Latest / Made of Stars / Yes, We're Returning to the Moon

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Yes, We're Returning to the Moon · Made of Stars

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Speaker 1: Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
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Speaker 1: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
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Speaker 1: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
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Speaker 1: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar asterism and uranus. Listen,
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Speaker 1: that's your own risk.
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Speaker 2: Go ahead.
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Speaker 3: When made of stars, made them stars, madies. When made
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Speaker 3: of stars, you could be from high they would New Mexicomus,
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Speaker 3: where all stars?
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Speaker 4: When we are made of stars. I'm Wes Carol, joined
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Speaker 4: by my good friend doctor Sean, cruising from Columbus State
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Speaker 4: University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
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Speaker 2: Hay Sean, good morning, Wes. Good to be here today.
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Speaker 4: All right, it's official. I mean we knew, but it's
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Speaker 4: even more official now than it's ever been before.
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Speaker 2: We're going back to the Moon. Yeah, I mean we were.
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Speaker 2: We knew we were going back to you.
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Speaker 4: And I went to Kennedy to see the rocket and.
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Speaker 2: We got that rocket pull up. We were pretty sure.
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Speaker 4: It seemed like they pulled it out of that giant
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Speaker 4: cigar container that was docked there, and they pulled the
1:33
Speaker 4: thing out. It took forever to come out. I was
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Speaker 4: I did some interviews with some astronauts and some engineers
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Speaker 4: while they were pulling it out, and when I came back,
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Speaker 4: it still wasn't all the way out, but at that
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Speaker 4: point they rolled it into the VA B and we thought,
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Speaker 4: this seems like it's a good thing, that we're probably
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Speaker 4: going to go back to the moon. And we taught
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Speaker 4: you and I both interviewed several of the engineers and
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Speaker 4: project managers that have been working on it, and all
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Speaker 4: of that certainly indicated that we were going back to
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Speaker 4: the moon. And now I guess we've gotten another big
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Speaker 4: announcement that, yes, in fact, is happening next year.
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Speaker 2: We are going back to the moon. So listen, friends,
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Speaker 2: all all of the interviews that Wes talked about are
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Speaker 2: in the database of Native Stars podcasts, and you are
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Speaker 2: more than welcome to go back and listen to those
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Speaker 2: spectacular interviews with all variety of program managers and very
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Speaker 2: important people involved with the Artemis program. That's happened just
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Speaker 2: a little bit more than a year ago anyway. So
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Speaker 2: what's happening right now is this As of yesterday, which
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Speaker 2: is Wednesday, the twenty fourth, NASA officials have given an
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Speaker 2: update on the Artemis two program, And what they're saying
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Speaker 2: is they are announcing that yes, we are going, and
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Speaker 2: they've moved the data to as early as potentially February
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Speaker 2: the fifth. Now here's the reason that this is like
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Speaker 2: a new story, right. So, yes, we've been talking a
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Speaker 2: lot about Artemis two. It's going to be the first
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Speaker 2: mission to fly people around the backside of the Moon,
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Speaker 2: including the first woman and first Canadian. But here's the
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Speaker 2: big thing is they've moved that up substantially, so this
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Speaker 2: would be less than six months from now if they
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Speaker 2: can hit all their target dates, and they actually have
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Speaker 2: laid out a plan to achieve all those target dates.
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Speaker 2: Lakeisha Hawkins, the Artemis two mission manager at NASA's Kennedy
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Speaker 2: Space Center, has set in a news conference, we together
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Speaker 2: have a front row seat to history. We're returning to
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Speaker 2: the Moon after over fifty years, which is true, right,
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Speaker 2: So it's been since nineteen seventy two that we've had
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Speaker 2: anybody fly around the backside of the Moon. That was
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Speaker 2: during the Apollo seventeen mission. So this time we're going
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Speaker 2: to be setting some folks who who are brand new
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Speaker 2: to space travel. But some of them are not even
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Speaker 2: from this country, right, So that's kind of a new feature.
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Speaker 2: One of them is will be the first woman to
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Speaker 2: fly around the backside of the Moon. That's a new feature,
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Speaker 2: and this is leading the way for a lot of
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Speaker 2: science to be done, but also the colonization of the
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Speaker 2: surface of the Moon. If you remember, the one of
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Speaker 2: the Artemis catchphrases is we're going back to the Moon
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Speaker 2: for good. And yes that's a double entendre. It means
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Speaker 2: to stay permanently. It also means for the betterment of humanity, right,
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Speaker 2: So these are both really great things and great objectives.
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Speaker 2: So anyway, check there's a story on IFL Science, one
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Speaker 2: of our favorite sites. There's lots of stories out there
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Speaker 2: about returning to Artemis returning to the Moon within less
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Speaker 2: than six months. Check that out. Brand new from NASA.
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Speaker 2: Check out IFL science because they have the best website
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Speaker 2: name they do.
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Speaker 4: Of all the websites that we reference, that is definitely
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Speaker 4: one of them. So this is something cool also that
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Speaker 4: you can do that involves this particular mission, is that
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Speaker 4: the folks at NASA are giving you the opportunity to
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Speaker 4: send your name around the backside of the Moon with
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Speaker 4: these astronauts. And here's the kicker it's free. Like when
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Speaker 4: do you hear about something cool? Like usually it's like, hey,
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Speaker 4: we're gonna name a star after you for just you know,
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Speaker 4: one hundred and seventy five dollars or whatever, and you go,
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Speaker 4: all right, is this official? Well no, but in this case,
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Speaker 4: they will send your name in a database. It'll be
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Speaker 4: like on an SD card, I think, is what they're saying.
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Speaker 4: So they're gonna make this database of all of these
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Speaker 4: names and then they're gonna put it on the SD card.
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Speaker 4: It's gonna fly around the moon, it's gonna come back
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Speaker 4: to Earth, and your name will have been part of history.
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Speaker 4: So that's kind of cool. And I know you can
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Speaker 4: probably think, well, it's just my name on an SD card. Yeah,
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Speaker 4: but if you don't submit your name on the SD card,
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Speaker 4: guess what, your name's not gonna fly around the moon.
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Speaker 4: That's all I'm saying. And it's free, that's the other
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Speaker 4: part of it. And it takes. And I've already submitted
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Speaker 4: my name. I've submitted the names of my family. My
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Speaker 4: dog is in there. You know, you can do. Made
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Speaker 4: of Stars is flying around the moon officially, I got mine.
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Speaker 4: They'll give you a little boarding pass. You'll get a
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Speaker 4: little QR code. I guess you're gonna be able to
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Speaker 4: track stuff. I don't know, But the point is they're
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Speaker 4: trying to get excitement from citizens to say, hey, I
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Speaker 4: want to be a part of this, and it's a
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Speaker 4: way to be a part of it, and it's free.
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Speaker 4: You just go to NASA dot gov. As of the
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Speaker 4: release of the show this week here in late September.
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Speaker 4: It's on the front page. You just got to scroll
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Speaker 4: down a little bit, but there it is one click,
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Speaker 4: or you can on their X page. I guess they've
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Speaker 4: also posted a link and it just it'll take you
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Speaker 4: two minutes and you get a cool little boarding pass
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Speaker 4: and you just put you submit your name and it's
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Speaker 4: not asking you for a bunch of stuff. It doesn't
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Speaker 4: want to know your email address. It just wants your
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Speaker 4: name and a pin number. That's all it wants. And
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Speaker 4: then with the pin number, maybe there'll be some other
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Speaker 4: stuff you can do later. But again, it's free, so
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Speaker 4: you can be a part of this for free.
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Speaker 2: And you know, if we're if we're really thinking that
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Speaker 2: inspiration is a very important part of inspiring the next
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Speaker 2: generation of scientists and engineers to actually major in those fields.
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Speaker 2: Later on, which we do every day here at Coca
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Speaker 2: Cola Space Science Center, and that's what we try to do.
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Speaker 2: We try we try to provide the inspiration that leads
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Speaker 2: to the education, that leads to that future career workforce,
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Speaker 2: which is so important for America. Do this with your kids,
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Speaker 2: or do this with your grandkids, or do this with
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Speaker 2: a dog. I mean that's what I did, yeah, or
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Speaker 2: that you know, even that inspire your dog to be
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Speaker 2: an engineer? No, anyway, I mean, who knows who the
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Speaker 2: first dog on the moon is going to be. We
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Speaker 2: don't know. That dog may already be out.
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Speaker 4: There somewhere just waiting for a chance to go. We
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Speaker 4: just watched dogs.
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Speaker 2: Could be a listener to this podcast. We don't know.
7:49
Speaker 4: We just rewatched Superman. Uh, you know, and crypto is
7:52
Speaker 4: all the rage right now, so you know, you never know.
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Speaker 4: But it's a pretty cool way to connect with people
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Speaker 4: doing it and it's easy, and it takes very little
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Speaker 4: of your time and it's free. So yes, you're exactly right.
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Speaker 4: Do it with your kids, give them an opportunity. And
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Speaker 4: I think classrooms should be doing this. I think every
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Speaker 4: opportunity for people to take advantage of a cool connection
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Speaker 4: to something that's going to be happening so and happening
8:17
Speaker 4: sooner than we thought.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know, maybe even before the super Bowl.
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Speaker 2: Who knows.
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Speaker 4: That would be amazing, that would be wild. All right,
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Speaker 4: let's let's talk about something that happened yesterday. Because we
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Speaker 4: had this this launch yesterday, you just in time sent
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Speaker 4: me a link to it so I could track the launch. Again,
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Speaker 4: I appreciate that. I always love when I get a
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Speaker 4: text from you it's like this right now, which I
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Speaker 4: get right now, and I was able to check that
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Speaker 4: out yesterday morning.
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Speaker 2: So it's a it's a really cool mission that involves
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Speaker 2: some space weather probe. So these are spacecraft that I
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Speaker 2: would call them a satellite, but they're not really orbiting
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Speaker 2: the Earth. They're orbiting the Sun with the Earth, which
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Speaker 2: I guess maybe there are still satellites of the Sun.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, there you go.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess I don't know anyway, so let's just
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Speaker 2: call them space probes. So there are three new spacecraft
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Speaker 2: that have been deployed to help us better understand phenomenon
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Speaker 2: associated with the Sun and its effect on the Earth.
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Speaker 2: And they are first of all, the main mission, the
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Speaker 2: IMAT mission. This is called the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe.
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Speaker 2: So what they're looking at is effects of the Sun
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Speaker 2: and its activity on the Solar System in general, and
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Speaker 2: particularly watching for space weather impacts on satellite and communication
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Speaker 2: systems around the Earth, how the Sun may be affecting
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Speaker 2: power grids, and just enabling a better preparedness for some
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Speaker 2: deep understanding of how space weather and solar storms affect
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Speaker 2: the Earth. Right. So that's the number one mission, the
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Speaker 2: IMAP mission. That's a NASA mission. The second mission, and
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Speaker 2: again this is three for the price of one. So
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Speaker 2: the second mission is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
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Speaker 2: a mission called the Space Weather follow On Lagrange one
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Speaker 2: rolls off the tongue Space Weather follow On Lagrange one.
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Speaker 2: I intentionally put a little gap in there because it's
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Speaker 2: the SWAFFO mission SWFO DASH L one. And here's the thing.
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Speaker 2: The mission could just be called the Space Weather follow On,
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Speaker 2: which is a spacecraft that is going to be deploying
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Speaker 2: a set of instruments to look at the corona and
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Speaker 2: the thermal plasma which is around the Sun itself. It's
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Speaker 2: instruments coronal mass ejection. So it's kind of an early
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Speaker 2: warning system for space Weather. It's looking at the effects
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Speaker 2: of magnetic fields, both the Sun's magnetic field and its
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Speaker 2: impact on the Earth's magnetic field. So it's doing a
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Speaker 2: lot of different things. The space Weather mission. It's being
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Speaker 2: deployed to Lagrange point one, So Lagarannge point one is
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Speaker 2: actually a location. In fact, all three of these space
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Speaker 2: probes are going to this location. Lagrange point one is
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Speaker 2: a balance point in the mutual gravitational field of the
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Speaker 2: Sun and the Earth. And because the Sun's gravity and
11:23
Speaker 2: the Earth's gravity would be pulling on that spacecraft with
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Speaker 2: the same amount of force, then the spacecraft just stays
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Speaker 2: balanced right there and orbits around the Sun with the Earth. Now,
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Speaker 2: that's almost easy to imagine if it's like right in
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Speaker 2: Earth's same orbit, because Kepler's laws would tell you that
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Speaker 2: anything at that orbital range would orbit at that speed.
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Speaker 2: But this thing is actually closer to the Sun than
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Speaker 2: the Earth, so you might think by if you know
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Speaker 2: anything about Kepler's laws, you might say, well, should be
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Speaker 2: going faster like Venus does, or like mercury does. It
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Speaker 2: goes around the Sun faster than the Earth. Right, they
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Speaker 2: have shorter orbital periods than the Earth does because they're closer.
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Speaker 2: So this spacecraft indeed would be closer to the Sun,
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Speaker 2: but it doesn't have a shorter orbital period because it's
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Speaker 2: locked in by Earth's gravitational force as well as the Sun's.
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Speaker 2: It's at that weird balance point of lagrange one, so
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Speaker 2: it just hangs right between the Earth and the Sun,
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Speaker 2: which is absolutely perfect for a spaceship that you want
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Speaker 2: to be an early warning system for solar storms, because
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Speaker 2: all of the charged particles and waves of material ejected
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Speaker 2: during a solar flare are going to arrive at that
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Speaker 2: spacecraft about half an hour before they arrive at the Earth.
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Speaker 2: So in other words, we can radio up to the
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Speaker 2: astronauts aboard the International Space Station or other spacecraft that
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Speaker 2: might be up there and say, hey, there has been
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Speaker 2: a solar storm. We just had a detection that that
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Speaker 2: material is traveling in and it's about a half hour away,
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Speaker 2: so you have about thirty minutes to be able to
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Speaker 2: hunker down and protect yourself from this oncoming coronal mass ejection.
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Speaker 2: So that's one of the many purposes of space weather
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Speaker 2: follow on mission or the SWAFFO dash L one mission
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Speaker 2: SAFFO at lagrange one, So that's two of the missions. Now,
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Speaker 2: the third one is called the Carruthers Geo Corona Observatory.
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Speaker 2: Let's break that down. It's named after doctor George R. Carruthers,
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Speaker 2: who is one of the early visionary scientists and inventors, educator,
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Speaker 2: engineer who helped discover the fact that there is something
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Speaker 2: called a geo corona. Now, if you're any kind of
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Speaker 2: a space buff at all, which I imagine you are
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Speaker 2: you're listening to this podcast, you know that there's a
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Speaker 2: corona around the Sun. It's the thing you see during
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Speaker 2: a total eclipse. It's that glowing cloud of high temperature
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Speaker 2: gas around the outside of the Sun that it actuallymits
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Speaker 2: a lot of X rays because it's at a high temperature. Okay,
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Speaker 2: that's the solar corona. But the Earth has a corona
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Speaker 2: as well, and people might not know more much about that.
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Speaker 2: It's actually the very last outer part of the atmosphere
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Speaker 2: of the Earth. It's called the exosphere. And the exosphere
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Speaker 2: extends anywhere from about three hundred miles out to about
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Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty thousand miles, so it's really big,
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Speaker 2: but it's also very very thin layer of gas. But
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Speaker 2: this really thin outer envelope of the very last vestiges
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Speaker 2: of verse atmosphere can be caused to glow in the
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Speaker 2: ultraviolet part of the spectrum by incoming radiation from the Sun,
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Speaker 2: and that is what's known as the geo corona. It's
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Speaker 2: the glowing exosphere being lit up by the Sun's radiation. Okay,
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Speaker 2: so this was only discovered in the space age. Doctor
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Speaker 2: George R. Carruthers, the namesake for this last mission aboard
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Speaker 2: yesterday's launch was somebody who designed one of the first
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Speaker 2: cameras to ever go to the Moon and look back
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Speaker 2: at the Earth and study this very thing we're talking about,
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Speaker 2: the geo corona in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum.
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Speaker 2: Doctor George R. Carruthers camera flew on Apollo sixteen and
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Speaker 2: is therefore still on the surface of the Moon actually,
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Speaker 2: but it took some very important early data helping us
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Speaker 2: understand that the Earth's exosphere will light up in the
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Speaker 2: ultraviolet when it gets hit by solar radiation. So there
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Speaker 2: you go. The third mission called the Carruthers Geo Corona Observatory,
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Speaker 2: named after George R. Carruthers, one of the early visionary
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Speaker 2: scientists at NASA.
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Speaker 4: So it was a big launch yesterday, is what you're saying.
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Speaker 2: You know, it was a three for one. And by
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Speaker 2: the way, the American taxpayer, let us remember, there are
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Speaker 2: two reasons why this launch was both cheaper and more
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Speaker 2: efficient and your standard scientific launches that we've gotten used
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Speaker 2: to over the past fifty years of the space age
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Speaker 2: sixty years. Here's why. Because A, they were using a
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Speaker 2: rocket that's reusable. In fact, this was its second trip
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Speaker 2: to space, so already it's cheaper because you're reusing the rockets.
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Speaker 2: And b we've learned how to stack three different spacecraft
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Speaker 2: inside the cargo fairing of one rocket and blast them
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Speaker 2: all off together. So not only is it cheaper per
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Speaker 2: pound because you're reusing the space vehicle, the launch vehicle,
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Speaker 2: it's also cheaper because it's three missions for the price
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Speaker 2: of one. Friends, So there you go, making space better
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Speaker 2: even for the hardworking American taxpayer.
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Speaker 4: Coming up, after a quick break, we'll talk about NASA's
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Speaker 4: viper mission.
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Speaker 5: We'll do that next.
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Speaker 4: Viper Mission has come back to life thanks to the
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Speaker 4: folks at Blue Origin to agree.
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Speaker 2: NASA had basically canceled this mission because they were saying, ah,
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Speaker 2: we can't really afford to take it. But they then
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Speaker 2: Jeff called, right, Jeff got, Jeff got on the phone.
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Speaker 2: I said, hey, how about I help you take that
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Speaker 2: that mission to the Moon. So this is Jeff Bezos
17:37
Speaker 2: from Blue Origin. He's been collaborating with NASA to revive
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Speaker 2: the VIPER Polar Explore. Basically, it's a it's a rover
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Speaker 2: for driving around at the Moon's south pole and I
17:50
Speaker 2: identifying various volatile compounds that may or may not be
17:54
Speaker 2: on the surface down there at the lunar south pole.
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Speaker 2: We're pretty sure it is, but we're going to go
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Speaker 2: study more detail. That mission, again had been proposed by NASA,
18:02
Speaker 2: had actually been built, but then NASA ran out of
18:07
Speaker 2: money for it, so they canceled it. And Jeff said, well, listen,
18:10
Speaker 2: if all you need is a ride to the Moon,
18:12
Speaker 2: because you already have it built, let me take it
18:15
Speaker 2: up for you. And so I don't know if it's
18:18
Speaker 2: exactly word for word having that conversation.
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Speaker 4: He may have just said, hey, I've got money.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and little argument that he has money,
18:27
Speaker 2: probably more than anyway, So it does in fact have money.
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Speaker 2: The VIPER mission, which stands for Volatile's Investigation Polar Exploration
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Speaker 2: Rover welas there's just no verbs in there at all,
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Speaker 2: investigating I guess there is a verb volatiles investigating polar
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Speaker 2: exploration rover. Anyway, the VIPER mission, which is going to
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Speaker 2: go to the to the moon south pole and look
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Speaker 2: for signs of water so that astronauts when they go
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Speaker 2: colonize that because of the Artemis program, which we just
18:59
Speaker 2: talked about before the break, can identify water resources that
19:04
Speaker 2: are in place already on the Moon and perhaps take
19:08
Speaker 2: advantage of some of those. That's why it's important NASA
19:12
Speaker 2: has just approved this new launch relationship with Blue Origin
19:18
Speaker 2: because they're trying to get ready to send astronauts back
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Speaker 2: to the Moon, and so there's some commercial lunar preparation
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Speaker 2: taking place and being funded by NASA, and somehow in
19:30
Speaker 2: the midst of all that, they worked it out for
19:32
Speaker 2: Blue Origin to actually take VIPER to the Moon. So
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Speaker 2: this is from NASA's acting administrator, Sean Duffy said this quote.
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Speaker 2: NASA is leading the world and exploring more of the
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Speaker 2: Moon than ever before, and this delivery is just one
19:47
Speaker 2: of many ways we're leveraging US industry to support a
19:51
Speaker 2: long term American presence on the lunar surface. Sean Duffy
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Speaker 2: went on to say, our rover will explore the extreme
19:58
Speaker 2: environment of the lunar South Pole, traveling to small, permanently
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Speaker 2: shadowed regions to help inform future landing sites for our
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Speaker 2: astronauts and better understand the Moon's environment, important insights for
20:13
Speaker 2: sustaining humans over long missions as America leads our future
20:18
Speaker 2: in space. Unquote Sean Duffy, NASA administrator. There you go, friends,
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Speaker 2: So it's looking like Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin stepping
20:27
Speaker 2: up to have an otherwise canceled mission actually find its
20:30
Speaker 2: way to the Moon and do some very important work
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Speaker 2: for the future artemist missions.
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Speaker 4: All right, so that's something that's been revived. Let's shift
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Speaker 4: over to a couple of stories about stars eating things
20:41
Speaker 4: and ending them for starters, a Pluto like world filled
20:46
Speaker 4: with ice. My question about and then Hubble actually is
20:49
Speaker 4: what saw this but a star munching on this Pluto
20:53
Speaker 4: like object? Any chance that I don't know, the silver
20:57
Speaker 4: Surfer had just visited this place before it is eaten?
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Speaker 4: Or like, how does that work exactly?
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Speaker 2: I mean, it does sound like something out of the
21:07
Speaker 2: maybe the Marvel cinematic universe. I don't know, something like that.
21:10
Speaker 2: I don't know. Yeah, could be. I mean, I mean
21:12
Speaker 2: anytime you have some giant object just munching planets. Could
21:19
Speaker 2: could be Star Wars, could be Star Trek actually original series, right,
21:23
Speaker 2: that could be.
21:24
Speaker 4: Could be a number of machine It could be a
21:26
Speaker 4: number of things. I just immediately went to Galactus.
21:28
Speaker 2: But you know, but yeah, that's maybe the most recent
21:30
Speaker 2: and you know, most appropriate reference. Yeah, so Hubble Space
21:34
Speaker 2: Telescope did look out at a different star system. It's
21:37
Speaker 2: a star system that's about two hundred and sixty light
21:39
Speaker 2: years away from the Earth, and it gathered data of
21:46
Speaker 2: a star snacking on a different star. Now, this is
21:50
Speaker 2: a burnout start. It's a star. It's a star remnant, right,
21:53
Speaker 2: it's a white dwarf. It's a white dwarf star that
21:57
Speaker 2: used to be the core of a star, something similar
21:59
Speaker 2: to the Sun. But now that star has died out
22:01
Speaker 2: and it's just the white dwarf remnant itself. It munched
22:05
Speaker 2: a Pluto, and I think it had already munched part
22:08
Speaker 2: of the pluto. It just finished off the Pluto. So
22:11
Speaker 2: it munched a Pluto fragment. And here's the weird thing.
22:14
Speaker 2: After it did that, it burped. So after this white dwarf,
22:19
Speaker 2: you know, let off a giant burp of the gases
22:21
Speaker 2: left over from this Pluto like object. Scientists looked at it.
22:26
Speaker 2: That's weird in itself. And these are scientists from the
22:29
Speaker 2: University of Warwick in the UK, and they studied white
22:33
Speaker 2: dwarf burps, apparently white dwarfs in general. But okay, but
22:38
Speaker 2: if they burp, it's even better because what they found
22:42
Speaker 2: was a giant injection of volatile carbon compounds, including carbon
22:47
Speaker 2: including sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen compounds, and possibly that indicated the
22:53
Speaker 2: presence of water in the burp led off by a
22:57
Speaker 2: white dwarf after it ate this plue Udo like object,
23:01
Speaker 2: which means this weird exo Pluto like object might have
23:06
Speaker 2: had as much as sixty four percent water ice. So
23:10
Speaker 2: they got they got a good look at the chemistry
23:14
Speaker 2: of a dying world as it was being being eaten
23:18
Speaker 2: by a dead star using the Hubble space telescope. That's
23:22
Speaker 2: a that's a four bank pool shot right there, buddy.
23:25
Speaker 2: That's that's a really fantastic achievement in sciences, in science
23:31
Speaker 2: by these scientists in the UK. So Sneehalada Sahu, who
23:37
Speaker 2: is one of the investigators on the project from the
23:39
Speaker 2: University of Warwick said this, we were surprised. We did
23:43
Speaker 2: not expect to find water or other icy content going
23:48
Speaker 2: on with a quote. This is because the comets and
23:50
Speaker 2: Kuiper Belt like objects are thrown out of their planetary
23:54
Speaker 2: systems early as their stars evolve into white dwarfs. But
24:00
Speaker 2: we are detecting this very volatile, rich material unquote. All right,
24:05
Speaker 2: let me see if I can kind of unpack that
24:06
Speaker 2: for everybody. We have in our own solar system a
24:10
Speaker 2: belt of material that's far, far beyond the orbit of
24:13
Speaker 2: Pluto and Neptune, way on the outside of our solar system.
24:17
Speaker 2: It's called the Kuiper Belt. It's thought to be the
24:20
Speaker 2: source of some very long period comets. But those long
24:23
Speaker 2: period comets are very rare visitors to the inner part
24:26
Speaker 2: of the Solar system. And what the scientist is trying
24:30
Speaker 2: to explain is around this other star, in this other
24:33
Speaker 2: solar system, it appears that like a fairly large object
24:38
Speaker 2: like nearly the size of Pluto, somehow got into the
24:42
Speaker 2: inner part of the Solar system close enough for one
24:46
Speaker 2: of its parent stars to have devoured it, even after
24:49
Speaker 2: that parent star had died out and turned into a
24:50
Speaker 2: white dwarf, which means all of those volatile materials were
24:55
Speaker 2: in the inner part of the solar system, not way
24:57
Speaker 2: out on the edge, which is just interesting, right, because
25:02
Speaker 2: if you get volatile materials in the inner part of
25:06
Speaker 2: the solar system, that might mean you have all of
25:09
Speaker 2: the building blocks necessary for life laying right in the
25:14
Speaker 2: Goldilocks zone or the just right temperature zone for a
25:18
Speaker 2: planet to harbor life around another star. So that's one
25:22
Speaker 2: of the things that makes this very very interesting. So
25:26
Speaker 2: again back to the study. Given the white dwarf's intense
25:29
Speaker 2: gravitational pull, scientists believe it drew in the Pluto like
25:33
Speaker 2: planet tesimal or small planet from its own version of
25:36
Speaker 2: the Kuyper Belt and tore it apart. Right, So, somehow, gravitationally,
25:41
Speaker 2: this Pluto like object was pulled in from the outer
25:46
Speaker 2: colder reaches of its own solar system into the inner
25:49
Speaker 2: parts and then devoured by this dying star, giving us
25:52
Speaker 2: a really good look into the chemistry of this alien
25:55
Speaker 2: solar system.
25:56
Speaker 4: Let's talk about another situation, because we've talked about the
26:00
Speaker 4: the Cannibal the Cannibal Star, and now it looks like
26:05
Speaker 4: we got some new information about this or this is
26:08
Speaker 4: a revisited story, right.
26:10
Speaker 2: Well, so yeah, I mean we've known about this object
26:13
Speaker 2: for a while, but we're finding out some new information
26:16
Speaker 2: about it, and so it looks like this is happening.
26:19
Speaker 2: So this is another edition of a star eating something.
26:24
Speaker 2: This time it's eating its friend. This is a star
26:27
Speaker 2: that's eating another star. And yes, this star already reached
26:31
Speaker 2: the end of its lifetime and turned into a white dwarf,
26:34
Speaker 2: just the way we described the previous story. But it's
26:37
Speaker 2: in a binary star system. That means it's other star,
26:42
Speaker 2: it's twin star that it's orbiting around. It's still a star,
26:46
Speaker 2: but the white dwarf, the dead corpse of the first star,
26:49
Speaker 2: is eating the material off the second star, and it
26:52
Speaker 2: has little bright bursts of radiation that tell us, hey,
26:57
Speaker 2: there's two stars in the system and one feeding on
27:00
Speaker 2: the other. And every time the white dwarf draws enough
27:03
Speaker 2: material off the companion star, it flares up into a
27:08
Speaker 2: bright what we call a nova explosion, which is a kinder,
27:13
Speaker 2: gentler version of a bigger supernova explosion. Anyway, so once
27:17
Speaker 2: the white dwarf eats enough of that material, it's going
27:21
Speaker 2: to it's going to pass a very important threshold, and
27:25
Speaker 2: the threshold is called the Chandra Sakhar limit, and the
27:29
Speaker 2: Chandra Sakar limit is where when enough material has been
27:33
Speaker 2: dumped onto a white white dwarf star, the white dwarf
27:36
Speaker 2: star can no longer support itself and it explodes in
27:41
Speaker 2: what's called a type one a supernova explosion. Okay, so
27:46
Speaker 2: what we're finding with an instrument called the very Large
27:49
Speaker 2: telescope is that this double star called Vata vs Gta,
27:56
Speaker 2: that's telling us what constellation is. In a constellation called
27:59
Speaker 2: SID in the southern hemisphere, VISAJT is a binary star
28:04
Speaker 2: system about ten thousand light years from the Earth, and
28:07
Speaker 2: the white dwarf is feeding off its companion. It's drawing
28:11
Speaker 2: ever nearer to that Shanda Sakhar limit where it's going
28:14
Speaker 2: to explode in a supernova explosion. And if it does,
28:18
Speaker 2: it's close enough to the Earth that it might actually
28:21
Speaker 2: be visible in broad daylight. This could be a naked eye,
28:26
Speaker 2: broad daylight visible supernova explosion that could happen just any
28:32
Speaker 2: time now. Now. Unfortunately, when astronomers say that, you know
28:37
Speaker 2: it's within the next you know, a few thousand years,
28:40
Speaker 2: but it could be tomorrow, right. So the interesting thing
28:44
Speaker 2: is we're finding out that this thing is far enough
28:46
Speaker 2: advanced that it could be soon or geologically soon, which
28:50
Speaker 2: might mean we're not here but still geologically soon in
28:53
Speaker 2: the history of the Earth, all right. Pasi Hakala from
28:57
Speaker 2: the University of Turku, a team member from the European
29:00
Speaker 2: Southern Observatory that's been studying this, says this quote. The
29:04
Speaker 2: white dwarf cannot consume all the mass being transferred from
29:08
Speaker 2: its hot star twin, so it creates its bright cosmic ring.
29:13
Speaker 2: The speed at which this doom stellar system is lurching wildly,
29:18
Speaker 2: likely due to the extreme brightness, is a frantic sign
29:21
Speaker 2: of its imminent violent end. So we know it's going
29:25
Speaker 2: to happen. Astronomers have been watching this very same star
29:29
Speaker 2: for about one hundred and twenty three years, noticing that
29:32
Speaker 2: it was acting strangely, so we've already known about it.
29:35
Speaker 2: Now with modern technology like the very large telescope, we
29:39
Speaker 2: know this is a type one a supernova about ready
29:41
Speaker 2: to go. Stay tuned. That's all I can tell you.
29:46
Speaker 2: Don't miss another episode of Made of Stars, because this
29:48
Speaker 2: thing could go. And will be the first to tell you, well,
29:51
Speaker 2: we'll try.
29:52
Speaker 4: We'll be one of the first definitely one of the first.
29:58
Speaker 2: Will be one of the first the next ten thousand
30:00
Speaker 2: years to tell you this thing is going to happen.
30:02
Speaker 4: More made of stars right after this, all right, let's
30:27
Speaker 4: talk about Music under the Dome coming up, and then
30:29
Speaker 4: we have another thing that we can, I guess now
30:32
Speaker 4: announce officially that we're really excited about. I'm especially excited
30:37
Speaker 4: about it. I think you are too. But let's start
30:40
Speaker 4: with Music under the Dome.
30:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, Music under the Dome is a concert series that
30:44
Speaker 2: happens here at Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center,
30:47
Speaker 2: and it is where the Schwob School of Music faculty
30:50
Speaker 2: and students right here from our own university come into
30:54
Speaker 2: our planetarium and perform under the stars. Friends. But it's
30:58
Speaker 2: not just stars, it's actual league custom design graphics by
31:02
Speaker 2: various visual artists. And the first one that's going to
31:05
Speaker 2: happen on the first Tuesday in October, which is actually
31:10
Speaker 2: October the seventh, is going to be all the artwork
31:13
Speaker 2: is going to be designed by Lance Tankersley, the planetarium
31:16
Speaker 2: director of the Omosphere Theater here at CSU's co Cola
31:20
Speaker 2: Space Science Center. So we're super excited about that. The
31:23
Speaker 2: concert series. I will tell you friends, it's selling out rapidly.
31:27
Speaker 2: There are just a few season tickets left. I believe
31:32
Speaker 2: that most of the door sales for the two concerts
31:34
Speaker 2: this fall are already gone, which means there's only a
31:37
Speaker 2: couple of ways you can see it. Either jumping and
31:39
Speaker 2: buy one of those season passes and get all the
31:42
Speaker 2: concert series and come back and see us, or you
31:45
Speaker 2: can come the night of the concert. We do reserve
31:47
Speaker 2: a handful of seats for sale on the night of
31:50
Speaker 2: the show, but those are on a first comfort serve basis.
31:53
Speaker 2: And we love everybody's enthusiasm for the concert series. Thank
31:57
Speaker 2: you for all those folks who have bought tickets already
31:59
Speaker 2: and hope to see you on October seventh for the
32:02
Speaker 2: first Music under the Dome concert for this academic year
32:05
Speaker 2: here at Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
32:08
Speaker 4: Now, yeah, and we got something other event and something
32:11
Speaker 4: else that's a first, Yes, for.
32:13
Speaker 2: An absolute first, something that's never happened for Wes. This
32:16
Speaker 2: is really your this is your podcast. I'm just, you know,
32:19
Speaker 2: a comedy relief that comes in and joins you. Why
32:22
Speaker 2: don't you make this really important announcement about the event
32:25
Speaker 2: coming up here at CSU's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
32:27
Speaker 4: So November first, which happens to be the night of
32:31
Speaker 4: an Astronomy Night taking place at Columbus State University's Space
32:35
Speaker 4: Science Center, And maybe you're listening to this you were
32:37
Speaker 4: planning to be at Astronomy Night anyway. If not, we're
32:41
Speaker 4: going to give you something to do before Astronomy Night
32:44
Speaker 4: and you can stick around and participate in that. So
32:49
Speaker 4: we have decided on November the first, we are going
32:52
Speaker 4: to do our first ever Made of Stars Live. We'll
32:57
Speaker 4: do the podcast there at the co Cola Space Science Center,
33:02
Speaker 4: and we invite you to come and join us for
33:05
Speaker 4: the show we'll be doing it. I mean, we're going
33:09
Speaker 4: to have some topics planned out, but I assume we'll
33:11
Speaker 4: probably be happy to answer some questions. I've got one
33:14
Speaker 4: friend who is already planning to be there and has
33:17
Speaker 4: already said I've got a question, and I'm like, you
33:19
Speaker 4: can save that now. They told me what the question was.
33:22
Speaker 4: I said, we do like to know a little bit
33:24
Speaker 4: ahead of time, so we're not getting too many curve balls,
33:27
Speaker 4: but we're excited about the opportunity to sit there in
33:29
Speaker 4: front of an audience, first time that we will have
33:32
Speaker 4: ever done that. I anticipate, unless it all goes horribly wrong,
33:37
Speaker 4: it will not be the last time that we do it.
33:39
Speaker 4: I just think it's going to be a lot of
33:41
Speaker 4: fun and I'm really excited about the chance for us
33:44
Speaker 4: to do that there at the co Co Cola Space
33:47
Speaker 4: Science Center. And like I said, then you just stick
33:49
Speaker 4: around and you can participate in Astronomy Night that'll be
33:51
Speaker 4: going on right afterwards, so you'll get two events in
33:54
Speaker 4: one and I'm just excited about it November first, and
33:59
Speaker 4: I have had a number of people that I've told
34:01
Speaker 4: about it go all right, So what do we got
34:03
Speaker 4: to do for tickets?
34:05
Speaker 2: It's like, well, this.
34:09
Speaker 4: First one, I don't know that we're going to have tickets,
34:11
Speaker 4: but we'll see. We'll see what the interest level is.
34:14
Speaker 4: If we can pack the place out, we might have
34:15
Speaker 4: to start thinking about tickets in the future, even if
34:18
Speaker 4: it's just a reserved spot for people that want to
34:20
Speaker 4: be there. But for now, yeah, we just need you
34:24
Speaker 4: to come and show up on November first. That's where
34:27
Speaker 4: we're at at this point. But we're in the early
34:29
Speaker 4: planning stages of it. But Shawn and I are really
34:31
Speaker 4: excited about the opportunity to do it.
34:33
Speaker 2: Yeah. So this is actually an event that is sponsored
34:36
Speaker 2: by Columbus State University's Department of Earth and Space Sciences,
34:40
Speaker 2: where we have degree programs in astrophysics and planetary geology
34:44
Speaker 2: as well as regular geology, environmental science, and science education.
34:48
Speaker 2: So this is my home academic department here at Columbus
34:52
Speaker 2: State University. Doctor Troy Keller is the chair of the
34:55
Speaker 2: department has invited us as part of their speaker series
34:59
Speaker 2: for the apartment to come in and do this event.
35:02
Speaker 4: So if we triggered this whole and if we stink,
35:06
Speaker 4: take it up with Troy, that's all I got to see.
35:08
Speaker 2: It's all Troy's fault. But you know, if you're if
35:11
Speaker 2: you're a regular listener to the podcast, you pretty much
35:13
Speaker 2: know what you're gonna get. That's right. It's gonna be this,
35:17
Speaker 2: except with Wes and I actually physically sitting in person,
35:20
Speaker 2: that's right, and doing what we do here. And you know,
35:24
Speaker 2: you know, at first it scared me to have a
35:25
Speaker 2: live audience. Then I thought, well, that's not going to
35:28
Speaker 2: be any different than what I'm not going to say,
35:30
Speaker 2: anything different than how I would say it now. I'm
35:32
Speaker 2: just gonna go ahead and present just the way I
35:34
Speaker 2: do on this podcast. It's not like we do multiple
35:37
Speaker 2: takes and you know, start over. We don't. We just
35:39
Speaker 2: kind of we just wait.
35:41
Speaker 4: Now in this case, though, you get me in front
35:43
Speaker 4: of a live audience, I'm the wild car.
35:48
Speaker 2: I can't promise I'm gonna have a situation right for
35:51
Speaker 2: all those people who might actually come to this event.
35:54
Speaker 2: You know Wes, you listen to him regularly on this
35:57
Speaker 2: and many other podcasts. You know what you're in for.
36:00
Speaker 2: So I would say, just buckle up, come down to
36:03
Speaker 2: the show on November first. We're going to have fun,
36:06
Speaker 2: that I promise. And I have a pretty big theater,
36:09
Speaker 2: you know here at the Space Science Center, there's there's
36:11
Speaker 2: a goodly number of seats. We're going to try to
36:13
Speaker 2: add some extra capacity to the planetarium for this particular
36:16
Speaker 2: event that night. So yeah, I think we'll I think
36:19
Speaker 2: we'll be able to get everybody in. But we're still
36:22
Speaker 2: thinking through whether or not we have to reserve a
36:23
Speaker 2: ticket or not, so trying. We're trying to get some feedback.
36:27
Speaker 2: If you know you're coming, email Wes, you know, find
36:32
Speaker 2: us online there, send us a message direct message them
36:34
Speaker 2: on Facebook whatever.
36:35
Speaker 4: Either way, either way you can reach me.
36:37
Speaker 2: Just reach out to Wes and say hey, I'm coming.
36:40
Speaker 2: And if that number gets to be more than a thousand,
36:42
Speaker 2: then we know we really have something. So then we
36:45
Speaker 2: might have to announce a change of venue, but other
36:47
Speaker 2: than that, we're good to go.
36:49
Speaker 4: Have to move it to the River Center or something,
36:51
Speaker 4: but we're looking forward to that. So to learn more
36:54
Speaker 4: about upcoming events, go to the website CCSSC dot org
37:00
Speaker 4: for the Coca Cola Space Science Center. Sean and I
37:02
Speaker 4: thank you for listening, and we will do this again
37:04
Speaker 4: next week.
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