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Solar Secrets, Cosmic Siblings & the Quest for Breathable Exoplanets | Space Nuts: Astronomy... · Space News Today

• 0:00
  Hello again. Thank you for joining us on
• 0:02
  Space Nuts. This is our weekly Q&A
• 0:05
  edition where we take questions from the
• 0:07
  audience. We go and find someone who can
• 0:09
  tell us the answer and then we pretend
• 0:11
  we're doing it. Um, my name's Andrew
• 0:13
  Dunley, your host. Fred's Fred's face
• 0:16
  went, "Oh, we don't." [laughter]
• 0:18
  Uh, coming up on this episode, uh, we've
• 0:21
  got a lot of, uh, solar questions. We've
• 0:23
  got a question from Andrew about the
• 0:25
  sun's arc. Ernie wants to know about the
• 0:27
  sun's siblings and Mark wants to know
• 0:28
  about missions to the sun. You go, Mark.
• 0:31
  I'm not setting foot on it. It's hot
• 0:32
  enough here already. And we're going to
• 0:35
  finish off with a question about
• 0:36
  Earthlike planets. That's all coming up
• 0:38
  on this episode of Space Nuts.
• 0:41
  >> 15 seconds. Guidance is internal. 10 9g
• 0:46
  Ignition sequence start.
• 0:48
  >> Space nuts.
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  >> 5 4 3 2
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  >> 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1
• 0:53
  >> Space Nuts. Astronauts report. It feels
• 0:56
  good.
• 0:57
  >> Back again for more. His name is
• 0:59
  Professor Fred Watson, astronomer at
• 1:01
  large. Hello, Fred.
• 1:03
  >> Hello. Hello, Andrew. Um, fancy seeing
• 1:05
  you here.
• 1:06
  >> Yes, it's quite unusual. Quite unusual.
• 1:09
  And we're all decked out in blue today.
• 1:11
  You've got the gun barrel blue. I've got
• 1:12
  the sky blue of New South Wales on.
• 1:15
  >> That's the um official sporting color of
• 1:18
  my state.
• 1:19
  >> I didn't know that.
• 1:20
  >> Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:21
  >> Didn't even know there was
• 1:22
  >> sky blue. Yeah. Oh, look. Um, the the
• 1:26
  the official Australian sporting colors
• 1:28
  are green and gold.
• 1:29
  >> Green and gold. That's right.
• 1:30
  >> But that that wasn't actually uh
• 1:32
  official until the 80s. Before that,
• 1:35
  they just used to wear a pair of thongs
• 1:37
  and a cut off jeans and go to the
• 1:39
  Olympics, I think.
• 1:42
  >> She'll be right.
• 1:43
  >> Yeah, mate. No worries. Yes. Um, we got
• 1:47
  a bunch of questions to deal with, so we
• 1:49
  might as well hit the ground running in
• 1:51
  our thongs. I know there's some people
• 1:53
  laughing at that because thong means
• 1:55
  something else in other countries, but
• 1:56
  it does. That's right.
• 1:58
  >> It's it's a pair of flip-flops or
• 2:00
  jandles or whatever you call them,
• 2:01
  wherever you're from. Uh, first question
• 2:04
  comes from Andrew. It's about the Sun's
• 2:06
  Ark. I'm sitting here in the French Alps
• 2:08
  on Boxing Day. You lucky duck. uh
• 2:10
  slightly hung over thanks to uh an
• 2:13
  excess of a prey ski uh last night and
• 2:17
  watching the sun trace an arc across the
• 2:19
  sky measured from mountain peak to
• 2:22
  mountain peak. But why an arc the shape
• 2:25
  of which varies uh by the time of year
• 2:27
  given the earth itself is rotating uh on
• 2:31
  only one axis. Uh, I know the Earth's uh
• 2:34
  tilted from um from the vertical, but
• 2:37
  how does that explain the arc uh with
• 2:41
  only one axis of rotation? Shouldn't it
• 2:42
  be a straight line? That comes from
• 2:44
  Andrew Jones. Hope you had a nice
• 2:46
  Christmas, Andrew. Sounds like it. What
• 2:47
  a what a horrible place to be. The
• 2:49
  French Alps for Christmas.
• 2:50
  >> Oh, yeah. Sounds great, doesn't it?
• 2:52
  >> Yeah. But he brings up an interesting
• 2:54
  point. Uh sitting there sipping on
• 2:56
  whatever it is he was drinking and uh
• 2:58
  and and watching the sun and going,
• 3:00
  "Hang on a minute. What's going on here?
• 3:04
  There's an arc and it's not Noah's.
• 3:07
  It's not. That's right. Uh it's a
• 3:09
  different sort of arc. Uh because it's
• 3:11
  spelled differently. It's got a C
• 3:12
  instead of a K. [laughter]
• 3:15
  [snorts] Uh it uh and in fact so so uh
• 3:21
  you know Andrew's question is uh with
• 3:24
  only one axis of rotation shouldn't it
• 3:26
  be a straight line? And the answer is it
• 3:28
  is a straight line.
• 3:30
  >> Yeah. Uh but it's a straight line on a
• 3:32
  sphere. Uh because we are our vantage
• 3:36
  point uh from Earth. Uh we look out into
• 3:40
  space. We imagine something called the
• 3:42
  celestial sphere. It's a great way of uh
• 3:45
  you know working out the way things move
• 3:47
  in space and how the motion of the sun
• 3:49
  and planets all fits together. You what
• 3:52
  you imagine is a sphere of infinite
• 3:54
  dimensions and we're sitting at the
• 3:56
  middle of it. We only see half of it
• 3:58
  because the other half is below the
• 4:00
  horizon. It's still there. The celestial
• 4:02
  sphere goes on below the earth, this
• 4:05
  hypothesized sphere. Um but um it's very
• 4:09
  useful uh a useful device for
• 4:12
  understanding how things move in the
• 4:14
  sky. And if you imagine yourself uh
• 4:17
  sitting in the French Alps uh with the
• 4:20
  celestial sphere above you uh you uh
• 4:24
  would certainly in the northern
• 4:25
  hemisphere be able to see uh the thing
• 4:28
  that we call the north pole star polar
• 4:30
  star Polaris. Uh the pole star faint
• 4:34
  star that um I nearly always look for
• 4:36
  whenever I'm in the northern hemisphere
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  just to reconnect with it. It's at the
• 4:40
  end of the the little bear's tail. uh if
• 4:43
  you know your northern constellations
• 4:45
  but that
• 4:47
  would come with us sometime.
• 4:51
  >> Yeah, they they're great. The northern
• 4:52
  constellations of they've got great
• 4:55
  charm. Anyway, that's another story. So,
• 4:57
  um that is the point about which the
• 4:59
  whole celestial sphere seems to rotate.
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  And so, uh, the height of the pole star
• 5:07
  above your horizon, uh, is the same as
• 5:10
  your latitude. So, if you're at latitude
• 5:14
  French Alps is probably 45 or
• 5:18
  thereabouts, maybe a bit more than that,
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  45, uh, it means your pole star is going
• 5:22
  to be 45 degrees above the horizon. And
• 5:24
  this entire sphere rotates around that
• 5:28
  point. And so uh that's why on on a
• 5:32
  sphere the sun's motion is a straight
• 5:34
  line. It goes from the east eastern side
• 5:36
  of the sky depends on the time of year
• 5:38
  as to exactly where it rises and sets.
• 5:40
  Uh but it sets on the western side. And
• 5:43
  so um uh what looks like an arc to you
• 5:47
  is really a straight line bent by the
• 5:50
  celestial sphere. this apparent uh you
• 5:54
  know it's it's a just a great way of
• 5:57
  imagining the sky because it doesn't you
• 5:59
  don't have to worry about the distances
• 6:00
  of anything. You're just imagining
• 6:02
  everything projected onto this infinite
• 6:04
  sphere. And when you do that as the
• 6:07
  earth's rotating the sun rises in
• 6:09
  towards the east and sets towards the
• 6:11
  west. Um and uh it follows basically an
• 6:16
  arc as we see it from our position. But
• 6:19
  in terms of the sphere itself, it's just
• 6:21
  going from one side to the other in a
• 6:23
  straight line.
• 6:24
  >> There you go. Sounds like putting in
• 6:26
  golf. Like every putt they say every
• 6:29
  putt's a straight putt except
• 6:32
  that the um the green isn't dead flat
• 6:35
  and straight, so the ball will move
• 6:37
  accordingly.
• 6:38
  >> Yes, that's right. Yeah. In fact, that's
• 6:41
  um that's that almost puts you into a
• 6:44
  different uh regime because that's
• 6:47
  effectively what geodessics are, which
• 6:49
  are
• 6:50
  >> uh the way light behaves uh in general
• 6:53
  relativity. Uh so light travels what it
• 6:56
  in what it thinks is a straight line,
• 6:58
  but it's going through different
• 7:00
  gravitational fields and gravitational
• 7:03
  wells. And so like you know like your
• 7:05
  your golf ball when you're put putting
• 7:08
  it uh it it's it it's moving around.
• 7:11
  It's wandering around.
• 7:13
  >> Yeah. Uh we we have a quirk at um do
• 7:16
  golf club where um if you want to figure
• 7:19
  out where the putt goes work out which
• 7:21
  direction the river is.
• 7:22
  >> Yes.
• 7:23
  >> They they always fall towards the river.
• 7:26
  >> Always remember Andrew that five irons
• 7:28
  don't flow.
• 7:29
  >> They do not. It's a good book that I
• 7:32
  don't know who wrote it, but it's a
• 7:33
  ripper.
• 7:34
  >> I should read this.
• 7:35
  >> It's a ripper.
• 7:36
  >> Well, it's got swearing in it. Don't
• 7:38
  know how that happened.
• 7:39
  >> Yeah. Gosh. Disgraceful. Disgraceful.
• 7:42
  And by the way, the French Alps are at
• 7:44
  45.8345
• 7:45
  degrees north.
• 7:47
  >> So, you did very well.
• 7:48
  >> Yeah.
• 7:49
  >> And 6.85
• 7:51
  uh 6.8655 degrees east.
• 7:54
  >> That's right.
• 7:54
  >> Yeah. Uh, thank you for the question,
• 7:57
  Andrew. Great to hear from you. Hope you
• 8:00
  survived the u the French Alps um
• 8:03
  adventure. Uh our next question comes
• 8:06
  from a a new contributor. Hello Ernie.
• 8:10
  >> Hello Andrew and Fred. My name is Ernie
• 8:12
  and I'm reaching out to you from a small
• 8:14
  town near Buffalo, New York. I'm a
• 8:16
  longtime listener and this is the first
• 8:18
  time I'm submitting a question. In a
• 8:21
  recent episode, a listener asked if
• 8:24
  astronomers have ever identified the
• 8:26
  star or stars that went supernova,
• 8:29
  seating the nebula our sun formed in
• 8:32
  with heavy elements. This got me to
• 8:34
  thinking, stars typically form in
• 8:37
  clusters. And I assume our sun isn't any
• 8:41
  different. Has there ever been or is
• 8:45
  there any active research that is
• 8:48
  looking for any of the son's siblings?
• 8:51
  Thank you so much um for doing this
• 8:54
  podcast. Really enjoy it. Always look
• 8:56
  forward when new episodes drop. Wishing
• 8:59
  you the best for the holidays. Thank
• 9:02
  you, Ernie. Great to hear from you, a
• 9:04
  first time callerina. And uh great
• 9:06
  question, too. Great question. Sorry to
• 9:08
  hear about the Buffalo Bills. I don't
• 9:10
  know if you're into the uh American
• 9:12
  football um Ernie, but um we visited
• 9:16
  Buffalo um late last year and they were
• 9:19
  very very hopeful that the the Bills
• 9:21
  would come through, but they've been
• 9:23
  knocked out in the playoffs. So, um very
• 9:25
  unfortunate, but maybe maybe next year.
• 9:27
  They're certainly starting to look like
• 9:29
  a pretty solid outfit. So, um yeah, any
• 9:33
  work going into finding the Sun's
• 9:35
  siblings? Now, I remember us talking
• 9:36
  some time back about the possibility
• 9:40
  that the son had a twin [clears throat]
• 9:43
  >> and they got separated at birth and they
• 9:45
  can't find each other, but they're
• 9:46
  they're going through the archives to
• 9:48
  see if there's any family history that
• 9:50
  can connect them. Um that Yeah, but the
• 9:55
  the sun would have been part of um I I
• 9:57
  imagine a whole bunch of stars that were
• 10:00
  born in that um that um supernova
• 10:04
  situation. Is that what he was talking
• 10:05
  about?
• 10:06
  >> Well, that's part of the issue. The the
• 10:09
  fact that the you know the the gas cloud
• 10:12
  in which the sun and the rest of the
• 10:15
  cluster that was formed at the same time
• 10:17
  as the sun um that that was uh seeded by
• 10:21
  gases from a supernova explosion which
• 10:24
  we have no knowledge of but we you know
• 10:26
  it's just the background interstellar
• 10:28
  medium is enriched by the elements that
• 10:31
  come from a supernova explosion. But um
• 10:33
  no Ernie's question is on the money and
• 10:36
  the answer is yes. Uh that's um
• 10:40
  to try and find the sun's siblings is
• 10:43
  actually uh ongoing research and it's
• 10:46
  part of the subject that we usually call
• 10:48
  galactic archaeology. is looking at the
• 10:50
  way our galaxy has evolved uh by
• 10:54
  studying in detail the chemical
• 10:57
  composition of the stars within uh the
• 11:00
  sun's neighborhood within a few thousand
• 11:02
  light years. I was involved with all
• 11:04
  that with the rave project a few years
• 11:05
  ago. And so one of the uh not the holy
• 11:09
  grails of that but certainly one of the
• 11:10
  interesting aspects is to find stars
• 11:13
  that have identical chemical mixes to
• 11:17
  the sun. Uh and um if you can do that,
• 11:21
  if you can find them, uh there's a good
• 11:24
  chance that they were born from the same
• 11:26
  dust cloud as the sun was. Uh and so
• 11:29
  they might very well be solar siblings.
• 11:32
  Um it may even be possible that, you
• 11:35
  know, we know that the sun's four four
• 11:37
  and a half billion years old, about 4.6
• 11:39
  4.7 billion years old. Um if you could
• 11:43
  look at the motion of stars that have
• 11:46
  the identical uh constituents to the sun
• 11:49
  and you will be able to certainly me
• 11:51
  measure their velocities quite easily
• 11:54
  then you might be able to almost rewind
• 11:57
  back to a time uh when you could prove
• 11:59
  that they were all in the same place at
• 12:01
  the same time.
• 12:04
  >> Okay. Yeah. All right. Um
• 12:06
  >> so so the answer is yes. We are there is
• 12:09
  interest there is certainly research on
• 12:11
  all that and yes I had a couple of weeks
• 12:13
  in Buffalo once I was a guest lecturer
• 12:15
  at the Canius College there and it's
• 12:17
  very cold
• 12:19
  >> uh wasn't cold while we were there I
• 12:21
  mean it's it's a stones throw from
• 12:23
  Niagara Falls which is
• 12:25
  >> yeah like you could almost walk it
• 12:27
  >> they were pretty icy when we were there.
• 12:29
  >> Yeah. Um, but I I really enjoyed
• 12:32
  spending some time there and and
• 12:33
  learning like they they they had a big
• 12:35
  big exhibition on while we were there
• 12:37
  about the um one of the great canals
• 12:40
  that was built 150 odd years ago now I
• 12:44
  think. Um and and how it changed the
• 12:48
  entire region
• 12:49
  >> forever um in terms of trade and
• 12:51
  movement of materials and uh fascinating
• 12:55
  place really quite fascinating. Um,
• 12:58
  yeah. I suppose the the the problem with
• 13:01
  trying to find the sun's siblings is is
• 13:03
  the amount of time that's passed. It's
• 13:05
  not like you're looking back through
• 13:06
  your family tree a couple of
• 13:08
  generations, which we're talking
• 13:10
  billions of years of movement.
• 13:13
  >> That's right. Yes. But but as I said,
• 13:15
  you you know, the way you identify them
• 13:17
  is not because they're close or anything
• 13:20
  like that. It's by their chemical
• 13:22
  composition.
• 13:23
  uh which we can do out to many several
• 13:28
  thousands light years depending how how
• 13:30
  precise you want it to be. Um in fact
• 13:33
  there's an instrument on the Anglo
• 13:34
  Australian telescope which is called
• 13:35
  Hermes uh which is designed exactly for
• 13:38
  doing that job. It looks at very limited
• 13:41
  areas uh regions of the spectrum of
• 13:44
  stars uh to look for [clears throat]
• 13:47
  exactly the amount of chemicals that
• 13:49
  that are in those atmospheres of those
• 13:51
  stars. And that's the kind of instrument
• 13:53
  that you use to try and find the sun
• 13:55
  siblings. What I haven't said is whether
• 13:57
  there's been any success on that.
• 13:59
  >> I was bad to ask.
• 14:00
  >> Yeah. [laughter]
• 14:01
  And um uh I can't remember the answer. I
• 14:04
  I mean there are certainly stars which
• 14:06
  have got very similar chemical
• 14:08
  composition and ages to the sun. Uh, I'm
• 14:12
  not sure just how near we are to to
• 14:14
  being able to identify them as
• 14:15
  definitely coming from the same gas
• 14:18
  cloud and being born in the same cluster
• 14:20
  as the sun was.
• 14:21
  >> Well, according to a quick search I've
• 14:24
  just done, and this is an AI response,
• 14:28
  uh, yes, astronomers have identified
• 14:29
  several candidates. Yeah.
• 14:31
  >> The solar siblings, stars formed from
• 14:33
  the same gas cloud as our sun 4.5
• 14:36
  billion years ago, but none are
• 14:38
  definitely confirmed. There you go.
• 14:42
  >> Um they maybe they don't want to be
• 14:45
  found. Maybe maybe our our son was, you
• 14:48
  know, the black sheep of the family and
• 14:49
  they all went, "No, we're out of here.
• 14:51
  We know what's going to happen around
• 14:52
  this place. It's going to fall planets
• 14:55
  and then where will we be?" And then
• 14:56
  there'll be humans and then
• 14:58
  >> Yes, that's right. Exactly.
• 14:59
  >> You know, they'll want us they'll want
• 15:01
  us to pay them money or something. Yeah.
• 15:03
  I don't know. Um but it was a great
• 15:05
  question, Ernie. Thanks for sending it
• 15:06
  in and please do so again. This is Space
• 15:09
  Nuts with Andrew Dunley and Professor
• 15:12
  Fred Watson.
• 15:15
  >> Hey, that's one of the better sims.
• 15:17
  Believe me, we've had a couple of
• 15:18
  cardiac [music] arrest down here too,
• 15:20
  Pete.
• 15:20
  >> There weren't any time for that up here.
• 15:23
  >> Space nuts.
• 15:24
  >> I love that one. No time for a cardiac
• 15:27
  arrest. Uh let's uh carry on to our next
• 15:32
  question that comes from Mark. It's
• 15:34
  another story about this uh question
• 15:36
  about the sun. Hi Andrew and Fred. Are
• 15:38
  there any plans to send a spacecraft to
• 15:40
  the sun? And I mean up close and
• 15:42
  personal. Uh the data they could get
• 15:45
  would be invaluable and could really
• 15:47
  tighten up uh some loose ends on what we
• 15:50
  think we know. Uh keep up the great
• 15:52
  work. Uh that's Mark from Sussex. Sussex
• 15:56
  in England. I assume England. Uh I'm
• 15:58
  pretty sure that'd be right.
• 16:00
  >> So you s I used to live in Sussex as
• 16:02
  well.
• 16:03
  >> Yes. Yeah. I think we mentioned that a
• 16:04
  week or two ago. So we've had a few
• 16:06
  >> where the royals from Sussex of late
• 16:08
  >> the the Royal Greenwich Observatory used
• 16:10
  to be a place called Hmansu. Yeah.
• 16:13
  [clears throat and cough] Not far from
• 16:15
  where William the Conqueror landed in
• 16:17
  1066.
• 16:18
  >> Okay.
• 16:19
  >> It was all very historic place. Um and
• 16:22
  the Royal Observatory was actually
• 16:23
  >> he defeated he did he defeated King
• 16:25
  >> Henry was it?
• 16:27
  >> Harold. Harold. I knew it started with
• 16:28
  an H.
• 16:29
  >> Yeah. H um so yeah look I I I I know
• 16:34
  there are probes that are um gathering
• 16:37
  information about the sun all the time
• 16:39
  and in fact we had a recent probe that's
• 16:41
  name escapes me that actually touched
• 16:43
  the sun which was uh a pretty
• 16:45
  extraordinary thing and
• 16:47
  >> in fact that's the one that um that
• 16:49
  really Mark is asking about uh uh are
• 16:52
  there any plans to sp send a spacecraft
• 16:54
  to the sun uh and I mean up close and
• 16:56
  personal it is already there Uh it's
• 16:59
  called the Parker Solar Probe. Uh it's
• 17:02
  um flown through the inner or the outer
• 17:04
  corona of the sun uh experiencing those
• 17:08
  very high temperatures. It's got a heat
• 17:09
  shield. It's in a or an orbit that is
• 17:12
  highly elliptical, very elongated. So
• 17:16
  [clears throat] it it spends some of its
• 17:17
  time close to the sun and some of its
• 17:20
  time quite a long way away. I'm not
• 17:22
  actually sure whether it is still
• 17:24
  active. uh but what it's done is it has
• 17:27
  enhanced our understanding of the uh of
• 17:31
  the way the corona is heated. The sun's
• 17:34
  corona is at so several tens of millions
• 17:37
  of degrees uh and the surface of the sun
• 17:41
  the photosphere this bit that we see is
• 17:43
  about 5 a half thousand degrees. How
• 17:45
  does the outer atmosphere get so hot
• 17:48
  when you've got something relatively
• 17:49
  cool inside? And the Parker Solar Probe
• 17:53
  has revealed that it's almost certainly
• 17:55
  magnetism that does that, the
• 17:57
  transportation of energy via magnetic
• 17:59
  fields. You're about to tell me whether
• 18:01
  it's still going or not.
• 18:02
  >> It is. It is actually uh the uh is fully
• 18:06
  active. It's healthy. It's operating
• 18:08
  normally as at early 2026. It's done 26
• 18:12
  close approach
• 18:14
  >> uh approaches to the sun. Um, and that
• 18:18
  was up to December of of last year. And
• 18:21
  it uh will continue to orbit the sun.
• 18:23
  It'll set speed records while it's doing
• 18:25
  it. Uh, it's it's been doing some
• 18:27
  extraordinary things. Uh, what I find
• 18:30
  extraordinary is that it can survive
• 18:31
  temperatures around 2 and a half
• 18:33
  thousand degrees Fahrenheit. That's um
• 18:36
  that's that's mighty warm.
• 18:39
  >> Yep. With a with a clever cleverly
• 18:41
  designed heat shield. I think that's
• 18:43
  whath keeps the spacecraft cool and lets
• 18:46
  it continue its work. It's a very
• 18:48
  successful mission.
• 18:50
  >> Are there any other probes working out
• 18:52
  there? I mean, there are observer
• 18:55
  probes. I believe they're not designed
• 18:56
  to go in and out of the sun's corona,
• 18:59
  but they're they're sort of keeping a
• 19:01
  close eye on it.
• 19:03
  >> Yeah, that's right. There's uh so so the
• 19:05
  sun's observed from a safer distance uh
• 19:08
  up close and personal uh compared with
• 19:10
  where we are on Earth. uh there's a
• 19:12
  there's a flatilla of uh of
• 19:15
  observatories looking at the various
• 19:17
  aspects of the sun. We also now have um
• 19:20
  a very large groundbased telescope that
• 19:23
  is set providing the most amazing images
• 19:26
  of the sun's photosphere. That's the the
• 19:28
  visible sphere of the sun. Uh it's the
• 19:31
  Daniel K. Anui solar telescope. It's on
• 19:34
  top of Halakala on the island of Maui uh
• 19:38
  in the Hawaiian islands. Money and I got
• 19:42
  married in front of it.
• 19:43
  >> Yeah, I remember. Yeah. Um they have
• 19:47
  great names for stuff in Hawaii, don't
• 19:48
  they?
• 19:50
  >> Yeah, they do.
• 19:51
  >> They do.
• 19:52
  >> Just rolls off the tongue, that one. Uh
• 19:54
  there are plenty of probes actually um
• 19:57
  Mark that are that are wandering around
• 19:59
  the sun. There's the Solar Orbiter,
• 20:01
  which is an ISSa NASA mission um taking
• 20:05
  high resolution imagery and and
• 20:07
  gathering data about the sun. There's
• 20:09
  another one that was launched in 2023
• 20:12
  uh an Indian mission uh which is
• 20:14
  dedicated to observing the solar corona
• 20:17
  and it's the Adita L1 mission and
• 20:22
  there's a there's a a whole fleet of uh
• 20:26
  probes that are that are monitoring the
• 20:28
  solar winds. So the Solar Dynamics
• 20:30
  Observatory SOHO that's a famous one. Uh
• 20:33
  the STEREO mission because there are
• 20:36
  twin satellites doing that. I think we
• 20:37
  talked about that one. Uh Hinade, which
• 20:40
  is a a JAXA mission. Uh the GO solar
• 20:43
  ultraviolet imager and the advanced
• 20:45
  composition explorer or ACE uh which is
• 20:49
  looking at the solar winds which have um
• 20:51
  been very busy of late. We've seen some
• 20:54
  incredible activity. The sun's sort of
• 20:56
  reaching the end of its most active
• 20:59
  phase, isn't it Fred? Yeah, it's it's
• 21:02
  sort of still at solar maximum, but it
• 21:04
  gradually uh dies away to solar minimum.
• 21:08
  >> Yeah. And from what I understand, you've
• 21:10
  you've really only got a short period of
• 21:12
  time to enjoy the the the current level
• 21:15
  of activity before things start to ease
• 21:17
  off and um we see less um less
• 21:23
  spectacular
• 21:24
  light shows. Would that be the way to
• 21:26
  describe?
• 21:26
  >> Yeah. And and certainly as the sun's
• 21:28
  activity declines, the aurora that we
• 21:31
  see get further and further away from
• 21:33
  the equator, if I put it that way. The
• 21:35
  more active the sun is, the the the
• 21:38
  lower latitude you can you can see it
• 21:40
  at.
• 21:41
  >> Well, it's um it's certainly uh been
• 21:44
  spectacular lately. Uh thanks for the
• 21:47
  question, Mark.
• 21:50
  >> You're here also.
• 21:52
  >> Space nuts.
• 21:53
  >> Our final question, or is it a sermon?
• 21:55
  comes from Martin. Sit back, relax, grab
• 21:58
  a cup of tea. This is going to take a
• 22:00
  while. Hello, space nuts. Margin Burman
• 22:05
  Gorvine here, writer extraordinaire in
• 22:09
  many genres
• 22:11
  with a question for my work in progress.
• 22:16
  uh my science fiction novel involving a
• 22:21
  certain unpleasant
• 22:23
  very rich dude called Egon Rusk who
• 22:29
  wishes to see the stars with what he
• 22:32
  imagines is the master race and comes to
• 22:36
  a rather unfortunate end. Um,
• 22:41
  as I've been writing this, the uh their
• 22:47
  supposed destination is Trappist 1E.
• 22:52
  Now,
• 22:54
  Professor John T. Hero mentioned on a
• 22:57
  recent podcast that all the star, all
• 23:01
  the planets in the Trappist one system
• 23:04
  lack an atmosphere.
• 23:07
  So, I was very concerned about that
• 23:09
  because uh I don't want my characters
• 23:12
  all choking and dying. So, I had a look
• 23:17
  and it seems according to NASA that it's
• 23:21
  Trappist 1D
• 23:24
  as in David that has been shown to lack
• 23:28
  an atmosphere. But they're still trying
• 23:30
  to figure out whether Travis 1E has one
• 23:35
  or not. Um, in any case, I was just
• 23:40
  wondering if there are any other
• 23:44
  uh stars with with exoplanets
• 23:48
  within say 20, 30, 40 light years of
• 23:53
  Earth that might conceivably be roughly
• 23:57
  the mass of Earth and might conceivably
• 24:00
  have a breathable atmosphere. I mean,
• 24:04
  this is all
• 24:06
  kind of off-the-wall satirical se uh
• 24:09
  sci-fi, so it doesn't matter that much,
• 24:11
  but I was just wondering about your
• 24:13
  thoughts, and I don't mean to uh
• 24:18
  disparage Professor her. Um I I I but I
• 24:24
  I you know I just suspect that he did
• 24:26
  see that Trappist one D lacks an
• 24:30
  atmosphere and sort of thought well
• 24:32
  maybe that's all the planets in that
• 24:35
  system. And also
• 24:38
  um I would like to conclude by reading a
• 24:42
  poem on that I've just written that is a
• 24:46
  riff on
• 24:49
  uh Robert Frost's famous uh fire and ice
• 24:54
  about the back and forth debate over the
• 24:57
  big bang versus the big crunch also
• 25:00
  known as the ganab gibb although I don't
• 25:03
  love that term because it sort of sounds
• 25:05
  like A lost BG.
• 25:08
  So
• 25:11
  swell or crunch.
• 25:14
  Some think the cosmos swells for I. Some
• 25:18
  see a crunch of aging bones I know and
• 25:22
  sigh. So might the cold get worse for I.
• 25:26
  But pressure hits you like a punch. You
• 25:29
  feel your skin begin to burn. And so I
• 25:33
  have a dreadful hunch. We may all learn.
• 25:37
  We must all bunch.
• 25:40
  Burman Gorvine. Over and out.
• 25:44
  Never leaves you wondering, Martin. Uh,
• 25:48
  thanks for the question. Um, I'm going
• 25:51
  to go first here, Fred, because only
• 25:53
  this morning by coincidence did I read a
• 25:55
  story and it's a little bit of an irony
• 25:57
  in this because it comes from the
• 25:59
  University of Southern Queensland where
• 26:01
  Professor Jonty her works and it's uh
• 26:06
  this has been published on the ABC uh
• 26:08
  science website. Uh so it it basically
• 26:11
  says that the that astronomers at the
• 26:13
  University of Southern Queensland have
• 26:16
  discovered a potential candidate for an
• 26:19
  Earth-sized planet. It's uh planet
• 26:21
  HD137030B.
• 26:24
  It's a bit further away than Martin
• 26:26
  would like, 150 light years from Earth,
• 26:29
  but it orbits a sunlike star and they're
• 26:33
  referring to it as a planet candidate.
• 26:36
  Um the p paper needs uh one more
• 26:39
  observation to confirm the uh status of
• 26:42
  planet but this one is only slightly
• 26:46
  bigger than earth if it is uh indeed a
• 26:49
  um a a a planet. They think they think
• 26:53
  so. Uh an earth almost earthsized planet
• 26:57
  orbiting a sunlike star sounds like it's
• 27:00
  got some some potential there coming out
• 27:02
  of the University of Southern
• 27:04
  Queensland. So that's uh interesting
• 27:05
  news, very interesting timing based on
• 27:08
  um receiving Martin's question.
• 27:10
  >> Yeah.
• 27:10
  >> Um just before the uh the publication of
• 27:12
  that story.
• 27:14
  >> Yeah. Um and uh Luke, Martin's as
• 27:17
  capable as I am of looking all these up.
• 27:20
  Uh the Wikipedia list of nearest
• 27:22
  terrestrial exoplanet candidates is
• 27:24
  probably the the neatest source to go to
• 27:26
  because it gives references to a lot of
• 27:28
  the original papers of these uh the in
• 27:32
  which the planets are described. Um it's
• 27:36
  uh uh currently got this is uh uh ones
• 27:40
  within 50 light years. uh I put in when
• 27:44
  I went through this the search 34
• 27:46
  exoplanets 11 of which probably lie
• 27:49
  inside their stars habitable zone. It's
• 27:52
  a bit more difficult to, as Martin was
• 27:56
  um kind of hinting there, it's a bit
• 27:58
  more difficult to confirm the atmosphere
• 28:01
  uh of a of a an exoplanet because what
• 28:05
  you what you're trying to do is um most
• 28:08
  of these are discovered by the transit
• 28:10
  method. You know, planets that go in
• 28:12
  front of their parent star, they dim the
• 28:14
  light slightly uh as they pass in front
• 28:17
  of the parent star, and you can measure
• 28:18
  that dimming. Uh but you can also um if
• 28:22
  you're if you've got very topline
• 28:24
  equipment like the web telescope uh you
• 28:28
  can also look at the spectrum uh change
• 28:30
  in the star as the planet passes in
• 28:32
  front of it and if that spectrum changes
• 28:34
  then uh you can be sure that the planet
• 28:37
  has an atmosphere and you can actually
• 28:39
  see what gases are are actually present
• 28:42
  in the atmosphere. So, um, that's a much
• 28:44
  more difficult observation and I think
• 28:46
  that's why, uh, it's a bit of a struggle
• 28:48
  for Martin to find to to identify with
• 28:51
  certainty, uh, which of these exoplanets
• 28:54
  might have an atmosphere. I might leave
• 28:56
  him to that and remind him that since
• 28:58
  he's writing fiction, he can do anything
• 28:59
  like with these planets, anything,
• 29:02
  anything he wants.
• 29:04
  >> I I'm um well into my trilogy, Fred.
• 29:06
  I've uh written the first book and I'm
• 29:09
  six chapters into the second book and
• 29:12
  >> still the the ideas are still coming.
• 29:14
  I'm I'm wondering when I'll hit the
• 29:15
  brick wall, but um yeah, it's it's going
• 29:18
  well at the moment. I'm enjoying it. So,
• 29:20
  I'm not going to give anything away, but
• 29:22
  um
• 29:22
  >> you're making it up as you go along.
• 29:25
  >> That's exactly how I'm
• 29:27
  >> I'll get to the next chapter and go,
• 29:28
  okay, where do I want this to go? And I
• 29:30
  just let my imagination run wild. So, um
• 29:33
  that's how I've always written. I don't,
• 29:35
  you know, started at school doing it
• 29:37
  that way when I won a composition
• 29:38
  contest.
• 29:39
  >> Very good.
• 29:40
  >> And that was that. Um, so yeah, we we
• 29:44
  covered Martin's question. Great poetry,
• 29:46
  by the way. The the big crunch. Yeah,
• 29:48
  nice work. Thanks, Martin. Good to hear
• 29:50
  from you as always. If you'd like to
• 29:52
  send questions into us, you can do so on
• 29:54
  our website, spacenutspodcast.com.
• 29:56
  Spacenuts.io.
• 29:58
  Choose your URL wisely and just click
• 30:02
  the uh AMA button which stands for ask
• 30:05
  me anything and that's what we're all
• 30:08
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• 30:09
  you are or where you're from. You can
• 30:10
  send text or audio questions. Uh and
• 30:13
  plenty of other things to see and do on
• 30:14
  our website as well. Uh one thing we do
• 30:16
  ask is if you um it doesn't matter what
• 30:18
  platform you're on, whether it's YouTube
• 30:20
  or Spreaker or uh Apple Podcasts, please
• 30:24
  leave a review. Uh the more the merrier.
• 30:27
  uh they do help apparently to um find
• 30:30
  more listeners and that's what we'd like
• 30:33
  to do. So if you could leave a review
• 30:35
  for us, we would appreciate it greatly
• 30:38
  and thank you Fred as always. It's been
• 30:40
  great fun.
• 30:41
  >> Um it's good fun or else we wouldn't do
• 30:43
  it.
• 30:44
  >> That's that's absolutely true. Certainly
• 30:46
  not doing it for the money. Um
• 30:49
  >> no,
• 30:49
  >> thanks Fred.
• 30:51
  >> We'll see you next week. Uh, Professor
• 30:53
  Fred Watson, astronomer at large. And
• 30:54
  thanks to Hugh in the studio, who
• 30:56
  couldn't be with us today because he's
• 30:58
  actually put his hand up for a mission
• 31:00
  to the sun because it's a lot cooler
• 31:02
  there than it is in Australia at the
• 31:04
  moment. Can't blame him for that. And
• 31:06
  from me, Andrew Dunley, thanks for your
• 31:07
  company. We'll catch you on the next
• 31:09
  episode of Space Nuts. Bye-bye.
• 31:11
  >> Space Nuts. You've been listening to the
• 31:13
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• 31:16
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