April 27, 2026

Supermassive Black Holes, Voyager's Journey & Gravitational Waves Explained | Q&A

Supermassive Black Holes, Voyager's Journey & Gravitational Waves Explained | Q&A

Sponsor Link: For our special NordVPN deal and 30 day money back uarantee, visit https://nordvpn.com/spacenuts Show Notes Supermassive Black Holes, Voyager 1, and Gravitational Waves In this engaging Q&A episode of Space Nuts, hosts Andrew...

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For our special NordVPN deal and 30 day money back uarantee, visit www.nordvp.com/spacenuts

Show Notes
Supermassive Black Holes, Voyager 1, and Gravitational Waves In this engaging Q&A episode of Space Nuts, hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson tackle a variety of intriguing audience questions that span the cosmos. From the formation of supermassive black holes to the journey of Voyager 1 and the nature of gravitational waves, this episode is filled with cosmic curiosities and scientific insights.
Episode Highlights:
- Formation of Supermassive Black Holes: Martin from Merseyside sparks a fascinating discussion about the mechanisms behind the formation of supermassive black holes. Andrew and Fred Watson explore the gravitational instability theory and the contrasting processes that could lead to the creation of these colossal entities in the early universe.
- Voyager 1's Journey: Andy, our favourite train driver, raises an interesting question about whether the particles in space could slow down Voyager 1 as it travels at 38,000 miles per hour. The hosts clarify the nature of space and the spacecraft's trajectory, highlighting the vast emptiness of interstellar space and the spacecraft's remarkable speed.
- Gravitational Waves Explained: Ben from Kent asks a thought-provoking question about the nature of gravitational waves produced by colliding black holes. Andrew and Fred Watson delve into whether these waves are spherical or flat, providing clarity on how they propagate through the fabric of spacetime.
- Thought Experiments on Earth's Rotation: Judd from Brisbane brings up the current speed of Earth's rotation and its effects on gravity. The hosts discuss the fascinating implications of Earth's spin on weight, including the differences between the equator and the poles, and what would happen if Earth suddenly stopped rotating.

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WEBVTT

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Hello again, thanks for joining us on Space Nuts, where

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we talk astronomy and space and science all at the

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same time. This is a Q and A episode. My

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name is Andrew Dunctor, your host. Great to have your company.

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Coming up audience questions. We're going to answer a question

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from Martin about super massive black holes. Ben has also

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got a question about black holes and gravitational waves. And

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the Favorite train driver is on about a voyager one,

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and Judd has some thought experiments for us. We'll check

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it all out on this episode of Space.

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Nuts fifteen, Channel ten nine Ignition Siquench.

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Space Nuts Guy or three two one Space Nuts.

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As when I reported Neil's good.

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And back to unravel, unpack and solve all of that

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is Professor Fred Watson, Astronomer at Large. Hello Fred, Hello Andrew,

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very good to see you. Good to see you too.

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I've still got my crochie voice. In fact, I've been

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so unwell. I'm still wearing the same clothes as I

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was last week.

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Well there you go, funnily enough, so am I?

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Yeah? Well what a coincidence? Shall we get down to business?

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Why not?

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All right to do so? Yeah, Now we've got some

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text and audio questions we'll go text first today and

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forgive my rather unreliable voice as I work my way

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through this. Hi Fred and Andrew. It's Martin here from

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Heswall on the We're all in Merseyside. I posted a

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question before and Fred mentioned that he knew Barnston, which

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is just a pleasant walk over the fields from here.

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I have a question about your favorite topic, black hole.

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I thought it was going to be golf black holes.

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I'm interested specifically in the process of their formation, and

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more particularly in super massive black holes. The mechanism for

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the creation of stellar mass black holes seems to be

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well understood, but I find it hard to believe that

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this can be the same way that super massive black

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holes in the early universe were formed. I've read that

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the gravitational instability theory posits that black holes can be

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formed directly when a massive cloud of matter collapses under

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its own gravity. Why is it not possible that there

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can be two processes at work depending on the size.

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For me, part of the evidence in supporting in support

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of invoking gravitational instability is the lack of evidence for

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the existence of intermediate mass black holes. What are the

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arguments against this theory as it does seem to be

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that widely It doesn't seem to be that widely accepted.

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If black holes are created in two completely different ways,

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what effect would this have on their properties? For instance, charge, spin, etc.

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I really enjoy listening to the show. It helps me

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keep up to date with the world of science, space

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and stuff. That's our slogan. Ha, well done, well done, Martin,

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that's our slogan. Yeah. Look, that's a really good question.

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And we only talked in the last episode about the

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different theories about how black holes are formed and the

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possible discovery of primordial black holes. So if you haven't

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heard that episode, wind back because it's worth listening to

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that story. But yeah, it brings up an interesting point.

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How can it be the same process for a super

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massive black hole versus another one, a smaller one.

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Yeah? So, I mean Martin's hit on one of the

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key questions at the moment in astrophysics and cosmology. So

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he's right up to date there, sure is. Because this

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idea of the super massive black holes in the early universe,

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for directly as a direct result of a cloud of

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gas collapsing without having to go through the mechanisms forming

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a star and then the star is basically exploding to

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form a black hole. That's quite new, and that might

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be why, as Martin says, it's not yet sort of

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considered to be mainstream, but it is very much an

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up and coming idea and theory that answers the criticism

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that the conventional theory has, and that is, conventionally, scientists

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have assumed that super massive black holes are created over

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long periods of time by the accretion of material, So

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we know how a stellar mass black hole is formed

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exactly as Martin mentioned. We understand that a massive star

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explodes at the end of its life when the fuel

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balance runs out. The outer layers are shed off and

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a super and over remnant and the center, basically the

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central core, collapses to be the black hole, which is

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a point with zero dimensions, a point where density is infinite,

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so that the conventional method says you start off with

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lots of those in a galaxy and they eventually accrete

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to form a bigger object, mixing with stuff that's sucked

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in on the accretion disc as well. That might include

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a few odd black holes dropping in to form eventually

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a super massive black hole. But the problem has been

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how do you manage to do that in less than

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a couple one hundred million years, which is you know

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where the earliest super massive black holes are after the

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Big Bang. We know about those because we can we

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measure them by look at using the James Webb space telescope.

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It's measured I think several objects within maybe two hundred

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and fifty million years after the Big Bang. In other words,

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we're looking back almost thirteen point eight billion years thirteen

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point six or something like that. How did they form

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so quickly? If that's the mechanism, and that's why this

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alternative mechanism of direct collapse from an interstellar from a

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not interstellar because there were no stars then, but from

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a primordial gas cloud might have occurred. And as I

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understand it, the idea of primordial black holes postulated, this

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is what we talked about last week or the last episode,

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postulated by Stephen Hawking in visage that there would be

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a very very wide range of masses of black holes,

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ranging from things less than the mass of the Sun.

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As we reported in the last episode. We think we've

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found one of those now to a supermassive black holes.

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I think that is all within the purview of Hawking's

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theory of primordial black holes. And so the question, you know,

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maybe the fact that we're finding the supermassive black holes

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too early in the universe might to have been formed

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by stuff coming together, might be a support for the

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Hawking theory that maybe some of these were actually formed

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immediately after the Big Bang.

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Wow, wouldn't that be interesting?

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And there was something about something that Martin mentioned about intermediate.

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Yeah, he said, for me, part of the evidence in

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support of invoking gravitational instability is the lack of evidence

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for the existence of intermediate mass black holes, although they're

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the ones we were talking about recently.

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That we now have discovered, have we not, Yes, but

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there's still normally there still seem to be yes, much

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error than the super massive black holes or the stellar

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mass black holes which exist in profusion, intermediate mass black

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holes have been quite hard to find.

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Up.

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Yeah, I mean, you know, what Martin says is right,

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that might point to the idea of gravitational instability. In

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other words, sort of primordial type black holes as being

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the formation that might point to that. And so I

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don't think there's an issue there. But yes, his final question,

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if black holes are created in two completely different ways.

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What effect would that have on their properties? For example,

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for instance, charge, spin, et cetera. Now, in fact, the

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only properties of a black hole that you can observe

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are the charge in the spin as well as the mass,

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and that that's because of something that you and I

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might have mentioned before. Andrew something called the no hair theorem,

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which I'm very fond of, if you can guess, and

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no hair theorem basically says that there's you know, there's

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virtually nothing of the black hole's characteristics that you can

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see from the outside. It's like suggesting a baldness of

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the of the black hole the event horizon. It doesn't

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give much away. Charge and spin are I think, I

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think only the only two apart from mass. Now I

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don't know the answer to that. Would there be any

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difference in those properties for two different methods of black

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hole formation. Thanks a really good question, and it's something

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that I probably should have a look at and see

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if I can find out.

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Yeah, I thought i'd look up no hair theorem to

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see what happened, and I didn't get an ad for

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a hair pill. It actually took me. It actually took

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me to the to the to the no hair theorrem

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the no hair theorem a bit of black holes. Yeah,

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so they go the internet actually worked. Yes, nice change,

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nice change, and a nice question, Martin. Thanks for sending

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that to us. Hopefully that helped you sort a few

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things out. But yeah, there's still a lot of theory

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around black holes yet to be proven. But we're chipping

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away at it. We are chipping away at it. Not

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me personally. I leave that to other people who are

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more astute. Thanks for sending it in. Our next question

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comes from our favorite train driver. His name is Andy.

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Train driver. Here, just a question for you on Voyager one.

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I know that he's currently traveling about thirty eight thousand

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miles per hour, and it's very low on fuel, and

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the fuel is used for the thrusters to point in

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the Santana's back to Earth. And I know that space

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is not empty. There's particles and space dust. So, because

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he've got such a long journey before he reaches anything significant,

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would the particles in space slow it enough to bring

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it to a halt, Because as far as I'm aware,

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it's got about forty thousand years before it reaches something significant.

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So is that a long enough time? Would you say

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to maybe not bring it to a halt, but to

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slow it significantly that it really does increase that timescale.

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Sorry if that doesn't make much sense. Thanks for your podcast, guys,

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really enjoy it.

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Speak to you soon.

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Bye. Thank you, Andy, Hope, Aul as well on your

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daily commute. Although you're the driver, so you just drag

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everyone else around. What a great job, right, okay? Voyager

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one thirty eight thousand miles an hour. Is there enough

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material to ultimately stop it because it's going to run

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into a few things here and there. Possibly, But I

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would question the spread of the dust when you get

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out into those interstellar places. The amount of material fins

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out significantly, doesn't it?

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Yeah, very much. So there is still you know, there

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are still atoms there or nucleari probably part of sub

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atomic particles.

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But it's not.

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It's not enough to significantly slow the spacecraft. It's you know,

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you're basically, to all intents and purposes, it's moving through

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a vacuum. It's I was thinking kilometers per second. Its

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current speed is sixteen point nine two zero kilometers per

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second relative to the Sun.

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Sixty one thousand kilometers an hour, seventeen kilometers a second

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dish thirty eight thousand mile Now, yep, it's going. It's fast.

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It is the speed I like is in units of

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astronomical units per year, and that is three point three

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point six nearly three point five six nine, So three

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times a year, it covers the distance from the Earth

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to the Sun.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, that's one hundred and fifty million kilometers.

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Sure is that's that's amazing, isn't it. And it's still

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going strong.

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Yeah, so, and it's right. I think the fuel's low.

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But the fuel is just for the thrusters. It's just

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to keep the antenna pointed towards Earth.

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So yeah, and he said it might come across something

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in about forty thousand years. I thought when we talked

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about this last that it could just keep going. It

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might not run into anything.

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Yeah, simply because it's not aimed at anything. And space

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is very empty. Even though there's a you know, four

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hundred billion stars in the Milky Way or whatever. The

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Milky Way is very very big, indeed, and it's look,

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it's it's distances. I think. I think the olds are

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that it will keep going forever. It might be captured

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by the gravity of another star. I think the notion

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of a collision is vanishingly small. I've just statistics just

224
00:14:06.600 --> 00:14:08.039
come into my head that I used to use a

225
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lot to give people the idea of just how big

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the galaxy is. And I'm sure you and I have

227
00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:18.360
discussed it too. If you imagine a diagram of our

228
00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:23.039
galaxy that was the size of the Earth, so twelve

229
00:14:23.080 --> 00:14:26.919
and a half a thousand kilometers in diameter, that's your

230
00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:30.440
map of the galaxy the size of the Earth. The

231
00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:35.240
separation from the Sun to the Earth on that scale

232
00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:40.840
is two millimeters. That tells you that the galaxy is very,

233
00:14:41.159 --> 00:14:44.039
very large compared with the size of the Solar System.

234
00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:50.480
That's just mind boggling stuff. It's really easily. And the

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00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:53.440
other thing, I suppose we talk about the odd cloud,

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which is this thing around our Is it around the

237
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Solar system, around a galaxy? Apparently it's around the solar

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systolic system. They reckon it's going to take three hundred

239
00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:10.679
years for Voyager one to reach that. That's right, that's right,

240
00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:14.360
that it's a long which means it still hasn't really

241
00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:15.600
left our Solar system.

242
00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:18.639
In real terms, I'm not even sure that it will

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be three hundred years because the oak Cloud is about

244
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a light year away.

245
00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:28.279
Well, actually it says here the inner edge in three

246
00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:30.720
hundred years, but it will take thirty thousand years to

247
00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:32.600
pass through it. That's more like it.

248
00:15:32.759 --> 00:15:33.879
Yeah, it's more like it.

249
00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:39.440
I should have finished reading the sentence, shouldn't I there

250
00:15:39.559 --> 00:15:41.879
was There was an unpredictable full stop in there though,

251
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So yeah.

252
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But yeah, incredible. Sorry, I meant to say last time

253
00:15:48.759 --> 00:15:50.600
Andy came on, I meant to tell him that I'm

254
00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:55.799
a train driver too, But it's and scale, which he'll know.

255
00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:59.360
He'll know what that is. Not some people might not. Actually,

256
00:15:59.399 --> 00:16:02.120
probably quite a lot of our listeners do. But I

257
00:16:02.279 --> 00:16:04.559
drive my trains in and scale. I love it.

258
00:16:04.679 --> 00:16:07.639
I should send Andy if he sends me his email

259
00:16:07.720 --> 00:16:11.320
address some video of our brand new regional trains in

260
00:16:11.399 --> 00:16:14.120
New South Wales that are like to see that being

261
00:16:14.200 --> 00:16:18.039
fitted out in Dubbo where I live, and they've been

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00:16:18.120 --> 00:16:21.159
doing test runs on them. I've actually heard it in

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00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:24.360
the wee small hours passing by because it's got a

264
00:16:24.440 --> 00:16:26.840
completely different sound, and I've actually reached a point now

265
00:16:26.840 --> 00:16:31.840
where I recognize the different trains by sound. Hypathetic as that,

266
00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:37.919
but yeah, it's much much quieter than the current train

267
00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:41.519
which is the XPT, which is well past its use

268
00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:44.879
by date. But never let the New South Wales government,

269
00:16:45.639 --> 00:16:48.960
you know, build a train because they will. They will say, okay,

270
00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:51.240
it's got a twenty year life, so we'll replace it

271
00:16:51.320 --> 00:16:57.519
in fifty, because that's what's happening. But these are very slickly.

272
00:16:57.519 --> 00:17:00.399
These are Spanish trains that are being fitted out dubbo

273
00:17:00.600 --> 00:17:05.279
and really really lovely piece of kit as Fred would say. So,

274
00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:08.440
and he sent me your email address and I will

275
00:17:08.519 --> 00:17:12.599
send you a video of our new trains. It's weird

276
00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:15.799
watching them run around with nobody in them. It's just

277
00:17:16.359 --> 00:17:20.200
no passengers, nothing, just all the lights are on. Nobody's home.

278
00:17:20.640 --> 00:17:21.319
Nobody's home.

279
00:17:22.279 --> 00:17:24.240
Yeah, if you're on the Metro in Sydney, there's not

280
00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:25.680
even a driver on board either.

281
00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:28.519
Yeah, I know. I've been on the Metro a couple

282
00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:31.960
of times. It's a slick system. One of my boys

283
00:17:32.039 --> 00:17:34.240
lives in a suburb where they're just about to complete

284
00:17:34.279 --> 00:17:37.319
a metro line. So he's really happy about that because

285
00:17:37.319 --> 00:17:40.039
it'll get him to work, you know, three times as fast,

286
00:17:40.839 --> 00:17:43.440
so he's really he's thrilled because he got rid of

287
00:17:43.480 --> 00:17:46.039
his car. He doesn't use a car in Sydney doesn't

288
00:17:46.039 --> 00:17:48.880
see the need. Got to have one out here though

289
00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:52.039
in the country. Thanks Andy lovely to hear from you.

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00:17:52.200 --> 00:17:56.480
This is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson.

291
00:17:58.599 --> 00:18:01.359
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313
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nuts space nuts. Oh boy, okay o. Next question, I

314
00:19:38.920 --> 00:19:40.559
don't even know where we're up to. Where are we

315
00:19:40.680 --> 00:19:43.599
up to? We've spoken to Andy, You're right. Question three

316
00:19:43.759 --> 00:19:47.279
high space nuts. Ben Harding here from Kent, England. Having

317
00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:50.680
listened to your show for several years now, I know

318
00:19:50.960 --> 00:19:53.759
everything there is to know about black holes. Indeed, I

319
00:19:53.839 --> 00:19:56.400
am ready to start building my own any day now.

320
00:19:56.559 --> 00:19:59.640
But wait. If I build two and they crash together,

321
00:20:00.039 --> 00:20:03.200
they will create gravitational waves, and I need to account

322
00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:05.839
for the ensuing distortion of the fabric of space time.

323
00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:12.000
All my cats will be upset. So our gravitational waves

324
00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:16.519
spherical or flat? I'm thinking they must be spherical, But

325
00:20:16.839 --> 00:20:20.000
then again, if they are created by two objects spiraling

326
00:20:20.160 --> 00:20:24.319
in together, the waves may be flat by some sort

327
00:20:24.359 --> 00:20:29.079
of conservation of angular momentum rule. I hope you can

328
00:20:29.279 --> 00:20:32.359
help me with my cats. They get a bit scratchy

329
00:20:32.359 --> 00:20:37.319
when they're upset. Thanks for the awesome show, Ben. I

330
00:20:37.400 --> 00:20:42.599
thank you, Ben. I'm just imagining your cats freaking out

331
00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:45.799
over gravitational waves. There's a comic strip in that, I

332
00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:50.119
reckon somewhere. My brother would do a comic on that.

333
00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:55.279
I reckon. He's very artistic, is my brother? Okay? All right,

334
00:20:55.359 --> 00:21:00.200
So our gravitational waves from the cataclysmic collision of two

335
00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:01.680
black holes spherical.

336
00:21:04.200 --> 00:21:10.599
So I think what Ben is referring to in his

337
00:21:10.759 --> 00:21:16.440
description is whether they whether they're they're radiated. Gravitational waves

338
00:21:16.440 --> 00:21:20.160
are radiated in all directions what we would call isotropic,

339
00:21:20.640 --> 00:21:24.240
or just in a plane, in the plane of the collision.

340
00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:28.319
And to the best of my understanding, the answer is

341
00:21:28.359 --> 00:21:31.440
that they're isotropic. They go off in all directions. So

342
00:21:31.720 --> 00:21:37.720
space shutters are just because of the gravitational interaction. It's

343
00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:40.839
not got any prefer I don't think. I do not

344
00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:44.680
believe it's got any preferred direction because of the you know,

345
00:21:44.759 --> 00:21:47.799
the direction of the collision. I think it's it's the

346
00:21:47.880 --> 00:21:53.480
same in all directions. There's another way of interpreting Ben's question, though,

347
00:21:53.640 --> 00:21:59.759
and that is how the oscillations of gravitational waves take place.

348
00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:05.160
And they're not the same as sound waves, where which

349
00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:09.319
are compression waves where things push backwards and forwards. And

350
00:22:09.400 --> 00:22:12.519
they're not the same as light waves, which are transverse

351
00:22:12.759 --> 00:22:16.759
waves where the electric field and magnetic field vary in

352
00:22:16.839 --> 00:22:20.680
a transverse manner, in other words, opposite to the direction

353
00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:24.079
of propagation, or right angles to the direction of propagation.

354
00:22:24.319 --> 00:22:27.759
There's something called quadruple waves, which is a sort of

355
00:22:27.880 --> 00:22:31.119
combination of not quite a combination of the two, but

356
00:22:31.319 --> 00:22:37.200
certainly a slightly unusual form of transverse wave. Quadruple waves

357
00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:39.519
is what they are. But I don't think that's what

358
00:22:39.640 --> 00:22:42.079
he means. I think what Ben means is what I

359
00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:45.559
answered in the first place, that yes, they're isotropic, rather

360
00:22:45.680 --> 00:22:47.799
than limited to a particular plane.

361
00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:50.920
They go out in all directions, unlike the gravitational wave

362
00:22:51.079 --> 00:22:54.559
that I detected on a plane. I don't know what

363
00:22:54.680 --> 00:22:57.319
that guy was eating, but yeah, I hope I don't

364
00:22:57.319 --> 00:22:58.519
have to experience a kid.

365
00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:02.599
Yeah, I know those things as well.

366
00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:07.759
Pretty awful stuff. Really. I'm impressed that Ben says he

367
00:23:07.880 --> 00:23:10.440
knows everything there is to know about black holes. Does

368
00:23:10.519 --> 00:23:15.440
that mean we've been doing a job That means he

369
00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:17.519
knows more than us, which, yeah, well it is to

370
00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:20.880
do possible too. Yeah, yes, but we're learning more and

371
00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:21.599
more about them.

372
00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:24.359
But that's of course we're listening to our listeners.

373
00:23:24.519 --> 00:23:29.200
That's that's exactly right. But yeah, there've been the topic

374
00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:32.559
of I think since we started a decade ago. Fred,

375
00:23:33.799 --> 00:23:36.839
you reminded me earlier it's been ten years we've been

376
00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:40.079
doing this podcast. That's that's extraordinary. We should have had

377
00:23:40.079 --> 00:23:42.319
a party, but I think we just can't stay up

378
00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:48.079
that late anymore. But it's it's probably been the hottest

379
00:23:48.279 --> 00:23:51.799
topic on Space Nuts since day one. Is black holes,

380
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:57.000
closely followed by dark matter, dark energy, and I don't

381
00:23:57.000 --> 00:23:58.720
know where you go from there, but it's been a

382
00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:02.839
life in space. Yes, life, Yes, you are right. Those

383
00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:04.960
are the top four topics. So I expect next week

384
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:08.400
our four questions will be on black hole's, dark matter,

385
00:24:08.759 --> 00:24:10.799
dark energy and life elsewhere.

386
00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:15.799
There's a good chance they will. That will be the standard.

387
00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:19.400
Yep, very good, Thank you, Ben. Lovely to hear from you.

388
00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:23.960
Hope all is well in Kent. Our final question comes

389
00:24:24.039 --> 00:24:24.720
from Judd.

390
00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:30.480
Goody, Fred and Andrew. It's Judd from Brisbane. Been a

391
00:24:30.519 --> 00:24:33.480
big fan of the show for a long time. My

392
00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:38.319
wife and I were listening to a recent episode where

393
00:24:38.359 --> 00:24:41.559
one of the stories was about the spun out asteroid

394
00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:46.359
that's spinning at an incredibly fast rate. And you know,

395
00:24:46.440 --> 00:24:52.839
we found Andrew's thought experiments about how that would affect

396
00:24:52.920 --> 00:24:57.400
Earth if we were spinning at a similar rate, And yeah,

397
00:24:57.440 --> 00:25:00.680
I got my head spinning and came up with lots

398
00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:06.680
of other thought experiments. First, my question is what is

399
00:25:06.839 --> 00:25:14.839
the current speed of the Earth's rotation? And yeah, does

400
00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:19.960
that speed affect the pull of gravity that.

401
00:25:20.079 --> 00:25:21.839
We feel on Earth?

402
00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:28.839
Like for instance, if I weigh one hundred kilograms at

403
00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:32.720
spinning at this rate of speed, if the Earth stops

404
00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:39.640
spinning tomorrow, would I weigh significantly more? Just wondering about that.

405
00:25:40.440 --> 00:25:46.839
And another question, would I weigh less at the equator

406
00:25:47.119 --> 00:25:50.599
than I would standing at the North or Soft pole

407
00:25:51.240 --> 00:25:55.079
because the equator is spinning much more rapidly than the

408
00:25:55.160 --> 00:26:00.160
Earth is at the poles. So just some thoughts to

409
00:26:00.279 --> 00:26:03.839
make your head spin and maybe give me some answers.

410
00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:07.680
Thank you, Thank you, jud Thanks to you and your

411
00:26:07.720 --> 00:26:09.559
wife for being fans of the show for so long.

412
00:26:09.720 --> 00:26:13.000
Much appreciated. And we can make this quick, yes, and

413
00:26:13.279 --> 00:26:16.720
we're finished for that. No, there's a lot more to

414
00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:20.000
it than that, but I think he pretty well nailed

415
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:22.680
a few of the thoughts that he's had in terms

416
00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:25.240
of what the answers are, what is the current speed

417
00:26:25.279 --> 00:26:27.720
of Earth's rotation? If you listen to the Monty Python

418
00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:30.440
song from the Life of Brian or was it one

419
00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:35.359
of the others, Yeah, they were wrong, weren't they with

420
00:26:35.559 --> 00:26:39.079
their assessment of the speed of the rotation of the planet.

421
00:26:42.359 --> 00:26:46.119
I can't remember. I do remember, I don't know what

422
00:26:46.200 --> 00:26:48.000
the speed is. I'll get to that in a second.

423
00:26:48.119 --> 00:26:49.720
I can't remember what the song says, but I do

424
00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:53.640
remember listening to that song a long time ago and thinking, yeah,

425
00:26:53.960 --> 00:26:57.279
pretty well, most of the astronomical statistics in it are correct,

426
00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:00.640
or they were when it was written in the day.

427
00:27:01.960 --> 00:27:06.359
But Jod is right. The speed of rotation at the

428
00:27:06.440 --> 00:27:10.480
Earth on the equator, which is where your linear speed

429
00:27:10.599 --> 00:27:16.759
is maximum, is sixteen hundred kilometers an hour. So that's significant.

430
00:27:17.200 --> 00:27:23.079
It's about half a kilometer per second roughly, and that's

431
00:27:23.160 --> 00:27:26.519
why you tend to build space launch sites at the equator,

432
00:27:27.319 --> 00:27:32.279
because you've got that additional zero point five kilometers per second.

433
00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:34.839
That's quite significant when you're trying to get up to

434
00:27:34.880 --> 00:27:38.680
eight kilometers per second to get into orbit. So you're

435
00:27:38.759 --> 00:27:40.960
kind of a sixteenth of the way they're already just

436
00:27:41.079 --> 00:27:43.680
by putting your launch site on the equator and of

437
00:27:43.759 --> 00:27:46.640
course launching towards the east, which is the direction that

438
00:27:46.680 --> 00:27:51.119
we're rotating in a middle latitudes. It reduces at our

439
00:27:51.200 --> 00:27:54.920
latitude here in New South Wales it's about fourteen hundred

440
00:27:55.200 --> 00:28:00.720
kilometers per hour. At Jud's latitude in Brisbane it's a

441
00:28:00.759 --> 00:28:05.759
little bit less, not that much less though, But so

442
00:28:06.079 --> 00:28:09.240
what's the effect on your weight? That's the interesting thing,

443
00:28:09.960 --> 00:28:18.119
And there are two parts to this. One is kind

444
00:28:18.160 --> 00:28:20.319
of what we've just alluded to, the fact that you

445
00:28:20.440 --> 00:28:27.000
are rotating sixteen hundred kilometers an hour roughly one thousand

446
00:28:27.039 --> 00:28:30.759
miles an hour. It basically there's a centrifugal force that

447
00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:35.279
means that you are slightly lighter. Your mass doesn't change,

448
00:28:35.319 --> 00:28:39.160
of course, but your weight does because of that centrifugal force.

449
00:28:40.039 --> 00:28:44.279
But there is another effect that acts with that too,

450
00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:48.680
and that's because the Earth isn't sphery cool. It's slightly

451
00:28:49.160 --> 00:28:51.359
bulging in the centric it's what we call and a

452
00:28:51.440 --> 00:28:58.519
blazed as spheroid. And at the equator you're about twenty

453
00:28:58.640 --> 00:29:04.240
kilometers are further away from the center of gravity then

454
00:29:04.279 --> 00:29:08.279
you are at the poles and so that too reduces

455
00:29:09.200 --> 00:29:13.559
the gravitational poll that you feel. So those two things together,

456
00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:17.880
the equatorial bulge of the Earth and the centrifugal force

457
00:29:17.920 --> 00:29:22.759
of the Earth's rotation come they basically combine to give

458
00:29:22.799 --> 00:29:25.920
you a figure that's a bit less than one percent

459
00:29:26.680 --> 00:29:30.160
of your weight changes if you're at the equator compared

460
00:29:30.200 --> 00:29:34.359
with the pole. People maybe, yes, yeah, I mean it

461
00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:37.240
means that if you do weigh one hundred kilograms then

462
00:29:37.400 --> 00:29:39.880
at the equator, then you're only going to be ninety

463
00:29:39.960 --> 00:29:43.000
nine at the pole. No, I've got it another way around.

464
00:29:43.079 --> 00:29:45.640
If you're a hundred kilos at the pole, you're only

465
00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:47.240
going to be ninety nine at the equator.

466
00:29:47.359 --> 00:29:52.440
I knew what you mean. Yeah, yeah, it's fascinating really

467
00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:58.920
and yeah, that was one of his questions, weight at

468
00:29:58.920 --> 00:30:04.119
the equator versus the part what would happen if Earth

469
00:30:04.200 --> 00:30:07.960
stops spinning? Like, I think we'd all be doomed for

470
00:30:08.039 --> 00:30:08.920
starters that the.

471
00:30:09.240 --> 00:30:14.319
Right, But we'd all be projected eastwards at sixteen hundred

472
00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:16.880
kilometers an hour if you're on the equator, Yeah.

473
00:30:17.839 --> 00:30:19.680
Yeah, that'd be pretty messy.

474
00:30:20.720 --> 00:30:23.960
But yeah, but if they are stopped spinning, you'd only

475
00:30:24.039 --> 00:30:29.359
have that equatorial bulge component that's reducing your weight, the

476
00:30:29.440 --> 00:30:31.480
fact that you're a little bit further away from the center,

477
00:30:31.519 --> 00:30:33.319
and that's almost negligible on its own.

478
00:30:33.559 --> 00:30:37.799
Yeah, fair enough, that was easy. And I found that

479
00:30:37.960 --> 00:30:40.119
mudy Python song. It was from the meaning of life,

480
00:30:40.240 --> 00:30:43.319
not from the life of Brian, and it's called the

481
00:30:43.400 --> 00:30:47.079
Galaxy Song. And the first verse, first verse is just

482
00:30:47.240 --> 00:30:49.759
remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving and

483
00:30:49.960 --> 00:30:52.599
revolving at nine hundred miles an.

484
00:30:52.519 --> 00:30:58.839
Hour, which is yeah, all right, so it's it's there's

485
00:30:58.839 --> 00:31:02.839
a bit one hundred miles an hour slow, yes, but

486
00:31:02.960 --> 00:31:08.720
it rhymes that's it a thousand works Yeah.

487
00:31:09.359 --> 00:31:12.559
Oh well maybe they needed two words rather than no,

488
00:31:12.559 --> 00:31:15.200
I would have still been or Andrew.

489
00:31:15.400 --> 00:31:17.880
Maybe the Earth has speed it up since they recorded

490
00:31:17.960 --> 00:31:18.279
the song.

491
00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:23.039
That's what it's slowing down though, isn't it. Yes, yeah,

492
00:31:24.880 --> 00:31:28.400
well eventually this song will be right, Yes, it will.

493
00:31:30.480 --> 00:31:30.920
That's right.

494
00:31:31.359 --> 00:31:34.720
Good, all right, thank you so much. Jud lovely to

495
00:31:34.799 --> 00:31:37.559
hear from you. I hope all is well in Brisbane.

496
00:31:38.200 --> 00:31:42.359
Sorry about your football team not and I think that

497
00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:45.359
brings us to the end. If you have questions for us,

498
00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:48.559
we would love to hear from you. You can go

499
00:31:48.640 --> 00:31:51.759
to our website Space Nuts dot Io and click on

500
00:31:51.839 --> 00:31:55.119
the am a link at the top of the page

501
00:31:55.519 --> 00:31:57.559
where you can ask me anything or ask me and

502
00:31:57.640 --> 00:32:01.160
I'll give it to Fred to figure out. So send

503
00:32:01.240 --> 00:32:03.440
us text and audio questions. Don't forget to tell us

504
00:32:03.440 --> 00:32:05.799
who you are and where you're from. And a little

505
00:32:05.880 --> 00:32:09.640
request if you will. When you next listen or are

506
00:32:09.720 --> 00:32:12.519
listening to us right now, please leave a review on

507
00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:17.599
whatever podcast platform you use, because reviews are very handy.

508
00:32:18.240 --> 00:32:23.519
It sort of moves us up some lattery thing ranking thing,

509
00:32:24.079 --> 00:32:28.440
which is very good for us. Apparently, I don't understand

510
00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:32.839
how this works. It's all to do with gravity. And

511
00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:36.359
thank you Fred once again for helping us out today.

512
00:32:36.720 --> 00:32:37.759
I think he did all the work.

513
00:32:37.799 --> 00:32:42.440
Actually, nice to help Andrew, always good to talk and

514
00:32:42.559 --> 00:32:43.559
we'll touch off again.

515
00:32:43.720 --> 00:32:47.680
We will Professor Fred Watson, Astronomer at Large. And thanks

516
00:32:47.759 --> 00:32:51.440
to Hugh in the studio although he couldn't be with

517
00:32:51.559 --> 00:32:57.799
us today. He had a thought and it was experimental

518
00:32:57.960 --> 00:33:00.519
and he's going to go and investigate at right now

519
00:33:00.559 --> 00:33:03.920
and see if it's real. I don't know what that means.

520
00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:06.160
And from me Andrew Dunkley, thanks to your company. You

521
00:33:06.200 --> 00:33:08.160
will see you on the next episode of Space Nuts

522
00:33:08.559 --> 00:33:08.920
Bye Bye.

523
00:33:10.279 --> 00:33:15.319
You'll be listening to the Space Nuts podcast, available at

524
00:33:15.359 --> 00:33:20.839
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525
00:33:20.920 --> 00:33:23.599
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526
00:33:24.119 --> 00:33:28.079
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