Latest / Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights & Cosmic Discoveries / #428: Dark Matter Mysteries & Sci-Fi Innovations: Listener Queries Answered

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#428: Dark Matter Mysteries & Sci-Fi Innovations: Listener Queries Answered · Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights & Cosmic Discoveries

0:00
Hello again, thanks for joining us. This is Space Nuts Q and A.
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My name is Andrew Dunkley and good to have your company again. Questions
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today coming from Michael, Rennie, Joseph, and Ralph. Michael wants to
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look at dark matter. We've got a big bang question. We'll talk about
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the early universe and that three body problem has come up again. That's all
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to be discussed on this episode of Space Nuts fifteen in Channel ten nine ignition
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Space Nuts NY or three two Space Nuts. As when I reported Neil's good
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and he's back again for more. Professor Fred Watson, astronomer at LA Tellofred.
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Yeah, just send those questions and we'll get onto them. Yep,
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yep. Just can't just can't get enough start. This first question comes from
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my in Illinois, Michael and Illinois gentlemen. What a fantastic podcast. Which
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one are you talking about? Michael, Absolutely absolutely fabulous for the space nuts
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like me who love space but just have just enough knowledge to be dangerous.
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Two questions. Can dark matter be the fabric of space time? I don't
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think so because you've addressed this topic, but I can't, for the life
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of me recall what you said. What technological advances would you most like to
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say? This is his second question, what technological advances would you most like
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to see happen within the foreseeable future. Here's the kicker. It has to
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have appeared in science fiction stories. Mine is a space elevator, which Arthur
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C. Clark described in the Fountains of Paradise, published in nineteen seventy nine.
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That comes from Michael and Illinois. We'll get to that in a minute.
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Yeah, Okay, dark matter, the fabric of space time is no,
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it's no. And that's because we can map dark matter. We can
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map where it is by looking at the you know, the fact that it
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it warps space itself. It warped space rather than being the fabric of space.
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And that warping can be revealed by looking at what it does to galaxies
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beyond beyond the once of the warp, there's there's somebody warping in the background.
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Yeah, good old Jordy. Oh shut up, Jordy, I love
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it. We've got our very own space warp here. So yeah, so
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dark matter warped space, so we can map where it where it is,
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and we know that galaxies are immersed in these huge blobs of dark matter.
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So dark matter is something definitely something within space rather than the fabric of space
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itself, and it's still a puzzle. It's still you know, unknown actually
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what it is. And we we'd believe it's some species of sub atomic particle
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that is invisible in every way except by its gravity, and we are still
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looking for it. We're looking for the particles. We know that they We
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know that for every kilogram of normal matter in the room that you're in,
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in the room that I'm in, there's five kilograms a dark matter as well.
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What do we do about that? We don't know what it is.
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Yeah, wow, it's hard to get your head around that. I can
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understand people trying to come up with answers for this because it's not an easy
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one to wrap the mind around, and some of the best experts in the
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world still can't agree on what this is exactly, and there's some widely you
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know, disparate views of what it might be. We have many times raised
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the issue of MOND the theory of modified Newtonian dynamics, which suggests that our
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understanding of gravity is wrong and it's not that this dark matter exists, But
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I think that's still regarded as speculative by mainstream science. I think most astronomers
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are convinced that there are these sub atomic particles that we are yet to find.
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M all right, I think Michael go on, no, IM just
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going to say it's one of the reasons for you know that the Largechadron Collider
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at Cerne in the on the Swiss French borders, the European Nuclear Research Center
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that was the collider where the Higgs boson was found back in twenty twelve.
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They've got plans for something called the FCC, the Future Circular Collider, which
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will make the Large Chadron Glider look very small. One of the reasons for
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doing that is to look at subatomic particles with higher energies with the hope that
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they will reveal whatever the particles are that make up dark matter. So there
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are plans to try and sort it out, but it's still very much an
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open question. Sure is okay, Michael? That was part one of your
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question. Part two, what technological advances would you most like to see happen
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within the foreseeable future. He's the kicker it has to have happened in science
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fiction stories. He likes the space elevator that was written about by Arthur C.
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Clarke. We've talked about space elevators before, Fred, What is it
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for you? I had a long think about this and I'm still pondering.
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Have you come up with anything, you know the kind of thing. So
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my go to place in science fiction, of course, is done There,
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back in the nineteen fifties, Done There, the Pilot of the Future,
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and so much of what Frank Hampson, the author of dun There and a
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great, fabulous artist and illustrator, but also a man with a good command
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of science. The sorts of things that he was talking about were little personalized
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flying machines. Well, we're seeing those already. You can now buy You
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can buy a jets and one which is basically a flying machine that you can
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sit in the twenty minutes of flight up two hundred kilometers an hour. The
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waiting list is quite long. I think you won't get you if you order
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one now, you won't get it until twenty twenty six. And the other
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one, you know that Dan Dare used all the time, was a watch
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that let you talk to people with. Well, I've got one of those
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now. It's incredible. So a lot of what was forecast back there in
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the nineteen fifties is basically happening to us now. I guess the technological advance
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for me that would really really dramatically change our entire existence would be for the
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manipulation of gravity. I mean, we've talked about that before. How can
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you tweak gravity so it does things for you that you wanted to do?
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At the moment, we're just stuck with it. Any massive body distorts the
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space around it, and we feel that there's gravity, Could you warp space
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to let you move, you know, more readily through the universe, the
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good old wormhole technique and things of that sort. I know that's very much
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on the you know, well beyond the horizon of anything that we're thinking about
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at the moment. But just a quick comment on Michael's favorite, the space
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elevator probably won't happen just because of the debris that we're surrounded by Earth orbit.
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And it was a guy called buzz Aldrin who told me that that dinner
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once, when I was lucky enough to have dinner with it. He said,
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yeah, space elevator is a great idea, but it won't happen.
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And that's because every bit of space jump crosses the equator twice, and it's
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all bit if you've got to have the space elevator on the equator, else
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it doesn't work. So you're always going to get collisions. And so he
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wrote it off. He knows certain terms disappointing. Really it is rather but
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not surprising. We humans have a tendency to make a mess. And did
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you do so what was your technological advance, Andrew? What did you do
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when you kind of touched on it with when you mentioned high speed travel?
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I think let's steal one from Star Trek. I think if you could achieve
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warp speed, that would be for me a wonderful innovation in terms of even
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just traveling within our Solar system. And I know they're working on different kinds
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of engines. NASA's looking at different types of engines to try and increase travel
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speed, and we talked about it recently being able to get to Mars in
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two months instead of six to nine months. I would dearly love to see
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that kind of technology perfected so that we could get around our own neighborhood very
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fast. And that was portrayed well in a TV series which I watched for
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a second time recently. Called the Expanse, where they had developed a way
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to travel within the Solar System and you could do a trip from Mars to
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Pluto or something in a few weeks versus many, many, many many years.
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To me, would be a great innovation. It would make exploration of
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the Solar System so much easier and people would be able to move around with
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expediency, which we cannot do at the moment. So I think that would
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be you know, whether or not it's warp speed or some kind of pulse
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engine technology that makes us smooth faster. It would have to be highly efficient
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as well, but I know they're working on it, so that to me
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would be the next big thing. But you know, the other one I'd
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like to see is space tourism happen. I think it's already started with little
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sort of trips up and back, but I think having a space motel,
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for example, in orbit, I'd love to see that happen. I think
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that would be the next big thing in tourism and it would be a lot
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of fun. This precursors up there already, so is it. Bigelow the
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company is a very big company of a hotel chains within America. Back in
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the early two thousands, they developed an inflatable In fact, they launched too.
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I think I think they're still in orbit. There was one that was
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also attached to the International Space Station and it was for exactly that. Think
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about space hotels, the bigger old inflatable space modules. Mmmm, that just
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scares me there, just yeah, do you want to be in a balloon
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in space? You know? Yeah, I'm not, especially with all that
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junk flying around the Actually, all right, they did say that it was
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more resilient to impacts by small pieces of space debrits because I'm like a piece
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of metal when you get a hole in it. The holes there, some
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of these fabrics that they used in the in the test modules actually heal themselves
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so that the whole blocks up very quickly. That's interesting. Actually, one
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thing we learned when we were in China we went and visited a silk factory.
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I used to have silk worms as a kid. But they were telling
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us that the strength and durability of silk is so so strong they can actually
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they actually use it in bulletproof vests. Yeah. I didn't know that remotable.
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Incredible stuff. Okay, thank you, Michael, let's go to a
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question from Rennie Troub, how energetic was the Big Bang in comparison to the
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most powerful supernova's or gamma ray bursts ever discovered. Science is exciting, Renny
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says, it is, and that's why we're still doing it, plus the
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fact that it's helpful occasionally. Look, I don't know the strict answer to
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this in terms of, you know, a million times or anything like that,
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but the Big Bang was the Big Bang, so it was the you
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know, the energy that was released in that means that even the most powerful
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supernova really pales into insignificance. Although supernova are often described as the biggest bang
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since the Big Bang, but they're vastly less energetic than what was involved in
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the creation of the universe. As you kind of expect it to be,
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a super and ova leaves these a debris cloud around it to enriched material,
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you know, the chemical reactions that take place in the heat of the super
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and ova create some elements that are quite rare, but that's just spread around
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its locality, whereas the Big Bang created everything. So yes, it's the
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ratio of one or the other is a very big number. Indeed, I
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don't know what it is, but I'll try and check it up, but
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I'm not sure that I'll find the answer. Yeah, I imagine the difference
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would be just staggering, like we'd be talking billions upon billions upon trillions of
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megatons in variation between a super and over and the Big Bang. I imagine
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the Big Bang was Well, look, we're still seeing the after effects of
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it. It's still going technically, let's try it thirty point ten million years
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later. Yeah, so, yeah, a short answer to that question,
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Rennie. But yeah, it's chalk and cheese basically. By the sound of
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it, this is space nuts. Addred Ugley here with professor Fred what's a
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three space nuts? All right, let's keep rolling with the questions. Hey,
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space nuts. Given the early universe was believed to be a dense hot
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plasma, could it be that at this time large, gargantuan level primordial black
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holes formed, which could explain the recent James where images of very distant,
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enormous and distant black holes. They could have formed at the very start of
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the universe, before the black holes that formed from more recent star collapses.
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And also, further to this, could it be a source of naked singularities
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as well as as well that may have formed from failed black holes in this
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early time. Could these naked singularities be so numerous and widespread that they account
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for the missing mass we infer but cannot see. Could this be all the
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dark matter? Love the show, keep up the great work, and hope
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to see around Dubbo in twenty twenty eight for the eclipse. Joseph from Melbourne.
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Yeah, we've got to spare bed, Joseph, So that's possible.
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I'm gonna I'll take bits, take deep bids. Yeah. Yeah, interesting
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thought. Now, so let's do the second bit first. But the idea
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of naked singularities or black holes effectively representing the missing mass by the missing mass,
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I think we mean the dark matter missing mass is slightly different. That's
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a normal matter that should be there that seem to be missing, but we
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think we've failed it now in the electrons between the galaxies. But dark matter,
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yes, as we've been talking about, it is just something that is
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invisible, only revealed by its gravity. And the reason why we don't think
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it's lots and lots of primordial black holes is because of some experiments that were
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done in the nineteen nineties. We used to think that there might be things
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called matchos m acho, which was massive compact halo objects, and that meant
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exactly what we're talking about, black holes that were lurking around the outer regions
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of our galaxy. But in an experiment, which funnily enough, was also
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called Matcho, done with one of the telescopes actually at the Mount Stromlo Observatory
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in Canberra, as well as other places throughout the world. Well, the
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many experiments were done to try and identify whether mat chos were the dark matter.
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They failed to see enough what's called gravitational lensing. If we had these
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little black holes everywhere that were enough of them to make up the dark matter,
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we'd see lots of instances of these passing in front of a distant star
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and acting as a magnifying glass because of the gravitational distortion around it, So
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you'd see a gravitational lensed image of the star. It would suddenly get brighter
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and then fade away with a particularly characteristic light curve. The weather light behaves
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over time, and they weren't seen in enough numbers. They did see some,
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so they knew that the technique was working, but they didn't find anywhere
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near enough to make matchos the dark matter, and that's why it became whips,
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which is what we now think they are weekly interacting massive particles. And
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so the answer is no, probably not. And then going back to Joseph's
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first question, I think he's kind of on the money with this and really
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looking at research that's only been in publication for two or three months whether which
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came first, galaxies or black holes or the super massive black holes, And
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exactly as he says, James Webb telescope shows images of galaxies which have probably
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have very large, supermassive black holes at the center. And the conventional wisdom
18:40
has always been that the super massive black holes probably formed by lots and lots
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of stars reaching the ends of their lives, exploding into supernova, creating a
18:49
black hole which then gets absorbed into another one, and you've got super massive
18:53
black hole at the end of it. We are now seeing doubt cast on
19:00
that by a paper which was led by a well known cosmologist called Joe Silk
19:06
another Joseph, He and his colleagues have postulated that maybe the black holes were
19:11
actually formed in the Big Bang, and these black holes became the nuclei of
19:19
galaxies. I'm hoping actually to find out a bit more about this theory later
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in the year, Andrew, because one of Joseph Silk's collaborators on that paper
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is an old friend and colleague of mine. Dr oh sorry, Professor Rosemary
19:36
Wise. She's at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, and she's coming
19:40
to Australia to help us celebrate the fiftieth birthday of the Anglo Australian Telescope.
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So I'm going to try and bend her ear about that and find out what
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it's all about. Yeah, wow, that'd be great. Yeah, all
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right. So the answers to Joseph's questions were no, no, yes,
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well perhaps and no. I think of the answers to take them in the
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order that Joseph set them fair enough, Thank you, Joseph. Pretty deep
20:11
question, but we like to try and tackle them. We don't always have
20:15
the answer, but that's because probably nobody does have the answer a lot of
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the time. One final thought, Fred, This comes from Ralph, who's
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messaged me before about the story three Body Problem, which is originally a book
20:30
series by a Chinese author, but it's now been turned into a TV series.
20:36
Andrew thanks for your advice on the Three Body Problem book. What I
20:38
suggested he do was get his device to read it to him rather than struggling
20:44
through it himself, because I taught mine how to read to me, so
20:48
I just because it is a really tough read in the original manuscript. Anyway,
20:52
Ralph says, I gave up on the book, but I want to
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know what you're up to on the mountain, so I have the I want
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to know what they're up to on the mountain. This is where they made
21:06
their first communication with the aliens. So I have the audiobook on hold from
21:11
the Indianapolis Public Library. I hope to get it soon. Ralph. Yeah,
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I guess with the series coming out, it's become popular and people are
21:19
grabbing audio books because the read is really tough. I'm still pushing on with
21:26
it, Ralph. I haven't finished it yet. I find myself sort of
21:29
reading a few chapters and then having to have a rest and a lie down
21:33
with a headache tablet. But it is a tough It is a tough read,
21:37
but I'm persisting. I want to finish it, so I'll keep going
21:42
on it. But whatever you can do to get through it is my advice,
21:47
and Ralph's found a way, So let me know how you go with
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it, Ralph. I have heard on the grapevine, Ralph that they've decided
21:55
to continue with the series. I think it's on Netflix. They originally we're
21:59
going to only make two seasons. In fact, they were just going to
22:04
run the second season as an add on to the first season and just do
22:08
it as one series. But now the latest is they've decided to make three
22:14
series, so it will follow the three books in the written series as a
22:19
TV series, and they're going to follow it as closely as possible, and
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from what I've read so far, they're sticking to the actual manuscript. So
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yeah, that's what I've heard about. Three Body problem. Three body problem.
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Basically, Fred I think I've explained before is these aliens live in a
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or come from a planet that is unfortunately in orbit around three stars. And
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when you get three big bodies with all the gravitational influence that they possess,
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fighting over a tiny little planet, it's not a nice place to live.
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And so they've decided to move out and we made ourselves known, which Stephen
23:00
Hawking always said could be a problem. Well, that's basically the situation in
23:06
this book. But it is a really great series and I'm enjoying the book.
23:11
As difficult as it is to read, it is super technical, and
23:15
it's so technical that he's got reference numbers all through the manuscript of the book,
23:22
so if you're not sure what he's talking about, you can click on
23:25
the number and it will take you to the reference page so you can understand
23:27
what he's trying to tell you. It's a really tough read, a really
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tough read for someone as meager as me in terms of technicality. I did.
23:38
Anyway, there's the update I did recently. Andrew come across a website.
23:44
It might have been on the Conversation which was about the science of the
23:48
Three Body Problem book, and I thought of book marks. I've just been
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looking through my bookmarks and I can't find it. But if I find it
23:56
out, I meant to send that to me. Yeah, I meant to
23:57
send you the link. And that was a couple of months ago. Actually
24:03
a cap forgetting to send it to you. But I'll find it and drop
24:07
it along too. Yeah, all right, blumme it. Thanks Ralph,
24:11
and thanks to everyone who contributed. Don't forget if you've got a question for
24:14
us, send it in through our website Space Nuts podcast dot com. You
24:18
can just click on the links the AMA tab at the top for text and
24:22
audio questions, or to send us your questions button on the right hand side.
24:26
If you've got a device with a microphone, you are all set.
24:30
Don't forget to tell us who you are and where you're from. Thanks Fred,
24:33
as always, it's a pleasure, Andrew. Always good to talk and
24:37
especially when you've been away somewhere. Yeah. Yeah, just that little trip
24:41
to China. Not much scar stargazing to do in China. It's not many
24:48
clear days, although I had to laugh. Our guide on the first few
24:51
days said, we've been cleaning up our act. We've been mourning, moving
24:53
industry away so that the city of Beijing can enjoy blue skies like today.
25:00
Looked up and went, oh, here there's a patch. There's a tiny
25:03
little patch of Yeah, but look they're working on it. Thanks Brad,
25:07
will catch you soon, And of course we also like to thank our stand
25:11
in producer Jordie this week in the absence of you and from me Andrew Uncley,
25:18
thanks for your company. Catcher on the next episode of Space Nuts Bye,
25:22
Byepacenuts. You'll be listening to the Space Nuts podcast, available at Apple
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