Latest / Made of Stars / No, Turkey Isn't Moist in Space

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No, Turkey Isn't Moist in Space · Made of Stars

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar, asterism and uranus. Listen,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: that's your own risk.
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  Speaker 2: Go ahead. We're made of stars.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Made them stars, madies. When made of stars, you could
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: be from high they would New Mexicomus.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Where are.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: Stars?
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  Speaker 4: Whenens?
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  Speaker 5: We are made of stars? I'm Wes Carol, joined by
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  Speaker 5: my good friend doctor Sean Cruisin from com the State
• 1:00
  Speaker 5: University's Coca Cola Space Science Center. Morning Sean, good morning.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: It's good to be here today.
• 1:06
  Speaker 5: It's Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and we always do our show
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  Speaker 5: typically on I say always, normally we do our show
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  Speaker 5: on Thursday. That's when the shows drop, as the kids say.
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  Speaker 5: But of course for Thanksgiving we're we're working a day
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  Speaker 5: early because you know, tomorrow's a holiday. And just to
• 1:27
  Speaker 5: sort of preface all of that, you are hosting, you
• 1:32
  Speaker 5: got family visiting, so we'll just do every now and then.
• 1:37
  Speaker 5: While we were talking, before we started recording, I would
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: just hear the very faint sound of a grandchild in
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  Speaker 5: the background, So I'm just kind of setting the table
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  Speaker 5: if you will. You know, for sorry, it's early. We're
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  Speaker 5: recording also earlier in the morning that we normally do.
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  Speaker 5: It's early, but you know, I can still keep the
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  Speaker 5: the Thanksgiving dinner themed pun going. But we have a
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  Speaker 5: Thanksgiving story to start this week's Made of Stars, a
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  Speaker 5: Thanksgiving on the International Space Station.
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  Speaker 2: So Thanksgiving comes even if you're on the International Space Station.
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  Speaker 5: For some people, they weren't and for some people they
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  Speaker 5: weren't expecting to be there for Thanksgiving. So there's true
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  Speaker 5: we have two that we're certainly expecting a very very
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  Speaker 5: different meal for Thanksgiving this year. But this is pretty cool,
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  Speaker 5: and this is one of those things I think that
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  Speaker 5: gets people excited about space stuff we always talk about.
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  Speaker 5: You get stored, and this obviously won't be to the
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  Speaker 5: scale of a comment or of an eclipse or something,
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  Speaker 5: but this is one of those fun stories that when
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: people can see it, and that's kind of the design
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  Speaker 5: of doing something like what they did, and we'll get
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: to that in a second. But when you know, TV
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  Speaker 5: News will show this hopefully and give people some idea
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  Speaker 5: of how life is very different on the International Space Station,
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  Speaker 5: but they showed every what their meal will be.
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  Speaker 2: They did so they got on NASA's YouTube channel, and
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  Speaker 2: actually I found the story on apnews dot com. Ap
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  Speaker 2: News shared a segment of their video. But astronauts Sunny Williams,
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  Speaker 2: Nick Haig, Don Pettitt, and Butch Wilmore, US astronauts on
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  Speaker 2: the aboard the International Space Station made a special video
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  Speaker 2: for a holiday, and they wanted to thank everybody who
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  Speaker 2: supports the space program. They thanked America for being a
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  Speaker 2: spacefaring nation so they had the opportunity to go up
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  Speaker 2: and do these things. So talked a little bit about
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  Speaker 2: what they were thankful for, and they thanked everybody who
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  Speaker 2: was specifically praying for the astronauts, which is always a
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  Speaker 2: good idea. I was Butch Wilmore that did that. And
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  Speaker 2: then they opened a box and the box was their
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  Speaker 2: holiday feast. And this is where you really realize just
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  Speaker 2: how different life aboard the International Space Station is. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know what's on your table this Thanksgiving, Wes,
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  Speaker 2: but you know we're doing the whole turkey stuffing, potatoes,
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  Speaker 2: side dishes, desserts, dinner rolls, all of those kinds of things.
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  Speaker 2: That I would think that most people find as a
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  Speaker 2: traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
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  Speaker 5: Now, nothing that we're eating now that those are all
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: things that we'll be eating. Now, and I'm looking at
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  Speaker 5: the list of things that these guys took out of
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  Speaker 5: their box that they're going to be eating on the
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  Speaker 5: International Space Station, and some of these things will be eating,
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  Speaker 5: not all of them. We definitely will not be eating
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  Speaker 5: the dehydrated version of them. Though.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly so, even if this might sound good to you,
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  Speaker 2: think of it, you know, sealed in a dehydrated package
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  Speaker 2: like the Meals Ready to Eat the US military sometimes
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  Speaker 2: uses MREs. It's very similar to that, and it requires
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  Speaker 2: a different level of preparation or a different method of
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  Speaker 2: preparation aboard the International Space Station. But things like butternut squash,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: but you know, that's okay. And then there's apples and
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  Speaker 2: spice that sounds reasonably nice. And then there's smoked turkey,
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  Speaker 2: which well, okay, it's you know, it's Thanksgiving. And even
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  Speaker 2: though these things are dehydrated, they sound a little bit familiar.
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  Speaker 2: But then comes the package of Brussels sprouts. Now, I
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  Speaker 2: don't want to get on the wrong side of all
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: those Brussels sprout lovers out there, I'm not sure that's
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  Speaker 2: going to be one of the vegetables on my table Thanksgiving,
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  Speaker 2: Brussels sprouts.
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  Speaker 5: If it is for you, that's fine. It's not gonna be,
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  Speaker 5: but I would do it. I'm all about the Brussels sprouts. Sorry,
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  Speaker 5: I'm one of those people. I love them. I'm all
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  Speaker 5: about I mean, you know it.
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  Speaker 2: And again, I don't want to get on the wrong
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  Speaker 2: side of Brussels sprout people. But okay, maybe maybe a
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: slight just a little bit unusual. But then Don Pettitt
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  Speaker 2: calls out with glee as he sees a package floating
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  Speaker 2: out of the box that says sardines. Yeah, and you
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  Speaker 2: know nothing, nothing goes better with you know, micro gravity
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  Speaker 2: and beautiful views of the Earth than a dehydrated package
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  Speaker 2: of small fish. This is you know. I know. If
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  Speaker 2: I was the board of the International Space Station, where
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  Speaker 2: generally odors can be a little bit of a problem
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  Speaker 2: from time to time, you know, I would be I
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  Speaker 2: would be looking sideways as somebody opening that bag of
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  Speaker 2: sardines while I was trying to enjoy my smoke, turkey
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  Speaker 2: and Brussels sprouts.
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  Speaker 5: Now, I would think that sardines or some kind of
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  Speaker 5: fish would be you know, maybe you would think we'll
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  Speaker 5: go back to the original Thanksgiving. I mean that seems
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  Speaker 5: more old school than you know, a deep fried turkey, certainly,
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  Speaker 5: But we were we were always taught though that they
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  Speaker 5: used the fish to grow the maize. Right, you put
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: the you learn to put the you plant your corn
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: your maize, sorry, and then you put your fish on
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  Speaker 5: top of it, and that helps it grow. That's what
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  Speaker 5: we learned in school. But actually eating a I mean,
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  Speaker 5: nothing sounds more appetizing really than a dehydrated fish.
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  Speaker 2: Again, I know that there are those sardine fans out there.
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  Speaker 2: We don't want to alienate you in any way. Or
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: listening to our podcast.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, we thank you for listening, But dehydrated
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  Speaker 5: sardines still sounds weird.
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  Speaker 2: It sounds like bait. Actually sounds like you should be
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  Speaker 2: hitting down to the dock. But anyway, so there it is.
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  Speaker 2: That was the with Thanksgiving wishes from the American astronauts
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  Speaker 2: aboard the International Space Station, with smoke, turkey, butternut, squash,
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  Speaker 2: apples and spice and oh, by the way, Brussels sprouts
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  Speaker 2: and sardines. That's a bountiful meal. Aboard the ISS, and
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  Speaker 2: we wish them the happiest of Thanksgivings to them and
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  Speaker 2: to their family back on Earth, and you know, just
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  Speaker 2: hope that things keep going well. And I'll just tell
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  Speaker 2: you it still looks like sunny and butch even though
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  Speaker 2: I know that they're imprisoned aboard the International Space Station.
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  Speaker 2: If you read the news media, they've been imprisoned up
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  Speaker 2: there waiting for rescue for months and months and months
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  Speaker 2: and everything's terrible. They looked like they were having a
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  Speaker 2: pretty good time, and we just wish them all a
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  Speaker 2: happy Thanksgiving.
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  Speaker 5: I can't imagine a dehydrated butternut squash either. Something about
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  Speaker 5: that doesn't sound right either. But anyway, I'm glad that
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  Speaker 5: they've got a nice special meal ahead of them, and
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  Speaker 5: that's nice and I think it's cool. This is one
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  Speaker 5: of those cool videos. Now you mentioned the smell of sardines.
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  Speaker 5: There's another smell floating through the International Space Station and
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  Speaker 5: apparently it has nothing to do with the sardines. Can
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  Speaker 5: we rule out the sardines for the smell or have
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  Speaker 5: they not been able to rule that out yet?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I cannot personally rule out the sardines. I
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  Speaker 2: have no data to tell me whether or not this
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  Speaker 2: is part of the problem. But let's just back up
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  Speaker 2: half a step and say that if you are aboard
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  Speaker 2: the International Space Station, the air that you have with
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  Speaker 2: you is the only air you have. In other words,
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  Speaker 2: when you breathe it in and breathe it out, you're
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: going to breathe it in and breathe it out again,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: gone through a cycling process, through something called a CO
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  Speaker 2: two scrubber, and hopefully that CO two scrubber can help
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  Speaker 2: eliminate some of the household or odors that might build up.
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  Speaker 2: You know those days where you're walking through your own
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  Speaker 2: home and you go, you know, things just smell a
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  Speaker 2: little stale there, just a little bit stale in here.
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  Speaker 2: I think I'll open a couple of windows, turn on
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  Speaker 2: the fans, and get some nice fresh air. Well, that's
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  Speaker 2: something that's impossible aboard the International Space Station. So they
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  Speaker 2: like to be very careful about the odor environment. Let's
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: say aboard the International Space Station, we have something on
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  Speaker 2: display at the Coca Cola Space Science Center in our
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  Speaker 2: artifact collection that is a freeze dehydrated package of a
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  Speaker 2: certain meal that the astronauts said, please do not send
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  Speaker 2: any of these up here anymore, because the smell was
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  Speaker 2: still pungent that it seemed to hang around for a
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  Speaker 2: very long time, even with the CO two scrubbers. So
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  Speaker 2: that smell is seafood gumbo. And they said, yeah, so
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  Speaker 2: about the seafood gumbo tastes all right, smells for days.
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  Speaker 2: Please no more seafood gumbo on the International Space Station.
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  Speaker 2: So this is just an example of what you know,
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  Speaker 2: if you were sealed in a can with only a
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  Speaker 2: limited amount of air that you have to recycle, you
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  Speaker 2: might not want smelly things a as a general rule,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know sardine smell that I imagine they do.
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  Speaker 5: Okay, So, and I know we we have our share of,
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: you know, uranus jokes, and that happens from time to time.
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  Speaker 5: They typically come from me. But I feel like this
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  Speaker 5: is I'm trying to ask the question that people maybe
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  Speaker 5: are thinking right now, And this is the question that
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  Speaker 5: I'm thinking. Is it that the seafood gumbo stinks for
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  Speaker 5: days or is it that it creates other odors for
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: days after it's been eaten. I mean, I think that's
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  Speaker 5: a fair question, and I'm just wondering because as I know,
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: there's a lot of effort put into what they eat
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  Speaker 5: their health, trying to keep them at prime optimum health.
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  Speaker 5: But do we know if it's the actual smell of
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  Speaker 5: the seafood gumbo or if it's the lingering, because when
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  Speaker 5: they say it still smells for days, I don't know
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  Speaker 5: how much the scrubbing is going to take care of
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  Speaker 5: that smell.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: You know, secondhand odor is a problem.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, and so so depending on you know, what stage
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  Speaker 6: of the overall recycling process that we're in with the seafood.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Gumbo, you know, whether it's the original cooking or somewhere
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  Speaker 2: further down the chain. Whatever it was, the seafood gumbo
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  Speaker 2: appeared to be the source. So so I have no
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  Speaker 2: data on you know, where in the life cycle of
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: the product. Yeah, that the smell was the worst, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I just I just know that they said no more
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: of this stuff.
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  Speaker 5: Okay, I'm realizing you and I have spent time around
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  Speaker 5: a number of astronauts. We've interviewed a number of astronauts,
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  Speaker 5: and I suppose, you know, there's there's one that I
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  Speaker 5: could text this question to, and maybe I should. I
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: don't know that I want to do it right before Thanksgiving,
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: but at some point I hope to get an answer
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: for something along those lines. I'm just we everybody asked
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: a question like how do they go to the bathroom?
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: And and it's kind of one of those questions that
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: you know, you guys get asked that all the time
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: at the Space Science Center, and you know, people talk
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  Speaker 5: about the bathroom. Kids come in, what about the bathroom?
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: But you know, let's just say gas, you know, is
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: something that people deal with, and astronauts have to deal
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  Speaker 5: with that as well. I'm just I was just curious
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  Speaker 5: if maybe that was part of the lingering problem that
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: would go on and on. But I don't know why.
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: I can't believe I haven't asked that of anyone yet.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: So I doesn't.
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: Feel right that I haven't asked an astronaut this question yet.
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: So maybe maybe I need to ask Katie Coleman.
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  Speaker 2: You know, as a representative of higher education, all I
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: really want to do is get back to the facts.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm going to just circle back and just say
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  Speaker 2: odors are a problem, right, They're They're not helpful. And
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: so when a brand new space spacecraft flies up from
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Earth and talks to the International Space Station and there's
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: you know, all kinds of you know, twinkies and cupcakes
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  Speaker 2: inside and other wonderful things, maybe even like this meal
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: that we've just discussed, a beautiful holiday meal for the astronauts,
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  Speaker 2: when all of those wonderful things are expected, and then
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  Speaker 2: the doors are opened and everybody goes, whow, what's that smell?
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  Speaker 2: Which I don't know, I can't quote anybody actually saying
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  Speaker 2: that about the International Space Station, but it had to
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: be something like that, because you see, on November twenty third,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: which was Saturday, at about nine thirty one Eastern time,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: the Progress cargo vehicle MS twenty nine, fresh from you know,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: launching from Russia full of supplies for the International Space Station.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: It docked with what's now known as the Poisk module,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: which is one of the Russian side modules aboard the
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: International Space Station, and it was all loaded up with
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: goodies from down on Earth. And the spacecraft, designated Progress
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: ninety by NASA, was carrying about twenty five hundred kilograms
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: of cargo, so that's you know, over five thousand pounds,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: so it's a lot, right, It's a couple, you know,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: three almost three tons of materials, supplies, water, had had
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: propellant on board. All of the items that you need
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: to run a space station. So the problem was though,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: that when this vehicle docked and they opened up the doors,
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: there wasquote an unexpected odor unquote from the spacecraft. Now
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be quoting from SpaceNews dot com when
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: it says in communications with ground controllers, the crew noted
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: a strong smell and droplets of some kind of fluid
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: not identified in the discussions. Let your imagination run wild
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: for a moment. Wait a minute, what's that smell? They
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: start looking around, Oh, something's leaking. What is it? Not
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: told over the loops, as they say in communications to controllers.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: So but they I don't know if the astronauts begged.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: But after a short period of time, controllers down on
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: the ground activated the filtration systems aboard the International Space Station.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: These co two scrubbers that we were discussing, among other things,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: to try to remove any of the contaminants. And here's
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: the important part. The crew closed the hatch to the
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Poisk module. They didn't just shut off the Russian Progress vehicle.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: They closed down the entire Poisk module, so a component
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: of the International Space Station. They closed it off. This
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: couldn't have been nice hadn't have been unpleasant.
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: I mean, that's next level when they're shutting down pieces
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: of you know, shutting that whole sections of it. So
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: there's a droplets and they have to activate the filtration
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: system from the ground, and they don't. They have no clue,
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: they don't know what this is. Nothing.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: They may have a clue, but they haven't shared it
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: in any kind of public way where that would end
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: up on SpaceNews dot com. NASA did say it a
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: statement that they posted on social media on November twenty fourth.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: The next day, they confirmed that cosmonauts quote noticed an
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: unexpected odor and observed a small droplets, prompting the crew
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: to close the poise catch to the rest of the
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Russian segment of the International Space Station. So you know,
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: that's not a good day. No, that's not a good
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: day for the smell environment aboard the orbiting RV that
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: we know as the International Space Station.
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: But they're saying the air qualities at normal levels.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: So so NASA came back and said, well, you know,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: afric controllers turned on those filtration systems, we can see
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: that the station's air quality was at quote normal levels
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: unquote by the time the statement was issued. However, what
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: do they decide as normal? Like what are their standards?
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: And that might not be the same standards that we
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: have here in our homes down on Earth. I'm just saying,
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: a normal day of air quality aboard the International Space
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Station might be fine and healthy, but it may not
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: be quite as pleasant smelling as the you know, Yankee
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: candles or whatever you have going on around your Christmas
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: tree preparing for the holiday season?
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: Are we one hundred percent certain? Have they ruled out
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: that maybe when they sent up the Thanksgiving feast for
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: the Americans, that maybe there could have been a bag
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: of deviled eggs in there and maybe it just cracked open.
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: I mean, that doesn't always have a great smell, you know,
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: not not for some at least. So I mean, have
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: they ruled that out? Is what I want?
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: So, I mean, it is a Russian vehicle, It is
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: doctor the Russian side of the space station.
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: Huh.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: What kind of Russian delicacies might be sent up?
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: Ah, that's true. What do they have for Thanksgiving?
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Is borsch Russian?
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: I don't know, Yeah, I mean, who knows. There could
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: be a number of the.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: Russians have Thanksgiving. OU don't know. Maybe they do when
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: they're on the International Space Station because they want some
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: of those sardines.
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: I'm not sure, you know, I would think that there's
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: a possibility at the very least. All right, So that's
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: the story we'll be tracking obviously, because you know, you
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: got it. I mean, that only adds to the stuck
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: astronauts now forced to smell stinky smell. You know, we
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: could just keep piling on this story, right.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: So listen, in all seriousness, there was some headline floating
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: around out there that said something like stuck astronauts forced
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: to eat dehydrated food aboard the International Space Station to
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: survive or something like this, which they do every day.
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that doesn't catch them by surprise.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Stuck astronauts every day. So yeah, it.
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: Would be more surprising if you know, they had to like,
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: you know, catch something in space and cook it and
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: eat it like they were out hunting. They had a
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: trap outside the International Space forced to eat something that
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: floated by. That would be a bigger headline than hey,
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: they're eating normal food that's on the International Space Station.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: You know, they had to pry open spot Nick and
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: pull out a can of spam.
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that would be about news right there. Yeah, that
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: would be tougher, more made of stars.
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: Right after this, all right, let's talk about.
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: Some furbies because we always love when we could talk
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: about the fast radio bursts, and this is one of
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: those things that we've had over the years, multiple stories
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: about f rbs, and it's always typically like a, well,
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: here's a new possibility for how these things work, and
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: there's a new one.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Yep, that's exactly what we have today. You have another
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: new possibility for what fast radio cursar. So a team
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: of astronomers have proposed a new model for the fast
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: radio bursts. Now, before we dive in, let's just remind
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: our listeners that what a fast radio burst is is
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: some kind of massive release of electromagnetic energy in the
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: form of radio waves. So it's not up on the
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: gamma ray X ray end of the spectrum. It's down
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: on the lowest energy part of the spectrum, the radio end,
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: but it is a massive amount of radio energy. In fact,
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: for a short period of time, one of these events
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: can actually put out more energy than the entire galaxy
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: in which it's contained. So it's some small, highly local
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: source within these distant galaxies, but it can outshine its
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: parent galaxy all by itself for a short period of time.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: How short, well, milliseconds, right, And so these things are
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: extremely short lived but gigantic and magnitude bursts of radio energy.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: And because they are so transient, because they happen so fast,
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: it's really hard to get an idea, to get a
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: handle on what they are because it's hard to make
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: a measurement. You don't really know where they're coming from.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: So all of this to be said, a new group
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: of astronomers have released a new study that suggests that
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: these furby objects, these fast radio bursts, are actually something
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: on the order of a object that was we would
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: consider a normal Solar system object like an asteroid or
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: a large comet or something like that, colliding with a
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: special form of a neutron star called a magnetar. All right,
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: let's back up a second again. What is a magnetar?
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Well again, a neutron star is the core left over
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: after a very large star dies. And basically, there is
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: so much mass in this leftover core that the quant
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: mechanical forces can't stop the collapse of the core of
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: the star, and so it just smashes all the way
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: down and turns all the matter in that core into neutrons,
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: which is already a weird, strange situation. Now, these neutrons
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: can freeze in I'm sorry. These neutron stars is what
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: we call them, can freeze in their magnetic field. In
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: other words, they can hold on to the magnetic field
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: of the star, and as they collapse, that magnetic field
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: gets even more intense. So when these things are spinning
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: around and the magnetic poles sweep by the Earth, they
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: beam out a large stream of charge particles in radiation.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: And we know those as pulsars. All right, So neutron stars, pulsars,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: they're related. Well, a magnetar is just an extreme version
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: of a pulsar where the magnetic field is so strong
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: that the beam of particles coming out is even more
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: intense than the average pulse. So that so you can
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: see how all of these objects are related. Okay, So
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: now that we've kind of filled in those blanks, what
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: the new team of astronomers is saying is, look that
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: this used to be a star, right, It used to
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: have a solar system. They used to have planets around it.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: He used to have asteroids around it and comets around it,
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: and things like that. We think that, you know, other
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: stars out there probably form and evolve in a very
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: similar way to our own sun. So since our sun
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: has a solar system, it's a reasonable assumption that most
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: other stars have some kind of solar system around them,
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: And in fact, we've found all kinds of planets around
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: other stars called exoplanets. Well, what if after the star dies,
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: some of these solar system objects fell into that now
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: dead parent star and fell into the surface of these
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: magnetar type stars. What kind of explosion would that make. Well,
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: it turns out that that becomes such a such an
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: extreme event where you dump a reasonably large amount of
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: mass onto the surface of this neutron star, and all
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: the material from that object, whether it be an asteroid
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: or comet or whatever, is instantly turned to neutrons. That
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: process releases a gigantic amount of energy, but it turns
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: out that it happens to be almost exactly the amount
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: of energy that we might expect from a garden variety furby.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: So the energies released by measured fast radio bursts are
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: equivalent to what we would expect if an asteroid or
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: a comet or a small planetoid fell onto the surface
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: of one of these magnetars. That's the new connection, that's
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: the new idea to say, hey, what we see in
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: the range of energies from fast radio bursts are relatively
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: equivalent to what we would expect if the kind of
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: objects we find in our own Solar system where to
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: fall onto the surface of a magnetar. And so it's
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: really possible that they have kind of identified the process
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: by which fast radio bursts are actually manufactured objects that
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: were once Solar System objects around the now dead star
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: whose core has become not just a pulsar but a magnetar.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Then you drop a comet or an asteroid or a
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: planetoid or a stray moon or something like that onto
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: the surface of this magnetar. All the material is instantly
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: turned to neutrons and one whale of a lot of
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: energy is beamed out of the magnetic fields of this
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: megutar in the radio frequencies. All of that modeling is
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: seeming to match up. So this could be the first
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: real solution we have to the origin of furbies, not
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: where they're located. We think we know they're located now
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: around magnetars, because there's been some other studies that have
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: kind of correlated those things. But now what on the
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: magutar could be causing them. It looks like potential Solar
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: system collisions. There's still a few mysteries. There are some
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: magnetars that repeat. In fact, they repeat in kind of
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: a semi periodic way. In other words, they have a cadence.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: They happen semi regularly. It's a little bit hard to
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: imagine Solar system objects just randomly falling onto the surface
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: of a magnetar in some kind of a quasi periodic fashion.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: So there's still a few mysteries of Ferbi's left. Maybe
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: those ferbies are different than these other garden variety ferbies.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: Ferbi mysteries are still out there.
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: Fund It just sort of we pop in and out
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: of this story, and we're just kind of seeing science
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: playing itself out, Science doing its thing and trying to
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: get to the bottom of this. Coming up after a
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: quick break, James web Space Telescope does it again. James
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: Webspace Telescope has given us another fantastic look at another
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: image from space, this time the Sombrero galaxy.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: So what we have to do when we talk about
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: cool images on the show is we have to point
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: you to the website where you can go out and
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: actually see these images. I found this particular story on
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Universe today dot com here in the last couple of days.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: But it's a fantastic new image of the Sombrero Galaxy
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: from the James Webspace telescope. Got to go see the
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: picture because the picture is worth a million words, not
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: a thousand. It's absolutely incredible. If the Sombrero Galaxy is
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: a what we would have considered a typical galaxy, except
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: that it has this giant dust ring around it. What
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: scientists concluded long ago is that this is the remnants
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: of a galaxy that was eaten by another galaxy. It's
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: a galaxy merger, and so the debris that makes this
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: dust ring is the debris left over from the galaxy collision.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: It's what's left of the galaxy that got swallowed up. Well.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: When galaxy mergers happen, scientists astronomers expect a huge jolt
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: of star formation to take place. Now here's where the
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: mystery comes in. James Webb imaged the Sombrero Galaxy with
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: what's called the mid Infrared instrument, or we know it is.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Mirry and Mary revealed all kinds of clumps of warm
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: molecular gas, which is exactly the kind of place that
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: brand new baby stars like to form in galaxy collisions.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: But there doesn't appear to be a significant amount of
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: star formation. So James Webb has scratched the surface on
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: a brand new mystery with the with the Sombrero galaxy,
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: and we don't have an ant thank yet. And in fact,
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: there's also a central black hole in the middle of
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: the Sombrero and it does not appear to be quite
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: as active as one might think for a galaxy that
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: just got fed a whole lot of new material by
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: swallowing another galaxy. So a couple of mysteries, not as
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: much star formation taking place, not as active of a
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: galactic nuclei as we thought. There's some weird stuff going
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: on with Sombrero. We don't have the answers yet, but
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: go out and check out the picture on Universe today
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: dot com because it is epic.
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: You guys at the Coca Cola Space Sigence Center are
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: sort of in your first holiday mode now with close
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: for Thanksgiving open back next week and then start really
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: looking at some of your holiday programming to close out
• 30:46
  Speaker 5: the year. Before Music under the Dome returns in March
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: of next year.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have a great program that we begin showing
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: right after Thanksgiving. It's called The Mystery of the Christmas Star.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: It's a really interesting program. It talks a bit about scripture,
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: but it also talks a lot about science and about history,
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: so it's a great show. Come check that out in
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: the Atmosphere Theater. It's a great way to get ready
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: for the Christmas holiday by visiting a planetarium because stars
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: and Christmas just seem to go together. So come check
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: out Mystery of the Christmas Star in the Atmosphere Theater.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: And as Wes said, maybe pick up some tickets for
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: the concerts coming up in the spring for Music under
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: the Dome because those make great stocking stuffers. Friends, seb
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: stockings with Music under the Dome tickets concert tickets for
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: the shows coming up in the spring semester. Check out
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: all the information on the concerts and all the upcoming
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: events at www dot cc SSC dot org. Charlie Charlie
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: SamSam Charlie dot org.
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: Happy Thanksgiving, my friend, my best to all the family,
• 31:52
  Speaker 5: Christian and the rest and Sean and I wish you
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: a happy holiday, and we thank you for listening, and
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: we'll do this again next week. Overhead Door Company of
• 32:09
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• 32:13
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