Stellar Insights: Light Speed, Cosmic Maps & Dark Energy Dilemmas

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Heidi Campo: Welcome back to another fun Q and A episode

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of space nuts.

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Generic: 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.

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10, 9. Ignition

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sequence time. Space nuts. 5, 4, 3,

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

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3, 2, 1. Space nuts. Astronauts

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report it feels good.

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Heidi Campo: I'm your host for this episode, Heidi Campo, filling

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in for Andrew Dunkley, who is on a cruise around

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the world. And joining us as always,

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is our beloved professor Fred Watson,

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astronomer at large. How are you doing today,

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Fred?

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Professor Fred Watson: Um, well, thank you, Heidi. Um, um,

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we heard from, uh, Andrew a few days ago,

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and, uh, he was heading to far northern

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Norway in his global cruise. He was going to

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North Cape, uh, which is the.

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It's not quite the northerly, most northerly

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point on the Eurasian continent, but

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it's very near it. Um, and

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there's a globe at the.

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Professor Fred Watson: End of North Cape, um, which sort.

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Professor Fred Watson: Of simulates kind of where you are on the Earth.

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Professor Fred Watson: It's a framework globe, but it's a.

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Professor Fred Watson: Very prominent spot for photography. I'm sure

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we'll see pictures of Andrew standing in front of

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it. I've got pictures of me standing in front of it, which I was

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doing in January, uh, not on a world.

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Professor Fred Watson: Cruise, but one of our Arctic tours.

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Professor Fred Watson: Um, I hope he's now vaguely on his way

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back home, because I don't.

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Professor Fred Watson: Think it's that long before he's supposed to emerge

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once again bright and happy in

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Australia. We'll have to look out for that.

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Heidi Campo: He's either going to be well

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rested or he's going to need a vacation to recover from

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this.

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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, he might.

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Professor Fred Watson: That's right.

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Heidi Campo: I think sometimes a trip like that, you need some time

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to come back down from it.

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Professor Fred Watson: You do. And, um, yeah, they've got

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some interesting things. I won't go into them, but they've got some interesting

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things to look forward to when they get back.

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Um, which I'm sure Andrew will tell us all about when it.

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Professor Fred Watson: When it happens. Uh, that's just a teaser for,

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um, you know, when Andrew finally returns. Who knows when

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it'll be, but. That's right.

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Heidi Campo: Well, shall we get into our questions

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for today?

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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, sounds good.

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Heidi Campo: So our first question today is from

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Rennie Trab from sunny, sunny West

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Hills, California. And Rennie says,

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I'm trying to understand the speed of light.

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What powers set what. Sorry,

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what power set it to? What speed

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is. How. How different

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would our universe be if the speed was lower

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or higher?

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Professor Fred Watson: That's an incredibly profound question from

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Rennie. And Rennie often does give

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us profound questions. Uh, what sets it

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to the speed it is um, we don't know.

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Um, we do know that the

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speed of light, 300,000 kilometers

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per second, if.

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Professor Fred Watson: I remember rightly, 186,000 miles per second,

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that used to be the number when.

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Professor Fred Watson: We did miles back in the UK. Um,

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300,000 kilometers per second, a lot easier to remember.

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That's the speed of light in a vacuum. It changes depending

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what it's going through. But the speed of light, the maximum

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speed limit of the universe, 300,000 kilometers.

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Professor Fred Watson: Per second in a vacuum, uh, and.

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Professor Fred Watson: It'S set by simply,

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um, you know, it is what it is.

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It's set by the

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cosmic, um, setting of

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fundamental quantities, because that's what it is.

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Uh, but,

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uh, it's got

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extraordinary significance in our, uh, present understanding of

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the universe. Not just because it's what

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lets us look back in time. When we look out into space, we're

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always looking back in time because of.

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Professor Fred Watson: The finite speed of light.

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Professor Fred Watson: Um, if you looked out into space

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300,000km, you'd be looking back by a.

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Professor Fred Watson: Second because that's how long light takes to get here.

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Professor Fred Watson: So we know all about that. But

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it's more fundamental than that in that it doesn't change.

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Um, uh, and it's quite

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counterintuitive. If you imagine yourself in a spacecraft

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traveling along at maybe nearly the speed of

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light and you shone a torch out the front, you'd expect it to

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be going at nearly twice the speed of light.

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Professor Fred Watson: But it doesn't work like that. Light always travels at

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300,000 kilometers per second.

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Professor Fred Watson: And in fact that was, you know, its

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origins come from work on

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electromagnetism done by,

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uh, um, great scientists, uh, during

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the 19th century. But it was Einstein who recognized

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its.

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Professor Fred Watson: Fundamental significance and that's what allowed him to

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build up the theories of relativ.

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Professor Fred Watson: Um, how different would our universe be if the speed was

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lower or higher? Yes, it would be, uh, it

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would change the universe. Uh, now

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in an extreme situation,

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uh, you might find,

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uh, some interest

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in. And I wouldn't mind betting

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that Rennie knows about this book, but I'll direct him to

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it anyway. Um, back in the

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1950s, a, uh, very well

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known physicist called George Gamow, uh,

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who made some quite significant discoveries in

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cosmology. Uh, he wrote

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a couple of books where he had a fictional hero

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called Mr. Tompkins. Mr. Tompkins had a

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hairstyle very similar.

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Professor Fred Watson: To mine because, uh, Gamow illustrated the book as well.

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Professor Fred Watson: Um, but, um, Mr. M. Tompkins had dreams

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and those dreams basically told you about

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physics. The first book was about relativity.

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Professor Fred Watson: The second one was Mr. Tompkins explores the

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Atom, uh, which, uh, is about atomic

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physics, the quantum world.

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Professor Fred Watson: Um, but one of the dreams that Mr. Tompkins

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has. Bet you never thought you'd be talking about this

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today on the show, Heidi. Um, he

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dreamt that the speed of light was, I think it was something.

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Professor Fred Watson: Like 25 miles an hour.

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Professor Fred Watson: It was ridiculously slow.

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But what it meant was that all the effects of

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relativity, which we know about,

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uh, were demonstrated at a very slow speed.

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Professor Fred Watson: This is special relativity, which is all about things moving close

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to the speed of light.

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Professor Fred Watson: Um, so he illustrated a picture of

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somebody riding a bicycle at, uh, nearly.

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Professor Fred Watson: The speed of light, 25 kilometers an hour. Sorry, 25

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miles an hour.

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Professor Fred Watson: Uh, and showed, uh, the foreshortening, the fact

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that the bicycle seems to be.

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Professor Fred Watson: Squashed up, because that's one of the phenomena

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associated with travel near the speed of light.

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Professor Fred Watson: And there are other ones as well.

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Professor Fred Watson: Time travel, um, time dilation,

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your time changes.

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Professor Fred Watson: So it's a book. Um, I still think for all

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its, you know, gosh, it's, uh, 70 years.

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Professor Fred Watson: Out of date now.

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Professor Fred Watson: Uh, the relativity in it is still.

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Professor Fred Watson: Exactly as we understand it today, and it's worth a read.

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Professor Fred Watson: So I direct Rennie to that book.

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Heidi Campo: That is very interesting. I'm going to be wrapping my head

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around that one for a while.

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Our, uh, next question is an audio question,

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and this comes from Buddy in Oregon.

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And I'm going to give us just a second to cue that up and

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then all of our listeners will be able to hear Buddy's

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question as well. We're going to play that for you now.

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Buddy: This is Buddy from Ontario, Oregon. This is

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a quick one and I guess I'll let Fred

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explain. Uh, gravity and

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footed dark energy actually be

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weaker and stronger nuclear forces

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played out at a larger scale as secondary

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reactions. Hope that makes sense. Thanks, guys. Love the

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pod.

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Professor Fred Watson: I, I think Buddy might have had the same

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cold or fever that you.

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Professor Fred Watson: Had in the last episode.

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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, it's not the. Not the Buddy we're used to hearing

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anyway. It's, um, it's an interesting

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question. So, uh, could

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gravity and dark energy, which are

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forces, uh, that we understand.

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Professor Fred Watson: Least in the quantum world. Gravity we're all familiar with, it's the one

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that pulls us down to the surface of the Earth.

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Professor Fred Watson: Dark energy is the property of

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space that we think causes the universe to expand,

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uh, in an accelerating manner. Uh, could

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those two forces be, uh,

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like the strong and weak nuclear force.

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Professor Fred Watson: Played out on a larger scale?

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Professor Fred Watson: Uh, I like his thinking. So

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let me just, um, Quickly, talk about the

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strong and weak nuclear force. There are four, we believe there

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are four fundamental forces of nature

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and they.

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Professor Fred Watson: Are electromagnetism, which is the

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force that is allowing us to talk now.

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Professor Fred Watson: And lets me see you and lets chemical reactions

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take place. Very important one. And then there are these

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two nuclear forces, the strong and weak

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nuclear forces, which, um,

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uh, determine the way atoms behave.

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Professor Fred Watson: Basically.

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Professor Fred Watson: Um, they are very well

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understood. They sound like uh, you know,

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two angles on the same thing, but they're not.

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Professor Fred Watson: They're quite different forces.

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Professor Fred Watson: But as Rennie

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has sort of. Sorry, I beg your pardon. As

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Buddy. Buddy.

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Sorry, Buddy. As Buddy has indicated,

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um, uh, they only operate on a small

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scale, they operate on the atomic scale.

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Professor Fred Watson: Those forces don't extend beyond.

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Professor Fred Watson: So to sort of, you know,

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hypothesize that maybe,

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um, gravity and dark energy. Dark energy we

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do not consider yet.

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Professor Fred Watson: To be a fundamental force because we really don't understand it.

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Professor Fred Watson: Ah, but could they be manifestations

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of.

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Professor Fred Watson: These other forces on a larger scale?

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Professor Fred Watson: And I do like his thinking. Um, I

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suspect that the fundamental

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physicists, the people who really know about this stuff,

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um, have ruled out something like that.

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But I wouldn't mind betting that there is,

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you know, it's almost like an.

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Professor Fred Watson: Analog one of the other that you've.

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Professor Fred Watson: Got these major forces that act on

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enormous timescales.

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Professor Fred Watson: In fact, they're infinite. Certainly, uh, gravity is.

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Gravity never fades away. It gets so small

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as to be measurable. Measurable, but never fades

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away.

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Professor Fred Watson: Maybe there's a nice analog between the two. Um, I

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don't know enough about nuclear, um,

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physics to be able to analyze it in any

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greater depth. But it's a question that I liked.

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Professor Fred Watson: Uh, and thank you very much, Bonnie.

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Andrew Dunkley: Three, two, one.

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Space nuts.

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Heidi Campo: Our next question is, uh, from Casey

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from Colorado. Casey says, hey

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guys, just learned about ASKAP

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J1832

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0911 and that it emits

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radio waves and x rays for 2 minutes every

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44 minutes. Is it true that no one

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knows what this is? Do you have any ideas?

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Fred, love the show and hope you're both well.

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Thanks.

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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, um, this is a classic

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gobbledygook name. ASCAP

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J1832

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-09.11. ASCAP is

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the name of the telescope.

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Professor Fred Watson: Uh, that discovered this object. It's an abbreviation for the

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Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder. It's

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an array of I think 36 dishes

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in Western Australia, uh, and a.

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Professor Fred Watson: Very radio quiet site. And the

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J1832 0911

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is just the.

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Professor Fred Watson: Coordinates in the sky of this object, what we call the

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right ascension and declination. So it's south

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of the equator. That's why it's got a minus sign in front of the nine.

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Professor Fred Watson: Um, it's ah, a nice way of naming things

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by giving them uh, their coordinates,

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uh, in the sky because then you pinpoint where it is and

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these.

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Professor Fred Watson: Coordinates are just like latitude and longitude on the Earth.

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Professor Fred Watson: So uh, to what it is. Um, well

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it uh, was discovered, as I said,

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by the Australian Square Kilometer

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Array pathfinder, but also

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um, by X ray observations

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with uh, something, um,

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some work that was done using the Chandra.

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Professor Fred Watson: X Ray observatory, one of NASA's great observatories in

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orbit. Because X rays don't penetrate the atmosphere, at

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least not in the energies that.

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Professor Fred Watson: We are looking at. Uh, and it

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turns out um, that this object

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is in a supernova remnant.

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So it's something that has exploded.

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Uh, and um, when you

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basically uh, look at the

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details surrounding the object.

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Professor Fred Watson: You can see that there's a shell.

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Professor Fred Watson: Of gas which is probably uh, the.

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Professor Fred Watson: Shockwave caused by the supernova.

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Professor Fred Watson: We don't know when that exploded, but uh, it was

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a long time ago. And

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so the properties um,

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that uh, we've already heard

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described, um, by Cayce,

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uh, this business of shining in X

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rays and radio waves exactly as uh.

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Professor Fred Watson: He says for two minutes every 44 minutes.

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Professor Fred Watson: That is still a mystery. Um,

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uh, it's thought that the source is something

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we call a magnetar. And a magnetar is

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a highly magnetic, uh,

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um, highly magnetic, um, neutron

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star, neutron stars being one

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of the possible remnants from a

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supernova explosion.

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Professor Fred Watson: The collapse of the core of the.

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Professor Fred Watson: Star into something very, very dense indeed,

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uh, weighing as much as a star.

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Professor Fred Watson: But with the dimensions of a city.

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Professor Fred Watson: Uh, that's a neutron star. Some of them are

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very m. Highly magnetized. They're called magnetars.

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And we think they have flares on them. And some of those

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flares are uh, what we think give rise to

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the.

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Professor Fred Watson: Fast radio bursts that are very much in the news as

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well.

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Professor Fred Watson: Uh, but this object is not like a fast radio burst because

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it shoots out these pulses,

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um, for two minutes.

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Professor Fred Watson: Whereas fast radio bursts are less than.

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Professor Fred Watson: A thousandth of a second, uh, two.

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Professor Fred Watson: Minutes every 44 minutes.

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Professor Fred Watson: And what that's telling you is that there's probably

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uh, something orbiting something else.

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Uh, so there might very well be uh,

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uh, the magnetar, uh,

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whose radiation is being shrouded by something

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else, uh, that uh, only allows

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it to see, uh, to be pointed in our

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direction every 44 minutes. It could also be

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directed radiation.

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Professor Fred Watson: Radiation that's squirting out from the pole of a magnetar.

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Professor Fred Watson: Uh, which means that there's a sort.

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Professor Fred Watson: Of lighthouse flashing effect as well. That's how

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pulsars work. They're uh, neutron stars that radiate

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at uh, their magnetic poles and as they.

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Professor Fred Watson: Rotate they sweep their radiation over the earth.

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Professor Fred Watson: And we see that.

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Professor Fred Watson: So there might be that going on plus something

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else that is, ah, either making the

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object wobble or hiding it. Um,

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uh, uh, there are lots of people scratching their

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heads about this, Cayce. Um, I

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hope, uh, that is,

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um, a reasonable, uh, explanation of

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what's going on. Um, at uh, least I

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think it.

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Professor Fred Watson: Uh, ties in with what I've read.

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Professor Fred Watson: So far about J

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1832

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-09.

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Professor Fred Watson: 11.

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Heidi Campo: What a name.

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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, what a name.

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Voice Over Guy: 0G and I feel fine Space nuts.

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Heidi Campo: Our, uh, very last question is another audio

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question. And this is from Dean

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from Queensland. Queensland, I don't know

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how you pronounce that. Lots of, uh,

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discrepancies on pronunciation. Tomato, tomahto.

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Um, and this is an audio question, so we'll let you guys listen

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to it and we'll cue that up and play that for you.

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Andrew Dunkley: Now, Fred, Heidi and Andrew, this is Dean in

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Redcliffe in Queensland. My question is about m the

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image. It shows us the cosmic microwave background

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in space. I've assumed that this image

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represents the full 360 degrees of the entire

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sky as seen from all around the Earth. But I'm wondering

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if this is correct. If it shows all directions,

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it would be like looking at the internal surface of a sphere,

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which could also be projected onto the outer surface

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of a sphere in the same way we look at a globe of

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the Earth. There are many ways to project the

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00:16:31.800 --> 00:16:34.400
sphere of the Earth's, uh, surface as a 2D image,

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but parts of it are always distorted, particularly around the

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edges. The 2D images of the

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CMB that I've seen are usually shown in an

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oval shape. Is the CMB image

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distorted around the edges? It might be, but it's

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hard to tell. Or is the image cropped in some

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way? Thanks again for the podcast.

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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, that's a great question. Uh, it's one I've never had before,

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um, about the shape of the, our, uh,

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depiction of the cosmic microwave background radiation.

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Um, so, uh, Dean is absolutely

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right that that is a map,

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effectively a representation of

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the celestial sphere. And the

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celestial sphere is. If you imagine

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yourself floating in space, um,

394
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the sky would be all around you and you

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could imagine it as a sphere and that's basically

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how we imagine it flow from the Earth's surface.

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Professor Fred Watson: Although you only see half the sphere because the rest is blocked

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out by the Earth itself.

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Professor Fred Watson: Um, and what we call spherical astronomy

400
00:17:39.560 --> 00:17:42.400
is a, ah, really useful tool because it's what

401
00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:44.400
allows you to uh, put

402
00:17:45.360 --> 00:17:48.320
objects in the three dimensions of space into their

403
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context as seen from the Earth. Uh, uh,

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00:17:51.590 --> 00:17:54.080
um, and the Earth's, you know,

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this depiction of the inside of

406
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uh, a sphere being representative of

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00:18:00.550 --> 00:18:01.150
the sky.

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00:18:01.590 --> 00:18:03.710
Professor Fred Watson: Uh, as I said, it's called the celestial sphere.

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Professor Fred Watson: A very useful tool. And so that's what's

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00:18:06.390 --> 00:18:09.150
happened here. We see the

411
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cosmic microwave background radiation in

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every direction.

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00:18:13.450 --> 00:18:16.350
Professor Fred Watson: Uh, as we observe it from Earth. It covers the whole of

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the celestial sphere. It's faint, it's in the

415
00:18:18.910 --> 00:18:20.590
microwave region of the spectrum.

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Professor Fred Watson: It's mottled, uh, because of

417
00:18:23.250 --> 00:18:25.470
um, uh, the slight variations in

418
00:18:25.910 --> 00:18:26.390
temperature.

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00:18:26.470 --> 00:18:29.430
Professor Fred Watson: What we're seeing is the echo of the Big Bang there. The flash of the Big

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00:18:29.430 --> 00:18:30.530
Bang, uh.

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00:18:30.530 --> 00:18:33.230
Professor Fred Watson: Which is redshifted, uh, because of the.

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00:18:33.230 --> 00:18:35.830
Professor Fred Watson: Expansion of the universe since that light was

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00:18:35.830 --> 00:18:38.310
emitted 13.8 billion years ago.

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Professor Fred Watson: Um, but that's not what Dean's question's about.

425
00:18:41.590 --> 00:18:44.390
It's about uh, the projection. And

426
00:18:44.470 --> 00:18:47.350
um, so it's one that's

427
00:18:47.350 --> 00:18:50.310
very commonly used in maps of the world.

428
00:18:50.990 --> 00:18:53.780
Um, it's a projection of the sphere

429
00:18:53.780 --> 00:18:56.460
onto two dimensions. And it is called the

430
00:18:56.460 --> 00:18:59.460
Atoff projection. Named after 19th

431
00:18:59.460 --> 00:19:02.140
century geographer I think, uh, called

432
00:19:02.300 --> 00:19:05.020
Dr. Atoff a I T O double F.

433
00:19:05.400 --> 00:19:08.220
Uh, it's sometimes called an equidistant

434
00:19:08.300 --> 00:19:11.260
azimuthal projection. Um, because

435
00:19:11.420 --> 00:19:13.660
the um, azimuths, that's what.

436
00:19:13.660 --> 00:19:15.540
Professor Fred Watson: You might call the longitude lines are.

437
00:19:15.540 --> 00:19:18.500
Professor Fred Watson: Uh, equal in distant. And Dean is

438
00:19:18.500 --> 00:19:21.470
right. Uh, all map M projections trying

439
00:19:21.470 --> 00:19:23.830
to project a sphere onto a flat piece of paper,

440
00:19:24.150 --> 00:19:26.310
they all have distortions.

441
00:19:26.900 --> 00:19:29.630
Uh, and this one does too, but they're pretty minor.

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00:19:29.630 --> 00:19:32.630
Professor Fred Watson: And that's why it's used a lot in depictions

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00:19:32.630 --> 00:19:35.630
of the whole sky. Like our depiction of the cosmic

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00:19:35.630 --> 00:19:37.110
microwave background radiation.

445
00:19:37.350 --> 00:19:40.150
Professor Fred Watson: So there will be some distortion around the edge.

446
00:19:40.590 --> 00:19:43.190
Uh, not very high level, but

447
00:19:43.430 --> 00:19:43.710
you.

448
00:19:43.710 --> 00:19:45.110
Professor Fred Watson: Know, a little bit of distortion.

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00:19:46.310 --> 00:19:48.810
Professor Fred Watson: Um, if you look at an Atoff projection uh,

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00:19:49.310 --> 00:19:52.220
of the Earth, uh, you get an idea of

451
00:19:52.860 --> 00:19:53.820
the minimal amount.

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Professor Fred Watson: Of distortion that there are. The same would apply to

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00:19:56.740 --> 00:19:58.220
the celestial.

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Professor Fred Watson: Sphere and the cosmic microwave background radiation.

455
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But the answer to the last part of Dean's question,

456
00:20:03.740 --> 00:20:06.540
no, it hasn't been cropped. That is the full,

457
00:20:06.620 --> 00:20:07.340
that's the whole.

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00:20:07.340 --> 00:20:10.220
Professor Fred Watson: Sky depicted as a two dimensional

459
00:20:10.220 --> 00:20:12.780
map. So no cropping around the edge. That's

460
00:20:12.780 --> 00:20:14.860
exactly what There is uh, it's.

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00:20:14.860 --> 00:20:16.970
Professor Fred Watson: Pretty easy to find, um,

462
00:20:17.120 --> 00:20:19.760
representations of the cosmic m. Microwave background

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00:20:19.760 --> 00:20:22.760
radiation where it is actually shown as a

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globe. Uh, of course we're seeing it from the

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inside outwards, but you can represent.

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Professor Fred Watson: It as a globe as well. And if you've got animation, you can

467
00:20:30.360 --> 00:20:33.280
circulate the globe so you can see what it looks like on

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the other side.

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Professor Fred Watson: It's a lot easier to look at.

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Professor Fred Watson: It on a map like the projection that we've been talking about.

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Heidi Campo: It's quite interesting. I actually, I pulled it up while you were talking.

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Cause I always like having a visual. I have the two

473
00:20:44.040 --> 00:20:46.800
monitors going on and um, I'm seeing

474
00:20:46.800 --> 00:20:49.600
there's just, there's. So there's such a rabbit hole we can go down.

475
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And one. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna um, do

476
00:20:52.560 --> 00:20:54.760
a little follow up question to Dean's question.

477
00:20:55.640 --> 00:20:58.480
It looks like, it looks like um, there's

478
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an axis on the cosmic

479
00:21:01.480 --> 00:21:04.120
microwave background and that it

480
00:21:04.120 --> 00:21:06.880
lines up with our solar system. And

481
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that's kind of a point of interest and

482
00:21:09.320 --> 00:21:10.040
curiosity.

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Professor Fred Watson: Um, that's been something that's been commented on.

484
00:21:14.210 --> 00:21:17.130
There is. I mean, let me just explain what

485
00:21:17.130 --> 00:21:19.770
that depiction is exactly. It's uh, the

486
00:21:19.770 --> 00:21:22.530
microwave background. So the, and

487
00:21:22.530 --> 00:21:25.250
it's an ellipse, the Atoff projection. The long

488
00:21:25.250 --> 00:21:28.190
axis of the ellipse represents the equator,

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00:21:28.190 --> 00:21:29.570
uh, of our galaxy.

490
00:21:29.570 --> 00:21:31.170
Professor Fred Watson: In other words the galactic plane.

491
00:21:31.490 --> 00:21:34.410
Professor Fred Watson: And that means that you, in some depictions of

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this, the microwave radiation from the

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galaxy itself hasn't been subtracted.

494
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Uh, and so you've got this sort of very bright area

495
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around the middle. But you're right,

496
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Heidi. I do remember that, um,

497
00:21:48.620 --> 00:21:51.000
people thought they could see an alignment

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00:21:51.320 --> 00:21:53.880
with the plane of our solar system, which is.

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00:21:53.880 --> 00:21:56.600
Professor Fred Watson: Quite steeply tilted to the galactic plane.

500
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Professor Fred Watson: Uh, and that is a concern.

501
00:21:59.560 --> 00:22:02.200
Professor Fred Watson: I'm not sure what the resolution of that issue was.

502
00:22:02.440 --> 00:22:05.000
Professor Fred Watson: I don't think it's been a showstopper.

503
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:07.920
Professor Fred Watson: For the cosmic microwave background radiation. But I'll check

504
00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:10.600
up on that and try and find out uh, whether there's

505
00:22:10.600 --> 00:22:13.360
any further news, whether it's just disappeared with further

506
00:22:13.360 --> 00:22:14.080
analysis.

507
00:22:14.080 --> 00:22:16.880
Professor Fred Watson: I do remember people talking about it. There are

508
00:22:16.880 --> 00:22:19.880
three, um, when you look at the cosmic microwave background

509
00:22:19.880 --> 00:22:20.600
radiation, you'll.

510
00:22:20.600 --> 00:22:22.400
Professor Fred Watson: Usually come up with three different images.

511
00:22:22.820 --> 00:22:24.480
Professor Fred Watson: Um, and they're only different because of.

512
00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:25.760
Professor Fred Watson: The detail that they show.

513
00:22:26.180 --> 00:22:27.840
Professor Fred Watson: Uh, the first one came from cobe.

514
00:22:28.220 --> 00:22:30.720
Professor Fred Watson: Uh, which was a spacecraft Cosmic Background

515
00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:32.400
explorer in the 90s.

516
00:22:32.920 --> 00:22:35.160
Professor Fred Watson: Uh, then there was WMAP, the uh,

517
00:22:35.160 --> 00:22:38.130
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe

518
00:22:38.130 --> 00:22:40.570
in the early 2000s. And then round about

519
00:22:40.570 --> 00:22:41.970
2010, the Planck.

520
00:22:41.970 --> 00:22:44.810
Professor Fred Watson: Spacecraft, a European spacecraft, which gave us the map.

521
00:22:44.810 --> 00:22:47.770
It's usually colored greenish. I don't know whether that's the one that you

522
00:22:47.770 --> 00:22:50.570
were looking at. That's the Planck one, which has the

523
00:22:50.570 --> 00:22:53.330
finest detail on M it. Because that was all

524
00:22:53.330 --> 00:22:56.010
about trying to tease out the detail in these

525
00:22:56.010 --> 00:22:58.850
models that are shown in the background radiation.

526
00:22:58.850 --> 00:23:01.540
Professor Fred Watson: Which tell us about the, the temperature.

527
00:23:01.540 --> 00:23:04.380
Professor Fred Watson: In the universe when the Big Bang was still a ball of

528
00:23:04.380 --> 00:23:04.740
fire.

529
00:23:06.020 --> 00:23:09.020
Heidi Campo: So fascinating. I'm, um. Actually, uh, there's an image I was looking at just now

530
00:23:09.020 --> 00:23:11.660
that had like a cross section of each, each one of those

531
00:23:11.660 --> 00:23:14.660
images side by side by side. Uh, but yes,

532
00:23:14.900 --> 00:23:17.660
so fascinating. I mean, that's probably a

533
00:23:17.660 --> 00:23:20.540
whole area of expertise for someone where they just

534
00:23:20.540 --> 00:23:23.260
specialize in the cosmic microwave

535
00:23:23.260 --> 00:23:24.900
background. And that's their whole thing.

536
00:23:24.900 --> 00:23:25.540
Professor Fred Watson: They do.

537
00:23:26.050 --> 00:23:26.890
Professor Fred Watson: They do, yeah.

538
00:23:26.890 --> 00:23:29.730
Professor Fred Watson: They do very serious mathematical analysis on those

539
00:23:30.130 --> 00:23:32.690
blobs, uh, which tell us about.

540
00:23:32.690 --> 00:23:35.690
Professor Fred Watson: Conditions in the early universe. It's really quite extraordinary what you

541
00:23:35.690 --> 00:23:36.610
can glean from it.

542
00:23:36.770 --> 00:23:39.730
Professor Fred Watson: And the thing that always fascinates me is that when you look at that.

543
00:23:39.730 --> 00:23:42.370
Professor Fred Watson: Image, you're looking at the oldest thing we can ever see.

544
00:23:42.610 --> 00:23:44.050
The flash of the Big Bang.

545
00:23:44.930 --> 00:23:47.250
Heidi Campo: Oh, man, this stuff gives me chills sometimes.

546
00:23:49.570 --> 00:23:52.470
And that's what gets me excited about some of these, uh,

547
00:23:52.950 --> 00:23:55.830
like new, New age telescopes like James Webb. I mean,

548
00:23:55.830 --> 00:23:58.830
that's really. It's changing, it's changing the game.

549
00:23:58.830 --> 00:24:01.830
We're able to see deeper and further, and it's

550
00:24:01.830 --> 00:24:04.750
just amazing what we're able to discover

551
00:24:04.750 --> 00:24:07.510
now. We're really on the cusp of so many amazing

552
00:24:07.510 --> 00:24:09.190
things. And I think you mentioned,

553
00:24:09.670 --> 00:24:12.630
um, you know, when you were, when you were young. This was

554
00:24:12.630 --> 00:24:15.630
in our, in our last episode that we recorded when you

555
00:24:15.630 --> 00:24:18.470
were young and hearing about some of these missions coming

556
00:24:18.470 --> 00:24:21.320
out and seeing these images for the first time and to

557
00:24:21.320 --> 00:24:24.200
see how far that this has all come

558
00:24:24.200 --> 00:24:27.200
and how much further we have yet to go is just such an incredible

559
00:24:27.200 --> 00:24:28.000
thing to think of.

560
00:24:28.880 --> 00:24:29.960
Professor Fred Watson: Yep, yep.

561
00:24:29.960 --> 00:24:32.160
Professor Fred Watson: The sky's the limit, Heidi.

562
00:24:33.120 --> 00:24:36.040
Heidi Campo: And maybe not even then. Maybe. Maybe the sky, the

563
00:24:36.040 --> 00:24:36.960
universe and beyond.

564
00:24:38.560 --> 00:24:39.440
Professor Fred Watson: Yes, that's right.

565
00:24:39.840 --> 00:24:42.800
Heidi Campo: Well, Fred, this has been another wonderful Q

566
00:24:42.800 --> 00:24:45.800
and A episode. Thank you so much for spending time

567
00:24:45.800 --> 00:24:48.540
with us, enlightening us and just, just, uh,

568
00:24:48.920 --> 00:24:51.760
giving us your knowledge and wisdom

569
00:24:51.760 --> 00:24:54.050
that you've spent a lifetime, um,

570
00:24:54.600 --> 00:24:55.320
garnering.

571
00:24:55.770 --> 00:24:58.680
Professor Fred Watson: Um, yes, it's good that it's been put to some good use,

572
00:24:58.680 --> 00:25:01.320
actually. Yeah,

573
00:25:01.320 --> 00:25:04.039
I've spent my life, uh, learning.

574
00:25:04.039 --> 00:25:06.720
Professor Fred Watson: Facts about the universe, and it's nice to be able to talk about

575
00:25:06.720 --> 00:25:07.040
them.

576
00:25:07.040 --> 00:25:08.440
Professor Fred Watson: With somebody like you.

577
00:25:08.440 --> 00:25:09.000
Professor Fred Watson: Thank you.

578
00:25:09.160 --> 00:25:12.160
Heidi Campo: Thank you so much. Well, uh, on that positive note,

579
00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:14.760
we will catch you all next time.

580
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:16.040
Professor Fred Watson: Space Nuts.

581
00:25:16.040 --> 00:25:18.840
Voice Over Guy: You've been listening to the Space Nuts podcast,

582
00:25:20.590 --> 00:25:23.150
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583
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