Latest / Made of Stars / Starliner Prepares to Return Home

Transcript

Starliner Prepares to Return Home · Made of Stars

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Speaker 1: Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
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Speaker 1: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
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Speaker 1: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
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Speaker 1: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar, asterism and uranus. Listen,
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Speaker 1: that's your own risk. Go ahead.
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Speaker 2: When made of stars, made them stars, made sizes. When
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Speaker 2: made of stars, you could be from high they would
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Speaker 2: New Mexicomus. Where are.
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Speaker 3: Stars? When we are made of stars?
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Speaker 4: I'm West Carol, joined by my good friend doctor Sean
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Speaker 4: Cruisin from Column State Universities, Coca Cola Space Science Center.
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Speaker 2: Hey Sean, Hey Wes, could to have you back. I'm
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Speaker 2: glad you were able to survive your adventures here in
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Speaker 2: the last week or so.
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Speaker 4: It was a hectic and very busy and very productive
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Speaker 4: dragon Con weekend for me and I got to hang
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Speaker 4: out with an astronaut. That's the I've spent a little
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Speaker 4: bit of time with an astronaut in a previous dragon Con,
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Speaker 4: but this year because you and I had interviewed Katie
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Speaker 4: Coleman and it was our show for last week, but
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Speaker 4: we released it on Tuesday. We had recorded it a
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Speaker 4: few days before that, just to help promote the fact
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Speaker 4: that she was going to be at dragon Con, and
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Speaker 4: she was one of the honored guests in the parade.
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Speaker 4: That was pretty cool watching her ride by and got
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Speaker 4: to spend a little bit of time with her, and
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Speaker 4: she was doing some other interviews. I was her escort
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Speaker 4: around for a bit, so that was kind of kind
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Speaker 4: of a surreal experience.
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Speaker 3: But no, it was great.
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Speaker 4: Great to spend time with her, great to get to
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Speaker 4: know her just a little bit, and great that we
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Speaker 4: were able to have her on the show. Just kind
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Speaker 4: of a cool stretch there for us, like thirty days,
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Speaker 4: two astronauts in that window that we were able to
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Speaker 4: get on the show, and I certainly hope to have
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Speaker 4: some more astronauts on the show in the near future.
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Speaker 4: So but no, we had a great time, and as always,
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Speaker 4: I appreciate the Columbus State University co Cola Space Science
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Speaker 4: Center you guys for a sponsoring my coverage of dragon
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Speaker 4: Con and the dragon Con Pregame show and got to
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Speaker 4: catch up with my guests who were there that we
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Speaker 4: had on the pregame show this year. That podcast is
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Speaker 4: the dragon Con Pregame Show Podcast. Wherever you hear this podcast.
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Speaker 4: You can hear that podcast and learn about some of
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Speaker 4: their projects from the past and some of their upcoming
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Speaker 4: projects as well. So while we were basically we had
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Speaker 4: a recorded show where we talked with with Katie Coleman,
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Speaker 4: we didn't really talk very much about Starliner and the
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Speaker 4: updates on that. There's been a lot of talk since
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Speaker 4: the last time we talked about Starliner, and we've got
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Speaker 4: some updates because Starliner now set to return home, just
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Speaker 4: without the astronaut. So this verbiage of them being stuck
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Speaker 4: in all of that has really caught on, and I've
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Speaker 4: seen quite a few news outlets really hammering home. But
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Speaker 4: to me, again, in the clickbait realm, it's been a
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Speaker 4: lot of they hav enough food up there? Are they
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Speaker 4: gonna die in space? What's gonna happen?
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Speaker 3: Where are they gonna sleep?
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Speaker 4: I don't understand what's gonna happen to them while they're
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Speaker 4: so just to be clear, this is like they're stuck
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Speaker 4: on a cruise ship that's just floating around at sea.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 4: It's not like they're nobody's gonna throw them off the boat.
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Speaker 4: At no point is someone gonna open up a hatch
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Speaker 4: and push them out like the Alien Queen. Anyway, Sorry
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Speaker 4: spoiler alert anyway, So what's the latest on Starliner set
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Speaker 4: to come home? As we record this on Thursday tomorrow
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Speaker 4: on Friday.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, this would be like the valent of you being
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Speaker 2: at a party at your friend's house and your car
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Speaker 2: gets towed, you know, because you parked it in the
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Speaker 2: wrong place. And you know it's not a life or
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Speaker 2: death situation because you're still at your friend's house, right,
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Speaker 2: I mean, you're if they're truly your friend, They're going
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Speaker 2: to let you hang out until you can tell an
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Speaker 2: uber can come pick you up. You know, they're going
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Speaker 2: to probably share some of the party supplies. They'll still
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Speaker 2: let you use the restroom if you need to stretch
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Speaker 2: out on the couch, you know, and take a little rest,
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Speaker 2: It's probably okay. Remember, friends, astronauts spend up to six
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Speaker 2: months or even a year aboard the International Space Station
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Speaker 2: on planned visits. These folks from from the Boeing star
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Speaker 2: Liner have still only been up there for a few.
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Speaker 4: Weeks now to your point, and you say, well, an
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Speaker 4: uber can come get you, and an uber is soon
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Speaker 4: to head that way to eventually bring them home, and
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Speaker 4: the other point just to follow up some of the
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Speaker 4: ridiculous clickbait conversation about them. There's also uber eats that
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Speaker 4: can send up food and snacks and whatever they need
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Speaker 4: along the way, whether it be so well, I guess
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Speaker 4: it won't specifically be those special space doritos. Those are
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Speaker 4: those are leaving on Saturday, and we'll get to that
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Speaker 4: story in a minute. But they have they're stocked, they
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Speaker 4: have food available where they're not, you know, going into
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Speaker 4: the toilet to grow potatoes up there. They're they're gonna
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Speaker 4: be fine. They've got enough, they've got enough provisions on
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Speaker 4: hand where they're gonna be okay. And then they will
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Speaker 4: continue to appropriately restock along the way. And then oh yeah,
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Speaker 4: by the way, they're ride home is going up, and
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Speaker 4: I'm sure they'll have some snacks on board that as well.
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Speaker 2: You know this story, And maybe it's because that with
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Speaker 2: this podcast you and I are participating in the space media,
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Speaker 2: so to speak, this story is become particularly annoying to
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Speaker 2: me simply because the non space media, those folks outside
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Speaker 2: of what I would call the space media, are just
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Speaker 2: loving to use the words stuck astronauts, right, They're just
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Speaker 2: getting so much clickbait, you know, profit or favorability whatever
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Speaker 2: from using the phrase, well, those stuck astronauts up there,
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Speaker 2: what are they gonna eat? What? And friends, listen, if
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Speaker 2: you think that NASA didn't think of the possibility that
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Speaker 2: something like this might happen, it was a test flight
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Speaker 2: of a vehicle. Friends, Come on, now, come on now,
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Speaker 2: ladies and gentlemen. NASA had already sent up the Twinkies
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Speaker 2: in advance to cover these folks in case they had
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Speaker 2: to stay a bit longer up there. They'd already had
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Speaker 2: the Hojos and the and the pringles and you know,
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Speaker 2: the favorite beverages up there astronauts, which are not carbonated
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Speaker 2: beverages by the way, because it creates a fair amount
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Speaker 2: of discomfort and zero gravity as it turns out. But
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Speaker 2: the point is, as Wes just said, they're stocked and
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Speaker 2: they can restock, and so food's not an issue. Places
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Speaker 2: to sleep are not an issue. It's all going to
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Speaker 2: be okay. And what may happen is the star Liner
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Speaker 2: itself may return successfully because there's still tests to do,
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Speaker 2: because once again, it was a test flight of that vehicle.
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Speaker 2: In other words, it was a flight specifically designed to
7:35
Speaker 2: test out various aspects of this particular spacecraft, and yes,
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Speaker 2: they made the decision that they didn't need to risk
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Speaker 2: the health and safety of the two astronauts aboard the
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Speaker 2: International Space Station. But the vehicles still go undergoing tests.
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Speaker 2: So they're going to bring it back home as if
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Speaker 2: people were on it. They're going to bring it back
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Speaker 2: home in a manner where they're going to be able
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Speaker 2: to test the way it lands. They did decide that
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Speaker 2: the particularly the maneuvering thruster issue was maybe just a
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Speaker 2: little bit more hazardous than they needed to endure or
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Speaker 2: to engage with. But they planned this right, so it's okay.
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Speaker 2: It's okay, it can come back remotely. Now, we do
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Speaker 2: read friends that there was a somewhat of a tense moment,
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Speaker 2: or many tense moments, as the personnel from Boeing were
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Speaker 2: in negotiations or discussions with personnel from NASA in the
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Speaker 2: process of making this decision, because everybody from Boeing still
8:46
Speaker 2: felt like even though their reaction control system their thrusters
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Speaker 2: were operating in a less than desirable manner, that they
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Speaker 2: could have brought the astronauts home safely. Now that's Boeing's opinion. NASA, well, yeah,
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Speaker 2: we don't think we want to put the lives of
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Speaker 2: these astronauts at risk just to verify or save face
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Speaker 2: that your hardware is okay. So we're gonna go ahead
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Speaker 2: and come up with a different plan. And NASA's Steve Stitch,
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Speaker 2: who's the program manager for the Commercial Crew program, said
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Speaker 2: in a statement, quote, anytime where there's this kind of decision,
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Speaker 2: there is some tension in the room unquote, And that
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Speaker 2: just confirms the many other reports that we read and
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Speaker 2: have been shared that, yeah, there's probably some tense discussion
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Speaker 2: between the Boeing personnel and the NASA personnel about this
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Speaker 2: decision to bring home the star Liner empty. So they're
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Speaker 2: gonna go ahead and launch SpaceX crew nine mission. Looks
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Speaker 2: like that launch dates no earlier than September twenty fourth.
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Speaker 2: They're gonna leave a couple of NASA astronauts off that flight,
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Speaker 2: that's Xena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson. This would have been
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Speaker 2: Xena Cardman's first trip to space. Stephanie Wilson has flown
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Speaker 2: in space several other time. She's a veteran astronaut. But
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Speaker 2: they're going to go ahead and send two astronauts up
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Speaker 2: on that flight. Nick Haig, who's a NASA astronaut he's
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Speaker 2: also flown in space already, and a roast Cosmos cosmonaut
10:10
Speaker 2: Alexander Gorbanov who has not been to space yet. But
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Speaker 2: we'll go ahead and stay on that mission, continue to
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Speaker 2: the space station, leaving two empty seats for Butch and
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Speaker 2: Sunny to come back safely from the International Space Station.
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Speaker 4: So basically, when it comes to the perspective on Boeing
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Speaker 4: versus NASA, so if they're able to get this thing
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Speaker 4: back down to Earth and not have any problems or complications,
10:36
Speaker 4: and they're able to get it back safely, that's certainly
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Speaker 4: a big win for Boeing. If they felt like they
10:40
Speaker 4: were going to be able to do this, they can
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Speaker 4: turn this around and say, well it would have been fine.
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Speaker 4: And you know, NASA, certainly, with either outcome, is going
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Speaker 4: to say we still made the right call because we
10:51
Speaker 4: wanted to make sure that, you know, first and foremost,
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Speaker 4: the fact that maybe we're celebrating that it arrived okay
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Speaker 4: tells us that it wasn't certainly going to okay. So
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Speaker 4: you know, either outcome for that, I guess someone's going
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Speaker 4: to be celebrating in that because obviously, if this thing
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Speaker 4: doesn't make it down safely. Then NASA was correct and
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Speaker 4: protecting their astronauts the way that they're gonna.
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Speaker 3: Gonna do it.
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Speaker 4: So again, and we've talked about this, but just so
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Speaker 4: it's it's planning to head up this Crew nine will
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Speaker 4: go up and then they will return, and they're gonna
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Speaker 4: go up. You said no earlier than the twenty fourth
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Speaker 4: of September.
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Speaker 2: Correct, Yeah, they're going to go up on No earlier
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Speaker 2: than the twenty fourth, but it looks like sometime before
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Speaker 2: the end of September is likely. And Butch Wilmore and
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Speaker 2: Sunita Williams, the two astronauts who are quote unquote stuck
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Speaker 2: not stuck aboard the International Space Station, will simply participate
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Speaker 2: as Crew nine crew members, right, So they'll they'll take
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Speaker 2: the place of the two astronauts not flying and participate
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Speaker 2: in all the experiments and all the things to be
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Speaker 2: done aboard the International Space Station by Crew nine and
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Speaker 2: then just come back with the SpaceX Crew nine vehicle
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Speaker 2: and the other two space.
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Speaker 4: Flyers, and they'll return in February, as the plan returned.
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Speaker 4: So it's an extended time there. They were expecting to
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Speaker 4: be there a few weeks. They're obviously going to get
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Speaker 4: months in space, and just I realize each person is different,
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Speaker 4: but I feel like they have kind of a similar
12:17
Speaker 4: mindset across most of these astronauts, and as we learned
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Speaker 4: chatting a bit with Katie Coleman, they enjoy having extra
12:26
Speaker 4: time in space. And she's even she even said to
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Speaker 4: us that if she were to have the opportunity to
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Speaker 4: go back on one of these craft that were going
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Speaker 4: up as a private citizen astronaut, she would happily throw
12:39
Speaker 4: her hand up for another chance to go to space again.
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Speaker 4: So I don't think I mean, yeah, they're going to
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Speaker 4: miss time with their families, and that's one of those
12:47
Speaker 4: perspectives that we all are aware of. But I don't
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Speaker 4: think they're suffering in their time in space. It certainly
12:54
Speaker 4: doesn't seem to be the case. But you know, it's
12:57
Speaker 4: going to be a prolonged mission, but they'll they'll make
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Speaker 4: it work, I'm sure, and make the most of every
13:02
Speaker 4: second that they get up there.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, with all of these kinds of things, it's probably
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Speaker 2: always mixed feelings, right, So there are good parts and
13:10
Speaker 2: bad parts. But as Katie Coleman said in our interview
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Speaker 2: last week, astronauts train to go to space because they
13:18
Speaker 2: want to. They volunteered, they apply to the NASA Astronaut
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Speaker 2: Core because they have a deep desire to go to space.
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Speaker 2: So the fact that Butch and Sunny are getting to
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Speaker 2: stay aboard the International Space Station for a longer time
13:35
Speaker 2: may have some mixed feelings for them, may have some
13:37
Speaker 2: mixed reactions, but by and large, astronauts want to be
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Speaker 2: in space because that's why they join the Astronaut Core,
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Speaker 2: and the fact that they're getting all this extra time
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Speaker 2: is probably something that they're enjoying. It certainly seems like
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Speaker 2: when we see photographs of them, they do not look forlorn.
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Speaker 2: They look like they're having a pretty good time up there.
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Speaker 4: They look like they on on top of the world.
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Speaker 2: I guess.
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Speaker 4: Literally, let's talk about Polaris on speaking of private missions,
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Speaker 4: because we've been talking about Polaris Dawn and how they
14:10
Speaker 4: were going to perform the world's first ever private spacewalk.
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Speaker 4: They were set to go last week. That didn't happen
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Speaker 4: yet that appears ready to go on Saturday, so it's
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Speaker 4: gonna be a busy weekend.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, there were a few there was a series of
14:26
Speaker 2: delays in that mission, and you know, some of those
14:29
Speaker 2: are surrounding just SpaceX things, but you know other things
14:33
Speaker 2: are well, all these things end up being tied together,
14:36
Speaker 2: right because you know, now SpaceX is having to adjust
14:39
Speaker 2: other launches, all those kinds of things anyway, So so
14:42
Speaker 2: all of those delays have now led to an apparent
14:45
Speaker 2: launch date of this coming Saturday. As we're recording the
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Speaker 2: show here on Thursday, looks like Saturday, September seventh. You're
14:52
Speaker 2: gonna have to be an early riser in the Eastern
14:55
Speaker 2: time zone or just stay up late if you're out
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Speaker 2: there in California. Sometime between three thirty eight am and
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Speaker 2: seven h nine am Eastern daylight time is the current
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Speaker 2: schedule launch window for the Polaris Dawn mission. Again, if
15:10
Speaker 2: you don't know what the Polarist Dawn mission is, it's
15:12
Speaker 2: a SpaceX mission that is fully commercial. In other words,
15:16
Speaker 2: it's not NASA astronauts, it's not going to the International
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Speaker 2: Space Station. It's it's a launch that's being paid for
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Speaker 2: by American billionaire Jared Isaacman. There are three other astronauts
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Speaker 2: on this trip for a five day flight into space
15:31
Speaker 2: that's going to feature the world's first ever can you
15:35
Speaker 2: say worlds if it's in space. I don't know. Can
15:38
Speaker 2: you say.
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Speaker 4: Because they're coming from the world, they're coming from the Earth, right.
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Speaker 2: And I guess that's true. I suppose it's But maybe
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Speaker 2: it's the Solar systems first ever commercial steam.
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Speaker 3: You can't be sure of that, right, we don't know.
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Speaker 2: We're not We're not really sure you're right about that.
15:53
Speaker 2: But I would venture a guess. If I was a
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Speaker 2: betting person, I would say, this is the Solar System's
15:58
Speaker 2: first ever commercial space Yeah. That's fair.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, that seems like a good that's a good estimation.
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Speaker 2: Even if aliens had come off other worlds in our
16:07
Speaker 2: Solar System, I'm not sure they paid their way up there.
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Speaker 3: That's true.
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Speaker 4: That's a good point.
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Speaker 2: We probably don't have a lot of the first ever
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Speaker 2: the Solar System's first ever commercial spacewalk. Yeah, I'm gonna
16:20
Speaker 2: go with it. West. I think I'm I think I'm
16:22
Speaker 2: on safe ground.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, not a lot of Jared Isaacman's in in Greb Planet,
16:26
Speaker 4: Greb Dar.
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Speaker 2: Maybe I don't know, you know, it could those those
16:31
Speaker 2: European you know critters that were somehow blasted into space
16:35
Speaker 2: by an ice geyser and became you know, involuntary astronauts
16:40
Speaker 2: in the Solar System. I don't think they paid their way,
16:42
Speaker 2: that's all I'm saying. That's a good point. It's a
16:43
Speaker 2: really good point. All right.
16:45
Speaker 4: So they're gonna do They're gonna they're gonna launch their
16:47
Speaker 4: schedule to launch early Saturday, and then they're gonna go
16:50
Speaker 4: out way past the International Space Station, do their space.
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Speaker 2: More than the world, that's my point.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
16:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, So this this will be the furthest that anybody's
17:01
Speaker 2: been away from Earth since the Moon missions of the
17:06
Speaker 2: nineteen seventies, sixties and seventies, so since the Apollo program.
17:09
Speaker 2: So that's actually kind of a big deal. Right. This
17:12
Speaker 2: is a higher orbit even than to go up and
17:14
Speaker 2: service the Hubble Space Telescope. It's a lot higher orbit
17:18
Speaker 2: than the International Space Station itself. So yeah, I mean
17:22
Speaker 2: it's there's some risk involved, is my point. And so
17:25
Speaker 2: this is certainly you know, we're thinking of them as
17:29
Speaker 2: these billionaires that have nothing better to do than just
17:32
Speaker 2: pay their way into space for a joy ride, but
17:35
Speaker 2: they're actually doing research, they're actually going to perform a
17:37
Speaker 2: space walk, and there is definitely danger involved, and so
17:42
Speaker 2: they're doing this to expand the human footprint in space
17:48
Speaker 2: in orbit around our Earth, and so that's a point
17:51
Speaker 2: to this. They're gonna be flying on the Falcon nine
17:53
Speaker 2: rocket and the Crew Dragon capsule that's named Resilience. It'll
17:58
Speaker 2: be Jared Isaacman who is he's serving as the commander,
18:01
Speaker 2: US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott kid potit is the pilot.
18:06
Speaker 2: Sarah Gillis and Anamenon are both SpaceX personnel and they're
18:12
Speaker 2: they're participating in that mission as well. So it's going
18:16
Speaker 2: to be a very interesting mission. We're going to keep
18:17
Speaker 2: our eye on that. We'll certainly be talking about that
18:19
Speaker 2: one next week as we see if that launch goes
18:24
Speaker 2: safely and hopefully the majority of the mission will be
18:26
Speaker 2: done by then, hopefully if the launch is not delayed.
18:30
Speaker 4: Let's talk about Jupiter's largest moon and how an asteroid,
18:34
Speaker 4: a large, an enormous asteroid really crash could have permanently
18:39
Speaker 4: altered Ganymede.
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Speaker 2: So there have been a series of studies done, and
18:44
Speaker 2: the series of studies involves data from spacecraft that have
18:49
Speaker 2: been analyzing the surface of Ganymede, but also involves an
18:53
Speaker 2: extensive number of computer simulations by a planetary scientist by
18:59
Speaker 2: the name of Ayochi Hirata from Japan's Kobe University, and
19:04
Speaker 2: Professor Hirota has done these computer simulations to see what
19:09
Speaker 2: could have caused not only the surface features that we
19:12
Speaker 2: see on Ganymede that suggest some kind of a Titanic collision,
19:17
Speaker 2: but that actually spun this tidally locked moon halfway around.
19:23
Speaker 2: In other words, the same face of Ganymede faces down
19:26
Speaker 2: toward Jupiter all the time, because Jupiter's tremendous gravity over
19:31
Speaker 2: the years has caused the heavier side of Ganymede to
19:35
Speaker 2: always point down at Jupiter. But it appears that in
19:38
Speaker 2: the past, during this collision, this giant collision that took
19:42
Speaker 2: place on Ganymede, that even though that moon is tidally locked,
19:46
Speaker 2: it's its orientation with respect to Jupiter has been shifted
19:51
Speaker 2: by a partial spin on its axis due to just
19:54
Speaker 2: a big old punch in the eye. And that looks
19:58
Speaker 2: like now a according to these computer simulations from Professor
20:02
Speaker 2: Harata at Kobe University, that all of that data, all
20:07
Speaker 2: of that evidence leads toward something very interesting. An asteroid
20:12
Speaker 2: impacting Ganymede that was even larger, in fact, much larger
20:17
Speaker 2: than the giant asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs here
20:20
Speaker 2: on Earth some sixty five million years ago, So an
20:26
Speaker 2: interesting event. If it's correct, it looks like that Ganymede,
20:31
Speaker 2: much smaller than the Earth, took an asteroid collision that's
20:36
Speaker 2: much larger than the asteroid collision that killed the dinosaurs.
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Speaker 2: That's just evidence of a time in the history of
20:42
Speaker 2: our Solar system where impacts were much more common, and
20:46
Speaker 2: they were extraordinarily violent, and they shaped many of the
20:51
Speaker 2: surfaces of the world here in our Solar System, including
20:54
Speaker 2: that of the Earth. And so as we go through
20:58
Speaker 2: and tried to understand how it is that human beings
21:01
Speaker 2: came to live on the surface of the Earth, all
21:04
Speaker 2: of these puzzle pieces are part of the larger picture
21:08
Speaker 2: that made this Goldilock's planet for us to live on
21:11
Speaker 2: in this part of the Solar System, but also had
21:14
Speaker 2: effects that shaped the rest of the Solar System in
21:17
Speaker 2: the way it looks today as well. So certainly giant
21:21
Speaker 2: asteroid strikes were part of that equation, and this is
21:25
Speaker 2: one more piece of evidence to show that that's true.
21:28
Speaker 2: This was published in the journal called Scientific Reports on Tuesday,
21:32
Speaker 2: September third.
21:34
Speaker 4: Do they have any idea about when this happened. Are
21:36
Speaker 4: they thinking it was around the same time as the
21:38
Speaker 4: one that hit us as the one that hit Ganymede.
21:41
Speaker 2: Yep. So the collision that caused the extinction of the
21:45
Speaker 2: dinosaurs happened at the end of a period of time
21:48
Speaker 2: in the history of the Solar System called the heavy
21:51
Speaker 2: bombardment period. The heavy bombardment period was almost over when
21:55
Speaker 2: this sixty six million years ago, when the sixty five
21:58
Speaker 2: sixty six among who what's a million years among geological
22:01
Speaker 2: friends anyway, So sometime around that time that would have
22:04
Speaker 2: been almost at the end of the heavy bombardment period.
22:07
Speaker 2: The Ganymede collision probably happened a little bit earlier in
22:11
Speaker 2: the heavy bombardment period. In other words, it's a little
22:14
Speaker 2: bit of an older collision than the one that killed
22:16
Speaker 2: the dinosaurs. They hadn't really said how much earlier they
22:20
Speaker 2: thought it was, but they have said that the object itself, though,
22:24
Speaker 2: was maybe twenty times larger than the asteroid that took
22:28
Speaker 2: out the dinosaurs.
22:30
Speaker 4: Coming up after a quick break, we will talk about
22:32
Speaker 4: what could be the first human made meteor shower. We'll
22:37
Speaker 4: get into that next. We talk about James Web and
23:01
Speaker 4: its successes and how it just keeps on given and
23:03
Speaker 4: given and given. But the Dart mission is giving as well.
23:07
Speaker 4: We get a special little surprise. Potentially we could get
23:11
Speaker 4: the first ever human made meteor shower because of the
23:15
Speaker 4: Dart mission's impact with the asteroids. So let's talk about this.
23:22
Speaker 2: Well, so let's go through just a minute and talk
23:25
Speaker 2: about how meteor showers happen in the first place. Basically,
23:28
Speaker 2: some object like a comet, sometimes though an asteroid that
23:33
Speaker 2: has a high number of volatiles contained in it, it
23:36
Speaker 2: gets too close to the Sun. One of these objects
23:39
Speaker 2: comes in to the inner part of the Solar System
23:41
Speaker 2: and melts a bit, and as it melts, it leaves
23:44
Speaker 2: a debris trail. Well, that pesky debris trail happens to
23:49
Speaker 2: cross the path of the orbit of the Earth. And
23:52
Speaker 2: then every year when we go through that part of
23:55
Speaker 2: our orbit, we run into that same debris trail over
23:58
Speaker 2: and over again, and that gives this these repeatable meteor
24:02
Speaker 2: showers like the persy is that we just had in August,
24:06
Speaker 2: and so we run into these debris streams at about
24:09
Speaker 2: the same time every year. Well, those have all been natural,
24:14
Speaker 2: you know, to this point, in other words, not caused
24:17
Speaker 2: by human beings. I mean, I think we're part of
24:19
Speaker 2: nature too, but anyway, not unhuman caused. How about that.
24:23
Speaker 2: I mean, there was that time that story Muskraves spilled
24:26
Speaker 2: that popcorn on a spacewalk and there were a few
24:28
Speaker 2: little things of maybe I don't know, was that story.
24:31
Speaker 2: I don't know, Maybe I just made that up. Anyway,
24:33
Speaker 2: So we have had a few tool bags and such
24:37
Speaker 2: fall from space, but those aren't really showers. Those are
24:40
Speaker 2: just kind of one time events. This would be an
24:43
Speaker 2: actual meteor shower in the sense that it is in
24:46
Speaker 2: fact debris from an asteroid that's somehow impinging on the
24:53
Speaker 2: orbit of the Earth around the Sun, and as Earth
24:56
Speaker 2: moves through that debris stream, there will be shooting st
25:00
Speaker 2: in the atmosphere above, and you might even be able
25:03
Speaker 2: to see them with the unaided eye. But it's just
25:06
Speaker 2: that this particular debris cloud was caused by the NASA
25:10
Speaker 2: Dart spacecraft slamming into the micro asteroid called Dimorphous back
25:15
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two, and now they're suggesting a nickname
25:19
Speaker 2: for this meteor shower, the Dimorphids. So not because it
25:23
Speaker 2: came from a certain constellation, but became as it came
25:26
Speaker 2: from a certain asteroid called dimorphous. So there you have it.
25:29
Speaker 2: Something interesting from man made meteor showers in space.
25:34
Speaker 4: All right, let's talk about solar cycle twenty five. We
25:37
Speaker 4: continue to have a show put on for us by
25:40
Speaker 4: the Sun. For folks that are actually looking at the Sun,
25:42
Speaker 4: staring at it. That used to be a bad thing.
25:44
Speaker 2: Right to my knowledge, we haven't slammed a spacecraft into
25:48
Speaker 2: the Sun anytime soon. I don't know why the Sun
25:51
Speaker 2: seems to be acting up lately, but it's surging. That's
25:55
Speaker 2: the report from spaceweather dot com. The Sun is surging.
25:58
Speaker 4: We did slam one into the Sun. And wait, didn't
26:00
Speaker 4: we shoot one into it that was looking back out
26:02
Speaker 4: away from us? I thought we did that once.
26:04
Speaker 2: Didn't. So the Parker solar Probe flew through the outer
26:07
Speaker 2: atmosphere of the Sun. But that's nothing to get too
26:10
Speaker 2: upset about. It wasn't just like a direct collision. I
26:12
Speaker 2: don't know why the Sun should be throwing a temper
26:14
Speaker 2: tantrum about the Parker solar probe.
26:16
Speaker 4: But it got close enough to you know, be absorbed
26:19
Speaker 4: in there. Right, it got burned up.
26:22
Speaker 2: No, No, Parker Solar Probe still going it's like it's
26:25
Speaker 2: like just whisking through the hair of that sun, you know. Okay,
26:28
Speaker 2: it's like a it's like brushing, you know, the the
26:30
Speaker 2: shirt sleeve of the sun.
26:32
Speaker 4: Bacon brownies and that thing. At this point, what are
26:34
Speaker 4: they doing in there?
26:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it has been through some heat testing,
26:38
Speaker 2: let's put it that way. Anyway. So what's happening on
26:41
Speaker 2: the Sun is a natural phenomenon. It's part of the
26:44
Speaker 2: solar cycle. That's the eleven year cycle of activity on
26:48
Speaker 2: the Sun. We've been tracking those for a number of
26:51
Speaker 2: decades now. And the last solar cycle we labeled that
26:56
Speaker 2: one solar cycle number twenty four, and that that solar
27:00
Speaker 2: cycle was a little bit weak. It seemed to be
27:03
Speaker 2: a progression of ever weakening solar cycles, and so those
27:07
Speaker 2: who studied the solar cycles were saying, well, the next cycle,
27:12
Speaker 2: which we call solar cycle twenty five, should be even
27:15
Speaker 2: weaker than solar cycle twenty four, at least according to
27:19
Speaker 2: the data and the plots that they were making, if
27:22
Speaker 2: they were connecting a line, if they were doing some
27:24
Speaker 2: kind of linear regression anyway, they predicted it be a
27:28
Speaker 2: little bit weaker, and just like happens so often, with space.
27:33
Speaker 2: As soon as a scientist makes some prediction about space,
27:36
Speaker 2: space decides to act in an unpredictable manner. That's what's
27:41
Speaker 2: going on with the Sun. Because solar cycle twenty five
27:45
Speaker 2: is not in fact weaker. It is in fact ever
27:49
Speaker 2: strengthening and will be much stronger than expected if it
27:54
Speaker 2: continues on this trend. In fact, it's already much stronger
27:57
Speaker 2: than expected. So this could be one of the strongest
28:00
Speaker 2: solar cycles of the twentieth century, and maybe even as
28:05
Speaker 2: strong as the Great Solar Cycle of two thousand and one,
28:09
Speaker 2: which led to the strongest X class solar flare ever recorded.
28:14
Speaker 2: For those of you who are keeping track on the books,
28:17
Speaker 2: like in a baseball game, it was an X forty
28:19
Speaker 2: five that occurred. That's a logarithmic scale, by the way,
28:22
Speaker 2: so X forty five is just well, its is more
28:25
Speaker 2: powerful than you can imagine anyway. So that one occurred
28:28
Speaker 2: back in two thousand and three, and so this is
28:32
Speaker 2: a very interesting development that this solar cycle has gotten
28:35
Speaker 2: so much stronger than has been thought. There have already
28:39
Speaker 2: been geomagnetic storms of historic proportions, including the one that
28:46
Speaker 2: happened on May tenth, where we saw Aurora borealis as
28:51
Speaker 2: far south as southern Puerto Rico and down into Central America,
28:56
Speaker 2: so or not in Central America, but into Mexico, southern Mexico.
29:00
Speaker 2: So this is a historic event that's taking place on
29:03
Speaker 2: the Sun, and it's unpredicted, and it's interesting because of that,
29:08
Speaker 2: and so we're going to continue to watch. Now, the
29:10
Speaker 2: experts have now begun to say that perhaps solar maximum,
29:15
Speaker 2: the time of maximum activity on the Sun, the most sunspots,
29:18
Speaker 2: the most solar flares, the most Aurora borealis here on Earth,
29:23
Speaker 2: maybe that's actually this year. Maybe that maximum is occurring
29:28
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four rather than in the predicted twenty
29:32
Speaker 2: twenty five. So we might be in the midst of
29:35
Speaker 2: solar max now, but certainly for the next couple of years,
29:40
Speaker 2: the sunspot count does not look like it's going to
29:42
Speaker 2: be decreasing, and we'll have an enhanced solar activity from
29:46
Speaker 2: the Sun.
29:47
Speaker 4: Well, let's talk Music under the Dome as the new
29:51
Speaker 4: season getting ready to get underway next month.
29:54
Speaker 2: We're very excited about this season of Music under the Dome,
29:57
Speaker 2: which is a concert series held in our planetary him
30:00
Speaker 2: the Atmosphere theater here at Columbus State University's Coca Cola
30:03
Speaker 2: Space Science Center. The reason we're excited, well, number one,
30:07
Speaker 2: we know that they're going to be great concerts. But
30:09
Speaker 2: number two, we also have a brand new planetarium projection
30:12
Speaker 2: system installed inside the atmosphere ready to go showing the
30:17
Speaker 2: visuals created by the graphic artists who are working with
30:21
Speaker 2: our planetarium director, mister Lance Tankerslee here at Space Science Center.
30:25
Speaker 2: And there's going to be a lot of really fine
30:27
Speaker 2: artwork choreographed to the music performed by the students and
30:31
Speaker 2: faculty of the schwob School of Music here at Columbus
30:33
Speaker 2: State University. And then at the end of the season,
30:38
Speaker 2: there's going to be a special bonus concert by someone
30:42
Speaker 2: who's going to actually interface the piano with the dome.
30:47
Speaker 2: Mister Dan Tepfer is going to be performing in May,
30:50
Speaker 2: and so that's a special edition of music under the
30:52
Speaker 2: Dome that's going to be unlike any of the concerts
30:55
Speaker 2: held to this point. So if you want to buy
30:58
Speaker 2: a season ticket, they are going on sale today. Come
31:02
Speaker 2: visit us at our website www dot CCSC dot org,
31:07
Speaker 2: Charlie Charlie SamSam Charlie dot org and buy your season
31:10
Speaker 2: tickets for music under the Dome, or you can buy
31:13
Speaker 2: a one off ticket for individual concerts and make sure
31:17
Speaker 2: you look at that beautiful concert schedule because there's a
31:20
Speaker 2: lot of really fun concerts. They're going to be happening
31:22
Speaker 2: a couple in the fall and then three in the
31:24
Speaker 2: spring semester here in the Atmosphere Theater at Columbus State
31:28
Speaker 2: University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
31:31
Speaker 4: It is an immersive concert experience like no other. It's
31:35
Speaker 4: something you have to experience at least once. Shawn and
31:38
Speaker 4: I thank you for listening, and we will do this
31:40
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