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Mars Oceans Unveiled, Spinning Asteroids & Crew Evacuations · Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights & Cosmic Discoveries

0:00
Andrew Dunkley: Hi there. Thanks for joining us on another
0:01
episode of Space Nuts. Great to have your
0:04
company. My name is Andrew Dunkley, your host
0:06
and I uh, hope you can stick around because
0:08
we've got a jam packed show. We're
0:11
once again going to Mars because
0:13
they've looked uh, at some new evidence that
0:17
uh, does suggest Mars oceans may have
0:19
been vast. That is really
0:22
exciting news. We're also going to look at
0:24
the fastest spinning asteroid yet discovered.
0:27
This one's uh, really in a spin.
0:29
It's uh, making everybody dizzy. And the
0:32
evacuation of the International Space Station
0:35
uh, due to ill health. We'll see if we can
0:38
get uh, some news on that because that's
0:39
actually happening as Fred and I are uh,
0:42
recording today. That's all coming up
0:44
on this edition of Space Nuts. 15
0:48
seconds. Guidance is internal.
0:50
Voice Over Guy: 10, 9. Ignition
0:52
sequence start. Space Nuts. 5, 4,
0:55
3. 2. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4,
0:58
3, 2, 1. Space Nuts astronauts
1:01
report it feels good.
1:03
Andrew Dunkley: And he's back again to furnish us with his
1:06
knowledge. He is Professor Fred Watson,
1:08
Astronomer at large. Hello Fred.
1:10
Professor Fred Watson: Hello Andrew. I was just doing a quick
1:12
calculation there for a number that I want to
1:14
use um, later in the chat.
1:19
Andrew Dunkley: Now I need to apologise in advance because
1:21
ah, they're working across the road and I
1:24
think they're using uh, dynamite because
1:27
it's pretty noisy um, but
1:30
hopefully it won't mess me up too much. I can
1:33
hear it but I don't know if it's coming
1:34
through the system. It's got all sorts of
1:36
filters but um, some things you can't stop.
1:40
Professor Fred Watson: Um.
1:40
Andrew Dunkley: Now Fred, I did want to actually mention a
1:42
couple of things before we start on our
1:44
topics because uh, I meant to do this last
1:47
week for our first show back of the year just
1:50
to highlight some of the things that are
1:52
coming up in 2026 that we can look forward to
1:54
and that you and I will probably talk about.
1:56
The Artemis 2 launch is
1:59
slated. Uh, whether or not it'll be delayed
2:02
again remains to be seen. But um, that will
2:04
see a crew doing a lap around the moon,
2:08
uh, and that'll be the first time humans have
2:10
been back uh, in orbit around the moon
2:13
since the 70s which uh, is
2:15
exciting and probably too long but um,
2:18
that'll be good. Um, this one I know will
2:20
excite you. The Grace Roman Space Telescope
2:23
is going to be launched. That one um,
2:26
is going to um, opened so many doors for
2:29
us I suspect, um, the
2:31
PLATO mission, uh, which will be searching
2:34
for rocky planets. It'll uh, be doing a lot
2:36
more than that. But that's one of the things
2:38
that it's being set out to do. Uh,
2:41
China is to launch its own space
2:43
telescope as well, um, in the hunt
2:46
for dark matter and dark energy.
2:49
And there's another mission that's going to
2:52
be studying uh, the moon and Mars. Well,
2:54
several missions, not just one. Um, more
2:56
Chinese and Japanese missions involved there.
2:59
And I think this is one you and I have talked
3:01
about before. The Smile mission, uh, which
3:04
will be studying Earth's magnetic field and
3:06
how the sun interacts with our uh,
3:08
atmosphere, uh, is um, due to be launched
3:11
this year as well. I'm sure there's a lot
3:12
more going on than that, but there's some of
3:14
the highlights of 2026 so
3:17
uh, we'll have a lot to talk about.
3:19
Professor Fred Watson: Fred, could I add a couple more as well?
3:21
Andrew Dunkley: Oh, go for it.
3:23
Professor Fred Watson: Um, we've just uh, heard that the Pandora
3:25
spacecraft has entered orbit, uh, which I
3:28
think is a spacecraft, uh, again looking
3:31
um, looking at exoplanets to try
3:34
and sort of tell us a bit more about how
3:36
their atmospheres might reveal stuff. Um,
3:39
China has just filed for 200,000
3:42
satellites constellation with the
3:44
International Telecommunications Union which
3:47
is. Yeah, yeah, well it's not the biggest
3:50
yet. The biggest was back in 2020 when the
3:52
Rwandan government filed for over
3:54
300,000. Um, uh, since then
3:57
they've launched one cubesat, I think. So,
3:59
um, that looked like a filing that
4:03
getting your foot in the door. Uh, and just
4:05
turning to nature. We've got some interesting
4:08
events coming up. Uh, March 3rd, total
4:11
eclipse of the Moon visible certainly from
4:13
our hemisphere in Australia, not sure about
4:16
North America and Europe. Um,
4:18
there's uh, towards the end of the year and
4:21
this will happen twice, uh, which is great
4:24
cause you can see it on different sides of
4:26
the Earth. I think it's October, sometime in
4:28
October and sometime in November there will
4:31
be an occultation of the planet Jupiter by
4:34
the Moon. That means the moon will pass in
4:35
front of Jupiter and certainly for us in
4:38
November here in Australia it will be during
4:40
the daytime. So get your binoculars out
4:42
during the daytime, check out the moon and
4:44
watch for Jupiter disappearing.
4:46
Andrew Dunkley: Oh, that'll be good. Yeah,
4:49
that'd be a good one for a backyard
4:50
telescope, wouldn't it?
4:51
Professor Fred Watson: Absolutely perfect, yes.
4:54
Andrew Dunkley: Awesome. Um, I had my
4:57
6 year old granddaughter here uh, the other
5:00
day and uh, the moon was, was out in the
5:02
east and um, it was still daytime but it was
5:05
pretty prominent. So I grabbed the telescope
5:07
and gave her a look and uh, I tried to
5:10
explain to her what craters were and
5:13
she struggled with the concept. But she
5:14
eventually I think figured it out. But uh,
5:17
yeah, took a couple of photos of her looking
5:19
through the telescope. She was very excited
5:22
which she sent to me.
5:23
Professor Fred Watson: It was uh, lovely to see them, Andrew. Yeah,
5:25
yeah, lovely, lovely shots. A youngster
5:27
looking through a telescop with granddad in
5:29
the background is great. Yeah, yeah.
5:31
Andrew Dunkley: Uh, she's got blonde hair and blue eyes and
5:34
her brothers and sisters are all brown haired
5:36
and brown eyed. So. Okay,
5:39
she, she seems to have picked up Judy's side
5:41
of the family genes because Judy's blondie,
5:44
blonde with blue eyes. But um, she's the only
5:47
one in the, in the family that's, that's gone
5:49
that, that way. It happens though, doesn't
5:52
it? It's just the way it is.
5:53
Professor Fred Watson: Yeah.
5:53
Andrew Dunkley: That's DNA.
5:55
Um, okay Fred, uh,
5:58
let's get stuck into it because uh, we're
6:00
heading off to Mars and we're
6:03
doing this because of a study that's just
6:06
been published. Uh, in fact in the
6:08
last week, uh, or two about uh,
6:11
observations of Mars that suggest
6:14
that its oceans were once vast. Now
6:17
we always knew there was probably surface
6:19
water but we didn't really know whether they
6:22
were, you know, pockets or separate
6:25
oceans or what. But now they're thinking
6:28
the oceans might have been
6:31
enormous.
6:32
Professor Fred Watson: Uh, yes, that's right. And I mean, you know,
6:36
we revisit this story probably on average
6:39
once every month or two. Uh, the
6:42
last time we covered this, and I
6:45
wrote it up actually in um, an Australian
6:47
Geographic article, um, not that I did the
6:49
research, but this is other people's research
6:51
and that was pointing in the same direction.
6:54
Andrew. It was um, a group that looked at the
6:56
way um, rivers, ancient rivers on Mars, uh,
7:00
meandered, uh, because you can learn
7:02
something from the meandering about the
7:05
size of the body of water that they're
7:07
emptying into. And they came to the same
7:10
conclusion. The river meanders tell you that
7:13
there was a large body of water at the end of
7:15
it at the mouth of these rivers, uh, rather
7:17
than just a few puddles or a few lakes and
7:20
things of that sort. Uh, and this new piece
7:22
uh, of work, um, whilst it's a different,
7:25
uh, you know, it's got a different emphasis,
7:28
comes up with exactly the same answer. Uh,
7:31
and it's scientists uh, who have looked uh,
7:34
at the, I remember rightly there in
7:37
uh, in Switzerland. Yeah, University of Bern,
7:40
uh, it's scientists who've looked at the
7:42
region around Valles, uh,
7:45
Marineris, you know, that great huge
7:49
chasm in the, uh, in the surface of
7:51
Mars. Near Mars's equator. Uh, something that
7:54
makes the Grand Canyon look like a bit of a
7:57
scratch on the, on the surface of the Earth.
7:59
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. Is it right that the Grand Canyon would
8:01
fit into one of its tributaries or something?
8:03
Professor Fred Watson: That's right. I think that's correct, yeah.
8:05
Andrew Dunkley: Amazing.
8:06
Professor Fred Watson: Um, so they've been looking in that region
8:08
and certainly on the northern side and the
8:10
northern flanks there are valleys that
8:14
um, sort of open out onto the plains of Mars.
8:17
Because that uh, Valles Marineris is kind
8:20
of right at the start of the highland areas
8:22
of the southern hemisphere of Mars. Mars has
8:24
got this dichotomy. The northern hemisphere
8:26
is flat and low, southern hemisphere 3km
8:29
higher on average, full of craters, mountains
8:31
and all around rest of it. Uh, so um, uh,
8:34
um, what they've done is they've looked at
8:37
regions, uh, where, you know, where there's
8:39
this transition from the mountainous
8:42
highlands of the south to the
8:44
lowlands of the north. And they've looked
8:47
very carefully at uh, data from
8:50
uh, several orbiting spacecraft, um, I
8:53
guess Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is one and
8:56
some of the other ones, um, actually even um,
8:59
uh, um, ESO's
9:01
ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. So, uh,
9:04
Mars Express, another ESA, sorry, not ESO,
9:07
ESA, uh, European Space Agency, Another
9:10
um, uh, uh, orbiting spacecraft. They've
9:13
taken the data from these, looked
9:15
at the height, the
9:18
topography and looked at the
9:20
geomorphology. Let me get it right.
9:22
Geomorphological, um,
9:24
um, features that they can find.
9:28
What have they spotted? They've spotted,
9:30
ah, a whole succession of
9:33
ancient river deltas, um, this
9:36
is to say regions where a river mouth
9:38
opened into what they're calling now
9:41
an ocean, uh, and deposited
9:45
um, its sediments. The sediments out of the
9:47
river fall down to the floor, uh, of the
9:49
ocean and build up basically
9:52
a rock form, uh, which is preserved today.
9:55
It's a kind of fossilized river delta.
9:57
There's something similar going on, uh, as
10:00
you and I have spoken about many times at
10:01
Jezero Crater, which is why, um,
10:04
perseverance is there, because there's a
10:06
river delta there. But I think these are on a
10:08
much larger scale. And um, the
10:11
great thing is that when you look at them,
10:15
they sort of define a shoreline,
10:18
um, because these are all occurring
10:21
at the same topographical height in
10:24
Mars's geography. And so they
10:26
basically uh, define a shoreline. And that
10:29
shoreline tells you that um, there would have
10:32
been a lot of water in Mars's northern
10:35
hemisphere for the water level to reach the
10:37
height that we find those deltas at.
10:40
Uh, so really? Yeah, really nice piece
10:43
of Work, uh, done with characteristic
10:45
Swiss precision, I think. Uh, that's been
10:48
widely reported. Um, there's several
10:50
articles, uh, on the science news feeds,
10:53
um, which basically support this idea.
10:56
Very nice piece of research indeed.
10:59
Andrew Dunkley: And they think it was as big as
11:02
the Arctic Ocean on Earth, just by
11:05
comparison. And how big as the Arctic Ocean?
11:07
It's 14 million square kilometers or
11:10
five and a half million square miles
11:13
big, uh, in size. So that's a lot of
11:16
water on Mars and uh, a lot of it's still
11:18
there, Fred.
11:19
Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, that's right. We um, know from
11:21
particularly, uh, the Phoenix mission that
11:23
just scraped the surface in the Martian
11:25
Arctic and sure enough there was permafrost
11:27
underneath. So a lot of it's still there.
11:29
There's still water locked up in the two ice
11:32
caps of Mars. Um, but probably
11:34
not. Well, I don't know. It's actually really
11:36
interesting. I do remember reading quite some
11:38
time ago that if you thawed out even just the
11:40
Antarctic ice cap of Mars, you'd cover the
11:43
whole planet to a depth of several meters.
11:46
Um, now whether that still holds good with
11:49
what we've discovered since then, that was
11:51
quite an old, I think that was probably 20
11:52
years, 15 years ago, so that that comment
11:55
was made. It would be interesting to know how
11:57
we evaluate that now. But I think it's still
11:59
true, uh, that a lot of that water is still
12:02
there.
12:02
Andrew Dunkley: Ah, yeah, it is, uh, a
12:05
fascinating story.
12:06
Professor Fred Watson: Water means life.
12:08
Andrew Dunkley: Well, yes, yes, we've said that many times.
12:11
And you just don't know, do you?
12:13
Professor Fred Watson: You don't. Yeah.
12:15
Andrew Dunkley: Although the, uh, the mission to retrieve
12:17
those um, cylinders that contain
12:21
potential evidence of that.
12:22
Professor Fred Watson: Yeah.
12:23
Andrew Dunkley: Has been scotched. So it's just going to sit
12:26
in abeyance for um, an
12:28
indefinite period.
12:30
Professor Fred Watson: So, yeah, I think, um,
12:33
so this is news that, um, the Senate have
12:35
um, basically agreed with the White House in
12:38
saying that um, the Mars Sample Return
12:41
Mission, uh, should be canceled. Uh,
12:44
and so that will probably go through. It's
12:46
not been voted on yet, I don't think. Um,
12:49
and so that means, yes, we've got these
12:51
canisters on Mars, uh, carefully dropped by
12:53
perseverance, uh, but
12:56
with a joint European Space Agency NASA
12:59
mission to retrieve them, uh, which, whose
13:02
cost has blown out. Uh, we've talked about
13:05
this before, uh, and not perhaps
13:07
surprising that it's now had a line drawn
13:10
under it. Now that's bad
13:12
news because we really would like to get hold
13:15
of these samples. There's one in particular
13:16
that may contain actually fossilized
13:18
microbes. Uh, you know, um,
13:21
so it's um, there's uh, every keenness to do
13:24
that. Um, um, and I think it
13:27
will. There'll certainly be a revisiting
13:30
of this idea. Esa, I think, is still going
13:33
ahead with their half of the bargain. Which
13:34
was, I think, to build the orbiter which
13:36
would actually bring the samples back to
13:38
Mars. NASA's part was gathering them up on
13:41
the surface and sending them up to orbit
13:43
around Mars. Uh, so, you know,
13:46
uh, it's bad news. There's a bright side to
13:49
it though, in that the money that's being
13:51
saved will probably go to some of the other
13:52
missions that are being planned.
13:55
Name your favorite planet. You might get some
13:57
good news out of this. I know your favorite
13:59
and probably mine too, is Mars. Uh, but,
14:02
um, anyway, we'll see what happens. I
14:05
wouldn't write, uh, the Mars sample return
14:08
off altogether in my flights of
14:10
fantasy. Last night, while my,
14:12
uh, respiratory tract infection was
14:15
making me cough all night, I was thinking
14:18
maybe the Chinese could bring them back
14:21
because I think they're planning a sample
14:23
return mission as well. So maybe we do a deal
14:26
there. Which would be fabulous international
14:28
cooperation.
14:29
Andrew Dunkley: It would. It would indeed. Of course, we
14:31
could always start the conspiracy and say,
14:33
what does NASA and the US Government know
14:35
that they're not telling us?
14:38
Hence no return. Yeah, yeah.
14:39
Professor Fred Watson: Be careful what you, what you say, Andrew.
14:42
Andrew Dunkley: No, look, I'm just kidding around, but, uh,
14:46
it's just money, isn't it? That's, that's the
14:48
thing.
14:48
Professor Fred Watson: It's all about money. That's right. It's not
14:50
about finding something with legs that you
14:52
don't want anybody to know about.
14:55
Andrew Dunkley: Yes, that's been done in a lot of science
14:57
fiction films.
14:57
Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, it has. And um.
14:59
Andrew Dunkley: Yes, all right. Great story about
15:02
the oceans of Mars though. If you'd like to
15:04
check it out, it's on the Phys p h y
15:06
s.org website. Or you can read the
15:09
paper that's been published in the journal
15:11
NPJ Space Exploration.
15:14
This is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and
15:16
Professor Fred Watson.
15:20
Roger, in your labs right here.
15:21
Also Space Nuts to our
15:24
next story, Fred. And this
15:27
is, uh, a really good one for a couple of
15:29
reasons. It's something we haven't seen
15:31
before, but it also involves the, uh,
15:34
Rubin Observatory, which, um,
15:37
has already, uh, done things that,
15:40
uh, other observatories have not been able
15:43
to do and promises to do so much more.
15:46
This is the fastest spinning asteroid yet
15:48
discovered. And a couple of headlines I've
15:50
read suggested why hasn't it thrown itself
15:54
to pieces because of the speed at which it's
15:56
rotating and
15:59
the rate is rather high when you look at what
16:02
the average asteroid does.
16:04
Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, so it is a record breaker.
16:07
It's the fastest spinning asteroid
16:10
for its size. Uh, because I think
16:13
smaller things can spin faster than this.
16:16
It's uh, 710 meters long, nearly
16:19
three quarters of a kilometer. Uh, so
16:22
it's not a small asteroid at all. This
16:24
is quite a large one. Uh, and
16:27
it spins at the rate of one rotation
16:30
every one minute 53
16:33
seconds. So that
16:36
is one heck of a spin. So that's its day
16:38
length, Andrew. If you were standing on it,
16:41
your day will be 1 minute 53 seconds. Seconds
16:43
night and day, not 24 hours. Um,
16:47
but uh, you're absolutely right. I think it's
16:49
interesting for two reasons. One is exactly
16:52
as you've said. It underlines, uh, just
16:55
how powerful the Rubin Observatory is going
16:57
to be. The observations of
17:00
this object were made during the
17:03
sort of commissioning period for the
17:05
telescope's instruments, which was earlier
17:07
last year, April and May 2025. Uh,
17:10
and um, that you know, that um,
17:13
as you probably remember, I think they
17:15
released uh, uh, information saying they got.
17:18
They discovered more than a thousand
17:19
asteroids in 10 hours of observing, which is
17:22
pretty fantastic. Uh, the telescope's
17:25
capabilities will allow it to survey the
17:27
entire southern sky every three
17:29
nights, uh, with an eight meter class
17:32
telescope. That is an astonishing achievement
17:34
and we.
17:37
Andrew Dunkley: Must find something incredible.
17:40
Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, we will. Yeah, there's going to be all
17:42
kinds of things that come out of the
17:44
woodwork. Uh, it's what we call, um,
17:47
uh, sort of time sensitive astronomy or
17:50
transient astronomy. You're looking for
17:51
things that either move or change in the sky
17:54
and it's going to be so good at finding them.
17:56
And um. Yeah. So the real
17:59
observing, uh, campaign, the Large
18:01
Synoptic Survey, uh, will start
18:04
uh, sometime this year, uh, sort of when
18:07
they're ready to hit the go button. Uh, but I
18:10
think everybody at the Rubin is pretty happy
18:12
with the way things are going. Um, and just
18:14
to sort of highlight that, you know,
18:18
it's a telescope with this kind of capability
18:21
to make many observations over a short period
18:24
of time of the same area of sky. That has
18:26
allowed uh, the scientists to
18:29
discover the very rapid rotation
18:32
of this asteroid. Because what you have to
18:34
produce, uh, to look at the way an asteroid
18:37
rotates is what's called a light curve. You
18:39
look at the way its brightness changes. Uh,
18:41
because most asteroids, asteroids are quite
18:44
asymmetric. They're either shaped like a
18:46
potato or a dumbbell. Very, uh, few are
18:48
anything remotely spherical. Um, uh,
18:51
this particular one is I think Quite
18:53
elongated. And so as it rotates,
18:56
uh, different sides of it catch the
18:59
sunlight and you get a variation in the light
19:01
that we see from it. Uh, and so that uh,
19:04
has allowed, because it's, you know, it's
19:06
only 1 minute 53 seconds for one
19:09
complete revolution that has allowed the
19:11
scientists to determine that fact,
19:14
um, to the asteroid itself. You're right,
19:17
it's interesting. It rejoices in the name of
19:19
2025 MN45, a
19:22
classic asteroid name. Um, and
19:25
it's in the main asteroid belt. That's
19:28
a good place for it to be between uh, Jupiter
19:31
and Mars, where most of the asteroids are.
19:33
Uh, but um, its rotation
19:36
is what highlights um,
19:39
the unusual nature of it. Because as you and
19:42
I have spoken about before, many asteroids
19:44
are uh, basically what we call rubble piles.
19:46
They're just piles of debris which stick
19:49
together loosely under their own,
19:52
uh, gravity. Um, little
19:55
uh, Dimorphos and Didymos, the
19:57
two, uh, objects that NASA did the
20:00
DART test on a few years ago, they are
20:02
probably rubber piles. They've got the
20:04
characteristic rubber pile shape, which is
20:06
like two cones, um, uh, back to
20:09
back. Uh, if it was a rubber
20:11
pile, it would have flown apart
20:14
gazillions of years ago, uh, with
20:17
that short period of rotation, 1 minute
20:20
53 seconds. So, um, uh, and when
20:23
you look at the size of it and
20:25
uh, interpret what the rotation means, it
20:28
tells you it's probably made of absolutely
20:30
solid rock. This is something that is
20:33
um, going to be hard to pull apart, to
20:35
rotate. For it to be that big rotate at that
20:38
speed, it's got to be solid rock, um,
20:41
um, making it uh, you know, in some ways even
20:43
more interesting because we think the rubber
20:45
piles are perhaps the more common uh,
20:47
asteroids that we see.
20:49
Andrew Dunkley: Do we, do we have any idea what would make it
20:51
different, why it would be different? Is it a
20:53
piece of a destroyed planet Theia?
20:57
Professor Fred Watson: Well, yeah, could be, uh, might be part of
20:59
Theia, the one that created the moon, uh,
21:03
after, after it collided with the ah, Earth.
21:05
It's more likely you're right. It's
21:08
probably, um, you know, maybe part of the
21:11
outer mantle of what would have been
21:14
a protoplanet. In the early solar
21:17
system, these things were the building blocks
21:19
of planets. They collided and sometimes they
21:21
blasted each other apart, sometimes
21:24
they stuck together to form what we see
21:26
in the solar system today. Um,
21:29
and I, uh, think some of the collisions that
21:31
would have happened in the early solar
21:33
system, uh, may well have set an
21:36
object like this spinning very rapidly. In
21:38
fact, it might have initially been
21:41
spinning even more rapidly. Than it is now.
21:43
Because we're looking at probably several
21:45
billion years ago. When whatever
21:47
happened to it happened. So, uh, an
21:50
object of some interest. And, um, one
21:53
that I'm sure will be studied, uh, in
21:56
greater detail. We might want to know things
21:58
like, um, the infrared signature of its
22:01
surface. Which gives you an idea of what the
22:03
surface is like, how rough it is, whether
22:05
it's a. Whether it's a smooth
22:08
surface. What materials are likely to be,
22:11
uh, found on its surface. That can all come
22:12
from spectroscopy and also the science of
22:15
polarimetry, which is what you look at to
22:17
know whether something's highly reflective.
22:19
Or rather rough and diffuse. So,
22:22
yeah, m. I think there's lots to learn about,
22:24
uh, 2025 MN45.
22:27
Andrew Dunkley: Indeed. So it's in the asteroid
22:30
belt between Mars and Jupiter.
22:32
Um, people probably imagine
22:35
that to be just a wall of roc.
22:38
How do we get through it? But it's quite
22:40
sparse, isn't it?
22:41
Professor Fred Watson: It is, yeah. Yeah. Uh, it's
22:44
sparse enough that, um, uh, several
22:46
spacecraft have actually gone through it
22:48
unscathed. Um, so,
22:51
yes, it's.
22:52
Andrew Dunkley: Well, I've never heard of a spacecraft
22:53
actually running into anything out there.
22:56
Not that there have been that many that have
22:58
gone through, but.
22:59
Professor Fred Watson: That's right. But, you know, as, um.
23:02
Uh. Was it Douglas Adams. Space
23:05
is big. Yes.
23:06
Andrew Dunkley: Yes.
23:06
Professor Fred Watson: You might think it's a long way down to the
23:08
chemist at the corner of the street. But
23:10
that's nothing compared with space. I think
23:13
that was what he said.
23:16
Andrew Dunkley: Yes, indeed. Uh, so if you would like to
23:18
learn more about what the Vera C. Rubin
23:21
Observatory has discovered, you can do
23:23
that@the universitytoday.com website.
23:26
Or you can read the paper in the
23:28
Astrophysical Journal Letters. Which was,
23:31
uh, only published on January 7th. So they're
23:34
getting down to business early this year,
23:35
aren't they?
23:36
Professor Fred Watson: This is space nuts. Sorry. I was
23:39
going to say, um, we always get a really
23:42
good, um, crop of news stories at this time
23:44
of year. Because it's right at the beginning
23:46
of January that the American Astronomical
23:48
Society has its annual meeting.
23:52
And, um, so there's always some great
23:55
stories. So, you know, that's why it was,
23:58
uh. You know, it was published last week. I'm
23:59
sure that's actually.
24:00
Andrew Dunkley: It's actually very clever because as someone
24:02
who worked in the media for 40 years. And
24:07
had, um, to work a lot of Christmases and New
24:09
Years, you quite often find you're
24:12
struggling for stories because
24:14
everything's shut down. So you're not getting
24:16
the information that you normally get. So
24:19
to actually be in a position to do stories
24:22
like this at this time of year is
24:25
um. Yeah, it's well
24:28
positioned, as we would say. M. Uh,
24:30
you can read all about it, of course. And uh,
24:33
we uh, will certainly be keeping a very close
24:36
eye on what the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is
24:38
going to be doing
24:40
um, from now on because it's uh,
24:43
it's, it's, it's all up and running and uh,
24:46
already doing some remarkable things. This
24:49
is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and Fred
24:51
Watson.
24:55
Space Nuts. Now Fred, uh, by the time
24:58
people hear us talking about this story,
25:00
things will have uh, changed a bit. But
25:03
as we speak, uh, we understand that
25:06
the Crew Dragon spacecraft
25:09
is docking at the International Space Station
25:12
to do the first ever crew
25:15
evacuation. Now, after 25 years,
25:18
I'm surprised this is the first time this has
25:20
happened. But uh, there's been a medical
25:22
issue. They won't elaborate on who or what,
25:25
uh, but it's gotta be serious if somebody's
25:27
um, if they're bringing the whole crew back.
25:29
It's uh, a crew of four. There's seven on
25:32
board at the moment. But they're bringing
25:33
four back, correct?
25:35
Professor Fred Watson: That's right. So, uh, there is a crew of
25:37
three uh, now. So as we speak, um, I
25:40
think they've probably undocked the crew
25:43
Dragon spacecraft from the International
25:45
Space Station. I think that happened an hour
25:46
ago. And um, they
25:49
will then re. Enter and bring the crew
25:52
back in a pretty routine fashion,
25:55
uh, landing in a few hours from now. Um, so
25:58
you're right, it's Crew 11, uh,
26:01
the SpaceX, um,
26:04
what's called the SpaceX Crew 11 because
26:06
they're the ones that go up and down in the
26:07
crew Dragon, uh, rather than the Soyuts,
26:10
which is the space vehicle that will bring
26:12
the other uh, the remaining three astronauts
26:14
down when their time comes to an end. Uh,
26:17
you're right. It's a medical evacuation that
26:19
Crew, Crew 11 consists of, um, if I
26:22
remember rightly, two NASA, uh, uh,
26:25
astronauts, one Russian
26:27
cosmonaut and uh, a Japanese
26:31
uh, astronaut as well. Uh, so they're coming
26:33
home, uh, they're coming home something like
26:36
a month early. And we are told as
26:39
exactly as you've said that this is because
26:41
of a medical issue which apparently is not
26:43
uh, an emergency. It's not urgent, but it's
26:46
thought to be something that is going to be
26:48
much better dealt with on Earth. Uh, we don't
26:51
know which of the astronauts has the issue.
26:54
Um, I saw a picture of them posed just before
26:57
they evacuated the spacecraft,
26:59
uh, um, last night and they all looked
27:02
fairly cheerful, uh, but um, so
27:05
you know, uh, you can't really read
27:09
from people's faces how they're feeling. Um,
27:12
which is just as well because I feel pretty
27:13
crook at the moment. So
27:16
that's uh, because of my uh, uh, upper
27:19
respiratory tract infection. Sorry to keep
27:21
harping on about it. Anyway, going back to
27:23
the more important story, Andrew. Well it's
27:26
a good thing you're not.
27:27
Andrew Dunkley: In the International Space Station feeling
27:29
like that.
27:29
Professor Fred Watson: Well, that's right, I, you'd have the same
27:31
thing too. Uh, so, yeah, so,
27:33
um, interesting. Uh, but your comment's well
27:36
made. You know the fact that it's the first
27:38
time in the 25 year history
27:41
of the ISS, of the
27:44
ISS being permanently occupied,
27:47
um, the first time this has happened. And I
27:49
think it was Jared Isaacman, the newly
27:52
appointed NASA administrator, the boss of
27:55
NASA, who made the comment. It might
27:58
be somebody else but it is one of the
28:01
high ups in NASA made the comment that
28:04
when they planned the ISS and they were
28:06
working towards it, they expected that there
28:09
would be something like this happening every
28:10
three years. So they've done pretty well
28:13
to get through 2015, five years without um,
28:16
needing to bring people home because of a
28:17
medical issue. Yeah.
28:20
Andrew Dunkley: While you've been talking Fred, I've just
28:22
been looking online to see where things are
28:24
up to and I've found a um, they did a live
28:27
stream of the crew uh, Dragon docking at the
28:30
International Space Station through
28:32
uh, I think it's NASA's YouTube Music
28:35
channel and you can, you can
28:38
actually log on and, and watch what happens
28:40
and see the whole process. It's quite
28:43
incredible what we can do now isn't it with
28:45
um, live coverage from space as ah, things
28:48
unfold. It's uh, a far cry
28:51
from those times back in the 60s and 70s when
28:54
we were looking at those really fuzzy black
28:55
and white pictures off the moon.
28:59
Professor Fred Watson: Which was miraculous in its day.
29:00
Andrew Dunkley: Oh it was in itself, yes. Yes.
29:03
Professor Fred Watson: Yeah.
29:04
Andrew Dunkley: Actually I am watching Crew Dragon detach as
29:07
we speak.
29:07
Professor Fred Watson: Yes, that's right.
29:08
Andrew Dunkley: So that happened probably 30 minutes ago,
29:10
give or take our time. Yeah,
29:13
um, it's, it's like a slow motion ballet
29:16
isn't it? When they uh, things in
29:18
spacecraft.
29:19
Professor Fred Watson: Ah, yeah, well you don't want to bang into
29:22
anything.
29:23
Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. Anyway, I hope all is well with
29:25
the uh, individual involved. I'm uh,
29:28
I'm not sure we'll ever find out what exactly
29:31
the issue is. That's, that's subject to
29:33
privacy from what I understand. But the fact
29:35
that they've been able to go
29:38
up there, get them, bring them back and deal
29:40
with the problem is extraordinary
29:43
because go back to the 70s when
29:46
Skylab was in orbit. If someone got sick
29:49
or injured in that situation,
29:52
I don't know if we would have been able to do
29:55
much in a hurry.
29:58
Professor Fred Watson: Um, yeah, maybe not. I mean, there would have
30:00
been contingency plans in place.
30:04
It's, um. I think
30:07
some of the things that might have brought
30:09
somebody home from Skylab might be things
30:11
that could have been fixed on the
30:12
International Space Station because there is
30:14
quite a, you know, a fair, Fair amount of
30:17
medical expertise up there and some of the
30:19
kit. But you don't want people taking
30:21
appendices out and things like that in space.
30:23
Andrew Dunkley: No, not really. You just have to wipe down
30:25
the walls afterwards, and that's not fun.
30:28
Although I should, um, counter it by saying
30:31
we did recently have a situation where. Where
30:34
a crew got stuck on the International Space
30:36
Station for very unusual reasons due to,
30:39
uh, incompatible spacesuits because of a
30:41
failure in the Boeing Starliner.
30:44
So, you know, that wasn't a quick
30:47
rescue, that one, but it didn't involve
30:49
illness or injury, so it wasn't as urgent.
30:51
But, uh, sometimes it. It can be a
30:54
slow process, but, um. Uh, yeah, but
30:57
NASA's been very quick to point out that this
30:59
has got nothing to do with an operational
31:01
issue. It's, um. It's a personal issue.
31:03
Nothing to do with an injury or accident on
31:06
board. They want to make that pretty clear.
31:09
Um, so, uh, yeah, we wish them well. They're
31:11
on their way back as we speak. And by the
31:13
time you hear this podcast, they will have
31:16
returned, no doubt.
31:18
Um, that's it, Fred. Gosh, we got through
31:21
that in a mighty hurry, didn't we?
31:23
Professor Fred Watson: Um, yes, I think
31:26
we. We gave it due, due
31:29
recognition. We've been talking for well over
31:32
an hour, Andrew.
31:35
Andrew Dunkley: Oh, have we?
31:37
Doesn't feel like it, but no. Um.
31:42
Professor Fred Watson: 38 minutes. I'm sorry. I'm misreading my
31:45
clock. You're right.
31:46
Andrew Dunkley: That's okay.
31:47
Professor Fred Watson: Well, we got through that in a hurry.
31:49
Andrew Dunkley: You're probably reading a Mars clock because
31:51
we talked about it. It's going a bit
31:53
faster. Um, now
31:56
if you were to follow, uh, up those stories,
31:59
I've told you where to go and look for them.
32:00
But you, uh, can also read the show notes on
32:03
our website, spacenutspodcast.more space
32:06
nuts IO and while you're
32:09
there, uh, you might like to, um, check out
32:12
all the. All the tabs and,
32:15
uh, links on our. On our website, the, uh,
32:17
Astronomy Daily feed. You can subscribe for
32:19
your daily dose of astronomy and space
32:21
Science news. Uh, don't forget reviews.
32:24
We really do appreciate your reviews. The
32:26
more reviews, the more we get noticed. And
32:29
the more we get noticed, the more people
32:31
listen. And then, you know, we can buy
32:33
ourselves an ice cream at the end of the day.
32:35
Um, you can also send questions
32:38
or comments in through the AMA link and
32:41
so on and so forth. And don't forget to visit
32:43
the Space Nuts shop. Uh, that's one thing
32:45
that Huw, um, did some years ago
32:48
and it's been very popular. All the, uh,
32:51
Space Nuts memorabilia, if you, if you want
32:53
to get hold of it. I've got, I've got my
32:54
Space Nuts cup here somewhere.
32:56
Professor Fred Watson: Here it is. Look. Look at this.
32:59
Andrew Dunkley: There it is.
32:59
Professor Fred Watson: I never got, I never got one of those.
33:02
Andrew Dunkley: I, I'd buy.
33:03
It's
33:06
good. That's good.
33:07
Professor Fred Watson: I'm too stingy.
33:09
Andrew Dunkley: Got shirts. We've got hoodies, we've got, uh,
33:12
all sorts of bits and bobs at the Space Nuts
33:15
Shop, uh, at our website. Thank, uh,
33:18
you, Fred. We'll leave it there. We'll catch
33:19
you on the next episode.
33:21
Professor Fred Watson: Look forward to it, Andrew. See you soon.
33:23
Andrew Dunkley: Professor Fred Watson, astronomer at large.
33:25
And thanks to Huw in the studio, who couldn't
33:28
be with us today, had to be evacuated
33:30
after attempting, uh, a Michael Jackson
33:33
moonwalk. Not good at his age.
33:35
Professor Fred Watson: No.
33:35
Andrew Dunkley: And from me, Andrew Dunkley, thanks for your
33:37
company. We'll catch you on the next episode
33:39
of Space Nuts.
33:41
Professor Fred Watson: Bye.
33:41
Voice Over Guy: Bye. You've been listening to the
33:44
Space Nuts podcast,
33:47
available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
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