Latest / Made of Stars / Jared Isaacman's Launch Aborted

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Jared Isaacman's Launch Aborted · Made of Stars

0:00
Speaker 1: Warning.
0:00
Speaker 2: The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
0:04
Speaker 2: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
0:07
Speaker 2: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
0:10
Speaker 2: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar, asterism and uranus. Listen,
0:15
Speaker 2: that's your own risk.
0:16
Speaker 1: Go ahead. When made of stars, made them stars.
0:26
Speaker 3: Made sizes. When made of stars, you could be from
0:34
Speaker 3: high they would New Mexicomus, where all stars?
0:43
Speaker 4: When we are made of stars. I'm Wes Carol, joined
0:57
Speaker 4: by my good friend doctor Sean Cruising from Columbus State
1:00
Speaker 4: University's Coca Cola Space Science Center. Morning, Shawn More and Wes.
1:05
Speaker 1: It is great to be here today.
1:07
Speaker 4: We got some time together. We'll talk more about it
1:09
Speaker 4: towards the end of the show, but got some time
1:11
Speaker 4: together at the Bow Bartlett Center for the opening. Like
1:16
Speaker 4: what it was the actual title of this event, I
1:18
Speaker 4: don't know. I just know that my wife said, Hey,
1:20
Speaker 4: we've been invited to this event, and I was like, well,
1:23
Speaker 4: I'm in. Shawn's going to be there, Yes, I'm gonna go.
1:26
Speaker 4: And Tom Scott's going to be there, brother of Dave Scott,
1:30
Speaker 4: who drove a car on the Moon for crying out
1:33
Speaker 4: loud first person drive across the Moon. So I said, yes,
1:36
Speaker 4: I'm in, We're going to do this. But I mean,
1:38
Speaker 4: this was the I guess, the opening for this precise
1:41
Speaker 4: opening reception.
1:42
Speaker 1: So there was an opening reception. It was a closed
1:46
Speaker 1: event in some sense was an invite only event. But
1:49
Speaker 1: that's because Tom Scott was going to be going to
1:54
Speaker 1: be there and presenting basically some ideas about his brother's
1:57
Speaker 1: trip to the Moon, and and we wanted him to
2:01
Speaker 1: be able to have an audience that basically he had
2:03
Speaker 1: a hand in inviting, so we allowed him to help
2:08
Speaker 1: pick the guest list, and we just had basically a
2:11
Speaker 1: party that was a celebration of the fantastic gift that
2:17
Speaker 1: the Scott brothers have given to the Space Science Center
2:20
Speaker 1: and also just to the community of Columbus and then
2:23
Speaker 1: and then yeah, just a party that he could kind
2:26
Speaker 1: of present some of his ideas and his memories of
2:27
Speaker 1: his brother's trip to the Moon and we could all
2:30
Speaker 1: just kind of enjoy the moment of the of the
2:33
Speaker 1: opening of this great exhibit that is now on display
2:36
Speaker 1: to the public for the rest of the summer.
2:38
Speaker 4: And we'll talk more about that towards the end of
2:41
Speaker 4: the show, but it was it was great to be there,
2:43
Speaker 4: great to be a part of that, and so many
2:47
Speaker 4: friendly faces yea, including the Columbus Mayor, Skip Henderson, who
2:53
Speaker 4: was there, who did let's just be honest if you
2:55
Speaker 4: know anything about the city of Columbus rough week that
2:59
Speaker 4: he had.
3:00
Speaker 1: So it's nice to see.
3:00
Speaker 4: Him there and be able to chat with him a
3:03
Speaker 4: little bit and know that he's he's hanging in there.
3:06
Speaker 1: So I mean, if we can give the mayor a
3:08
Speaker 1: reason to smile, that's here. And it was kind of
3:12
Speaker 1: a cool moment.
3:13
Speaker 4: I got an opportunity to talk with his wife, who
3:16
Speaker 4: was there, the first Lady of Columbus, and she was
3:20
Speaker 4: we were talking about uh, basically Elon Musk, and we got
3:25
Speaker 4: to go a little bit uh through the fact that
3:29
Speaker 4: the rockets exploding weren't necessarily a bad thing completely, you know,
3:33
Speaker 4: there's you don't want your rocket to explode, but just
3:37
Speaker 4: discussing the way that SpaceX does business, and we got
3:41
Speaker 4: a chance to talk about some of the positives from it.
3:44
Speaker 4: And again I'm like, hey, if you're not listening to
3:46
Speaker 4: Meida Stars, you don't know all this information. But if
3:49
Speaker 4: you're not listening to Meta Stars and you can, you know,
3:51
Speaker 4: Corner West at a museum exhibit, then you can find
3:55
Speaker 4: out there in person. So that was good. So we
3:58
Speaker 4: were able to discuss some of that.
4:00
Speaker 1: But on the subject of.
4:03
Speaker 4: NASA and Elon and a couple of other things because
4:06
Speaker 4: this kind of all connects. We have been talking for
4:09
Speaker 4: a little while now about the fact that it certainly
4:13
Speaker 4: seemed like the new administrator for NASA was going to
4:18
Speaker 4: be Jared Isaacman and now no, we were excited about
4:27
Speaker 4: this as a pig. I mean, this is one of
4:28
Speaker 4: those things where we said, hey, this is this makes sense.
4:31
Speaker 4: This is somebody who's got ties to you know, the
4:35
Speaker 4: private industry. This is someone who you know, to be
4:38
Speaker 4: able to run NASA. He'd bring a different perspective to
4:41
Speaker 4: the whole thing. His association with with Elon Musk doing
4:46
Speaker 4: some missions with SpaceX. This all seemed to make perfect
4:50
Speaker 4: sense for where things are headed in the future for NASA.
4:55
Speaker 4: But now not so fast.
4:58
Speaker 1: You know, we don't do politics on the show's And
5:02
Speaker 1: I know everybody, y'all y'all out there listening. I see
5:05
Speaker 1: you on Facebook, I see you on social media. I
5:08
Speaker 1: hear you in the corridors. I know politics is just
5:13
Speaker 1: a very hot topic right now, and everybody has an opinion,
5:17
Speaker 1: and so so please understand that the next thing I'm
5:20
Speaker 1: about to say is not a political statement. It is
5:24
Speaker 1: not pro Trump, it is not anti Trump, it is
5:28
Speaker 1: not pro Elon Musk, it is not anti Elon Musk.
5:32
Speaker 1: I just think this. I think that America is now
5:37
Speaker 1: going to miss out on the opportunity to have one
5:40
Speaker 1: of the best directors of NASA that we have had
5:44
Speaker 1: in a while. And I will be honest, I don't
5:48
Speaker 1: completely understand the thought process that led to Jared Isisigman
5:55
Speaker 1: being ejected from what seemed like a shoe in of
5:59
Speaker 1: a information hearing to be NASA administrator. I just I
6:04
Speaker 1: don't I don't understand. I get it. There's some it's
6:08
Speaker 1: an interesting climate right now in politics. And again I'm
6:11
Speaker 1: not going to be political here, but from my non
6:16
Speaker 1: political self, I really had some high hopes for Jared
6:22
Speaker 1: Isacman coming in, as as Wes just said, from a
6:25
Speaker 1: commercial space perspective and really giving NASA a new vision
6:32
Speaker 1: and a new direction. And I really believed in his
6:37
Speaker 1: I believe in his commitment to the space endeavor. Right
6:41
Speaker 1: so I thought he's a very smart person. He has
6:44
Speaker 1: a commitment to the space endeavor. He understands both the
6:47
Speaker 1: private sector space industry as well as NASA's functions. He
6:53
Speaker 1: offered to donate money to go fix the Hubble space telescope.
6:57
Speaker 1: You know, there's just lots of things here. So so
7:01
Speaker 1: I was completely flabbergasted when I came in on Monday,
7:06
Speaker 1: and I'd been off media on the weekend. I was
7:09
Speaker 1: having a bit of a media fast and really wasn't
7:12
Speaker 1: following the news or searching news stories on my phone much.
7:16
Speaker 1: And my good friend here at Space Science Center, Scott Norman,
7:19
Speaker 1: told me, well, I guess you know all this stuff
7:21
Speaker 1: about Isaacman, to which I had to say, no, no, no,
7:27
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know what. I'm sorry. He's like, oh, well,
7:31
Speaker 1: you've really missed it. Then you've really missed an interesting weekend.
7:37
Speaker 1: Jared Isiacman's out, I mean out out of what, out
7:41
Speaker 1: of contention for being the next NASA administrator, to which
7:45
Speaker 1: I believe my words were, You've got to be kidding me.
7:49
Speaker 4: Well, fun fact, you did the same thing to me
7:51
Speaker 4: this morning. So I mean it was sort of a hey,
7:56
Speaker 4: do you see about Isaacman, and I had not. There
7:59
Speaker 4: were a couple of other stories that I had been
8:01
Speaker 4: tracking that I thought these would be fun to talk
8:03
Speaker 4: about this week on the show. So no, it wasn't
8:08
Speaker 4: wasn't completely on my radar at all either, So I
8:10
Speaker 4: had avoided it. So I agree, and you and I
8:13
Speaker 4: have been I mean, we try our best, like you said,
8:18
Speaker 4: stay out of politics, not get into that side of it.
8:22
Speaker 4: We were, you know, based on the knowledge that we
8:25
Speaker 4: had very pro Isaacman for the for the job. We
8:28
Speaker 4: still don't understand what's going on behind the scenes, but
8:32
Speaker 4: I mean we were I'm comfortable even saying we had
8:35
Speaker 4: been cheer cheerleaders for this guy. I mean, we were
8:38
Speaker 4: excited from the moment that his name came up. It
8:42
Speaker 4: was like, wait a minute, the guy who did the
8:44
Speaker 4: space walk. Yes, let's let's get let's get this guy.
8:47
Speaker 1: This will be great.
8:49
Speaker 4: And you know, and again to avoid the politics of it,
8:53
Speaker 4: and you know, just just laying a couple of things
8:56
Speaker 4: out there and trying to be very neutral on all this.
9:02
Speaker 4: There's been speculation about whatever's going on as Elon Musk
9:06
Speaker 4: stepped down from DOGE a month earlier than he was
9:09
Speaker 4: planning to leave. We knew that there was an end
9:11
Speaker 4: date on that as something that he was going to
9:13
Speaker 4: be doing. He has been outspoken about the bill that's
9:20
Speaker 4: Trump has pushed forward and they're trying to have been
9:24
Speaker 4: trying to push, you know, through, and he was a
9:27
Speaker 4: critic of that. He just basically said too much spending there.
9:32
Speaker 4: So but questions about, hey, are they are he and
9:35
Speaker 4: Trump not as cozy as they once were, and those
9:38
Speaker 4: kinds of questions, and you know, was he aware of
9:43
Speaker 4: this because you know he and he and Isaacman have
9:47
Speaker 4: been allies along the way, and so there's just some
9:51
Speaker 4: questions there and we don't really have those answers yet.
9:54
Speaker 4: I suppose maybe we'll get some perspective on all of this.
9:58
Speaker 4: I can say though that as of this moment, Katy
10:03
Speaker 4: Perry's name has not been brought up as a possible
10:05
Speaker 4: head of NASA. So just as of right now, write
10:08
Speaker 4: it down that Thursday, January fifth, Katy Perry is not
10:16
Speaker 4: set to run now or hasn't been you know, picked yet.
10:19
Speaker 4: So she's an astronaut by FAA guidelines, but she has
10:24
Speaker 4: not been picked to run NASA.
10:26
Speaker 1: So just as a heads up, so, you know, I mean,
10:29
Speaker 1: I certainly have not heard Katie's name possible postulated for this.
10:34
Speaker 4: I mean she's got that perspective on you know, private spaceflight,
10:39
Speaker 4: so I mean.
10:40
Speaker 1: She has a better perspective than I do. I have
10:43
Speaker 1: yet to go up. So yep, that's true.
10:45
Speaker 4: But she wasn't looking out of the ship. She was
10:47
Speaker 4: looking at the cameras. I still don't understand that. I
10:50
Speaker 4: think I would be staring at the earth. You know.
10:53
Speaker 4: It's just just one of those things where you know,
10:57
Speaker 4: like going to the top of the Empire State Building
10:59
Speaker 4: and just staying at your feet, Like I don't really
11:01
Speaker 4: understand why you would do that. Uh, you know, maybe
11:04
Speaker 4: have a little lookout it. I don't know the rest
11:07
Speaker 4: of the city.
11:08
Speaker 1: But anyway, well, so again not weighing into politics, but
11:13
Speaker 1: let's I think getting political as you're taking one side
11:17
Speaker 1: or another, right, so you can talk about how political,
11:22
Speaker 1: how political processes affect the system. And so so let's
11:27
Speaker 1: just throw this out in that in that arena posting
11:31
Speaker 1: on truth social Trump said this that withdrawing Isaacman's consideration
11:38
Speaker 1: for the nomination, they did so quote after a thorough
11:43
Speaker 1: review of prior associations. So this is the reason given
11:50
Speaker 1: by the administration a thorough review of prior associations. I
11:58
Speaker 1: don't know if I'm qualified to interpret that, but I
12:03
Speaker 1: have read where Jared Isacman has donated to certain Democratic candidates,
12:11
Speaker 1: certain Democratic causes. I think if that was purely a
12:16
Speaker 1: reason to be excluded, that Donald Trump himself would have
12:20
Speaker 1: to be excluded. And because of his numerous donations to
12:23
Speaker 1: Democratic causes and candidates prior to say, you know, fifteen
12:28
Speaker 1: years ago or something like that.
12:30
Speaker 4: And Elon Musk and Tulsa Gabbert and RFK, I mean,
12:34
Speaker 4: there are a number of people that are part of
12:36
Speaker 4: this administration that have donated to Democrats in the past.
12:39
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna go ahead and have to call nonsense
12:43
Speaker 1: on that one.
12:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, it doesn't seem to fit.
12:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is just my humble opinion. And again I'm
12:48
Speaker 1: not weighing in on what's politically correct on either side.
12:51
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that one doesn't resonate with me. I
12:54
Speaker 1: don't believe it. The administration did go on to say
12:58
Speaker 1: that he would the new nominee would soon be announced
13:01
Speaker 1: to was quote more mission aligned. And now I do
13:08
Speaker 1: think we're seeing a little bit of pulling back behind
13:10
Speaker 1: the curtain. What does it mean to be mission aligned? Well,
13:14
Speaker 1: it means you agree with the president. What does it
13:18
Speaker 1: mean to agree with the president on NASA issues right now? Well,
13:25
Speaker 1: they've announced some pretty drastic cuts to the NASA budget
13:29
Speaker 1: as part of the new budget proposed by this administration.
13:34
Speaker 1: And perhaps, in my again clearly outsider view, it just
13:40
Speaker 1: feels like maybe Jared Isaacman said, Hey, I think we
13:44
Speaker 1: might be cutting NASA's budget a bit too far. I
13:47
Speaker 1: think some of these things that we are putting on
13:49
Speaker 1: the chopping block are actually pretty important, and maybe we
13:53
Speaker 1: shouldn't cut that. Now. I'm not an insider. Nobody's told
13:57
Speaker 1: me that, but if you are asking me to read
14:00
Speaker 1: my amper tea leaves from just being a space observer
14:04
Speaker 1: for many years, that's what it feels like to me.
14:07
Speaker 1: It feels like that Jared Isaacman was going to be
14:12
Speaker 1: in a position to offer some pushback potentially on some
14:16
Speaker 1: of the decisions being made about NASA as a whole
14:20
Speaker 1: and some very large budget cuts, and all of a sudden, yeah,
14:25
Speaker 1: and clearly this is true. Clearly he is good friends
14:29
Speaker 1: with Elon Musk. Elon Musk came out and wrote on
14:32
Speaker 1: what used to be Twitter now X. I have to
14:35
Speaker 1: say it that way just because I don't want to
14:37
Speaker 1: get confused with SpaceX, right, So it's X, the social
14:40
Speaker 1: media account. He wrote, quote it is rare to find
14:43
Speaker 1: someone so competent and good hearted unquote about Jaredizigman. So Jarediigman,
14:49
Speaker 1: in Elon Musk's view, competent and good hearted. They're clearly buddies.
14:56
Speaker 1: West made the point that Elon cut out early timing
15:00
Speaker 1: of that pretty coincidental, if it was any kind of
15:04
Speaker 1: a coincidental, Yeah, hard to know. Coincidental, Yeah, hard to know.
15:09
Speaker 4: I mean there's a lot of things going on there,
15:11
Speaker 4: and I mean the announcement of you know, we we've
15:15
Speaker 4: just talked over the last couple of weeks about the
15:19
Speaker 4: fact that, you know, there's been a change in what
15:23
Speaker 4: the plans are concerning NASA returning to the Moon, and
15:29
Speaker 4: you know, the fact that the budget for that was
15:32
Speaker 4: going to change, and it certainly seemed to be looking
15:35
Speaker 4: like well that means more reliance on SpaceX. So I
15:37
Speaker 4: mean there's just a lot of things in play here,
15:40
Speaker 4: and the timing of all of this kind of playing
15:42
Speaker 4: out one thing after the next, So who knows what
15:45
Speaker 4: it means or or who will eventually be the more
15:49
Speaker 4: mission aligned nominee.
15:52
Speaker 1: Are there are there?
15:53
Speaker 4: Is there any speculation yet? Do we have any idea
15:55
Speaker 4: other than it not being Katy Perry.
15:58
Speaker 1: There have been a couple of names floated, but I
16:00
Speaker 1: think at this point maybe it's just a bit too
16:01
Speaker 1: early to pick any favorites. There's been one former member
16:06
Speaker 1: of the United States military put forward, for instance, and
16:10
Speaker 1: certainly military, you know, military considerations with America's advancement in
16:16
Speaker 1: space is certainly important to President Trump and you know,
16:19
Speaker 1: quite frankly to me too, And so I think this
16:23
Speaker 1: is important to say. Also, Jared Isaacman himself, like what
16:27
Speaker 1: does he have to say about things? Right, And so
16:30
Speaker 1: he actually came out with a social media statement on
16:32
Speaker 1: Saturday saying this, he was incredibly quote incredibly grateful to
16:37
Speaker 1: President Trump and all those who supported me throughout this
16:41
Speaker 1: journey unquote so class act, right, yep, And that's pretty
16:46
Speaker 1: much all he had to say about it. You know, hey,
16:48
Speaker 1: this has been a great opportunity. Thank you very much,
16:50
Speaker 1: President Trump, and thank you, thank you to everybody who
16:53
Speaker 1: supported me getting this far. And they kind of walked
16:55
Speaker 1: away from it.
16:56
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, And he's talking about us. I mean quite
16:58
Speaker 4: frankly there at the end, I mean, supported him on
17:00
Speaker 4: this journey.
17:01
Speaker 1: So and Jared isisagman. You're welcome.
17:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, glad to do it, buddy. Anytime you want to
17:06
Speaker 4: come on for you, you want to come on the
17:08
Speaker 4: show and talk about it, will be glad to.
17:11
Speaker 1: Shue. In fact, if you want to come on and
17:13
Speaker 1: talk about how how you would propose to fix the
17:15
Speaker 1: Hubble Space telescope, that'd be all right to you.
17:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, we'd love And that's maybe the biggest bummer in
17:19
Speaker 4: all this, And now it doesn't look like that's gonna
17:22
Speaker 4: be able to work out, either from the budget or
17:24
Speaker 4: from the fact that he won't be the guy uh
17:27
Speaker 4: stamping the approval on it. So uh yeah, I mean
17:30
Speaker 4: it's hard not to be a little bummed out about
17:33
Speaker 4: this as a as a story, but uh.
17:36
Speaker 1: Well and just just as a just as a comment
17:39
Speaker 1: from an American citizen who also happens to be a
17:43
Speaker 1: big space enthusiast. You know, given all of President Trump's appointments,
17:47
Speaker 1: he has some very good ones. Some people think he
17:50
Speaker 1: has some not so good ones. I could certainly see
17:53
Speaker 1: the point on some of those. This was a good one.
17:58
Speaker 1: Like this. This appointment would have been a very good person,
18:04
Speaker 1: and it disappoints me. It saddens me a bit to
18:07
Speaker 1: know that Jared Isaacman will not be the director of NASA.
18:11
Speaker 1: I hope that the next appoint appointment appointee that is
18:15
Speaker 1: recommended is as highly qualified as Jared Jared Isiagman would
18:19
Speaker 1: have been.
18:20
Speaker 4: Coming up after a quick break, the storm is over.
18:24
Speaker 4: We'll talk about how big it was though after this.
18:46
Speaker 4: All right, So, the really long lasting storm of Solar
18:53
Speaker 4: cycle twenty five, one of the longest lasting of it
18:56
Speaker 4: was huge and it has just ended. But this was
19:00
Speaker 4: a big boy.
19:01
Speaker 1: Yeah. We just talked about last week the re emergence
19:05
Speaker 1: of a very large sunspot group called Active Region forty
19:09
Speaker 1: one hundred. It was its third trip around the Sun.
19:13
Speaker 1: So this is a sunspot completing a third pass between
19:17
Speaker 1: the Earth and the center on the Earth facing side
19:21
Speaker 1: of the Sun. And so so already that was a
19:24
Speaker 1: pretty good story last week. But then after we talked
19:26
Speaker 1: on last week's podcast, the thing blew up. It exploded.
19:31
Speaker 1: And one of the things that had made it a
19:33
Speaker 1: long lasting sunspot group is that it had had no
19:37
Speaker 1: major explosions, which tend to disrupt the Sunspot group when
19:42
Speaker 1: they occur, So it was a somewhat stable, structurally stable
19:46
Speaker 1: sunspot group. And mind you, even though I'm telling you
19:49
Speaker 1: that it had a very large explosion, it's still there.
19:52
Speaker 1: It did not even today, it's still still going. But
19:56
Speaker 1: this would have been last Saturday, May the thirtieth, a
20:01
Speaker 1: very very large eruption. It's not quite an X class flare,
20:05
Speaker 1: but it's almost an X class flare. It was an
20:08
Speaker 1: M eight point two magnitude or class solar flare. So
20:13
Speaker 1: what is that. Well, that's the intensity of the X
20:16
Speaker 1: rays being put out during the explosion of a sunspot group.
20:21
Speaker 1: And it's kind of a logarithmics it's not a kind
20:24
Speaker 1: of it is a logarithmic scale. It's a logarithmic scale.
20:27
Speaker 1: It's similar to what we would consider like the magnitude
20:30
Speaker 1: scale for earthquakes or something. And so magnitude M eight
20:35
Speaker 1: point two not quite the top classification of X, but
20:38
Speaker 1: almost there. But it lasted for over three hours. Now,
20:46
Speaker 1: that is very rare for a solar flare of any
20:50
Speaker 1: kind of sizeable magnitude to last for three hours is unusual.
20:56
Speaker 1: Typically they are twenty minutes to forty five minutes sort
21:00
Speaker 1: of on that scale. This thing went three hours. It
21:04
Speaker 1: was so powerful that it launched a billion ton cloud
21:10
Speaker 1: of charged particles off into space. Now that's more than
21:14
Speaker 1: the mass of Mount Everest. So now you have a
21:18
Speaker 1: billion ton, bigger than Mount Everest size cloud of charged
21:22
Speaker 1: particles blasted, lifted off the surface of the Sun and
21:26
Speaker 1: blasted toward the Earth. And they were traveling at four
21:30
Speaker 1: point three million miles per hour directly at the Earth. Okay,
21:39
Speaker 1: so this storm on Saturday created a billion ton cloud
21:43
Speaker 1: of deadly radiation traveling at four point three million miles
21:47
Speaker 1: an hour directly at the Earth. So what did I do?
21:51
Speaker 1: I decided to text Wes.
21:53
Speaker 4: That's exactly what you did.
21:56
Speaker 1: I said, Hey, Wes, have you seen this? And so
22:01
Speaker 1: you know, I said in various you know, infographics of
22:03
Speaker 1: links and things. And because Wes and I had the
22:06
Speaker 1: pleasure of enjoying a very cool set of solar storms
22:11
Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty four and in person in October
22:14
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four, we got to stand under a
22:16
Speaker 1: dark sky in Harris County, Georgia and watch the glowing
22:20
Speaker 1: northern lights clearly in the south. So I thought, well, hey,
22:24
Speaker 1: maybe it could happen again. Let me shoot Wes attext if.
22:27
Speaker 4: You'd like to know what kind of an impression that
22:29
Speaker 4: made on my kids. Once you sent me this information
22:33
Speaker 4: over the weekend, I put Luke, who is You know,
22:37
Speaker 4: he's more of an earth weather junkie, but once there's
22:40
Speaker 4: some space weather to start, you know, diving into, he's
22:44
Speaker 4: all over. All he needs to do is hear the
22:45
Speaker 4: words storm. You know, once he hears the word storm
22:48
Speaker 4: in any capacity he's in and he and I guess
22:52
Speaker 4: this is kind of his his jam when it comes
22:55
Speaker 4: to storm chasing, because he asked me, at what point
22:59
Speaker 4: do we head to doctor Shawn's house and I said, well,
23:03
Speaker 4: we need to see some readings that will tell us
23:06
Speaker 4: that Aurora may be making their way here before we
23:08
Speaker 4: do that, and he's like, okay, I just want to
23:10
Speaker 4: make sure that you're aware that we may need to
23:13
Speaker 4: head there tonight. We didn't end up doing it, but
23:16
Speaker 4: that's the impression it made from last time.
23:20
Speaker 1: You know, I'm glad that for the rest of his
23:22
Speaker 1: life he'll just think, oh, a solar storm, head to
23:25
Speaker 1: doctor Doctor Shawn's house. That's right. Let's go out there
23:28
Speaker 1: in the country and see that sky baby. He may
23:30
Speaker 1: be that's fantastic.
23:31
Speaker 4: He may be twenty five years old trying to find
23:33
Speaker 4: his way to your house, who knows.
23:35
Speaker 1: But he'll still be invited at any time. Nice. So,
23:38
Speaker 1: so there's two kinds of storms taking place. Speaking of storms,
23:41
Speaker 1: so there was the storm on the Sun, right, that's
23:44
Speaker 1: the that's the actual solar flare, the release of a
23:48
Speaker 1: coronal mass ejection heading directly toward the Earth. Okay, that's
23:52
Speaker 1: that's one storm. But the second storm happens when that
23:57
Speaker 1: wave of charge radiation from the Sun arrives at the Earth.
24:01
Speaker 1: Then we have what's called a geomagnetic storm. That's a
24:04
Speaker 1: storm taking place at our planet with our magnetic field
24:08
Speaker 1: around the Earth. Right, and so this big coronal mass
24:12
Speaker 1: ejection combined with something called a co rotating interaction zone,
24:20
Speaker 1: which is a really weird phenomenon that takes place in
24:23
Speaker 1: the interaction between the Sun's magnetic field and the earth
24:26
Speaker 1: magnetic field. It was kind of a perfect set of
24:29
Speaker 1: circumstances that led to a severe G four class geomagnetic
24:35
Speaker 1: storm here on the Earth on June the first. So
24:39
Speaker 1: this thing did ultimately arrive. It triggered a G four
24:42
Speaker 1: class storm. If you're not familiar with G four, that's
24:45
Speaker 1: a severe storm classes G one, G two, G three,
24:50
Speaker 1: G four. G one is a weak storm. G two
24:54
Speaker 1: and G three are two classifications of moderate storms, and
24:58
Speaker 1: then G four is a severe geomagnetic storm. That's when
25:02
Speaker 1: this radiation coming in from the Sun is heavily affecting
25:06
Speaker 1: the Earth's magnetic shield, which we call the magnetosphere around
25:09
Speaker 1: the Earth, and you're beginning to see results. And some
25:12
Speaker 1: of those results can be things like radio blackouts, it
25:15
Speaker 1: can be interactions with the electronics of satellites in orbit
25:18
Speaker 1: around the Earth, or it can be a whole lot
25:22
Speaker 1: of Aurora borealis and Aurora Australis, the glowing lights of
25:26
Speaker 1: the northern lights and southern lights. And so immediately after
25:29
Speaker 1: this impact of this wave coming in from the Sun
25:32
Speaker 1: and the triggering of the G four class geomagnetic storm,
25:35
Speaker 1: auroras were photographed from Canada to the US Gulf Coast.
25:41
Speaker 1: So indeed, Aurora borealis phenomenon did happen far south enough.
25:48
Speaker 1: I think it all happened just a bit west of US.
25:51
Speaker 1: We're in the extreme eastern United States here in Georgia,
25:56
Speaker 1: and the sightings for this storm occurred in places like
26:01
Speaker 1: Louisiana and New Mexico and Colorado and California and places
26:08
Speaker 1: that were west of us, And that leads me to
26:11
Speaker 1: believe that we simply were at the wrong time of
26:14
Speaker 1: night to be on the kind of the apex of
26:16
Speaker 1: that wave coming in directionally speaking, and so it landed
26:20
Speaker 1: in a spot that caused more of a magnetic fluctuation
26:24
Speaker 1: over the Western United States, centered more over the Western
26:27
Speaker 1: United States than the Eastern United States.
26:30
Speaker 4: So just too far west for us to enjoy the
26:32
Speaker 4: foot too far west.
26:34
Speaker 1: And you know, it's worth it, you know, for us
26:36
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on because those the phenomenon are
26:39
Speaker 1: so absolutely amazing that you absolutely want to see them
26:42
Speaker 1: if they're taking place. But yeah, we just were not
26:45
Speaker 1: quite in the right place at the right time this time.
26:48
Speaker 1: And congratulations to people from everywhere from Washington State all
26:53
Speaker 1: the way down to New Mexico who were able to
26:54
Speaker 1: see this. It's not very often they're seeing northern lights
26:57
Speaker 1: in New Mexico either, by the way, they're kind of
26:59
Speaker 1: like the kind of like us here in Georgia. They're
27:01
Speaker 1: pretty far south to be regular viewers of northern lights.
27:05
Speaker 4: I guess we can be happy for them. Fine, we'll
27:08
Speaker 4: share I guess by.
27:10
Speaker 1: The way real quickly. If you want to see some
27:12
Speaker 1: of these photographs for yourself, the place to go with
27:15
Speaker 1: spaceweather dot com. Check out their archive for the days
27:19
Speaker 1: of May thirtieth through June third, and there's lots of
27:23
Speaker 1: different photographs that got posted up there, some really great
27:25
Speaker 1: shots of northern lights over the continental United States, the
27:28
Speaker 1: lower forty eight states, and check it out spaceweather dot com.
27:32
Speaker 4: Let's talk about the AX four mission. Axioms supposed to
27:37
Speaker 4: have already launched. Now we're looking at a June tenth launch,
27:41
Speaker 4: So this.
27:42
Speaker 1: Will be the fourth time that Axiom Space, acting kind
27:46
Speaker 1: of like an airline, will contract to send passengers to
27:50
Speaker 1: the International Space Station. These are commercial passengers, not NASA astronauts,
27:55
Speaker 1: but they will go up and actually be part of
27:57
Speaker 1: the International Space Station crew for a peereriod of time.
28:01
Speaker 1: They will be known as the AX four crew. Now,
28:03
Speaker 1: with this fully commercial crew, there is this person who
28:07
Speaker 1: who we know very very well as a NASA astronaut.
28:10
Speaker 1: It's Peggy Whitson. Now Peggy is retired from NASA. She
28:14
Speaker 1: now works for Axiom as a commander on some of
28:18
Speaker 1: these fully commercial launches, and she is the commander for
28:21
Speaker 1: the AX four mission. The AX four mission was scheduled
28:24
Speaker 1: originally to go up May twenty ninth. For unknown reasons,
28:28
Speaker 1: it was delayed until June eighth, and now another delay
28:31
Speaker 1: is pushed it back to June tenth. So this is
28:33
Speaker 1: as we're putting the show on the podcast here, it's
28:37
Speaker 1: going to be next week, right, So next week is
28:39
Speaker 1: the earliest discan launch, but we could have the AX
28:43
Speaker 1: crew traveling to the International Space Station as early as
28:46
Speaker 1: early next week. So Commander Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut,
28:50
Speaker 1: she also serves as Axiom's director for human spaceflight. We
28:54
Speaker 1: have a pilot, Shabansu Shukla of India, Shabon Shu, a
29:00
Speaker 1: bunch shoes Shukla of India. You can say that again,
29:03
Speaker 1: I can't really barely says the first time, there's a
29:06
Speaker 1: Polish mission specialist slazo Uznanski slas Uznanski of the European
29:14
Speaker 1: Space Agency and from Hungaria tbor Capou mission specialist. So
29:22
Speaker 1: interesting fact, the very first time astronauts from India, Poland
29:29
Speaker 1: or Hungary will be up on board the International Space Station.
29:33
Speaker 1: So there we go. There It's a historic first in
29:36
Speaker 1: that regard for each of those three countries India, Poland,
29:40
Speaker 1: and Hungary to have astronauts who have gone up and
29:43
Speaker 1: lived on board the International Space Station. That's a first
29:46
Speaker 1: for all three of those countries. So godspeed to AX four.
29:49
Speaker 1: We hope everything works out and you're able to launch next.
29:52
Speaker 4: Week, coming up after a quick break. Milky Way may
29:58
Speaker 4: not be colliding with Andromeda. We'll talk about that next.
30:02
Speaker 4: What my favorite kind of milky Way collision is when
30:20
Speaker 4: one collides in my mouth. I like those right there, man,
30:24
Speaker 4: I could eat one of them milky Ways right now,
30:26
Speaker 4: That's what I'm saying. Uh So, the milky Way galaxy
30:29
Speaker 4: may not be colliding with Andromeda.
30:31
Speaker 1: What's up with that? I don't hate a good milky
30:33
Speaker 1: Way to Reese's Cup collision, you know those are That's okay,
30:37
Speaker 1: I mean, that's pretty good.
30:38
Speaker 4: We were doing back in the back in the day
30:41
Speaker 4: when when there were lots of people that worked at
30:44
Speaker 4: all of the radio stations and we had like full staffs.
30:46
Speaker 4: There was a day we were getting all of these
30:48
Speaker 4: different like little fun sized candy bars, and we stacked
30:52
Speaker 4: several of them up and it was like a Milky
30:54
Speaker 4: Way a Reese's. I think there was a Snickers involved.
30:57
Speaker 4: There were several, and then we kind of smashed them
30:59
Speaker 4: down a little bit and we were just eating them,
31:02
Speaker 4: and you know, having sugar hides, they couldn't have been
31:06
Speaker 4: good for the part of the gimmick was you had
31:08
Speaker 4: to put it in your mouth without touching it with
31:10
Speaker 4: your hand. So we were kind of coming over it,
31:13
Speaker 4: you know, like a bird. I don't know, like we
31:15
Speaker 4: were just trying to anyway. So uh yeah, and then
31:19
Speaker 4: one guy poured sugar on top of it, just out
31:21
Speaker 4: of the coffee room, and I thought, what are we doing?
31:23
Speaker 1: Like why not? Yeah, I mean, once you've gone that.
31:26
Speaker 4: Far, you're committed. So those were some Milky Way collisions, and.
31:31
Speaker 1: I mean just the same thing on a bigger scale.
31:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right, on a much bigger scale, a much
31:37
Speaker 4: larger scale.
31:39
Speaker 1: Imagine two galaxies shaped candy bars that are spiraling around
31:44
Speaker 1: one another. And we've known for quite some time that
31:47
Speaker 1: these two dessert snacks were gonna collide. That's what scientists
31:50
Speaker 1: have been telling us. The Milky Way galaxy and the
31:53
Speaker 1: Andromeda galaxy are gravitationally bound to one another. They are
31:58
Speaker 1: spiraling in and they will one day collide and merge
32:03
Speaker 1: into a brand new kind of super galaxy or you know,
32:07
Speaker 1: a galaxy collision remnant somewhere in the territory of you know,
32:13
Speaker 1: five billion years or something like that. That's been the
32:17
Speaker 1: party line. I have taught that to astronomy students for
32:21
Speaker 1: three decades, and apparently I'm just spreading fake news. It's all.
32:27
Speaker 1: That's just not a thing. It's all been a lie.
32:30
Speaker 4: I sorry, And I just had to look this up
32:33
Speaker 4: because I was like, what, wasn't there an Andromeda candy bar?
32:37
Speaker 4: And apparently yeah, there was. Yeah, so we need to
32:42
Speaker 4: make that collision happen. At the very least, can we
32:44
Speaker 4: still get our hands on the car murrays and Traumeda
32:49
Speaker 4: candy bar because we could still make this collision happen.
32:52
Speaker 1: That was a deep track, right there, my friend.
32:55
Speaker 4: I don't know how I mean, I guess maybe I
32:56
Speaker 4: was just thinking, surely there has to have been one.
32:59
Speaker 4: If not, someone should make an Andromeda candy bar. Just
33:02
Speaker 4: seems to be the obvious next step. But anyway, so
33:06
Speaker 4: is there any coconut in that thing?
33:07
Speaker 1: What was in that thing?
33:09
Speaker 4: It's this one particular one said it was dark chocolate,
33:12
Speaker 4: and peanuts. Honey, it's great unless you have an allergy
33:18
Speaker 4: coconut oil.
33:20
Speaker 1: Oh, so coconut is in there.
33:22
Speaker 4: There is some elements of that in there.
33:24
Speaker 1: So you know, this sounds a tad like Mars bars.
33:27
Speaker 1: I don't know.
33:30
Speaker 4: There are some elements maybe, But anyway, so what you've
33:33
Speaker 4: been themed? So while I was looking that up, I
33:35
Speaker 4: think I heard you say you've been lying to your
33:37
Speaker 4: students all these years. I haven't.
33:39
Speaker 1: Apparently, apparently, according to one research group, I've been telling
33:42
Speaker 1: an outright lie. Now not intentional, that's a lies, an
33:45
Speaker 1: intentional thing. I was just sharing the latest understanding that
33:48
Speaker 1: apparently is not true anymore. All right, So here we
33:52
Speaker 1: go according to a new study. Now this is a
33:56
Speaker 1: study based on simulations, but the simulations have behind them
34:01
Speaker 1: some new observational data. Okay, So, according to this new study,
34:07
Speaker 1: the Milky Way may not be colliding with neighbor Galaxy
34:11
Speaker 1: and Drameda after all. Story being published on space dot
34:15
Speaker 1: com and check it out there. The cosmic collision between
34:20
Speaker 1: the Milky Way and its closest galactic neighbor and Traumeda,
34:23
Speaker 1: was thought to be a sure thing, says space dot Com.
34:27
Speaker 1: The scientists have concluded, the Milky Way and Andromeda we're
34:30
Speaker 1: in a state of infall and would meet in around
34:33
Speaker 1: five billion years and merge to form a new daughter galaxy.
34:37
Speaker 1: All right, so that's the party line. However, here comes
34:40
Speaker 1: the button monkey. However, around five I'm sorry. According to
34:45
Speaker 1: new research from the University of Helsinki where they love
34:51
Speaker 1: you know a good Andromeda bar I understand half at
34:54
Speaker 1: the University of he'll Sinki, there is a much smaller
34:57
Speaker 1: chance that these two spiral galaxies will slam to each
35:00
Speaker 1: other and merge into one single galaxy over the next
35:04
Speaker 1: ten billion years then was previously believed. In fact, the
35:09
Speaker 1: odds went from almost a dead certainty down to about
35:13
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty so, according to Till Salwala, the team
35:20
Speaker 1: leader of the research group from University of Helsinki, quote,
35:25
Speaker 1: our main finding is that the merger between the Milky
35:27
Speaker 1: Way and Andromeda, which had been predicted to occur in
35:31
Speaker 1: around four point five billion years, is actually much less certain.
35:36
Speaker 1: We found only about a fifty percent chance that this
35:39
Speaker 1: merger will happen during the next ten billion years. In short,
35:44
Speaker 1: the probability went from near certainty to a coin flip.
35:49
Speaker 1: Unquote Till Sawala, University of Helsinki. There you have a friends.
35:56
Speaker 1: So this is based on again new computer simulations. However,
36:02
Speaker 1: the team from Helsinki incorporated the latest images from the
36:07
Speaker 1: Hubble space telescope and the European Space Agency's Gaya mission.
36:12
Speaker 1: So these are new findings based on new data which
36:16
Speaker 1: they fed into new computer models. And it seems like yes,
36:21
Speaker 1: perhaps the Milky Way and Androma galaxy are indeed still
36:24
Speaker 1: gravitationally bound to one another. They may indeed be in
36:27
Speaker 1: falling very slowly but probably not colliding in at least
36:32
Speaker 1: the next ten billion years, which at least doubles the
36:35
Speaker 1: previous estimated time to a galaxy collision. One more quote
36:40
Speaker 1: from till Sawala quote. The main difference between our research
36:44
Speaker 1: and previous studies is that we benefited from newer and
36:47
Speaker 1: more precise data, and that we considered a more complete system,
36:53
Speaker 1: including the effect of the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Milky
36:57
Speaker 1: Way's largest satellite galaxy. So once again they threw in
37:03
Speaker 1: extra new data. But then they also considered this boat
37:07
Speaker 1: anchor that's kind of tied around the ankle of the
37:10
Speaker 1: Milky Way galaxy, called the Large Magellanic Cloud, a large
37:14
Speaker 1: dwarf companion galaxy of amorphous shape that's kind of tagging
37:19
Speaker 1: along with the Milky Way, and it does have its
37:21
Speaker 1: own gravitational influence. And so therefore, when all of these
37:24
Speaker 1: things are considered, which apparently previous research teams didn't do,
37:29
Speaker 1: shame on you and you know who you are out there.
37:32
Speaker 1: The University of Helsinki has found that, yeah, probably Milky
37:36
Speaker 1: Way Andromeda in falling a whole lot more slowly than
37:39
Speaker 1: we previously thought. There's the end of the story.
37:42
Speaker 4: You do know how we know that the University of
37:45
Speaker 4: Helsinki they like to eat the Andromeda bars, don't you.
37:48
Speaker 1: I'm waiting for you to tell me baited breath, because.
37:50
Speaker 4: They eat them right up to the finish. I had
37:55
Speaker 4: it in the holster like the whole time. You just
37:58
Speaker 4: now stopped for a breath. So all right, let's talk
38:01
Speaker 4: about Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center and
38:05
Speaker 4: the Bo Bartlett exhibit that is waiting all summer long
38:10
Speaker 4: for folks to come in and check out some great
38:14
Speaker 4: memorabilia and artifacts that have been donated by the Scott family.
38:20
Speaker 1: First of all, friends, David R. Scott, his middle initial
38:25
Speaker 1: R stands for Randolph. We found this out at at
38:28
Speaker 1: the ceremony. I knew that, but his brother Tom made
38:31
Speaker 1: a point about the fact that he was born at
38:33
Speaker 1: Randolph Air Force Base, and so he's air Force through
38:36
Speaker 1: and through right, Why you end up being an astronaut, Okay,
38:38
Speaker 1: So there you go. So David R. Scott was the
38:41
Speaker 1: commander of Apollo fifteen, the first mission to have a
38:44
Speaker 1: car on board that had the lunar rover up there
38:46
Speaker 1: driving around on the service of the Moon. He was
38:48
Speaker 1: also a spaceflight participant in both the Gemini eight mission
38:53
Speaker 1: and the Apollo nine mission. I'm just kidding about that, friends,
38:55
Speaker 1: he was an astronaut, okay. So he was an astronaut
38:58
Speaker 1: on Gemini eight and Apollo nine as well as Apollo fifteen.
39:02
Speaker 1: And the Scott brothers, Dave and Tom, have donated items
39:05
Speaker 1: to us here at Coca Cola Space Science Center so
39:08
Speaker 1: that we can help preserve the collection from David Scott
39:11
Speaker 1: of space photography memorabilia and some actual space flown pieces
39:17
Speaker 1: that are now on display both here at Space Science Center,
39:21
Speaker 1: but a brand new, much larger exhibit going on just
39:24
Speaker 1: down the street from US at Columbus State University's bo
39:27
Speaker 1: Bartlett Center, which is an art gallery just about three
39:31
Speaker 1: blocks from our location here at Coca Cola Space Science Center.
39:34
Speaker 1: And I would encourage everybody out there who's in the
39:36
Speaker 1: area and can get down to see this, to come
39:39
Speaker 1: and see both exhibits right and in fact, I'm going
39:42
Speaker 1: to be more specific, I'm going to encourage you to
39:45
Speaker 1: go by the bo Bartlett Center first. Go there first
39:49
Speaker 1: and see this amazing collection of space photos and memorabilia
39:53
Speaker 1: from David Scott's collection. And then there's a little astronaut
39:58
Speaker 1: placard right on the front desk BO Bartlett Center. And
40:01
Speaker 1: if you take a selfie with our little astronaut placard,
40:04
Speaker 1: you're going to get a discounted door mission when you
40:06
Speaker 1: come to see us here at the Space Science Center.
40:08
Speaker 1: So see, that's why you go to BO Bartlett first,
40:11
Speaker 1: you go see those great pieces, then you snap a
40:14
Speaker 1: selfie with the little astronaut poster. Then you come down
40:17
Speaker 1: here and show us your selfie and we give you
40:19
Speaker 1: a discounted admission. And so you can come in and
40:22
Speaker 1: see our planetarium, our Space Shuttle Odyssey, fly in our
40:25
Speaker 1: flight simulators, enjoy a great time in our exhibit gallery,
40:29
Speaker 1: and spend the day in the air conditioning both at
40:31
Speaker 1: bo Bartlett and the Coca Cola Space sign Center. Good
40:34
Speaker 1: summer fun. This show at bo Bartlett runs from June
40:37
Speaker 1: the third, which is already passed all the way now,
40:40
Speaker 1: until August second. The bo Bartlett Center is open on
40:44
Speaker 1: Tuesday through Saturday from eleven am to four pm, so
40:48
Speaker 1: again about eleven o'clock. Head on over to the Bow
40:51
Speaker 1: Bartlett in the morning, go see that, snap a selfie
40:54
Speaker 1: with the astronaut, maybe grab some lunch. Come down here
40:56
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, come see us at Space Science Center
40:59
Speaker 1: and the family will have a great space adventure at
41:03
Speaker 1: these two wonderful Columbus State University venues, the Bow Bartlett
41:07
Speaker 1: Center and the Coca Cola Space Science Center. By the way,
41:10
Speaker 1: bo Bartlett Center has a lot of other really interesting
41:13
Speaker 1: and amazing artwork on display. Check out all of the
41:16
Speaker 1: artists work down at Bow Bartlett. Then come see us
41:19
Speaker 1: for some more space adventure here at the Space Science Center.
41:22
Speaker 4: Sean and I thank you for listening, and we'll do
41:24
Speaker 4: this again next week.
41:25
Speaker 3: Plus.
41:33
Speaker 4: Overhead Door Company of Columbus has all of your garage
41:35
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