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Artemis Updates, The Brain Nebula & Mapping the Galactic Center | Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights... · Space News Today

• 0:00
  Hi there. Thanks for joining us again.
• 0:02
  This is Space Nuts. My name is Andrew
• 0:04
  Dunley. It's great to have your company.
• 0:06
  We're um going to talk about a lot of
• 0:08
  things today and one of them is the
• 0:11
  Arteimus program. Now, we did talk about
• 0:14
  it um very recently because things had
• 0:17
  changed. The Arteimus 2 launch was set
• 0:20
  back and it looks like they're actually
• 0:22
  going to take the Artemis 2 rocket back
• 0:24
  to the assembly building now. and
• 0:27
  they're not anticipating an Artemis 2
• 0:29
  launch to send humans around the moon
• 0:31
  and back until at least April. But
• 0:34
  that's not what we're going to talk
• 0:36
  about. We'll explain that shortly. Uh
• 0:39
  we're going to look at the new Cranium
• 0:41
  Nebula. This one sounds quite
• 0:44
  unbelievable. Um a brain in space could
• 0:47
  be. And the center of our galaxy has
• 0:50
  been mapped in detail. What's it look
• 0:52
  like? We will tell you on this episode
• 0:54
  of Space Nuts.
• 0:56
  >> 15 seconds. Guidance is internal. 10 9
• 1:01
  Ignition sequence start.
• 1:03
  >> Space Nuts.
• 1:04
  >> 5 4 3 2
• 1:06
  >> 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1
• 1:09
  >> Space Nuts.
• 1:10
  >> Astronauts report. It feels good.
• 1:13
  >> Joining us once again is Professor Fred
• 1:16
  Watson, astronomer at large. Hi Fred.
• 1:18
  >> Hello Andrew. Good to see you back from
• 1:20
  your sodome. Yes. Yes. Um, I won't dwell
• 1:24
  on it too much. I'm sure people have
• 1:26
  seen the photos on Facebook if they care
• 1:28
  to look uh on on my page. I didn't put
• 1:30
  them on the space page, but uh yeah, we
• 1:32
  went to Borneo for a couple of weeks.
• 1:34
  Uh, and we saw some amazing wildlife.
• 1:37
  Uh, orangutang, uh, sunbears,
• 1:41
  uh, proboscus monkeys, civets, you know,
• 1:43
  you know about the civet, they eat the
• 1:45
  eat the coffee berry and poo out the
• 1:48
  bean and then they collect the beans and
• 1:50
  turn them into coffee.
• 1:51
  Yeah, we saw some of those. Uh, didn't
• 1:53
  try the coffee. Um, what else? Oh,
• 1:56
  Macack Monkeys. I even managed 18 holes
• 1:59
  at a a rather nice resort golf course.
• 2:02
  Um, and I paid the price for that
• 2:04
  because it was a pretty ordinary game,
• 2:06
  but I enjoyed the course. Beautiful.
• 2:08
  Although
• 2:09
  >> the greens in do are better than that.
• 2:12
  >> There you go.
• 2:12
  >> Much better.
• 2:13
  >> It's our superintendent was very pleased
• 2:15
  to hear when I saw him the other day.
• 2:18
  Um, but yeah, incredible country. I
• 2:19
  think um I don't know if you can see the
• 2:21
  map behind me, Fred. See that?
• 2:23
  >> I can. Yes, you can see.
• 2:24
  >> That is the map of the Sandakin death
• 2:27
  march uh in World War II. Uh Australian
• 2:30
  and English military personnel that have
• 2:33
  been captured by the Japanese were sent
• 2:35
  to Borneo uh to build an airport. And
• 2:38
  when it looked like the war was lost to
• 2:40
  Japan, they were ordered to kill all
• 2:43
  prisoners. and they force marched 1,800
• 2:47
  Australians from Sandakan to uh a um a a
• 2:52
  a place called Rena in northern Borneo.
• 2:56
  Uh of those 1800,
• 2:58
  six survived. Uh it's a terrible
• 3:02
  tragedy. It's um Australia's worst
• 3:06
  um atrocity in terms of uh of war. Uh
• 3:10
  and not many people know about it. They
• 3:12
  know all about Gallipoli. They know all
• 3:14
  about uh some of the major battles of
• 3:16
  World War I and World War II. Um the
• 3:19
  rats of Tbrook. It all goes down in
• 3:22
  folklore. But this is one of the
• 3:25
  probably one of the most forgotten
• 3:26
  elements of Australian military history
• 3:28
  and really and I would encourage people
• 3:30
  to go and read about it. um I knew about
• 3:33
  it, but um it's it's not well publicized
• 3:37
  and I think it's a tragedy that we tend
• 3:39
  to put this stuff at the at the back of
• 3:42
  our minds. Um and and should never be
• 3:44
  forgotten what happened over there. Uh
• 3:47
  so we we've basically on the tour
• 3:49
  followed the the route of the the death
• 3:52
  march. Not intentionally, it was just
• 3:54
  the way the road went, but um uh went to
• 3:56
  the memorials and um and and read all
• 3:59
  the names. uh hundreds and hundreds of
• 4:01
  names. Uh the British suffered
• 4:03
  similarly. Uh there were 600 British
• 4:05
  that were captured and basically left to
• 4:09
  die. It was just just horrible, Fred.
• 4:11
  Horrible.
• 4:12
  >> But the wildlife and the rainforest and
• 4:15
  the rivers and and the people
• 4:17
  magnificent. Highly recommend Borneo.
• 4:20
  Highly recommend it. Now, you were up
• 4:22
  late last night, weren't you?
• 4:25
  >> I was. Yeah. There was u because of the
• 4:27
  total eclipse of the moon
• 4:29
  >> which um we I know you didn't get to see
• 4:31
  because you had 88 cloud in do I know
• 4:35
  that because the Anglo Australian
• 4:37
  telescope not very far away from you got
• 4:40
  no observations last night of any kind
• 4:42
  but in Sydney uh we've had cloudy
• 4:44
  weather for weeks. Um but the the clouds
• 4:47
  the clouds broke uh and uh so we saw the
• 4:51
  eclipse and um that was Jordi of course
• 4:54
  >> uh that just chimed in there. But uh we
• 4:57
  actually have Jord's sister staying with
• 4:58
  us for a little while. Uh so um yeah,
• 5:02
  this is going to probably for the next
• 5:04
  few weeks we'll have uh the terrible
• 5:06
  duo. They're more or less identical.
• 5:08
  One's a little bit fatter than the
• 5:09
  other. I won't mention which is which,
• 5:11
  but um yeah. And so they Yes. She
• 5:14
  arrived, Rosie arrived today. Uh but
• 5:17
  yeah, that's nothing to do with the
• 5:18
  eclipse. Uh we did see the blood moon.
• 5:20
  It was a total eclipse of the moon. So
• 5:22
  that the earth, the moon was well
• 5:24
  immersed in the shadow of the earth. Uh
• 5:27
  we had about an hour of totality. Uh and
• 5:30
  during that time, the clouds came and
• 5:31
  went a bit, but we got uh really good
• 5:34
  view of the that blood moon phenomenon
• 5:36
  caused by scattering of light from the
• 5:39
  earth's atmosphere, scattering of
• 5:41
  sunlight. Yes. So it was it was good.
• 5:42
  But it was, as you've just said, a late
• 5:44
  night and I'm just catching up
• 5:46
  basically.
• 5:46
  >> Yeah, fair enough. Yeah, it's quite a
• 5:48
  spectacle, a blood moon. I'm sorry I
• 5:50
  missed it, but uh you can't help the
• 5:51
  weather.
• 5:53
  >> Um which reminds me, we also had to deal
• 5:56
  with flooding at the end of the monsoon
• 5:58
  while we were overseas. So, uh that was
• 6:00
  fun driving through flood waters. They
• 6:01
  wouldn't let you do that in Australia,
• 6:03
  but we weren't in Australia, were we?
• 6:05
  So, yeah. Uh we should get down to it,
• 6:07
  Fred. There's a lot to talk about. And
• 6:09
  our first subject is yet again the
• 6:12
  Arteimus missions. And I mentioned at
• 6:14
  the beginning that Artemis 2's been put
• 6:16
  back in the shed and probably won't
• 6:19
  launch those astronauts until at least
• 6:22
  April. But we are now talking about
• 6:26
  Arteimus 3. Now this was the mission
• 6:28
  that was slated for initially 2027, then
• 6:33
  pushed back to probably 2028
• 6:36
  to put people on the moon.
• 6:39
  Uh there's been several changes. It
• 6:42
  looks like they won't be doing that and
• 6:43
  they might not be using SpaceX
• 6:46
  >> the way things are shaping up.
• 6:48
  >> Uh that's right. So um this was uh an
• 6:52
  announcement last week uh at the time
• 6:55
  we're recording. Uh and you're quite
• 6:57
  right. What has happened is that there's
• 7:00
  been a major update to the Arteimus
• 7:02
  program uh with an extra mission slotted
• 7:05
  in. M
• 7:06
  >> um so Arteimus 3 exactly as you've said
• 7:09
  was originally going to be the lunar
• 7:11
  landing uh uh mission uh sometime after
• 7:15
  2027.
• 7:17
  Uh but what they have uh what NASA has
• 7:21
  done is uh inserted
• 7:25
  another mission which is now Arteimus 3
• 7:28
  which will not land on the moon. Uh it
• 7:31
  will be a spacecraft uh that will simply
• 7:34
  go into earth orbit. Uh and uh what it
• 7:38
  will do is essentially
• 7:42
  replicate in a sense what Apollo 9 did
• 7:47
  um after the Apollo 8 mission. Uh it
• 7:50
  it's to check that you can rendevu with
• 7:53
  the equipment. You can do the necessary
• 7:56
  steps that need to be taken in space. uh
• 7:59
  which um have not yet been tried and
• 8:02
  tested because Artemis 2 uh will simply
• 8:05
  involve the uh the Orion capsule
• 8:08
  containing the four astronauts. Uh what
• 8:10
  that will do is uh it will accelerate up
• 8:13
  to the 11 kilometers/s needing to get to
• 8:16
  the moon, go around the moon and then
• 8:18
  come back again without um any of the
• 8:20
  kind of technical details involved with
• 8:23
  first of all refueling uh spacecraft in
• 8:26
  space. That's one of the things that's
• 8:27
  part of the Arteimus program, but also
• 8:30
  >> doing the rendevous uh and turning
• 8:33
  spacecraft around and things of that
• 8:35
  sort. It's a bit like in the Apollo
• 8:37
  missions where you had to turn the um
• 8:40
  turn the uh lunar module around to dock
• 8:43
  with the with the crew module with the
• 8:45
  the basically the the crew capsule. So
• 8:48
  all of that is now being slotted into
• 8:52
  Apollo sorry beyond Arteimus 3 with the
• 8:56
  landing itself uh actually forecast for
• 9:00
  Arteimus 4 and one of the reasons for
• 9:02
  this is the fact that there is still a
• 9:07
  lot of work to do on the landing
• 9:09
  vehicle. Now um back in the day some
• 9:13
  years ago uh NASA contracted both SpaceX
• 9:17
  and Blue Origin uh the two companies led
• 9:20
  by the two billionaires Elon Musk and
• 9:22
  Jeff Bezos. Uh those two companies were
• 9:25
  tasked with developing a a crew lander
• 9:29
  uh vehicle to land on the moon. Uh the
• 9:32
  favored version was uh Elon Musk's uh
• 9:36
  Starship uh the top end of a Starship um
• 9:39
  which would which uh was originally
• 9:43
  going to be the Arteimus 3 lander. Now
• 9:46
  the lander landing has been pushed back
• 9:48
  to Artemis 4, but the the gate is now
• 9:51
  still open for the BA Bezos company uh
• 9:55
  to further develop its own lunar landing
• 9:59
  module uh which has been under test for
• 10:02
  quite a while and is so in a sense is a
• 10:05
  competitor uh to SpaceX. So the two the
• 10:09
  two programs are running side by side
• 10:10
  and NASA will eventually have to make a
• 10:13
  choice as to which one they go with. Uh
• 10:15
  if I may, there's a very nice quote from
• 10:18
  uh NASA,
• 10:20
  a NASA associate administrator, a very
• 10:23
  senior person in NASA uh who says, "We
• 10:25
  are looking back to the wisdom of the
• 10:27
  folks that designed Apollo. The entire
• 10:30
  sequence of Arteimus flights needs to
• 10:31
  represent a stepbystep buildup of
• 10:34
  capability with each step bringing us
• 10:36
  closer to our ability to perform the
• 10:38
  landing missions. Each step needs to be
• 10:40
  big enough to make progress, but not so
• 10:42
  big that we take unnecessary risk given
• 10:45
  previous learnings. Therefore, we want
• 10:47
  to fly the landing missions in as close
• 10:49
  to the same earth ascent configuration
• 10:52
  as possible, which means using an upper
• 10:54
  stage and pad system as close to the
• 10:56
  block one configuration as possible.
• 10:57
  That's the basic the basic uh space
• 11:00
  launch system configuration. Uh so we
• 11:03
  will see what happens. Uh you're right
• 11:05
  that um Artemis 2 uh the that the uh the
• 11:09
  stack is currently back in the vehicle
• 11:11
  assembly building for checks on the
• 11:14
  upper stage. That's the second stage
• 11:16
  that will actually push the spacecraft
• 11:19
  into a lunar trajectory. Uh there were
• 11:22
  issues with the helium uh mechanism for
• 11:26
  that upper stage. You might remember we
• 11:28
  did talk about that before. Uh that's
• 11:31
  now being fixed. uh and we have a date
• 11:34
  no sooner than April the 6th for uh a
• 11:37
  launch of Otimus 2. So we'll look out
• 11:39
  for that. But yes, a major change in the
• 11:41
  in the strategy which makes a lot of
• 11:43
  sense.
• 11:45
  >> Yeah, I think it does. Uh and copying a
• 11:48
  successful series like the Apollo
• 11:50
  missions, notwithstanding what happened
• 11:51
  to Apollo 13, but that wasn't that that
• 11:54
  was unforeseen. It was just a a quirk
• 11:56
  really.
• 11:58
  >> Uh and everyone got home. But um yeah,
• 12:02
  what what I find interesting is those
• 12:04
  Apollo missions went back to back to
• 12:06
  back to back to back really fast. Uh
• 12:08
  these ones
• 12:08
  >> seem to be much more elongated in their
• 12:11
  in their um mission dates, don't they?
• 12:14
  >> They do. Um and that's partly because
• 12:16
  the technology is now far more complex
• 12:19
  because the these missions are not just
• 12:21
  to achieve boots on the ground. Uh it's
• 12:24
  all about setting up science, you know,
• 12:27
  a kind of almost permanent presence on
• 12:29
  on the moon. Um the the ultimate
• 12:31
  schedule uh again this came out of the
• 12:35
  recent press releases uh and press
• 12:37
  conferences. The ultimate schedule is
• 12:39
  one Arteimus mission per year once we
• 12:42
  have start once the the first lunar
• 12:44
  landing has taken place. There'll be one
• 12:46
  a year. Now that is much slower than the
• 12:49
  Apollo cadence. They were one every few
• 12:51
  months. Um I think so Apollo 11 was
• 12:54
  July. Apollo 12 was uh was November.
• 12:59
  Can't remember when Apollo 13 was but
• 13:01
  you get that you know the the intervals
• 13:03
  were a few months rather than a few
• 13:05
  years.
• 13:06
  >> Yeah.
• 13:06
  >> Um I guess another reason for um not
• 13:10
  just not just the the scientific reasons
• 13:12
  for for making it a spacing of one year
• 13:15
  but that each of these is a very
• 13:17
  expensive venture. Uh, I've seen a
• 13:20
  figure quoted of $4 billion per launch
• 13:22
  for an Arteimus mission, which is eye
• 13:25
  watering. That's right.
• 13:27
  >> Yeah. Yeah. Did they hit you up for a
• 13:29
  loan for it?
• 13:32
  >> I think Yeah, I could probably muster a
• 13:34
  few dollars there, you know.
• 13:36
  >> Yeah. Uh, it's funny when you talk about
• 13:38
  the advances in technology because um,
• 13:40
  I'm holding my mobile phone in my hand
• 13:42
  right now. It's got a hell of a lot more
• 13:45
  computer power than the computer on
• 13:47
  Apollo 11.
• 13:49
  >> That's right. Sadly, it's also invisible
• 13:51
  uh because of your background.
• 13:53
  >> Is that better?
• 13:54
  >> No. No.
• 13:56
  >> Yeah.
• 13:56
  >> It just disappears.
• 13:57
  >> You know what it looks like.
• 13:58
  >> You know what it looks like. That's
• 13:59
  right. Yeah. But but you're absolutely
• 14:01
  right. Yes. Um
• 14:03
  >> it's it's quite amazing. Not many people
• 14:05
  probably realize they're packing a lot
• 14:07
  more power than the Apollo missions
• 14:09
  carried. So yeah, it's all in your
• 14:11
  pocket. Uh if you'd like to read about
• 14:13
  the latest in regard to uh the Artemis
• 14:17
  missions, you can do that at the
• 14:18
  universetoday.com
• 14:20
  website, but NASA will have it on their
• 14:22
  website and many others as well. This is
• 14:25
  Space Nuts with Andrew Dunley and
• 14:27
  Professor Fred Watson.
• 14:34
  That's agre that's agreement. He's at
• 14:36
  for goodness sake. I'M REALLY
• 14:41
  THIS IS what he does is he gets very
• 14:43
  enthusiastic. Hang on. Hang on.
• 14:48
  Space nuts.
• 14:49
  >> Oh dear.
• 14:50
  >> Drives me in mud. Honestly, it drives me
• 14:52
  mud.
• 14:55
  >> I love it. I really do. Uh to our next
• 14:58
  story. Um this this could be the title
• 15:00
  of a science fiction novel, The Brain in
• 15:03
  Space. Uh we're talking about a very
• 15:06
  strange nebula that looks like a brain
• 15:10
  inside a clear sphere. Uh and and this
• 15:14
  is the consequence of a um a star that's
• 15:19
  kind of shed its outer layers and
• 15:20
  created this this quite bizarre looking
• 15:24
  nebula called PMR1.
• 15:27
  >> Indeed. That's right. Um I I very much
• 15:30
  liked uh the headline from space.com
• 15:34
  covering this story uh which is James
• 15:36
  Webb Space Telescope performs brain
• 15:39
  surgery on mysterious exposed cranial
• 15:41
  nebula which I think sums it up pretty
• 15:44
  well. That's a good one.
• 15:45
  >> Yeah, it's great. Uh so uh it's it's a
• 15:49
  basically a highly evolved star by which
• 15:52
  I mean a a star that's getting near the
• 15:54
  end of its life. it's thrown off some of
• 15:56
  the layers of its outer envelope. And
• 16:01
  what we've seen from the James Web is uh
• 16:04
  images which are taken in the near
• 16:06
  infrared and in the mid infrared. And so
• 16:09
  we get two quite different views of this
• 16:11
  thing that does look for all the world
• 16:13
  like a like an X-ray uh inside
• 16:16
  somebody's head. It's you can see the
• 16:18
  outline of the skull and a lot of funny
• 16:22
  stuff going on inside. It really does
• 16:24
  look that way, doesn't it? Like somebody
• 16:26
  put a a brain in a goldfish bowl and
• 16:28
  chucked that up in the air.
• 16:30
  >> Yes, that's right. With a few stars in
• 16:31
  the background.
• 16:33
  >> Um it's uh a little bit close to home
• 16:36
  for me actually because um this the
• 16:39
  object's technical formal name is PMR1.
• 16:43
  Um, and it was uh discovered originally
• 16:48
  uh by astronomers using the telescope,
• 16:50
  one of the telescopes I was astronomy in
• 16:52
  charge of, the 1.2 m UK Schmidt
• 16:54
  telescope uh back in the late 1990s. And
• 16:58
  three of my close colleagues were
• 17:01
  involved with this program. Quentyn
• 17:03
  Parker, David Morgan, and Ken Russell.
• 17:05
  And their names are Parker, Morgan, and
• 17:08
  Russell. And that is why this is called
• 17:10
  PMR1. was the first uh object that was
• 17:13
  discovered under a program actually
• 17:16
  really masterminded by Quentyn Parker,
• 17:18
  an old friend who's now a professor in
• 17:20
  the University of Hong Kong. um he uh
• 17:23
  had a uh a mission to photograph the sky
• 17:28
  cuz back in those days we were still
• 17:29
  using photography on the Schmidt
• 17:31
  telescope using what we call a narrow
• 17:33
  band filter that just picked out the
• 17:35
  light of excited hydrogen something
• 17:37
  called an H1 filter or an Halpha filter.
• 17:41
  Um and so the telescope used this filter
• 17:44
  to survey the night sky and many uh
• 17:47
  interesting objects were revealed of
• 17:50
  which the first one in the particular
• 17:52
  program that he collaborated with David
• 17:54
  Morgan and Ken Russell uh was concerned
• 17:57
  uh PMR1 that's the object we're talking
• 17:59
  about now we never saw it with the
• 18:02
  Schmidt telescope that was just a flame
• 18:04
  faint glowing blob but with the um with
• 18:08
  the James Web
• 18:11
  uh we see this extraordinarily detailed
• 18:14
  uh this detailed image so that the
• 18:16
  history is that it was discovered in the
• 18:18
  late 1990s on the Schmidt telescope the
• 18:20
  Spitzer space telescope which was a kind
• 18:22
  of forerunner of the James Webb
• 18:23
  telescope an infrared telescope a NASA
• 18:25
  infrared observatory um when they looked
• 18:28
  at PMR1 that was when this curious
• 18:31
  appearance led to its unofficial name of
• 18:34
  the exposed cranium nebula uh but the
• 18:37
  James Web has taken that a step further
• 18:39
  with these latest observations which are
• 18:41
  really quite remarkable and you do get a
• 18:43
  very strong impression of the
• 18:45
  three-dimensional view of this um ball
• 18:49
  of not so much a ball. It's a kind of
• 18:52
  elongated almost like a you know an oval
• 18:56
  football uh elongated sphere of gas with
• 19:01
  a whole lot of stuff going on inside it.
• 19:04
  Um and what we've got is uh an ancient
• 19:08
  star which is casting off its outer
• 19:12
  outer layers. Um there is a there is a
• 19:16
  class of stars called Vulf Rea stars
• 19:19
  named after two astronomers I think um
• 19:24
  doctors Vulf and Rey I think that's
• 19:26
  right thinking back um they are really
• 19:29
  ancient stars massive stars that are
• 19:31
  getting near the end of their lives uh
• 19:33
  and uh and are basically they have winds
• 19:35
  of radiation which are blowing away
• 19:37
  their outer envelopes um and and form
• 19:40
  this nebula and eventually uh they may
• 19:43
  turn into a supernova, an exploding
• 19:46
  star. Uh so um we understand though from
• 19:50
  the research that's been carried out
• 19:52
  with this that whether it is a Vulfraa
• 19:55
  star in the middle of PMR1 or something
• 19:58
  else, we don't know. Uh that's going to
• 20:00
  be absolutely at the very center of that
• 20:03
  brainike nebula inside the exposed
• 20:06
  cranium.
• 20:07
  >> Yeah. Um I'm gathering that seeing
• 20:10
  something like this is very unusual. Uh
• 20:13
  it doesn't look like the kind of nebula
• 20:16
  you'd normally see photographed. It's
• 20:19
  got uniformity for a start and it's uh
• 20:23
  and you can see the explosive effect uh
• 20:26
  radiating out. It just happens to look
• 20:30
  like a brain.
• 20:32
  >> Yes, that's right. Um, so it I mean it
• 20:36
  that um hydrogen alpha survey that I
• 20:38
  mentioned that Quentyn Parker and
• 20:40
  colleagues were engaged in. I'm pretty
• 20:42
  sure I took some of the photographs for
• 20:45
  it as well back in the day. Um because I
• 20:47
  was still a working astronomer then when
• 20:48
  I was astronomer in charge. Uh I think
• 20:52
  uh that one of the main things that that
• 20:54
  uh program did was reveal a very large
• 20:58
  number of so-called planetary nebula. So
• 21:00
  a planetary nebula is a cloud of gas
• 21:03
  that's got usually has circular symmetry
• 21:06
  which is why it looks like a planet and
• 21:08
  it was William who gave it gave them the
• 21:11
  name a planetary nebula. The most famous
• 21:13
  ones are are the the ring nebula in the
• 21:16
  northern hemisphere and the helix nebula
• 21:18
  down in the south. Uh but um this thing
• 21:20
  might might be might actually in the end
• 21:22
  turn out to be a planetary nebula which
• 21:24
  is an old star that's um cast off its
• 21:28
  outer layers and the central core of the
• 21:31
  star has turned into what we call a
• 21:32
  white dwarf something about the size of
• 21:36
  the earth uh but with um very high mass
• 21:41
  um mass of a star. uh and uh those are
• 21:44
  white dwarfs are very hot and they're
• 21:46
  what excite the the the g the glowing
• 21:48
  the gas into into glowing, but it's not
• 21:50
  clear whether this object is actually a
• 21:53
  white dwarf or one of these wolf stars
• 21:55
  that I was just talking about.
• 21:56
  >> Yeah. Yeah. Uh I I think we've probably
• 21:59
  got a bit of a paradolia effect here
• 22:01
  because we've just looked at it and gone
• 22:03
  that's a that's a brain.
• 22:04
  >> It's a it's a brain. Yeah, that's right.
• 22:06
  Definitely was paradolia. Yeah. When we
• 22:08
  were out on the river in Borneo, um what
• 22:11
  they told us was it's chalk full of
• 22:14
  saltwater crocodiles. Of course, every
• 22:16
  time we saw a log.
• 22:17
  >> Yes.
• 22:18
  >> The thing you thought it was.
• 22:20
  >> Oh, it's a crocodile. Yes. Yeah.
• 22:22
  >> Yeah. I I think when we saw that 40 m
• 22:26
  crocodile surging down the river, we
• 22:28
  were all panicking a bit. Turned out to
• 22:29
  be a tree,
• 22:30
  >> but um
• 22:32
  >> Well, the branches gave it away, did
• 22:34
  they?
• 22:34
  >> Yes. Well, no, it didn't have any. was
• 22:36
  that's what really made it weird.
• 22:38
  >> Like a crocodile. Yeah.
• 22:40
  >> Well, cuz we had all that monsoon rain
• 22:42
  while we were there and the river was
• 22:43
  flooded. And this is a river 560
• 22:46
  kilometers long and about where we were
• 22:48
  2 or 300 m wide. It was massive.
• 22:51
  >> And the water was flowing very fast. It
• 22:53
  was quite scary actually. But um yeah,
• 22:55
  it is it is um yeah, one of those weird
• 22:58
  effects. We we try to humanize
• 22:59
  everything we see and you'll look at
• 23:02
  something and think crocodile. No,
• 23:03
  actually, no. That's a log. Uh, and here
• 23:06
  we here we are looking at a brain in
• 23:08
  space, which is a yeah, some kind of
• 23:11
  nebula trying to figure out what kind
• 23:13
  and how it all happened. But you can
• 23:16
  read about that at the issae.org
• 23:19
  website if you want to check it out.
• 23:21
  Amazing images they are, too. This is
• 23:24
  Space Nuts with Andrew Dunley and Fred
• 23:25
  Watson.
• 23:28
  >> I'm going to step off the land now.
• 23:32
  That's one small step for man,
• 23:37
  one giant leap for mankind.
• 23:40
  >> Space nuts.
• 23:43
  >> In the past, Fred, we've had questions
• 23:45
  from the audience about the center of
• 23:46
  our galaxy. Uh, and it's not easy to
• 23:50
  answer because we can't see it. It's all
• 23:52
  shrouded in dust. Although you and I
• 23:54
  have discussed what it would be like on
• 23:56
  Earth if there was no dust and the light
• 23:59
  would be so much different for us. So,
• 24:01
  um things could have turned out a
• 24:03
  different way had that dust not been
• 24:05
  there. But, um yes, it's shrouded, but
• 24:08
  there are ways to look. And they've just
• 24:10
  published a um a finding uh thanks to a
• 24:14
  couple of the the great telescopes on
• 24:16
  Earth of what the center of our galaxy
• 24:19
  is like. They've mapped a a massive
• 24:21
  section of it in in significant detail.
• 24:25
  >> That is correct. And um I might just
• 24:28
  preface this discussion by uh noting
• 24:31
  that um in terms of personnel there is a
• 24:35
  close connection with what we've just
• 24:37
  been talking about the UK Schmidt
• 24:39
  telescope because one of my former
• 24:41
  colleagues at the UK Schmidt telescope
• 24:44
  um uh Dr. Randy Longore. Uh I worked
• 24:47
  with him at the Royal Observatory,
• 24:48
  Edinburgh. Uh he's still based in
• 24:50
  Edinburgh, but he and his wife Marie
• 24:53
  were actually visiting us here in
• 24:55
  Australia at the beginning of this year.
• 24:57
  So I went up to Newcastle to see them,
• 24:59
  and it's their son that is the lead
• 25:02
  author on the paper that has just mapped
• 25:05
  the center of the galaxy. Uh which is
• 25:07
  very nice. It's a lovely connection. So
• 25:09
  Steve Longmore their son uh like father
• 25:13
  like son he's turned into an astronomer
• 25:16
  and very capable because he has led this
• 25:19
  major survey uh which is called as is a
• 25:25
  uh an acronym for ALMA CMZ
• 25:30
  exploration survey and the CMZ if I
• 25:33
  remember rightly is the central uh
• 25:35
  something zone central molecular zone of
• 25:38
  the uh of the galaxy where molecules
• 25:41
  lurk around uh around the the black hole
• 25:45
  at the center of the galaxy. So these
• 25:47
  observations uh have been principally
• 25:49
  done by as you said uh it's been done by
• 25:52
  some of the great telescopes uh one of
• 25:54
  them is ALMA Alma itself the Atakama
• 25:57
  large millimeter submill array uh that
• 26:01
  has basically formed images of the whole
• 26:05
  of the region around the center of our
• 26:08
  galaxy and it's a very very detailed uh
• 26:12
  image. It's a mosaic basically that's
• 26:13
  been built up. The great thing about
• 26:15
  Alma is that you can tune it in uh to
• 26:19
  various chemical molecules all of which
• 26:21
  emit their radio frequencies at
• 26:24
  different wavelengths. So it's like
• 26:26
  having a radio spectrum of every point
• 26:30
  in the center of our galaxy which means
• 26:31
  that you can build up images showing how
• 26:34
  these molecules behave around the center
• 26:39
  uh of the of the galaxy. So it it really
• 26:42
  is u an extraordinary piece of work um
• 26:46
  with a lot of detail uh a great deal of
• 26:51
  um information about both the the the
• 26:54
  turbulence and the chemistry that's
• 26:56
  taking place around the center of our
• 26:58
  galaxy. There's a very extensive article
• 27:02
  about it on the brighter side of of of
• 27:04
  science uh a brighter side of news. Uh
• 27:08
  it's um got some great images and a lot
• 27:11
  of details about what has been found.
• 27:13
  I'm looking for a quote which came from
• 27:15
  one of the scientists uh which really
• 27:19
  describes very cogently uh what uh
• 27:23
  they've done. Um, in fact, Andy, sorry,
• 27:26
  Steve Longmore himself, uh, is saying
• 27:29
  the CMZ or CMZ we would call it, but
• 27:32
  Americanizing it because that's the
• 27:34
  Artakama large millimeter arrays got a
• 27:36
  strong US contingent as well as other
• 27:39
  international users. The CMZ hosts some
• 27:42
  of the most massive stars known in our
• 27:44
  galaxy. Uh many of these stars live fast
• 27:46
  and die young and they end in supernova
• 27:49
  explosions and in some cases what we
• 27:50
  call hypernovi very very intense uh
• 27:54
  supernovi. Um let me just find some
• 27:57
  other words that I was looking for
• 27:58
  because uh the the the the extraordinary
• 28:03
  thing is just how turbulent this region
• 28:06
  is. uh the fact that we've got u packed
• 28:10
  into that region around the center of
• 28:12
  our galaxy. We've got the turbulence of
• 28:15
  gas moving under the in gravitational
• 28:18
  influence of a black hole. You've got
• 28:20
  the gravity of the black hole. You've
• 28:21
  got intense magnetic fields. You've got
• 28:24
  outflows from these giant stars. And all
• 28:27
  of this is coming together to make a
• 28:29
  very complex uh region of space which
• 28:33
  basically is what has been revealed uh
• 28:35
  by this new image. is quite
• 28:37
  extraordinary.
• 28:38
  >> It is rather and I'm just reading some
• 28:40
  of the data and uh you know the
• 28:43
  description they've given lists a radius
• 28:46
  of 6.1 parex
• 28:48
  uh with an expansion velocity of 21
• 28:50
  kilometers a second. Uh
• 28:53
  like you said it's a pretty busy
• 28:55
  neighborhood.
• 28:56
  >> Yes. About 650 light years across. So
• 29:00
  really quite a large a large area. And
• 29:03
  you're right actually um that the the
• 29:05
  other telescope that was involved sorry
• 29:07
  I didn't mention that is the European
• 29:09
  Southern Observatory's Vista telescope
• 29:11
  which is one that is also at Sarah
• 29:13
  Paranel near the the VT. Uh Vista was a
• 29:17
  telescope built actually by the Brits
• 29:18
  and used by them as their buy into the
• 29:22
  European Southern Observatory.
• 29:25
  >> I it's a really great article. Uh I like
• 29:27
  the way they've got those different
• 29:30
  images of the various chemical makeups
• 29:32
  of sex and they've over overlapped them
• 29:34
  all to create one image but uh you can
• 29:37
  you can look at it from several
• 29:39
  viewpoints really and um helps you to
• 29:42
  understand what's going on in there
• 29:44
  which we've been trying to figure out
• 29:46
  for a long time. friend.
• 29:47
  >> Yeah, that's right. I mean, um, you
• 29:49
  know, again, hopping back to my time at
• 29:53
  the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, um,
• 29:54
  my work was actually on my research was
• 29:57
  about stars in the galactic center
• 30:00
  region. And we we couldn't see the
• 30:02
  galactic centers because it's it's
• 30:03
  hidden from us by dust. And a lot of
• 30:05
  these stars were, you know, visible
• 30:08
  through thick layers of dust. That's all
• 30:10
  penetrated, of course, with infrared
• 30:12
  telescopes. That's why and and by
• 30:15
  millimeter wave telescopes too. That's
• 30:17
  why you can reveal all these fairly
• 30:20
  complex molecules that have been that
• 30:23
  that have been found. Uh so um really
• 30:26
  quite a remarkable exactly as you've
• 30:28
  said it's a great article uh gives you a
• 30:31
  good idea of just what's going on in the
• 30:33
  center of our galaxy.
• 30:34
  >> Somebody's going to ask so I'll ask on
• 30:36
  their behalf. Why couldn't James Webb
• 30:38
  have done this?
• 30:40
  Um, so it a lot of it's to do with field
• 30:44
  of view. Um, the fact that you've got a
• 30:46
  huge area here, uh, you need the
• 30:48
  coverage of what we would call a survey
• 30:50
  telescope, which the James Web isn't. It
• 30:52
  homes in on fine points of detail. Um,
• 30:55
  and the other thing is the James Web
• 30:57
  would give you a different set of um of
• 31:01
  of chemical constituents because you're
• 31:03
  looking at different wave. Uh so these
• 31:07
  are the the the um the the uh ACS
• 31:11
  project the one I just mentioned uh
• 31:13
  which uses ALMA as its main uh
• 31:16
  instrument that's looking in the
• 31:18
  millimeter sub millimeter wave region.
• 31:21
  Uh and so you see that's sensitive to
• 31:23
  different molecules from what you get in
• 31:25
  the infrared. So, uh, it is it's really,
• 31:29
  uh, it's a really neat piece of work
• 31:31
  that's been done by the right telescope
• 31:33
  by the look of it and the right group of
• 31:34
  people.
• 31:35
  >> Indeed. Yes. Fantastic. Uh, if you want
• 31:37
  to read all about it, you can do so by
• 31:40
  uh, finding the paper. Just do a search
• 31:42
  for AS's overview paper or you can read
• 31:45
  the fabulous article at the brightside.
• 31:49
  News. Uh, we're just about done. Fred,
• 31:52
  thank you very much.
• 31:54
  >> Uh, it's a pleasure. That went extremely
• 31:56
  quickly. Andrew,
• 31:57
  >> it has been lately.
• 31:59
  Maybe we're finally getting more
• 32:00
  efficient.
• 32:01
  >> No, no, no.
• 32:02
  >> Don't think so.
• 32:03
  >> All the adequate not efficient.
• 32:05
  >> Uh I think it's because Jordy didn't
• 32:07
  actually play up too much that
• 32:09
  >> that's right. It's because his sister's
• 32:11
  holding him down.
• 32:12
  >> Yeah, she is. Sisters do that. Thanks,
• 32:16
  Fred. We'll catch you very, very soon.
• 32:18
  >> Sounds great. Thanks, Andrew.
• 32:19
  >> Professor Fred Watson, astronomer at
• 32:21
  large. Uh don't forget to visit us
• 32:22
  online while you're uh listening to the
• 32:25
  podcast. Maybe uh spacenutspodcast.com
• 32:27
  or spacenuts.io
• 32:29
  and have a look around, visit the shop,
• 32:32
  maybe become a supporter. Um leave a
• 32:35
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• 32:38
  listen to us. And uh don't forget you
• 32:40
  can send us um notes and information and
• 32:43
  questions on the ask me anything tab at
• 32:45
  the top ama. And thanks to Hugh in the
• 32:48
  studio. Now Hugh couldn't be with us
• 32:51
  today. Apparently, he uh heard about
• 32:53
  this this mapping of the center of the
• 32:55
  galaxy and put the coordinates in his
• 32:57
  car GPS and he has hasn't been seen
• 33:00
  since.
• 33:01
  >> And from me, Andrew Dunley, thanks for
• 33:03
  your company. We'll see you on the next
• 33:04
  episode of Space Nuts. Bye-bye.
• 33:06
  >> Space Nuts.
• 33:07
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• 33:09
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• 33:12
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