Latest / Made of Stars / It's Almost Eclipse Time!

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It's Almost Eclipse Time! · Made of Stars

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Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics, and
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space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been known to learn about astronomical
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phenomenon, the scientific method, and expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar,
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asterism and uranus. Listen, that's your own risk. Go ahead. When
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made of stars, made them stars, made sizes. When made of stars,
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you could be from high they would New Mexicomas where all stars. When
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we are made of stars. I'm West Carol, joined by my good friend
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Dot Shawn, cruising from Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center. Hey,
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Shaan Day, Wes get to be with you today. It is a
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Friday edition of the show. We got a couple of things, just a
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little maintenance to do. First of all, you're at an undisclosed location in
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Texas because of this eclipse. Well that's not why you're where you are at
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the moment, but it's why you're Well you'll be on Monday. We're staging.
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We're staging here in Houston to go to our undisclosed location in Texas.
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That's right. I'm sure that there's a probably somewhere upwards I'd say at least
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twenty plus people in the Houston area excited about the eclipse. Yeah, I
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mean, you know, I don't like to set numbers too high, but
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I'll go with your twenty. I think that's at least minimum many minimum.
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I'm comfortable saying there's a minimum of twenty people there that are excited about it.
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And then the other thing that we should note, and I'll say it
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so that you don't have to, is that you're you're having a bit of
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throat distress, some sort of laryngitis. There's something going on there. So
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that makes me even more excited to have you on because I know how much
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you want to talk about this eclipse. But I also know that having throat
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problems while you're trying to be a broadcaster is very difficult. You know,
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one of my favorite hobbies is death metal karaoke, and so you know,
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I indulged. I just overindulged a little bit too much of the death metal
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karaoke. And now I'll send it a tad froggy. But you know,
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I'm drinking my lemon and honeywater like all good death metal karaoke people do,
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So I should be all right. For the show. You know, you
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do what you gotta do. About eighty percent of my vocal blowouts were from
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coaching soccer and screaming the same words across the field, don't cross it into
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the middle in front of your own goal. So you know, lots of
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that. Not the middle, that was my most frequent that was summarized to
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that. And then we'd get to halftime and I'd look at the kids and
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I go, anybody want to review what I'm about to say. Coach,
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Now you're gonna say, not the middle. Yeah, Okay, that's it.
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That's the whole strategy for the second half. Can we try that?
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And that was most of the blowouts for my voice as a professional talker.
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So we've mentioned it. The eclipse. Now, we got a few things
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to talk about with this eclipse. Some of it is not really great news
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for some parts of the country. I don't know people in Texas might be
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some of the people impacted by this, but we will we'll get into that,
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and then we're gonna talk towards the end of the show, we'll talk
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about what you guys are doing at the Coca Cola Space sien Center, what
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I should say, what they are doing at the Coca Cola Space Science Center,
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since you're road tripping for this eclipse, and I would imagine you may
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have some others on staff that might be doing the same, or you may
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know other I know of someone else at least that went to Arkansas. I
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don't know if the weather's going to be any better there, but anyway,
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let's start with the eclipse. It's happening Monday. And we always say that
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anytime there's an event like an eclipse that gets people talking about anything to do
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without space, that's a plus for us, not just for the show,
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but just in general. I know the mission that you guys have there at
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the Coca Cola Space Science Center. I like to think in the thirteen plus
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years that we've been doing this, I'm also a part of that mission as
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well, for what you guys do there, trying to help carry that torch
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just a little bit with you guys. So we get excited when all of
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a sudden those bandwagon folks jump in and want to start talking about something,
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because all of a sudden, out of nowhere, there's various outlets that want
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to talk about things to do in space. They want to join in with
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us. So we get excited when that comes along, and it's coming along,
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but the weather not looking great. Yeah, So first of all,
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we're happy to you know, to take these kind of shirttail space fans.
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You know, we're happy to let them jump on board and participate in our
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event for short periods of time. What we'd like them to do is stick
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around, right, you know, don't just be here for the eclipse.
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Be here for the launches and the discoveries and the ongoing excitement about the overall
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space mission. But of course they'll they'll be distracted by you know, Facebook
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or whatever. So that's fine. At least we have them for the moment,
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as you said. And yeah, so coming up this Monday. And
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by the way, this is a special Friday edition of our show because I
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had to travel on Thursday to get to Houston to stage my undisclosed location in
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Texas where I'll be trying to observe the eclipse through clouds. But anyway,
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so according to Timeandate dot Com, here are the circumstances for the eclipse back
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home in Columbus, Georgia. So if you're there in the Greater Columbus area
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and you want to see the eclipse when you want to start looking is about
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one forty five in the afternoon. One in the afternoon, it's actually at
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one forty three and one second. So if you're really trying to be,
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you know, ultra accurate with your timings, this thing that we call first
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contact, where the moon first comes in contact with the alignment to the Sun.
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That happens at one forty three pm plus one second eastern daylight time in
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the city of Columbus, Georgia. And that's the official beginning of the partial
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eclipse that will be visible from the hometown of Columbus. And so this is
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again, this is the moment when the when from your vantage point, the
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moon first touches the outer limb of the Sun. We call that first contact,
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all right, So then the moon will move across the face of the
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Sun till a point about three oh two PM. That's the point of maximum
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eclipse in Columbus, Georgia. Three oh two and three seconds eastern daylight time
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Columbus, Georgia. Approximately seventy eight percent of the surface area of the Sun
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will be blocked out by the obscuring moon. So that's that's the time you
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really want to take a minute walk outside, use your solar glasses that you
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purchased ahead of time with great forethought, or just use one of those pinhole
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viewers that so many people have taught you how to make online, or just
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simply cross your hands in a ninety degree orientation and let the light shine between
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the gaps between your fingers, and that can act as a pinhole projection to
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the ground, a pinall projection system to the ground, and you can see
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the shape of the eclipse with that as well. So those are some easy
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ways to see the eclipse in a safe manner. Now, and now that
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you've said that, and I want to hit on this because time after time
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after time we see people on social media. Uh they say, well,
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I got a good pair of sunglasses. I can look at it through through
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those or any of the there's a number of things. Or I can just
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look at it very quickly and look away and just get an impression of it
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and look away. No. Well, I mean, you know, I
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like to be I like to speak practically and in a practical sense. Yes,
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you can do that. I just don't advise it because you risk permanent
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blindness, so permanent damage to your eyes and and the idea behind all of
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it is like on an And this is another one of those misconceptions is you
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know, people say, oh, it's worse during the eclipse. It will
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damage your eye more. And it probably would damage your eye more, you
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know with the bigger sun, if you were staring at it, because it's
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bigger. But the problem with an eclipse is that there's a tendency to want
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to see it. You don't, you know, kind of on an average
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day, Hey, if I look up at the sun, it's going to
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hurt my eyes, so you don't do it. During an eclipse, you
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want to look at it, and when you're not educated on the right way
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to look at it, then that obviously would cause more people to want to
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look at it. Therefore more people have instances of injuring their eyes. So,
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yeah, sunglasses are not going to get the job done to fully protect
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you. Is it possible to get an impression of it and look away,
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Sure, but is there a chance that in doing that you're going to do
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some kind of long term damage to your eye. Yes, yeah, I
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would discourage such behaviors at all costs, but you know, people are gonna
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do what they're gonna do. So what I would again recommend is the many
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safe and easy and effective ways to observe the eclipse without staring at the Sun
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with your unprotected eyes, which is bad on any day of the week,
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as Wes just mentioned, and in fact, only twenty I'm sorry, yeah,
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only twenty two percent of the Sun is going to be visible at maximum
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eclipse in Columbus, Georgia. Right, so seventy eight percent of the Sun's
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light will be blocked. So, in point of fact, the Sun is
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dangerous to look at any day, and more dangerous than at the time of
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total eclipse. However, as you pointed out, our natural human tendency toward
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curiosity is what gets us in trouble. Right, curiosity killed the cat.
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It also blinded the eclipse viewers, So don't do that. It's a really
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popular expression. Spend the two to three dollars for a pair of eclipse glasses.
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We still have them on sale in our gift shop at the Space Science
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Center. Or make a pinhole viewer, or do the number of other safe
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techniques out there on the Internet. A great place to find those techniques is
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a place called aas dot org. It's the Americanastronomical Society dot org. They'll
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tell you where to get safe glasses, other techniques to view the sun safely,
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et cetera, et cetera. So that's that's my recommendation. So you
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mentioned the seventy eight percent that will blocked here in Chattahoochee Valley area. And
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obviously as you go in either direction, it will change a little bit based
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on which direction you go. But the main line for this thing runs like
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West Texas up to Maine. Right. Yeah, it's coming up out of
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Mexico actually, and as you say, into West Texas and then through apparently
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the city of Waco, Texas, I understand, and then up through Dallas,
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and then it catches part of Arkansas, it catches part of Missouri.
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It kind of makes a tour up through Ohio up into New England. So
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you can kind of imagine that path across the US. Again, you can
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easily look it up online. A year ago, when I was planning this
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trip and I knew I had to get my house early, I said,
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well, golly, it rains and snows a lot in New England, even
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in April. I understand that. Up in Maine, they just had seventeen
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inches of snow. So let's stay away from that. How about we go
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out into a dry desert ye kind of place like, Oh, I don't
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know, Central Texas. So we made the decision to go somewhere in the
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Central Texas area. Well. Now, as point of fact, the forecast
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is almost assuredly Central Texas will have the sun blocked out, but not just
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by the moon. It looks like the sun will also be blocked out by
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a gigantic bank of clouds coming from moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. Thank
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you, Derek Kincaid, wherever you are, for all for allowing this to
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happen on your watch. I just want you to know I blame you.
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I want you personally. I don't know that he's responsible for the weather in
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Texas, I mean, but I can blame him anyway. I think I
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will, So that's fine. He likes us enough that you know he'll he'll
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get over it if we blame him for that, I think, And we
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like him enough to know that we're just teasing with him. So that's the
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path of totality we talked about. And then obviously in both directions, people
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are going to be getting various percentages, and here it'll be seventy eight percent.
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And now one of the little bits of hope maybe for folks that are
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in Texas or any of the areas that are going to have clouds in bad
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weather, is the last time that we had an eclipse, we had a
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lot of cloud cover and it wasn't storming and raining, but we had moments
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where the clouds broke for us and gave us opportunities to get a look at
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the eclipse. That's exactly right, and I hope that Derek and Caid can
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work that out for all of the people in Columbus, Georgia to at least
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have margins and periods of time where the clouds break and the sun shines through,
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and for all of our listeners who have no idea who Derek and cad
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is. Our local TV station. WTVM is a broadcast partner with the Coca
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Cola Space Science Center for coverage of the eclipse, and I'll be jumping in
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and doing some spots. Also be some live spots held on the day of
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the eclipse from the Space Science Center, interviewing some of our staff and faculty
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at columbs State University and part of the broadcast partnership is with the chief meteorologists
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at WTVM, mister Derek and k himself. And so, Derek, we
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love partnering with you. But man, if you're gonna bring your clouds to
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the party, I'm not sure. You know, we'll have to talk about
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this for the next astronomical event, Derek. Uh And And much like us,
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he's also a Gabby Winner, so you know, it's our club of
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Gabby Winners here. So that's why we're able to tease him just a little
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bit, I mean, and in on point of fact, Derek is a
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very good friend to you know, to you and me through our our community
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interactions and our media interactions. And we love Derek, you know. But
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I just I just hope he waives his magic wand and whatever meteorologists do to
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clear the clouds out of the way. Right now. The WTVM forecast for
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April eighth in Columbus short is quote warmer with a mix of sun and clouds.
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We can make that work. If we can water down that mix,
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Derek, I would really appreciate it. So yeah, we can make that
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work. Though if it's just a mix, you know, when it's heavy
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cloud cover that's when it's a problem, and that's what we don't need.
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So we also need it to blow on by in Texas for you, because
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you know you plan this out a long time ago, and that's not good.
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Yes, that's nice. I think that's part of the problem, right,
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is pre planning is terrible. All right, we'll circle back to more
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stuff at the Space Science Center at the end. I want to talk about
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one more aspect of this eclipse. That's pretty cool, and we tease this
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a few weeks ago. We actually talked about it a few weeks ago,
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but have a little bit more to say about it now. It's the devil
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comet. That doesn't sound good. Yeah, yeah. If you're looking for
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a warm and fuzzy name for your comment, perhaps devil comet. That's well,
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shall we say, frightening. As to where the origin of this name
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came from, the devil comet is not because this thing is going to hit
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the Earth or it's in any way a danger. It simply had a couple
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of well horns, if you will. But there were features in the gas
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and ice vaporization off the nucleus of the comet that made it appear as if
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the head of the comet had horns coming off of it, So all of
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our friends in the amateur astronomical community began to nickname the comet the devil comet.
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I'm not sure why they didn't choose the long horn steer comet or the
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mountain goat comet. You've already been in Texas to devil cot I'm not sure
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why is that? I don't know, because it grabs that as the clickbait.
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We talk about the clickbait, and when you call it the devil comet,
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it's gonna get the clickbait. So this thing is currently naked eye visible
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and and it will be through this eclipse, which is kind of neat when
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there's more than one thing to look at it in the sky. But it's
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worth noting that, you know, now, as long as you're not looking
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in the direction of the sun, you can look at the devil comet without
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having to wear any kind of protective lenses. We just want to mention that
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now the sun you don't want to look at naked eye, but naked eye
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devil comet, as far as we know, whether or not you know,
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I don't know if you if you look at it, are you gonna you
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know, become the key master. You know, if a ghostbusterever. I
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don't know. I don't know what happens if you stare at it too long?
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Do you turn into teen wolf? Give me a keg of beer.
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I don't know. I don't know what happens to your eyes, but it
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should be safe at least from from damage from you know, like the sun,
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because you're not looking at the sun, you're looking at a comet.
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I mean, the one thing I can assure you is if you purchase your
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special comet glasses from the co Cola Space Science Center's gift shop, you will
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be fine to look up at the comet in the evening sky when it is
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maked eye visible without damage. And so basically you take your solar filter glasses
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that you purchase with the eclipse, and you just stick your fingers right through
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the lensors and just pop those solar filters out. They become comet glasses.
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Put them up now. Remember this is where evening sky viewing only. Once
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the sun is set. Then you can look up in the direction of the
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commet and suffer no damage to your eye whatsoever if you follow my instructions.
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So so I just want to tell people they can purchase those special comet glasses
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have the Space Science Center's gift shop. Just a whole punch was all you
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need, just right there, and it's easy to go. So let me
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tell you something about this commet that's actually cool and actually seriously interesting. And
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of course we do a lot of joking on this podcast. There are no
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such thing as common glasses. Don't don't go to the gift shop, don't
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ask for those. I'm joking. But this I can tell you that in
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the last forty eight hours, this comet has done something amazing an ice geyser.
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In other words, it's getting close enough to the sun now that a
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giant chamber of trapped gas and dust has erupted off the interior of the comet
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out through the surface and made that commet brighten significantly. This comet has brightened
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approximately two and a half to three times in the last forty eight hours,
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so this comment was going to be potentially bright enough to be seen with the
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unaided eye or the naked eye. In other words, that just means without
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a telescope that it's no reference to comet glasses or anything like that. It
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just means you don't have a telescope. So, but that was going to
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happen either in late May or early June. But as many astronomers have said,
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and I can't remember whose initial quote this was, but comets are like
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cats. They have tails and they do what they want. So the behavior
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of a comet is notoriously difficult to and because they are a dynamic system where
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you don't know what kind of chambers of subterranean gas are trapped within the nucleus
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of that comet which can erupt, just in the manner that happened with this
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comet, you don't know how it's going to behave as it approaches the Sun.
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So and in fact, a geyser of this type can actually alter the
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orbit of that comet and make it start following a different trajectory. Now I
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have not seen anything where the trajectory of this comet has been altered, but
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it has brightened substantially. And what that means for eclipse viewers who might actually
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be in the path of totality and not have clouds, which, by the
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way, it looks like New England is a great place to go and do
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that. By the way, it's looking very nice and clear up there.
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It's great anyway, you could actually see the total eclipsed sun along with a
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reasonably bright com commet hanging somewhere nearby. Now, friends, I just want
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you to pause for a moment. I want you to pause and get into
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the head of your ancient ancestors who might have been out plowing the field or
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chasing herds of deer or whatever they were doing back then, growing the corn,
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I don't know, and then all of a sudden, without them knowing
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what was going to happen, the sun began to be eaten by a dragon
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or they didn't know what it was. The sun began to go dark,
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and then the sky darkened down and the stars came out. And then,
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all of a sudden, next to this crazy thing that we know is that
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kind of ring of fire looking apparition of a totally eclipsed sun, you also
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have a comet that they didn't even know was there, with horns like a
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devil. I'm gonna go ahead and give them a pass on any prestitions they
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may have had or that evolved out of such an apparition that could have taken
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place in the past, because I myself back in twenty seventeen was in the
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path of totality for that eclipse in Wyoming. And even though I am a
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trained scientist and knew exactly what was happening and why, that ancient inner man
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in my interior soul, that visceral intelligence, as I was looking up at
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the sky, just said, this isn't right, this is weird, this
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is off. And it was a somewhat spiritual experience. So and again I
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knew exactly what was happening. So if you add a devil comic to that
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experience and move it back, you know, three four hundred years in time,
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Yeah, that would be really, really frightening. Yeah, that's pretty
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terrifying. I mean, just the devil comet alone, the thought of the
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Sun being snuffed out by devil comet just makes it a little extra terrifying.
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Yep. And by the way, the comet is just a comet. It's
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called Ponds Brooks. Those are the discoverers. We know it is commet twelve
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p Ponds Brooks. So in scientific lingo among the astronomers, we don't call
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it the devil comet. That's an Internet phenomenon, Yes, an Internet phenomenon
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that sprung from its unusual appearance, But Comet Ponds Brooks is just a comment
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that happens to be traveling through our part of the Solar system. It's moving
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toward a rapid, a close approach to the Sun, and this ice geyser
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has now made it look really weird and a lot brighter. And as people
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who get excited when people get as excited about astronomy, we are happy when
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even the weird names come along, because whatever gets them to the table so
23:51
that they can eat with us, that's what we want. Coming up after
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a quick break, we've got an update on a Boeing Starliner, plus a
24:00
pretty significant discovery that's underselling it, isn't it for the Perseverance Rover. We'll
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get into that next. Okay, So we have an update on the Boeing
24:27
star Liners next attempt at launching. We talked about it, I guess a
24:32
week ago, and we mentioned May the first was a possibility. The dates
24:37
changed a little bit, but the good news for all of us is it's
24:41
still in the month of May, so Justin Timberlay can still be part of
24:44
it, and I'm excited about that feature. By the way, have we
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reached out to Justin becuse he could come on and talk about star Liner.
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Yeah, I think that would be great. You know, I've not met
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Justin the closest to Justin that I've well, I don't know, I've got
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no. I did meet Joey Fatone. That's as close as I've gotten to
25:04
Justin. I was gonna say I had lunch once with Nick Carter, but
25:08
he was in the Backstreet Boys. He was like the Justin of the Backstreet
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Boys. But No, I hung out at Dragon Con with Joey Fatone,
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So I guess that's closer, right, I mean, let's call Joey.
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Joey might have some thoughts. He would definitely hook us up with some hot
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dogs. I think he would do that. Let's get Joey on the phone.
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So Starliner Boeing's parallel spacecraft through funded through NASA's Commercial Crew program. They
25:37
started at the same time that SpaceX started building Dragon. Now we know a
25:41
lot about SpaceX Dragon because not only has it taken dozens of cargo trips up
25:47
to the International Space Station, now it's also now taken several astronauts, both
25:53
NASA astronauts and commercial crew up to the International Space Station. It might be
26:02
interesting to note at this time, as we did the last time we talked
26:03
about this, that Boeing received twice the level of funding from NASA that SpaceX
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did, so not quite double, but nearly double the money went to Boeing
26:15
that SpaceX received as they were producing Dragon. So yeah, I think it's
26:22
probably time that Boeing's Boeing's Space Division go ahead and flies their spacecraft. And
26:29
so yeah, they are preparing to do that. They announced a May first
26:33
date where they're actually going to put astronauts aboard the Boeing star Liner and launch
26:37
it to space. Well, that got bumped, It got scrub for technical
26:45
reasons. They're now looking at May sixth, So it's not that big of
26:48
a bump, but yet it's another bump in a long series of bumps that
26:53
have delayed Boeing's star Liner from becoming the second spacecraft in America's fleet to take
27:03
our NASA astronauts back and forth to lower Earth orbits. So it's kind of
27:06
an important deal. Uh. Boeing Starliner was initially unveiled in twenty ten,
27:14
so the capsule has been under development for fourteen years and has still never flown
27:19
astronauts to space. It's still never had a completely successful test. Astronauts or
27:27
no. Boeing itself has taken upwards of a one billion dollar hit to its
27:33
earnings as part of the craft's development. This according to Universe today dot Com,
27:41
and they're reporting they're using to launch the vehicle. They're using the United
27:47
Launch Alliance Atlas five rocket. That is a that's a veteran rocket. They've
27:52
used that for lots of different missions. It was partly developed by Boeing to
27:56
carry star Liner as well as other kind of vehicles like that. But the
28:03
truth is that the Atlas five is going out of service soon. They only
28:07
have a few Atlas fives left, and once those are used up, they're
28:11
going to have to retrofit star Liner to fit on some other kind of lift
28:18
platform, some other kind of rocket to take it to orbit. Now,
28:22
mind you, the United Launch Alliance is also working on their new Vulcan rockets,
28:26
so they'll probably just shift it over to Vulcan. But yet, it's
28:30
just another complication in the long saga of the Boeing star Liner. Two very
28:37
famous NASA astronauts who now are working with Boeing on this project, Sunny Williams
28:42
and Butch Wilmore are scheduled to be the first two astronauts to take a ride
28:48
on star Liner up to the International Space Station, now launching on May sixth,
28:52
or no earlier than May sixth, and so we wish them the best.
28:59
We hope for a very successful mission for them. Aboard the International Space
29:03
Station. They're gonna have to do some moving around of things, because if
29:07
this thing really does launch in early May, they have to Their docks are
29:11
all full, they're full of dragon capsules, ironically, and so they're gonna
29:17
have to move a dragon capsule out of the way of the docking port on
29:21
the International Space Station's Harmony Module because that's the only place that star Liner can
29:26
attach. So it's just a busy you know, it's a busy time for
29:30
the astronauts and aboard the space station, and so they're gonna have to just
29:33
like it's like when your friends are coming over and your car is parked in
29:37
the driveway. You have to go move your car in front of the neighbor's
29:40
house so your friends can park in your driveway for the party, and then
29:44
when they leave, you move your car back into your own driveway. It's
29:47
kind of like that aboard the International Space Station right now. So anyway,
29:51
interesting times, all the best of star Liner and you know, godspeed.
29:56
We hope, we hope that everything goes very smoothly for Sidney Williams and Willmore.
30:00
We'll be talking more about that in the lead up in a month.
30:03
So all right, this is uh, I undersold it. This is a
30:07
massive discovery for Mars. Perseverance. Let's talk about the Dream Rock. Yeah,
30:14
and you know, as scientists do, we like to try to couch
30:18
these things with caution. It is a robot doing science on Mars, so
30:22
there's not a scientist in person actually holding and analyzing and putting this rock through
30:30
the full battery of tests. However, the Perseverance rover itself is a reasonably
30:37
capable, you know, like undergraduate student type scientist, and they're there.
30:41
They can they can make a fairly fairly nuanced set of measurements. And so
30:48
basically Perseverance picked up a rock on Mars. They did the analysis of this
30:53
rock, which included shooting lasers at it and a blading the surface, which
30:59
means just basically ripping off an hour layer of this rock so they can see
31:03
what's on the inside and when they did that, they have started to use
31:08
terms like this might be the Holy Grail rock on Mars, or of all
31:15
the rocks ever analyzed on Mars, this one might be the Holy Grail.
31:19
Now I'm reporting reporting, I'm passing on to you reporting that was done by
31:26
Universe today dot com. That's where the story comes from. But Ken Farley,
31:30
who's the Perseverance Project scientist at Caltech, had this quote. He said,
31:36
to put it simply, this is the kind of rock we had hoped
31:40
to find when we decided to investigate the Jesio Crater on the service of Mars.
31:45
So for a scientist who tend to be very guarded, very guarded,
31:52
and very reserved, that's actually an oh my gosh kind of statement. That's
31:56
a spike the football in the end zone kind of statement, right, And
32:00
so he went on to say, nearly all of the minerals in this rock
32:04
that we just sampled were made of made I'm sorry, we're made in water.
32:12
So let me say that again, because I blew his quote, let
32:14
me say it one more time. It's that thrash metal karaoke. I know
32:17
that's throwing me off. Quote. Nearly all the minerals in the rock were
32:22
just we just sampled, were made in water. So in other words,
32:27
we call that an eighty. The quote continues on Earth, water deposited minerals
32:35
are often good at trapping and preserving ancient organic material and bio signatures. The
32:46
rock can even tell us about Mars climate conditions that were present when it was
32:52
found. Unquote that last part read this, you know whether the march An
33:00
atmosphere was capable of supporting life. That's basically what they're saying. So when
33:06
we find out that this rock is also preserves large amounts of organic material,
33:14
then you say, well, it's organic material for sure. It was formed
33:20
in a water environment, and these kinds of organic materials tend to be very
33:24
good at trapping biosignatures. You put all that together and you may have a
33:32
rock discovered by one of our rovers on Mars that could actually have signs of
33:37
life embedded in it and friends. That's why we use terms like the dream
33:45
Rock or the Holy Grail of rocks on Mars. Now, unfortunately, Perseverance
33:54
is only capable of doing so many tests. These tests are always you know,
34:00
preliminary tests. What it does next is it takes that rock sample and
34:06
it shoves it into a tube a cylinder. Think about the kind of cylinders
34:10
that you buy tennis balls in. You get three tennis balls, they come
34:14
in a cylinder. If you imagine a cylinder roughly that size, roughly that
34:17
dimension. The rocks are stuffed into that tube, catalogued stuck in the ground
34:24
on Mars, awaiting a future mission to come pick them up and bring them
34:30
home. So this is the first step in a sample return mission. But
34:36
right now we don't have that next generation robot that can go to Mars,
34:39
grab that that tennis ball tube up and bring it back to Earth so we
34:44
can really take a look at it. So it's tantalizing, but we're all
34:49
ways off from being able to do the kinds of tests that make it conclusive
34:53
that this is a you know, biosignature supporting rock on Mars. Well,
34:59
in this location where it will be stuck, we'll certainly have an extra little
35:04
you know, asterisk by it or whatever like this is a big one.
35:07
We'll make sure because this one has the potential and this is what they're there
35:09
for, this is what they were looking for, and that's why, yes,
35:13
this would be a big one if it turns out to be exactly what
35:16
they think it is. All right, let's jump back down to Earth to
35:21
the Cocola Space Science Center, because again you'll be, you know, in
35:27
a raincoat watching the eclipse, which is how anybody wants to watch an eclipses
35:32
in a raincoat and peeking through an umbrella around an umbrella. But for folks
35:39
here in the Chattahoochee Valley area, we're not getting the you know, we'd
35:45
like to be in the path of totality where it's not raining, but since
35:51
we're not going to get that, we'll be at seventy eight percent or so.
35:52
So folks can go to the Cocola Space Science Center. For folks in
35:57
the area or that want to make a shorter trip to to do this if
36:00
they can't drive to Texas or Arkansas or you know, Maine, it's not
36:07
an easy drive to just you know, head up there by by Monday,
36:13
but a lot of activities there at the Cocola Space Science Center where folks can
36:16
safely view the eclipse and be part of history. Yeah, I guess if
36:22
you went to Maine, you'd have to stand in snow, but at least
36:24
you get to see a clear sky. You know these are trade offs,
36:29
right, so yes, ladies and gentlemen, wait, wait, wait,
36:31
wait, just to fully let's get the full image of this. You could
36:35
be standing there and you know, a foot of snow, watching the eclipse
36:40
and seeing the devil comet. So all that could be happening at once.
36:44
That sounds like a good day to me. I mean, maybe you can
36:47
even see the reflection of the devil Comet off the snow. I don't know.
36:52
It's probably not, but I don't know. Yeah, so, I
36:57
mean, you know, I'm going to start looking for airline tickets to Maine
37:00
right now as soon as we're done with the podcast. But in the meantime,
37:05
I'm going to hope that Derek and Kid can help me out and just
37:07
clear the sky's over Texas. Come on, Derek, you gotta do something
37:10
for me. But the weather in Columbus, we mentioned right now as we
37:15
record this on Friday, unlike our normal Thursday recording, is that they'll be
37:22
patches of clouds. So that means there's should be opportunities to get a look
37:27
at this eclipse and again be part of history because the next one's not coming
37:32
for quite some time. Yeah. So in all seriousness, friends, I
37:37
am fairly encouraged that the weather will cooperate enough in the city of Columbus,
37:42
Georgia that our usual fans and friends who are in our region can come down
37:46
to the Space Science Center and participate in our eclipse event from there, which
37:52
looks like you will actually be able to see the Moon covering at least most
37:54
of the Sun. So so I would highly encourage you to attend that if
37:59
you can. And I know that a lot of schools are doing some unusual
38:04
things. They're either closing, or they're keeping the kids indoors, or you
38:09
know, they're making some decisions. If your school is actually going to keep
38:14
your kids indoors, I would hold them out that day and bring them down
38:17
to the Space Science Center and let them learn something about space science because that's
38:22
an impactful experience that will light the fires of their curiosity to want to know
38:27
more about science in the future. That's why I highly recommend you as a
38:30
parent to take your parental authority and allow your children to experience this event on
38:36
this day. And the way you can do that safely is come hang out
38:39
with a bunch of people who know exactly what they're doing, and they're pointing
38:43
sun filtered telescopes up with the sun so you can simply look through the telescope
38:49
and be able to see that beautiful view up on the sky. Now,
38:52
ladies and gentlemen, are students from our Earth and Space Sciences program in our
38:58
astrophysics and planetary geology made sure also some of our students from our Department of
39:02
Education at Columbus State University's College of Education and Health Professions. Those students will
39:08
be on site with telescopes that are solar filtered, being able to show people
39:14
the nighttime sky. I'm sorry, did I say nighttime sky? I meant
39:17
the eclipsed sun is what I meant. So you'll be able to come down
39:22
and hang out with the students that actually know something about what's happening with the
39:25
event, and they can tell you the circumstances of the eclipse and you can
39:30
check it out for yourself in a safe manner at the Space Science Center.
39:34
Again, we do have a supply still in our gift shop of approximately five
39:38
hundred solar glasses. I think that I think that the product was moving fairly
39:44
heavily in the last twenty four hours, so maybe down to more like four
39:47
hundred, but we still have pairs of glasses as of this Friday prior to
39:52
the Monday eclipse available at the Space Science Center for purchase. Sure, one
39:59
way or another you can act see the event out under the actual sky as
40:02
long as Derek keeps the clouds away. So so I'm hoping that for that
40:05
event, we will start that event about one thirty in the afternoon. That
40:08
event will go through maximum eclipse at about three pm Eastern Time, and then
40:14
it will conclude at four PM during the final stages of the eclipse visible at
40:20
Space Science Center. So from one thirty to four you can come down and
40:23
join our team at Space Science Center and enjoy a natural phenomenon unlike any other
40:30
that as Wes said, totality won't occur over the United States again until twenty
40:36
forty five, which is twenty one years approximately from now. So check it
40:39
out now why you can go to Maine or come to the Co Cola Space
40:45
Sign Center and check out a partial eclipse, enjoyce some lobster. Sean,
40:51
I appreciate you doing this under the weather and struggling with the voice there and
40:57
Sean and I appreciate you for checking us out and listening. Enjoy the eclipse
41:00
Monday and do it safely, and Sean and I will do this again next
41:05
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