Latest / Made of Stars / Episode 300! Frank, They're Not Here for You. Weird Al Yankovic Is on the Plane

Transcript

Episode 300! Frank, They're Not Here for You. Weird Al Yankovic Is on the Plane · 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: expand their vocabulary to include terms like quasar, asterism, and Uranus.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Listen at your own risk. Go ahead.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: We're made of stars. Made of stars.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Made of stars.
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: We're made of stars. We really are.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: You could be from Hollywood, New Mexico or Mars.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: We're all made of stars.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: We are made of stars.
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: I'm Wes Carroll, joined by my good friend, Dr. Sean Cruz,
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: an executive director at Columbus State University's Coca-Cola Space Science Center.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Hey, Sean.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Hey, Wes. Good to be here with you today.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: So we're having to record this show a little early
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: because you've got some travel that you've got to take
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: care of. I like how I make it sound like
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: it's a business trip. Son of a business trip. You're
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: celebrating your birthday and you're celebrating it while traveling.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: Good for you.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's all kinds of business.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Some family business, some other business.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: And some travel business. Travel business.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: If saying it's business here somehow makes it something you
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: can write off on your taxes, by all means, it's business.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I'm just remembering the podcast that we did two weeks ago.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: that talked about how I'm going to be irradiated in
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: an aircraft as I'm flying to Europe. And, you know,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: other than that, it's just business.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: Well, and if maybe that's what you're experimenting with on
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: this trip so you can figure out a way to
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: write it off, you know, if only you know an accountant,
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: maybe you could figure that out. Anyway, not that you
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: would get up to any shenanigans with all that.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Never, never, never.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: If I only had a radiation meter, right? I need
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: to grab one of those real quick.
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: You should get one of those, yeah. Or just take
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: a potato in your pocket and see if it cooks.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah. That would be, if that happened, that's maybe like
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: I'm walking off the plane, I think, maybe. I don't know.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: Well, yeah, and I think if you did walk off
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: the plane, you might not want to get back on
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: the plane.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: That's when it's time to swim home.
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: Anyway, so a few things that we have to kind
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: of at the beginning of this, acknowledging the fact that
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: this is a recorded show a week early. So, number one,
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: this is show number 300. Let's acknowledge that first of all.
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: And then I don't know, maybe like a thousand, if
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: you count the maybe, you know, 700 plus that we
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: did on the radio over the years.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: But as far as just specific to the.
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: Podcast, this is show number 300. So let's acknowledge that
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: for a minute because anniversaries that end in zero and
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: five are important. And when it's two zeros, it's extra special.
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: So we or it's a five.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Oh.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: You know, at the end.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: So it's number 300. So yeah, to our listeners, thank
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: you for joining.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Us for this ride for 300 episodes.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: If you haven't listened to all 300, by all means,
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: you should download them all and collect them like Pokemons
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: and go back and listen to all of them. But
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: those of you who've been here for the whole ride, yeah, thanks.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: And a lot of you came over from radio. So
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: you kind of knew what you were getting into. And
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: when I decided I was going to start a podcast company, Uh,
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: first call I made was to you to say, Hey, let's,
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: let's do, uh, a version of this radio thing that
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: we're doing. We didn't have a name at first. We
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: kicked that around a few times, had some options. And
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: I went, Oh, that one's taken. Oh, no, this is
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: a great one.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Oh, that one's taken. Uh, and then we found one
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: that we really liked and we were like, yeah, made
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: of stars. This is perfect. Let's do this. And it
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: wasn't taken. So we, we got in on that.
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: Um, but, um, This was a flagship podcast for this network.
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: This was the first one that I wanted to launch,
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: and that's what we did. So to be 300 basically
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: weeks in, I mean, we've done one every week. I mean,
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: every single week we've done. We don't miss, even if
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: we got to record it a week early. So there's that.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: And then part two of what I'm trying to acknowledge
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: before the weekend is You know, a couple of years ago,
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: we won the Gabby Award from the Georgia Association of
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: Broadcasters for Best Podcast Series. And that was very cool.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: And you and I were both there for that particular–
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: with our wives. And we were there at the Gabby
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: Awards that night.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Large market, by the way. Large market. Yep.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: Yep. That's worth mentioning as well because we submit as,
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: you know, statewide out of– basically out of Atlanta.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: So, yes.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Large market. And we're up again. We're nominated.
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: We're a finalist for this weekend as we're recording. So
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: because of your travel, you won't be there. And I will, though.
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: Jill and I are going. So by the time this
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: show is ready to roll next weekend, we don't know
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: the final results of all of this.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: And then we'll talk about that.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: In episode 301. But we're certainly flattered to be a
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: finalist and to the people who were part of the
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: decision making, the voters that decide that we are at
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: the finalist stage of all of this. Obviously, thank you.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: And we're flattered. And we don't do this show to go, man,
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: we're going to win awards and accolades. But it's pretty
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: cool when right out of the gate, we won for
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: best podcast series.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: And then Here we are again, up for it again.
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: So we'll have an update on that in episode 301.
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: But if you listen to the other podcasts that I do,
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: I may have already discussed this there.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: You may already know.
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: Spoiler alert over there if you're trying to wait for
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: the announcement here. But anyway, I just, one, appreciate being
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: able to do this with my friend, and two, to
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: know that we can do it and have people think it's,
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: it's award worthy. It's flattering. And to be able to
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: share that with you at one of my favorite moments
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: in broadcasting in over 30 years was sitting there at
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: the Gabby's winning best podcast series with you. And at
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: one point beforehand, you were just like, I imposter syndrome,
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: big time. I'm in here looking around the room at
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: all of the big names in broadcasting in the state
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: of Georgia. And he's like, I'm just a scientist. And
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: I'm like, Well, you just won Best Podcast, so you're
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: a broadcaster. You're kind of a broadcaster, so you have
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: to accept that. So no imposter syndrome anymore. But anyway,
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: that's my spiel to start the show.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: I'm having kind of a broadcaster added to my business card.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: But you have to say it like David Spade. Kind
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: of a broadcaster.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Kind of a broadcaster. No, and look, I do appreciate
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: also the recognition from the folks at the Georgia Association
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: of Broadcasters and for those who go through the selection process.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: I'm glad to be a finalist. We're going to find
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: out the results of the big award, but I'm just
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: also very happy that this series has so many listeners
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: because as you talked about our motivations for doing the series,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: my motivation with my position here at Space Science Center,
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: but also just in my personal life is to try
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: to just get people interested and excited about about something
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: that's a very fun thing just to kind of watch
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: what happens in the sky or talk about the progress
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: in the American space program. But then also that points
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: people to potentially very lucrative and beneficial careers, which are
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: those in the STEM fields, science, technology, engineering, mathematics. And
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: that's really what I'm here to do is to get
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: people just excited about the science so that they can
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: also go participate in the science if they feel so
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: inclined to want to do so, which we can make
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: pathways for them here. But there are lots of pathways
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: for participation in STEM careers. The first thing to do
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: is light your fire of interest. And that's what we
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: hope this podcast does. Just get you curious about it.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Get you excited about it. And then we'll see where
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: that takes you. And yeah, it's been a great pleasure, Wes,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: for me to do this podcast with you. And I'm
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: excited to see what the result is. Now, for those
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: of you who are listening, you don't understand all the
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: back work that goes into a podcast and all the
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: production and all the legwork behind the scenes. None of
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: that is me. I just come on here and make
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: jokes once a week and talk about some headlines in space.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: It's Wes that really does all of the important work
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: to actually make this and other podcasts possible. So, you know,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: I tip my hat to him. And, you know, that's
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: why awards are primarily for Wes, because he's primarily doing
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: a lot of that big work behind the scenes to
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: even make it possible. So congratulations, my friend, on yet
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: another year of participating in the Georgia Association of Broadcast
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Finalists Awards.
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: Awards right so let's let's just agree on this we
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: both do some work behind the scenes and we both
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: make jokes all right because when you say you just
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: come on here and make jokes i go that's what
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: i do for for this show at least so yours.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Are funny that's the difference you actually they mean something
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: and people laugh well i just might have to go
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: wait did i take that quantum class to understand that
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: joke i'm not sure.
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: Well that's what makes it fun so Anyway, it's the
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: feeling mutual there on us being able to do this together.
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: And again, if somebody wants to give me an award
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: for basically hanging out with you once a week, I'll
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: take it at any chance.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: I would hang out with you.
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: Anyway, but, and we do when we're not getting awards,
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: even if we're standing in the middle of a road,
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: a dirt road, trying to take pictures of, you know,
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: Aurora Borealis with my kids, you know, that's sometimes that's
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: just what we just call a Saturday, you know, or
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: you break out the giant telescope in your front yard
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: and we're going, yes, best view I've.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: Ever had of Saturn.
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: So anyway, Let's get to some of those stories that
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: might pique some interest because I was just the other
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: day on another podcast talking about AI and how we
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: could get to a point where we could start launching
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: missions that are, you know, important, but, you know, sans astronauts.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: And you think, well, this seems like a career that
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: people would be able to say, I want to be
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: an astronaut one day.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: And then you go, well, kind of, maybe they don't.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: Need them for some of these missions. And then here
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: we go.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: There's an asteroid mining company ready to launch the first
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: fully autonomous space mission next year.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Robots. Why do we want robots? Well, there are just
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: jobs that are either too dangerous, too dirty, or just
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: take too long of a period of time for us
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: to want to do them as human beings. And I
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: think that mining minerals off an asteroid might be a
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: good example of maybe all three of those, right? So
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: it's dirty, it's dangerous, and it just takes a really
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: long time to even get out to that asteroid. Maybe
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: we should send a robot. There's been several movies based
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: on basically that same premise.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: Well, they could make a robot version of Mike Rowe.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: They could.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: Because this seems like the dirtiest of jobs.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: Dirtiest, dangerous, and most alien jobs featuring the robot version
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: of Mike Rowe. That is basically the story we're talking about.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: It's on space.com if you want to check it out, friends.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: So there's an asteroid mining company. And that's called Astroforge.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: And they are a startup company in California. They were
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: founded in January of 2022. And they have the ambitious
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: goal in mind, which stated on their own blog says, quote,
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: to unlock the resources of the solar system, unquote. Well,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: let's remember that there's one asteroid mining right now called Psyche,
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: which if scientists are correct about the composition of that asteroid,
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: which is in our own asteroid belt, by the way,
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: in between Mars and Jupiter, if scientists are correct about
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: its composition, it has more mineral wealth than the entire
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: market on Earth right now. In other words, if you
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: could bring that asteroid back, it would be worth more
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: than the entire global GDP by more than just a
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: few times. That is if the market's held up and yeah,
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: I get all that stuff. But, but right now you
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: can just think of like the mineral wealth in that,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: in that space rock is worth more than all of
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: the country's production of all of their GDP, not just
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: a minerals of all of their GDPs simultaneously. So, so
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: there's bucks to be made. Right. And so this company
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Astroforge is like, yeah, we're going to, We're going to
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: send a robotic explorer out there. Well, not only are
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: they planning to send a robotic explorer, but this mission
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: called Autonomy One, according to Astroforge CEO and co-founder Matt Galick,
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: he wrote in his blog this, quote, Autonomy One will
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: be the first space mission to complete its entire mission
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: after separation without a single command from the ground, unquote. Okay,
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: now that's different. See, when we send up orbital spacecraft
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: before or maybe a rover to the surface of Mars,
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: we get it to where it's going. We make sure
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: it's functioning correctly by also sending commands up there. And
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: then we say, okay, well, everything's good. It's now working.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Now let's upload a series of commands for the next
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: few days and we'll see how it does. And then
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: that space robot goes through and it carries out those
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: commands that we send up. And we get the data
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: back at Earth. We say, oh, that looks like it
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: went pretty well. Let's send them another string of commands.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: And we have to see when that string of commands
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: is done, where did that robot end up? Is it
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: in the place we thought it was? And, oh, no,
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: it's not. So let's adjust its position. Okay. So that's
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: what has been done in the past. But this Autonomy
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: 1 mission from Astroforge is slated to go out to
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: an asteroid, to engage with that asteroid, to actually draw
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: mineral resources from that asteroid, and return to Earth without
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: a single additional command being sent to it from the ground.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Everything is onboard programming. As Wes said, it's at least
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: machine learning, if not full-on artificial intelligence, but it is
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: sensing its environment. It is operating according to that environment
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: based on its own data from its own sensors operating
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: with its own motors it's a true robot friends and
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: this would be the very first time that human beings
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: have ever sent a fully autonomous mission to space to
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: go do anything and come back all on its own
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: so that that's the milestone it's pretty impressive and we're
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: looking forward to that happening in early 2027. Now, there's
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: another thing, Wes, which is the company that's actually providing
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: the rocket service to space is also a brand new
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: startup company, and that's called Stokes Space. Stokes Space has
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: built a rocket called the Nova Pathfinder. The Nova Pathfinder
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: is a fully reusable rocket system. Where have we heard
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: that before? SpaceX, friends, and the Falcon. Also, there are
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: other companies who are bringing that online. Rocket Lab being
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: another one that is now moving toward fully autonomous rockets.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Blue Origin themselves is trying to get their rockets all
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: in a fully autonomous. The new mode of operation for
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: rockets in this coming millennium, or the millennium that we're
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: in now, this coming age of commercial rocket and space operations,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: it's autonomy. So the method for both of these vehicles
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: is autonomy, reusability, and sustainability. And that is what's happening.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Check out this story, friends, on the new autonomous mining
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: venture from Astroforge. It's on space.com.
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: More made of stars right after this. At the beginning
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: of the show, you mentioned STEM careers. And I don't
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: know how many people would have ever really predicted that
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: at least this quickly. I mean, and from Earth, we
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: would have the possible career option of becoming an alien
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: world meteorologist.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: But that is apparently... A career that's coming soon.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: We are now.
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: I mean, we're kind of already doing it, I guess,
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: with Mars. But I mean, being able to do it
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: outside the solar system, I guess, right?
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: We are forging brave new paths, right? And so Mars,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: we don't consider that an exoplanet. But the story we're
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: about to tell you is all about an exoplanet. The
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: exoplanet's name is CIMP 0136. And before you go out
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: and Google what simp means, I'll just save you some
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: dark cul-de-sacs of the internet. Yeah. It is the French
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: set of words that means proper motion infrared survey, which
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: is something like sondage infrarouge des mouvements propres. That's my French.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: That was terrible. I just put marbles in my mouth
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: and started talking. Anyway, so.
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: Let me just say one more thing about the simp thing.
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: If you see a car with the license plate simp 0136,
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: Just keep going.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: Don't follow them. If they make a left turn, even
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: if you're going that way, you make a right turn.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: That's all.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: I would say that that could be true. But yet
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: there's a planet named out there. There's a catalog. There's
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: a simp catalog and a planet in that catalog named 0136.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: And we pointed the space telescopes at it. We pointed
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: James Webb at simp 0136 just to see what was
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: up there. And what we found, friends... is that in
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: this planet, this planet has a very thick and turbulent atmosphere,
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: and there's some very interesting cloud formations that seem to
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: be repeating themselves in patterns. And once that happens, and
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: we have the infrared data for that from the James
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Webb Space Telescope, we can try to start correlating those
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: patterns that we're seeing in that infrared data of the
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: atmosphere with possible weather systems taking place on the planet
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: itself now remember this is an exoplanet it's orbiting around
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: a star not named our sun right the the planet
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: is actually really not entirely a planet it's a brown
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: dwarf and brown dwarfs they live in that kind of
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: murky territory between well it's not really a star because
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: it hasn't had fusion turn on inside its core. So
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: it's not a stellar object, but yet it's also not
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: really a planet because it by contraction is actually producing
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: more heat than it should be. So it falls into
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: this category of brown dwarf, which is like, Think of
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: something far larger than Jupiter, but far smaller than the sun.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: And it goes into that gray zone of not a star,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: not a planet. Okay, brown dwarf. But the one thing
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: a brown dwarf does is it simulates what happens in
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: very large gas giant planets. And so it makes it
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: a very good object to point the James Webb Space
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Telescope at and see if we can figure out any
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: patterns in those formations within its atmosphere. Once we find
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: the patterns, can we actually predict future behavior of the
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: gases in the atmosphere of that giant exoplanet-like world? All right. Well,
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: so it turns out that we have had a set
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: of data that has been published. It's been published by
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: an international team of astronomers. But one of the lead
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: authors is a person by the name of Merle Schrader,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: doctoral candidate at Trinity College in Dublin. And Merle says this, quote,
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: we also discovered that the drivers of the weather patterns
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: on SMP 0136 persist over time, even as the detailed
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: appearance of the atmosphere evolves over more than a dozen rotations.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: And then another study co-authored by the name of Johannes Voss,
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: also at Trinity College Dublin, had this follow-up statement, quote,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: applying this technique to a wide range of brown dwarves
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: and giant exoplanets will help us better understand the diverse
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: weather systems that shape worlds far beyond our solar system.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: So there it is, friends, the birth of a new field,
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: kind of merging meteorology with planetary astrophysics, and that is
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: meteorology of exoplanets. Here you have it right here in
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: the story. Check out space.com for the details of this story.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: I would say that of all of the people that
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: you would think might have had something in space named
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: after them, I'm shocked to find out that we don't
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: have anything already named after Weird Al Yankovic, but apparently
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: an asteroid has now been named after Weird Al.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: And it's been around for a while.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: I guess it's been around the discovery of it in 1981.
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: So how did we not name this thing after Weird
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: Al in the 80s?
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's the naming process that gets to
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: be a little bit cumbersome, shall we say. And so
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: it simply received a catalog number when it was discovered
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: back in 1981. And it's the EC26. That's its catalog number.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: And so, but the point of that though, really is
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: this Elvis has an asteroid. The Beatles have an asteroid.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: They have one collectively as a band. And then they
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: each have one, you know, a John Paul, George and
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Ringo asteroids that are out there. It was only a
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: matter of time when those music greats have asteroids named
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: after them. That of course, Weird Al Yankovic is on
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: that list, right? He has to be right. And he's,
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: he's right there with Elvis and the Beatles.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: You know, yeah, I would say so.
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: So there you have it. Certainly an influential artist for
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: all time.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, hey, people have different favorites, right? And so
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: there's a group of people out there that have been
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: petitioning for naming an asteroid after Weird Al Yankovic for
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: a number of years. And apparently planetary scientist Allison McGrew
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: who is an alumni of the University of Arizona and
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: is now at the Lunar and Planetary Science Institute, according
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: to the Tucson Star, has been one of those people
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: advocating for the naming of this asteroid after Weird Al
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: for a number of years. And then Allison got the
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: dream of all dreams. Once they convinced the International Astronomical
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: Union to, by the way, the IAU is the official
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: body naming organization organization for all celestial bodies up there
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: in space. And they're also the ones that are bureaucratic
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: and probably took years and years to finally make this decision. Okay,
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: so once they crossed the threshold, our friend Allison McGrew,
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: according to the Tucson Star, had the opportunity to go
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: backstage at an actual Weird Al concert and present Al
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: himself as with a plaque from the IAU commemorating that
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Yankovic had an asteroid named after him right there just
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: moments before going on stage and performing in the Tucson
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: Arena in Tucson, Arizona. A fantastic thing. McGraw for herself
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: said this, I've been working on not being starstruck. I
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: have the same way I am every time I meet astronauts.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: I'm going to do my best not to be starstruck or,
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: I guess, rockstruck. See, there's a joke right there. Yeah,
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: I like it. I broke the quote just to say
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: there was a joke. Don't miss the joke. I'm back
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: to the quote. I'm going to do my best not
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: to be starstruck or, I guess, rockstruck, but I have
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: the feeling that he's going to be really cool. Unquote. Allison,
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: we're hoping that Weird Al was as cool as you
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: thought he was, which we probably just are going to concede.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: And we know that was a great time presenting him
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: with that plaque, naming an asteroid after Weird Al right
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: before one of his concerts. So there you have it, friends.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Once again, space.com for the story.
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: Now, let me just say this, because my surprise about
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: Weird Al not being named, like something named after him already,
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: is because of how nerdy the science community is, obviously.
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: And that's not a cut. That's just reality. But maybe
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: it's a bigger accomplishment for Elvis and the Beatles. And
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: it's not to say that, you know, they don't deserve
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: it because of how big they are as artists. It's just,
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: you know, weird out in the nerdy community. It just
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: seems like it makes more sense. So maybe it's a
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: bigger accomplishment for them to have things named after him.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: I would say this. I think you're right. And I
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: think it's partially because in the era in which they
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: were and which those asteroids were named, I think scientists
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: were a fair amount more stodgy and maybe a lot
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: less willing to pursue, shall we call them, out-of-the-box naming protocols.
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: Back in those days, there weren't a lot of people
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: down at mission control with Mohawks.
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: It's just been a little different. Almost none. It's been
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: a little different than back in the day. So that's all.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: Gene Kranz did have a flat top in the Apollo
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: mission control room.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: Very different than a Mohawk.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: It's not really a Mohawk. Not the same. And it
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: wasn't blue. Well, I guess. I mean, I've only seen
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: black and white pictures. I've talked to people that knew Gene.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: I've never heard anybody say that he had a blue Mohawk.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: I did see that movie where Ed Harris portrayed him.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: His hair was not blue. So I'm pretty sure blue
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Mohawks were a more modern thing in Mission Control.
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: More Made of Stars right after this. Have astronomers discovered
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: a moon, the first.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: Moon outside of our solar system?
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: Maybe.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Maybe. The headline says that. This is astronomy.com.
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: And is it a blue moon like the Mohawk?
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Well, it would be a blue moon kind of event
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: to discover a moon in an exosolar system because we've
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: never done it before. And after you hear the story,
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: you realize we may not have done it yet. But
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: it's a good question to ask. Okay, so here's the setup.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: Just earlier in this podcast, friends, and if you need
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: to hit rewind, you can go back and listen. We
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: defined what a brown dwarf was. And we said it's
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: neither a planet nor is it a star. It's on
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: that gray twilight somewhere in between. Planets and stars. Okay.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: Go listen to that definition. Rewind the show if you
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: need to. Okay. So there's a brown dwarf out there
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: and it has a designation. It's a name, but not
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: really a name. Its name is CD-352722B.
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: He's a wide receiver for the Cowboys, isn't he?
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: The B part is actually an object circling the brown
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: dwarf CD-352722. I don't know. I haven't seen him on Fantasy.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: I've seen that other CD, but not this one.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, different CD. I was thinking of a different guy.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Clearly not the same guy. All right. So that brown dwarf, CD-352722,
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: has a little object orbiting it, and that's the B.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: So apparently it has more than one object orbiting it.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: It's another one. There's two of them. All right. So
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: its discovery has implications for planetary science, including what counts
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: as a moon beyond the boundaries of our own solar system.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: according to this article on astronomy.com. Here's why. Because in
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: the publication announcing the discovery of CD-3525, which was published
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: on the 22nd of July in Nature, the publication journal Nature,
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: the authors describe a solar system that's about 73 light
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: years from Earth where they say there's a three-tiered hierarchy.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Three-tiered hierarchy. Okay, what does that mean? Well, that means
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: there's a host star, but then around the host star
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: are three other sizes of things. The smallest ones they're
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: claiming would be moons. The next size up would be planets.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: That's very similar to our own solar system so far.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: But then the next object up from that is not
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: the parent star itself. It's the brown dwarf. See, here's
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: the thing. We're fully missing brown dwarfs in our own
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: solar system. Yes, that's right, friends. We've been cheated out
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: of the brown dwarf lottery. We just don't have any.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: And so then, okay, well, if there's a three-tiered hierarchy
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: of the kinds of objects, big objects that orbit around
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: the parent star, where we only have a two-tier hierarchy,
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: how do we define what a moon is? Well, Kevin Hoy,
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: who's an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory, who's part
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: of the team... that helped discover brown dwarf CD352722 and
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: its object orbiting around it, B, with the European Southern
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: Observatory's very large telescope more than two years ago and
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: have been tracking the shifts in the spectrum ever since
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: that tell us that it's there. Well, these folks have opinions.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: And so Kevin Hoy says this, quote, the exosatellite is
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: clearly massive enough to be a planet, but it does
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: not orbit a star, though it orbits an object that
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: orbits a star. So therefore, being the third wheel in
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: this system makes us want to call it a moon,
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: even though it's nothing like a small moon, like the
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: small rocky moons in our own solar system, unquote. Okay,
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: so you have a star, you have a brown dwarf
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: orbiting the star, you have something much bigger than Jupiter
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: orbiting the brown dwarf, and Kevin Hoy says, and his
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: team want to call that a moon. Can we accept
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: something the size of Jupiter or even larger orbiting not
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: really a planet in another solar system? Can we call
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: that a moon? Now, up till now, the UAE has
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: had some very set guidelines for how they define things,
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: and they don't really like to bend their own rules.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: but this is a new situation which they have not
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: been faced before. So Alice Zerlo is an astrophysicist at
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: the Universidad Diego Portales, part of the IAU, has a
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: quote that says this, quote, we have a clear delineation
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: between the planets and the sun in the solar system that.
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: We are in.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: So defining things like moons is simple. However, in the
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: CD-352722 system, where we are blurring the lines between stars, planets,
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: and moons, the whole thing seems to become more complicated
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: to describe, according to Alice Zerlo. So there you have it, friends.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: How are we going to define moons when they're not
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: really orbiting planets, they're orbiting brown dwarves instead, that are
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: orbiting stars? It's all mixed up, Wes. It's all mixed up.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Puddle of Mud had the song, Everything's So Blurry. This
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: is a bit blurry, right? Check out that Puddle of
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: Mud song on your favorite streaming site soon and listen
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: and just relate it to this story.
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: Speaking of songs that you can listen to, how about
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: Music Under the Dome?
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: The first Music.
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: Under the Dome of the new season happens on the
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: 6th of October.
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: It's just less than a week away.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just a few days from the airing of this podcast. Friends,
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: that show, October 6th, it begins with a wine and
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: cheese show. kind of a reception. So it's not just
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: your typical concert where you buy a ticket and go
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: in and sit down and have to buy your own popcorn. No, no.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: Once you buy a ticket to these particular concert series,
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: you actually get a glass of wine. You actually get
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: a small cheese hors d'oeuvre. You can enjoy those before
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: the show. Make sure you come right at five o'clock
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: shortly after to be able to enjoy that because at
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: 6 36 PM promptly, the concert begins. So we want
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: you to have finished up all those wines and cheeses
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: before you go into my planetarium and, and squish cheese
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: into my floor carpet. We don't want that to happen.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: And spilling wine on my new seats is always bad.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: So we're going to ask you to finish up those
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: beautiful hors d'oeuvres and wine before you go in and
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: hear the very talented students and faculty from the Schwab
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: School of Music performing live inside the Omnisphere Theater with
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: original graphics, which this month, October, produced by our own
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: Lance Tankersley, the planetarium director for the Coca-Cola Space Science
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: Center's Omnisphere Theater. Check out online, friends, our website. You
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: can get tickets there, www.ccssc.org, charliecharliesamsamcharlie.org.
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: Those graphics made by Lance, by the way, in spite
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: of the fact that he would definitely rather be playing pickleball.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: There's no question that Lance's pickleball priorities have risen in
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: more recent years. So yes, his pickleball passions are high.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure where that falls exactly with Planetarium. They
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: both start with P, but you'd have to ask Lance.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: In fact, another great reason to come to the concert,
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: ask Lance at the concert, preferably when it's over. If
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: he prefers producing for the Planetarium or Pickleball. Too many Ps.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: I got hung up.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: That's a lot of Ps. So many Ps.
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: If he happens to be there at Music Under the
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: Dome wearing a shirt that says, I'd rather be playing Pickleball,
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: don't be surprised.
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: That's all.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: Clearly true. Clearly true for his personal preferences. Yes.
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: Sean and I thank you for listening, and we will
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: do this again next week.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: When it starts.
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: Overhead Door Company of Columbus has all of your garage
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: door needs covered. Residential and commercial, service and repairs. If
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: you need a new garage door or you're just looking
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: to upgrade or repair your current door, Overhead Door Company
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: of Columbus has you covered. Plus, they've got your emergency
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: repairs or service covered as well.
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: 706-358-4500, 706-358-4500, odccolumbus.com.