Stellar Questions: Captured Asteroids, Evaporating Black Holes & Dining with Aliens

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Heidi Campo: Welcome back to another fun and exciting Q and

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A episode of space nuts.

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Voice Over Guy: 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.

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10, 9. Ignition

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

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

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3, 2, 1. Space nuts. Astronauts

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report it feels good.

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Heidi Campo: This episode is driven by listener

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questions where you send your questions to us

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and we answer them. Well, it's not

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we. It's Professor Fred Watson who is

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joining me here. My name is Heidi Campo. I'm your host for this

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episode, and Fred is our

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resident astronomer at large.

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Fred, how are you doing today?

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Professor Fred Watson: Very well, thanks, Heidi. And you shouldn't underrate, um,

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the contribution, uh, that you make to this show.

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Because I couldn't answer these questions without you being there.

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And often you are somebody who

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illuminates the questions in a way that I wouldn't think

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of, which I enjoy very much. So thank you again for

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welcoming me to the show.

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Heidi Campo: Thank you so much, Fred. That was. That was sweet.

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Well, our first question, um,

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today comes from Patrick. Um,

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I don't see Patrick's location,

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but Patrick says hello.

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Heidi and Professor Watson, what is

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the likelihood of an object or objects

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currently orbiting our sun not being native

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to our solar system? Could they have been rogue

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objects or perhaps objects from a passing star that

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was captured by our sun? Thanks for taking my

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question.

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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, I love this question, Heidi. Um, because it has

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echoes of something we were talking about in the last episode.

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The object that's not, uh, from our solar system, that

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is whizzing through the solar system.

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And, um, basically Patrick is right,

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uh, in suggesting that

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maybe some of the, uh,

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objects in the solar system. And by that I'm

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thinking of things like asteroids, um, perhaps

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even comets that are in orbit around the sun

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that, uh, are in a closed orbit that

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are, you know, something that goes around regularly rather

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than something that just comes through once and zooms away.

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Uh, which is what, uh, Three Eye Atlas that we were talking about last

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time. Um, that is doing that.

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Um, uh, so it's possible that,

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um, there could be things that have been captured. We

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know, uh, that some of the moons

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of the outer planets are,

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uh, ones that have been captured by those planets,

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uh, from the region,

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uh, beyond Neptune, what we call the Trans

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Neptunian region, uh, where there are

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these icy asteroids, which we now know to

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be very numerous. Um, we didn't know about them at all

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when I started my career, even though somebody had

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predicted them in 1950. Uh, um, Gerard,

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uh, Kuiper, uh, and his colleague

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Dr. Edgeworth. Can't remember Edgeworth's first Name.

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Uh, but they predicted that there would be these icy objects way

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in the depths of the solar system. And one of the belts of

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those objects is now called the Kuiper Belt. And, uh, we know

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that some of the planets, uh, sorry, some

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of the satellites, the moons of the outer planets,

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started their lives as Kuiper Belt objects. So they

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have actually been captured by the planets.

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And so, um, you know, the

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scenario that Patrick puts forward, uh, of

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something like that being captured by the sun

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having come from a distant, uh, object,

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uh, or a distant solar system from well beyond

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our solar. It's absolutely possible.

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Uh, and it's the kind of thing,

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I guess, that people who study

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asteroids, and there's a large body of, uh,

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interest in that topic now, uh, people who

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study asteroids perhaps have in the back of their mind,

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because you can learn a lot about an asteroid by looking

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at the spectrum of the light reflected from

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it in the infrared. Uh, uh,

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that spectrum is affected by the surface

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features of the asteroid. And if you start picking up,

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uh, indications of perhaps a different sort

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of chemistry on the surface of an asteroid, uh,

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that, uh, we wouldn't expect from

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one of our homegrown asteroids, that might be the

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kind of thing that would lead you to, uh,

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perhaps speculate that this might have an

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extra solar origin, something that's come from another

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solar system. How would you test for that?

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Uh, well, it's possible these days, uh, to run

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simulations of the

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way orbits of objects in the solar system have

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evolved. So you can sort of pick an

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asteroid, look at its current orbit and then

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sort of play it backwards. Uh, and

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it may be that you would do that with an object

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and find that, uh, at some time in

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the past its orbit was unstable,

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uh, which might suggest that it has

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actually come from another solar system.

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So it's not impossible. And it is

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something that I'm sure actively is being pursued by

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researchers in this topic. So. Good question, Patrick.

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Heidi Campo: That was a way to break in the episode. Excellent

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question, Patrick.

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Um, our next question is an audio

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question from Frederick. And

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I'm going to just give Fred and I

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a second to cue that question up and we're going

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to play that question for you now.

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Professor Fred Watson: Hello, this is Frederick Arthur Noldi

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from originally Duluth,

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Minnesota, usa.

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My question is, if

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black holes are evaporating through

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Hawking's radiation,

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what is left with over?

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Is it the point of singularity?

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And could that be dark matter

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because they are so

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dense, yet very probably small

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and don't interact with anything.

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Just wondering if I solved what a great question

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um, and it's one that set me thinking like so many

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of our listeners do. Um,

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if you have a black hole that evaporates, what is

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left behind? Is it still a

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singularity? Uh, and could that be

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the dark matter? So there

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is a problem with that scenario? Well, there are a number of

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problems. Um, one is that

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the evaporation of black holes, which, exactly as Frederick,

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uh, Arthur says, is, uh,

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caused by Hawking radiation. This is radiation that leaks out

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of the black hole. Uh, that is a very,

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very slow process indeed. So the

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timescale for a black hole evaporating

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is measured in many billions. In fact,

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sometimes tens of billions of years longer than

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the age of the universe. So,

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uh, unless black holes are very, very small,

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uh, their evaporation time is long.

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Smaller black holes would be

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evaporating quickly. And yes, maybe some might have

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evaporated already by now, but they would have such a

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tiny mass that it's hard to imagine it could

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contribute to, um,

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uh, the background that we,

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uh, understand as dark matter. This stuff

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that is there because we can detect its gravitational,

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uh, influence, but we can't see it.

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Now, the question of what's left

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when a black hole evaporates

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is an open one. Uh,

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and it is really an interesting one because

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there isn't an answer to it. Um,

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you can kind of have a look, uh,

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online and check out, um,

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you know, what the remnant is of a black hole.

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Uh,

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I guess, um, the jury is out

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on what is left. Um,

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there is a suggestion that what you're left with

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is an object of

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tiny mass, uh, that

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is stable, doesn't

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disappear. Uh, but

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really nobody knows. That's the bottom line with

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this. My thinking was a bit

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different. I expected that if a black hole

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evaporates, basically all the mass goes and

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you're left with nothing, uh, not even a

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singularity, because it's the mass that causes the

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singularity, that point of infinite

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density. So, um,

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uh, it seems that some physicists think something

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is left. It's got a tiny mass

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and therefore is not in any way

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significant in contributing to the dark matter of the

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universe. That's a very,

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uh, sort of gobbledygook

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answer to a simple question. But

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the bottom line is nobody really knows. We don't know

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what the end product of Hawk Hawking radiation is.

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Uh, and it's very hard to find out as well. It would have

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to be by modeling with physical

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processes that we really don't understand because

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we have no physics that describe what

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happens to a point of infinite density, which is What

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a black hole is. So many thanks for the

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question. Uh, an interesting thing to think about, but we don't know

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the answer.

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Heidi Campo: Maybe, uh, maybe one day one of our listeners will be

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the one to find that out.

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Professor Fred Watson: That might be the case.

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Heidi Campo: If you guys have the answers, you definitely need to write

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in and let us know.

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Professor Fred Watson: Space nuts.

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Heidi Campo: Um, our next question comes from James.

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James says, good day, Fred, Andrew,

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Heidi, and Huw. That's our

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producer, he doesn't always get a shout out, so

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that's nice. Um, James

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says, I've got an ethical question I'd like to

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propose to you. In a hypothetical scenario,

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let's suppose we find alien life as

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advanced as us and we're able to meet

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in person and start sharing knowledge and

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culture with each other. Ethically,

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assuming nothing would go wrong from eating

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alien food, would it be acceptable for

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humanity to eat the cuisine

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of this new life? Uh, sorry? Eat the

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cuisine of this new life? If it

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is equivalent to a hamburger or chicken nugget,

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would we stick to their fruits

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and veggies? Or are we going space

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nuts about the Andromeda Cosmic Ray? Fried

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chicken? Thanks for all you do,

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Fred. This one is, uh,

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different from our usual questions. This is, uh,

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an opinion.

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Professor Fred Watson: It is.

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Heidi Campo: Would you eat the fried chicken?

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Professor Fred Watson: So I guess the issue is,

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um. And, you know,

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uh, essentially James is making a

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distinction between

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vegetable, uh, food. Fruit and veggie.

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Fruit and veggies. Or the meat, the

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stuff that has once been a living animal.

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Uh, and it's a really

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great question. I'd be interested to hear your

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thoughts on this, Heidi, because you've got as much.

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Heidi Campo: Oh, man, my brain already started rolling

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as soon as this started.

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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, Um, I.

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So

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let me try and put it into context. So I think

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ethically here on Earth,

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we've got nothing that stops us from eating

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the food that originated with a different culture from

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our own. And we enjoy that. We relish

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the fact that we can eat food

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from different cultures. Now, the

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difference here is that the raw material, whether

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it's meat or whether it's vegetable or

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whatever it is, um, has come

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from Earth. So we've got the same raw

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materials. We've just got a different process that turns it into

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food, uh, in this different culture.

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And I think that's the difference with, uh,

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some sort of alien, um, you know, if you

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were invited to a meal by

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a friendly alien on their home planet,

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uh, my guess

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is, um, that.

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I don't know, maybe I'm just being too polite

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here, uh, in the interests of good relationships, you would

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probably do what

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they would ask you to do. Now, I'm taking

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James's caveat here that, you know,

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that we don't, uh, have any

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risks health wise, as he

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says, assuming nothing could go wrong from eating alien

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food. Would it be acceptable for humanity to eat the

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cuisine of this new life

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if it's the equivalent of a hamburger or a chicken

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nugget? I think it,

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my humble opinion is that it would be, uh,

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that, uh, if, you know, maybe

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you have to broaden, uh, your

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mind to try and incorporate the ethical system of the

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species who are looking after

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you, who are providing you with this,

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you might have a different view. Heidi?

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Heidi Campo: Well, there's two things I want to say, and

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I'll say, so one of them falls under a philosophical bucket, and

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the other one falls under the science bucket. So let's start with the

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philosophical. What we eat

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always comes down to and when we're talking about

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these kind of instances is there's a lot of

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moral questions that come down into it because it's like,

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ethically, you know, as long as,

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um, you know, I mean, I guess

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even ethics is. Some people do run on different ethical codes

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or moral codes. Religious, um, codes can

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dictate our diets as well. Um, a lot of people

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don't eat pork. There's cultures that don't eat

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beef. There's cultures that don't eat shell food,

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shellfish. Um, I personally do not eat

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pork. Pork, Um, I found out that they wag their

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tails when they're happy and I stopped.

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But, um, I found out cows do the same and

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I just can't, I love cheeseburgers too much. So that

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aside, so the morality aside,

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sentient creatures, I mean, are we talking about eating these

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friendly aliens or are we talking about eating their,

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their foods? And then that just comes down to the whole,

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you know, well, maybe people should all be

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a vegan or vegetarian, because some cultures

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eat dogs or cats and subcultures don't.

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But now the scientific side of it is really

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interesting what, um, NASA does in their

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foods lab. And I had the, um,

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privilege of touring their foods lab a few

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years ago. I got invited, um,

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as a media person to go to the Crew 7

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launch. That was two years ago.

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Crew 7. Um, and so part of that

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is we got to sit down with subject matter experts and we got a

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tour of the foods lab and

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thinking, um, about the benefits of food from other planets or

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food grown in space. I think it's very

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interesting and it's something that

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I would love to see hypothetically, if

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this food was better for me as a former

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athlete. If this is more protein and it's

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easier for me to consume and it's going to make me a better athlete,

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absolutely I would eat it. But if it's full of

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weird radiation that's going to give me cancer in five minutes,

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probably not. So a lot of hypotheticals

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here, a lot of what ifs, but fun question nonetheless.

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Professor Fred Watson: Uh, indeed. I think James tried to rule that out, you

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know, the radioactive food by saying that it

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wouldn't harm us. But, yeah, it's a really interesting question. And

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I, uh, I mean, the scientist in me,

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um, is a little bit,

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I guess, upset by the idea of eating what you're

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studying. Because if you're

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an astrobiologist and you're talking about

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life forms, whether they're vegetable or animal, on a

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different planet, then that's part of the scope of

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astrobiology. Uh, and, uh, should you

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eat what you're trying to study? I don't know.

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Great question, James. Uh, like all our questions,

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one that gets us thinking

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zero G and I feel fine, space nuts.

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Heidi Campo: Well, our very last question is, uh, another

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audio question, and this one is from

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Dan in California. So I'm

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going to go ahead and cue that question up now, and you guys

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can listen to Dan's question.

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Professor Fred Watson: Hi, Heidi, Fred and Andrew. It's

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Dan from California. I haven't sent in a

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question for a while, but I thought I would ask one about the sun.

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Uh, recently with the Parker solar probe, getting,

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uh, some more data back to us, uh, it made me think

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about the temperature difference between the

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corona and the photosphere and whether we expect

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the same thing to happen to other stars that we

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have observed. Great show.

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Love every moment of it. I try and listen every time.

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Thank you. Thanks, Dan. Thanks for

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listening.

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Um, another great question, um,

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and this is one that I think astrophysicists have got

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more of a handle on than the ethical question that we've just

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heard or the one about evaporating black

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holes is something that we do understand

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at a certain level. Um,

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so Dan is asking to what

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extent other stars mimic

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the behavior of the sun, part of which is still a

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puzzle. And the bit I'm talking about is the fact that

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we have, uh, the surface of the sun.

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And using the word surface figuratively

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because it doesn't have a solid surface. Uh, it's the point at which

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the sun, um, you know, where the radiation of the sun

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seems to come from the visible light, what we call the

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photosphere. That's

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about

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5500

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uh, degrees Celsius or so.

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Uh, but the atmosphere

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above that, the outer atmosphere, the corona,

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which is that uh, ethereal

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glow that we see when the sun is in

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eclipse and you can't see the photosphere, the

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photosphere is blocked out. We know the temperature

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of that is measured in millions of degrees.

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And the question that's still

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an active question in astrophysics, in solar physics

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is how does that solar

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corona get to be so much hotter

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than the surface of the sun, the visible

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surface of the Sun. The

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mechanisms are poorly, ah, understood.

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Uh, we think it is due to

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um, magnetic, you know, the

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tangled magnetic fields on the surface of

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the sun. Magnetic

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activity is really what gives you

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the transport of energy from the

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surface up to the corona. Uh, but

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the exact mechanism is still

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basically not, you know,

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fully worked out. And um, in

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fact Dan mentioned the Parker Solar Probe. It's a NASA

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spacecraft that is uh, orbiting the sun more

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closely than any other spacecraft has, uh,

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and is detecting things like these intense magnetic

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fields. So hopefully the

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physicists will sew up all those details,

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pull them together and get an answer as to why

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the corona is so much hotter. But the point

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of Dan's question is not about the sun, it's about other

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stars. And indeed, uh,

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our understanding is that

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uh, other stars have this equally hot corona.

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Other sun like stars. I should qualify that

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because stars come in widely different varieties.

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But other sun like stars, uh, we expect

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to find a similar corona. Whether

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um, that has been detected

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directly, uh, I'm not sure

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about because we detect the corona uh,

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through um, basically

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high energy radiation, X rays and ultraviolet.

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Uh, they are what betray the high

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temperature of the corona. Whether we've been able to

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detect those emissions from other stars, I'm not sure. But I

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wouldn't mind betting that we have because

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uh, those coronas are expected to behave just

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as the sun's corona does. The sun's a very, very

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typical star. There's not really anything extraordinary uh,

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about it except it has a planet, a family of planets,

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one of which has an intelligent species on it.

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And that might even make it unique.

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Heidi Campo: Well, there you go. That's, that's

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a wrap with the questions. Um,

437
00:21:17.890 --> 00:21:20.890
what, what a, ah, great bunch of questions you

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guys. Thank you so much for sending those in.

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Um, I think I maybe mentioned this on our, on our last

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episode, but it's finally summer, um, break for me

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for a few short weeks. So please keep those questions coming in so

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we can keep listening to them and answering them

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and um, enjoying interacting with you

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guys. Fred, that's

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the end of this. Ah, Q and A episode.

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Do you have anything else you want to add before we sign

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off?

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Professor Fred Watson: Um, not only to reiterate what you've just said, uh,

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this is the thing about spacenots. We've got such

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an active, energetic,

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enthusiastic, and very

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erudite audience, uh, that it's great

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to hear from, uh, all our

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listeners. Uh, and yeah, please keep sending in the

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questions, audio or text. We're happy with either.

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And a quick thank you from me, too. You mentioned him already.

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It's not often Huw gets the rap, but, uh,

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usually from Andrew, he got an insult. Um, but

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we're not going to do that, Heidi. We think Hugh's doing a great

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job. Uh, and I'm delighted to

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receive a, um, bunch of new questions from him

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yesterday afternoon at very short notice indeed. So

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thank you for that, Huw.

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Heidi Campo: Excellent. Well, thank you so much for listening and we will see

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you all next time.

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Voice Over Guy: You'll be listening to the Space Nuts podcast,

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00:22:41.210 --> 00:22:44.010
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00:22:44.170 --> 00:22:46.930
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00:22:46.930 --> 00:22:48.650
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