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No, It's Not Definitely a Sign of Life on Mars, But It Could Be · Made of Stars

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar, asterism and uranus. Listen,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: that's your own risk.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Go ahead.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: When made of stars, made them stars, made sizes. When
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: made of stars, you could be from high they would
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: New Mexicomus, where all stars.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: When we are made of stars.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: I'm Wes Carol, joined by my good friend doctor Sean
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  Speaker 4: Cruising from Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Hey Sean, good morning.
• 1:03
  Speaker 5: We's good to be with you today.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Good to be here with my.
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: Surgically repaired neck and they've done some work around my throat.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: So this is our first show recording since that. And
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: I'm just mentioning it because if I sound a little
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: bit off, that's what's going on with it. Last week's
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: show we had recorded ahead of time because it was
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: surgery day on Thursday, so we'd worked ahead just a
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: little bit on that, but fee feeling better. The surgery
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: involved navigating through my throat through all of the vertical
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: parts in there and agitating things a little bit. So
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: I may have a little bit of a rasp to
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  Speaker 4: my voice or may not quite sound one hundred percent,
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: but I can say this with certainty. I have been
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: looking forward to getting back into a mat of stars,
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: because this is one of my favorite parts of the week,
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: is when we get to talk about space stuff and
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: we start this week with a really cool star and
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: I always know we're going to have a good show
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: whenever I get a text from you that has something
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: really cool in it. Uh, So let's just I guess
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: jump into this space dot com had the story that
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: you sent me, and uh has Perseverance the rover found
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  Speaker 4: evidence of past life on Mars.
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  Speaker 2: What is going on on Mars?
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  Speaker 5: I mean, I don't mean to tie this back to
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  Speaker 5: your surgical procedure, but I did notice that they also
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  Speaker 5: mounted that red laser right next to your right eye,
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: just like look que to suborg, and so that's that's
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  Speaker 5: pretty impressive. I would say that the same thing is
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  Speaker 5: true for the Perseverance Rover. So Perseverance rover has, you know,
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  Speaker 5: a red laser mounted to its right eye, very much
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  Speaker 5: like look you to Suborg, and that allows it to
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  Speaker 5: zap rock faces and do chemical analysis. And I don't
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  Speaker 5: know if you can do that now with your new
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  Speaker 5: surgical modifications, but it would be very impressive to talk
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  Speaker 5: about on a future future show if you do that.
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, if I can work that out, I'll figure figure
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: out how to in some of those enhanced abilities. The
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: very least, I'm gonna be three quarters of an inch taller,
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  Speaker 4: that's all I got for certain.
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: When when you say least, I mean that that might
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: be most right. I mean that's like, that's well, who
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: doesn't want to be three quarters of an inch taller? Right?
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  Speaker 4: One of the boys said to me, He's like, so
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: you're you're you're gonna be uh, you know, taller than
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: you were before. And I was like, no, I think
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: I'm just getting back that three quarters of an inch
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  Speaker 4: that I've lost because of the issues with my spine.
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  Speaker 4: So I'll just be happy to get back where I
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  Speaker 4: was before. I mean, they want to add a few inches,
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: you know, go for it, but I'll be happy just
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: to get back where I started.
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  Speaker 5: I mean, sometimes life just repossesses three quarters of an
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  Speaker 5: inch ofw It just happens. How does this happen?
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  Speaker 2: That's very true. Well, I'm feeling it.
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  Speaker 5: It's gravity.
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  Speaker 4: It's literally the spacers in in my in my spine
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  Speaker 4: are stretching me out, and I'm feeling it with my
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: neck and my shoulders and all of that stuff.
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  Speaker 2: But uh, anyway, we.
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  Speaker 4: Got we got this cool story on Mars, and I
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  Speaker 4: you know, when you hear it, you go, Okay, evidence
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  Speaker 4: of past life on Mars.
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  Speaker 2: This is what we've been looking for.
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  Speaker 5: It is, in fact, it's why we sent a Perseverance
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  Speaker 5: rover to Mars basically, right. I mean, it's not that
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  Speaker 5: Mars wouldn't just be a cool place otherwise, but the
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  Speaker 5: location on Mars that we sent the Perseverance Rover, one
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  Speaker 5: of the Bars exploration rovers up there. The place is
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  Speaker 5: jez Aow Crater, and jez a Row Crater, if it
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  Speaker 5: doesn't ring a bell to you, used to be a
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  Speaker 5: lake on Mars.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 4: This is different than the Cement pond from the Beverly Hillbillies.
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  Speaker 2: Right. That was Jethro's Crater, wasn't it.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, that was Jethrow's crater and it had an artificial
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  Speaker 5: origination story. The jezi Row Crater up there just in
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  Speaker 5: West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, that region of Mars. Anyway, the
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  Speaker 5: jezi Row Crater up there is actually an impact basin
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  Speaker 5: that occurred prior to Mars's wet period, which means that
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  Speaker 5: when Mars did have a ap period in its history
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  Speaker 5: where water was a abundant on the surface of Mars.
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  Speaker 5: We know that that's true from all manner of geological evidence.
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  Speaker 5: This impact basin would have filled up with that water
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  Speaker 5: and have been a lake for a very long time.
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  Speaker 5: And so that's why it makes it such an interesting
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  Speaker 5: place to go look for signs of possible life in
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  Speaker 5: the geological past on Mars. That's the Perseverance Rover's job
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  Speaker 5: explored Jesio Crater look for past evidence of life as
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  Speaker 5: well as any kind of other geology that can tell
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  Speaker 5: us about the past history of the Red planet. So
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  Speaker 5: all of that is true. Perseverance has been up there
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  Speaker 5: since twenty twenty one. It's been exploring that area and
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  Speaker 5: it's exploring a really interesting area. Right now. It's found
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  Speaker 5: something called, well it's been nicknamed che Java Falls. Che
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  Speaker 5: Java Falls is actually a waterfall in the Grand Canyon
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  Speaker 5: here on Earth, but they nicknamed this rock formation che
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  Speaker 5: Yava Falls on Mars. I think just because it sounded cool.
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  Speaker 5: So the point though, is that che Java Falls as
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  Speaker 5: a rock formation, it has some really promising evidence of
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  Speaker 5: ancient life on the Red planet. Now, I think you
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  Speaker 5: and I about twelve to fourteen months ago talked about
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  Speaker 5: this same rock face, but at that time it was
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  Speaker 5: just pretty pictures, right, Oh, hey, look we've seen these pictures.
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  Speaker 5: Aren't they interesting? They could be the kinds of things
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  Speaker 5: that the Earth geologists find as indications of past geological
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  Speaker 5: process has taking place. Won't that be interesting when they
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  Speaker 5: really do the analysis? Okay, well, so what we're doing
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  Speaker 5: today in a story that just came out a couple
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  Speaker 5: of days ago, is we're talking about the actual analysis.
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  Speaker 5: So now they have done further analysis on the imaging
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  Speaker 5: up there. They've actually published I say they. It's researchers
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  Speaker 5: from the Perseverance Rover at JPL have published research in
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  Speaker 5: the journal Nature regarding this che Yava Falls rock formation
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  Speaker 5: and the apparent biosignatures that are visible in that rock layer.
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  Speaker 5: They call these things leopard spots and poppy seeds. So
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  Speaker 5: if you think about this, think about looking at like
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  Speaker 5: a highway cut or something like that, a rock face
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  Speaker 5: that's been dug into and you can see the stratified
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  Speaker 5: layers of earth. You know in your geological experience. Here
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  Speaker 5: there are various places. Maybe it's a stream that cut
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  Speaker 5: through or a river that cut through, and it's left
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  Speaker 5: a rock face exposed in the manner of being dug down,
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  Speaker 5: and you have a vertical face of rock where you
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  Speaker 5: can see geological layers. Well, that's similar to this place
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  Speaker 5: on Jesuro Crater on Mars. And in that vertical rock
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  Speaker 5: face they find these leopard spots and poppy seeds, which
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  Speaker 5: are actually small unusual markings in that rock face that
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  Speaker 5: when geologists find that signature on Earth, they are often
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  Speaker 5: linked to biological processes. There is a biological processing or
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  Speaker 5: a bioprocessing of minerals that can take place where microorganisms
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  Speaker 5: are basically sucking the nutrients out of the soil and
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  Speaker 5: they're pooping out some organic compounds, and then those organic
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  Speaker 5: compounds get deposited in the rock layers and they turn
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  Speaker 5: into these hard a little bit more difficult to erode
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  Speaker 5: rock formations that get nicknamed leopard spots and poppy seeds.
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  Speaker 5: So there it is. It's bug poop. It's one way
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  Speaker 5: to think about it anyway.
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  Speaker 4: So there it is, yeah, and would be an indicator
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  Speaker 4: obviously of something living there.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, so for sure on Earth these markers can be
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  Speaker 5: produced by microbes. They are biosignatures on Earth. However, Earth
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  Speaker 5: geologists have also found instances where they were not produced
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  Speaker 5: by biological processes. Said yeah, yeah, So even though this
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  Speaker 5: is a who it's a potential sign of life on Mars,
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  Speaker 5: maybe maybe possibly the best sign yet of evidence of
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  Speaker 5: past life on Mars. It still has a giant butt
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  Speaker 5: monkey attached to it to say, but it can also
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  Speaker 5: be produced by non biological processes. So we have to
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  Speaker 5: keep that firmly in mind as we look at headlines
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  Speaker 5: that are out there saying scientists have found evidence of
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  Speaker 5: life on Mars. I've seen them in preparation for this
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: podcast today, friends, And that's that's one of the reasons
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: why we move this story to the top, to the
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  Speaker 5: top of the stack, because we might want to say, well,
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: you might be seeing it out there on Look, if
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: you're getting your if you're getting your news from social media,
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: always run a check, right, Always do a little bit
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: more digging on your own at some more reliable news sources.
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: Even some of those reliable news sources are just trying
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: to get you to click their site. Shame on them.
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: But that's click journalism in twenty twenty five. Okay, but
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: always be diligent about trying to find out all of
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: the facts, because if you're running out there posting they
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: found life on Mars on your favorite social media platform,
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: just don't you shouldn't do that. Okay, So not so fast,
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: not so fast, not so fast. Okay. So even though
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  Speaker 5: this may be the most intriguing possible biosignature on Mars,
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  Speaker 5: yet we just have to exercise a little bit of caution.
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  Speaker 5: Joel Hurwitz from Stonybrook University, who is the lead author
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  Speaker 5: on the new study, says this, when we see features
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  Speaker 5: like this in sediment on Earth, these minerals are often
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  Speaker 5: the byproduct of microbialabolisms that are consuming organic matter. So
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: notice that doctor Horowitz did not say these minerals are
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  Speaker 5: always the byproduct of microbial metabolisms, just that they are
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  Speaker 5: often the byproduct of microbial metabolisms, making them a reliable
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  Speaker 5: but not infallible biosignature. Right, So, just a little caution
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: out there. It's really cool, it's really intriguing, but this
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  Speaker 5: does show us why we really do need some kind
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: of a sample return mission. There's only so much we
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  Speaker 5: can tell with imaging. We need to get these samples
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  Speaker 5: in the lab, and we need scientists to actually be
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: able to do deeper chemical and other kinds of destructive
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: analysis on these on these rock samples, so that we
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: can really see what's going on and verify whether past
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  Speaker 5: life existed on Mars. So that's a really cool story.
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: And I don't want to I don't want to be
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: a wet blanket. I will say that doctor Tony Phillips,
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: who's one of my favorite He's one of my favorite
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: news authors in the space world. He's also the main
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: author of spaceweather dot com, so we we refer to
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: his journalism a lot.
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  Speaker 2: Uh.
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  Speaker 5: He was very very cautious about this story. He's like, hey,
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: just remember this is a we don't know story. This
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: is not a definitely confirmed story. So anyway, it's always
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: it's always worthwhile to uh check those reliable sources and
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: make sure you understand the entire scope of the story.
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: Speaking of spaceweather dot com, we'll head over there for
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: this next story. With a gigantic hole opening up in
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  Speaker 4: the Sun's atmosphere, and spewing solar wind.
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  Speaker 2: Right at us. What's going on there?
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  Speaker 5: That's exactly what's happening.
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  Speaker 2: It's a marvel movie. What are we doing.
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: There's a little black chasm on the sun today. Apparently
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: it's not it's not it's not a spot. It's a
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  Speaker 5: full on chasm. It's a giant Well, okay, so the
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: Sun has this thing called the corona. We don't really
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: think of the Sun having an atmosphere because we say, well,
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: isn't it all gas? Yeah, it is gas and plasma
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: it is. But really we kind of define a surface
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: for the Sun, and that surface is not something you
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: could stand on. But it's called the photosphere. It's the
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: it's the it's the diameter at which light escapes. Right.
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: So when you don't look at the sun, by the way,
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: but I know you've glanced up through the clouds and
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: seen the disc of the Sun. I know you've done that,
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: even though we caution you not to look at the sun.
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: So you've seen a round sun before, right when you
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: see it sitting at the beach. It's a round sun
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: that gets kind of squashed by atmospheric refraction effects. But anyway,
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: it's got a circular surface to it. Well, that's the photosphere,
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: but that's not where the Sun ends. The Sun has
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  Speaker 5: gases heavily influenced by the Sun's magnetic field that hang
• 13:44
  Speaker 5: above that solar disk, and the corona is one of those.
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  Speaker 5: The corona is a really hot area of gases suspended
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: over the surface, the visible surface of the photosphere of
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  Speaker 5: the Sun. Okay, so sometime, well most of the time,
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  Speaker 5: the corona is getting in the way a very high
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: speed gas is trying to escape the Sun. We call
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: that the high speed solar wind or the fast solar windstream.
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: So sometimes though, a giant hole will open up in
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  Speaker 5: that hovering gas above the surface called the corona, and
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: then there's nothing to slow the solar windstream down, and
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: you just get a beam of magnetically charged particle radiation
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: traveling at high speed with no buffer, that just streams
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  Speaker 5: out of the Sun off its surface, through the hole
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  Speaker 5: in the corona and maybe directly at your planet, the
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  Speaker 5: one you live on, the Earth. Oh and by the way,
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: that's exactly what's happening right now. So there's a three
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  Speaker 5: hundred thousand kilometer wide butterfly shaped gap on the Sun today.
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: It's a giant coronal hole. It's a allowing the gases
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: to escape at a very high speed in the direction
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: of the Earth. So yeah, our friends at spaceweather dot com,
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  Speaker 5: doctor Tony Phillips and the crew say, hey, this is interesting.
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: You might want to be on the lookout for geosolar activity,
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: or we call it a geomagnetic storm. You might want
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: to be watching out for geomagnetic storms within the next
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: couple of days. So from now to say, oh, September fourteenth,
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: when the bulk of this wave is scheduled to arrive,
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: that could trigger a G one to G two class
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: geomagnetic storm that's on its own. There's something else that's
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: taking place, that's an interaction between the Sun and the
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: Earth and their relative magnetic fields. It's called the Russell
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: McFerrin effect. Don't worry, be happy. It's not Bobby McFerrin.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: I went there in my head. Get out of my head, Sean.
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  Speaker 5: It's his little brother, Russell, two scientists, Russell and McFerrin.
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  Speaker 5: The Russell mcfaar in effect links geomagnetic storms to a
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  Speaker 5: combination of the effects of the Sun and Earth's geomagnetic
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: fields that occur around the equinoxes, and that equinox happens
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: here in September. It's the autumnal equinox. It's the halfway
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: point between summer and winter that occurs on or around
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  Speaker 5: September twenty first. Therefore, we're near the equinox. Therefore, the
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: Earth is already subject to the r the Russell mcfarri
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: in effect, and also the giant solar windstream from a
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: chasm in the Sun's corona. Those two effects will add
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: to one another, so we may have unexpectedly strong geomagnetic
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: storms over the next three days or so. I would
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: say stay tuned. And when I say stay tuned, I
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: mean to this podcast. But you know you should just
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: do that every week, just because you should. You'll miss
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: out on things if you don't have Fomo on space
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: and tune into Native Stars every week. But what I
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: mean for this particular story, stay tuned means checkspaceweather dot
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: com on an obsessive hourly basis over the next three days,
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: so that you can be informed whether or not the
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: Earth is experiencing a strong enough geomagnetic storm that you
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: might see northern light phenomenon in your area.
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: And that's the thing that upsets people the most. They go,
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: why didn't you tell us? Why didn't you tell us?
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: And it's like, we did. You just didn't hear it
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: until it was too late. That's not on us.
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: Wes and I have the common shared experience of being
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: a host of a space podcast and telling people that
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: there were very likely going to be solar storms in
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: twenty twenty four, both on May the tenth and October
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: the tenth, which turned out to be true. By the way,
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: both times, and again, it's not because we're clairvoyant souit geniuses.
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  Speaker 5: It's because we read spaceweather dot com obsessively and we
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: know when these storms are likely because of the great
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: work done at spaceweather dot com. So we told people
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: on the podcast both times, Hey, you might want to
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: be watching out. Could be northern lights, could be northern
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: lights pretty far south, maybe even here in Georgia where
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: we are.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Well, both of those northern.
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: Light phenomenon went south of the United States of America,
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: right so, so all the way down into Central Mexico,
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: Puerto Rico, places like that. Anyway, So we're telling you
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: again here it is maybe maybe not. We never know
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: for sure. Scientists always have two hands on the one hand,
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: but on the other hand, there is one of those
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: two handed moments. But you don't want to miss out,
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: So go take a peek at the skies this weekend
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: and watch for the Russell McFerrin effect combined with a
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: giant hole in the Sun's corona.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Coming up.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: After a quick break, we'll talk about Starship ten and eleven.
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: We'll do that now, all.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Right, we got to go back a little bit to
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: talk about.
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: Starship ten and then uh, SpaceX is prepping for Starship eleven.
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: I mean, anytime we get to talk about massive rockets
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: launching to space, especially.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: When there's a nice and successful launch, that's also nice
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: as well.
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: I mean, we don't mind the ones that blow up
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: because they're kind of fun too, but we don't want
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: to We don't want people hurt, but we don't care
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: if they blow up over the ocean. It's just kind
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: of some extra fireworks to the day. And it's just
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: sort of the way that SpaceX does their engineering. But hey, friends,
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: if you've been paying attention to space news, well, Wes
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: and I were, you know, on a minor sabbatical over
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: the holiday weekend and things there, you might have noticed
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: that SpaceX Starship, the largest most powerful rocket ever built
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: by humanity, had a near flawless test on August the
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: twenty sixth. And if you have not seen that, but
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: you're a space enthusiast, well, first I'm gonna question your
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: space enthusiasm. I need to check your card right there.
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: But okay, let's say you missed it and you're just
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: kind of a mildly interested space fan, I would tell
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: you this SpaceX was able to deliver not only a
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: near flawless mission with the largest and most powerful rocket
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: ever built, they also delivered the most ridiculous high definition
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: video of various aspects of this launch that I personally
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: have ever seen.
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: It was absolutely incredible.
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: It was phenomenal, and yes, powered by powered by starlink
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: as it was, it was powered by their own internet
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: provider that they actually own, so yeah, their internet service
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: provider provided beautifully streamed video in ultra high definition of
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: many aspects of the launch of this vehicle, including a
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: great shot of when Starship itself was going from daylight
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: to dark as it was going around the curvature of
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: the Earth and you could see the sunset line through
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: the clouds on planet Earth. Absolutely spectacular. If you missed it,
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: what were you thinking?
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Go check it out.
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: It's on YouTube, Go look it up. And then they
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: had a absolutely incredible high definition camera mounted on a
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: buoy somewhere out in the Indian Ocean when the Starship
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: vehicle itself came back down, and they got such crisp, clear,
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: ultra high definition video of the controlled re entry of
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: the Starship vehicle down into the ocean that many people
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: just thought it was ai. They just said, oh no,
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: this can't possibly be real. This how did they get
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: this sharp video?
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: How?
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: And friends, in fairness, I will tell you it's twenty
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: twenty five. You should ask this question every time you
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: see video or photographs is it real? I get it,
• 22:17
  Speaker 5: I get it, But this one was real. Friends. They
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: actually captured the video of starship coming down and landing
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: in the ocean in a controlled manner, and obviously it
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: then sunk into the water and exploder. But anyway, so
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: they meant to do that, meant to do that, We
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: meant to do that anyway, So they did mean to
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: do that. So the point is incredible, Mission super Heavy
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: Booster had a splash down. They had no intention of
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: trying to catch it in the giant chopsticks. This time
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: they knew they were going to splash it down in
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: the ocean, so it had a controlled splash down. And
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: then the vehicle itself, the Starship vehicle, deployed a bunch
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: of dummy Starlink satellites just as a test. That deployment
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: went fine. They were able to fulfill that key mission objective.
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: And then both the again both the heavy booster and
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: Starship eleven Starship ten rather came down and had successful
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: landings in the water. All of this leading up to
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: Starship eleven, the next launch of this massive rocket system.
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: You see, NASA is themselves highly invested in this process
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: being successful because if you know anything about the Space
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: Launch System and the Artemis program and the Orion space capsule.
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: Right now, Starship the big rocket, not just the big rocket,
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: but the big spacecraft being produced by SpaceX, is NASA's
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: ride down from lunar orbit to the lunar surface. So
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: they want to They were watching with no idle curiosity
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: making sure that this vehicle is ready to go when
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: astronauts are going to go back to the Moon to
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: put footprints on the Moon again. By twenty twenty eight,
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: So NASA has a keen interest in that, so great
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: great success on August twenty sixth, Starship ten. They are
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: now everybody kind of now anticipating the next launch of Starship,
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: which would be Starship eleven. Starship eleven had a successful
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: test firing down there in Bokachka, Texas, just a couple
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: of days ago, as we're recording the podcast today, September
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: the ninth, twenty twenty five, and all of that is
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: in preparation for the upcoming Starship eleven launch again, further
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: testing and proving concepts, further proving the capability of the vehicle,
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: getting ready for it to become the official lunar lander
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: for the Artemis program for NASA.
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: All Right, you and are big fans of the Dart mission,
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: where we've been fascinated with this since the beginning. It's
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: one of those things that I think you kind of
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: imagine I think as a kid for me sitting in
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: science class when they go, hey, an asteroid coul hit
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: the Earth, and you go, we on, we just knock
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: it off course, and all of a sudden that became
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: a reality a few years ago, and you and I
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: have been fascinated with all of that ever since, and
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: one of the things that inevitably comes up, and it
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: was a concern then and continues to be a concern,
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: maybe not so much now thanks to this story. But
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: what if you hit in the wrong place? Could it
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: become more of a danger if an asteroid was coming
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: for us, and apparently it could be, but if you
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: know where to hit it, then that won't necessarily be
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: a problem with it.
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So it's a really interesting point that if an
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: asteroid gets either too close to the Earth or we
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: don't understand its dynamics, in other words, the way it's spinning,
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: the way it's put together, all of those kinds of things,
• 25:49
  Speaker 5: that if we hit this asteroid with a spacecraft trying
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: to divert it or nudget out of the way so
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: it doesn't hit the Earth, but we hit it wrong,
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: that it could have negative consequences. Now these are things
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: we knew already. However, a new analysis provided by the
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: data from the Dark Mission. New analysis has indicated that
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: we can't even hit the asteroid in the wrong spot
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: because even if we nudge it away from the Earth.
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: Some theoretical gravitational studies have been done to say, well,
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: there are gravitational structures that exist around the planet Earth
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: and with the combined gravities of other bodies like the Sun,
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: that can drive objects, even if we push them away,
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: drive them back into gravitational interaction with the Earth and
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: back down to collide with the Earth. And these things
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: have been termed gravitational key holes. So we don't want
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: to nudge an asteroid that actually might miss the Earth.
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: We just think that there's a high probability that it
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: will impact. We don't want to nudge it into a
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: gravitational keyhole because then we've get a inteed that it
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: will impact the Earth, just at a later date. Right,
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: So there's the trick. Okay. So new studies from the
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: data from Dart have been done by a group of
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: scientists out of Jet Propotional Laboratory but also working with
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: the University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne, and they've tested
• 27:19
  Speaker 5: all manner of trajectories of asteroids that we nudge away
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: from the Earth using computer simulations and they say, yes, indeed,
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: you have to hit these rocks at just the right spot,
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: and that right spot has to do with the shape
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: of the asteroid, with its trajectory, its speed, its distance
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: from the Earth. But we can we can lay out
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: a grid of good impact spots and bad impact spots
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: over the surface of this asteroid based on this new
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: research out of Urbana Champaigne that provides probability maps for
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: where we do want to and don't want to impact
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: an incoming asteroid so that we don't so we don't
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: alter its trajectory into one of these gravitational key holes
• 28:08
  Speaker 5: where it's definitely going to fall back on the Earth
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: in the future, we want to be able to push
• 28:12
  Speaker 5: it away where it misses the gravitational key holes and
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: drifts back out into space. So it's amazing to know
• 28:19
  Speaker 5: that our predictive powers, using computer simulations and just our
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: understanding of the dynamics between motion of objects, that the
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: gravitational fields can provide us with a map of where
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: exactly to punch an asteroid in the eye when it's
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: heading in for our Earth for a close pass in
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: just the right batter that we don't just nudge it
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: out of the way temporarily, but we nudge it out
• 28:47
  Speaker 5: of the way permanently, missing these gravitational key holes and
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: saving the Earth, my friend, because that's what it's all about.
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: All about saving the earth. All right, let's talk about
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: Music under the Dome. We have another Music under the
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: Dome coming up on October the seventh. As we are
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: in the season, I love the fall. There's so many
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: reasons I love the fall. My football analogies all make
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: sense again, you know, feeling like I can, I can,
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: I can.
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: Have new ones. You know, things happen, you know, talking
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: about the dark spacecraft. I think we use some NFL
• 29:23
  Speaker 5: analogies in the past, which which we're fine, but you know,
• 29:26
  Speaker 5: we won't bring those up today. But you know, I
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: love the changing of the seasons because you know, then
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: people it gets cold and people want to bake. You know,
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: so baking is awesome. Cookies, you know, pumpkin spice is
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: okay again, you can These are all reasons, right. But
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: Music out of the Dome friends, Musica of the Dome
• 29:43
  Speaker 5: is a concert series that happens here at Clumbus State
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: University's Coca Cola Space Science Center. And I can practically
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: smell the pumpkin spice right now because I know our
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: first Music under the Dome concert is coming up October
• 29:54
  Speaker 5: the seventh. I believe there are a few tickets left
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: for the for that com These concerts are so popular
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: that they do sell out quickly. Check our website you
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: might still be able to pick up tickets for this
• 30:08
  Speaker 5: concert and come and see us when the Schwob School
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: of Music faculty and students from our brilliant music college
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: here at the Columbus State University and they come into
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: our Omnosphere Theater and perform inside the planetarium to the
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: beautiful sites of original space.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Art up on the dome this month.
• 30:28
  Speaker 5: It is our own Lance Tankersley, director of the Atmosphere
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: Theater here at Space Science Center, who's producing all of
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: the original graphics for this show. It's going to be fun,
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: it's going to be spectacular. Check out ou our website
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: www dot CCSSC dot org for information on this concert,
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: the upcoming astronomy nights, and all of the fun things
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: happening at Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: Sean and I thank you for listening, and we'll do
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: this again next week. Overhead Door Company of Columbus has
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  Speaker 4: all of your garage door needs covered, residential and commercial
• 31:09
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