from time to time.
506
00:24:06.740 --> 00:24:09.420
And indeed they do. Now
507
00:24:09.820 --> 00:24:11.670
will that help, uh,
508
00:24:12.700 --> 00:24:15.500
the people who drive these rovers, Will it help them to get the,
509
00:24:15.790 --> 00:24:18.590
the vehicle's unstuck? And the answer is probably
510
00:24:18.590 --> 00:24:21.550
yes. These people have for long
511
00:24:21.870 --> 00:24:24.710
had um, I guess tricks, you might
512
00:24:24.710 --> 00:24:27.630
call them techniques is probably a more sober word,
513
00:24:27.870 --> 00:24:30.670
uh, to try and unstick stuck, uh, up
514
00:24:30.670 --> 00:24:33.590
Mars rovers, uh, usually it's pretty well
515
00:24:33.590 --> 00:24:36.590
what you do here on Earth. Try and drive the thing backwards and forwards until
516
00:24:36.590 --> 00:24:39.550
it comes unstuck. Um, they might
517
00:24:39.550 --> 00:24:42.520
be able to modify those techniques in the light of
518
00:24:42.520 --> 00:24:45.480
this new information that uh, you have to take into account the
519
00:24:45.480 --> 00:24:48.440
lower gravity on um, the dust itself and
520
00:24:48.440 --> 00:24:49.680
not just the spacecraft.
521
00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:51.360
Heidi Campo: Wow.
522
00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:54.680
Professor Fred Watson: Sounds pretty obvious really, doesn't it Fred?
523
00:24:54.680 --> 00:24:57.520
Heidi Campo: Have you ever seen ah, one of these like, up close,
524
00:24:58.760 --> 00:25:01.200
um, like models of them?
525
00:25:01.280 --> 00:25:03.440
Professor Fred Watson: Yes, uh, I have indeed.
526
00:25:03.600 --> 00:25:06.480
Um, uh, the most memorable one
527
00:25:06.560 --> 00:25:08.960
actually is uh, it's in
528
00:25:09.380 --> 00:25:12.150
uh, in Flagstaff, Arizona and
529
00:25:12.310 --> 00:25:14.990
it's actually the lunar rover. It's one of the lunar
530
00:25:14.990 --> 00:25:17.970
rovers that went with the Apollo astronauts. Uh,
531
00:25:18.550 --> 00:25:21.270
I think it was the last four
532
00:25:21.350 --> 00:25:24.190
Apollo missions, I can't remember the exact number, carried a
533
00:25:24.190 --> 00:25:26.950
rover to carry the astronauts around on the
534
00:25:26.950 --> 00:25:29.870
moon. Uh, and there's not
535
00:25:29.870 --> 00:25:32.830
just a replica, it was a prototype model. It's
536
00:25:32.830 --> 00:25:35.770
in the foyer of one of the uh,
537
00:25:35.850 --> 00:25:38.850
geological science centers, I think in Flagstaff, Arizona.
538
00:25:38.850 --> 00:25:41.530
And it's sitting there and you can see how big it is,
539
00:25:42.970 --> 00:25:45.770
you know, just the extraordinary size of it. But
540
00:25:45.770 --> 00:25:48.650
the, the um, uh, and I have seen models
541
00:25:48.650 --> 00:25:51.489
of some of the other ones I think Spirit and Opportunity, they're in various
542
00:25:51.489 --> 00:25:54.290
museums that I've had the great privilege to visit
543
00:25:54.290 --> 00:25:57.210
in your wonderful country, Heidi. Uh, and
544
00:25:57.290 --> 00:26:00.170
Always, uh, take away very warm memories of those
545
00:26:00.170 --> 00:26:00.970
museums.
546
00:26:01.130 --> 00:26:04.050
Heidi Campo: That's good. Yeah, that was what I was going to say is. I think
547
00:26:04.050 --> 00:26:06.940
the surprising thing is we don't realize the
548
00:26:06.940 --> 00:26:09.340
scale of these when we see images of them.
549
00:26:09.740 --> 00:26:12.140
And so to think something this
550
00:26:12.380 --> 00:26:15.180
massive is getting stuck. It's not like
551
00:26:15.180 --> 00:26:18.140
your little, you know, whatever vehicle you drive. I have a
552
00:26:18.140 --> 00:26:21.020
little, um, Subaru. Ah, Crosstrek. It's not like your little
553
00:26:21.020 --> 00:26:23.900
Subaru Crosstrek gets its wheel stuck in a little
554
00:26:23.900 --> 00:26:26.740
ditch. It's like this is a mammoth of a
555
00:26:26.740 --> 00:26:29.420
machine and for it to get stuck is a
556
00:26:29.420 --> 00:26:31.020
big, big bottleness.
557
00:26:31.450 --> 00:26:33.970
Professor Fred Watson: That's right. Certainly Spirit, uh, sorry, Curiosity and
558
00:26:33.970 --> 00:26:36.410
Perseverance, which are very similar. They're basically the same,
559
00:26:36.730 --> 00:26:39.290
the same rover. They are big machines.
560
00:26:39.530 --> 00:26:42.410
Absolutely. As you say, size, uh, of a
561
00:26:42.410 --> 00:26:44.250
bigger car than yours. I think.
562
00:26:46.490 --> 00:26:49.370
Heidi Campo: I always think of them like little, uh, like Wall E, the robot
563
00:26:49.370 --> 00:26:52.250
from the Pixar animated series. Tiny Things.
564
00:26:52.570 --> 00:26:55.210
Professor Fred Watson: Good old Wall E. Yeah, I'd forgotten about Wally.
565
00:26:55.850 --> 00:26:56.970
Heidi Campo: That was a cute one.
566
00:26:57.290 --> 00:26:58.370
Professor Fred Watson: A very cute one.
567
00:26:59.160 --> 00:27:01.960
Heidi Campo: Well, Fred, those, those cover our stories for
568
00:27:01.960 --> 00:27:02.280
today.
569
00:27:02.360 --> 00:27:05.320
Did you, uh, have anything you wanted to add to
570
00:27:05.400 --> 00:27:06.760
anything that we talked about?
571
00:27:07.600 --> 00:27:10.400
Professor Fred Watson: Um, I did have a comment and I forgot what it
572
00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:12.920
was. I was gonna make another comment about,
573
00:27:13.560 --> 00:27:16.500
uh, about the rovers. Uh, the, uh,
574
00:27:16.500 --> 00:27:19.360
you know, you know that the thing that
575
00:27:19.360 --> 00:27:22.360
I, I guess just to highlight what you've just been saying that these are
576
00:27:22.360 --> 00:27:25.290
big machines. It's also the
577
00:27:25.290 --> 00:27:27.410
complexity of them and the
578
00:27:27.490 --> 00:27:30.130
ingenuity. Uh, and yes,
579
00:27:30.850 --> 00:27:33.770
this has reminded me of what I was going to say. Uh,
580
00:27:33.970 --> 00:27:36.930
another story that's been in the headlines this
581
00:27:36.930 --> 00:27:39.930
week, uh, is the head of
582
00:27:39.930 --> 00:27:42.770
NASA the acting head of NASA suggesting
583
00:27:42.930 --> 00:27:45.410
that by 2000s,
584
00:27:46.020 --> 00:27:48.530
uh, NASA will want to deploy a nuclear
585
00:27:48.530 --> 00:27:51.490
reactor on the moon? I don't know whether you caught that story.
586
00:27:52.080 --> 00:27:54.920
Uh, in order to be able to provide electrical power,
587
00:27:54.920 --> 00:27:57.760
it's one 100 kilowatt nuclear
588
00:27:57.760 --> 00:28:00.760
reactor they're talking about. And the reason why I remember
589
00:28:00.760 --> 00:28:03.400
I was thinking about that in the context of rovers
590
00:28:03.720 --> 00:28:06.360
is that Curiosity, uh, and
591
00:28:06.680 --> 00:28:09.400
Perseverance both carry effectively
592
00:28:09.400 --> 00:28:12.360
nuclear reactors. They're not reactors in the same sense.
593
00:28:12.760 --> 00:28:15.480
And, uh, they're only delivering 100 watts rather than
594
00:28:15.480 --> 00:28:17.720
100 kilowatts. But they're called
595
00:28:17.720 --> 00:28:20.720
radioisotope thermoelectric generators. They are carried
596
00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:23.600
on board, uh, both Spirit and Opportunity and
597
00:28:23.600 --> 00:28:26.580
a number of other spacecraft like the Voyagers have them on
598
00:28:26.580 --> 00:28:29.300
board as well to generate the power that they need.
599
00:28:29.700 --> 00:28:32.340
Uh, so, um, you know, the idea of nuclear,
600
00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:35.620
uh, processes, uh, in space to power
601
00:28:36.020 --> 00:28:38.820
missions is Not a new one. It's just that
602
00:28:38.820 --> 00:28:41.740
the idea of 100 kilowatt nuclear reactor on the moon
603
00:28:41.740 --> 00:28:44.680
is a little bit bigger than some of the other ones. Um,
604
00:28:44.740 --> 00:28:47.060
that was the additional comment I was going to make.
605
00:28:47.540 --> 00:28:50.460
Heidi Campo: Well, that. And that's just, ah, uh, so valuable to just
606
00:28:50.460 --> 00:28:53.140
think of the size and scale and power of these
607
00:28:53.460 --> 00:28:56.380
because I think, you know, we, we hit the little memes of
608
00:28:56.380 --> 00:28:59.280
it's singing Happy Birthday to itself. And
609
00:28:59.280 --> 00:29:01.400
again, we think of them as just these cute little,
610
00:29:02.200 --> 00:29:05.040
small, fragile little things. And they're not.
611
00:29:05.040 --> 00:29:07.760
They're huge, powerful, massive
612
00:29:07.760 --> 00:29:10.600
machines. And so the fact that we're now
613
00:29:10.600 --> 00:29:13.600
learning how to, you know, improve on how
614
00:29:13.600 --> 00:29:16.400
we're handling them on this soil is really fun
615
00:29:16.400 --> 00:29:18.800
and exciting. There's always, there's always
616
00:29:18.800 --> 00:29:21.760
breakthroughs every week. Every week there's new
617
00:29:21.760 --> 00:29:24.720
breakthroughs. There's new things we discover and learn and do and
618
00:29:24.720 --> 00:29:27.500
see and. Such an exciting, exciting
619
00:29:27.500 --> 00:29:30.300
time to be a part of the space industry, is it not?
620
00:29:30.300 --> 00:29:31.700
Professor Fred Watson: That's right. Absolutely.
621
00:29:33.220 --> 00:29:36.060
Heidi Campo: Well, Fred, this has been, uh, wonderful chatting with
622
00:29:36.060 --> 00:29:39.060
you today. Thank you so much. And for all of
623
00:29:39.060 --> 00:29:41.300
you who have been missing Andrew, he
624
00:29:41.780 --> 00:29:44.340
is still enjoying his world cruise.
625
00:29:44.580 --> 00:29:47.420
I forgot to mention Andrew at the beginning of the episode, if
626
00:29:47.420 --> 00:29:50.340
you're new here. Um, Andrew is normally
627
00:29:50.340 --> 00:29:53.030
our host and he's been on a world
628
00:29:53.030 --> 00:29:55.830
cruise lately. But he will be
629
00:29:55.830 --> 00:29:58.750
back in a few weeks. So you guys only have me
630
00:29:58.750 --> 00:30:01.670
for a few short weeks left. So send in.
631
00:30:01.780 --> 00:30:04.710
Um, our next episode will be a Q and A episode. So keep
632
00:30:04.710 --> 00:30:07.590
sending in your Q and A's to us and
633
00:30:07.590 --> 00:30:10.550
we'll answer those. And you'll only have me for a
634
00:30:10.550 --> 00:30:12.150
few more weeks before Andrew's back.
635
00:30:12.390 --> 00:30:15.150
Professor Fred Watson: It's been fabulous. Actually, Heidi, just
636
00:30:15.150 --> 00:30:17.030
my comment on that. It's been wonderful.
637
00:30:18.070 --> 00:30:20.790
You've, uh, risen to the challenge of, um,
638
00:30:21.350 --> 00:30:23.630
duplicating Andrew Dunkley, um,
639
00:30:24.470 --> 00:30:27.070
in ways that even Andrew
640
00:30:27.070 --> 00:30:28.950
Dunkley can't achieve. There you go.
641
00:30:29.510 --> 00:30:32.270
Heidi Campo: Well, thank you so much. All right, everybody.
642
00:30:32.270 --> 00:30:35.130
Well, we are looking forward to, um,
643
00:30:35.130 --> 00:30:38.070
catching you with our next episode, which will be a Q and A
644
00:30:38.070 --> 00:30:40.710
episode. Till then, we'll talk to you later.
645
00:30:41.110 --> 00:30:43.150
Andrew Dunkley: Hi, Heidi. Hi, Fred. Hi, Huw.
646
00:30:43.150 --> 00:30:46.070
In the studio, it's Andrew on the Crown Princess. As
647
00:30:46.070 --> 00:30:48.620
we get to the last latter stages of our
648
00:30:48.780 --> 00:30:51.740
world cruise. And since I spoke to you
649
00:30:51.740 --> 00:30:54.540
last, we have been right up to the very top of
650
00:30:54.540 --> 00:30:57.020
Norway. We made our first stop in
651
00:30:57.100 --> 00:30:59.900
Bergen, and that is just
652
00:30:59.900 --> 00:31:02.620
a wonderful sailing through the fjords,
653
00:31:02.780 --> 00:31:05.620
under the big bridges, uh, right into Bergen.
654
00:31:05.620 --> 00:31:08.580
And, uh, what we did was a little day trip out
655
00:31:08.580 --> 00:31:11.360
into the country where we visited uh,
656
00:31:11.420 --> 00:31:14.030
some amazing um, sites. We uh,
657
00:31:14.240 --> 00:31:17.120
waterfalls, uh, a little shopping or not a shopping
658
00:31:17.120 --> 00:31:20.120
village, a little fishing village type of place and
659
00:31:20.120 --> 00:31:22.600
just had a really good look around the fjords and the
660
00:31:22.600 --> 00:31:25.520
waterfalls and the landscape. Just a beautiful country.
661
00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:28.960
Of course Norway uh, uh, is a
662
00:31:28.960 --> 00:31:31.600
very forward thinking country, very ah, liberal.
663
00:31:31.600 --> 00:31:34.560
Attitude towards a lot of things. And they
664
00:31:34.880 --> 00:31:37.440
generate 98% of their
665
00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:40.090
electricity through hydro power.
666
00:31:40.750 --> 00:31:43.650
Uh, so um, yeah, quite amazing. The downside of
667
00:31:43.650 --> 00:31:46.650
Norway is it doesn't have a lot of usable land because
668
00:31:46.650 --> 00:31:49.490
it's so mountainous. And if it's not mountains
669
00:31:49.490 --> 00:31:51.770
it's water because of the fjords. And
670
00:31:52.290 --> 00:31:55.250
uh, so they don't have much land to, to live on, let
671
00:31:55.250 --> 00:31:58.130
alone use for things like agriculture. So they're kind of
672
00:31:58.130 --> 00:32:00.850
trapped in that regard. After that we went
673
00:32:00.850 --> 00:32:03.590
to uh, another um,
674
00:32:03.610 --> 00:32:05.610
place in Norway, uh, where
675
00:32:06.650 --> 00:32:09.490
sh, uh, Shoulden I think it's
676
00:32:09.490 --> 00:32:12.410
pronounced. Yeah. And we went and looked
677
00:32:12.410 --> 00:32:15.130
at a glacier, the biggest glacier in Europe.
678
00:32:15.810 --> 00:32:18.730
Uh, we couldn't get too close to it but uh, just a
679
00:32:19.290 --> 00:32:22.290
spectacle to behold, uh, getting um, that close to
680
00:32:22.290 --> 00:32:25.210
one, uh, and being able to photograph it. And
681
00:32:25.290 --> 00:32:28.130
you could feel the wind coming off it. It was a warm
682
00:32:28.130 --> 00:32:30.730
day. But when you get to the glacier it just um,
683
00:32:31.050 --> 00:32:34.010
blows this chill wind off the mountains and um, yeah
684
00:32:34.010 --> 00:32:36.730
you can really feel the difference. And the water coming off that
685
00:32:36.730 --> 00:32:39.690
glacier as it melts and it's melting a lot faster than
686
00:32:39.690 --> 00:32:42.490
it ever has before is a beautiful aqua
687
00:32:42.490 --> 00:32:45.010
blue as it flows down into the fjord.
688
00:32:45.810 --> 00:32:48.530
And then we went to Honingsvag
689
00:32:48.850 --> 00:32:51.730
and uh, that's right up north and, and
690
00:32:51.730 --> 00:32:54.410
took a um, a look around uh,
691
00:32:54.410 --> 00:32:57.090
Nord Cap, otherwise known as north
692
00:32:57.090 --> 00:32:59.860
cape on the 71st parallel, uh, right
693
00:32:59.860 --> 00:33:02.860
inside the Arctic Circle. And they used to
694
00:33:02.860 --> 00:33:05.540
think it was the end of the world because well there is
695
00:33:05.540 --> 00:33:08.370
practically nothing north of that except for a few islands, uh,
696
00:33:09.020 --> 00:33:11.980
and then the uh, the ice cap, uh, and,
697
00:33:11.980 --> 00:33:14.580
and the 24 hour daylight is something to
698
00:33:14.580 --> 00:33:17.420
behold. I went up on the deck at midnight to have a
699
00:33:17.420 --> 00:33:20.060
look one night and there was
700
00:33:20.300 --> 00:33:23.260
like it was daytime, the sun had set. We've
701
00:33:23.260 --> 00:33:26.190
reached a point in the year where the sun does set for
702
00:33:26.190 --> 00:33:28.790
two hours but it doesn't get dark.
703
00:33:29.270 --> 00:33:31.910
So no northern lights, no northern lights.
704
00:33:32.390 --> 00:33:35.270
After that trip, uh, or visit, we started
705
00:33:35.270 --> 00:33:37.590
heading southwest, uh, and
706
00:33:37.830 --> 00:33:40.710
we're heading towards Iceland. So
707
00:33:40.710 --> 00:33:43.710
that's our next stop, uh, which is due to happen
708
00:33:43.710 --> 00:33:46.550
tomorrow our time. By the time you get this we'll have done it
709
00:33:46.550 --> 00:33:48.390
already. Uh, we'll be visiting
710
00:33:48.470 --> 00:33:51.320
Reykjavik and uh, essence of a
711
00:33:51.320 --> 00:33:54.000
jaw, which is not how you pronounce it.
712
00:33:55.200 --> 00:33:57.960
I said North Cape. Mentioned all that. Weren't you listening? My
713
00:33:57.960 --> 00:34:00.680
wife's come in to remind me to tell you we went to North
714
00:34:00.680 --> 00:34:01.200
Cape.
715
00:34:02.880 --> 00:34:05.680
Can25,000 of you email
716
00:34:05.680 --> 00:34:07.440
her and tell her I actually did it.
717
00:34:08.880 --> 00:34:11.720
Got. Got. I got a look. I got a look.
718
00:34:11.720 --> 00:34:14.600
No, yeah, we did. We did that. Dude, I've
719
00:34:14.600 --> 00:34:17.350
done all that. Um, and. And, yeah. Uh,
720
00:34:17.350 --> 00:34:20.170
so should I do it again? No, I won't.
721
00:34:20.170 --> 00:34:23.000
Uh, but, um, looking forward to the rest of our trip.
722
00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:25.600
Only a couple of more stops, as I said. Iceland, Greenland,
723
00:34:25.600 --> 00:34:28.360
Halifax, and then we're getting off in New York,
724
00:34:28.520 --> 00:34:30.840
which, uh, is not that far away now.
725
00:34:31.240 --> 00:34:34.000
All right, that's about it. Hope all is. Oh, I forgot to
726
00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:36.960
mention. That's the thing I forgot to mention. I've met a Space Nuts
727
00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:39.920
listener on board. Oddly enough, we met
728
00:34:39.920 --> 00:34:42.800
in a toilet. That happens on cruise ships, because you need
729
00:34:42.800 --> 00:34:45.670
to go there a lot. Um, but, yeah, it
730
00:34:45.670 --> 00:34:48.510
was nice to catch up. My name escapes you. I tried to look up the
731
00:34:48.510 --> 00:34:51.320
message when you told me you were getting on at Dover, uh,
732
00:34:51.510 --> 00:34:54.390
and I couldn't find it. So my apologies. I know you're
733
00:34:54.390 --> 00:34:57.030
listening, but it was great to run into you. If you run into us again,
734
00:34:57.190 --> 00:35:00.070
please, let's have another chat. Uh, but, yeah,
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00:35:00.070 --> 00:35:02.630
at least one Space Nuts listener on board the Crown
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00:35:02.630 --> 00:35:05.550
Princess. That's it for now. Take care. Talk to you soon.
737
00:35:05.550 --> 00:35:06.230
Bye. Bye.
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00:35:07.350 --> 00:35:10.150
Voice Over Guy: You've been listening to the Space Nuts. Podcast.
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00:35:11.920 --> 00:35:14.480
Available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
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00:35:14.640 --> 00:35:17.440
iHeartRadio, or your favorite podcast
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00:35:17.440 --> 00:35:19.760
player. You can also stream on demand at
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00:35:19.760 --> 00:35:22.190
bitesz.com This has been another quality
743
00:35:22.190 --> 00:35:24.430
podcast production from Bitesz.com