Latest / Made of Stars / A New Dawn for Commercial Space Missions

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A New Dawn for Commercial Space Missions · 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. Go ahead. We're made of stars.
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Speaker 2: Made them stars, made sizes.
0:29
Speaker 3: When made us stars?
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Speaker 2: You could be from high they would New Mexicomus. Where are.
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Speaker 1: Stars? Whenens?
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Speaker 3: We are made of stars. I'm West Carol, joined by
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Speaker 3: my good friend doctor Sean Cruiser from Columbus State University's
1:01
Speaker 3: Coca Cola Space Science Center. Hey Sean, Hey Wes.
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Speaker 2: Good to be here today. It is a big.
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Speaker 3: Day as Polaris Dawn has taken people deep into space,
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Speaker 3: far far away from the Earth and done the first
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Speaker 3: ever commercial space walk. It has happened. I woke up
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Speaker 3: to this about to happen this morning, and I got
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Speaker 3: to basically keep an eye on it as it happened.
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Speaker 3: And it's been done.
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Speaker 2: It's pretty you know, I said, it's a good day
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Speaker 2: to be here. It's a great day to be here, right,
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Speaker 2: And you know, sometime sometimes when we talk about these
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Speaker 2: space stories, it's like, oh yeah, okay, that's the next
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Speaker 2: space story. No, let's pause for a moment, ladies and gentlemen,
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Speaker 2: Let's pause and just say this. A commercial company and
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Speaker 2: a group of commercial astronauts. Let me say it differently,
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Speaker 2: a private space company and a group of private citizens
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Speaker 2: just launched a mission so far from the Earth that
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Speaker 2: it's the farthest one in terms of being distant from
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Speaker 2: the surface of the Earth since the Apollo Moon missions
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Speaker 2: in the nineteen seventies. So if that was the only headline,
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Speaker 2: that would be amazing, except there's more, and there is more.
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Speaker 2: The more was they put on their spacesuits and they
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Speaker 2: basically opened up the door of this vehicle and stuck
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Speaker 2: their head outside. Now, if you were to like be
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Speaker 2: don't do this, by the way, but if you were
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Speaker 2: in your vehicle and roll down the window and stuck
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Speaker 2: your head out the window, your head would be outside
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Speaker 2: the car. Right. You don't have to like completely jump
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Speaker 2: out the window to say my head was outside of
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Speaker 2: the vehicle.
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Speaker 3: Yes, Okay, Ask any dog, Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Ask any dog. Dogs like to stick their head out
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Speaker 2: and pretend they're flying, so they could just.
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Speaker 3: Get their nose out the window. They'll get the nose
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Speaker 3: out and it's still outside of the vehicle. That is correct, Your.
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Speaker 2: Experience the outside of the vehicle, right.
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Speaker 3: Or they wouldn't do it, or they wouldn't do it
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Speaker 3: if not right, That's why they do it. They're experiencing
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Speaker 3: the outside.
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Speaker 2: They are enjoying outside air, and they are feeling as
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Speaker 2: if they are flying through the air at you know,
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Speaker 2: something between forty five and sixty five miles an hour.
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Speaker 2: And this part of the story is important.
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Speaker 3: Keep going because yes, we're gonna get to the you know,
3:23
Speaker 3: there are some critics, but anyway, there.
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Speaker 2: Are always critics. Actually, you and I were talking having
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Speaker 2: discussions off air right before we jumped into this, and
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Speaker 2: there are always people saying things. Yea, you know, one
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Speaker 2: of my least favorite lines quoted by what we would
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Speaker 2: call higher level media these days or news media, is this,
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Speaker 2: Well some people say that's right. Well, friends, you can
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Speaker 2: find somebody to say pretty much anything. So some people say,
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Speaker 2: should not be a credible source. Can I just say that?
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Speaker 2: So as I say that, I'm some person saying.
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Speaker 3: You do, try to keep it within the realms of
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Speaker 3: reality and truth, which, by the way, by the way,
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Speaker 3: we're going to get a little bit of vindication in
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Speaker 3: the next story to something that we've been saying for
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Speaker 3: a very long time. But we'll get to the vindication
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Speaker 3: in a minute. Let's keep going with this.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so before we vindicate on our next story,
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Speaker 2: let me just wrap this one up by saying, some
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Speaker 2: people say that they didn't really do a space walk
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Speaker 2: because they weren't walking, and I'm gonna go ahead and
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Speaker 2: say they never walk because they're in space. So take that. No,
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Speaker 2: what some people are saying is because they did not
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Speaker 2: completely exit the spacecraft, that it wasn't a quote unquote
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Speaker 2: space walk. Friends, Please leave the definitions for these kinds
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Speaker 2: of things to the people who were actually in the
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Speaker 2: space industry. An extra vehicular activity is what we really
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Speaker 2: call it, which means you are decidedly outside of your spaceship.
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Speaker 2: I promise you if you look at the images of
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Speaker 2: Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis from earlier today, they are
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Speaker 2: one hundred percent demonstrably outside the spaceship, even if.
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Speaker 3: Their feet are still inside.
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Speaker 2: Yes, if some child was hanging that far outside of
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Speaker 2: a bus window, hopefully somebody on the freeway would be
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Speaker 2: calling nine one one to say there's a child hanging
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Speaker 2: outside of the bus.
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Speaker 3: Yes, as the nine to one one operator. Is it
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Speaker 3: completely outside of the bus or is part of the
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Speaker 3: child still in the bus? We have to clarify this
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Speaker 3: and distinguish. Please explain, right, you know what.
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Speaker 2: Level is the child sticking out of the bus. Is
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Speaker 2: it up to his wast or is it up to
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Speaker 2: the knees? Really, until he gets to the ankles, we're
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Speaker 2: gonna say he's inside the bus.
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Speaker 3: Is there a shoelace still in the bus? We need
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Speaker 3: to know this before we can send an officer to
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Speaker 3: check it out.
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Speaker 2: All right, friends, this is in the parlance of the
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Speaker 2: spaceflight for professionals, this is what's known as a stand
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Speaker 2: up extra vehicor activity and SEVA, and this was the
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Speaker 2: plan all along. They didn't get up there and just
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Speaker 2: not decide to go outside the vehicle any further. This
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Speaker 2: is what they were going to do the whole time,
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Speaker 2: a stand up extra vehicor activity at EVA as spacewalk.
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Speaker 2: This is what they were doing. So they went out
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Speaker 2: of the hatch somewhere up to their thighs, which is
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Speaker 2: exactly what they had planned to do. And I promise
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Speaker 2: you if you were in that space suit with your
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Speaker 2: head floating above the earth in the way they were
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Speaker 2: earlier today, you would be outside your spaceship, trust me.
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Speaker 2: Trust me, if you were hanging that far outside the
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Speaker 2: bus window, you would be outside the bus window. I
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Speaker 2: mean for purple. Try this at home, by the way,
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Speaker 2: either one. Yeah, they were out.
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Speaker 3: I mean they were certainly any part of them sticking out.
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Speaker 3: I would argue maybe if they just duck a pinky
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Speaker 3: out and then closed it back up, that would have
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Speaker 3: been a giant waste of time. If you put most
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Speaker 3: of your body out, you're out. But let's just also
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Speaker 3: point out the fact that and this ties into the
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Speaker 3: success here in another huge win on two levels. I
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Speaker 3: get multiple levels, but at least two big ones for
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Speaker 3: SpaceX and this craft. You also had that image of
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Speaker 3: the other astronauts who were inside the craft, who were
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Speaker 3: effectively inside the submarine with the screen door on it, right,
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Speaker 3: I mean they were just sitting in there experiencing the
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Speaker 3: vacuum of space while inside this craft, which you know
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Speaker 3: from the beginning, this was the intention when they when
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Speaker 3: they built this thing, they said, well, it'll be fine
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Speaker 3: to be exposed, you know, to the vacuum of space.
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Speaker 3: That's now been tested officially.
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Speaker 2: And with with spacesuits that had never done this before, right,
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Speaker 2: So so yes, they they tested whether or not the
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Speaker 2: Dragon capsule could be completely drained of its air and
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Speaker 2: exposed to the vacuum of space and the astronauts on
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Speaker 2: the inside be okay. Check can the suits that we've
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Speaker 2: designed keep the astronauts okay in this extremely harsh condition?
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Speaker 2: Check yes, success as friends from what are known as
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Speaker 2: eva's sevas and the IVA, the intra vehicular activity, that's
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Speaker 2: where you're still inside the spaceship, but you're exposed to
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Speaker 2: the vacuum of space, along with all of your computer
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Speaker 2: equipment and all of the kinds of things that you need,
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Speaker 2: the electronics that you need to operate the vehicle to
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Speaker 2: get yourself back home. Everything exposed to the vacuum of
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Speaker 2: space test completed successfully and now repressurizing the vehicle.
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Speaker 3: And then of course the test of how far away
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Speaker 3: this thing was able to go. I mean that also,
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Speaker 3: you know, this is the longest trip for this particular vehicle.
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Speaker 3: So again just wins across the board for SpaceX.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, I think part of this arises
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Speaker 2: from the fact that there are some folks out there
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Speaker 2: that have their problems on other fronts with Elon Musk,
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Speaker 2: and so they go after SpaceX hard. But I'm telling
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Speaker 2: you right now, friends, we are living through an historic
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Speaker 2: time and SpaceX as a company, with their level of
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Speaker 2: innovation and their level of success, is leading the way
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Speaker 2: in this new era of space exploration.
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Speaker 3: Something about criticizing rich people, the criticism of course about
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Speaker 3: Isaacman and oh it's just a rich guy going up.
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Speaker 3: And I'm sorry, but those people can all just you know,
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Speaker 3: sit their own space suit and fart for all I care,
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Speaker 3: because that's that's how I feel. That's how I feel
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Speaker 3: about the criticism of that. You're right, we're experiencing unbelievable
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Speaker 3: things and this was a huge accomplishment. It's the next step,
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Speaker 3: it's the next series of steps for a company that,
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Speaker 3: as you point out, has just had win after win
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Speaker 3: and has done you know, which is a good segue,
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Speaker 3: I guess to our next story, which there's some vindication
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Speaker 3: certainly for them, but vindication for us. As here we go,
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Speaker 3: it's breaking news. We can say it now for certain.
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Speaker 3: The astronauts were not stuck aboard the ISS. No, the
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Speaker 3: starliner crew was not stuck, because yes, they were able
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Speaker 3: to land or get their ship back home safely, and
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Speaker 3: they would have been fine. That's the quote, that they
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Speaker 3: would have been fine had they come home.
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Speaker 2: So let's set this one up. Boeing star Liner, the
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Speaker 2: vehicle that it was attached to the International Space Station
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Speaker 2: for the last couple of months when it was only
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Speaker 2: supposed to be a ten day trip anyway, leading to
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Speaker 2: all kinds of headlines out there that you could have
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Speaker 2: or could have not clicked on. I prefer that you
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Speaker 2: didn't actually saying that the astronauts were stuck in space.
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Speaker 2: I get it. You know, there was a test mission.
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Speaker 2: It didn't turn out the way they wanted. The Boeing
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Speaker 2: star Liner came home uncrude. Out of an abundance of caution.
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Speaker 2: NASA decided to go ahead and bring that spacecraft back
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Speaker 2: because of some navigational issues, some control issues that it
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Speaker 2: had while it was approaching the International Space Station in
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Speaker 2: the first place. And yes, there were just a little
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Speaker 2: bit of thruster issues on the way back as well.
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Speaker 2: The capsule also well, it did have a temporary blackout
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Speaker 2: of its guidances them Okay, these things it was, it's
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Speaker 2: a test vehicle. They were test astronauts or test pilots
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Speaker 2: on that vehicle. Okay, so it turned out the way
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Speaker 2: it did. But the one thing that needs to be
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Speaker 2: stated very carefully is that the Boeing star Liner would
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Speaker 2: have brought the crew home safely. All of the telemetry
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Speaker 2: from inside that vehicle informed NASA that the astronauts on
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Speaker 2: the inside, if they had ridden back inside the vehicle,
12:32
Speaker 2: would have been just fine. So the Boeing star Liner
12:36
Speaker 2: as a lifeboat, even though it was a test vehicle,
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Speaker 2: would have gotten those astronauts back to Earth safely. Not
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Speaker 2: says Sean on Made of Stars podcast, But says Steve Stitch,
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Speaker 2: manager of NASA's Commercial crew program, during a post landing
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Speaker 2: press conference. So you know, one other thing is, you know,
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Speaker 2: the hindsight is always twenty twenty, and yeah, we could
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Speaker 2: have on the back everything would have been okay. It
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Speaker 2: was a test flight. Things were just a little bit
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Speaker 2: further out of spec than they were totally comfortable with.
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Speaker 2: They have other ways to bring them back home, which
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Speaker 2: means they're not stuck. They're still not stuck. Even though
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Speaker 2: Starliner came home, they're still not stuck. They could bring
13:17
Speaker 2: them back to day if they needed to in a
13:20
Speaker 2: Dragon capsule from SpaceX. But anyway, so yes, they could
13:23
Speaker 2: bring them back if they needed to. So anyway, the
13:27
Speaker 2: culmination of the Boeing Starliner flight test of the International
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Speaker 2: Space Station was that the Boeing spacecraft successfully landed. It
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Speaker 2: successfully executed a parachute soft touchdown at White Sands Missile
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Speaker 2: Range in New Mexico on Saturday, September seventh, and the
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Speaker 2: telemetry indicates that the astronauts would have been aok had
13:50
Speaker 2: they ridden it back down to the ground.
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Speaker 3: So their actual ride home launching later this month. So
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Speaker 3: and as you point out, they're still not even technically
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Speaker 3: stuck now, and I mean there's a way to get
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Speaker 3: them home. They could always you know, get them home
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Speaker 3: if they had to get them home right away, and
14:09
Speaker 3: they stressed that all the time. But technically they weren't
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Speaker 3: stuck because the vehicle would have gotten them home. Okay.
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Speaker 3: Now this is the other thing that we just quickly
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Speaker 3: we can point this out before we move on, is
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Speaker 3: it was still the right call for NASA. They had concerns,
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Speaker 3: They felt like it wasn't safe with certainty, and you know,
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Speaker 3: we hear this all the time that their main concern
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Speaker 3: is about human life and getting them to their mission
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Speaker 3: safely and home from their mission safely. We heard it
14:38
Speaker 3: firsthand while we were down at Kennedy and we were
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Speaker 3: talking to people you know that are working on Artemis two,
14:43
Speaker 3: and it's the same thing. Every single person we talked
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Speaker 3: to said, Hey, the only real objective here is get
14:48
Speaker 3: them there and back safely. That's the goal. So if
14:51
Speaker 3: they weren't certain that they could do that, they made
14:54
Speaker 3: the right call. So yeah, at the very least, you
14:58
Speaker 3: and I have been trying to approach this from the
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Speaker 3: let's follow what NASA is saying more than anything else
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Speaker 3: and not turning it into clickbait and saying, oh, they
15:07
Speaker 3: were stuck. So now at the very least we know
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Speaker 3: they weren't technically stuck. They could have gotten home just fine.
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Speaker 2: It. You know, a lot of times when we do
15:17
Speaker 2: these stories on Made of Stars podcast, we discuss the
15:21
Speaker 2: way things are worded by I guess our colleagues in
15:24
Speaker 2: the media, and yes, they are wording things so that
15:29
Speaker 2: they will get your attention and you will go read
15:31
Speaker 2: their story. And what we try to do on this
15:35
Speaker 2: podcast is we try to we try to filter through
15:38
Speaker 2: some of that and talk about what the reality is
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Speaker 2: that's facing these space companies, these space agencies as they
15:46
Speaker 2: as they do carry out these really hazardous environment kinds
15:51
Speaker 2: of endeavors. Right, So, even today with Polari's don a
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Speaker 2: huge success for SpaceX, everything seems to have worked right,
15:59
Speaker 2: but those astronauts are definitely in a hazardous environment. They
16:03
Speaker 2: chose to be there. They basically paid their own way.
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Speaker 2: Everything went successfully, but nobody thinks that they're going to
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Speaker 2: somewhere that's as safe as an amusement park or you know,
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Speaker 2: as safe as the petting zoo. Right, this is a
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Speaker 2: dangerous environment, and that notion carried over into NASA's decision
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Speaker 2: making about Starliner. It was a test flight to test
16:26
Speaker 2: a machine. They felt confident enough in the machine to
16:30
Speaker 2: put people on board and launch it up to the
16:31
Speaker 2: space station. That all worked fine. They felt confident enough
16:36
Speaker 2: that they could have used it as an escape life
16:39
Speaker 2: raft to get those people back home, but they didn't
16:42
Speaker 2: have to. There are other ways to get those people
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Speaker 2: back home, and because the vehicle did show some out
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Speaker 2: of spec characteristics, they just chose to bring it home unpiloted.
16:52
Speaker 2: Nobody was stuck. They're still not stuck. They could come
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Speaker 2: home if they needed to today, because there's already another
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Speaker 2: Dragon capsule that's already docked the International Space Station. It's
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Speaker 2: got four seats, but it also has a cargo compartment
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Speaker 2: underneath where the other two astronauts could ride back today
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Speaker 2: if something happened, right, so even today, they're not stuck
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Speaker 2: aboard the International Space Station, even without Starliner.
17:17
Speaker 3: We've been talking for a while now about the comet
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Speaker 3: coming this fall, uh, and we're getting closer to the
17:25
Speaker 3: comet coming this fall. It's we're certainly starting to feel
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Speaker 3: like fall outside. Uh. So let's let's talk about comet
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Speaker 3: C twenty twenty three A three.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, which is the easy way to say. Let's I
17:38
Speaker 2: went with that one. Commets sou chinschan atlas are so
17:43
Speaker 2: commet su chin chan Atlas is the actual comments name.
17:47
Speaker 2: But yeah, let's just call it a three because it's
17:49
Speaker 2: a lot easier for me to say. So, so commet
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Speaker 2: a three and it's two. It's C two twenty three
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Speaker 2: A three. That's a catalog number, all right, So, uh,
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Speaker 2: in the year of twenty twenty three, every third comet
18:01
Speaker 2: of the first month to be discovered. It's that kind
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Speaker 2: of thing. So commed a three all right, So it
18:06
Speaker 2: is set to take center stage October twenty twenty four,
18:10
Speaker 2: that's next month. It's making its closest pass around the
18:15
Speaker 2: Sun basically in the next few days. The very closest
18:21
Speaker 2: point to the Sun is called perihelium. That's going to
18:24
Speaker 2: happen on the twenty seventh of September, and then after
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Speaker 2: Comet A three makes that pass, just a mere fifty
18:32
Speaker 2: eight zero point six million kilometers from the Sun. If
18:34
Speaker 2: you don't know what a kilometer, you know how many
18:37
Speaker 2: of those you stack up to get out from the Sun.
18:39
Speaker 2: It's about Mercury's orbit. It's about the distance of Mercury
18:42
Speaker 2: from the Sun. So it's making that pass, it'll be
18:45
Speaker 2: melting a lot, right, It's a hot environment in where
18:48
Speaker 2: the planet Mercury is. This comet is an ice ball
18:50
Speaker 2: from deep space, so a lot of material will melt
18:53
Speaker 2: off of it then, and then it will make its
18:56
Speaker 2: approach around the backside of the Sun to come out
19:00
Speaker 2: in the early evening skies in the northern hemisphere of
19:04
Speaker 2: planet Earth, and that's where we might catch our first
19:06
Speaker 2: glimpses of that comet in the early part of October.
19:10
Speaker 2: So it's going to be very near to the western
19:12
Speaker 2: horizon just after sunset. So the best thing to do is,
19:15
Speaker 2: right now, try to think of a place or find
19:18
Speaker 2: a place where you can see that western horizon if
19:21
Speaker 2: you can, if you know someplace that's up on a
19:23
Speaker 2: mountain or a hill, if you know someplace that's out
19:26
Speaker 2: over a lake where you can look to the west
19:29
Speaker 2: preferentially away from city lights. Right, So it'd be great
19:33
Speaker 2: if you can get to a dark site where you
19:35
Speaker 2: can see close to the horizon while you look west,
19:39
Speaker 2: then you're most likely to be able to see this
19:40
Speaker 2: beautiful comet as it pops up. Some people say. Some
19:46
Speaker 2: people say that this comet might actually be as bright
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Speaker 2: as the Great Comet of nineteen ninety seven, which was Hailbop.
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Speaker 2: So some people are predicting this commet to be a
19:56
Speaker 2: very bright object in the sky. Really, we don't know that,
20:00
Speaker 2: because we don't know what the interaction with the sun
20:02
Speaker 2: at the end of September will really do to this comet.
20:05
Speaker 2: But it's possible to be an easy naked eye object.
20:08
Speaker 2: In other words, you don't need a telescope to see
20:10
Speaker 2: it object in the early part of October. So, but
20:14
Speaker 2: you're gonna need to find that location where you can
20:16
Speaker 2: see it very closely after sunset to the western horizon.
20:19
Speaker 2: So that's the thing to do right now. Find your spot.
20:22
Speaker 2: Find your spot where you'll be able to see it.
20:24
Speaker 2: And by the way, if you want to read more
20:25
Speaker 2: about this, there's a great article in Sky at nightmagazine
20:28
Speaker 2: dot com. That's our friends from the UK. It's one
20:31
Speaker 2: of their astronomy magazines over there, sky at Nightmagazine dot com.
20:35
Speaker 2: Great website, great story on Comet so chinchin Atlas.
20:40
Speaker 3: And if you just can't wait for it at all
20:42
Speaker 3: and you need some hype music for its arrival, just
20:45
Speaker 3: listen to that one Green Day song.
20:47
Speaker 2: Coming up.
20:47
Speaker 3: After a quick break, we will be talking about the
20:50
Speaker 3: iron winds and rain of Wasp seventy six B. We'll
20:53
Speaker 3: do that right after this. All right, we have an
21:17
Speaker 3: exo planet to talk about and the catalog I guess
21:20
Speaker 3: for this Wasp seventy six B. Does it have a
21:23
Speaker 3: fancy name that's hard to pronounce or are we just
21:25
Speaker 3: going with Washed seventy six B.
21:27
Speaker 2: We're gonna go with Wash seventy six B. I like
21:29
Speaker 2: to call it Tom Okay, that's good for no reason?
21:34
Speaker 2: Why not?
21:35
Speaker 3: You can call it whatever you want to call it.
21:37
Speaker 3: It's not like it's, you know, gonna either ignore you
21:40
Speaker 3: or show up or whatever. I don't know. You just
21:42
Speaker 3: call it whatever you want.
21:43
Speaker 2: I mean, sometimes I call people by their wrong names,
21:46
Speaker 2: but not intentionally.
21:48
Speaker 3: I often don't call people by the correct names with
21:50
Speaker 3: that one percent uncertainty that I have that maybe I'm
21:54
Speaker 3: gonna say the wrong name and I don't want to do.
21:55
Speaker 2: Hey, but buddy, it's good to see you again. Pal
22:01
Speaker 2: pound Yeah, big guy friend. It's Tom. Oh yeah, okay, Tom,
22:08
Speaker 2: thank you. That's right, Tom, That's what I'm saying. The
22:10
Speaker 2: planet top I mean the planet wasp seventy six feet.
22:12
Speaker 2: So this is an exoplanet that is not somewhat nearby
22:15
Speaker 2: the Earth, but it's still pretty far away. But anyway,
22:17
Speaker 2: it's an interesting exoplanet because it's a planet that's sort
22:21
Speaker 2: of like Jupiter, but it orbits around its parent star
22:25
Speaker 2: in about a day and a half, which means it's
22:27
Speaker 2: super close to its parent star. It's also thought to
22:31
Speaker 2: be on the day side, in other words, the side
22:34
Speaker 2: of that planet that's facing its parent star up to
22:38
Speaker 2: two thousand degrees at what we would call the surface,
22:41
Speaker 2: but really it's the upper part of its atmosphere. So
22:44
Speaker 2: this is an extreme place right very very close to
22:47
Speaker 2: its parent star, super hot at the outermost layers of
22:51
Speaker 2: this exoplanet, this planet around another star besides our Sun,
22:54
Speaker 2: and the team of researchers have now they've now put
22:58
Speaker 2: out some interesting modeling about this particular planet that would
23:02
Speaker 2: suggest a couple of things are true. The first is
23:05
Speaker 2: that this planet is so close to its parent star
23:09
Speaker 2: that the extreme heat on the one side would be
23:12
Speaker 2: creating some very very violent winds on this planet. And
23:17
Speaker 2: in fact, these winds are so violent that they blow
23:21
Speaker 2: at an ultra high rate of speed, supersonic speeds around
23:25
Speaker 2: the planet. Okay, that's pretty interesting. But another thing that's
23:28
Speaker 2: interesting is within these super strong winds that because this
23:33
Speaker 2: atmosphere is so hot, that iron atoms off the surface
23:37
Speaker 2: of this planet or off you know, within the atmosphere
23:39
Speaker 2: of this planet are actually being caught up and blown
23:45
Speaker 2: around the planet at high speeds. So basically the wind
23:49
Speaker 2: is made of iron atoms to a large degree, and
23:52
Speaker 2: that's just something weird because it's really a wind of iron. Now,
23:57
Speaker 2: let's not forget what's very important about iron and in
24:00
Speaker 2: that it has a lot of electrons unpair electrons in
24:05
Speaker 2: its outer shells. Therefore, it creates electricity as it moves right,
24:09
Speaker 2: So this thing can generate an electric current, magnetic fields,
24:13
Speaker 2: all because you have a giant number of ionized iron
24:17
Speaker 2: atoms streaming around this planet at a high rate of speed,
24:21
Speaker 2: and therefore WASP seventy six B has iron winds. Now,
24:27
Speaker 2: that's already something that's really unusual and fun to think about.
24:32
Speaker 2: But wait, there's more. As these winds wrap around the
24:36
Speaker 2: planet to the nighttime side, they cool off because now
24:39
Speaker 2: they're not exposed to that direct sunlight heating. And as
24:43
Speaker 2: they cool off, they condense not back into a solid
24:47
Speaker 2: but actually into liquid drops of iron. And then as
24:52
Speaker 2: these condensed liquid drops of iron form, they fall due
24:58
Speaker 2: to gravity in through the app the sphere of this exoplanet.
25:01
Speaker 2: In other words, iron rain. So WASP seventy six B,
25:07
Speaker 2: this really weird exoplanet around the parents star WASP seventy six.
25:12
Speaker 2: WASP seventy six B has both iron winds and iron rain.
25:18
Speaker 2: That makes it one of the most interesting and fascinating
25:22
Speaker 2: extreme environments that we know about in one of these
25:25
Speaker 2: exoplanets in our own galaxy. Here, the recent findings led
25:30
Speaker 2: by a group of astronomers from the University of Geneva,
25:33
Speaker 2: have been published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, and
25:36
Speaker 2: they are really pointing out some very interesting modeling on
25:39
Speaker 2: this what we call an ultra hot Jupiter world around
25:43
Speaker 2: another star. WASP seventy six B sounds.
25:46
Speaker 3: Like potential for a new James Taylor song. All right,
25:48
Speaker 3: Solar cycle twenty five some a new sunspot, a new
25:53
Speaker 3: X flare.
25:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we chronicled last time on this podcast. That's
25:58
Speaker 2: solar cycle twenty five. I've the current solar cycle. The
26:02
Speaker 2: current cycle of the sun activity is more aggressive than
26:06
Speaker 2: it was predicted to be. Go back and listen to
26:08
Speaker 2: last week's podcast and talk more about that. But as
26:11
Speaker 2: part of that trend, there is a new massive sunspot
26:15
Speaker 2: coming around the southeastern limb. It's already releasing X class flares.
26:19
Speaker 2: Those are among the category of the most powerful flares
26:22
Speaker 2: the Sun can emit. And it just a mix. It
26:25
Speaker 2: just emitted an X one point three class solar flare today.
26:29
Speaker 2: As of the recording of this show. September twelfth, twenty
26:32
Speaker 2: twenty four, a big old flare emerged from over the
26:36
Speaker 2: sun southeastern limb and that's from a sunspot that's still
26:40
Speaker 2: rotating around to face in the direction of Earth. So
26:43
Speaker 2: potentially early next week we might be having more of
26:47
Speaker 2: these very large solar flares from this new sunspot group
26:52
Speaker 2: that will be targeting directly the planet Earth right because
26:54
Speaker 2: it's rotating around where that's going to be an Earth
26:57
Speaker 2: facing feature. Okay, well, while that's going on, there are
27:01
Speaker 2: already sun spots facing the Earth right now on the
27:03
Speaker 2: Sun not quite as big maybe, but they are also
27:06
Speaker 2: releasing coronal mass ejections, very large ejections of material off
27:11
Speaker 2: the surface. Yesterday, there was something called a dark plasma explosion.
27:15
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, there was a dark plasma explosion yesterday, But
27:18
Speaker 2: there was also one that occurred four days ago, so
27:21
Speaker 2: there are these dark plasmic explosions taking place. These are
27:24
Speaker 2: basically magnetic loops sticking up off the surface of the
27:27
Speaker 2: Sun that are breaking down. The one that occurred four
27:30
Speaker 2: days ago released a CME in the direction of Earth
27:35
Speaker 2: that caused a G three class geomagnetic storm. What does
27:38
Speaker 2: that mean. Well, it actually arrived here at the Earth
27:41
Speaker 2: and caused havoc in our own magnetic field, and it
27:44
Speaker 2: created Aurora borealis or northern lights that were visible deep
27:48
Speaker 2: into the United States of America Continental US all the
27:52
Speaker 2: way down to Central California, where some folks had photographed
27:56
Speaker 2: those events taking place. Check out both of these stories
27:59
Speaker 2: and just monitor the progression of cycle twenty five at
28:04
Speaker 2: our favorite website for sun activity, spaceweather dot com. Go
28:08
Speaker 2: visit spaceweather dot com find out about the latest xclass flare,
28:12
Speaker 2: the Red Aurora in Central California, and the ever increasing
28:16
Speaker 2: solar cycle twenty five.
28:18
Speaker 3: Let's talk about music under the Dome because we're getting
28:21
Speaker 3: ready for the kickoff of the new season and season
28:24
Speaker 3: tickets are now available.
28:27
Speaker 2: What's amazing is since you and I talked last west,
28:31
Speaker 2: the season tickets have already sold out. Oh wow, oh
28:34
Speaker 2: my goodness.
28:36
Speaker 3: That should have been the start of the show.
28:38
Speaker 2: Breaking news is breaking news. So we had those season
28:43
Speaker 2: tickets posted for just a few days and this concert
28:47
Speaker 2: series has become so popular that the season tickets have
28:51
Speaker 2: already been purchased. Now, what the season tickets get you
28:53
Speaker 2: is a guaranteed seat at every show throughout the concert season.
28:58
Speaker 2: We obviously don't sell all of our seats as season tickets,
29:02
Speaker 2: so but those season ticket opportunities are gone. Now, let
29:04
Speaker 2: me tell you the upside of that, which is, if
29:07
Speaker 2: you buy each show, one show at a time, it's
29:11
Speaker 2: still the same price. So you get you're we're not
29:14
Speaker 2: charging you more money because you didn't get a season ticket.
29:17
Speaker 2: You just have to go buy the shows all one
29:19
Speaker 2: at a time. So those tickets are still available. But friends,
29:22
Speaker 2: they're not going to be around along either. So if
29:25
Speaker 2: you're in the in the general vicinity of the Coca
29:28
Speaker 2: Cola Space Science Center and you're really hoping to see
29:30
Speaker 2: one of these fantastic music under the Dome concerts in
29:33
Speaker 2: our Omnosphere Theater planetarium along with the musicians from the
29:37
Speaker 2: Schwobes School of Music here at Columbus State University, buy
29:40
Speaker 2: your tickets now. Don't wait, don't hesitate because you'll be
29:45
Speaker 2: too late and you'd be sad standing outside.
29:49
Speaker 3: Oh, I felt like some Al Sharpton stuff there.
29:51
Speaker 2: I was trying to go something like that. I just
29:54
Speaker 2: ran out of rhymes. So this is why, this is
29:55
Speaker 2: why my rap music career failed. Anyway, so one of
29:59
Speaker 2: many reasons. But anyway, so that's the reason.
30:02
Speaker 3: That's the reason.
30:03
Speaker 2: It's the fourth rime. I couldn't come up with the
30:05
Speaker 2: fourth rime, I can hit three.
30:09
Speaker 3: Hey is there is there still the wine and cheese
30:11
Speaker 3: mixer ahead of time.
30:13
Speaker 2: So no matter which ticket you buy, whether it's a
30:15
Speaker 2: season pass or a onesie, yeah, you still get the
30:18
Speaker 2: wine and cheese.
30:19
Speaker 3: So you can have the cheese and you can masticate. Right,
30:23
Speaker 3: So there you go, there's your fourth rme.
30:26
Speaker 2: See this is you have a chance at this career.
30:28
Speaker 2: See I don't. I'm three and out. I'm a three
30:31
Speaker 2: and out kind of guy, you know, so like the
30:32
Speaker 2: Cleveland Browns anyways. But h So, the tickets though, get
30:37
Speaker 2: you a free ticket to our wine and cheese pre
30:41
Speaker 2: concert party, which is it's really cool for eight bucks, friends,
30:46
Speaker 2: eight dollars. Think about what you can't buy at your
30:50
Speaker 2: local fast food restaurant for eight dollars. But eight dollars
30:53
Speaker 2: will get you into our wonderful music under the Dome
30:56
Speaker 2: concert again featuring the musicians from the School of Music,
31:00
Speaker 2: both students and faculty. It gets you the visuals created
31:04
Speaker 2: by visual artists like our own Lance Tankersley, the planetarium
31:07
Speaker 2: director here at Coca Cola Space Science Center. He's actually
31:10
Speaker 2: doing the artwork for the first show on October first.
31:15
Speaker 2: It gets you a glass of wine and well, quite frankly,
31:19
Speaker 2: more cheese than you should probably eat in a day
31:22
Speaker 2: at the wine and cheese buffet. All of these things
31:25
Speaker 2: for eight box friends. So even though you can't get
31:27
Speaker 2: the season tickets, just go buy your favorite shows and
31:30
Speaker 2: come to see one of these music out of the
31:31
Speaker 2: Dome concerts at Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center, Columbus, Georgia.
31:37
Speaker 3: Sean and I thank you for listening, and we'll do
31:39
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