Exocomets, Martian Revelations & Habitable Zones Beyond

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Andrew Dunkley: Hi there. Look who's back.

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Yes, it's me. Back from,

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uh, everywhere we went. Everywhere. Anyway, I won't bore you with all

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of that. Andrew Dunkley here. Great to have your company

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on another episode of Space

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Nuts. And coming up on today's show,

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we will be diving into the

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weird world of exo. Asteroids

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or exocomets or whatever they are.

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30, uh, one atlas to be exact. And

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it turns out it's a bit of a strange one. Uh, also

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in Insight, uh, the Insight mission is

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unravelling Mars's secrets, uh,

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particularly its deep, dark past. And believe me,

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it's a little bit ugly. And

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a galactic habitable zone.

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Is there such a thing? What does it mean? And what are we going to

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find there? We'll find out on this episode of space

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nuts. 15 seconds. Guidance is

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internal.

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Voice Over Guy: 10, 9. Ignition

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sequence start. Space nuts. 5, 4,

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3. 2. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

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Space nuts. Astronauts report it feels good.

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Andrew Dunkley: And joining us to do all the unravelling

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is Professor Fred Watson Watson, astronomer at large. Hello,

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Fred Watson.

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Professor Fred Watson: Welcome back, Andrew. It's, um, a, uh, treat

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to see your smiling face.

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Andrew Dunkley: It's a treat. It's a treat to be back and doing

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this after it's been three months. I can't believe

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that, uh, it's been. Judy and I were only saying today

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we cannot get our heads around the fact that we're away for three

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months because it doesn't feel like it. It's just,

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you know, it went so fast. But, gee, we

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had a good time, Fred Watson. We had an amazing time.

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Um, unfortunately, did not get to see the

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northern lights. And that was

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one of my. But I might get another opportunity.

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You know, it's not the last time we'll go away somewhere, so

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fingers crossed. But, um, even as far north as,

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uh, North Cape, the northern tip of Europe, right up

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inside the Arctic Circle, did not see a thing.

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Uh, probably because it was nearly daylight every

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minute of the day and night. So that doesn't

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help. Um, but,

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yeah, a terrific holiday. I don't. I wouldn't know where

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to start to tell you about it. I know I posted a lot of pictures

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that people saw, uh, every time we went away

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or went somewhere, um, but just

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saw some amazing things, met some amazing people,

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had some amazing moments. Just, um, little

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things that we didn't expect. Like, uh, the captain

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of the ship suddenly deciding at the last minute to take

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us up, um, Prince Christian

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Sound in Norway, which is

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somewhere where not many people get to go. And the

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only way to get there is by ship. And it is

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Full of icebergs and wildlife

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and just, um,

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glacier after glacier after glacier right

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there in front of you. Um, it's

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indescribable. Uh, it's just the most amazing

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scenery. Uh, we sat up on the deck

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for seven and a half hours straight just taking it

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all in. We did not move. It was that

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captivating. Um, that

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was one of the highlights. Um, Namibia was

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amazing. Loved Namibia. Uh,

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we, um, loved Scotland. Loved

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Edinburgh, Fred Watson. What a terrific place. Um,

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we had porridge for breakfast and.

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Professor Fred Watson: You have haggis for lunch, didn't you?

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Andrew Dunkley: And had haggis for lunch, which, surprise was

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surprisingly nice. I, you know, you hear horror

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stories, but it was actually quite tasty.

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Really enjoyed it. And, um, look,

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the countries we visited were, were many.

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Uh, the highlights were numerous. I wouldn't,

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I could talk for hours, which probably wouldn't work

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well on a space podcast. So I

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won't, um, I won't say too much more about that.

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Although at Tenerife we did see the

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observatory up, um, above the snow

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line there. Above the, um, uh,

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tree line, actually, not the snow line. Um,

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you drive up the hill, you've probably done this bread,

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and all of a sudden there's no vegetation, it's just gone.

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And, um, there's an observatory up there which is

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primarily a solar observatory, so.

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Professor Fred Watson: That's right, yeah. Got to have. So Tad is the

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name of the mountain, Katie.

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Andrew Dunkley: That's right.

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Professor Fred Watson: Yep, yep, yep.

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Andrew Dunkley: Yes.

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But, uh, here we are back again.

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Professor Fred Watson: Um, yeah, I do have a question for you about.

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Andrew Dunkley: Oh, ah, yeah.

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Professor Fred Watson: Andrew, did you. Did you run into any space

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nuts? I did,

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I actually did.

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Andrew Dunkley: Um, one in particular who I ran into

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in a toilet on a ship. On our

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cruise ship. I was walking out

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and this, he said, um, are you Andrew Dunkley? And I went,

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yes, he said, he said, I'm a Space Nuts

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listener, he said. And I remember he did message.

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Message me to say he'd be on the cruise and getting on in Dover and

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I'd forgotten about that. And, uh, yeah, we ran into each

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other in passing. So, um.

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And as always, I've forgotten his name and

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I apologise for that. But it was nice to catch up. So, yes,

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we did. No, it ran into a few. A few people I did

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pass, uh, or speak to on the ship knew me,

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but I don't know if they knew me from radio

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or from the podcast. We never really clarified that.

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But yeah, it was, uh, it was quite

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extraordinary. Um, but if you jump

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on Facebook, all my photos are on my Facebook page and Instagram

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So you should be able to see most of what we did.

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So I don't take up the rest of the show talking

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about it, although I'll probably, probably have

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times where I'll make references to things

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we saw and didn't. Yeah.

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Now, um, we've got a lot to talk about, but one

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of the things you do want to discuss and I think you did that with

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Heidi. Oh, and I'd like to say just

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my, um, sincere

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thanks to Heidi for stepping up and covering the last

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few months. It was a, it was a big job and she did,

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did fantastically. The feedback I've been getting,

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uh, even while I was away was, uh, was glowing.

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So well done, Heid Heidi and thank you, Much

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appreciated. Uh, and you

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talked to her last week and you want to mention again, the Australian Dark

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sky alliance is looking for some support.

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Professor Fred Watson: That's right. So if you're not

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either resident in or a citizen of Australia,

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you can zone out for a minute while I talk about

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a petition which the Australasian Dark sky

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alliance, uh, is trying to get

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put up to the, the federal government, the government

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of Australia, in order to put

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legislation in place to limit light pollution,

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to actually restrict it as an environmental

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issue, not just for astronomers, but for wildlife, for human

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health, all of the above. So if you do fall into one

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of those categories, uh, the place to go is their

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website, which is all one word,

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australasiandarkskyalliance.org

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uh, and so

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australasiandarkskyalliantiance.org will take you to

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their website, which on the front page has instructions on

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how to sign the petition. And you've got till September

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19th. And thank you for that plug and.

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Andrew Dunkley: Uh, my great pleasure. Uh, and hopefully the

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politicians will listen. Hopefully you get the numbers.

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That's the most important thing.

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And it's a really important thing. I mean, uh,

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we've talked about light pollution many,

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many times over the years. And it's just one of

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those growing problems, uh, which

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doesn't seem to get a lot of attention because no one really thinks about

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it as a problem. I suppose that's the problem.

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Professor Fred Watson: It is, uh, uh, on the other hand, it is one of the easiest to

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fix because flick of switch actually does it.

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Um, but you're right, I mean there's

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certainly regulations in regard to noise pollution,

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uh, and of course every other kind of pollution. We're

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seeing regulation coming in on plastics pollution.

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But light pollution is the orphan pollution at the

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moment. And it's an important one. It's one that's more important

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than Most people realise, and one statistic, uh, you might not

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be aware of this Andrew, but light pollution is increasing

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globally at 10% per

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year. So that comes from cities and science.

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Yeah, we know uh, that the stars are disappearing at that

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rate, 10% a year, it's very

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ugly indeed.

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Andrew Dunkley: That is, that's not good at all. And having

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witnessed now 24 hour day sunlight, I

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do understand how it could mess you with your brain.

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So it's not good for human healthy.

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Uh, so that's

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australasiandarkskyaalliance.org

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uh, 10,000 signatures by the 19th

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of September if you will.

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Uh, right, our first topic, Fred Watson, takes us

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uh, into the realm of uh, interstellar

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objects. 31 Atlas. Um, now I

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did see this one pop up in the news while I was away.

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I did try to keep in touch but um, when you're moving into

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different time zones of different parts of the world, your

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news suddenly changes, which is a little

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bit weird. Uh, but 31 Atlas,

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um, this one was only a recent discovery and it's

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hammering way through our ah, system as we speak.

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Uh, but they've been uh, able to analyse it thanks to the

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James Horace Webb Space Telescope. And this one's

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a little bit unusual.

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Professor Fred Watson: Uh, that's right. And um, because all the

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text you've read is in uh,

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Arial, uh, font, you wouldn't

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have no way of knowing that it's actually 3I

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Atlas. Holy

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circumstances. 3I

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being the third interstellar, the third interstellar,

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uh, object to pass through the solar system and uh, Atlas, of course, and

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then the facility that discovered it.

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Andrew Dunkley: I'm using jet lag as an excuse.

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Professor Fred Watson: It doesn't matter. Even if you weren't jet lag, you wouldn't have

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known because now.

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Andrew Dunkley: 31.

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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, but it's 3i. Never mind.

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You see that's the advantage of uh, times,

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Times New Roman. That would, that would solve the problem.

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Um, anyway, this is being

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observed uh, as it flies by the solar system.

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It's closest to the sun if I remember rightly, on

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the 29th of October. So unlike

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uh, uh, unlike Oumuamua, which was one

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eye, the first um, interstellar object,

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uh, we didn't catch up with that until

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it was on its way out of the solar system Atlas,

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uh, uh, we found on the way in.

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Uh, and one reason for that is

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that it's a much bigger object. Um, I think um,

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the best estimate we got for the size of

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Oumuamua was something like 40,

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maybe 100 metres long, something of that sort. I can't remember the

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exact number but this thing is thought to be about 20

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kilometres across um and

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it's despite um the

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prognostications of Avilob who wanted uh

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it to be an interstellar spacecraft.

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It's behaving exactly like a comet in that

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it's uh, as it approaches the sun the

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material that it's made of which is a mixture of

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ice and dust uh that heats

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up the ice turns into a vapour, the dust gets

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released and it generates what we call a coma um

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coma is just a word meaning hair and it's uh,

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a sort of fuzzy bit of the uh, of the comet

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and um, develops a tail and indeed three eye

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Atlas has done that. Um it's uh,

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what's of interest uh of course is

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that there are mixed in with the dust

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there are atoms and in fact molecules of the, of

248
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the material that binds it together, the ices

249
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that bind it together. And it's not just water ice. We know that

250
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comets are made mostly of water ice. Water as we've

251
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said many times on space knots is the most

252
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common two element uh molecule in the

253
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universe. Uh so it's natural that we should find

254
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water in comets. But there's also

255
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basically uh carbon dioxide, CO2, carbon

256
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monoxide CO uh and those

257
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uh gases are revealing their presence by

258
00:12:07.910 --> 00:12:10.870
their spectra. Uh the rainbow spectra that

259
00:12:10.870 --> 00:12:13.750
you can analyse the light that's coming from them

260
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and indeed uh, exactly as you've said the

261
00:12:16.950 --> 00:12:19.430
James Webb Space Telescope is being

262
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uh used by a number of authors mostly

263
00:12:23.210 --> 00:12:26.210
in the United States. Uh Goddard Space Flight Centre

264
00:12:26.210 --> 00:12:28.890
and the Catholic University of America are two of the organisations

265
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represented. So you've got

266
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carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, you've got something called

267
00:12:34.690 --> 00:12:37.650
carbonyl sulphide. Uh all

268
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of these are ah, not unexpected

269
00:12:40.410 --> 00:12:43.250
because that's what we find in comets that belong to the

270
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solar system. But here's the

271
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rub, um and it's the ratio

272
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of these molecules to each other

273
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that is uh the peculiarity of

274
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three I atlas uh and in particular

275
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the ratio of carbon uh

276
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dioxide to water is actually

277
00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:07.040
eight to one. So eight parts of

278
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carbon dioxide to one part of water

279
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and that's higher than any other comet that's ever been

280
00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:15.740
seen and way, way above the normal value

281
00:13:16.450 --> 00:13:19.420
um, which is I think two or three to one,

282
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something like that. I can't remember the exact number. Um

283
00:13:22.620 --> 00:13:25.500
however carbon monoxide

284
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has uh a ratio with water that's more

285
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or less the same as ah, um solar

286
00:13:32.020 --> 00:13:33.900
system comets. It's 1.4.

287
00:13:34.860 --> 00:13:37.740
So there's a puzzle uh why is the carbon dioxide,

288
00:13:37.740 --> 00:13:40.700
so much more abundant. Uh, and of course,

289
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as always, when faced with a puzzle,

290
00:13:43.670 --> 00:13:46.300
um, astronomers start trying to work out

291
00:13:46.300 --> 00:13:48.700
what's going on, uh, and

292
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they basically think

293
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that they have sort of solved

294
00:13:54.980 --> 00:13:56.030
it. Um,

295
00:13:57.970 --> 00:13:59.900
um, it's. One possibility

296
00:14:00.620 --> 00:14:03.340
is if you imagine the host

297
00:14:03.420 --> 00:14:06.380
star system in which this object was created

298
00:14:06.380 --> 00:14:09.060
and it would have formed like the, uh, solar

299
00:14:09.060 --> 00:14:12.020
system's comets, probably in an Oort cloud like

300
00:14:12.020 --> 00:14:14.940
the one we have around our solar system, which is made

301
00:14:15.160 --> 00:14:17.960
of, uh, cometary bodies, uh, which eventually

302
00:14:17.960 --> 00:14:20.960
fall in towards the inner solar system. And that's when we see

303
00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:23.840
them. Uh, there's a suggestion that if you've

304
00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:25.880
got very high levels of ultraviolet

305
00:14:27.080 --> 00:14:29.480
radiation, uh, from that

306
00:14:29.800 --> 00:14:32.800
host star, and that would be the case if it was a

307
00:14:32.800 --> 00:14:35.680
young and very massive star, um, that

308
00:14:35.680 --> 00:14:38.280
apparently could change this ratio of water

309
00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:41.560
to carbon dioxide. Um, and another

310
00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:44.760
comment that's been suggested is that

311
00:14:44.760 --> 00:14:47.720
maybe, um, it's uh, a part

312
00:14:47.720 --> 00:14:50.640
of that, um, of the solar system in which

313
00:14:50.640 --> 00:14:53.200
it was born. That's a long way from

314
00:14:53.440 --> 00:14:56.400
the host star, uh, and above the host

315
00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:59.120
star's carbon dioxide ice line.

316
00:14:59.760 --> 00:15:02.720
So beyond a certain distance you get more

317
00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:05.360
carbon dioxide in

318
00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:07.840
relation to water. Uh, and,

319
00:15:08.350 --> 00:15:11.270
you know, that's another possibility. There's

320
00:15:11.270 --> 00:15:14.070
several more that are being thought of. But, uh, the

321
00:15:14.070 --> 00:15:16.790
bottom line is, nearly as always with stories like this,

322
00:15:16.790 --> 00:15:19.550
Andrew, what we need is more observations.

323
00:15:20.030 --> 00:15:22.830
Uh, and uh, you know, we don't have very

324
00:15:22.830 --> 00:15:25.510
long before it will get too faint to

325
00:15:25.510 --> 00:15:28.450
observe. It'll be probably next year when it starts, um,

326
00:15:28.750 --> 00:15:31.230
really disappearing out of the solar system. But,

327
00:15:31.530 --> 00:15:33.870
uh, so we've got this golden opportunity to

328
00:15:34.110 --> 00:15:36.920
analyse it and, and investigate it. And that's exactly what's

329
00:15:36.920 --> 00:15:37.320
happening.

330
00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:41.040
Andrew Dunkley: How, how visible is this one going to be as

331
00:15:41.040 --> 00:15:44.000
it reaches the inner sanctum of

332
00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:44.640
our solar system?

333
00:15:44.640 --> 00:15:47.480
Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, not, not that visible

334
00:15:47.480 --> 00:15:50.480
because, um, in fact, I don't have a figure for its magnitude,

335
00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:53.240
the gobbledygook number that astronomers use for brightness.

336
00:15:53.730 --> 00:15:56.640
Uh, but it's. It's certainly, um, very much the

337
00:15:56.640 --> 00:15:59.440
province of big telescopes. The thing is, uh, its

338
00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:02.250
nearest approach to Earth, uh, um,

339
00:16:03.070 --> 00:16:05.750
I can't remember. It's more than one astronomical

340
00:16:05.750 --> 00:16:08.710
unit, I think, which is the distance between the Earth to the sun. I

341
00:16:08.710 --> 00:16:10.790
can't remember the exact distance. Uh,

342
00:16:11.870 --> 00:16:14.830
it's not that close to the sun either. Uh, and I

343
00:16:14.830 --> 00:16:17.790
think I'm right in saying that

344
00:16:17.790 --> 00:16:20.510
when it's closest to the sun, we can't see it because

345
00:16:20.510 --> 00:16:23.470
it's in the same direction. It's sort of passing behind the Sun.

346
00:16:24.170 --> 00:16:27.030
Um, that was one of the comments that ah avilaeur

347
00:16:27.030 --> 00:16:30.030
made uh suggesting that maybe uh when it was

348
00:16:30.030 --> 00:16:32.870
at its brightest um its orbit had been chosen so that we

349
00:16:32.870 --> 00:16:35.850
couldn't see it it when it was at its brightest um and the

350
00:16:35.850 --> 00:16:38.730
other thing he pointed out was that it passes very close

351
00:16:38.730 --> 00:16:41.690
to or closeish to Venus, Mars and

352
00:16:41.690 --> 00:16:44.690
Jupiter. Um and um, you know the suggestion was

353
00:16:44.690 --> 00:16:46.810
that there might be intelligent design behind that.

354
00:16:47.370 --> 00:16:49.770
But uh, I think he's the only person in the

355
00:16:49.770 --> 00:16:51.570
astronomical community he thinks.

356
00:16:51.570 --> 00:16:54.450
Andrew Dunkley: That he might be

357
00:16:54.450 --> 00:16:57.410
right. Uh, you got to give him credit

358
00:16:57.410 --> 00:16:57.610
though.

359
00:16:57.610 --> 00:17:00.540
Professor Fred Watson: He's always um. Yeah we need ideas like

360
00:17:00.540 --> 00:17:01.420
that. Absolutely.

361
00:17:01.420 --> 00:17:04.210
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. Yeah. Okay so uh,

362
00:17:04.740 --> 00:17:07.540
and is this one honking along like the others

363
00:17:08.340 --> 00:17:08.740
at a.

364
00:17:08.740 --> 00:17:11.660
Professor Fred Watson: Greater rate of knots, 60 something kilometres

365
00:17:11.660 --> 00:17:14.620
per second which is kind of one of the things that tells you that

366
00:17:14.620 --> 00:17:17.060
it doesn't belong to our solar system. It's going too fast.

367
00:17:17.700 --> 00:17:20.620
Andrew Dunkley: Right, There you are. Okay, uh you can read up

368
00:17:20.620 --> 00:17:23.291
on that one uh@universetoday.com

369
00:17:23.758 --> 00:17:25.860
uh3iatlas

370
00:17:26.980 --> 00:17:29.660
Got it. This is Space Nuts with Andrew

371
00:17:29.660 --> 00:17:32.100
Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson Watson.

372
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Space Nuts, our uh next story. Fred Watson

373
00:17:39.300 --> 00:17:41.780
takes us to a place I rarely

374
00:17:41.780 --> 00:17:44.420
mention. Uh it is the red planet Mars.

375
00:17:45.090 --> 00:17:47.760
Uh INSIGHT has uh been um

376
00:17:47.860 --> 00:17:50.700
sort of examining some of the secrets of Mars

377
00:17:50.700 --> 00:17:53.410
and come up with uh new information

378
00:17:54.370 --> 00:17:57.350
that kind of might surprise people about uh

379
00:17:57.490 --> 00:17:59.970
Mars's deep dark and ugly past.

380
00:18:00.620 --> 00:18:02.130
Um, there's been a few revelations.

381
00:18:03.330 --> 00:18:06.330
Professor Fred Watson: There have, yes. Um, I mean INSIGHT is the gift that

382
00:18:06.330 --> 00:18:09.250
keeps on giving really. Um because it switched off

383
00:18:09.250 --> 00:18:11.070
in 2022. Uh

384
00:18:12.080 --> 00:18:14.730
um it's ah a spacecraft that

385
00:18:14.730 --> 00:18:17.250
landed near Mars's equatorial region.

386
00:18:17.840 --> 00:18:20.740
Uh I think in about 2019 was when

387
00:18:20.740 --> 00:18:23.740
it uh touched down um and you might

388
00:18:23.740 --> 00:18:26.620
remember we discussed a lot the instruments that are on board

389
00:18:26.620 --> 00:18:29.620
it because one of them was a seismometer uh which has

390
00:18:29.620 --> 00:18:32.460
been incredibly successful and the other one was

391
00:18:32.460 --> 00:18:35.140
the interior thermometer which was incredibly

392
00:18:35.140 --> 00:18:38.020
unsuccessful because they were trying to drill

393
00:18:38.020 --> 00:18:40.460
a hole to put this thermometer down under the

394
00:18:40.620 --> 00:18:43.620
surface of uh Mars and I think can't remember what happened.

395
00:18:43.620 --> 00:18:46.540
The drill correct. Kept breaking or something um

396
00:18:46.720 --> 00:18:49.720
unsatisfying happened uh until that part of

397
00:18:49.720 --> 00:18:52.640
the experiment was not as successful but the seismograph

398
00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:55.190
has done its job and um

399
00:18:55.280 --> 00:18:58.160
the results from that keep um on being

400
00:18:58.160 --> 00:19:01.160
reanalysed uh because as time goes

401
00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:04.120
on we've got many more analytical facilities

402
00:19:04.120 --> 00:19:07.120
at our disposal which we didn't have before. Uh and

403
00:19:07.320 --> 00:19:10.320
um, you can now look at these seismic records with a

404
00:19:10.320 --> 00:19:13.000
lot more meaning and what's

405
00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:15.780
been discovered. It's actually um, from an

406
00:19:15.780 --> 00:19:18.700
analysis of eight seismic Events,

407
00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:21.740
uh, uh, two of which were

408
00:19:22.300 --> 00:19:24.620
probably caused by meteorite

409
00:19:25.180 --> 00:19:28.180
impact on Mars. Remember um, that the

410
00:19:28.180 --> 00:19:31.020
two mechanisms, because Mars doesn't have plate tectonics,

411
00:19:31.180 --> 00:19:33.900
it's called a single uh, crust.

412
00:19:34.120 --> 00:19:36.900
Um, it's uh, stretching and

413
00:19:36.900 --> 00:19:39.660
shrinking of the crust and sort of

414
00:19:39.660 --> 00:19:42.420
rift valleys forming and things like that that give you the seismic

415
00:19:42.420 --> 00:19:45.220
events or meteorite impacts. And two of

416
00:19:45.220 --> 00:19:47.580
those seismic events as I said, were

417
00:19:47.660 --> 00:19:49.740
meteorite impacts. But um,

418
00:19:50.380 --> 00:19:52.920
it's the way that the uh,

419
00:19:52.920 --> 00:19:55.920
relative frequencies of the vibrations, the

420
00:19:55.920 --> 00:19:58.860
uh, seismic vibrations, the relative frequencies of these,

421
00:19:59.430 --> 00:20:01.660
uh, that allows people to

422
00:20:02.300 --> 00:20:05.100
basically examine the interior of Mars,

423
00:20:05.510 --> 00:20:08.180
uh, in a very intelligent

424
00:20:08.180 --> 00:20:11.160
way. Um, so you look for higher

425
00:20:11.160 --> 00:20:13.760
frequency waves compared with uh, low

426
00:20:13.760 --> 00:20:16.560
frequency waves. And basically uh,

427
00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:19.680
that tells you uh, about the length

428
00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:22.560
of transmission time uh for these different

429
00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:25.359
waves, how long it takes you to get from the site of impact,

430
00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:28.000
wherever that is, uh to the seismograph.

431
00:20:28.160 --> 00:20:30.960
And uh, one of the authors uh, of this

432
00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:33.760
work. I um, think there's ah, certainly authors at

433
00:20:33.760 --> 00:20:36.530
Imperial College London and uh,

434
00:20:36.530 --> 00:20:39.390
other institutions, uh, but one of the authors m

435
00:20:39.390 --> 00:20:42.120
made a comment, um, which I liked.

436
00:20:42.120 --> 00:20:45.000
These signals show clear signs of interference

437
00:20:45.240 --> 00:20:47.800
as they travel through Mars's deep interior.

438
00:20:48.040 --> 00:20:50.880
That's consistent with a mantle full

439
00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:53.720
of structures of different compositional origins,

440
00:20:53.800 --> 00:20:56.360
leftovers from Mars's early days.

441
00:20:56.600 --> 00:20:59.320
And what that means is so the mantle is the region

442
00:20:59.720 --> 00:21:02.720
between the crust of uh, Mars and its

443
00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:05.680
core, its hot core. Uh, we've got a

444
00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:08.580
mantle on Earth. I think Mars's mantle is rather

445
00:21:09.080 --> 00:21:11.980
uh, deeper than ours relative to the diameter of the

446
00:21:11.980 --> 00:21:14.660
planet. Um but what they found is that

447
00:21:14.820 --> 00:21:17.740
the mantle isn't a sort of uniform, um,

448
00:21:18.340 --> 00:21:21.180
uh, paste of semi

449
00:21:21.180 --> 00:21:23.700
solid rock, uh but it has

450
00:21:23.780 --> 00:21:26.660
structure in it. Uh, and that structure

451
00:21:26.980 --> 00:21:29.370
is thought to come from uh,

452
00:21:29.780 --> 00:21:32.420
events that took place during Mars

453
00:21:32.580 --> 00:21:34.960
origins. Uh and in fact what they're

454
00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:37.820
suggesting is that um,

455
00:21:39.160 --> 00:21:42.040
when Mars was being formed about

456
00:21:42.040 --> 00:21:44.600
4.5 billion years ago, um,

457
00:21:44.840 --> 00:21:47.680
it was at a time as we've talked about it

458
00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:50.620
before. Not long after that there was the um,

459
00:21:50.620 --> 00:21:53.510
what's it called, The Late Heavy Bombardment, uh

460
00:21:53.510 --> 00:21:56.480
when there was a lot of stuff careering around the solar

461
00:21:56.480 --> 00:21:59.440
system. Big objects the size of uh, many

462
00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:01.910
planets really banging into everything else.

463
00:22:02.070 --> 00:22:04.790
And the suggestion is

464
00:22:05.030 --> 00:22:07.950
that at that period some of

465
00:22:07.950 --> 00:22:10.710
these planetoids or planetesimals, uh

466
00:22:10.710 --> 00:22:13.270
actually collided with Mars and

467
00:22:13.830 --> 00:22:16.390
basically melted parts of Mars,

468
00:22:16.910 --> 00:22:19.350
uh into oceans of

469
00:22:19.590 --> 00:22:22.230
molten magma. Uh, and

470
00:22:22.710 --> 00:22:25.390
then you find that these

471
00:22:25.390 --> 00:22:27.580
regions cool, but

472
00:22:28.140 --> 00:22:31.060
when they're cooled they have

473
00:22:31.060 --> 00:22:33.500
a different structure from the stuff that didn't get

474
00:22:33.500 --> 00:22:36.460
clouted and melted, uh, by an impact

475
00:22:36.860 --> 00:22:39.860
so what you're doing is you're differentiating between

476
00:22:39.860 --> 00:22:42.540
different zones of Mars's mantle and

477
00:22:42.620 --> 00:22:45.540
what they're saying is that what they're detecting

478
00:22:45.540 --> 00:22:48.140
with this uh, inhomogeneity in

479
00:22:48.140 --> 00:22:50.980
Mars's mantle is evidence of these, what

480
00:22:50.980 --> 00:22:53.950
they describe as compositionally distinct chunks of

481
00:22:53.950 --> 00:22:56.510
material. Uh so um, you know

482
00:22:56.510 --> 00:22:59.510
Mars as mantle has got some

483
00:22:59.510 --> 00:23:02.350
bits that were never reheated and others

484
00:23:02.350 --> 00:23:05.350
that were reheated after the planet's formation by these

485
00:23:05.350 --> 00:23:08.110
collisions probably molten, uh then

486
00:23:08.110 --> 00:23:11.070
they hardened and they crystallised and that gives

487
00:23:11.070 --> 00:23:13.630
you a different structure which is what's now been seen.

488
00:23:13.870 --> 00:23:16.800
So um, it's ah, you know one of the comments, uh,

489
00:23:17.150 --> 00:23:20.110
the same author, uh, uh, who I

490
00:23:20.110 --> 00:23:22.800
just um, I just uh, mentioned most of this

491
00:23:22.800 --> 00:23:25.360
chaos likely unfolded in Mars first

492
00:23:25.360 --> 00:23:28.160
100 million years. The fact that we can still

493
00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:31.040
detect its traces after 4.5 billion years

494
00:23:31.360 --> 00:23:34.160
shows just how sluggishly Mars's interior

495
00:23:34.400 --> 00:23:37.360
has been churning ever since. Uh unlike the

496
00:23:37.360 --> 00:23:40.120
Earth's which is much more active. So yeah,

497
00:23:40.120 --> 00:23:43.040
um, the Mars story from Insight

498
00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:46.200
keeps on amazing us. We keep uh, discovering

499
00:23:46.200 --> 00:23:49.000
new facts about it and um. Long may it continue

500
00:23:49.080 --> 00:23:49.640
Andrew.

501
00:23:50.120 --> 00:23:52.300
Andrew Dunkley: Yes, yes, hopefully. Um,

502
00:23:52.760 --> 00:23:55.640
and there's so much more to learn. This is what I

503
00:23:55.720 --> 00:23:58.600
love about uh, these inner planets

504
00:23:59.100 --> 00:24:02.000
uh, and the outer planets as well. The more we look at them

505
00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:04.760
and the more we analyse the data that we're receiving

506
00:24:04.760 --> 00:24:07.760
from various missions, the more interesting they

507
00:24:07.760 --> 00:24:10.720
get and the stranger they get sometimes as is

508
00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:13.560
the case with Mars in this particular situation.

509
00:24:13.640 --> 00:24:16.520
So uh, yeah it's a fascinating place. Uh,

510
00:24:16.520 --> 00:24:19.400
cosmosmagazine.com is where you need to go

511
00:24:19.400 --> 00:24:22.260
to uh, find out more about that if you'd like to follow up on

512
00:24:22.260 --> 00:24:25.220
that story. Andrew Dunkley here, Fred Watson Watson there.

513
00:24:25.220 --> 00:24:27.140
You're listening to Space Nuts.

514
00:24:31.540 --> 00:24:32.580
Professor Fred Watson: Space Nuts.

515
00:24:32.740 --> 00:24:35.580
Andrew Dunkley: And uh, our final story today is about

516
00:24:35.580 --> 00:24:38.500
a galactic habitable zone. Now we

517
00:24:38.500 --> 00:24:41.260
know about the habitable zone in our own solar

518
00:24:41.260 --> 00:24:43.780
system, uh, which is affectionately called the

519
00:24:43.860 --> 00:24:46.860
Goldilocks Zone. And we know about that because

520
00:24:46.860 --> 00:24:49.670
we're in it. That's the only thing that keeps us alive

521
00:24:49.670 --> 00:24:52.590
really. Uh, but Fred Watson,

522
00:24:53.310 --> 00:24:56.310
my question first up is uh, are they talking about

523
00:24:56.310 --> 00:24:59.150
a Goldilocks Zone on a galactic

524
00:24:59.150 --> 00:25:00.590
scale? Is that what this is?

525
00:25:01.470 --> 00:25:04.390
Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, effectively. Um, but um, it's

526
00:25:04.390 --> 00:25:07.350
not the temperature that's not too

527
00:25:07.350 --> 00:25:10.230
hot and m not too cold but just right as it

528
00:25:10.230 --> 00:25:13.190
is in our Goldilocks Zone the temperature's just right

529
00:25:13.190 --> 00:25:16.190
at this distance from the sun for liquid water to

530
00:25:16.190 --> 00:25:18.990
exist. And we know it does because we see

531
00:25:18.990 --> 00:25:21.790
it pretty well every day uh, in our

532
00:25:21.860 --> 00:25:24.750
um, in Our reservoirs of water, whether

533
00:25:24.750 --> 00:25:27.720
they're a bathtub or a ah sea. Um,

534
00:25:27.720 --> 00:25:30.510
but that's not what the galactic habitable

535
00:25:30.510 --> 00:25:32.750
zone is about. And it is being called that the

536
00:25:32.750 --> 00:25:35.550
GHz or GHz if you're on

537
00:25:35.550 --> 00:25:38.230
the other side of the Pacific. Um,

538
00:25:38.590 --> 00:25:40.830
it's uh, it's a region where

539
00:25:41.750 --> 00:25:43.990
you might um, expect

540
00:25:44.870 --> 00:25:47.190
to find more habitable planets

541
00:25:47.830 --> 00:25:50.630
than nearer to the centre of our

542
00:25:50.630 --> 00:25:51.910
galaxy or

543
00:25:53.670 --> 00:25:56.310
further out towards the edge of the galaxy.

544
00:25:57.000 --> 00:25:58.790
Uh and it basically

545
00:26:00.390 --> 00:26:03.390
comes uh about uh. Because you can

546
00:26:03.390 --> 00:26:06.030
analyse, you know we know a lot about the way

547
00:26:06.030 --> 00:26:09.020
stars evolve. Uh and we know a

548
00:26:09.020 --> 00:26:11.820
lot about the um, chemicals

549
00:26:13.100 --> 00:26:15.660
um that have basically been found in

550
00:26:15.900 --> 00:26:18.780
stellar interiors and their atmospheres. And we

551
00:26:18.780 --> 00:26:21.500
can trace this history of stars very

552
00:26:21.500 --> 00:26:24.300
accurately. Um and we can

553
00:26:24.300 --> 00:26:27.100
also uh, look at the

554
00:26:27.100 --> 00:26:29.740
orbits of stars around the centre of our galaxy.

555
00:26:30.080 --> 00:26:33.020
Uh and we can work out to some extent where they've come from

556
00:26:33.020 --> 00:26:35.620
because uh, we think that the orbits of

557
00:26:35.620 --> 00:26:38.620
stars actually um, ah, they actually change

558
00:26:38.700 --> 00:26:40.700
in a process called stellar migration

559
00:26:41.660 --> 00:26:44.660
where stars, orbits change around the centre of the

560
00:26:44.660 --> 00:26:47.020
galaxy. Uh and you,

561
00:26:47.980 --> 00:26:50.940
you know, you can find that they uh, move.

562
00:26:51.500 --> 00:26:54.500
And so one of the studies, uh, one

563
00:26:54.500 --> 00:26:57.180
of the um, comments that's come from

564
00:26:57.180 --> 00:26:59.260
this particular study. It's actually an international

565
00:27:00.120 --> 00:27:03.020
uh team of scientists who have looked at this. Uh, this

566
00:27:03.020 --> 00:27:05.540
is published in strongly in Astrophysics, one of the main

567
00:27:05.930 --> 00:27:08.820
uh learned journals of astronomy. What they've

568
00:27:08.820 --> 00:27:11.380
discovered is that

569
00:27:11.850 --> 00:27:14.020
um, there's a five times

570
00:27:15.060 --> 00:27:18.020
greater likelihood of

571
00:27:18.340 --> 00:27:21.060
stars migrating from

572
00:27:22.100 --> 00:27:24.900
one part of a

573
00:27:24.900 --> 00:27:27.140
galaxy to another for

574
00:27:27.300 --> 00:27:30.300
habitable planets, for stars that have habitable

575
00:27:30.300 --> 00:27:33.230
planets compared to, with a lack

576
00:27:33.230 --> 00:27:35.910
of any stellar migration. So it's a

577
00:27:35.910 --> 00:27:38.670
slightly, this is a slightly obtuse thing to look

578
00:27:38.670 --> 00:27:41.590
for. Um, but um, what it

579
00:27:41.910 --> 00:27:44.790
says is, you know, it's all about

580
00:27:45.030 --> 00:27:48.029
for example whether you uh, are

581
00:27:48.029 --> 00:27:50.630
in a part of the galaxy where

582
00:27:50.630 --> 00:27:53.510
your solar system could uh, host

583
00:27:53.830 --> 00:27:56.470
gas giant planets because they would

584
00:27:57.110 --> 00:27:59.910
basically have an effect on the formation of

585
00:27:59.910 --> 00:28:02.590
the kind of rocky planets that we think are the

586
00:28:02.590 --> 00:28:05.410
habitable one. Um, so I

587
00:28:05.410 --> 00:28:08.090
might just read um, a ah, quote from

588
00:28:08.090 --> 00:28:10.970
this paper. Uh, it's a little bit

589
00:28:11.030 --> 00:28:14.010
uh, technical but um, I

590
00:28:14.010 --> 00:28:16.850
think it's an interesting quote. It sort of illuminates what we're talking

591
00:28:16.850 --> 00:28:19.330
about. Uh, in this study we have

592
00:28:19.330 --> 00:28:21.850
significantly expanded the exploration

593
00:28:22.170 --> 00:28:25.170
of the parameter space defining the galactic

594
00:28:25.170 --> 00:28:27.850
habitable zone compared to previous

595
00:28:27.850 --> 00:28:30.520
analyses present in literature. Uh, our

596
00:28:30.520 --> 00:28:33.200
findings are particularly relevant in the context of

597
00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:36.120
upcoming space missions such as the

598
00:28:36.120 --> 00:28:38.960
ESA PLATO mission, that's

599
00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:41.920
planetary transits and oscillations of stars, the uh,

600
00:28:42.040 --> 00:28:44.520
ESA Aerial Space Mission and large

601
00:28:44.520 --> 00:28:47.360
Interferometer for exoplanets. That's

602
00:28:47.360 --> 00:28:50.360
life. And these missions

603
00:28:50.360 --> 00:28:52.880
will deliver unprecedented, um, data on planetary

604
00:28:52.880 --> 00:28:55.440
properties, orbital architectures and

605
00:28:55.440 --> 00:28:58.130
atmospheric concepts, compositions. So what

606
00:28:58.130 --> 00:29:01.120
they're basically saying is, uh,

607
00:29:01.120 --> 00:29:04.090
if you're going to look for habitable planets, you want

608
00:29:04.090 --> 00:29:06.930
to be careful where you look. Because if there is

609
00:29:06.930 --> 00:29:09.890
such a thing as a stellar or a galactic habitable zone,

610
00:29:10.390 --> 00:29:13.370
um, then, uh, we want to be looking there

611
00:29:13.370 --> 00:29:16.090
if we're going to look for, uh, you know,

612
00:29:16.090 --> 00:29:19.050
for uh, habitable planets. It's an old

613
00:29:19.050 --> 00:29:21.610
idea, actually. The GHz, uh, or

614
00:29:21.610 --> 00:29:24.590
GHz, uh, comes, goes back to the 1980s.

615
00:29:25.030 --> 00:29:27.830
Um, and it's all about, you know, the um, the

616
00:29:27.830 --> 00:29:29.550
formation of the heavier elements.

617
00:29:30.670 --> 00:29:33.470
The ones that are basically work

618
00:29:33.550 --> 00:29:36.550
like iron, silicon, uh,

619
00:29:36.830 --> 00:29:39.830
oxygen, all of these elements. You've got to form

620
00:29:39.830 --> 00:29:42.430
them. You've got to form them in the right place in a galaxy.

621
00:29:42.910 --> 00:29:45.750
And uh, you've got to then, uh, let that

622
00:29:45.750 --> 00:29:48.430
environment breed these, uh, elements

623
00:29:48.430 --> 00:29:51.410
into molecules which basically

624
00:29:51.410 --> 00:29:54.210
become the, um, uh, precursors of life.

625
00:29:55.730 --> 00:29:57.970
I'm sorry, that's the Gobbler book. Uh,

626
00:29:57.970 --> 00:29:58.850
explanation.

627
00:29:59.570 --> 00:30:02.490
Andrew Dunkley: No, fair enough. Um, so

628
00:30:02.490 --> 00:30:04.770
does that mean that in our ongoing search for

629
00:30:04.770 --> 00:30:07.170
exoplanets, we should be focusing on

630
00:30:07.410 --> 00:30:10.290
the GHz areas?

631
00:30:11.330 --> 00:30:13.610
Uh, or do we not really care where the

632
00:30:13.610 --> 00:30:16.370
exoplanets are? Finding them is imperative regardless.

633
00:30:17.120 --> 00:30:20.080
Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, no, no, that's. That's exactly right.

634
00:30:20.080 --> 00:30:23.000
That's exactly what these authors are saying. We should be looking in the

635
00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:25.720
right place if we want to find, uh, habitable

636
00:30:25.720 --> 00:30:28.240
planets. Uh, and, um, uh,

637
00:30:28.720 --> 00:30:31.560
and indeed, um, you know, the, the PLATO mission, for

638
00:30:31.560 --> 00:30:34.080
example, is going to look at a million stars. It's a bit like

639
00:30:34.080 --> 00:30:36.880
Kepler. The Kepler mission, it was. It's finding

640
00:30:37.280 --> 00:30:40.200
planets by transits. Uh, so that's going

641
00:30:40.200 --> 00:30:42.940
to scan a million stars and, and

642
00:30:43.180 --> 00:30:45.660
you want to make sure you're looking at them in the right place.

643
00:30:45.660 --> 00:30:47.260
That's the, uh, bottom line.

644
00:30:47.900 --> 00:30:50.820
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. Although some would say, well, if we

645
00:30:50.820 --> 00:30:53.580
focus only on those areas, we might miss something important

646
00:30:53.820 --> 00:30:56.140
in the not so habitable zones.

647
00:30:56.700 --> 00:30:57.740
You just never know.

648
00:30:58.390 --> 00:31:01.140
Professor Fred Watson: Uh, and part of the problem with that is that we've only got one

649
00:31:01.140 --> 00:31:04.100
example of life, and that's here on Earth. And so we're

650
00:31:04.100 --> 00:31:06.460
sort of looking for the same kind of chemical reactions

651
00:31:06.860 --> 00:31:09.780
that formed life here on Earth. Earth, uh, to, to

652
00:31:09.780 --> 00:31:12.740
form similar life elsewhere, but there might be other kinds of

653
00:31:12.740 --> 00:31:14.700
life that don't need those reactions.

654
00:31:15.180 --> 00:31:18.140
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, Ah, it's, um, it's funny

655
00:31:18.140 --> 00:31:20.900
you mentioned that because it just reminded me while we were on our cruise

656
00:31:20.900 --> 00:31:23.860
ship, we, we played a lot of trivia because, you know,

657
00:31:23.860 --> 00:31:26.740
that's what you do. And one of the questions

658
00:31:26.740 --> 00:31:28.550
that came up was, um, um,

659
00:31:29.980 --> 00:31:32.900
what was. I can't remember the wording, but they basically wanted you

660
00:31:32.900 --> 00:31:35.860
to explain what the Drake equation was. And

661
00:31:36.340 --> 00:31:38.580
I think only two of us got it out of

662
00:31:38.980 --> 00:31:41.860
200 people. Uh, I was very

663
00:31:41.860 --> 00:31:42.900
proud of myself, actually.

664
00:31:43.060 --> 00:31:44.900
Professor Fred Watson: I'm sure you will be. Yeah. Good on you.

665
00:31:46.160 --> 00:31:48.660
Andrew Dunkley: Uh, okay, so if you want to find out more about the

666
00:31:48.660 --> 00:31:51.580
Galactic Habitable Zone, you can do

667
00:31:51.580 --> 00:31:54.460
that through the universetoday.com website. It's a

668
00:31:54.460 --> 00:31:57.060
really interesting article too. I did manage to read the first

669
00:31:57.060 --> 00:31:57.620
paragraph.

670
00:31:58.100 --> 00:32:01.060
Uh, now, um, one thing I wanted

671
00:32:01.060 --> 00:32:03.900
to mention when you were talking about Insight and Mars and Mars not

672
00:32:03.900 --> 00:32:06.700
having tectonics, I, uh, I

673
00:32:06.700 --> 00:32:09.580
meant to add this onto the end of that segment, but I'll do it

674
00:32:09.580 --> 00:32:12.060
now. While we were overseas, uh, we went to

675
00:32:12.060 --> 00:32:14.860
Iceland and what an amazing place

676
00:32:14.860 --> 00:32:17.740
Iceland is. Uh, we got to walk along

677
00:32:17.740 --> 00:32:19.900
a rift valley where the

678
00:32:20.140 --> 00:32:22.220
Eurasian tectonic plate

679
00:32:22.860 --> 00:32:25.820
and the American tectonic plate meet. You can

680
00:32:25.820 --> 00:32:28.380
actually walk along it and the American

681
00:32:28.380 --> 00:32:31.220
plate is going up and over, the Eurasian plate is

682
00:32:31.220 --> 00:32:33.790
going down and under, and you can walk

683
00:32:34.110 --> 00:32:36.950
right on top of that. And

684
00:32:36.950 --> 00:32:39.310
you're walking along thinking, isn't this amazing?

685
00:32:40.110 --> 00:32:42.710
And, um, then you start seeing the

686
00:32:42.710 --> 00:32:45.310
plaques that explain, well, this was an earthquake in

687
00:32:45.310 --> 00:32:48.270
2011, this was an earthquake in 2015.

688
00:32:48.270 --> 00:32:50.910
And you're thinking, why am I standing here?

689
00:32:52.750 --> 00:32:53.550
Quite incredible.

690
00:32:53.950 --> 00:32:56.510
Professor Fred Watson: So the place you were at is a place called Thingback.

691
00:32:57.480 --> 00:33:00.110
Uh, it's, uh, uh, not that far from

692
00:33:00.110 --> 00:33:03.010
Reykjavik. Uh, Bungs. Uh, it's not

693
00:33:03.010 --> 00:33:05.770
plates colliding, it's plates dragging apart because

694
00:33:05.770 --> 00:33:08.730
you're in the middle of. Yeah, so they're

695
00:33:08.730 --> 00:33:11.610
separating. So you need to be even more careful because if

696
00:33:11.610 --> 00:33:14.570
they separate a bit faster on the day you're walking through it, you're going to drop

697
00:33:14.570 --> 00:33:15.650
right into the hole.

698
00:33:16.130 --> 00:33:19.010
Andrew Dunkley: Well, there are a lot of cracks in the ground in that part of

699
00:33:19.010 --> 00:33:21.250
the. So it does make sense.

700
00:33:21.960 --> 00:33:24.690
Um, I must not have read the literature

701
00:33:24.690 --> 00:33:27.610
when they explained what was happening exactly, but I

702
00:33:27.610 --> 00:33:28.970
thought they said colliding.

703
00:33:28.970 --> 00:33:31.730
Professor Fred Watson: So it's coming

704
00:33:31.730 --> 00:33:34.450
apart. It's the Mid Atlantic Ridge. That is the only place

705
00:33:34.770 --> 00:33:37.170
where the Mid Atlantic Ridge is on the surface.

706
00:33:37.490 --> 00:33:40.330
And Tingviklijk is where it's

707
00:33:40.330 --> 00:33:43.330
where it's most obvious. There is another place, uh, not very

708
00:33:43.330 --> 00:33:45.330
far from there. So actually on the

709
00:33:45.490 --> 00:33:48.490
Reykjanesput Peninsula to the

710
00:33:48.490 --> 00:33:51.410
west of, uh, Reykjavik. And there, there's a

711
00:33:51.410 --> 00:33:54.400
bridge across this border. Uh,

712
00:33:54.400 --> 00:33:57.370
and you can stand on one side of the bridge and you're on the Eurasian

713
00:33:57.370 --> 00:34:00.160
plate Stand on the other. You're on the American complaint. And all the

714
00:34:00.160 --> 00:34:03.040
locals think it's a great joke because you know there are things

715
00:34:03.040 --> 00:34:05.800
like this all over the island. Basically the island splitting

716
00:34:05.800 --> 00:34:08.400
in. In pieces because of the. Of that

717
00:34:08.400 --> 00:34:09.080
separation.

718
00:34:09.080 --> 00:34:12.040
Andrew Dunkley: But yeah, saw photos of

719
00:34:12.040 --> 00:34:14.920
people doing that. But we didn't go. We didn't go there but we went to.

720
00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:17.160
Oh, we went to a lot of places in Iceland. But

721
00:34:17.610 --> 00:34:20.200
um. One of the things we

722
00:34:20.360 --> 00:34:23.280
learned about a lot in places

723
00:34:23.280 --> 00:34:25.780
like Iceland and Greenland and up in um,

724
00:34:26.120 --> 00:34:29.040
Northern Europe was how fast the glaciers

725
00:34:29.040 --> 00:34:32.040
are melting. M. And shocking.

726
00:34:32.920 --> 00:34:35.520
It is very shocking. Some of them are um,

727
00:34:35.950 --> 00:34:38.760
uh. Ah, losing 20 metres or

728
00:34:38.760 --> 00:34:41.360
200 metres a year I should say, which is

729
00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:43.080
staggering. And

730
00:34:44.840 --> 00:34:47.440
that's lost forever. Um, we can't

731
00:34:47.440 --> 00:34:50.400
reverse that. So ah, it is rather

732
00:34:50.400 --> 00:34:53.390
shocking in fact. Uh, we were, I think it was

733
00:34:53.390 --> 00:34:56.279
when we were in the um, uh,

734
00:34:56.550 --> 00:34:59.510
Saint Christian Sound, uh, Prince Christian

735
00:34:59.510 --> 00:35:02.240
Sound, uh, they were saying um,

736
00:35:02.390 --> 00:35:05.390
see that rock in front of that uh, glacier? And we

737
00:35:05.390 --> 00:35:08.150
all went yeah. Well it was actually covered in

738
00:35:08.150 --> 00:35:10.950
ice two years ago. Yeah, that's how bad it's

739
00:35:10.950 --> 00:35:13.790
getting. And this is just this rock in the middle of nowhere and the

740
00:35:13.790 --> 00:35:16.470
ice is way, way, way back. So

741
00:35:16.630 --> 00:35:19.250
yeah, pretty shocking stuff. Um,

742
00:35:19.740 --> 00:35:22.140
that's just about it. Fred Watson, thank you so much.

743
00:35:23.660 --> 00:35:26.220
Professor Fred Watson: It's a pleasure. Andrew, it's great to welcome you back

744
00:35:26.380 --> 00:35:29.100
and um, I um, look forward to

745
00:35:29.100 --> 00:35:31.900
continuing the uh, recordings at a

746
00:35:31.970 --> 00:35:34.860
um, time that you don't have to

747
00:35:34.860 --> 00:35:37.620
choose between awkward times on different sides of the

748
00:35:37.620 --> 00:35:40.580
planet. Which is what we could do. Heidi and uh, I juggling

749
00:35:40.580 --> 00:35:42.540
our uh, respective uh, days.

750
00:35:43.180 --> 00:35:46.100
Andrew Dunkley: It's a bit difficult with those time differences. Well, while we were on the

751
00:35:46.100 --> 00:35:49.090
ship we sold a few and bought a house which in the

752
00:35:49.090 --> 00:35:51.810
early phases was simple because it was only a few hours time

753
00:35:51.810 --> 00:35:54.610
difference. But when it got to the real crunch of you know,

754
00:35:54.610 --> 00:35:57.570
settling it all, uh, the time difference was 12

755
00:35:57.570 --> 00:36:00.010
hours. So it really got difficult.

756
00:36:00.330 --> 00:36:03.130
But uh, it's done now and yes, we're in our new place.

757
00:36:03.370 --> 00:36:06.330
I should show it to you. I've got the, I've got the

758
00:36:06.330 --> 00:36:09.010
um, the Yankees Red uh, Sox

759
00:36:09.010 --> 00:36:11.930
baseball game background on. Because I took that photo when we went

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00:36:11.930 --> 00:36:14.890
and watched a game in New York the other day uh, which

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00:36:14.890 --> 00:36:16.670
was a lot of fun and the Red Sox one.

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00:36:16.670 --> 00:36:17.150
Professor Fred Watson: Whoops.

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00:36:17.490 --> 00:36:20.430
Andrew Dunkley: Um, but um, yeah, I'll put a normal

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00:36:20.430 --> 00:36:23.390
background on so you can see the new place which pretty much

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00:36:23.390 --> 00:36:26.110
looks the same as the old place. But anyway, whatever.

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Thanks Fred Watson. We'll catch you real soon.

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00:36:28.750 --> 00:36:30.670
Professor Fred Watson: Sounds good. Thanks Andrew. Take care.

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00:36:31.690 --> 00:36:34.430
Andrew Dunkley: Uh, you too. And don't forget, uh, if you would like to support

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the Australasian Dark sky alliance

770
00:36:37.310 --> 00:36:40.190
and get, uh, those signatures on their petition,

771
00:36:40.430 --> 00:36:43.150
it's australiandarkskyalliance.org

772
00:36:43.880 --> 00:36:46.760
and, uh, just follow the prompts, uh, for Australian

773
00:36:47.080 --> 00:36:49.320
signatories only. Australian, uh,

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00:36:49.320 --> 00:36:50.240
Australasian

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00:36:50.240 --> 00:36:53.110
darkskyalliance.org uh,

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00:36:53.110 --> 00:36:55.960
that's it from me. And, oh, I forgot to thank

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00:36:55.960 --> 00:36:58.880
Huw in the studio, which

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00:36:58.880 --> 00:37:01.600
I quite often do. Uh, from me, Andrew

779
00:37:01.600 --> 00:37:04.280
Dunkley. Thanks for your company. See you on the next episode of Space

780
00:37:04.280 --> 00:37:05.400
Nuts. Bye. Bye.

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00:37:21.710 --> 00:37:24.090
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