Latest / Made of Stars / The Passing of a NASA Legend

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The Passing of a NASA Legend · 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. When made of stars, made them stars, madies.
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Speaker 2: When made of.
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Speaker 3: Stars, you could be from high they would New Mexicomus,
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Speaker 3: where all stars? When we are made of stars.
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Speaker 4: I'm Wes Carol, joined by my good friend doctor Sean
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Speaker 4: Cruisin from Lamba State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
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Speaker 3: Hay Sean, Wes.
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Speaker 2: It's great to be here today.
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Speaker 4: A sad occasion as it as it is because we
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Speaker 4: have the passing of a legend.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a tough week and it was. It
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Speaker 2: was basically just right after we recorded last week's show
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Speaker 2: that ye, my friend Scott Norman, our space historian, walked
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Speaker 2: in and told me, hey, and tough day. We lost
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Speaker 2: gym lovel today.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, and I mean to call him, and I mean,
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Speaker 4: you start thinking about in perspective of.
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Speaker 3: Legends.
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Speaker 4: It's like all these astronauts are legends, you know, they
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Speaker 4: they've they've accomplished or done something that you know, most
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Speaker 4: of us at some point in our childhood went wow,
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Speaker 4: that would be great. And there's a lot of kids
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Speaker 4: today going wow, that would be great because of you know,
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Speaker 4: the Artemis mission and upcoming things. And we'll get to
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Speaker 4: Artemis in just a minute, but something that people many
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Speaker 4: people grow up at least at some point in their
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Speaker 4: childhood like wow, that would be really cool to do that.
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Speaker 4: And I know a number of kids teenagers that listen
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Speaker 4: to the show or know that we do the show
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Speaker 4: and they're like, I want to do that one day,
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Speaker 4: or you know, one night in particular, one of these kids,
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Speaker 4: I told him, Hey, the Space Station's going overhead tonight.
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Speaker 3: You should check it out.
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Speaker 4: And I just sent him a text and he went
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Speaker 4: out to see it and he's like, oh, I've never
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Speaker 4: seen it before, like wow, or maybe I've seen it
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Speaker 4: and didn't know what it was, but he goes, that
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Speaker 4: could be me on there one day. In that kind
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Speaker 4: of mindset. So we're talking about people who inspire that
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Speaker 4: and have accomplished that and all of those things, and
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Speaker 4: then you got some that just kind of bubble up
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Speaker 4: to the top and they really stand out for a
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Speaker 4: number of different reasons, and this is one of them.
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Speaker 2: You know, it's true. And I think about, you know,
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Speaker 2: I think about Kurt Warner as an NFL quarterback. He
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Speaker 2: was a great NFL quarterback. But there are many, many,
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Speaker 2: many great NFL quarterbacks. But Kurt Warner got a movie
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Speaker 2: made about him, right, right, Well, because he had a story.
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Speaker 2: It's really kind of the story. And sometimes, you know,
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Speaker 2: just we in society were inspired by these stories. I
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Speaker 2: would put Jim Lovell in the same category among the
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Speaker 2: you know, the Gemini and Apollo astronauts. He was just
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Speaker 2: another guy. I mean, you know, they're all pretty exceptional, right,
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Speaker 2: So Jim Lovell was an exceptional person. So were the
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Speaker 2: rest of the Gemini and Apollo astronauts, right, They all
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Speaker 2: were cream of the crop, top notch. Right. But why
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Speaker 2: did Jim Lovell get a movie made about it? Well
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Speaker 2: because he had a story. And of course we know
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Speaker 2: that story is Apollo thirteen. And yeah, so you get
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Speaker 2: Tom Hanks to play you in a in a motion picture,
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Speaker 2: No big deal.
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Speaker 4: It just happens to everybody, No big deal, just Tom Hanks,
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Speaker 4: that's all.
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Speaker 2: So, But here's something to think about. Jim Lovell is
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Speaker 2: that Jim Lovell was a veteran of Gemini seven, Gemini twelve,
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Speaker 2: and a follow eight. And look, not everybody is you know,
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Speaker 2: is a space nerd like me. But for those people
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Speaker 2: who know what Apollo eight was, Apollo eight was the
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Speaker 2: first time we ever went around the backside of the Moon.
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Speaker 2: It was a big deal, right, it was. It was
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Speaker 2: a mission that required a rocket capable enough to lift
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Speaker 2: human beings out of Earth orbit and put them into
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Speaker 2: a sphere where they went around another world in the
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Speaker 2: Solar System for the very first time. So already Jim
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Speaker 2: Lovell was part of that mission. And yeah, that's that's
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Speaker 2: the mission where they were reading from the scriptures on
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Speaker 2: the far side of the moon and on Christmas. And
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Speaker 2: it was a tough year in nineteen sixty eight when
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Speaker 2: all that was taking place, and put a little bit
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Speaker 2: of save on the soul of our society there when
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Speaker 2: that happened. So he had already had that moment when
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Speaker 2: he was then asked to command what was seeming like
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Speaker 2: a routine mission at that point, I mean, Apollo thirteen,
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Speaker 2: we'd already landed on the Moon. With Apollo eleven, we'd
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Speaker 2: landed again on the Moon with Apollo twelve. Those guys
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Speaker 2: horsed around and told jokes when they were on the
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Speaker 2: service of the Moon. The Apollo twelve story is pretty
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Speaker 2: funny and of itself. So yeah, Paula thirteen, you know
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Speaker 2: it didn't even it wasn't even getting the news coverage
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Speaker 2: that the previous missions had gotten. It was the third
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Speaker 2: time we were going to the Moon when all of
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Speaker 2: a sudden, on the way out.
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Speaker 3: To the Moon, it got news coverage.
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Speaker 2: Something exploded that caused news coverage. It was the side
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Speaker 2: of their spacecraft, right, And so now you have this
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Speaker 2: epic moment where not only on the ground in Houston
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Speaker 2: did need did leadership need to be established, but on
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Speaker 2: the vehicle itself. And Jim Lovell was the commander of
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Speaker 2: that Apollo thirteen mission. And again, fans, if you if
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Speaker 2: you have not seen the Apollo thirteen movie for a while,
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Speaker 2: of course, not everything is to the letter historically accurate,
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Speaker 2: but most of it is, and it really does portray
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Speaker 2: the situation those guys were in that were on the
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Speaker 2: Apollo thirteen mission. Go watch the movie again. It's a
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Speaker 2: good time. You know why, because we just lost the
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Speaker 2: real guy. We just lost Jim level this week he
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Speaker 2: was ninety seven years old and he passed away. Which hey,
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Speaker 2: after that many like four different missions, four different exposures,
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Speaker 2: the space radiation and all the hazards and difficulties that
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Speaker 2: your exposed your body to. Living to ninety seven is
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Speaker 2: a good long life, rights, So God bless him. You know,
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Speaker 2: he made it to that point, So good job. I
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Speaker 2: will tell you one other really almost meaningless piece of
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Speaker 2: Jim Level's career was he happened to be the keynote
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Speaker 2: speaker for the first day of the Coca Cola Space
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Speaker 2: Science Center here at Columbus, Georgia. He was the speaker
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Speaker 2: keynote speaker at the ribbon cutting ceremony when this facility
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Speaker 2: that I am now in charge of opened in nineteen
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Speaker 2: ninety six. So we appreciate Jim Level for his contribution
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Speaker 2: to our facility here as well as all the things
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Speaker 2: that he contributed to our nation. And you can read
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Speaker 2: a great, a great biography of Jim Level on NASA
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Speaker 2: dot gov right now. It's a tribute to him. That
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Speaker 2: part of that tribute has a statement from the family.
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Speaker 2: I like to just take a second read that to you.
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Speaker 2: So this is a statement from Jim Lovell's family about
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Speaker 2: his passing, it says, quote, we are saddened to announce
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Speaker 2: the passing of our beloved father, United States Navy Captain
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Speaker 2: James A. Jim level A naval pilot and officer, astronaut, leader,
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Speaker 2: and space explorer. He was ninety seven. We are enormously
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Speaker 2: proud of his amazing life and career accomplishments, highlighted by
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Speaker 2: his legendary leadership in pioneering human spaceflight. But to all
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Speaker 2: of us, he was dad, granddad, and the leader of
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Speaker 2: the family. Most importantly, he was our hero. We will
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Speaker 2: miss his unshakable optimism, his sense of humor, and the
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Speaker 2: way he made each of us feel we could do
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Speaker 2: the impossible. He was truly one of a kind. Unquote,
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Speaker 2: I will say, in addition to what the family just said,
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Speaker 2: he made the rest of us feel like we could
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Speaker 2: do the impossible too, Because once we as a nation
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Speaker 2: and as a space program went through that emergency of
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Speaker 2: Apollo thirteen and we're able to bring those those people
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Speaker 2: back safely to the Earth in that highly damaged spacecraft.
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Speaker 2: All the lessons that we learn from that, when we
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Speaker 2: apply those to our daily life, we really feel the
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Speaker 2: inspiration of what can be done when a technically trained
8:51
Speaker 2: group of individuals get together and really go into problem
8:54
Speaker 2: solving mode. So it's important to us even today, and
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Speaker 2: even today here at Space Science Center, we do activity
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Speaker 2: for adults. It's a team building and leadership activity. It's
9:05
Speaker 2: also a communications activity, but we call it the Apollo
9:08
Speaker 2: thirteen activity, and that's because we put them through a
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Speaker 2: scenario where they have to deal with ambiguity, they have
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Speaker 2: to deal with difficult communications issues, and they have to
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Speaker 2: figure out a different way of solving a problem that
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Speaker 2: they would normally not have to do in their everyday life.
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Speaker 2: I can't tell you more about the activity because the
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Speaker 2: rest of its secret. It's top secret, so come down
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Speaker 2: and check it out for yourselves sometime. But the important
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Speaker 2: thing is that it serves as an inspiration today. Apollo
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Speaker 2: thirteen does even today for many organizations like mine that
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Speaker 2: refer back to what those individuals did, both on the
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Speaker 2: ground and in the spacecraft to make sure that mission
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Speaker 2: was safe, got back home safely, and just defied the
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Speaker 2: odds of being able to make that mission into a
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Speaker 2: different kind of success.
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Speaker 4: We often talk about the fact that you have astronauts
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Speaker 4: whose training puts them in a position where they're able
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Speaker 4: to navigate through the problem solving that you're talking about.
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Speaker 4: It's one thing to train for it, it's another thing
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Speaker 4: to experience it. It's another thing to know if we
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Speaker 4: don't work through these problems, we're going to die. I mean,
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Speaker 4: when you're staring that down, and you know, we've had
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Speaker 4: some other examples when you think about, you know, Neil
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Speaker 4: Armstrong realizing we're about to land in a place we're
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Speaker 4: never going to get back out, and we're going to
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Speaker 4: die on the moon if I don't take control of
10:35
Speaker 4: this without permission. But I'm taking control of it because
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Speaker 4: I have to, and I'm about to save a couple
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Speaker 4: of lives in the process, including my own. And this
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Speaker 4: was another one of those examples where you know, you've
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Speaker 4: got a crew there at Apollo thirteen that is saying,
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Speaker 4: we have to figure this out, and we're on the clock.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, we we have to figure out
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Speaker 2: a solution to a problem that nobody's ever solved before.
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Speaker 2: And so again, if you watched the Apollo thirteen movie,
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Speaker 2: they were having trouble with the carbon scrubbers, the things
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Speaker 2: that purified the air, the ones that were on the
11:13
Speaker 2: vehicle that was not exploded, were not meant for three people,
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Speaker 2: They were only meant for two people in a short
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Speaker 2: period of time. So they had to figure out how
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Speaker 2: to modify those scrubbers with just what was on board
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Speaker 2: so that they can make them continue to operate. They
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Speaker 2: were able to do that because a group of technicians
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Speaker 2: got together in a back room at the Johnson Space
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Speaker 2: Center in Houston. They threw some items on the table
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Speaker 2: and said, this is what they have to work with.
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Speaker 2: Solve this problem. And again, as you said, Wes, if
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Speaker 2: they don't solve that problem, those guys die. I mean,
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Speaker 2: it's a life or death situation. If you imagine yourself
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Speaker 2: in that situation, the stress level. How high was that
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Speaker 2: stress level? The amazing thing about that team of people
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Speaker 2: on the ground is that most of them were in
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Speaker 2: their twenties and had just recently graduated from college, and
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Speaker 2: they were able, in that incredibly stressful situation to solve
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Speaker 2: that problem that nobody had even thought about before within
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Speaker 2: a very short period of time, one of many problems
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Speaker 2: they had to solve to bring that crew back safely,
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Speaker 2: and they were able to accomplish that. Right, So it
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Speaker 2: should be a shining example to all of us of
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Speaker 2: what human beings can actually accomplish if A they're working
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Speaker 2: together and b they have the confidence to not give
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Speaker 2: up and push forward and find a solution and get
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Speaker 2: it done right. So yeah, it's a really important moment
12:50
Speaker 2: in history of human beings, not just an American space
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Speaker 2: program and whatever you think about people going to the Moon,
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Speaker 2: but it's an important moment in the history of human
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Speaker 2: beings to say, we do have the capability under these
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Speaker 2: kinds of circumstances to perform at such an exceptional level
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Speaker 2: that we can even overcome the incredibly adverse odds that
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Speaker 2: that team of technicians had to overcome in Houston to
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Speaker 2: bring that Apollo thirteen crew home safely. Amazing stuff it is.
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Speaker 4: You mentioned Apollo eight and you know going around the
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Speaker 4: Moon and coming back.
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Speaker 3: Hey, what do you know?
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Speaker 4: That's kind of in the works again, also at a
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Speaker 4: time where maybe we need some Bible versus Red and
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Speaker 4: space and some healing on the planet. So NASA is
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Speaker 4: now a step closer to Artemis two Zorine spacecraft getting
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Speaker 4: ready to go, and they start fueling up. It seems
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Speaker 4: premature to fuel up. Why are we fueling up now?
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Speaker 4: This seems early in the process.
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Speaker 2: You're fueling up now to make sure that spacecraft can
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Speaker 2: actually hold those fuels. Right, So what's happened here recently
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Speaker 2: they have taking the Orion spacecraft, which is the vehicle
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Speaker 2: that this next generation of Artemis astronauts are going to
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Speaker 2: be returning to the Moon with, and they've put it
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Speaker 2: through basically a set of tests down at the Kennedy
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Speaker 2: Space Center, first in what they call the Multi Payload
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Speaker 2: Processing Facility the MPPF, and then there's also another facility
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Speaker 2: called the Launch Abort System Facility. They have fueled up
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Speaker 2: the vehicle and put it under stresses and strains caused
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Speaker 2: by the coolants and the other essential fluids that are
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Speaker 2: kept at pressure, and they're making sure all those things
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Speaker 2: can hold. That's been done, That was done back in May,
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Speaker 2: and they're going through a series of checks over the
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Speaker 2: months here up to now. But now they're taking that vehicle,
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Speaker 2: which is still loaded up with those fuels, and they're
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Speaker 2: moving it to that second facility, the Launch Aboort System Facility,
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Speaker 2: the LASF, and at the la s F, it's now
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Speaker 2: going to be fitted with its emergency escape system. If
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Speaker 2: you look at the rocket, you notice on top of
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Speaker 2: the capsule a big kind of trust system that almost
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Speaker 2: looks like a radio tower, right, it looks like it's
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Speaker 2: just an open framework of trust metal. Well, that is
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Speaker 2: the emergency escape system. And what that allows to have
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Speaker 2: happen is imagine the capsule sitting on top of the
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Speaker 2: big rocket. They're doing everything they need to do in
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Speaker 2: the final seconds before that rocket launches, the countdown, the whatever.
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Speaker 2: But imagine at that moment there's an explosion, a fire,
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Speaker 2: a massive fuel leak that could cause an explosion, any
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Speaker 2: of those emergency scenarios faster than a human being can react.
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Speaker 2: They have a computer system set up to detect those
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Speaker 2: issues and fire what's called the emergency escape system. And
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Speaker 2: in that radio tower like structure, there's a second set
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Speaker 2: of rockets which is only capable of lifting the capsule
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Speaker 2: off the big rocket, and it does so immediately and
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Speaker 2: would in principle allow those astronauts in the capsule to
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Speaker 2: escape the larger explosion occurring below them in that massive
16:08
Speaker 2: rocket on a launch pad eruption, or just frankly on
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Speaker 2: the way up to space. You imagine the Challenger scenario,
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Speaker 2: for instance, Challenger Space Shuttle. Challenger Space Shuttle couldn't have
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Speaker 2: this kind of a system in place, because they didn't
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Speaker 2: have a separate capsule where people were riding. It was
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Speaker 2: all part of one large, integrated vehicle, which is one
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Speaker 2: of the reasons why NASA has moved away from that
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Speaker 2: model and back to the capsule model, because you can
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Speaker 2: have these kinds of emergency escape systems. So anyway that's
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Speaker 2: now going to be done. All of these things are
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Speaker 2: in preparation for a launch of astronauts back around the
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Speaker 2: backside of the Moon. As West alluded two moments ago,
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Speaker 2: it's very similar to what Apollo eight did back in
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Speaker 2: nineteen sixty eight, and so this will be a flight
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Speaker 2: of a new vehicle with humans on board, around the
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Speaker 2: backside of the Moon. That is the Artemus two mission.
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Speaker 2: It's scheduled to be about a ten day mission, and
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Speaker 2: it's scheduled to take place no earlier than February of
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Speaker 2: twenty twenty six. You might say, well, wow, that's pretty fast. Yes,
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Speaker 2: it is rapid. Preparations are being made right now, so
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Speaker 2: no earlier than that date. But also this is more
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Speaker 2: impressive to me a no later date than April of
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Speaker 2: twenty twenty six, So that means in that February to
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Speaker 2: April timeframe of next year, we are very likely to
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Speaker 2: see the Artemis two mission go to space the largest
17:31
Speaker 2: most powerful rocket on planet Earth, the Space Launch System
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Speaker 2: to launch that crew into space, and for that Orion
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Speaker 2: capsule to take that crew around the backside of the
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Speaker 2: Moon as a proof of concept mission that we can
17:43
Speaker 2: do that to lead up to what is called Artemis three,
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Speaker 2: that would be the subsequent mission landing people back again
17:52
Speaker 2: on the surface of the Moon. It's an incredible time frame.
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Speaker 2: By the way, the Orion capsule slated to carry one
17:58
Speaker 2: of Wes's close personal friends, Reid Wiseman. I mean, I
18:03
Speaker 2: think maybe that's an overstatement, but I believe you spoke
18:06
Speaker 2: with Wiseman at one point.
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Speaker 4: Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, but so close personal friends, I'll
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Speaker 4: claim him.
18:11
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah yeah. I mean, you guys are Facebook friends
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Speaker 2: or something. RUN don't know anyway, So NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman,
18:18
Speaker 2: Victor Glover, Christina Cook, as well as Canadian Space Agency
18:22
Speaker 2: astronaut Jeremy Hansen. So these are set to be the
18:26
Speaker 2: first human beings to fly around the backside of the
18:29
Speaker 2: Moon since nineteen seventy two.
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Speaker 4: So I just want to quickly touch on this because
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Speaker 4: I think it's and I know we talk a little
18:37
Speaker 4: bit more about what you guys do at the Cocola
18:39
Speaker 4: Space Science Center typically at the end of the shows.
18:41
Speaker 4: But this system that's in place now for you know,
18:47
Speaker 4: making sure that as a as a last minute, we
18:51
Speaker 4: have an emergency and we have to get off of
18:53
Speaker 4: this rockets. It's a big transition from the baskets that
19:00
Speaker 4: they used to use. And if you saw the movie
19:02
Speaker 4: Men in Black three, you may have seen these particular baskets.
19:08
Speaker 4: I know, I think, I guess there's not been four
19:10
Speaker 4: Men in Black movies. I know that maybe the last
19:13
Speaker 4: two might have got lost in the shuffle.
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Speaker 3: I don't know.
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Speaker 4: I know the first one was a mega hit, and
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Speaker 4: the second one also, I mean, they all did fine.
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Speaker 4: I'm sure they made some money, but the third one
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Speaker 4: maybe got a little loss. It may be worth revisiting
19:27
Speaker 4: it just to check out the baskets that we're talking about.
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Speaker 3: And you guys have one of.
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Speaker 4: Those baskets on display, not for Men in Black, but
19:35
Speaker 4: from the actual.
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Speaker 3: Rocket era.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the Space Shuttle program. We have what's called an
19:41
Speaker 2: emergency egress basket. It is sitting in our exhibit gallery
19:45
Speaker 2: part of the emergency egress system. And every time I
19:48
Speaker 2: walked past that basket, I just kind of whisper to
19:50
Speaker 2: myself Galaxy defenders, So you know, yeah, but.
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Speaker 4: Pretty cool stuff to know that that's the progress that
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Speaker 4: we've made, because at one time they had to go
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Speaker 4: dive in a basket and slide back down to earth.
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Speaker 2: The thing's made out of canvas and steel and no
20:08
Speaker 2: seat belts, no brakes, no airbags, none of that stuff.
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Speaker 2: They would have to get in that basket and slide
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Speaker 2: down the zip line from hades and top speed fifty
20:21
Speaker 2: five miles per hour in a basket that is lined
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Speaker 2: with canvas, and you don't have an airbag or a
20:27
Speaker 2: seat belt, and hopefully the nets at the bottom caught
20:30
Speaker 2: you safely and then you were able to get out
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Speaker 2: of that basket and run into a bomb shelter and
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Speaker 2: pray that the bomb shelter was sufficient that when the
20:39
Speaker 2: shuttle exploded on the launchpad, potentially that you would survive. That. Yeah,
20:43
Speaker 2: that was their old system.
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Speaker 4: Was the other end of the cable attached to the
20:47
Speaker 4: rocket or to the shuttle, Like what because that would
20:49
Speaker 4: be bad? Was it bungee style or how does that work?
20:53
Speaker 2: It was attached to the gantry, which means you had
20:56
Speaker 2: to get out of the shuttle and run over to
20:58
Speaker 2: the basket along like a cat and then jump in
21:01
Speaker 2: the basket, hit a lever, slide down to the ground safely.
21:05
Speaker 2: I hope that works out for you, but anyway, so,
21:07
Speaker 2: but it's cool. Officially, nobody actually had to ride that
21:10
Speaker 2: basket in an emergency, but they hung on the uh
21:14
Speaker 2: on the launch tower for thirty year history of the
21:16
Speaker 2: Space Shuttle program. Now we have one hanging out in
21:18
Speaker 2: our exhibit gallery here at Space Science Center.
21:20
Speaker 4: Coming up after a quick break, we're gonna talk it's
21:23
Speaker 4: been a viral story. We're gonna talk about this really
21:26
Speaker 4: really old meteorite that crashed into Georgia's specifically in a house.
21:31
Speaker 4: We'll talk about that next. So this was one of
21:52
Speaker 4: those stories that was on social media and the first
21:54
Speaker 4: time you see it, as I tend to do with
21:55
Speaker 4: most of these things that float around on social media,
21:58
Speaker 4: I go, uh, is this real? What are we looking
22:01
Speaker 4: at here? What's going on? Is this clickbait?
22:03
Speaker 3: Is it all made up? What are we doing here?
22:06
Speaker 3: What is this?
22:08
Speaker 4: But no, this is one of those stories that actually
22:10
Speaker 4: is real and it did happen back in late June,
22:16
Speaker 4: and I'll let you take it from there.
22:19
Speaker 2: Well, I would say this, you and I would have
22:21
Speaker 2: given this a lot more attention on the Native Stars
22:24
Speaker 2: podcast because it happened right here in our own state, right,
22:28
Speaker 2: I mean the other part you go, is this real?
22:30
Speaker 3: Like, what are we talking about here?
22:33
Speaker 2: It happened when where? But you and I happened to
22:36
Speaker 2: not be in our home state at the time. We
22:38
Speaker 2: were both out of the state simultaneously, in you know,
22:41
Speaker 2: venues beyond the Great State of Georgia at the time,
22:44
Speaker 2: and so we were, you know, we were kind of
22:46
Speaker 2: doing podcasting in a different format at that point anyway.
22:51
Speaker 2: So so yeah, sorry for not covering this the first time,
22:53
Speaker 2: Made of Stars fans, But apparently a giant meteorite hit
22:57
Speaker 2: a house in Georgia. So if you're just hearing that
23:00
Speaker 2: for the first time, we're really sorry that was late
23:03
Speaker 2: to you.
23:06
Speaker 3: And our defense. I was on the other side.
23:08
Speaker 2: Of the planet and I was breathing rocky Mountain air,
23:11
Speaker 2: So you know, sorry, sorry, sorry for you know, the
23:15
Speaker 2: you know, the the late reporting on that story. You're like, what, yeah,
23:19
Speaker 2: a daytime meteorite. So this thing is bright and it
23:22
Speaker 2: was big and fast, and bright enough that people saw
23:25
Speaker 2: it in broad daylight. So that's this was a this
23:30
Speaker 2: was a really good story. We missed west, you know
23:31
Speaker 2: it was. It was pretty good.
23:33
Speaker 3: It was.
23:33
Speaker 2: Yes, a bunch of a bunch of dash cams and
23:36
Speaker 2: home security systems picked it up in the city of Atlanta,
23:39
Speaker 2: you know, right just right up the road from where
23:41
Speaker 2: you and I live.
23:42
Speaker 3: Huh.
23:42
Speaker 2: You know, so, I mean, probably should have had something
23:44
Speaker 2: on that, except we were off doing other things. So
23:47
Speaker 2: I will just continue to say that, you know, it was.
23:49
Speaker 2: It was visible over a seven state area. So the
23:53
Speaker 2: American meteor Society, which is the organization that takes the
23:58
Speaker 2: reporting of these kinds of events that occur in the sky,
24:01
Speaker 2: they reported event They reported having reports submitted to them
24:06
Speaker 2: from seven different states. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee.
24:12
Speaker 2: So so all all of those I'm seeing in my
24:16
Speaker 2: show prep that it says the word Arizona. I don't know,
24:18
Speaker 2: that's just nonsense. But anyway, they had really good I
24:23
Speaker 2: want to skipped a lot of states. I don't know
24:24
Speaker 2: how that one got in there, but yeah, they just
24:26
Speaker 2: know somebody called that from Arizona. So now I saw
24:28
Speaker 2: it too. I don't think you did, buddy.
24:29
Speaker 4: Sorry, a really really good telescope.
24:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, so anyway, six I said seven sixth state area
24:38
Speaker 2: because I'm discounting out of whole cloud Arizona. Anyway. So
24:42
Speaker 2: the reporting from the American Meter Society, though, shows that
24:45
Speaker 2: it was a pretty big event when it came in
24:48
Speaker 2: and was daytime. Visible experts now estimate that rock had
24:52
Speaker 2: to be about three feet in diameter and way more
24:54
Speaker 2: than a ton. So you said three feet in diameter
24:58
Speaker 2: and wait, a ton? What? Yeah, it's because it was
25:00
Speaker 2: probably a lot of really dense material on the inside
25:04
Speaker 2: of that thing, right, So it was a big rock.
25:06
Speaker 2: It was a very large rock. It fragmented in the
25:10
Speaker 2: sky and then fragments showered down over Henry County and
25:15
Speaker 2: over the McDonagh area, which is an Atlanta suburb. One
25:20
Speaker 2: of those chunks was large enough to come through a
25:23
Speaker 2: family home in Henry County. Not only did it come
25:26
Speaker 2: through the roof, the attic, the flashing the ceiling, the
25:32
Speaker 2: joyce saw that stuff. It busted through the ceiling hard
25:36
Speaker 2: enough it came through the room of the house. I
25:39
Speaker 2: made a giant dent in the floor. So was this
25:42
Speaker 2: was something that. I'm really happy no one was standing
25:45
Speaker 2: there in that home at that time. Okay, now that
25:49
Speaker 2: sets up the story we're actually telling today. That was
25:51
Speaker 2: what happened back in June. Here's the story we're telling today.
25:55
Speaker 2: USA Today reports as well as many other sites, that
25:58
Speaker 2: it looks like that that meteor that came crashing through
26:01
Speaker 2: that home in McDonough and Henry County was actually a
26:06
Speaker 2: chunk of a bigger rock that was older than the Earth.
26:10
Speaker 2: Now that's something that's kind of special, right. So there
26:13
Speaker 2: was enough material found by the homeowner that they could
26:17
Speaker 2: send some sampling of that material to the University of Georgia,
26:21
Speaker 2: to their Department of Geology and their College of Sciences
26:25
Speaker 2: up there, and so they were able to examine that
26:28
Speaker 2: those meteor fragments and classify them, and they put out
26:32
Speaker 2: a press release on August the eighth that said that
26:35
Speaker 2: this piece of meteor material was something called a low
26:39
Speaker 2: metal ordinary chondrite. Now that's just a meteor classification. So
26:44
Speaker 2: it didn't have a lot of metals in it. It
26:45
Speaker 2: had more chondridic material, which has a lot of what
26:48
Speaker 2: we call volatiles in it, in other words, compounds that
26:51
Speaker 2: usually vaporize as they come through the air and exposed
26:54
Speaker 2: to heat. Well, it did do that. It's why it exploded, right,
26:57
Speaker 2: It's why it came in as fragments. So, but it
27:01
Speaker 2: also that material, when age dated, looks like it belongs
27:07
Speaker 2: to a group of objects in the a very unique
27:11
Speaker 2: group of objects in the asteroid belt. Now, i'd like
27:13
Speaker 2: to read you this quote from Scott Harris, who's a
27:16
Speaker 2: researcher at the Department of Geology at the University of Georgia.
27:21
Speaker 2: Scott Harris says this, this particular meteor that entered the
27:25
Speaker 2: atmosphere has a long history before it made it to
27:28
Speaker 2: the ground of McDonogh and in ordinary in order to
27:32
Speaker 2: totally understand that, we actually had to examine what the
27:35
Speaker 2: rock is and determine what group of asteroids it belongs to.
27:40
Speaker 2: To go on with this quote further, Harris said, it
27:44
Speaker 2: belongs to a group of asteroids in the main asteroid
27:46
Speaker 2: belt between Mars and Jupiter that we now think we
27:50
Speaker 2: can tie to a breakup of a much larger asteroid
27:53
Speaker 2: about four hundred and seventy million years ago.
27:59
Speaker 4: So this thing crashes into a house and like obviously
28:05
Speaker 4: it takes them time to date it to figure out
28:09
Speaker 4: how long this thing has been in existence, So relatively speaking,
28:16
Speaker 4: considering this was like, you know, a month and a
28:17
Speaker 4: half ago, it's a pretty quick turnaround to make this
28:21
Speaker 4: a story again just in the age of it.
28:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I'm sure it became a high priority sample.
28:28
Speaker 2: It hit a dude's house, right, So, yeah, so they
28:33
Speaker 2: probably cleared the they probably cleared the lab tables to
28:37
Speaker 2: make sure they could examine this particular. Like, I know,
28:39
Speaker 2: we had these other projects going on, but I think
28:42
Speaker 2: that four hundred million year old dinosaur bone is gonna wait,
28:44
Speaker 2: let's go ahead and get this. Let's settle this thing
28:47
Speaker 2: that came in over Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. Anyway.
28:49
Speaker 4: So, and the other part of this that obviously is
28:52
Speaker 4: you know, most of the time something like this and
28:54
Speaker 4: we talk often about when something comes into our atmosphere
28:59
Speaker 4: just st just it's most likely to hit somewhere in
29:03
Speaker 4: an ocean. It's going to hit water somewhere. That's most
29:05
Speaker 4: of the planet, that's most of the coverage. So it
29:08
Speaker 4: makes it special also in that, you know, in a
29:11
Speaker 4: bad way landing in the guy's living room. But it's
29:15
Speaker 4: the rarity of that also has some significance to it.
29:18
Speaker 4: So does this guy get to keep any of this
29:20
Speaker 4: thing or how does this work since it hit his house.
29:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was it was his to donate. Nice, So
29:25
Speaker 2: he chose to donate these samples to the University of Georgia, which,
29:29
Speaker 2: you know, good on the guy, right right, because it's
29:31
Speaker 2: it's a fairly famous meteor strike. Since it was visible
29:35
Speaker 2: by so many people and so many cameras and actually
29:38
Speaker 2: damaged his house and all that kind of stuff. That's,
29:39
Speaker 2: as you say, very newsworthy, which makes that that sample
29:42
Speaker 2: even more valuable. And he went ahead and donated these
29:45
Speaker 2: samples so they could do some kind of destructive research
29:47
Speaker 2: up there at EGA. I say that to say they
29:50
Speaker 2: actually have to you know, break it apart and do
29:53
Speaker 2: chemical analysis on it, which is kind of a destructive
29:55
Speaker 2: process to figure out what it really is. So, but
29:58
Speaker 2: the science behind it becomes very important because the age
30:02
Speaker 2: dating that they estimate for this group of asteroids in
30:05
Speaker 2: the asteroid belt where they think this was originated from
30:09
Speaker 2: older than the Earth four point five six billion years old.
30:13
Speaker 2: The Earth is estimated to be only four point five
30:16
Speaker 2: four billion years old. I mean, what's twenty you know
30:20
Speaker 2: million years? Among friends, and it's fairly fairly long period
30:25
Speaker 2: of time for me and my cat, but a pretty
30:27
Speaker 2: short time over the history of the Solar System. So
30:29
Speaker 2: what this tells you, though, is this, this asteroid that
30:33
Speaker 2: fragmented into a meteor that hit this guy's house in
30:36
Speaker 2: McDonagh formed as a part of the formation process of
30:39
Speaker 2: the Solar System, which also formed the Earth and the
30:43
Speaker 2: other planets. And the kind of material that is that
30:47
Speaker 2: it's made out of this chondridic material chondrites. That material
30:52
Speaker 2: is has a lot of the chemicals in it necessary
30:55
Speaker 2: for life on the Earth to exist, which means this
31:00
Speaker 2: is part of the progenitor series of elements in the
31:04
Speaker 2: Solar System that made life possible on the surface of
31:07
Speaker 2: the Earth. And that makes this an extraordinarily interesting piece
31:12
Speaker 2: of sample. It's almost like the universe just said, here
31:17
Speaker 2: have a rock from when the Solar System formed, and oh,
31:19
Speaker 2: by the way, it's full of all the important elements
31:23
Speaker 2: that you really need to examine to understand how our
31:26
Speaker 2: Earth came together together with life forming materials. So that
31:29
Speaker 2: gift was given to us when this chunk of space
31:33
Speaker 2: rock went through the guy ceiling.
31:35
Speaker 4: And delivered to us in a place that it could
31:37
Speaker 4: be retrieved, which is the other part of it that
31:39
Speaker 4: obviously is important.
31:40
Speaker 3: More made of stars.
31:42
Speaker 4: Right after this, let's talk about the perseid meteor shower.
32:06
Speaker 4: We've gone through the prime days for this thing, but
32:09
Speaker 4: it's not over just yet.
32:11
Speaker 2: Now there's stuff falling right now. I mean, I don't know.
32:15
Speaker 2: It could be some things falling out of the persons
32:17
Speaker 2: that might go through someone's house who knows. Usually not,
32:21
Speaker 2: as Wes said, most of that stuff statistically lands in
32:24
Speaker 2: an ocean somewhere, which is fair game. And then even
32:28
Speaker 2: when it falls on the ground, it doesn't usually puncture
32:31
Speaker 2: a guy's roof and land in the living room, but
32:34
Speaker 2: it could, but it can once in a while anyway,
32:37
Speaker 2: all right, So.
32:38
Speaker 4: I just want to say this, like, let me just
32:40
Speaker 4: get this out there. I want to get this established
32:43
Speaker 4: and just get it out there. But if that's ever
32:46
Speaker 4: going to happen to my house and I'm going to have,
32:49
Speaker 4: you know, meet or this he's going to crash into
32:52
Speaker 4: my house, I'm just hoping that, you know, Like, I
32:57
Speaker 4: want to be watching something that's appropriate to it. I
33:00
Speaker 4: want to feel like I'm having a real three D experience,
33:03
Speaker 4: forty experience. So give me Armageddon you know, give me,
33:07
Speaker 4: give me, just give me something like that in that moment.
33:10
Speaker 3: That's all that. I just want to put that out there, like, I.
33:12
Speaker 2: Mean, you could watch Deep Impact, but that's so you know,
33:15
Speaker 2: it's it's just not nearly as much fun. It kind
33:17
Speaker 2: of you know, it's it's a downer. Yeah, it's almost
33:20
Speaker 2: like what would really happen. It's some more accurate Go
33:26
Speaker 2: ahead and watch Armageddon, which is nothing like what would
33:29
Speaker 2: really happen. But it's a lot of fun.
33:30
Speaker 3: It is.
33:31
Speaker 2: It is a lot so you know, if you gonna
33:32
Speaker 2: have to like obsessively watch some movie about something hitting
33:36
Speaker 2: the earth over and over every night, so just in
33:38
Speaker 2: case you can be ready to be watching that movie
33:41
Speaker 2: when something hits your house. Yeah, I would not choose
33:44
Speaker 2: Deep Impact, go for the more fun one.
33:45
Speaker 3: Yea, yeah I would.
33:46
Speaker 2: I would choose Armageddon. It's just much more fun.
33:48
Speaker 3: Anyway, Sorry, I just want to get that out there.
33:50
Speaker 3: You were saying.
33:51
Speaker 2: I was saying that that right now, there's a there's
33:54
Speaker 2: a meteor shower happening. It's happening tonight now. So as
33:57
Speaker 2: we're recording the show here, it did peak in the
33:59
Speaker 2: hours of the previous night, which was August thirteenth into
34:03
Speaker 2: the fourteenth, which is, you know, in the overnight hours,
34:06
Speaker 2: So you missed that one. But here in Columbus, Georgia,
34:09
Speaker 2: we were having just like torrential rains and cloudiness and
34:13
Speaker 2: there was no seeing any kind of meteors. What I'm
34:15
Speaker 2: going to say from my friends in the local area,
34:17
Speaker 2: people around the world have been seeing these meteors coming
34:21
Speaker 2: in from the perseed meteor shower, which typically peaks on
34:24
Speaker 2: August twelfth, but waited an extra day this year August
34:27
Speaker 2: thirteen into fourteen. It's not over. That's what people don't
34:32
Speaker 2: misunderstand about meteor showers. They think, oh, I missed it. Well, no,
34:36
Speaker 2: it actually lasts for weeks, right, and so you can
34:38
Speaker 2: see percied meteor showers pretty much through the rest of
34:42
Speaker 2: the month of August, and so so it's only one
34:46
Speaker 2: night from the peak. Go out after midnight. It's because
34:49
Speaker 2: of the geometry of the way the Earth rotates and
34:51
Speaker 2: moves through the sky, meteor showers are all always viewed
34:55
Speaker 2: best after midnight. Go out after midnight this evening, go
34:59
Speaker 2: check it out. You might actually see them. If you
35:00
Speaker 2: don't want to go out in the middle, then I
35:02
Speaker 2: just wake up a little early before the sun rises,
35:04
Speaker 2: you might see some persied meteor showers. If you're like, well,
35:07
Speaker 2: I don't know where the constellation of Perseus is, how
35:10
Speaker 2: can I look for it? Don't worry about it. It's going
35:13
Speaker 2: to be just streaking in over any parts of the sky,
35:15
Speaker 2: so you should be able to see them if you
35:17
Speaker 2: want to check out just a little bit more information
35:19
Speaker 2: on that. Spaceweather dot com in their archive from yesterday
35:24
Speaker 2: talks about the peak of the percied meter showers. Go
35:26
Speaker 2: check it out on spaceweather dot com in their archive
35:29
Speaker 2: for August thirteenth.
35:31
Speaker 4: Let's talk about Columbus State Universities co Cola Space Science Center,
35:34
Speaker 4: where you can see one of those cool baskets as
35:37
Speaker 4: seen and featured in Men in Black three.
35:39
Speaker 2: Here come the Men in Black Galaxy Defenders. You can
35:43
Speaker 2: just say it when you walk by the basket. When
35:45
Speaker 2: you come to these, it don't just make you feel happy.
35:48
Speaker 2: So yeah, you can come down and visit us at
35:50
Speaker 2: the co Cola Space Science Center. We have that exhibit
35:53
Speaker 2: on display. Plus we actually have meteorites, so you can
35:56
Speaker 2: come down and actually see meteorites that fell on other
35:58
Speaker 2: people's houses. You know, in a variety of different locations
36:01
Speaker 2: including Chell You'binsk, Siberia back in twenty thirteen. We have
36:05
Speaker 2: a fragment of that very famous skyfall. Anyway, so we
36:09
Speaker 2: have lots of great artifacts. We have flight simulators, we
36:11
Speaker 2: have shows in our Atmosphere Theater planetarium. We have our
36:14
Speaker 2: Space Shuttle Odyssey flying daily on virtual trips to orbit.
36:18
Speaker 2: You can ride on any of those engage in any
36:20
Speaker 2: of those activities. Check out all of the hours of
36:23
Speaker 2: operation for our facility on our website. Visit www dot
36:28
Speaker 2: cc SSC dot org. Charlie Charlie SamSam Charlie dot org.
36:33
Speaker 4: Sean and I thank you for listening, and we'll do
36:35
Speaker 4: this again next week. Overhead Door Company of Columbus has
36:45
Speaker 4: all of your garage door needs covered residential and commercial
36:49
Speaker 4: service and repairs. If you need a new garage door,
36:52
Speaker 4: you're just looking to upgrade or repair your current door,
36:56
Speaker 4: Overhead Door Company of Columbus has you covered. Plus they've
36:59
Speaker 4: got your emergent agency repairs or service covered as well.
37:03
Speaker 4: Seven oh six three five eight forty five hundred seven
37:06
Speaker 4: oh six three five eight forty five hundred o Dccolumbus
37:10
Speaker 4: dot com. Get ready for dragon Con twenty twenty five
37:14
Speaker 4: Labor Day weekend downtown Atlanta with the dragon Con Pregame
37:19
Speaker 4: Show coming August twenty third and twenty fourth to a
37:23
Speaker 4: radio station near you if you live in the State
37:25
Speaker 4: of Georgia or one of the states near enough to
37:28
Speaker 4: the State of Georgia to pick up a radio signal
37:31
Speaker 4: coming from the network of stations in the State of
37:34
Speaker 4: Georgia that'll be carrying the show, and there are many
37:36
Speaker 4: in Alabama and Tennessee and the Carolinas that'll have a
37:39
Speaker 4: chance to hear it, even down into Florida, or simply
37:43
Speaker 4: listen to it on the dragon Con Pregame Show podcast
37:47
Speaker 4: wherever you listen to your podcast, yes, where you're listening
37:51
Speaker 4: to this podcast. You can also find past editions of
37:55
Speaker 4: the dragon Con Pregame Show podcast with interviews with William Shatner,
38:00
Speaker 4: the stars from Star Trek, The Walking Dead, the Marvel
38:04
Speaker 4: Cinematic Universe, many animated stars, some of your favorite Disney stars.
38:09
Speaker 4: Chances to hear interviews with them, and this year's dragon
38:13
Speaker 4: Con Pregame Show will drop to the podcast on August
38:18
Speaker 4: twenty third, and you can hear this year's interviews. It's
38:21
Speaker 4: sponsored by Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center,
38:25
Speaker 4: where doctor Sean Cruisin and I often like to discuss
38:30
Speaker 4: the science behind the science fiction and the connections between
38:35
Speaker 4: where science fiction sometimes leads to science science sometimes leads
38:39
Speaker 4: to science fiction. It's just a weird connection that's already there.
38:42
Speaker 4: It's built into it. And I say it's weird, but
38:45
Speaker 4: it's really not. It makes perfect sense.
38:46
Speaker 3: The two go together very well.
38:49
Speaker 4: Learn more about the Coca Cola Space Science Center at
38:51
Speaker 4: CCSSC dot org. Learn more about this year's Dragon Con
38:58
Speaker 4: the website, which is dragonc on dot org