Latest / Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights & Cosmic Discoveries / Relativistic Beaming, Martian Waters & Cosmic Trash: The Space Nuts Q&A

Transcript

Relativistic Beaming, Martian Waters & Cosmic Trash: The Space Nuts Q&A · Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights & Cosmic Discoveries

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi there, Thanks for joining us.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: This is a Q and A edition of Space Nuts
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: where we talk astronomy and space science and we answer
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: audience questions or we just say a lot of words
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: that sound like answers, but then they'll check it later
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: on the internet and realized we were just giving them
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: an absolute.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Loaded cod swallop.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Coming up today, relative lp, you're not supposed to be
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: talking yet. Relativistic relativistic Doppler beaming. What on Earth is
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: that we're about to find out? Sunny has sent us
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: an audio question about Mars water.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Is it water? Was it water? Could it have been
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: something else?
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Holt is asking how much stuff we can send off
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: the planet before the planet sort of you know, starts
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: to fall off itself and fusion reaction in the sun.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: We will dispel that confusion very very soon. On this
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: episode of Space Nuts.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Fifteen, Channel ten nine ignition Space Nuts or three two.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: Space Nurse and I reported Neil Good.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Professor Fred Watson, a storm at large's here. You've already
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: heard his voice. Hello Fred, Nice.
• 1:17
  Speaker 5: To see you. Andrew. I'm always reminded of and you
• 1:20
  Speaker 5: might know about this as well, even though our listeners
• 1:23
  Speaker 5: are all too young to remember. But on the Goon
• 1:25
  Speaker 5: Show there was once an episode where Eccles came on
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: before he was supposed to. I had to make the
• 1:33
  Speaker 5: comment do.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: I remember that? Yes, I'm.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Which reminds me of a famous incident on ABC Radio
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: where I worked for twenty two years, where a news
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: reader was trying to do the bulletin but they were
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: halfway through a live interview with Spike Milligan. Spike kept
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: interrupting at the end of every sentence with and Spike
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Milligan and Spike Milligans. And so when the story finished,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: the newsreader said, Da Da Da Da da and Spike Milligan.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: He got He got fired for that. He got fired
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: for that. It's one of the funniest pieces of radio
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: you will ever hear. Look it up online. But he
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: got canned.
• 2:19
  Speaker 6: Probably yeah, old BBC days, probably, Oh well yeah, probably, well, yeah,
• 2:26
  Speaker 6: the times have changed. Yes, Rather, let's get into some questions, Fred,
• 2:33
  Speaker 6: and I've got our first one here from Ron, who
• 2:35
  Speaker 6: is in upstate New York. He says, springs just around
• 2:38
  Speaker 6: the corner. He says, hope all is well down under? Well,
• 2:42
  Speaker 6: if you like wind, yeah it is, it's going great,
• 2:44
  Speaker 6: and it's been pretty windy here lately. I have a
• 2:47
  Speaker 6: question about relativistic Doppler beaming that we see on a
• 2:52
  Speaker 6: black hole s accretion disc which causes the side moving
• 2:56
  Speaker 6: towards us to be brighter than the side moving away
• 2:58
  Speaker 6: from us. Why are we not seeing blue and red
• 3:02
  Speaker 6: Doppler shifts in the color of the light in those
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: respective regions. There's so much, and thanks so much for
• 3:09
  Speaker 6: the great podcast. It is our pleasure. It is our pleasure.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Thanks for the question, Ron, It's.
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: A good question, and there's the answer, Jordy. Yeah, so
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: we do. We do see the Doppler shift. But the
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: reason why we don't talk about that is because this
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: radiation that's being beamed out is a continuum radiation. By that,
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: I mean it's at all wavelengths. So to make Doppler work,
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: just the backstory here. If you've got something coming towards you,
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: it's light is shifted to the blue. If it's moving
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: away from you, it's light it's shifted to the red.
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: But you need a feature in order to detect that.
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: And some sources of light, for example, it actually even
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: works with LEDs does this. But if you think of
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: the old orange sodium lights which we used to see
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: the low pressure sodium lights. They emit all their light
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: at one wavelength, which is called the sodium D line
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: for historical reasons. And so if you had a sodium
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: lamp coming towards you, then that peak of wavelength would
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: be moved to the blue end of the spectrum. If
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: it was going away from you, it be moved to
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: the red end of the spectrum, the sodium line. But
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: in order to so that happens for all moving objects.
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: But in order for you to be able to detect
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: that it's moving, you need a discrete peak of lights
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: or radiation, And in the case of a moving sodium lamp,
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: that's it the peak of the sodium sodium emission line.
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: If you've got a continuum a spectrum that was all
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: the way from blue to red or violet to red, yes,
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: it can be moved by the Doppler shift, but you
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: don't see it, you don't detect it. And so in
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: the case of the material swirling around a black hole
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: in the accretion disc, exactly as Ron says, it actually
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: undergoes something called relativistic Doppler beaming. And because this stuff
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: is moving so fast, it's really not far short of
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: the speed of light, the path of the photons is altered,
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: and they tend to cluster around the direction in which
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: the movement is taking place. And that's why an accretion
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: disc is brighter on one side than it is on
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: the other. It's brighter in the side that's coming towards
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: you because of this relativistic Doppler beaming. It's quite an
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: esoteric topic. I'm quite amazed that we're covering this on
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: Space nuts, but it's really good stuff. Thank you, Ron,
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: because you're clearly very very well versed in this stuff
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: as well.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, when you look at the images of black
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: holes that we now have, you're looking at an orange
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: frosted doughnut. Basically, that's that's the primary color, the orange,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: but it is brighter on one side.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: This is there are.
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: Blight spots in it, that's correct. Yeah, and some of
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: that will be due to relativistic beaming.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, And how many have they taken now? I
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: think there's been maybe three through.
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: Yes, so we've got M fifty two was the first,
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: is that right?
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: Fifty two the center of our galaxy, Sagittaria s a star.
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: But also M fifty two done again with polarization, so
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: we could see the magnetism in it. I think that's
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: the way it worked. Okay, these we were with the
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: event horizon telescope.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Because I've got another one here that's of M eighty seven.
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: Okay, that's there is another object that's.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the third one I was thinking of. I
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: didn't know they've done in fifty two. Again, but the
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: technology has reached a point now where we can actually
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: image these things. They're not photos, so are they? These
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: are gathered through radio spectrometry of Yeah.
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: It's basically a planet sized array of radio telescopes that
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: conspire together in very cunning ways to make these images,
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: to synthesize the images.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Fantastic stuff. Ron Thanks so much for the question.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Really enjoyed that one, and hopefully hopefully we'll hear from
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: you again. Our next question comes from Sunny What a
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: great name for somebody who listens to an astronomy podcast.
• 7:44
  Speaker 7: Hello, Spacenuts, This is Sunny Skies from southern California, Long Beach.
• 7:49
  Speaker 7: In fact, my question for you today is regarding geological
• 7:55
  Speaker 7: formations on Mars, which indicate there was large quantities of
• 8:00
  Speaker 7: water for a long period of time. Similar to something
• 8:05
  Speaker 7: we'd see on Earth. Is there any other corroborative information
• 8:10
  Speaker 7: or data to support that it actually was water and
• 8:12
  Speaker 7: not some other crazy liquid that we don't have here,
• 8:16
  Speaker 7: possibly on Earth?
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Love the podcast the sunny.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: We're trying to it's coming into winter here, so it
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: won't be sunny for long, Sonny Lovely to hear from you.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: That's a good question, because we've got a lot of
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: evidence that shows there was water, rivers, oceans, streams, you know, cestpits,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: whatever you want to call them, on Mars. But that's
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: all gone, but we are, you know, the telltale signs
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: are there. Sonny's question is was it really water or
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: could it have been something else?
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: We do know there are other liquid.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Oceans in our Solar system that are not water. Yes,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: we do, that's right, and there's more than one kind
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: of water, which is also a fact that it considers.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: So yeah, could he be onder something or we absolutely
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: did set certain that Mars had water?
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: I think we are water perhaps.
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: Yes, and that's why for that reason we still we
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: can still see it. So and I'll explain that in
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: a second. Yes, I guess gives me. Sonny's point is
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: we see evidence of liquid. Could it have been something
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: peculiar that we don't know about, And.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: In a way it is because.
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: We have seen evidence on Mars from principally from the
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: Phoenix Lander, which was on the which is near the
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: northern Polar regions, the Northern Arctic of Mars, which actually
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: analyzed chemically some of these materials. So you might remember
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: Andrew Phoenix had a little backo. It was didn't have
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: any wheels, it was stationary, but it had a bacco
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: with which it could scrape away the top surface of
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: the soil of Mars. And it didn't have to scrape
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: much before it got to solid ice. And the first
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: hint that this was ice was in the color it
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: was white. The second hint was that some scraps of
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: this material that had been dug up by the backo
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: basically disappeared after a few days. They had turned directly
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: into vapor. They'd sublimed, and that's exactly what you'd expect
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: for water ice to do. But more especially, that bacho
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: wasn't just there to scrape things. It was to pour
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: the things it had dug up into a chemical analysis.
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: And that's the smoking gun, because the chemical analysis demonstrated
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: that yes, this was water, water ice, solid ice, and
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: that's there in large quantities under the surface of the
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: Arctic regions of Mars. And we know it's there in
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: the on the surface actually in the polar caps of Mars,
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: and we know it's water ice from there because it's
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: got the spectral signature of water ice. But the reason
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: why I say it could be a bit different is
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: that we believe that this water is very briny, that
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: it's rich in what are called perchlorates, which actually lower
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: the freezing point. And there's evidence that for a short
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: time there were droplets of water actually on the legs
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: of the Phoenix Lander, probably made of ice that have
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: been melted during the descent, vaporized, condensed out onto the
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: onto the legs of the lander, and stayed liquid for
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: a little time while the heat was well that temperature
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: was high enough. So all the all the evidence points
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: to those oceans having been made of water. Although it
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: might be very briny, it might be chemically different from
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: from what we experience on Earth. But only to look
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: at the different forms that water comes in on Earth.
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: When you've got some of them where you've got cyanide
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: dissolved in it, in some of these pools, you know,
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: in Yosemite in places like that. So I think I
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: think it's a good question. But I think basically H
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: two O is what makes up the contents of those
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: format oceans.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: I think what's interesting about Mars water is that it's
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: it's heavier.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Than Earth water.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: It's got a much higher ratio of isotopes, heavy isotopes
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: of hydrogen. I think is which is which is heavy water?
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Not the stuff ever the nuclear reactors, but natural it
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: is water.
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: Yes, that's right. It's it's similar to what was used
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: in the nuclear reactors. So it's it's hydrogen with an
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: extra neutron. I guess, is that right to make deuterium?
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: And and yes, you're right that the ratio of and
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: once again this comes from analysis by machines like Phoenix.
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: On the surface of Mars, there's a higher ratio of.
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: I think that's the way around. It is a higher
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: ratio of heavy water to normal water on Mars than
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: there is on Earth. I think that's the case.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: And the other thing sunny is you couldn't drink it
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: in its current state. It would need to be cleaned
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: up a bit.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: Do you remember we want to talk about how much
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: heavy water you could drink and still survive, and it's come.
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: It's a fair bit. Actually it was a few percent, yes, but.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: If you drank it for long enough, it would start
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: you'd start to basically fall apart, literally fall apart, because
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: the deuterium wouldn't your bodies. We're not built for it, basically.
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: Yes, exactly.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if we were to find a water world that
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: was one hundred percent D two ozer rather than age,
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: we couldn't live there.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: It would kill it.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Even though it's water, it's just it's not our water,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: heavy water. Yes, yes, So your point is very very good, Sonny.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: There's a bit more to it than.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Meets the eye.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: And yes it is water on Mars, but it's not
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: the same as our water. It's close, but it's not
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: quite the same. Thanks for the question, and hopefully hopefully
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: we'll hear from you again, Sonny. Great question, that one.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: This is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: What's a Let's take a break from the show to
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: tell you about our sponsor, nor VPN. Now, if you've
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: ever felt like your online privacy is slipping through the cracks,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: then you're not alone. Hackers, scammers, harvesters. They're all out
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: there trying to get your private info, whether that's your
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: passwords or your personal details to sell on the dark web,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: or to use themselves to access your bank account's, credit
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: card details, and who knows what else. But you can
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: protect yourself with nord vpn. You can take control at
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: home or more importantly, when you're out in public using
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: free Wi Fi. Right now, using the exclusive space nuts offer,
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: you can receive four extra months for free on a
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: NordVPN dot com plan. NordVPN encrypt your internet connection, hides
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: your IP address, and offers access to over seven seven
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: hundred servers around the world. Plus with features like threat protection,
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: pro mesh net, ultra fast speeds via nord links, your
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: digital life stays private and efficient, So don't miss out.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Visit NordVPN dot com slash space nuts and enter the
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: code space nuts to claim this deal. Remember there's a
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: thirty day money back guarantee, so it's risk free to try,
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: stay safe, stay private, and browse with confidence. That's g
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: nord vpn dot com slash space nuts.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Off space MutS.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: I like this next question from Holt because it's it's
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: it's so simple, and yet it's it's something that people
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: wonder about because we have reached a point where we've
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: been going sending stuff into space for decades now. And
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: he goes on to say, we've sent several objects beyond
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Earth's gravitational field. How much can we send before it
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: affects Earth's orbit? That comes from Halt. I don't know
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: where you're from, but great question, Halt love this one. Yeah,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: we're basically filling the universe with our own junk. But
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: all of that stuff that we're sending out there comes
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: off planet in one way or another. So yeah, what
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: could be the long term effect?
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: Yeah, great question. So the figures are and I'm pulling
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: this from my memory, but I think this is right.
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: In orbit, we have something like I think it's about
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: eleven thousand tons of stuff.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Is that all?
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: Yeah, something like that. That's with all of the spacecraft
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: that have been launched. To remember, these spacecraft are made
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: of very light materials because you can't you don't want
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: heavy stuff being sent into orbit because you're wasting fuel.
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: The lighter you can make your spacecraft, the less fuel
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: you need. So it's all about economics. But I think
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: it's about eleven thousand tons in orbit, and when you
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: look at spacecraft that have gone beyond that, it's vanishingly small.
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: You know, it's probably less than one hundred tons. It
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: might be about one hundred tons for stuff that's gone
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: out beyond Earth orbit. So that when you compare it
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: with the mass of the Earth, which I can't remember,
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: but it's a lot, it's one earth mass actually in units,
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: and you know, but it's it's gazillions of tons compared
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: with what we've put into space. So it's not going
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: to affect the Earth's orbit, and actually the orbit itself.
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: Even if we put you know, a significant fraction of
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: the Earth's mass into orbit around the Earth, it wouldn't
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: necessarily affect the Earth's orbit because it tends to need
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: an interaction between two objects to change the orbit of something,
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: a clout from another planet or something like that, that
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: would change the orbit, right whereas whereas just doing something
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: that has the same center of mass as the Earth does,
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: if I can put it that way, doesn't necessarily change
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: the orbit at all. But even notwithstanding that, we're we're
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: nowhere near anything that would actually affect the Earth's well being.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: The mess of the Earth is five point ninety seven
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: two one nine times times tender the twenty fourth pounds kilograms.
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: Yep, ten to the twenty fourth power. Yeah, that sounds right.
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: It's a lot.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: I big.
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: I think to remember that the sun is something. It's
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: about turns of twenty seven kilograms, I think, or it
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: could be tons. I can't remember, but.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: It's I can look that up too.
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah, must have the song.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: I think it's on one point nine to eight nine
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: times times ten to the thirtyeth power kilograms.
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: That's that's kilograms. Okay, so it's turns to twenty seven tons.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, that's what it now one more than it's
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: one more. Thing that hold might be interested to know
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: is that, you know, you've given us the numbers of
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: how much material in terms of weight, has left the planet,
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: which is a negligible amount, but scientists estimate that roughly
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: one hundred metric tons of cosmic dust like micro meteorites,
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: enters the atmosphere.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Every day, every day. That's right, every day.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're actually getting heavier.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we are all more massive. Depending on which way
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: you want to look at.
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: It, it's more massive, is the correct You might write.
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: To be heavier, you need to be in the gravitational
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: field of something. We are in the Sun's gravitational field,
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: but we wouldn't think of it that way.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: No, No, So.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: When you when you think about it, what we're what
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: we're kicking out of our planet, our gravitational field, it
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: is being replaced like.
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: Yes, yes, quite much more. Yeah, exactly, So thank you
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: for pointing that out. It's well, it's about a hundred
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: one hundred, one hundred tons are thereabouts, and it's just
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: meteoritic material, so really usually contributes to the atmosphere because
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: it gets vaporized most of it.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: To quote a famous Scottish astronomer, it's space.
• 21:03
  Speaker 6: Clap is what it is that I think he used
• 21:09
  Speaker 6: to be on my staff the absolut.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: All right, great question, made for some interesting discussion and
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: made me sound useful for a brief second. Thanks for
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: sending it in. Our final question comes from Ken Hi.
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: Andrew and Fred Ken from a Rouchi door. Longtime listener
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: and fan, and love the way you make complex issues
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: sound so simple. I'm trying to understand the basic fusion
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: reaction that both me and my accountant are struggling with
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: the basic fusion reaction in our sun and all main
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: sequence stars converts hydrogen to helium to create energy. To
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: summarize a reaction for hydrogen nuclei, that is, four protons
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: go through two steps to create one helium nucleus containing
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: two neutrons and protons. Additionally, gamma raised neutrinos and positrons
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: are released. My astronomy textbooks say that about six hundred
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: million tons of hydrogen are converted to five hundred and
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: ninety six million tons of helium every second in our Sun.
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: The four million tons is converted to energy as per
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: equals mc square. If neutrons had a lower mass than protons,
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: it would make.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: All perfect sense. But they don't.
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: They have a higher mass, so the mass of the
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: helium nucleus is higher than the mass.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Of the four protons.
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: All the explanations I've read sound pretty dodgy, and my
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: account says he could never get away with such explanations
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: with the tax Department. Could you please explain the devil
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: in the detail that I'm missing?
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Kenji.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: He did his homework on that one, didn't he.
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: It's absolutely right too, and looks in such a terrible
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: part of the world, they Richie do or what I
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: don't think.
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: I think I think Ken's going to find this answer
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: that I'm going to give him pretty dodgy as well,
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: because but it is the correct answer, because it turns
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: out that unlike Ken's accountant, who can do sort of
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: arithmetic because dollars don't change their mass, you know, randomly,
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: you can't do the same with sub atomic particles because
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: you have to look at other factors. And the factor
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: that comes into being in this case, and I'm sure
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: this is what Ken was referring to when he talked
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: about dodgy answers is something called the binding energy. So
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: he's right that the helium four that's formed by the
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: four hydrogen atoms should have slightly more in mass, should
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: have slightly more mass than the four hydrogen atoms. That's
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: because you're you're doing doing the calculation, begging pardon. It's
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: the other way around. It should should have slightly less
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: mass in order to give you the energy that makes
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: the sunshine. But it actually turns out to be the
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: other way around. And the difference is what I've just called.
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: It's something called binding energy. The difference is the binding
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: energy in the helium nucleus, which is called a mass defect,
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: which lowers the actual mass of the helium nucleus slightly.
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: So what what what Ken's saying is that when you
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: add up the masses of all these particles, you get
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: something that's more massive than what you started, and you
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: should expect it to be less massive than what you
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: started because of that, the fact that you've got this
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: large amount of mass being turned into radiation that's how
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: the sun shines, but in fact it is less than
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: what you started with because of this mass defect. The
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: binding energy, there's an energy that holds nuclei together which
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: actually effectively contributes to their mass because of exactly what
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: Ken said equals mc squared. And I hope you don't
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: think that sounds too dodgy, Ken, But that's the answer.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: You can and you and your account can relax. Now
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: the numbers do add up. They're just a bit weird.
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: I'm sure she would, and she probably does the same
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: calculation that I had too. It's just that atoms don't
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: behave like dollars do. They change depending on what they're doing.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my my money X like that sort of implode
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: on each other. They just yeah, that's pretty well, what happens.
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: That's that's called nuclear fission where it leaks away.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's what it is. Yep, yeah, indeed, so yeah,
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: well done, Fred. I you might have noticed my eyes
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: glazed over when you tried to explain that, but I'm
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: sure can understands because the homework you put into that
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: question was spectacular.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Thanks Ken, lovely to hear from you.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: Hope all is well in that hideous place called Maruchi
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Door on one of the most beautiful parts of the
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: East Coast of Australia. It's a lovely area, absolutely beautiful.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: So jealous, I'm going We've got a bit of time
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: up as sleeve. A quick one, Fred, just a question
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: without notice. Actually this comes from Sandy in Melbourne. Good o,
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Fred Andrew. I was recently watching the live views of
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: the Artemis two spacecraft and there was what appears to
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: be dust going past the spacecraft. What on earth is it?
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Is it rocks, dust, debris or exhaust material from the
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: ship's maneuvering engines. And he did send a link to
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: a YouTube video of it, and it's just really bright
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: pieces of material just zipping past the spacecraft.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: I would think exhaust. Maybe have you come across.
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: I need to look at that, which I'm just going
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: to try and do because I didn't have a chat.
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: I've been flutter all day talking about to myself all
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: over the place. For a minute. Where are we? It's
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: an email that I received.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Just send it to you again. This is like live radio, Fred.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: We're just the t's like, we're just doing it on
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the hob.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: But it's a fascinating video. I'm just looking at it
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: now and it's only about fifteen seconds. But yes, you
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: can see all these bright flashes just zipping past the spacecraft.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: It could be exhaust material.
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: I'm not able to see your incoming email.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: What's what?
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: Who is the.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: It's from Handy Sandy that No.
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: It must have come via a hang on here we are.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Space nuts this.
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: Yeah, okay, all right, I've got the link. Okay, he
• 28:20
  Speaker 5: opened that up. Look at it. Okay, Uh, it could
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: be could be ice.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Oh I can see that.
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: A little bit of stuff going past. It could be ice.
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: Because they have had problems with the toilets which have
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: frozen up. The toilet's frozen up, the exhaust vent for
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: the liquid waste has frozen, and they've tried to unblock it.
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: That might be what that is. That's the best guess
• 28:57
  Speaker 5: I can give. But ice is a good game, well
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: be it?
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a good guess. And Sandy is
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: so glad. He asked, we only just talked about the
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: toilets the other day, all this innovation and new tech.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: And yes, they followed the hygiene facility or whatever it was.
• 29:12
  Speaker 5: That's right, and it's given all kinds of problems. It's
• 29:16
  Speaker 5: because of the the venting pipe has been freezing up,
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: so they've turned a couple of times. They've turned the
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: spacecraft towards the sun. It's also got heaters in it,
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: which might be faulty or something like that. But I
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: believe Victor Glover, who is one of the crew members.
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: I think he's the plumbing expert.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: What a great job a job on.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: My plumber charges seventy five bucks an hour too.
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: By the way, with one hundred and fifty dollars call
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: out for you as well.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: That happened to me once I called a plumber and
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: he said, oh, yeah, that's a council problem, and then
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: build me forty bucks.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: That's true story. There you go, Sandy.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: It was the toilet. It was the toilet. Maybe thanks
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: for the question. I love doing questions without notice. You
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: just never know what's going to get thrown up, Bob,
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: thank you, Fred, we're all done.
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: Thank goodness for that.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Maybe so maybe so.
• 30:16
  Speaker 5: We'll talk again soon, Andrew, Thank we will.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Professor Fred Watson, Astronomer at Large. And I don't forget
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: to visit us online, especially our website where you can
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: send us your questions text and audio. Spacenuts dot io
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: is one of the URLs you can use or just
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: do Space Nuts Podcast as a search in your favorite
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: search engine and click on the AMA link at the
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: top where you can send us text and audio questions.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Don't forget to tell us who you are and where
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: you're from.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: And thanks to here in the studio who actually was
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: with us today, but he's had to leave because he
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: had to go and see his accountant because apparently the
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: tax department says there are confusion reactions that they want
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: to discuss with him and from me Andrew uncle, thanks
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: for your company.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: We'll see you on the next episode of Space Nuts.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Bye bye.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: You'll be listening to the Space Nuts podcast.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or your favorite podcast player.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: You can also stream on demand at fides dot com.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: This has been another quality podcast production from nights dot com.