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Cosmic Connections: Mapping Magnetic Fields, Dark Matter Mysteries & SpaceX’s IPO Success |... · Space News Today

0:00
Hello again. Thanks for joining us on
0:02
another episode of Space Nuts. My name
0:04
is Andrew Dunley. It's great to have
0:05
your company. I hope you're well. Uh
0:08
coming up in this episode, some exciting
0:10
stories and one of them is a new CSIO
0:15
map developed in Australia of
0:19
magnetic fields. Now, it's been quite a
0:21
while since they updated this and
0:23
they've got a new one out and uh it's
0:25
quite extraordinary uh the way it was
0:26
done and what it shows and and what it
0:28
can be used for. Uh we've also got a new
0:31
report about the relationship or
0:34
otherwise between uh black holes and
0:37
dark matter. Now, this is interesting
0:39
because it's only been a theory until
0:42
now. Now, this isn't absolute proof, but
0:46
it's a step closer to proving there is
0:48
something going on between the two of
0:50
them. and they just don't want anyone to
0:51
know. And the world's first trillionaire
0:55
goes public. We'll talk about all of
0:57
that on this episode of Space Nuts.
1:00
>> 15 seconds. Guidance is internal. 10 9g
1:05
Ignition sequence start.
1:06
>> Space nuts.
1:07
>> 5 4 3 2
1:10
>> 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1
1:12
>> Space Nuts.
1:13
>> Astronauts report. It feels good. And
1:16
he's with us again for another dose of
1:19
whatever it is he takes before he talks
1:20
to me. It's Professor Fred. What's an
1:23
astronomer at large? Hello, Fred.
1:25
>> It's a good cup of tea that I take
1:27
normally.
1:29
Uh I I I've been drinking a bit more tea
1:32
of late only because um by the afternoon
1:36
I'm not really into coffee. But
1:38
>> today I did have coffee. So
1:41
>> um do love my coffee.
1:43
>> I do too. But
1:44
>> I make my own. I I got the whole barista
1:46
thing going. I'm even doing I'm even
1:49
doing latte art, Fred.
1:50
>> Oh, really?
1:52
>> I don't know if you'll see this. I I
1:53
took this photo
1:55
um today of my latte art. Can you see
1:58
that?
1:59
>> That is brilliant.
2:00
>> Yeah.
2:01
>> That's real self. Selfaugh barista.
2:05
>> Yes.
2:06
>> I don't know what it is. Some kind some
2:08
kind of flower. Like a lotus flower.
2:09
>> Well, it reminds me of ears of corn.
2:12
>> Oh, yeah. It does, doesn't it?
2:13
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's what it
2:15
>> or just ducks sitting on top of each
2:17
other or something.
2:18
>> Could be your could be your corny latte.
2:20
>> Yes, it could be. Yeah. Anyway, I've
2:22
been working on that. That's
2:25
>> impressive. I was going to do a whole
2:26
series and put them on Instagram of my
2:28
progression through being really crap at
2:31
it and to reaching a point where it's,
2:33
you know, something to look at. But I
2:36
didn't bother and now I wish I had
2:38
because I've had some epic fails. But,
2:41
um, that one came out quite well today.
2:43
That's very nice. Well done.
2:45
>> Right, let's uh let's get on with this
2:47
because uh we've got a lot to talk about
2:49
as always and our first story comes from
2:52
Australia, mate. And it is the uh the
2:56
remapping of uh the magnetic fields of a
3:00
large swave of um the universe or is it
3:04
a large sway of whatever piece of the
3:07
backyard sky someone can see out of? I'm
3:09
not sure how much of it they got.
3:12
a good chunk of it actually. Um
3:13
>> I thought so
3:14
>> because um so this was these
3:18
observations were made at uh an site in
3:22
Western Australia known as in Yarimani
3:24
Ilgari Bundura which is Wadger for
3:27
sharing sky and stars. The Wadger people
3:29
are the traditional owners there and
3:31
it's also called the CSRO Merches and
3:33
Radio Astronomy Observatory but we tend
3:35
to refer to it as Inarima Ilgari Bunda
3:38
because it's a very nice name. Uh so
3:42
what's there? There is uh first of all
3:45
um it's the site for the low frequency
3:49
uh arm of the square kilometer array. Uh
3:52
the square kilometer array observatory
3:54
exists in three places. Uh one is
3:56
western Australia where the low
3:58
frequency antennas are. Uh the other is
4:00
in South Africa where the mid-frequency
4:03
antennas are and the other is near
4:05
Manchester where the headquarters are.
4:08
Um that's Jodel Bank is where the
4:10
headquarters of SKAO are. Uh and they've
4:13
just got a new director general by the
4:16
way. Um Jessica Dempsey I think is her
4:19
name. Somebody I've kind of run into
4:22
before over the years. Uh is um uh the
4:25
new director general of the SKAO
4:27
observatory. Sorry, SKA Observatory.
4:29
Anyway, yeah. Also on the site in
4:32
Western Australia is ASCAP, which is the
4:35
Australian
4:37
SKA
4:38
Pathfinder, ASK AP.
4:42
>> Coincidence an ASCAP is also something
4:44
you can wear if you don't have any
4:46
pants.
4:50
>> There's no answer to that, Andrew. I uh
4:53
No,
4:55
>> no, we just let that one.
4:57
>> I might leave that one alone. Yeah.
4:59
Anyway, notwithstanding that,
5:02
see, you don't get this on other
5:04
podcasts, do you? It's why we're number
5:06
one in Iceland.
5:07
>> That's right.
5:09
>> We are. Thank you, Iceland.
5:11
>> Absolutely. Go for it. Um I forgot. Yes.
5:15
ASCAP. The not the not the garment, but
5:19
the um the radio telescope array. 36 12
5:22
m dishes which were built um over the I
5:27
guess 15 years ago was when they
5:28
started. It's been operational for
5:30
probably more than 10 years now and done
5:32
some fabulous work. Uh, but the latest
5:35
piece of high-profile research that's
5:37
come from ASCAP is exactly as you've
5:40
said, the largest magnetic map of the
5:42
universe ever produced. Five times
5:44
larger than all previous efforts
5:46
combined and it marks the beginning of a
5:49
new generation of research into the
5:50
field of intergalactic magnetism. And
5:53
I'm reading there from the CSRO news
5:55
release. Um, you could probably spot the
5:57
hype, but it's welldeserved hype as
5:59
well. And a welld deserved kudos to the
6:02
team leader, Alec Thompson of CSRO. Um,
6:06
what they've done is used the telescope
6:10
in a in a I suppose an innovative way.
6:14
Uh, how do you measure magnetic fields?
6:16
Well, you know, normally to measure a
6:18
magnetic field, we stick a magnetometer
6:21
in the way. That's how magnetic fields
6:23
are measured in the solar system by
6:24
various spacecraft because they carry
6:26
magnetometers which measure the local
6:28
magnetic field of where you are. Um, and
6:31
that gives us some insights into not
6:34
just the the Sun's magnetic field, not
6:36
the Earth's magnetic field and the Sun's
6:37
magnetic field, but also uh courtesy of
6:40
Voyager, the two Voyager spacecraft, the
6:42
galaxy's magnetic field, because we can
6:44
sense the direction of that with the
6:47
magnetometers uh carried by those
6:49
spacecraft which are now beyond the
6:50
sun's magnetic influence. But uh it's
6:54
quite a a long jump from the environs of
7:00
the solar system to the universe as a
7:02
whole. Uh which is what these scientists
7:05
have done. And the basic technique is uh
7:11
it's all about um polarization.
7:15
And we've talked about polarization
7:17
before. We all know what it does when we
7:21
wear our polarizing sunglasses and
7:23
you're driving your car into the
7:26
sunlight and there's a huge reflection
7:28
coming off the road, especially if it's
7:30
wet. Uh, and your polarizing sunglasses
7:33
magically take that away. That's
7:35
happening because the the light waves uh
7:38
have um
7:41
they're if you think of them as as just
7:43
being wiggles in space, which they are
7:45
electromagnetic wiggles, they have a
7:47
preferred direction. Um normal light has
7:50
a mix of all these directions, but uh it
7:53
turns out that you can separate out them
7:56
by using well a polarizing filter, which
7:58
is what we've got in our sunglasses that
8:00
only lets through the vibrations that
8:02
are vertical. That's the vertical
8:04
direction of the light that's coming to
8:06
you. Because the horizontal ones which
8:09
are um very much reflected in the uh in
8:13
in the in the you know in the reflection
8:15
from the wet road they are canceled out
8:17
and so you don't see them.
8:20
>> Uh so so we're kind of familiar with
8:22
that effect that idea of the direction
8:25
of vibration of of light waves. Well the
8:28
same holds good in um in radio waves.
8:32
And so ASCAP and many other radio
8:34
telescopes can actually sense the
8:37
polarization of the radio signals that
8:40
they're receiving from deep space. Uh
8:43
and so that's all well and good. You can
8:45
sense the polarization, but you can also
8:48
detect if that polarization's been
8:51
twisted. And that's what happens when
8:54
the light passes through a magnetic
8:56
field. Um it it actually rotates. It's
8:59
called Faraday rotation. It's the plane
9:01
of the of the radio waves twists and you
9:06
can detect that with an array like ASCAP
9:09
and that is what has allowed people to
9:12
measure the magnetic field of the
9:13
universe because
9:15
what you do is you look at the light
9:19
from a distant galaxy and you look at
9:22
the way its polarization changes uh as
9:25
that light comes towards us by using
9:27
this technique. And so what you what
9:30
you're saying is that you've got a kind
9:32
of um you know a beacon lamp in the
9:36
distance and what you can sense is
9:38
what's happening to the light coming
9:40
from that as it passes through magnetic
9:42
fields on its way. And so that's the
9:45
basis of the map. Um as far as I can
9:48
tell from because I'm not a radio
9:50
astronomer which is patently obvious
9:52
probably from the way I'm talking about
9:54
it. Um I I think you you probably don't
9:58
know how far away that magnetic field
10:00
is. And so um what you can infer is uh
10:05
how how for example how rapidly it
10:07
changes uh depending on the position in
10:12
the sky. Um it's there's there's when
10:15
you look at this map and I urge our
10:17
listeners to have a look at it. It's
10:19
pretty easy to find the largest magnetic
10:21
map of the universe yet. Um you'll see
10:24
lots of colors. Um the colors I think
10:26
are colorcoded in that um I think if I
10:29
remember rightly red is with the north
10:32
pole pointing towards us of the
10:34
magnetism and blue is it pointing the
10:37
other way. Um and so that uh lets you
10:40
sense the magnetism along that line of
10:43
sight. And so the the biggest detail is
10:45
actually in the galactic center which is
10:48
full of churning magnetic fields. I I
10:50
guess you're having a look at it now. I
10:52
I'm looking at it right this minute and
10:54
yeah, you're right that they they're
10:55
explaining that just like um you've got
10:57
blue shift and red shift with with light
10:59
waves, the magnetic
11:02
>> fields have the same kind of qualities
11:04
in terms of north south
11:06
>> on the um on the magnetic plane. And
11:08
yes, the center of the Milky Way galaxy
11:10
is probably the most volatile part of
11:12
this entire picture. Um yeah, not
11:15
surprising. We live there. We know we
11:17
know all about volatility. Yeah, it's
11:20
home from home. Uh, and just just going
11:23
back to um what you said a few minutes
11:25
ago, um there is a there is a hole in
11:27
the in the uh map and that's because
11:31
ASCAP there's certainly regions of the
11:33
northern sky that ASCAP can't see
11:35
because they're permanently below the
11:37
horizon. They're relatively small
11:38
actually because ASCAP can look a long
11:40
way down towards the horizon, much
11:42
further than we can in optical
11:43
astronomy. in optical astronomy that the
11:45
atmosphere just gets too thick when
11:47
you're looking very low down and so you
11:49
get all the distortions and everything
11:50
from the atmosphere. That doesn't happen
11:53
uh with low frequency radio waves. So um
11:55
the the gap that's missing because of
11:58
the northern hemisphere uh because it's
12:00
not visible to the telescope that's
12:01
actually relatively small compared with
12:04
if it was an optical astronomy picture
12:06
that you were looking at. But yes, the
12:08
this this map has the the line of the
12:10
Milky Way across its equator across the
12:12
middle. Um, lots of magnetic turbulence
12:15
in there. Some really intriguing
12:17
features, things that look like magnetic
12:19
fingers just sort of pointing around.
12:22
It's a remarkable map which um, yeah, I
12:24
encourage people to have a look at.
12:26
Yeah. Just by way of um, taking this a
12:28
step further. Uh, what can they now or
12:32
what can anybody now do with a map like
12:34
this? Because it's been made publicly
12:36
available, hasn't it? Yes. So, that
12:38
that's exactly right. those data are now
12:41
publicly available. By the way, I do
12:43
like the name of it which is spice
12:46
racks.
12:47
>> Yeah. Uh so RAX is the rapid ASCAP
12:51
continuum survey and I've forgotten what
12:55
spice is but it's something equally
12:58
equally delightful. Uh but the spice
13:00
rack survey I think is uh is you know
13:03
it's got its own uh own charm about it.
13:06
I I was going to say something tongue
13:09
and cheek about a a girl group named
13:11
something to do with spice.
13:12
>> Oh yes, I know the one you
13:14
>> and then then I thought no, you can't
13:16
really associate that with racks. You
13:17
could get yourself smacked across the
13:19
face.
13:20
>> I would leave that well alone.
13:21
>> I will I won't mention it.
13:23
>> Yeah.
13:24
So um it's Yes. So it's so and and yes,
13:28
as you said the the data are already
13:30
publicly available. uh research groups
13:33
are already actually digging through
13:36
this to see what it tells us about the
13:40
you know the magnetism of galaxies for a
13:42
start. Uh it's and and just the way the
13:46
environment of a galaxy is dominated by
13:49
a particular magnetic field. It's only
13:51
recently that we've understood that
13:54
cosmic magnetic fields i.e. magnetic
13:57
fields in space play a huge role in so
14:00
many areas of astrophysics. But
14:02
certainly in the way galaxies evolve
14:04
over the millennia,
14:07
billennia I suppose they are uh the way
14:09
they evolve uh is um is very much
14:13
dominated by the local magnetic fields.
14:16
And one of the big puzzles in cosmology,
14:18
the science of you know the universe as
14:20
a whole is where did these magnetic
14:22
fields come from in the first place?
14:24
Yeah. And it's actually one of it's one
14:27
of the things on the list of target
14:30
science that as that the square
14:32
kilometer array itself was designed to
14:34
address. What's the origin of the of the
14:36
cosmic magnetic field? Because we really
14:39
don't know how they came to exist and
14:42
more than that we don't know how
14:44
magnetic fields have changed as you know
14:47
as the universe itself has evolved. All
14:49
this lets you do that because of course
14:50
as you look further out into space
14:52
you're looking further back in time. So
14:54
there's a a time dimension of this as
14:56
well.
14:57
>> Yep. There's a there's a lot of
14:58
magnetism out there and as you say they
15:00
don't know where it came from. Uh we
15:02
probably would have solved it solved it
15:04
except dark matter and dark energy came
15:06
along and we went oh well this is more
15:07
exciting but um yeah it's just another
15:10
one of those mysteries by the look of
15:12
>> it is and I I you know I'm sure the um
15:15
all the scientists who've been involved
15:17
with this have got magnetic
15:19
personalities.
15:20
>> Oh sorry I do my best. We aim to please.
15:24
>> Pretty good that one. All right. If
15:26
you'd like to read up on it, you can do
15:28
that through the CSRO website. It's an
15:30
Australian website and you can download
15:32
the map. It's only 6 million megaby.
15:35
It's 6 megabytes. It's not a big file in
15:38
the modern age. Uh you can also read the
15:41
paper in publications of the
15:43
Astronomical Society of Australia. This
15:46
is Space Nuts with Professor Fred Watson
15:49
and Andrew Dunley.
15:54
G and I feel fine.
15:55
>> Space nuts. All right. Um, now you did
15:59
you did press record, didn't you?
16:01
>> I did press record. Yes. Um, yes. The
16:04
giant gap was a misfire.
16:06
>> Oh, good. That's good. Okay. We get
16:08
those. Uh, now, uh, our next story, it's
16:11
a, uh, a new report about the
16:13
relationship between black holes and
16:15
dark matter. Now, this is this is
16:17
something that our audience has quite
16:19
often thrown up. you know, there's got
16:21
to be a connection uh between black
16:23
holes and and dark matter, etc., etc. Uh
16:27
and now they've released a paper that's
16:29
suggesting just that.
16:32
>> Yes, this is really interesting stuff.
16:34
And of course, it it um it covers two of
16:37
the most popular topics that we discuss
16:41
on on Space Nuts. Uh this is research uh
16:44
from Virginia Tech uh in the United
16:47
States and it it's very neat because it
16:51
uses a technique that I've always found
16:53
absolutely fascinating
16:55
um which is it's got a fancy name uh
16:59
called reverberation mapping uh but we
17:03
usually talk about light echoes uh and
17:07
the the easiest way to envisage it is uh
17:10
the one that I think drew everybody's
17:14
attention to this phenomenon back in the
17:16
1980s
17:18
uh when supernova 1987a
17:22
the nearest supernova to us since Kepler
17:25
supernova in6004 I think it was um that
17:29
uh became very much the object of
17:31
attention uh it was in the large melanic
17:33
cloud so 165,000 lighty years away from
17:36
us as the crow flies uh and what was
17:40
discovered as time went on was the so
17:43
the the supernova explodes. You've got
17:45
this brilliant flash of light. It was
17:47
easily visible to the naked eye. I
17:49
remember looking at it. Uh and uh then
17:52
as time goes by the light fades, but
17:55
what you get uh
17:58
as time goes on is a series of rings
18:01
around the apparently around the the
18:04
site of the explosion. And those rings
18:08
are caused by light being reflected off
18:12
clouds of dust which are between us and
18:15
the supernova. And you can do all kinds
18:17
of really neat calculations uh to dis
18:21
discover how thick those clouds of dust
18:23
are, where they are in relation to the
18:25
supernova. Um uh one of my colleagues
18:28
for now sadly no longer with us, David
18:30
Allen was a past master about working on
18:34
this and writing about it. And uh that
18:36
those rings are called light echoes
18:38
because it's the echo of the light of
18:40
the supernova which has now faded away
18:43
but you can still see it because it's
18:44
bouncing off off clouds of dust in
18:47
space. So what this article is about the
18:52
Virginia Tech work that we've just
18:53
mentioned is we know that black holes
18:56
super massive black holes are surrounded
18:59
by swirling discs of matter uh they're
19:03
called the accretion disc. It's the
19:05
stuff that's basically swirling around
19:07
the plug hole uh before it either gets
19:10
sucked into the black hole or shot out
19:12
vertically from the poles of the black
19:14
hole, the rotation poles in the form of
19:17
these jets which we hear a lot about.
19:18
But the accretion disc itself is bright
19:21
and it um in X-rays and radio.
19:25
Uh once in a while um a larger dollop of
19:28
matter enters the accretion disc and you
19:32
get this outburst. you get a brilliant
19:34
outburst of of of radiation. Um, and
19:39
that outburst is relatively short-lived.
19:42
It might last for a few weeks or even
19:44
months, but it's short-lived. And so
19:47
what you can look for is a light echo
19:50
around it because that light radiates
19:52
outwards from the accretion disc. And if
19:55
it hits anything, you know, outside it,
19:58
it will reflect back to us and we'll see
20:00
it at a later date from when the bright
20:05
event itself happened. So you see the
20:07
bright event in the accretion disc and
20:10
then at some time later you see an an
20:13
echo of that light which is being
20:15
reflected off usually gas and dust which
20:18
is surrounding the uh the accretion
20:21
disc. What this story is all about
20:23
though is that when you do calculations
20:27
about how much material there is in the
20:32
accretion disc where the echo is taking
20:35
place, you get a much higher mass than
20:38
what you can see. And that's al always
20:41
the um that's always the uh uh kind of
20:45
telltale signature of dark matter uh
20:48
when you can only see a limited amount
20:50
of stuff but gravity tells you that
20:53
there's much more there's more there
20:55
>> and that's exactly the basis of this
20:56
story. So, it's just a new way of
20:59
detecting the dark matter uh around
21:04
black holes. But it looks as though
21:06
black holes, as you'd expect, not only
21:09
are a magnet for regular matter, uh I
21:12
mean a gravitational magnet. I guess
21:14
it's not magnetic in the sense that
21:16
we've just been talking about uh but a
21:18
gravitational uh pull for normal matter.
21:21
It's also a gravitational pull for dark
21:24
matter as well. And it looks as though
21:25
the dark matter actually congregates
21:28
around black holes that we've got these
21:31
buildups of dark matter in the vicinity
21:34
of of a black hole.
21:35
>> Quite remarkable.
21:37
>> Now the the situation is that they
21:39
haven't absolutely proven it. They've
21:42
just come up with a way of suggesting
21:44
that this might be the case. But um
21:48
yeah, it's not absolute. It's not it's
21:49
not
21:51
>> fact. It's it it is in the sense that um
21:54
they've looked at this for for 14
21:57
different galaxies
21:59
>> and and all found cases where uh what
22:03
what you what you're looking for is the
22:05
way the mass changes with distance from
22:07
the black hole and that mass is
22:10
increasing because you're looking at
22:12
stuff swirling around. But the increase
22:14
in mass is faster than the visible
22:18
matter on its own can explain. Yeah. And
22:21
that's the it's a kind of smoking gun
22:23
for dark matter really.
22:24
>> Yeah. I I've I've found the paragraph.
22:26
It says data limitations mean the
22:28
results are a proof of concept, not a
22:31
definitive dete detection, but the study
22:34
outlines a clear path to confirmation.
22:36
>> That's right. Yeah. So
22:37
>> we're almost there.
22:38
>> We're almost there. That's exactly
22:40
right. We're almost there.
22:41
>> That is very exciting news. And um that
22:44
will stop probably 75% of the questions
22:46
we get on our Q&A editions.
22:50
Well, it it might, but I bet it produces
22:53
another 150% about what it is that we're
22:56
finding. And how do we know? Why isn't
22:58
it Mond and things like that?
23:00
>> Yeah. Yes. Oh gosh. It will just it
23:02
it'll never end.
23:03
>> It will never end.
23:04
>> I hope it never ends. I think it's
23:06
great.
23:06
>> So do I.
23:07
>> But if you want to read about it, it's
23:08
at fizz.org. Uh they publish the paper
23:11
in the physical review D. Does that mean
23:14
there's an A, B, and C that comes?
23:16
>> Yes, it does.
23:17
>> I assume so. Yes. But um that's a
23:19
high-profile journal though, Physical
23:21
Review. It's uh definitely uh
23:24
>> you know it's it's ranks with nature and
23:27
science and these very high-profile
23:28
journals. So it's it's not work that is
23:31
in any way secondary. It's not like
23:34
Space Nuts where it's adequate. This is
23:36
top top top running stuff. Indeed it is.
23:41
Uh yes. So read about it at physical
23:43
review or at fizz.org. This is Space
23:45
Nuts. Andrew Dunley here with Professor
23:47
Fred Watson.
23:51
>> Okay, we checked all four systems and
23:54
>> Space Nets.
23:56
>> Our final story, Fred, uh takes us into
23:59
the realm of um publicly offering your
24:02
company up on the stock exchange.
24:05
>> I wonder why we're going to talk about
24:07
that.
24:07
>> I wonder why. Uh the world's first
24:09
trillionaire has just done that in um in
24:12
a very interesting way. And to coincide
24:14
with the launch, he's um he's selling
24:17
stuff like we do on on the Space Nuts
24:19
shop. All sorts of little bits and bobs
24:22
if you want a piece of the action.
24:24
>> Yes, the IPO merch.
24:26
>> It is it really is a remarkable story
24:28
though uh Elon Musk and SpaceX because
24:31
uh as as this article um briefly
24:34
mentions, he didn't think the company
24:36
would survive. He didn't expect it to to
24:39
actually be a success. He gave it a very
24:41
low chance of lasting and look at him
24:44
now.
24:46
>> Quite so. The world's first
24:48
trillionaire.
24:50
>> Yeah.
24:50
>> It's um I mean I don't honestly I know
24:54
virtually nothing about the world of
24:55
high finance.
24:57
>> Um
24:58
>> well, you know more than me then.
25:00
>> When I see numbers like millions and
25:02
billions, I always expect there to be
25:04
light years after them rather than
25:05
dollars. Uh but yeah, it's uh the the
25:10
public the IPO initial public offering
25:13
um has valued this company at something
25:16
absolutely huge compared with all the
25:17
other tech companies that that are being
25:19
floated or are likely to be floated into
25:22
public ownership. It's enormous.
25:25
>> Um is it 170 billion? Am I thinking of
25:28
the right number there? Or is that light
25:29
years? That could be light years.
25:31
>> I don't know.
25:33
Uh anyway, the bottom line, so yes, that
25:36
was um uh over the weekend that um that
25:40
offering IPO uh happened and it was very
25:44
successful. Um I heard people on Friday
25:47
saying, "Oh no, the it'll probably just
25:49
fail because nobody will actually
25:51
believe what Elon Musk's saying."
25:53
>> Well, they might not have believed what
25:54
he was saying, but they put their money
25:56
where they where their mouths were. And
25:58
um yeah, so it's done very very well.
26:01
Um, I think the number I'm thinking of
26:03
is $160.95,
26:05
which is the share price.
26:07
>> Well, I've just looked it up now, and I
26:08
know this is being recorded, so by the
26:10
time people hear this, the number will
26:12
change. But at the moment, at this very
26:14
moment,
26:16
>> $19,250
26:17
in US.
26:19
>> All right. So, they've already gone up
26:21
then.
26:21
>> They've gone up 19.6%.
26:24
>> Yeah.
26:24
>> In fact, they're up 31.55%
26:27
today. So, not a bad investment really
26:29
if you're into that kind of thing.
26:30
>> Yeah.
26:31
>> Well, we're not into that kind of thing,
26:32
but we're definitely into merch. Uh, and
26:35
that's what this story is about, right?
26:38
>> Because, um, uh, I I I guess the one
26:41
thing you can not accuse Elon Musk of is
26:45
lacking flare. um because he's done this
26:48
very nicely that you can buy a mission
26:50
patch
26:51
>> for the uh for the IPO uh which says the
26:56
future is public. There's a lovely
26:58
embroidered uh Starship in the
27:01
background. Uh in the middle it says
27:03
SPCX which is SpaceX liftoff underneath
27:06
it and uh SpaceX 2026. Uh and it's also
27:11
got a four-leaf clover on it which I
27:13
think is present on all Elon Musk
27:15
SpaceX. I think that's been his logo
27:17
since day one.
27:19
>> Yes. Yeah. A sign of good luck. Maybe
27:22
that's what's done it.
27:23
>> But the thing I liked was um you can you
27:28
can have a souvenir bell. And I guess I
27:32
don't know whether bells are normally
27:34
associated. I know they're certainly
27:36
associated with the stock exchange, but
27:38
whether whether with public offerings
27:40
they're associated, but they certainly
27:42
are in this case. And what he's chosen
27:44
for the shape of his bell is something
27:45
absolutely perfect. It's the bell um of
27:49
a Raptor engine. Uh these rocket motors
27:52
have a very strongly bell-shaped uh
27:55
thrust chamber. I guess it's the it's
27:57
the um opening uh that lets all the gas
28:00
out uh after it's been ignited in the
28:03
the combustion chamber above it. And so
28:05
it's a scale replica of the Raptor
28:07
engines that actually power the Falcon
28:11
Heavy. Um, I beg you pardon the
28:12
superheavy
28:14
>> booster which is the basis of Starship.
28:16
It's got 33 of these.
28:19
>> And um they uh the this one's got a
28:22
little clapper in the middle that lets
28:24
you ring it as well as all the work. And
28:27
apparently it rings. Yes. Cuz there's a
28:28
video on the website that shows you
28:30
that.
28:31
>> Uh they they haven't released those yet
28:34
to the public, but they will be out
28:36
probably I think they're talking
28:37
December. Yeah. And um yeah, there sort
28:41
of an 18 cm or 7 in scale model of the
28:45
um the SpaceX Raptor bell, but this one
28:49
has a
28:50
>> you know clunker in it that makes it
28:52
ring. I don't know what that thing's
28:53
called inside the bell. The dingy thing.
28:56
>> It's a clapper. It's a clapper.
28:58
>> Is it?
28:58
>> That's the name. Yeah. For
29:00
>> anyway. So, they're selling those.
29:02
They're selling uh tote bags and um as
29:06
you said, mission patches, t-shirts,
29:08
caps.
29:10
Don't let it, you know, he he's um he's
29:12
the sort of bloke that never lets
29:14
opportunity no
29:15
>> get away. No whatsoever.
29:17
>> I I did hear some of the things that he
29:20
said publicly at the launch, which made
29:23
me cringe. Uh because
29:28
you know I can I can just about um
29:33
believe that we might get humans to Mars
29:36
in his lifetime.
29:38
>> It won't be millions and that's because
29:41
that's immoral apart from anything else.
29:44
Um but he was talking about uh the you
29:49
know flying through around the solar
29:51
system and beyond and at the moment that
29:56
is off the agenda. Physics don't doesn't
29:59
let you do that. Uh just actually as a
30:02
as a little footnote to that I read a
30:04
paper yesterday
30:06
>> uh which is about you know the idea of
30:09
using um photonic propulsion or or
30:13
basically uh light energy blasted at a
30:16
light sail. You've got a laser uh you
30:19
fire it at this light sail and the
30:20
spacecraft accelerates because of that.
30:22
That's all fine and dandy and will work
30:25
um if you can make your spacecraft light
30:27
enough. But it turns out that you're not
30:29
ever going to get near the speed of
30:31
light. You beyond about 75% of the speed
30:34
of light. You uh get something called
30:37
relativistic drag. Uh where space itself
30:40
drags on the light sail as well as any
30:42
kind of interstellar matter that you've
30:44
got to plow through at the 75% of the
30:47
speed of light. So that's not going to
30:49
get us touring around the galaxy.
30:51
>> No, we'll have to find another way.
30:52
>> We need another way. Yes. They need to
30:54
go to science fiction writers and see
30:57
what they've come up with.
30:59
>> Maybe that's what Elon's thinking of.
31:01
Maybe he was suddenly in the realm of
31:03
science fiction, but he didn't bother to
31:05
tell us.
31:05
>> No, maybe not. No, but there's no
31:07
nothing fictional about his um IP IP.
31:11
>> Not at all. Not at all.
31:13
>> Initial public offering that is out
31:14
there and it is going gang busters. It's
31:16
it's burning like a raptor at the
31:19
moment.
31:20
>> Yeah, probably will. I mean, you you
31:22
know, you've got to give the guy credit.
31:25
Uh two of the biggest breakthroughs of
31:27
our of our generation, uh electric
31:31
vehicles and reusable booster rockets.
31:34
And basically, they've come from him.
31:36
>> Yes, certainly.
31:36
>> Tesla. Yes, they have. It's quite
31:38
extraordinary.
31:39
>> You can read about it at
31:41
collectpace.com.
31:43
U we won't tell you all the prices of
31:45
everything he's selling because that's,
31:47
you know, you go and have a look. Um
31:51
Totally your call. Um, but I do like the
31:54
idea of mission patches and I'm pretty
31:56
sure I suggested that to Hugh many years
31:59
ago that we should have mission patches.
32:01
Yes,
32:01
>> we need Yes, we do.
32:02
>> Yes, I thought we should a new one for
32:05
every episode.
32:07
>> Oh, all right. Okay.
32:09
>> No, that's a bit much.
32:10
>> Well, look, the trouble is the miss
32:12
patches, they would just be adequate and
32:14
if you
32:15
>> Although I think our logo would make a
32:17
great patch
32:18
>> all on it own. Yeah.
32:20
>> Yeah.
32:21
>> Anyway, uh we'll we'll do that one day,
32:24
maybe. I don't know. There's plenty of
32:25
other stuff in the shop. Just go and
32:26
have a look in our shop. It's on our
32:28
website, spacenutspodcast.com
32:30
or spacenuts.io.
32:33
Uh click on the shop link and buy
32:35
yourself a pair of socks or a notebook
32:37
or a um or a coffee cup or a hat or a
32:41
hoodie. Um stickers. There's just all
32:45
this great stuff there. I've got some of
32:47
it. Look, I've got my cup here. See,
32:49
here's my cup. Oh, that's nice. Space
32:52
nuts cup.
32:53
>> Yeah, I might have one of those
32:54
somewhere. You
32:55
>> probably do. Yes. And I got the tote bag
32:58
as well.
32:59
>> So, we thought of that before, Elon.
33:01
He's probably using the same company
33:02
that we do.
33:04
>> But, um,
33:06
yes. Um, I think that brings us to the
33:08
end. Fred, thank you so much.
33:10
>> A pleasure, Andrew. Good to talk. And
33:12
we'll speak again soon.
33:14
>> We will indeed. Professor Fred Watson,
33:16
astronomer at large, and thanks to Hugh
33:18
in the studio. couldn't be with us today
33:19
because he wants to be the world's
33:21
second trillionaire and he's just put
33:23
down five bucks and he's just watching
33:25
to see what happens. And from me, Andrew
33:27
Dunley, thanks for your company. We'll
33:29
see you on the next episode of Space
33:30
Nuts. Bye-bye.
33:32
>> Space Nuts.
33:33
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33:35
podcast
33:37
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