Interstellar Intrigue: 3I Atlas, Cosmic Probes & the Quest for Extraterrestrial Life

WEBVTT

0
00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:03.600
Heidi Campo: Welcome back to another fun and exciting episode

1
00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:06.480
of Space Nuts, the podcast

2
00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:07.920
that is out of this world.

3
00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:10.720
Generic: 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.

4
00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:13.680
10, 9. Ignition

5
00:00:13.680 --> 00:00:16.644
sequence start. Space nuts. 5, 4, 3,

6
00:00:16.716 --> 00:00:19.524
2. 1. 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4,

7
00:00:19.596 --> 00:00:22.560
3, 2, 1. Space nuts astronauts

8
00:00:22.560 --> 00:00:23.760
report it feels good.

9
00:00:24.240 --> 00:00:26.640
Heidi Campo: And I'm your host for this, uh, American

10
00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:29.750
summer and Australian winter. My

11
00:00:29.750 --> 00:00:32.630
name is Heidi Campo, filling in for Andrew

12
00:00:32.630 --> 00:00:35.470
Dunkley. And joining us is the wonderful

13
00:00:35.710 --> 00:00:38.430
Professor Fred Watson, astronomer at

14
00:00:38.430 --> 00:00:40.030
large. How are you doing, Fred?

15
00:00:41.470 --> 00:00:43.960
Professor Fred Watson: Very well, thank you, Heidi. I've been m

16
00:00:44.109 --> 00:00:46.870
traveling since we last spoke and have explored the

17
00:00:46.870 --> 00:00:49.220
great state of Western Australia, uh,

18
00:00:49.550 --> 00:00:52.270
in great detail. If I remember rightly, Western Australia

19
00:00:52.350 --> 00:00:55.350
would encompass Texas three times. I think that's the

20
00:00:55.350 --> 00:00:58.110
figure. Uh, it's very large. And

21
00:00:58.510 --> 00:01:01.210
so we spent a lot of time,

22
00:01:01.480 --> 00:01:04.330
uh, in coaches, but saw some incredible sites, including,

23
00:01:04.820 --> 00:01:07.700
um, the Carnarvon space ah,

24
00:01:07.700 --> 00:01:10.570
facility, which was, uh, one of the places where

25
00:01:11.290 --> 00:01:13.940
radio, um, signals were picked up and uh,

26
00:01:13.940 --> 00:01:16.770
beamed out to the world during the Apollo

27
00:01:16.770 --> 00:01:19.570
era. So lovely to visit some of the

28
00:01:19.570 --> 00:01:22.090
places where history was made at a time

29
00:01:22.650 --> 00:01:24.330
when I was, you know,

30
00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:28.090
um, a young budding astronomer and very

31
00:01:28.090 --> 00:01:30.810
excited by the whole thing. So it's great to see all that old technology

32
00:01:30.890 --> 00:01:31.290
again.

33
00:01:32.320 --> 00:01:35.040
Heidi Campo: Yeah, there's just something special about the old technology.

34
00:01:35.360 --> 00:01:38.160
The way it looked and felt and was packaged. And the

35
00:01:38.160 --> 00:01:41.000
new, sleek, modern stuff is cool and great, but it just

36
00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:42.000
doesn't feel the same.

37
00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:46.120
Professor Fred Watson: That's right. Well, when they get fashion designers to

38
00:01:46.120 --> 00:01:48.960
design their spacesuits, you know that things have moved on quite a long

39
00:01:48.960 --> 00:01:50.440
way since the Apollo era.

40
00:01:50.440 --> 00:01:53.240
Heidi Campo: It really has changed. But one thing

41
00:01:53.240 --> 00:01:56.160
that will never change until it does

42
00:01:56.320 --> 00:01:59.200
is our fascination with extraterrestrials.

43
00:02:00.030 --> 00:02:02.910
Which leads us into our first story

44
00:02:03.070 --> 00:02:03.470
today.

45
00:02:04.270 --> 00:02:07.030
So the three. I don't know if this is the

46
00:02:07.030 --> 00:02:09.950
three I or the three lowercase l. Atlas.

47
00:02:10.720 --> 00:02:13.470
Um, Harvard's thinking

48
00:02:13.790 --> 00:02:16.670
maybe alien probe. What's going on

49
00:02:16.670 --> 00:02:18.430
here, Fred? Give us some sanity.

50
00:02:19.230 --> 00:02:21.710
Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, so 3i.

51
00:02:22.030 --> 00:02:23.950
It is 3i because it's the third

52
00:02:24.110 --> 00:02:26.570
interstellar, um, visitor,

53
00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:29.690
uh, that has been recorded. There are probably many more

54
00:02:29.770 --> 00:02:32.450
that we haven't detected. Uh, but this is an

55
00:02:32.450 --> 00:02:35.410
object which is flying through the solar system. We have talked

56
00:02:35.410 --> 00:02:38.250
about it before. Uh, we're going to talk about it again

57
00:02:38.330 --> 00:02:41.090
just because of a couple of things that have come

58
00:02:41.090 --> 00:02:44.050
up. Um, so the

59
00:02:44.050 --> 00:02:46.850
bottom line, 3i. Atlas. Atlas was the facility that

60
00:02:46.850 --> 00:02:49.280
discovered it. Uh, it's, uh,

61
00:02:49.770 --> 00:02:52.330
an object which is whizzing through the solar system

62
00:02:52.570 --> 00:02:55.530
at about 60 km per second in an orbit

63
00:02:56.030 --> 00:02:58.830
that tells you immediately that it has come from outside

64
00:02:58.910 --> 00:03:01.630
the solar system. It's not, uh, in any

65
00:03:01.630 --> 00:03:04.510
sense gravitationally bound to the Sun. So it's not part

66
00:03:04.510 --> 00:03:07.470
of the Sun's family of planets. It's from somewhere else.

67
00:03:07.550 --> 00:03:10.550
We don't know where it came from. And, uh, is whizzing through

68
00:03:10.550 --> 00:03:13.510
the solar system. If I remember rightly, it passes

69
00:03:13.510 --> 00:03:15.950
closest to the Sun. I think it is

70
00:03:15.950 --> 00:03:18.560
October. Uh, it's, um,

71
00:03:18.560 --> 00:03:21.550
certainly, um, uh, down the track. Uh, yes,

72
00:03:21.550 --> 00:03:24.220
it's the closest approach in October. Um,

73
00:03:24.350 --> 00:03:27.300
so, uh, it's probably a comet.

74
00:03:27.500 --> 00:03:30.260
Um, a comet is an object made

75
00:03:30.260 --> 00:03:33.020
of ice, uh, with dust embedded in

76
00:03:33.020 --> 00:03:35.580
it. Uh, it's, uh, it's

77
00:03:35.580 --> 00:03:38.460
um. You know, the thing about comets is when they get

78
00:03:38.460 --> 00:03:41.460
near the sun, the ice turns into a gas. And

79
00:03:41.780 --> 00:03:44.520
we see the uh, result of that, um,

80
00:03:44.660 --> 00:03:47.580
often stretched in a tail across the sky,

81
00:03:47.580 --> 00:03:50.500
which makes them very bright occasionally and

82
00:03:50.580 --> 00:03:53.160
also occasionally quite, um, you know,

83
00:03:53.160 --> 00:03:56.160
quite, um, inspiring to people who don't know

84
00:03:56.160 --> 00:03:59.040
what they're looking at, which is why they were often regarded as portents

85
00:03:59.040 --> 00:04:01.760
of doom, uh, down, uh, uh, in

86
00:04:01.760 --> 00:04:04.480
historical times. So this one however,

87
00:04:04.480 --> 00:04:07.400
is probably not going to do that. It may be a comet.

88
00:04:07.400 --> 00:04:10.280
It's thought to be about 20 km across, which is actually

89
00:04:10.280 --> 00:04:12.960
quite large for the nucleus of a comet.

90
00:04:13.200 --> 00:04:15.920
But the reason why I wanted to bring it up again

91
00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:19.360
is it's the headline that I almost

92
00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:21.950
could have predicted. Uh, is

93
00:04:21.950 --> 00:04:24.710
Interstellar Object 3I Atlas an alien

94
00:04:24.710 --> 00:04:27.310
probe. Harvard Physicist sparks

95
00:04:27.310 --> 00:04:30.110
debate. Uh, and that Harvard physicist

96
00:04:30.110 --> 00:04:32.390
is a very eminent, uh, uh,

97
00:04:32.390 --> 00:04:35.150
astrophysicist. Uh, I think he's still the director

98
00:04:35.150 --> 00:04:37.510
of the Harvard Smithsonian Institute for

99
00:04:37.510 --> 00:04:40.430
Astronomy. His name is Avi Loeb, and

100
00:04:40.670 --> 00:04:42.910
he is famous for always

101
00:04:43.070 --> 00:04:45.790
putting, uh, a slant

102
00:04:46.190 --> 00:04:48.840
which could be

103
00:04:48.840 --> 00:04:51.800
interpreted as uh, suggesting

104
00:04:51.960 --> 00:04:54.760
I'm, um, going a long way around this because I want to be careful with

105
00:04:54.760 --> 00:04:57.320
my words, uh, that things like this

106
00:04:57.960 --> 00:05:00.840
could have an intelligent origin. Uh, we

107
00:05:00.840 --> 00:05:03.200
had the same when the first of these

108
00:05:03.200 --> 00:05:05.840
interstellar visitors came by back in

109
00:05:05.840 --> 00:05:08.600
2017. Um, an object called

110
00:05:08.600 --> 00:05:11.550
Oumuamua, named after, uh.

111
00:05:11.590 --> 00:05:14.120
Uh, it's a Hawaiian name meaning first

112
00:05:14.120 --> 00:05:16.760
visitor from afar, which is a lovely name. An

113
00:05:16.760 --> 00:05:19.740
interesting object, only 100 meters or so across. We

114
00:05:19.740 --> 00:05:22.500
didn't discover it until it was on its way out of the solar system.

115
00:05:23.060 --> 00:05:25.980
It's probably shaped a bit like a pancake from the light

116
00:05:25.980 --> 00:05:28.830
curve, the way the light was reflected off it. Uh,

117
00:05:28.830 --> 00:05:31.180
but I think Avi, um, very

118
00:05:31.180 --> 00:05:34.180
quickly, uh, found what he thought was evidence

119
00:05:34.180 --> 00:05:36.580
that this thing perhaps had an

120
00:05:36.820 --> 00:05:39.380
extraterrestrial intelligence origin.

121
00:05:39.620 --> 00:05:42.480
And exactly the same thing has happened, uh,

122
00:05:42.580 --> 00:05:45.250
with the uh, three I atlas his

123
00:05:45.250 --> 00:05:47.930
reasoning though I think is really

124
00:05:48.010 --> 00:05:50.730
interesting, uh, and that is,

125
00:05:51.090 --> 00:05:53.890
uh, the curious couple of

126
00:05:53.890 --> 00:05:56.490
curious coincidences, uh, in

127
00:05:56.490 --> 00:05:59.050
regard to the orbit of 3i

128
00:05:59.050 --> 00:06:01.850
ATLAS. And remember, this is an open orbit. It's just a

129
00:06:01.850 --> 00:06:04.810
pathway through the solar system. It's not like

130
00:06:04.810 --> 00:06:07.610
an ellipse or a circle. It's going almost in a

131
00:06:07.610 --> 00:06:10.250
straight line. In fact, it's going so fast. But

132
00:06:10.810 --> 00:06:13.720
uh, what Aviloeb has noted

133
00:06:13.720 --> 00:06:16.550
is that, uh,

134
00:06:16.550 --> 00:06:19.240
this object will actually pass close

135
00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:22.920
to Mars, Venus and

136
00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:25.400
Jupiter. Uh, and

137
00:06:26.440 --> 00:06:28.920
so, uh, what Avi has done is a

138
00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:31.680
statistical test on the likelihood of

139
00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:34.600
that. And he estimates that the chance of

140
00:06:34.600 --> 00:06:37.240
this path occurring naturally by chance

141
00:06:37.970 --> 00:06:40.290
is 0.005%.

142
00:06:41.280 --> 00:06:44.130
Uh, and another little feature of this,

143
00:06:44.290 --> 00:06:46.770
as uh, I mentioned, uh, the object

144
00:06:47.010 --> 00:06:49.930
actually passes closest to the sun in October. It's actually the

145
00:06:49.930 --> 00:06:52.850
29th of October. And it turns out that

146
00:06:52.850 --> 00:06:55.410
when that is the case, it will

147
00:06:55.570 --> 00:06:58.490
be, uh, on the other side of the sun from the

148
00:06:58.490 --> 00:07:01.410
Earth. It'll be hidden from the Earth. And so

149
00:07:01.570 --> 00:07:04.530
AVI goes as far as to suggest that that is

150
00:07:04.530 --> 00:07:07.410
perhaps so that it does not get detected

151
00:07:07.490 --> 00:07:10.250
to avoid detection. Now I think that one's

152
00:07:10.250 --> 00:07:12.970
stretching it a little bit too far. But I do think it's

153
00:07:12.970 --> 00:07:15.010
interesting, uh, that the

154
00:07:15.170 --> 00:07:17.570
interstellar comet, if that's what it is,

155
00:07:17.810 --> 00:07:20.810
passes close by, uh, those three planets that

156
00:07:20.810 --> 00:07:23.770
I just mentioned. Whether it is proof that it's

157
00:07:23.770 --> 00:07:26.770
an alien visitor is another story.

158
00:07:28.130 --> 00:07:29.490
Heidi Campo: Well, I guess we'll find out.

159
00:07:30.370 --> 00:07:32.970
Professor Fred Watson: Well, we might not. Although, um,

160
00:07:33.050 --> 00:07:35.940
uh, so you know, what happens

161
00:07:35.940 --> 00:07:38.700
when something like this goes by is that all the world's

162
00:07:38.700 --> 00:07:41.660
telescopes concentrate uh, on it because it's

163
00:07:41.660 --> 00:07:44.500
something that you've only got a limited time frame to do.

164
00:07:44.980 --> 00:07:46.990
So there's a big, um,

165
00:07:47.860 --> 00:07:50.660
interest in bringing together lots of telescopes

166
00:07:50.660 --> 00:07:52.900
that can observe this object,

167
00:07:53.710 --> 00:07:56.420
uh, and uh, look at it in great detail,

168
00:07:56.930 --> 00:07:59.740
uh, with our uh, spectrographs and things of that

169
00:07:59.740 --> 00:08:02.540
sort, which analyze any gases that are coming

170
00:08:02.540 --> 00:08:05.480
from it, perhaps give us an idea of the sort of surface that

171
00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:08.480
it has. So those things will

172
00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:11.520
be, um, being looked at over the next

173
00:08:11.520 --> 00:08:14.240
month or so, couple of months. Um, but

174
00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:17.000
whether we will find enough evidence to

175
00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:19.440
demonstrate that it has an intelligent

176
00:08:19.440 --> 00:08:22.320
origin is a different story. Uh, because

177
00:08:22.320 --> 00:08:25.200
we could learn all sorts of things about it and still not

178
00:08:25.200 --> 00:08:28.200
have that answer. So, um, I think it's one that Space Nuts

179
00:08:28.200 --> 00:08:30.890
will keep an eye on over the next few months. Uh,

180
00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:33.920
and yes, if it turns out to have windows or

181
00:08:34.160 --> 00:08:36.550
spikes, ah, coming out of it or things like that,

182
00:08:36.740 --> 00:08:39.499
um, our uh, Space Nuts audience will be the first to know about

183
00:08:39.499 --> 00:08:39.819
it.

184
00:08:40.539 --> 00:08:43.179
Heidi Campo: Absolutely. You'll you. You'll always hear it

185
00:08:43.179 --> 00:08:44.459
here first.

186
00:08:47.739 --> 00:08:49.899
Generic: Okay, we checked all four systems and.

187
00:08:49.899 --> 00:08:51.739
Professor Fred Watson: Being with a go space nuts.

188
00:08:52.940 --> 00:08:55.899
Heidi Campo: Um, well, our next story is I guess

189
00:08:55.899 --> 00:08:58.739
a little bit less fringe alien

190
00:08:58.739 --> 00:09:01.659
stuff, but still odd and still

191
00:09:02.560 --> 00:09:05.440
so relevant to, you know, everything that we're looking at with

192
00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:08.320
space. But we're talking about how

193
00:09:09.040 --> 00:09:10.000
space weather,

194
00:09:11.760 --> 00:09:14.600
like, affects scientists here on Earth. So this

195
00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:17.180
is, uh, the article is saying, um,

196
00:09:17.680 --> 00:09:20.560
the weather has been influencing human behavior on

197
00:09:20.560 --> 00:09:22.800
Earth since years and years and years ago.

198
00:09:23.280 --> 00:09:25.200
But this one's a little bit

199
00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:27.120
interesting.

200
00:09:29.370 --> 00:09:31.930
Professor Fred Watson: It is. I think this is a lovely story.

201
00:09:33.530 --> 00:09:36.330
I always relish stories that bring

202
00:09:36.330 --> 00:09:39.290
together quite unrelated disciplines in science,

203
00:09:39.290 --> 00:09:42.050
which this one certainly does, uh, because it

204
00:09:42.050 --> 00:09:45.050
brings together, um, geophysicists, people who

205
00:09:45.050 --> 00:09:47.810
study space weather, um, uh,

206
00:09:48.010 --> 00:09:50.890
and uh, also archaeologists,

207
00:09:50.970 --> 00:09:53.650
people who study the uh, ancient history, uh,

208
00:09:53.890 --> 00:09:56.400
of our species. Uh, and

209
00:09:56.560 --> 00:09:59.400
it's um, actually a conversation article that sparked my

210
00:09:59.400 --> 00:10:02.400
interest on this, uh, which is written by three authors from,

211
00:10:02.990 --> 00:10:05.880
uh, um, the United States, two from the

212
00:10:05.880 --> 00:10:08.200
University of Michigan, uh, one from the

213
00:10:08.200 --> 00:10:09.840
Helmholtz center for

214
00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:13.000
Geosciences that might actually be not in the

215
00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:15.600
United States. But anyway, that's another story.

216
00:10:16.170 --> 00:10:18.990
Um, so we've got, uh, these, uh,

217
00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:22.080
scientists who have looked at,

218
00:10:22.850 --> 00:10:25.610
um, the evidence for the

219
00:10:25.610 --> 00:10:27.690
behavior of the Earth's magnetic field,

220
00:10:28.370 --> 00:10:31.270
uh, in geological time. Uh,

221
00:10:31.450 --> 00:10:34.250
now we know, uh, from quite

222
00:10:34.890 --> 00:10:37.770
reliable sources, namely,

223
00:10:38.210 --> 00:10:41.050
uh, basically the magnetic

224
00:10:41.050 --> 00:10:43.890
details of ancient rocks on the

225
00:10:43.890 --> 00:10:46.810
ocean bed. We know that the Earth's magnetic history

226
00:10:47.050 --> 00:10:49.810
has been very varied. And about three or four times every

227
00:10:49.810 --> 00:10:52.440
million years, the Earth's poles flip.

228
00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:55.760
And these are the magnetic poles, not the rotation

229
00:10:55.760 --> 00:10:58.360
poles. The Earth still rotates in the same axis,

230
00:10:58.680 --> 00:11:01.600
but the magnetic poles flip. And we think

231
00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:04.400
that's to do with the relationship

232
00:11:04.400 --> 00:11:07.320
between the, uh, solid core of the Earth and its

233
00:11:07.320 --> 00:11:09.880
liquid core. These two things mix together,

234
00:11:10.350 --> 00:11:13.080
uh, and they produce, uh, a magnetic field

235
00:11:13.400 --> 00:11:16.120
which, uh, occasionally basically

236
00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:18.760
declines. Uh, and then when it returns

237
00:11:18.760 --> 00:11:21.700
its pointing the other way, it's a different magnetic, uh,

238
00:11:21.720 --> 00:11:24.520
pole. And it's been known, uh, because

239
00:11:24.520 --> 00:11:27.400
of evidence like that from seabed rocks,

240
00:11:27.640 --> 00:11:30.640
uh, and things of that sort, uh, that there was a time

241
00:11:30.640 --> 00:11:32.600
about 41,000 years ago,

242
00:11:34.100 --> 00:11:36.800
uh, when the magnetism of the

243
00:11:36.800 --> 00:11:39.720
Earth basically dwindled

244
00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:42.560
away to something like 10% of its

245
00:11:42.560 --> 00:11:45.540
current, uh, intensity. Uh,

246
00:11:45.540 --> 00:11:48.060
and um, so, you know,

247
00:11:48.460 --> 00:11:51.260
we've got a magnetic field that is not offering

248
00:11:51.260 --> 00:11:54.140
the same protection, uh, from the solar wind

249
00:11:54.220 --> 00:11:57.060
as it does today. Uh, and that

250
00:11:57.060 --> 00:11:59.940
would lead to a number of things, one of

251
00:11:59.940 --> 00:12:02.780
which would be, um, the

252
00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:05.740
occurrence of aurorae,

253
00:12:05.900 --> 00:12:08.820
the northern and southern lights a long way from

254
00:12:08.820 --> 00:12:11.340
the poles. Because as the

255
00:12:11.340 --> 00:12:14.230
magnetic field dwindles, um, you can, you

256
00:12:14.230 --> 00:12:17.230
know, these subatomic particles are not funneled into the polar

257
00:12:17.230 --> 00:12:20.110
regions of the Earth as they are now, but they go

258
00:12:20.110 --> 00:12:22.470
to much lower latitudes. And so,

259
00:12:23.280 --> 00:12:25.190
uh, I think they've asked the question,

260
00:12:26.950 --> 00:12:29.830
what would that do to, uh, our

261
00:12:30.070 --> 00:12:32.950
distant forebears? Um, if they are watching the

262
00:12:32.950 --> 00:12:35.710
sky, um, they might

263
00:12:35.710 --> 00:12:38.710
well see, uh, aurorae, northern and southern

264
00:12:38.710 --> 00:12:41.430
lights, which, uh, had never been seen

265
00:12:41.430 --> 00:12:43.670
before, uh, at their latitudes.

266
00:12:44.550 --> 00:12:47.310
And so archaeologists have now looked at

267
00:12:47.310 --> 00:12:48.790
this, uh, and

268
00:12:49.750 --> 00:12:51.670
basically, uh,

269
00:12:53.830 --> 00:12:56.630
they imagine, uh, people seeing a green

270
00:12:56.630 --> 00:12:59.310
sky, a sky that's got really

271
00:12:59.310 --> 00:13:02.030
bright aurora. Now, uh, in

272
00:13:02.030 --> 00:13:05.030
archeology, um, a sort of response

273
00:13:05.030 --> 00:13:07.230
to something like that is really

274
00:13:08.350 --> 00:13:11.350
not easy to capture because there's nobody writing and

275
00:13:11.350 --> 00:13:13.150
saying, oh, we saw a green sky

276
00:13:14.270 --> 00:13:17.110
that we can still read today. It's not

277
00:13:17.110 --> 00:13:19.870
that sort of, you know, not at that sort of level.

278
00:13:20.030 --> 00:13:22.440
So you've got to look for, um,

279
00:13:22.990 --> 00:13:25.070
perhaps, uh, more

280
00:13:25.070 --> 00:13:27.990
circumstantial, uh, evidence for

281
00:13:27.990 --> 00:13:30.950
the fact that the space weather was causing a

282
00:13:30.950 --> 00:13:33.070
different sky from what they had before.

283
00:13:33.710 --> 00:13:36.590
And the paper that's been written on this,

284
00:13:37.030 --> 00:13:39.040
uh, is actually, um.

285
00:13:40.860 --> 00:13:43.020
It pinpoints something that perhaps

286
00:13:43.500 --> 00:13:46.300
otherwise would not be understood. And that

287
00:13:46.300 --> 00:13:49.300
is that, um, the use

288
00:13:49.300 --> 00:13:52.140
of ochre, uh, which is

289
00:13:52.140 --> 00:13:55.060
a sort of powdery rock, um, very, very

290
00:13:55.060 --> 00:13:57.980
well known in Australia. It's, uh, a reddish rock because,

291
00:13:58.210 --> 00:14:01.060
um, our first nations people used it and still

292
00:14:01.060 --> 00:14:03.820
do use ochre, uh, for body markings.

293
00:14:03.820 --> 00:14:06.660
It washes off, of course, but it's a way of decorating

294
00:14:06.660 --> 00:14:09.460
your body. Uh, and it turns out that that

295
00:14:09.460 --> 00:14:12.300
period, 41,000 years ago, coincides

296
00:14:12.540 --> 00:14:15.340
with an increased use of ochre,

297
00:14:15.650 --> 00:14:18.060
uh, by the people who lived at that time.

298
00:14:19.019 --> 00:14:19.800
And, um,

299
00:14:21.740 --> 00:14:24.460
the way they interpret this is that

300
00:14:24.460 --> 00:14:27.220
ochre actually is a kind

301
00:14:27.220 --> 00:14:30.070
of natural sunscreen. It's.

302
00:14:30.070 --> 00:14:33.030
I don't know what it's. You know, its SPF factor is,

303
00:14:33.030 --> 00:14:35.870
but if you put ochre on, you've got a

304
00:14:35.870 --> 00:14:38.790
sunscreen that will protect you a little bit

305
00:14:38.790 --> 00:14:41.470
from the increased ultraviolet

306
00:14:41.470 --> 00:14:43.990
radiation, which we would expect to find

307
00:14:44.230 --> 00:14:46.830
hitting the Earth at a time when the magnetic field was

308
00:14:46.830 --> 00:14:49.550
weak. Uh, so what they're suggesting

309
00:14:49.550 --> 00:14:51.180
is that, um,

310
00:14:52.630 --> 00:14:55.540
the risk of sunburnt, uh, eye

311
00:14:55.540 --> 00:14:58.440
damage and other health issues, uh,

312
00:14:58.740 --> 00:15:01.700
may have been mitigated by

313
00:15:01.860 --> 00:15:04.740
people discovering that if you rub more

314
00:15:04.740 --> 00:15:07.700
ochre on, you're actually more likely to be

315
00:15:07.700 --> 00:15:10.260
protected from these phenomena. And

316
00:15:10.420 --> 00:15:13.420
so it is interesting that at

317
00:15:13.420 --> 00:15:16.380
the time when we know the magnetic field was letting through much

318
00:15:16.380 --> 00:15:19.220
more radiation from the sun, we see

319
00:15:19.220 --> 00:15:21.870
people using more ochre on their Bodies

320
00:15:22.110 --> 00:15:25.070
perhaps for protection. A, uh, really

321
00:15:25.070 --> 00:15:27.870
interesting, you know, piece of research that

322
00:15:27.870 --> 00:15:30.470
brings together two apparently completely

323
00:15:30.470 --> 00:15:31.630
unrelated fields.

324
00:15:32.430 --> 00:15:35.270
Heidi Campo: Well, that's why, you know, a word that I throw around so

325
00:15:35.270 --> 00:15:38.070
often is interdisciplinary. And I think it's so,

326
00:15:38.070 --> 00:15:39.870
so, so important because,

327
00:15:40.910 --> 00:15:43.550
you know, nobody lives in a vacuum. Even,

328
00:15:43.630 --> 00:15:46.590
you know, even something as simple

329
00:15:46.750 --> 00:15:49.710
as mathematics touches everything.

330
00:15:49.710 --> 00:15:52.710
Well, I guess math wasn't a, ah, very good because it does touch

331
00:15:52.710 --> 00:15:55.630
everything. But any, any field is going to be related

332
00:15:55.630 --> 00:15:58.470
to every other field. And I was on a

333
00:15:58.470 --> 00:16:01.470
call, I joined a, um, bioastronautics journal club

334
00:16:01.470 --> 00:16:03.790
recently and we were talking about

335
00:16:04.840 --> 00:16:07.630
um, some research that had come out and it was

336
00:16:07.630 --> 00:16:10.190
brought up that um, extreme

337
00:16:10.190 --> 00:16:12.870
conditions has already been kind of

338
00:16:12.870 --> 00:16:15.630
defined and there's already protocols in place with submarine

339
00:16:15.630 --> 00:16:18.490
usage and people who summit high

340
00:16:18.490 --> 00:16:21.490
mountains and that there's already so much that we can

341
00:16:21.490 --> 00:16:24.210
learn from things that we already do here on Earth.

342
00:16:24.690 --> 00:16:27.610
So it's just, it is interesting and I think it is important for us

343
00:16:27.610 --> 00:16:30.530
to not live in our little bubbles and our little boxes, but we still have

344
00:16:30.530 --> 00:16:32.770
to go outside and talk to other people.

345
00:16:33.970 --> 00:16:36.970
Funny, uh, little, just anecdote, side tangent and then we'll move

346
00:16:36.970 --> 00:16:39.770
on is there was um, an

347
00:16:39.770 --> 00:16:42.490
ancient statue that people couldn't.

348
00:16:42.490 --> 00:16:45.210
Archeologists couldn't figure out what was going on with the

349
00:16:45.210 --> 00:16:48.120
hair. It was of a woman and they're like, well, was

350
00:16:48.120 --> 00:16:50.480
it artistic? Why does the hair look this way?

351
00:16:50.880 --> 00:16:53.680
You know, they couldn't figure it out. And then a modern

352
00:16:53.680 --> 00:16:56.440
day hairdresser was like, oh, it was, it was sewn

353
00:16:56.440 --> 00:16:59.360
in the, it was like, it was hair extensions that were

354
00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:02.200
sewn in. You're seeing a marble statue of

355
00:17:02.200 --> 00:17:04.960
somebody who had sewn hair extensions on.

356
00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:08.040
But the archaeologist couldn't figure it out. But the hairdresser

357
00:17:08.040 --> 00:17:10.920
looked at that immediately and was like, well, of course, that's what that

358
00:17:10.920 --> 00:17:13.620
is. So I just think that was kind of a funny little

359
00:17:13.620 --> 00:17:14.180
example.

360
00:17:15.220 --> 00:17:18.220
Professor Fred Watson: Um, that's a really interesting one

361
00:17:18.220 --> 00:17:21.040
actually. Makes you wonder, um,

362
00:17:21.040 --> 00:17:22.980
what, you know, what the person

363
00:17:24.180 --> 00:17:27.100
of whom the statue was made was. Uh, like

364
00:17:27.100 --> 00:17:29.620
whether they were somebody who was ah, vain about

365
00:17:30.500 --> 00:17:33.380
their hairstyle or um, whether it was something

366
00:17:33.620 --> 00:17:36.500
necessary because, uh, other, you know, other, um,

367
00:17:36.500 --> 00:17:39.420
reasons would make you keep your hair short. For example,

368
00:17:39.420 --> 00:17:42.230
if you were doing military things and stuff like

369
00:17:42.230 --> 00:17:45.230
that. Interesting stuff. Yeah, but again, you're quite right.

370
00:17:45.460 --> 00:17:48.350
Uh, interdisciplinary. It's a great word.

371
00:17:51.230 --> 00:17:53.270
Generic: 0G. And I feel fine.

372
00:17:53.270 --> 00:17:56.230
Heidi Campo: Space nuts. Well, speaking of. Well, I guess

373
00:17:56.230 --> 00:17:59.110
this last one's not really so interdisciplinary. It's

374
00:17:59.110 --> 00:18:01.950
dramatic and it is very in its own little

375
00:18:02.110 --> 00:18:04.870
niche field. But the title is A Cosmic

376
00:18:04.870 --> 00:18:07.490
Death Spiral. Astronomers

377
00:18:07.490 --> 00:18:09.970
catch planet in its final orbit before

378
00:18:09.970 --> 00:18:12.290
destruction. This is a very

379
00:18:12.290 --> 00:18:15.210
dramatic story. But Fred, I know that

380
00:18:15.210 --> 00:18:17.970
you always bring reason and

381
00:18:18.130 --> 00:18:21.130
logic and peace to all of

382
00:18:21.130 --> 00:18:23.890
these stories. So what's going on with this dramatic

383
00:18:24.130 --> 00:18:25.250
death spiral?

384
00:18:25.730 --> 00:18:27.490
Professor Fred Watson: Well, it's a death spiral. That's right.

385
00:18:28.590 --> 00:18:31.430
Um, and I like this story because it's, um,

386
00:18:31.490 --> 00:18:34.360
research that's been done by astronomers

387
00:18:34.360 --> 00:18:37.080
in the university that I'm associated with here in Australia,

388
00:18:37.160 --> 00:18:39.830
Macquarie University in Sydney. Uh,

389
00:18:39.880 --> 00:18:42.800
and so what they've done is looked at. It's actually a very

390
00:18:42.800 --> 00:18:45.710
well studied, uh, exoplanet, uh,

391
00:18:45.710 --> 00:18:48.550
with the marvelous name of Toi, uh,

392
00:18:48.600 --> 00:18:51.360
2108B. It's

393
00:18:51.360 --> 00:18:53.800
about 900 light years away.

394
00:18:54.150 --> 00:18:57.000
Uh, it's, uh, extreme in the

395
00:18:57.000 --> 00:18:59.830
sense that it is, um, an

396
00:18:59.830 --> 00:19:01.870
object that orbits its parent star,

397
00:19:02.830 --> 00:19:05.390
uh, closer than any other known

398
00:19:05.630 --> 00:19:08.350
planet. Um, its year.

399
00:19:09.090 --> 00:19:12.030
Uh, that is the time it takes to go around its star

400
00:19:12.510 --> 00:19:15.390
is 16 hours. So it

401
00:19:15.390 --> 00:19:18.230
whizzes around its parent star. It's very close to

402
00:19:18.230 --> 00:19:21.190
it. So, um, it's bathed in

403
00:19:21.190 --> 00:19:24.190
radiation, uh, from the star. It's what we call a

404
00:19:24.190 --> 00:19:26.940
hot Jupiter. It's, it's, um, actually

405
00:19:26.940 --> 00:19:29.420
bigger than Jupiter, uh, and is,

406
00:19:29.870 --> 00:19:32.620
um, essentially, um, you

407
00:19:32.620 --> 00:19:35.460
know, as I said, bathed in the radiation of its parent

408
00:19:35.460 --> 00:19:38.270
star. It's very, very hot. Um,

409
00:19:38.380 --> 00:19:39.900
so, um, that

410
00:19:41.580 --> 00:19:44.460
situation that you've got this object going around

411
00:19:44.460 --> 00:19:46.540
its parent star once every 16 hours,

412
00:19:47.270 --> 00:19:49.260
uh, is telling you

413
00:19:49.900 --> 00:19:52.900
that that orbit is untenable in the

414
00:19:52.900 --> 00:19:55.490
long term. Uh, the orbit is going to

415
00:19:55.490 --> 00:19:58.010
decay. Uh, and what the

416
00:19:58.010 --> 00:19:59.690
scientists have studied is

417
00:20:00.650 --> 00:20:03.410
basically the mechanics of that. How will the orbit

418
00:20:03.410 --> 00:20:04.660
decay? Uh,

419
00:20:06.170 --> 00:20:08.970
will this planet just get gobbled up by its star?

420
00:20:08.970 --> 00:20:11.770
Will it get flung away in a random

421
00:20:11.770 --> 00:20:14.490
direction? Uh, how's it going to work?

422
00:20:15.060 --> 00:20:18.050
Uh, and so, um, what they've done is they've looked

423
00:20:18.050 --> 00:20:20.890
at, uh, data that goes back to 2010,

424
00:20:21.520 --> 00:20:24.310
um, to look for changes in the orbit

425
00:20:24.310 --> 00:20:26.630
of this planet. Uh, and

426
00:20:27.030 --> 00:20:29.670
there's um, details that

427
00:20:29.830 --> 00:20:32.790
they've found that can suggest

428
00:20:32.870 --> 00:20:35.510
that there might be three different ways that it could,

429
00:20:36.040 --> 00:20:38.870
uh, reach the end of its life. Uh, either,

430
00:20:39.350 --> 00:20:42.150
number one, uh, it gets torn apart,

431
00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:44.630
uh, as it gets closer to the star. Because,

432
00:20:45.540 --> 00:20:48.260
um, what you have is this phenomenon called, um,

433
00:20:48.310 --> 00:20:50.270
tidal disruption. It's where

434
00:20:51.710 --> 00:20:54.470
part of the planet that's nearer to the star feels a much bigger

435
00:20:54.470 --> 00:20:57.350
gravitational force on the other side. And that tends

436
00:20:57.350 --> 00:21:00.110
to pull the planet to pieces. So that's one

437
00:21:00.110 --> 00:21:02.990
scenario. Uh, the other one is that it

438
00:21:02.990 --> 00:21:05.869
might just disappear into the star.

439
00:21:06.510 --> 00:21:09.510
In other words, just get sucked into the star. And we know

440
00:21:09.510 --> 00:21:12.340
that happens because we've seen evidence of it, uh,

441
00:21:13.120 --> 00:21:15.310
uh, in other solar systems. We've seen

442
00:21:15.930 --> 00:21:18.490
brightening of a star that seems to be caused by

443
00:21:19.050 --> 00:21:22.050
a planet basically impacting on

444
00:21:22.050 --> 00:21:24.970
it. And we can also find evidence in the atmospheres

445
00:21:24.970 --> 00:21:27.650
of stars, uh, for the sorts of

446
00:21:27.650 --> 00:21:30.530
chemicals that you would only find in a planet, but not in the star

447
00:21:30.530 --> 00:21:33.490
itself. So we know that happens. Uh, but

448
00:21:33.490 --> 00:21:36.250
the other one is perhaps the most interesting one. The third of their,

449
00:21:36.650 --> 00:21:39.330
um, uh, possible end games for

450
00:21:39.330 --> 00:21:42.170
Toi, uh, 2109B,

451
00:21:42.810 --> 00:21:45.690
that it's a gas giant like Jupiter and Saturn

452
00:21:45.690 --> 00:21:47.530
are. Uh, and what they're

453
00:21:48.170 --> 00:21:50.410
suggesting is that perhaps its

454
00:21:50.490 --> 00:21:52.810
gaseous envelope, its atmosphere

455
00:21:53.210 --> 00:21:55.810
might just be blown away by the

456
00:21:55.810 --> 00:21:58.409
radiation coming from the star and just

457
00:21:58.409 --> 00:22:01.210
essentially leave a planet that's still going around that parent

458
00:22:01.210 --> 00:22:04.090
star, but is now just a rocky remnant.

459
00:22:04.970 --> 00:22:07.730
Um, it's not, uh, a gas giant

460
00:22:07.730 --> 00:22:10.450
anymore. So what, um,

461
00:22:10.760 --> 00:22:13.480
people are going to look for, uh,

462
00:22:13.560 --> 00:22:16.520
is to see exactly how this

463
00:22:16.520 --> 00:22:19.440
behavior continues. The prediction

464
00:22:19.440 --> 00:22:22.360
is that, um, the orbit of this

465
00:22:22.360 --> 00:22:25.240
planet is shortening by, I think it's 10

466
00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:28.120
seconds per year, the amount of orbital

467
00:22:28.120 --> 00:22:31.080
shortening that's going on at the moment. As time goes on,

468
00:22:31.080 --> 00:22:33.960
we will see the planet pass some kind

469
00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:36.630
of, um, some kind of trigger point,

470
00:22:36.670 --> 00:22:39.550
uh, you know, a tipping point, uh, where

471
00:22:39.550 --> 00:22:42.470
one of these three scenarios might become more obvious

472
00:22:42.470 --> 00:22:45.390
as to what's going to happen to it. Once again, we'll

473
00:22:45.390 --> 00:22:47.800
keep an eye on that with the space nuts. Eagle, uh,

474
00:22:48.190 --> 00:22:50.790
eye on astrophysics and what's going on in the

475
00:22:50.790 --> 00:22:51.270
universe.

476
00:22:51.990 --> 00:22:54.870
Heidi Campo: That planet sounds like your average grad student just

477
00:22:55.030 --> 00:22:57.710
circling in chaos and they're either going to get

478
00:22:57.710 --> 00:23:00.710
flung out, never to enter that field again, or they're just going to

479
00:23:00.710 --> 00:23:03.610
get absorbed by it and become whatever

480
00:23:03.610 --> 00:23:05.010
it is that they're studying.

481
00:23:05.410 --> 00:23:07.810
Professor Fred Watson: Yep, that's right. That's what you do. You become

482
00:23:08.450 --> 00:23:09.170
what you study.

483
00:23:10.210 --> 00:23:13.010
Heidi Campo: Yeah. So I am, um, nicknaming this

484
00:23:13.010 --> 00:23:15.170
planet the grad student.

485
00:23:16.050 --> 00:23:18.690
Professor Fred Watson: I think it's a better name than toi, whatever it was.

486
00:23:21.250 --> 00:23:24.130
Toi, by the way, stands for, um, tess,

487
00:23:24.130 --> 00:23:26.890
Object of Interest. TESS was a planet finding

488
00:23:26.890 --> 00:23:29.480
satellite that was active a few years.

489
00:23:29.960 --> 00:23:32.840
Heidi Campo: And if it gets flung out into the universe, this could be our next

490
00:23:33.560 --> 00:23:34.720
alien, uh, spaceship.

491
00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:36.400
Professor Fred Watson: Yes, that's right. Who knows?

492
00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:39.400
Heidi Campo: What is this thing? It's just a planet that got

493
00:23:39.400 --> 00:23:41.080
flung out of its orbit.

494
00:23:42.360 --> 00:23:45.240
Well Fred, that uh, that uh, wraps up this episode.

495
00:23:45.240 --> 00:23:48.240
That was kind of a fun, eclectic group of articles. Thank you

496
00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:51.000
so much for finding those and disseminating all of that information

497
00:23:51.160 --> 00:23:53.480
for us. We definitely

498
00:23:53.480 --> 00:23:56.250
appreciate you and thank you. This is,

499
00:23:56.250 --> 00:23:59.160
uh, I guess that's uh, that's the end of

500
00:23:59.160 --> 00:23:59.960
our tale today.

501
00:24:00.760 --> 00:24:03.760
Professor Fred Watson: It's uh, a tale that's never ending really, because there'll be

502
00:24:03.760 --> 00:24:06.720
other things to talk about. But yes, I look forward to next

503
00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:08.200
time. Heidi, thanks very much.

504
00:24:08.520 --> 00:24:11.000
Heidi Campo: All right, catch you next time on our Q and A

505
00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:12.840
episode. That's all for now.

506
00:24:12.920 --> 00:24:15.560
Andrew Dunkley: Hi Fred. Hi Heidi. Hi Huw. In the studio.

507
00:24:15.560 --> 00:24:18.440
Andrew again with another update on our world tour.

508
00:24:19.160 --> 00:24:21.720
And we've uh, done a heck of a lot since I

509
00:24:21.880 --> 00:24:24.800
spoke to you last year. Uh, we went to

510
00:24:25.390 --> 00:24:28.280
uh, this was an amazing place, but then again it

511
00:24:28.280 --> 00:24:31.040
wasn't and I'll tell you why. But we were back in Morocco

512
00:24:31.760 --> 00:24:34.640
and we docked in Tangier and then we did

513
00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:37.400
a couple of hours drive to a place called the Blue

514
00:24:37.400 --> 00:24:40.200
City where all the buildings are blue and there's all

515
00:24:40.200 --> 00:24:43.080
sorts of reasons why they're blue that come up when you do a Google

516
00:24:43.080 --> 00:24:45.920
search. But the main reason that we were told was that

517
00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:48.720
one day somebody painted his house blue and everyone went,

518
00:24:49.020 --> 00:24:51.980
well, that's a good idea. And so everyone else did. So that's

519
00:24:51.980 --> 00:24:54.980
why it's a blue city and everything's blue. Blue doors, blue buildings,

520
00:24:54.980 --> 00:24:57.880
blue fences, blue lights, blue everything. Um,

521
00:24:58.060 --> 00:25:00.460
not those kinds of blue lights, but uh, yeah,

522
00:25:00.540 --> 00:25:02.620
interesting place. Downside

523
00:25:03.180 --> 00:25:05.820
over saturated with hawkers and

524
00:25:05.820 --> 00:25:08.060
salespeople and high pressure tactics.

525
00:25:08.670 --> 00:25:11.540
Uh, and, and it's a pretty smelly place.

526
00:25:11.540 --> 00:25:14.300
Lots of mangy cats and dog poo everywhere.

527
00:25:15.180 --> 00:25:18.020
Yeah, um, nice place to visit. Wouldn't want to live

528
00:25:18.020 --> 00:25:20.700
there. But uh, and then we got caught up in a

529
00:25:20.860 --> 00:25:23.780
Palestinian protest that they were having. So that was

530
00:25:23.780 --> 00:25:26.750
a bit um, intimidating, I must say. Uh,

531
00:25:26.750 --> 00:25:29.420
then we moved on to our next stop which

532
00:25:29.580 --> 00:25:31.870
was, um, Seville. Uh,

533
00:25:33.100 --> 00:25:35.980
Seville, uh, was really fantastic. We actually got

534
00:25:35.980 --> 00:25:37.750
to walk on a, um, ah,

535
00:25:38.780 --> 00:25:41.350
a bullring where they still have bull

536
00:25:41.350 --> 00:25:44.270
fighting today. Mixed, um, opinions about

537
00:25:44.270 --> 00:25:47.150
the ethics of that. But uh, getting to actually see

538
00:25:47.150 --> 00:25:50.150
it and stand on the ground where they do that was, was

539
00:25:50.150 --> 00:25:53.070
incredible. And uh, yeah, quite

540
00:25:53.070 --> 00:25:55.750
a beautiful city. Really, uh, really

541
00:25:55.750 --> 00:25:58.310
loved Seville. Uh, most enjoyable.

542
00:25:58.550 --> 00:26:00.790
Our next stop took us to

543
00:26:01.070 --> 00:26:03.890
um, a really amazing place, uh,

544
00:26:03.890 --> 00:26:06.560
Lisbon in Portugal, where we

545
00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:09.560
saw the monument to the explorers, uh, the great

546
00:26:09.560 --> 00:26:12.240
names like Magellan and so on,

547
00:26:12.590 --> 00:26:14.560
uh, and Henry the Explorer.

548
00:26:15.360 --> 00:26:18.320
And uh, of course, uh, they've got a

549
00:26:18.320 --> 00:26:21.000
bridge there that looks uncannily like the

550
00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:23.720
Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. And

551
00:26:23.720 --> 00:26:26.480
going under that on the ship as we left was quite awe

552
00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:29.330
inspiring because you look like you're going to hit it. Uh,

553
00:26:29.330 --> 00:26:32.050
not much clearance between the Top of the ship. Ship and the bottom of the

554
00:26:32.050 --> 00:26:34.890
bridge. Uh, they've got a, um, a giant

555
00:26:35.610 --> 00:26:38.370
statue, uh, of Jesus Christ there as well. Like the one

556
00:26:38.370 --> 00:26:41.250
in, uh, Brazil. So we went up and

557
00:26:41.250 --> 00:26:43.790
had a look at that and went around the city and uh,

558
00:26:43.790 --> 00:26:46.670
enjoyed Portuguese tarts, which are, uh,

559
00:26:46.850 --> 00:26:49.770
just so delectable. But we went to the original place

560
00:26:49.770 --> 00:26:52.050
where they were first made by the monks in

561
00:26:52.050 --> 00:26:55.050
1837 or something. Oh

562
00:26:55.050 --> 00:26:57.640
my gosh. And, and it's like KFC.

563
00:26:57.640 --> 00:27:00.410
There's. They don't tell you what's in them. Uh,

564
00:27:00.530 --> 00:27:03.400
uh, and uh, our next stop, I mean we've

565
00:27:03.640 --> 00:27:05.640
done a lot of stops, was uh, um,

566
00:27:06.630 --> 00:27:09.320
uh, the place, uh, where

567
00:27:09.480 --> 00:27:12.000
they um, found the

568
00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:14.680
location for uh, one of the. One of the great

569
00:27:14.680 --> 00:27:17.480
scenes in Game, um, of Thrones.

570
00:27:17.880 --> 00:27:20.680
Remember the castle Dragonstone? Well,

571
00:27:21.080 --> 00:27:23.990
we, we saw it, but there's no castle on top of the

572
00:27:23.990 --> 00:27:26.990
island. It's just a church. But that windy little passage,

573
00:27:27.530 --> 00:27:30.110
uh, up the stairs to the top, uh, is real.

574
00:27:30.830 --> 00:27:33.790
And uh, I can't remember where,

575
00:27:34.270 --> 00:27:37.270
where it was now that we've been to so many places. Um,

576
00:27:38.429 --> 00:27:40.430
Jude, can you remember where that was?

577
00:27:43.070 --> 00:27:43.790
Professor Fred Watson: Bilbao.

578
00:27:43.790 --> 00:27:46.440
Andrew Dunkley: Bilbao in Spain. That's right, yeah. Um,

579
00:27:46.830 --> 00:27:49.630
lovely place as well. Really great city. And

580
00:27:50.030 --> 00:27:52.990
they have the Guggenheim museum there as well, which we visited.

581
00:27:53.230 --> 00:27:56.070
That's right. And since then we've been to

582
00:27:56.070 --> 00:27:58.890
France and we did a day trip in a Volkswagen, uh,

583
00:27:58.890 --> 00:28:01.760
Combi to a vineyard. And uh,

584
00:28:01.870 --> 00:28:04.190
that was our last stop.

585
00:28:04.670 --> 00:28:07.230
Uh, and just now, as I speak, we've

586
00:28:07.390 --> 00:28:10.310
parked the boat, uh, in Cork

587
00:28:10.310 --> 00:28:13.230
in Ireland. So we're going to spend the day there. We're going to

588
00:28:13.230 --> 00:28:16.210
do the Titanic museum and have a look around town. We're

589
00:28:16.440 --> 00:28:19.160
here till 10 o' clock tonight, so we're going to probably do a bit of a,

590
00:28:19.570 --> 00:28:22.520
uh, visit to some Irish pubs and just sort of

591
00:28:22.520 --> 00:28:25.440
get into the, uh, atmosphere of the Irish.

592
00:28:25.440 --> 00:28:28.320
So we're looking forward to that. Should be great fun. Hope all

593
00:28:28.320 --> 00:28:31.080
is well back home. Uh, we've still got one

594
00:28:31.080 --> 00:28:33.960
third of our trip to go. Uh, looking forward

595
00:28:33.960 --> 00:28:36.600
to getting home, but, uh, having such a great time.

596
00:28:36.600 --> 00:28:39.440
We're not in a hurry. All right, catch you

597
00:28:39.440 --> 00:28:40.840
soon. Take care. Bye. Bye.

598
00:28:42.210 --> 00:28:44.850
Generic: You've been listening to the Space Nuts podcast,

599
00:28:46.450 --> 00:28:49.170
available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

600
00:28:49.330 --> 00:28:52.130
iHeartRadio or your favorite podcast

601
00:28:52.130 --> 00:28:54.490
player. You can also stream on Demand at

602
00:28:54.490 --> 00:28:56.880
bitesz.com This has been another quality

603
00:28:56.880 --> 00:28:59.600
podcast production from Bytes. Com.