Latest / Made of Stars / Artemis II Delayed Until March

Transcript

Artemis II Delayed Until March · Made of Stars

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  Speaker 1: Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
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  Speaker 1: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
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  Speaker 1: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
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  Speaker 1: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar, asterism and uranus. Listen,
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  Speaker 1: that's your own risk.
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  Speaker 2: Go ahead. We're made of stars.
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  Speaker 1: Made them stars, madies.
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  Speaker 3: When made of stars, you could be from high they
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  Speaker 3: would New Mexicomus, where a stars? When we are made
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  Speaker 3: of stars.
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  Speaker 4: I'm Wes Carrol, joined by I'm my good friend doctor
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  Speaker 4: Sean In from Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center. Hayseean, Hey, Wes.
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  Speaker 2: Good to be here today.
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  Speaker 3: So we are made of stars.
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  Speaker 4: We've discussed before where the name for the show comes
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  Speaker 4: from and the reason that we settled on that name.
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  Speaker 4: And we have a story coming up towards the end
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  Speaker 4: that we'll get to that addresses that a little bit more.
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  Speaker 4: Some cool science to go with all of that, which
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  Speaker 4: is always fun. So we'll get to that in just.
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  Speaker 3: A little bit.
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  Speaker 4: First, there is some big news. It's a big story
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  Speaker 4: that we've been covering for a while now for various
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  Speaker 4: media outlets. We've been covering it as some more than
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  Speaker 4: others now, but that's also beside the point now. So
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  Speaker 4: we went down to Kennedy Space Center for the Artemis
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  Speaker 4: to arrival. We were there not too long ago. It
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  Speaker 4: seems like it was just like a month ago, but
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  Speaker 4: it was a little longer ago than that, and we
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  Speaker 4: were there for the arrival, and we were covering the
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  Speaker 4: fact that hey, they're getting ready to send astronauts around
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  Speaker 4: the Moon and back to get ready for eventually what
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  Speaker 4: will be another landing on the Moon, and so the
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  Speaker 4: conspiracy people can shut up or just have more fuel
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  Speaker 4: for the fire, whichever one it'll be, probably the latter.
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  Speaker 4: But it's been a big story that we're getting closer
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  Speaker 4: and closer and closer to the actual launch. There was
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  Speaker 4: a possibility it could have been this weekend, and we
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  Speaker 4: discussed that in a past show, that it was coming
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  Speaker 4: up potentially very quickly.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 4: One of the things we addressed last week is that
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  Speaker 4: there were possible concerns about this rocket. There were some
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  Speaker 4: issues that could be there. You made a plea to
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  Speaker 4: Jared Isaacman, the director of NASA, and you basically said, hey,
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  Speaker 4: let's follow this. Don't don't put lives at stake just
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  Speaker 4: for the sake of getting people launched too soon, which
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  Speaker 4: is the policy. That's what NASA does. It's even what
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  Speaker 4: SpaceX does. They'll nch SpaceX will launch a rocket that
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  Speaker 4: doesn't have people on it and go, let's see if
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  Speaker 4: it blows up, and that's that's a whole NASA doesn't
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  Speaker 4: really do that.
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  Speaker 3: But NASA, I guess.
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  Speaker 4: They were listening because there were some concerns during their
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  Speaker 4: wet test this week and decided we need to hold
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  Speaker 4: off at least a month. So at the earliest next
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  Speaker 4: month will be the Artemis to launch, not this weekend,
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  Speaker 4: not Super Bowl weekend.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's a bridge too far to say that.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we influenced shared Isaacman to be safer than normal.
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  Speaker 2: But we would like to thank Jared for listening to
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  Speaker 2: the show.
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  Speaker 3: We can't we can't say that he does not listen
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  Speaker 3: to this show.
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  Speaker 2: Dare anyone have no evidence that he does not listen
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  Speaker 2: to the.
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  Speaker 3: Show, no evidence of that at all. We can't say it.
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  Speaker 2: Well, so obviously, obviously it's a safety first environment at NASA,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, all joking aside, it is that time
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  Speaker 2: of the year where NASA recognizes a confluence, shall we say,
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  Speaker 2: of disasters in their past that happened in the last
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  Speaker 2: week of January or the first week of February. So
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  Speaker 2: so certainly that's no joking matter. It was making me
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  Speaker 2: mildly nervous that they seem to be accelerating a timeline
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  Speaker 2: for the first launch with human beings on board this
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  Speaker 2: particular rocket that coincided with that window of time. And
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  Speaker 2: remember it's not entirely an accident that the window of
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  Speaker 2: time was there, because part of what happened with Space
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  Speaker 2: Shattle Challenger was weather related, right. It was because it
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  Speaker 2: was too cold in Florida. Well, as everybody, it's been
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  Speaker 2: very cold in Florida over the last ten days.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, so the.
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  Speaker 2: Fact that the rocket was a little extra leaky in
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  Speaker 2: terms of its hydrogen containment, and they decided they wanted
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  Speaker 2: to follow that up a little further because it was
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  Speaker 2: just a little bit too much hydrogen leaking out of
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  Speaker 2: the rocket, and they're gonna go ahead and push this
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  Speaker 2: off to March. It does not hurt my feelings personally
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  Speaker 2: to just see it not not be accelerated into a
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  Speaker 2: timeframe that's near those terrible anniversaries of Columbia Challenger and
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  Speaker 2: Apollo one. So that was a good thing for me
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  Speaker 2: personally well.
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  Speaker 4: Seeing the testing and the report about their being those
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  Speaker 4: concerns did not surprise me that they were going to
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  Speaker 4: get to the conclusion that they got to. So and
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  Speaker 4: we got a couple of quotes from Jeric Isaacman on
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  Speaker 4: X you want those you want me to take them.
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  Speaker 2: I'll go ahead. You can jump in and jump on them,
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  Speaker 2: he said.
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  Speaker 4: With the conclusion of the wet dress rehearsal, today we
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  Speaker 4: are moving off the February launch window and targeting March
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  Speaker 4: for the earliest possible launch of Artemis two. We fully
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  Speaker 4: anticipated encountering challenges. That is precisely why we conduct a
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  Speaker 4: wet dress rehearsal. These tests are designed to surface issues
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  Speaker 4: before flight and set up launch day with the highest
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  Speaker 4: probability for success. There was never a doubt these guys
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  Speaker 4: were going to be taking this seriously with human lives
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  Speaker 4: at stake.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, one d percent that And you know, so the
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  Speaker 2: other thing I would add to that is people might
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  Speaker 2: be thinking, well, wait a minute, you said too much
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  Speaker 2: hydrogen leaking out, and hydrogen is the fuel one of
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  Speaker 2: the two fuels that these engines run on the main
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  Speaker 2: engines for Artemis two, should any hydrogen be leaking out?
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  Speaker 2: Like should you have rocket fuel leaking out? And the
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  Speaker 2: answer is well yes, because basically all of these rockets
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  Speaker 2: that run on hydrogen as a fuel have leaks, so
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  Speaker 2: to speak. And what they do is they vent this
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  Speaker 2: hydrogen because it goes in as a liquid and as
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  Speaker 2: it warms up, it rapidly turns to a gas. If
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  Speaker 2: they contain that gas, it would be under too much
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  Speaker 2: pressure and then it would cause a rupture or some
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  Speaker 2: other kind of problem. So they're bleeding off hydrogen every launch.
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  Speaker 2: And in fact, if you've seen videos of Space Shuttle
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  Speaker 2: launching and right before the main engines fire, they're kind
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  Speaker 2: of these sparklers that kind of shoot in under those
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  Speaker 2: nozzles of the main engines that's specifically there to burn
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  Speaker 2: off excess hydrogen gas so that there's not a problem
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  Speaker 2: when those when those engines light, right, So hydrogen notoriously
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  Speaker 2: hard to contain. Every Space Shuttle launch always had venting
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  Speaker 2: hydrogen or even leaking hydrogen. This is based on This
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  Speaker 2: rocket is based on Space Shuttle design platforms like for
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  Speaker 2: the for the fuel tank and for the solid rocket boosters,
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  Speaker 2: and for the engines themselves. So it's very similar in
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  Speaker 2: many ways to the Shuttle engine system, and so it
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  Speaker 2: has it's subject to the same concerns about leaking hydrogen
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  Speaker 2: that the Shuttle had. So they have a nominal amount
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  Speaker 2: and then they have an amount that they considered too much,
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  Speaker 2: and this was past the amount that they considered too much.
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  Speaker 2: So they're going to look and see if they can
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  Speaker 2: tighten up some of those leaks because obviously it was
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  Speaker 2: beyond what was intentional, and they're going to be doing
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  Speaker 2: that over the next several weeks, and then they're going
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  Speaker 2: to try to launch this thing at the first part
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  Speaker 2: of March, so we're looking at potentially an early March
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  Speaker 2: launch now at the earliest for Artemis to the Space
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  Speaker 2: launch System and the Orion space capsule.
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  Speaker 3: So pushing it.
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  Speaker 4: Back it will be a cramp on their plans as
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  Speaker 4: far as saying, hey, we definitely want to get the
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  Speaker 4: astronauts back on the Moon during this administration, but a
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  Speaker 4: month delay not significant in the sense that there'll still
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  Speaker 4: be plenty of time if everything goes well, that they
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  Speaker 4: can move forward with Artemis iree.
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  Speaker 2: We are aware that there are these stated political goals
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  Speaker 2: you know, in terms of what we want to see,
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  Speaker 2: we just want them to be safe, right, I don't
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  Speaker 2: care about political checkered flags so much. So the important
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  Speaker 2: part of the safety versus availability kinds of conversations are
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  Speaker 2: there are actually three launch windows this spring. One of
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  Speaker 2: those was this early February window. They're not going to
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  Speaker 2: make that one, but there's another one in March, and
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  Speaker 2: another one again in April, and that's where all the
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  Speaker 2: astro mechanics work out just right, the Moon Earth, all
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  Speaker 2: of those things are in the right positions to allow
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  Speaker 2: this launch to the Moon with the best fuel economy possible.
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  Speaker 2: And that's a big deal because fuel is weight when
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  Speaker 2: you're talking about rockets, and they have to have those
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  Speaker 2: weight constraints to be within parameters that are acceptable. So
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  Speaker 2: so yeah, that's they still have a couple of launch
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  Speaker 2: windows left, that's the point, within the next two months,
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  Speaker 2: and yeah, we want we want to see them be safe.
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  Speaker 2: Look again your reference last week. What we don't want
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  Speaker 2: is to see the safety standards pushed for expediency. So
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  Speaker 2: that's that was basically the theme of part of what
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  Speaker 2: we talked about last week.
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  Speaker 4: And we don't do politics on this show, so but
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  Speaker 4: just just for the sake of and we've kind of
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  Speaker 4: touched on this before. This is not the This is
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  Speaker 4: not the first presidential administration to push forward when it
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  Speaker 4: comes to the Moon. This isn't a brand new thing
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  Speaker 4: for presidents. And to just say that, you know, we're
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  Speaker 4: going to move forward and we want to get this done,
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  Speaker 4: the reasoning behind it, to be able to say, look
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  Speaker 4: what I did or whatever, it is. The reality here
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  Speaker 4: is we are in a space race. Part of that
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  Speaker 4: space race does involve human beings back.
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  Speaker 2: On the Moon.
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  Speaker 4: So there's just a lot at play, and it's really
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  Speaker 4: easy to be critical, or it's really easy to be raw, raw, Hey,
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  Speaker 4: my team, whatever you're going to do. But the reality
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  Speaker 4: is there is an urgency to this and a reason
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  Speaker 4: to want to move forward at a rapid speed. But
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  Speaker 4: you're right, safety has to be the most important thing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, I don't want to sit here
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  Speaker 2: in naively pollyanna ish suggest that politics isn't important to
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  Speaker 2: the space program. Politics is very important to the space
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  Speaker 2: program because as they said in the Right Stuff, no Bucks,
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  Speaker 2: no Buck Rogers right. So ultimately, you know, politics does
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  Speaker 2: play a role that can't be completely put to the side.
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  Speaker 2: So you can't just take forever. You can't. So every
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  Speaker 2: launch is going to have a certain risk to it,
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  Speaker 2: and part of that risk is always going to be
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  Speaker 2: because we have to move things along, because if we
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  Speaker 2: don't move things along, the public in the United States
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  Speaker 2: will get well, they'll lose sight of the importance of
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  Speaker 2: the program in general, right, And so that always plays
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  Speaker 2: an underpinning role at some level.
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  Speaker 4: Or even lose as far as believability, right. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: we joke about the skeptics and the conspiracy theorists in it.
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  Speaker 4: The more time that goes by without putting someone on
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  Speaker 4: the moon, the more people you're going to get to say, well,
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  Speaker 4: why haven't we been back.
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  Speaker 2: To the moon. It's very true, and I wish that
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  Speaker 2: fraction of people were a lot lower, but reality is reality. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and those people pay taxes as well, those people vote
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  Speaker 2: for people as well, and so yeah, you all of
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  Speaker 2: these things are mixed in. Sure. What I'm what I'm
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  Speaker 2: proud to see if Jared Isiacman is yeah, we're going
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  Speaker 2: to keep safety at the front at the forefront. We're not.
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  Speaker 2: We're not just going to play a political pawn for
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  Speaker 2: the current administration or any administration for that matter, and
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  Speaker 2: you know, we do. We do have in mind that
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  Speaker 2: politics is also important, but we want to keep it
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  Speaker 2: in its rightful priority place, which is down the ladder
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  Speaker 2: about five or six positions.
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  Speaker 4: There's a scene in the original Star Wars movie, and
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  Speaker 4: I guess probably some of the subsequent ones because they
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  Speaker 4: kept dipping back into the Death Star storylines, but that scene,
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  Speaker 4: as they're trying to get the Death Star, the Empire
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  Speaker 4: is trying to get the Death Star lined up just
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  Speaker 4: right so that it can.
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  Speaker 3: Fire it shot.
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  Speaker 4: And uh, that's kind of what happens whenever there is
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  Speaker 4: a significant solar flare one of these sun spots, that happens,
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  Speaker 4: and there has been one that's been pointing not at us,
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  Speaker 4: and it's now making its way towards us. We're having
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  Speaker 4: that countdown to the Death Star striking moment with this thing,
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  Speaker 4: aren't we.
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  Speaker 2: Orbital mechanics is very unforgiving, whether you're talking about launching
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  Speaker 2: moon rockets or whether you're trying to hit a rebel
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  Speaker 2: moon with a death star beam. Huh, it's very unforgiving.
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  Speaker 2: And what's been going on in the sun right now
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  Speaker 2: that relates to this is, as Wes mentioned, there's a
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  Speaker 2: very Giant Sunspot Group. If you want to know just
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  Speaker 2: how giant it is, well log onto our friends at
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  Speaker 2: spaceweather dot com and check out the images today, or
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  Speaker 2: if you're in the future, go back to February fifth,
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty six check out the pictures of Active Region
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  Speaker 2: number forty three sixty six, because it is several times
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  Speaker 2: larger than the Earth and it has blasted out six,
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  Speaker 2: count them, six X class solar flares in the past week.
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  Speaker 2: So so this is like the Death Star is not really
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  Speaker 2: waiting for, you know, the Moon to appear around the
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  Speaker 2: backside of the planet. It's just doing some test firing
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  Speaker 2: of the beam just to make sure that suckers working,
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  Speaker 2: just to make sure the rebels haven't taken it offline.
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  Speaker 2: So Active Region number forty three sixty six is blasting
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  Speaker 2: out X class solar flares just to make sure we
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  Speaker 2: on Earth are paying attention, and in fact, the wings
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  Speaker 2: of some of those solar flares are indeed impacting the Earth.
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  Speaker 2: We right now as we're recording the show, are under
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  Speaker 2: a week but yet present geomagnetic storm. It's taking place
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  Speaker 2: right now, and it's it's not going to be doing
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  Speaker 2: much for us here in terms of will we see
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  Speaker 2: Aurora in the southern skies of you know, west central Georgia,
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  Speaker 2: And no, probably not, not from this storm yet, or
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  Speaker 2: I should say not from any of the arriving coronal
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  Speaker 2: mass ejection from this storm. However, to day's the day
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  Speaker 2: where this thing got lined up. So today's the day
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  Speaker 2: where the death Star cleared the planet and now has
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  Speaker 2: a direct line of sight at the rebel moon, being
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  Speaker 2: us in this analogy. So in other words, Active region
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  Speaker 2: number forty three sixty six is now perfectly earth facing
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  Speaker 2: as we're recording the show. And I guess since the
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  Speaker 2: electronics that we're recording the show with are still working,
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  Speaker 2: it hasn't unleashed a Carrington Event sized flare yet and
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: blasted us off the air. However, it could. You know,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: it's a it's a really big storm, and then you
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  Speaker 2: know it could. So we are watching in a couple
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: of different ways high latitude observers, So thank you for
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: all of our friends who are listening in Barrow, Alaska
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: and Churchill, Canada. You people up there probably are seeing
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: northern lights from this tonight. If the skies are clear.
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  Speaker 2: That's not really going to happen for us. However, we're
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: going to watch and see what this storm does. It
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  Speaker 2: doesn't hold any more X class flares. The sun Spot itself,
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  Speaker 2: again many times bigger than the Earth, has what's known
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: as a beta gamma delta magnetic field. That's not something
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: from animal house, that's just something that classifies the strength
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: of the twisting of the Sunspot's magnetic field. And so
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: that's the speak of space weather for enthusiasts and scientists.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: And so the notion is it's got a very twisted
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  Speaker 2: magnetic field, it's very large, and now it's pointing right
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: at the Earth like a loaded gun. So it'll be
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: interesting to see what happens in the next twenty four
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: to seventy two hours, as the sunspot is in a
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: position and in an alignment that could potentially cause the
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  Speaker 2: Earth some complications if one of those giant X class
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: flares rips off.
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  Speaker 4: Again, you mentioned we haven't had the shut down of
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: electronics and things while we're doing the show, Carrington event
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: type of thing that's happened, But it is important that
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: we should tell our audience, and this is very critical
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: that if for some reason and there was a disruption,
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: it's very important that you.
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  Speaker 3: Sorry I had to do that.
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  Speaker 4: More made of stars right after this. It's always fun
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: we get a chance to have a reason to tell
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: people to look at the sky. We know we have
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: a like a lunar eclipse that's coming up, and we've
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: talked about that a little bit, and we'll talk about
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  Speaker 4: more of that coming.
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  Speaker 3: Up a little bit later.
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  Speaker 4: But anytime we got some reason to tell people, hey,
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: go up and stare at the sky, something cool is there.
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  Speaker 3: And there's a chance this.
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: Spring we're gonna have something cool to tell people to
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  Speaker 4: look at.
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  Speaker 2: So you're safe. There's a chance. So what's happening is this.
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  Speaker 2: There are a series of comets which we know as sungrazers,
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: and there's a special category of these sungrazers called cruits
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: sungrazers kr eutz. So the cruits sungrazers are comets that
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: have a very certain chemistry. In fact, they all share
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: this chemistry and commentary astronomers think that they all came
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: from one single comet, a massive supercomet that broke up
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  Speaker 2: a long time ago, and that all of the comets
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: in this group are fragments from that original supercomet that
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: was around in the early part of the Solar system.
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  Speaker 2: So what's weird about their chemistry. Well, one of the
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: things is they have all kinds of volatile elements. They're
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: loaded with volatiles, and those volatiles can make great big
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  Speaker 2: comas and tails when they get near the sun and
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: begin to melt off. And so there have been a
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: whole series of comments that came from this cruits group
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: that have been fantastic comments in the history of watching
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: comments from the Earth right. So some of these include
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: the great comments of sixteen sixty eight, eighteen forty three,
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: one of my favorites, the eighteen eighty two. I don't
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: really know anything about that, But the one I do
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: know about is comet Ikia seki in nineteen sixty five.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Comet Ikiya seki in nineteen sixty five was one of
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: the previous century's greatest comets, and it was a massive showing.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Wes and I are looking at an old black and
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: white photograph on our show prep here. But its tail
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: swept across a very large part of the sky, and many,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: many people who were alive at that time will easily
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: remember the great comet of nineteen sixty five. Comment Ikia Seki. Okay,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: So what's happened is astronomers have located a new chunk
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: that seems to be on an orbit that would make
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: it consistent with it being part of the Cruits group.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: It looks like it might be of a similar lineage
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: to the comments we just described, and in many cases
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Cruits groups comets have become really bright objects for people
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: to see in the nighttime sky, like the cases that
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: we just saw. So the new comet is called C
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty six A one. That's its catalog number. But
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: it was discovered by an astronomical program called Maps. That's
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: an acronym. Go worry about it, it's Maps. So we're
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: gonna call it Comet Maps. So so comment Maps, we're
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: gonna know by the early part of March because of
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: the observations we're going to be doing on this comment
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: between now and then, we're going to know how comment
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: Maps evolves, and that time period will tell us whether
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: or not Comet Maps is going to be one of
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: the Krups group comets that make a giant appearance in
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: the sky.
• 22:17
  Speaker 5: If so, sometime in the second week of April, this
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: comment could develop into what space dot Com describes as
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: an eye catching naked eye comment.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Low in the West shortly after sunset. Well, that's exciting
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: because we like eye catching naked eye comments. You don't
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: even need a telescope to see. You just go out
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: and look with your unaided eye. That's what naked eye means.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: So I don't know if that's even a turn we
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: can talk about in twenty twenty six. It's the unaided eye, friends.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: So now we are looking for comet maps. We're going
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: to be keeping an eye on it. The big question
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: is recording again to space dot com. They're using clever language.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Will it sizzle and become a bright, spectacular night sky
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: comment or will it fizzle and remain faint or disintegrate
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: when it gets too close to the sun. We don't know,
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: and we love cosmic mysteries in the nighttime sky. So
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: this is your next one, friends, here we go.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: We're gonna start a new segment called Sizzle or Fizzle.
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: It throws me back to my music programming radio days,
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: and you're always coming up with those, you know, if
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: people have to call in and say do you like
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: this song or not.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to remember what we called. We had one
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: on the station I was programming, and I can't remember
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: what we called it sizzle or fizzle would have been
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: a good one.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: Katy Perry astronaut fizzle.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: I'm going sizzle. I gotta be honest, I'm going.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: To sizzle on that one too. I have to just say.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: I'm going sizzle after I heard she, you know, unfollowed
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: Beyonce after jay Z's name popped up in the Epstein file.
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: So I'm going sizzle. I'm with her on the astronaut thing.
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: We're going sizzle.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: It's good. You know, there was that there was that
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: nova that was supposed to appear in the in the
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: the constellation of the Crab back in September of last year. Fizzle, fizzle. Yeah,
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: it's definitely a fizzle.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely a fizzle.
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: More made of stars right after this? All right, Well
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: we say it every week every show. We mentioned it,
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: and our good friend, uh Graham in Australia who just
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: had a birthday by the way, Happy birthday Graham, the
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: guy who sings our opening theme song. We mentioned it
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: a lot that we are in fact made of stars,
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: and we've got a little more evidence to support this.
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: We're made of stars.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: This story is definitely a sizzle.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Oh, sizzle all day yeah, sizzle, and not a
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: fizzle like a whole pound of bacon in the frying pan.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: This is sizzle.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: I can hear that.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: I can smell it right now.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: Okay, So here's the uh, here's the sizzle. So, for
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: the very first time, scientists have detected a new molecule
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: that's critical for life. And where do they find it.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: Not on a planet, not on a moon, not in
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: the atmosphere some distant star. Nope, they found it in
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: interstellar space, in other words, not involved with some kind
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: of already formed planetary system or lunar system. That's a
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: big deal because if these molecules that are necessary for
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: forming life are just drifting about through in interstellar clouds,
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: that means that they're probably out there in great abundance
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: almost everywhere, meaning that the fundamental chemicals necessary for life
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: on Earth or life as we know it, are free
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: floating in the material that makes stars up before the
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: star's form, the molecules are already there. That's an interesting thing, right,
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: So okay, so this new discovery in the heart of
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: our galaxy, scientists have discovered the first ever sulfur bearing
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: six membered ring molecule hiding in an interstellar cloud and
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: friends going to point you to the article. It's on
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Universe Today dot com this week as we're recording the
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: show so Universityday dot com. The chemical is known as thiopine.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Thiopine is carbon six hydrogen six sulfur one C six
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: H six S. It's a ring shaped sulfur bearing hydrocarbon
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: that we typically find is produced by biochemical reactions. In
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: other words, the places that we've always found thiopine are
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: right here on the Earth because it's being generated by
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: living things. So it's kind of strange when radio astronomers
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: from the mox Plunk Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics are out
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: there looking at what we know as a giant molecular cloud,
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: which is just a big quiescent calm, low temperature cloud
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: of material that could potentially become a star forming region
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: at some point. The one we're talking about in particular
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: has a catalog number of G plus zero point six
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: nine three zero point zero two seven. Rolls off the tongue.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: That's a great name for a band. No, it's not okay.
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: In this naming system, all the effective fizzle like, there's
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: no sizzles. There's no sizzle to this naming strategy.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: For sure, if you want to name a band after it,
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: that's a fizzle. It might have made a good rush
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: song or something I don't know, But other than that, no,
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: So when examining this molecular cloud, however, these folks from
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: the Max Blanc Institute, it's a star forming region. It's
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: about twenty seven hundred light years from the Earth. It's
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: in near the center of the Milky Way. They detected
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: this complex molecule in that cloud for the first time
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: ever in space. Again, found it on Earth a lot
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: never found it in space before. And we're not finding
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: it on an exoplanet. We're finding it in this primordial
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: cloud of gas, likely hanging around from the formation of
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: the Milky Way itself, that kind of age, right, So
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: this detection represents the largest sulfur bearing molecule ever detected
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: beyond the Earth. And again you have to have large
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: sulfur bearing hydrocarbons in order to have life at all.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: That's a building block type molecule. So this has a
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: significant implication for the study of cosmic origins of life.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: So by combining astronomical observations with laboratory experiments, the team
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: from Maxplank confirmed the presence of this six membered thirteen
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: out of molecule in a region of space similar to
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: the cloud of gas and dust from which new star
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: systems form. Okay, so here's what they did. They went
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: into the lab and they took these synthesized hydrocarbons and
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: they zapped them with about one thousand volts of electric discharge.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: And when they did that, the thiopine molecule emitted a
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: certain radio frequency that were These frequencies were detected by
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: radio detectors in the lab, and so suddenly these scientists
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: were able to say, oh, look, thiopine emits a radio
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: frequency when you hit it with enough energy. So if
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: that's true, we should be able to take our radio
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: telescopes and look for thiopine out there in the universe. Well,
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: that was the next step. So they used a couple
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: of very large radio telescopes from Spain and they had
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: some Spanish collaborators, and they took those radio telescopes and
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: looked at the radio frequency from the lab that they
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: knew thiopine emitted, and they looked for in space and
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: lo and behold, for the first time ever, they detected
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: thiopine this large molecule in the star forming clouds of
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: the Milky Way. And then that demonstrated a connection between
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: what we've referred to as astrochemistry, the kinds of chemistry
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: taking place off Earth or out there among the stars
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: in the Milky Way, and life here on Earth. So again,
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: first time connection chemical connection between astrochemistry and life chemistry
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: here on the Earth. These and other findings indicate the
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: origins of life may reside in space and are far
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: more plentiful than previously thought, so states Universe Today dot com.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: Go check out the article if that interest you. Certainly
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: more evidence that we are indeed made of stars. Friends.
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: So even if we don't get the sizzle of the
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: comet coming, there's still plenty of reasons to stare up
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: at the sky. And you guys have some opportunities to
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: do that at and away from Columbus State University's Coca
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: Cola Space Science Center.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have some of our astronomy nights coming up.
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: FDR State Park this weekend on the seventh, so just
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: a couple of days away.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: And it looks right now like that's going to be
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: a clear sky night. Looks like the weather's going to cooperate.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: I would say bundle, bundle yourself up.
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: So it seems like I say, yeah, it seems like
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: a safe bet to bundle unless you have some kind
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: of hidden sizzle tactic.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: Look like those electric socks.
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: That's right, so those will help.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: Those could literally says anyway. So yes, please join the
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: astronomy team at the co Cola Space signce Center for
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: the astronomy night coming up out there. FDR State Park
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: a great place to join the astronomy team and get
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: out away from the city lights and see the nighttime sky.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: And you can do that by just simply joining the
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: team out there at the park. So if you're wondering
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: where FDR State Park is, it's just north of the
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: city of the Column of Columbus, just a little ways
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: where the Space Sign Center here is located. To drive
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: from the science Center out to the ft hours about
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: a forty minute drive, but that's a far enough drive
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: to get out away from a lot of city lights
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: and get a much darker sky that gives you a
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: very pristine look at the beautiful stars. This is a
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: great time of year. I've been going out early in
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: the mornings to walk my dog along my country road
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: and the sky is absolutely beautiful. Yes, you must bundle
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: up and protect yourself from the weathers, but then once
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: you do, wow is the sky beautiful. So you can
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: join the team out there for that one. And we
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: also have an astronomy coming up here at the Coca
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Cola Space Science Center. US is going to give you
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: the details.
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: That one's on the twenty first, that's the next one there.
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: And then you guys still have some details I think
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: to come for the event coming up now in less
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: than a month March third, the lunar eclipse, and you
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: guys will be offering some opportunities for that. Details I
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: guess are still to come.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Right. Well, here's why we are trying to figure out
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: somebody's parking garage to park ourselves up there. That's right,
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: because what's going to happen is the lunar eclipse is
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: going to peak just as the moon is setting in
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: the west. So we don't want to be on our
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: front lawn at the Space Science Center because we have
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: a lot of obstructing trees in that particular direction. What
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: we would rather do is be on top of somebody's
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: parking garage. We've got a couple of requests in and
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: again check back with the show, or keep an eye
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: on the website at the Space Science Center to find
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: out the details for the upcoming lunar eclipse observing event
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: morning of March third. So that website is www dot
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: cc s SC dot org. Charlie Charlie SamSam Charlie dot
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: org is the way to remember it. Check out that
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: website for all of the details of these upcoming astronomical events.
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: Trees sizzle. When trees obstruct our views of astronomical things,
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: they fizzle.
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: That's the best way to put it.
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: Shan and I thank you for listening, and we will
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: do this again next week. Overhead Door Company of Columbus
• 34:34
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• 34:37
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• 34:58
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