Latest / Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights & Cosmic Discoveries / Galactic Discoveries, Astronomical Dilemmas & Space Innovations: #485 - Holiday Special 5

Transcript

Galactic Discoveries, Astronomical Dilemmas & Space Innovations: #485 - Holiday Special 5 · Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights & Cosmic Discoveries

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Space Nuts is taking a bit of a break at
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the moment. Fred and I will be back in the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: not too distant future with fresh episodes. In the meantime,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: enjoy some of the key episodes that we have presented
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: over the years, major events in astronomy and space science,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and we'll see you real soon.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Space Nuts.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Hello, once again, thanks for joining us on Space Nuts,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: where we talk astronomy and space science. We're also going
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to look at almost literally SAGITTARIUSA. They've finally got an
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: image of the black hole at the center of our
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: solar system. Well, we don't want it there.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: The center of our galaxy.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: We'll also be answering questions about dark matter, the future
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: of astronomy, and that's all coming up on this edition
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: of Space Nuts.
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: Fifteen the Channel ten nine ignition Space Nuts or three two.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: One spaces and actually bought it. Neils Good and joining
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: me as he always does, is Professor Fred Watson, Astronomer
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: at Large. Hello, Fred, are you doing it?
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: Andrew? Good to see you you too.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: We were kind of in the same vicinity on the weekend.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Did you get to Kuna Barbon No? I didn't, Well,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: we won't in the same vicinity then no, it was
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: only Yeah.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: What happened was the event that I was coming to
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: kun Barbon for was canceled because of an outbreak of COVID,
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: so of course always the way.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Well, I was only forty kilometers down the road at
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: a little village called Trouina. Friends of ours were staying
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: in the caravan park there, so we went up to
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: see them and spent the weekend there. What a lovely,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: sleepy little town it is.
• 1:48
  Speaker 5: We went.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: They had a bit of a fundraiser on at the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: pub that night, so we went along there and we
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: thrashed our wives at a few games of pool. And
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: I got the most amazing image of the moon through
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the clouds as it rose on Saturday night, and it
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: just it looks like a painting. I don't know how
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: it worked out that way. I took that with my iPhone.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: It looks extraordinary. I've put it on the Space Nuts
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: facebook page if anyone wants to have a look at it. Yeah,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: just one of those photos that turned out well without
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: any planning whatsoever. Now, Fred, let's talk about one of
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the most exciting pieces of news in astronomy to date.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: And I know that's a big call, but we did
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: not so long ago talk about the image of a
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: black hole that was created, and we talked about the
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: fact that they were trying to get an image of SAGITTARIUSA,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: and they have finally done it.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's you know, a lot. It's been a long
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: story of this because the observations for this, Andrew, were
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: made back in April two thousand and seventeen. And you're right,
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: we did talk about it because the first image that
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: was released, which was in twenty nineteen, believe it or not,
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: that's wow, three years ago. I think it was October.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: I can't remember anyway. That first image was of the
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: basically the shadow of the event horizon in the eighty
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: seven galaxy, which is fifty five million years fifty five
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: million light years away, and it surprised astronomers actually when
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: that press because there was a lot of media hype
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: and I think I sat in on the press release,
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: just as I did last week for the sangitaris a
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: Star black hole. But the eighty seven black hole surprised
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: everybody because it's much further away. We all thought it'd
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: much easier to image the nearest supermassive black hole, the
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: one at the middle of our galaxy. It's a pretty
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: hefty thing, four point one million so the masses, But
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: it turns out that with six point five billion solar masses,
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: them eighty seven black hole was actually easier to image.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: So all the number crunching that took place between twenty
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: seventeen and twenty nineteen actually delivered an image that looked
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: exactly like a cream doughnut. But that's all right, we
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: can put up with that. And what you're seeing there
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: is the you know, the material swirling around the black
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: hole and releasing radio waves but essentially avoiding what you
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: might call the shadow of the event horizon, because what
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: it is is this is radiation that's bent by the
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: supreme gravity of the black hole but doesn't quite make
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: it back into the black hole, so it shines out
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: like this beam with a hollow center. And that's what
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: we saw back in twenty seventeen, sorry, twenty nineteen, And
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: I guess everybody's been waiting for the release of data
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: from the center of our galaxy because we knew that
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: our galactic center black hole Sagittarius say star was on
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: their observing list, so we knew that they've made observations
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: of it, but the collaboration has kept things pretty close
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: to their chests, and so there was an announcement it's
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: about a month ago saying there's going to be a
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: big press release from the Event Horizon Telescope about something
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: in the Milky Way galaxy. Well, that can only be
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: one thing, so it was in some ways the world's
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: worst kept secret. Just to run through the statistics, Yes,
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: it's twenty seven thousand light years away or thereabouts the
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: center of our own galaxy. It is also swirling material
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: around it the black hole at four point one million
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: times the solar mass, but in a much more gentle
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: way than what's happening with eight seven, because M eighty
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: seven is what's called an active galaxy, where the black
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: hole is gobbling up a lot of stuff. Ours is
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: much more modest in its appetite, and so what it
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: doesn't have yet, or at least haven't been observed yet,
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: is these jets of material that have swept out of
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: the black hole's poles because of the magnetic forces that
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: are involved with that. So we haven't seen that, but
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: there's a suspicion that they might be there. There is
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: also a suspicion that this black hole its poles are
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: pointing towards us, which might make it harder to detect
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: the jets. That was one of the solutions that comes
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: out of the number crunching that's been done for the
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: black hole. So very exciting news. Good to see it. Yes,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: it still looks like an orange cream doughnut, but that's fine. Yes,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: what they look like?
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Well, I hear they're already working on getting another image.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: The pretty caene to keep working on this, so it's
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: not like that's the end of the story. We may
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: well learn more. It's a pretty great achievement. They're getting
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: an image of something that is very difficult, they say,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: because of the dirtiness of a galaxy.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's right. The dust, you know, the dust between
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: ourselves and the galactic center certainly switches off any visible
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: light observations. You can penetrate in infrared, and that's how
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: we knew the black hole was there, because there are
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: stars that were detected in the infrared waveband which are
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: clearly orbiting around something very massive. That's what proved the
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: black hole. It produced two Nobel Prizes, a couple of
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: years ago. What comes next though is really interesting, Andrew,
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: because just to explain, the event horizon telescope is actually
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: a consortium of eight observatories, or it was when these
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: observations were made, all on the side one side of
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: the Earth, so Australia is not part of it because
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: our telescopes are on the wrong side of the planet.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: But they're all linked together in a really interesting way
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: because you know, you need very precise observation timings and
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: things of that sort. But that consortium has now been
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: joined by other radio observatories, which increases its power. And
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: what is next on the agenda is to make movies
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: of what's going on in our galactic center, so we
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: might see these blobs of energetic material swirling around the
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: event's horizon, which they do actually very rapidly. At the
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: black hole in the middle of our galaxy. It's a
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: matter of minutes that it takes them to go around once,
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: whereas in eighty seven it's a matter of I think
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: it's days actually rather than minutes because it's such a
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: massive black hole. So there is more to come, yeah,
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: it's we may even see more stuff this year.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Will the James Web Space Telescope be able to because
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: it infra rid, will it be able to do any
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: imaging of the Sagittary say start, yes.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: I mean what it will image is the objects around it.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: There may be there are occasionally infrared bursts of radiation
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: from the galactic center that the James Web might well
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: be able to pick up. So I think generally so
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: these ways observations we're made at a wavelength of one
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: point three millimeters. That's well into the millimeter radio wave band.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: Now James Webb is infrared, which is much much shorter
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: than that, but I think at the long wavelength and
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: it will see things coming from the galactic center, So yes,
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: we might well see your results.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Fascinating all right, incredible news and it's something we will
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: be keeping an eye on because I'm sure there'll be
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: more to learn from Sagittari's a star. This is Space
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Nuts Andrew Dunkley here with Professor Fred Watson, Astronomer at Large.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Let's take a little break from the show to tell
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: you about our sponsor, in Cogny. Now, if you haven't
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: heard of in Cogni, it is a really great tool
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: to help keep you protected online.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: And right now there is a.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Special exclusive deal to Space Nuts listeners if they sign
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: up for Incognit a sixty percent discount as well as
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: a thirty day money back guarantee. But what's incognit all about. Well,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: if your email system and everything else that you do
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: online is like mine, you get spam calls, spam emails,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: spam for breakfast, it just keeps on coming, right. Well,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: that's where Incognity steps in because they can clean up
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: the Internet for you and get you out of that
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: cycle of spamation for what a bitter word. They also
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: can reduce the risks significantly of identity theft, and they
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: can make your personal data harder to find. So that's
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: what Incognit's all about. Once you sign up, you can
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: expect all of those things to really drop off the
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: radar significantly. So spam calls, robo calls, you get those,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: particularly around election time, scams, less likelihood of cyber attack,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: and yeah, look a lot of people wish they were
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: invisible online. This takes you as close as possible to that.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: It also protects you financially. I mean, you don't want
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: someone hacking into your system and cleaning your bank accounts,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: do you. So it's well trusted.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Incredibly good software to have on your computer. And once
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: you give them permission to go ahead and start trawling
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the internet to clean out your identity from places where
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: it ought not to be, then you're all set. To
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: do this by yourself would take probably two years, and
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: by the time you did that, you'd have to start again.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: It's like painting a bridge. So there it is in Cogny. Now,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: if you'd like to find out more, go to this
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: url Incogniti dot com slash space in Cogni dot com
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: slash space nuts, and then you can just click on
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: the link that is there that says get in Cogniti,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: which I'm doing right now, and it will give you
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: all the plans. There's annual plans, there's monthly plans, there's
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: family and friends plans. The list goes on. So in
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Cogni dot com slash space nuts to find out more
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: about our sponsor in Cogni to keep you safe online.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Now back to the show.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Space Nuts.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Time for our question and answer segment where you ask
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: us questions and we say, I don't know. That's how
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: it goes, isn't.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: It for a or less? Yeah, there's a little bit
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: more to that. It's usually I don't.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: We actually do a lot of talking before we say
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: I don't, and.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Then we follow it with butt. I'll make it up anyway.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Yes, all right, let's go to our first question from Mike.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: My name is Mike. I live on Vancouver Island in Canada.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: I love the show. A question about I guess would
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: be black matter and dark energy. I guess there's a
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: well of gravity where there's something with mass. What if
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: there was an up lifting gravity in the lack of mass,
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: would that maybe make sense for those problems like the
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: voyager slowing down outside of the Solar System and universe,
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: the galaxies spinning faster than they should be, and maybe
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: even the voyage in between the galaxies making the filaments
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: of an upheaval of gravity pushing things away. And maybe
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: that's why we can't see dark matter and dark energy,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: because we can only see gravity by its it's mass
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: is interacting with it. Anyhow, just the thoughts. Love your show.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Thank.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: You very much, Mike. Yes, all right, some interesting theories,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: and I think we talked about this before we started.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: But it's good that people are thinking about this kind
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: of stuff. That's how we learn. That's how we sort
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: of start investigating and finding out what's what.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: Yes, So it is a great question, and I guess
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: we should clarify that what we're talking about is not
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: dark energy, which permeates the whole universe and is the
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: force that's whatever it is that's driving the accelerated expansion
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: of the universe. What we're talking about is the effect
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: of dark matter. Because Mike specifically mentioned gravitational wells that
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: you know, the idea that space time has these wells
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: in it which are caused by matter, and that's what
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: we feel is gravity, and it's a really good picture
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: to have in your mind when you think about these things.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: So I suppose what he's imagining is sort of other
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: wells that point upwards in space time, so you know
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: you've got negative gravity. But nothing that we've ever seen
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: or investigated has led us to that idea of a
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: negative gravity. So dark negative matter, I suppose you'd call
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: it rather than dark matter. And I think given what
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: we do know about dark matter, because we can detect
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: it exactly as Mike said, the fact that galaxies are
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: rotating too quickly, or the gravity of what you can
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: see in them to hold them together. So there must
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: be something else that has been well mapped by observations
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: made of distant galaxies and nearby ones, including gravitational lenses,
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: which really allow you to map the distribution of dark
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: matter well. And when you do that, you would if
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: there was something going the other way, if there was
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: some sort of anti gravity taking place, you'd see it,
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: you would see its effects. But that has not been
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: has not been discovered, so I think we're still left
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: with the problem of dark matter being some sort of
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: hidden material which only interacts with normal matter through its gravity,
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: maybe interacts with other subatomic particles in a very on,
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: very rare occasions, and people are looking for those possible interactions.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: You might get gamma rays coming from collisions between dark
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: matter and a normal matter, but that's still a work
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: in progress. And a final PostScript to Mike's Mike's question,
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: I think when he mentioned Voyager he may have been
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: referring to Pioneer I think it was Pioneer ten, which
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: for many years seemed to be leaving its expected trajectory,
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: which threw into question our model of gravity. But that
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: was resolved. It's probably two or three years ago now
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: by more careful thermal modeling of the spacecraft, and it
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: turns out that there was I think a panel on
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: the spacecraft that was hotter than had been previously expected,
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: and the thermal radiation was actually providing a thrust to
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: the spacecraft over time, was pushing it off its trajectory.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Isn't that amazing? Just something as simple as that could
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: throw things.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: Off course, you know, when you've got something that's so
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: far away and been going for so long. That's right.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe that's the answer to diverting asteroids and comments
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: we hope something on to heat them up on one side,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: and it is.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: It's one of the one of the things that's been
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: thought of exactly that. Yeah, damn, I thought I figured that.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: I think what you do is you paint one side
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: of it white so the other side, you know, releases
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: more heat and the white side doesn't. Yeah, are you
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: kidding or is that real? I've seen it mentioned? Yeah,
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: you know. Okay, I don't know how you deal with
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: rotating asteroid, but never mind, hell of a lot of pasies.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Although it gives graffiti artists a job.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's a place for them, all right.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Mike, thank you. Let's move on to a question from Kabir,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: who's in India.
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: Hey, I'm Cabia. You're listener from India. I'm here putting advice.
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: I completed my bachelor's degree in physics, so now I
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: am looking forward for my graduation. So I'm a little
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: bit confused. Should I go for pure physics or astronomy.
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: I'm actually interested in astronomy, so I would like to
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: know the future of astronomy doing post graduations all in astronomy.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: My parents are.
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: Forsuring me to go for pure physics, but I would
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: like to do specialization astronomy.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you understand.
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: So I would like to know the future of astronomy.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: That's my question. Okay, thank you Kabir, and thanks for
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: putting us under the pump. Because your parents want you
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: to do one thing and you're thinking of doing another.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: We're under some pressure there. Fred. Yeah, so he's done
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: a bachelor's degree in physics and now he's got to
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: decide whether or not to do his expost studies postgraduate
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: studies in physics or astronomy. His heart says a astronomy,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: his parents say physics. And it's a great question. And
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: first of all, many congratulations, what and what what is?
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: What is the future of any of astronomy? And yes,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: definitely congratulations, well done. That's that's heavy duty thinking.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: It's a big achievement to get a degree in physics. Yes,
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: as I remember from scraping through mine a long time ago,
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: it's but it's a good question to ask as well.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: And it's actually a question I faced myself because I
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: did change from when I went to UNI as an undergraduate.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: I changed from astronomy to physics because I got sort
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: of caught up with the idea that astronomy was all
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: about keeping me happy because I was interested in astronomy,
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: whereas physics might be a route to be a more
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: productive member of the community. I might discover things in
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: physics that would be useful to the world at large
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: and actually find it easier to get a job. So
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: I did to my degrees. Actually see, in fact, it's
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: a combined degree in mathematics and physics. But that's what happened.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: I did go to unit to study astronomy, and on reflection,
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: you know, I got back to astronomy anyway, because that's
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: where my heart lay, and I spent my whole life
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: as a working astronomy with a strong, actually strong bias
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: to physics and engineering too, because I did quite a
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: bit of engineering in my early career. I worked for
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: a firm that built large telescopes, so I did develop
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: skills which are marketable. I mean, I think that's the
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: bottom line. And you might think intuitively, and maybe your
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: parents imagine this, that a physics degree gives you would
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: get for sample, a physics PhD would give you more
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: job opportunities than an astrophysics PhD. But that is not
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: necessarily true, because there are certainly, you know, opportunities in
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: astrophysics and astronomy which will continue. So the future of
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: astronomy is bright. It's always a tough gig to get
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: into because there are typically more people who want to
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: do it than there are certainly permanent jobs. I you know.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: I still think though, that if you do do a
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: for example, a doctorate or a master's in astronomy or astrophysics,
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: you are not locking yourself out of a future career
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: in another area. If you're still on track, if you
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: want to become an astronomer, you can, you know, and
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: you meet the required standards there and you will be
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: It will happen but even if that doesn't work out
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: for you, there are other opportunities because astrophysics is basically physics.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: You know, it's just physics on a big scale, and
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: the computational techniques that are used in astronomy are very
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: marketable in the financial world. You will be amazed how
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: many people who do a PhD in astrophysics or astronomy
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: and decide that they want to change. They don't want
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: to be academics for the rest of their lives. They're
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: going to either industry or finance, and they do very well.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: So it's not necessarily a make or break decision. And
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: my advice is always follow your heart. I told my
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: own kids that most of them ignored it, but I
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: did tell them that, you know, I would support them
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: if they One of my daughters wanted to do archaeology
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: and I said, yeah, I'll go for it. That's fantastic
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: because it was really interesting, interested in it in the
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: entry chick in doubt and did software engineering. But now
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: she's very wealthy. But that's fine, so maybe that was
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: right to ignore my advice. One other comment, if I may, Andrew,
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: before I let you get a word in edgeways on this. Sorry, is.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: I have a look at the website of the Astronomical
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Society of India, because that's the society of professional astronomers
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: and other professionals from related disciplines. It's now fifty years old,
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: founded in nineteen seventy two. A very well known Indian
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: astronomer of iinum Bapu as the founding president. And I
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: don't know what their membership is now. It was a
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: thousand a few years ago. It's probably well in advance
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: of that.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: There is.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: They're a very active society. There are radio observatories and
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: optical observatories in India. There's a lot to look at.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: So yeah, have a look at their website and yeah
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: check it out to you.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and good luck to you. And after all that,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: if your parents want to get in touch with Fred
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: and tell him what they really think, I'll give you
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: his address. But no, look, I was always told find
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: something you love and turn it into a career.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: And yeah, you know, I'd always loved.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Radio and I still do and I did it for
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: I've been doing it. I still do it for what
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: is it now? Coming up on forty years? And you
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: know I had some good jobs and I had some
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: bad jobs. But overall, I did what I loved and
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: that's and I got paid for it.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: So that's really what you should strive for. Us.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Suppose in your heart seems to be going towards astronomy.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: And look, I think the future of astronomy is unlimited,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: especially when we get into space exploration. They will need
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: astronomers out there. They will I'll need on the Moon soon.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: You might need you might need to consider that. There's
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: just so many possibilities quite save. But yeah, and look,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: our regards to your parents could be here and thanks,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: thanks for the question.
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: We're all space nuts.
• 26:19
  Speaker 6: Hello space Nutters. I'm Anna, the host of the Astronomy
• 26:22
  Speaker 6: Daily podcast, and I'm here to share a couple of
• 26:25
  Speaker 6: the stories we've been following this week as special bit
• 26:28
  Speaker 6: extra for this holiday edition of Space Nuts. In some
• 26:31
  Speaker 6: exciting news from the private space sector, Japanese startup Interstellar
• 26:35
  Speaker 6: Technologies has just secured a major investment that could reshape
• 26:38
  Speaker 6: their future in the space industry. Woven by Toyota, the
• 26:42
  Speaker 6: automobile giant's mobility technology arm, has invested seven billion yen
• 26:48
  Speaker 6: that's about forty four million dollars into the space company.
• 26:52
  Speaker 6: This isn't just about money, though, it's a strategic partnership
• 26:56
  Speaker 6: that could revolutionize how rockets and satellites are manufactured. Interstellar Technologies,
• 27:02
  Speaker 6: which was originally known for developing the Zero Rocket, is
• 27:06
  Speaker 6: looking to establish a vertically integrated satellite launch, manufacturing, and
• 27:10
  Speaker 6: communications business, similar to what SpaceX has done with Starlink.
• 27:15
  Speaker 6: Toyota's involvement actually dates back to twenty twenty, when their
• 27:19
  Speaker 6: personnel began working with Interstellar to reduce manufacturing costs and
• 27:23
  Speaker 6: streamline production processes. Now, with this formal partnership, Interstellar will
• 27:28
  Speaker 6: be able to tap into Toyota's extensive manufacturing expertise to
• 27:32
  Speaker 6: improve their production methods and strengthen their supply chain. What
• 27:37
  Speaker 6: makes this partnership particularly interesting is Toyota's broader vision for
• 27:41
  Speaker 6: the future of mobility. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show
• 27:45
  Speaker 6: in Las Vegas, Toyota's chairman Akio Toyota made it clear
• 27:49
  Speaker 6: that they see space as the next frontier for mobility,
• 27:52
  Speaker 6: stating that the future of mobility shouldn't be limited to
• 27:55
  Speaker 6: just Earth, or just one car company for that matter.
• 27:59
  Speaker 6: This investment is part of Interstellar's Series F funding round,
• 28:03
  Speaker 6: with additional funding expected from Toyota by June. The partnership
• 28:08
  Speaker 6: also goes beyond just financial investment. A woven by Toyota
• 28:12
  Speaker 6: representative will be joining Interstellar's board of directors, suggesting a
• 28:15
  Speaker 6: deep level of strategic collaboration between the two companies. Big
• 28:20
  Speaker 6: news from NASA about their ambitious Mars sample return mission.
• 28:24
  Speaker 6: The Space Agency has just unveiled a major overhaul of
• 28:27
  Speaker 6: their strategy to bring those precious Martian samples back to Earth.
• 28:32
  Speaker 6: They're now considering two streamlined approaches that could significantly reduce
• 28:36
  Speaker 6: both cost and complexity. The original plan came with a
• 28:40
  Speaker 6: whopping price tag of up to eleven billion dollars and
• 28:43
  Speaker 6: wouldn't have seen sample's return until twenty forty, but now
• 28:46
  Speaker 6: NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has announced they've found ways to
• 28:50
  Speaker 6: potentially cut those costs nearly in half, with new estimates
• 28:54
  Speaker 6: ranging between five point eight and seven point seven billion dollars,
• 28:59
  Speaker 6: while potentially getting the samples back by twenty thirty five.
• 29:03
  Speaker 6: Both new options focus on delivering the same essential hardware
• 29:06
  Speaker 6: to Mars a lander carrying the Mars Ascent Vehicle, or MV.
• 29:11
  Speaker 6: This rocket will be responsible for launching the samples currently
• 29:15
  Speaker 6: being collected by the Perseverance rover into Mars orbit. The
• 29:19
  Speaker 6: key difference between the two approaches lies in how they'll
• 29:22
  Speaker 6: land this hardware on the red planet. The first option
• 29:26
  Speaker 6: would use a scaled up version of the tried and
• 29:28
  Speaker 6: tested skycrane system that successfully landed both Curiosity and Perseverance rovers.
• 29:34
  Speaker 6: The second approach would involve partnering with private industry for
• 29:37
  Speaker 6: an alternative landing system. In a notable change from earlier designs,
• 29:42
  Speaker 6: both options will now use nuclear power instead of solar panels.
• 29:46
  Speaker 6: This switch gives the mission more operational flexibility, allowing it
• 29:49
  Speaker 6: to work during dust storms and keep the rocket motors
• 29:52
  Speaker 6: at their optimal temperature. NASA isn't rushing to decide between
• 29:56
  Speaker 6: these options. They're taking until mid twenty twenty six to
• 30:00
  Speaker 6: make their final choice, and while China has announced their
• 30:03
  Speaker 6: own Mars sample return mission targeting twenty twenty eight, NASA
• 30:07
  Speaker 6: emphasizes that their mission offers a more comprehensive scientific approach,
• 30:13
  Speaker 6: collecting samples from various sites that once hosted liquid water.
• 30:17
  Speaker 6: And that's it for me for this episode of Space Nuts.
• 30:20
  Speaker 6: I'm Anna and I've thoroughly enjoyed sharing these incredible developments
• 30:23
  Speaker 6: with you today. It's an exciting time for space science.
• 30:27
  Speaker 6: Don't forget to visit Astronomy Daily dot io for your
• 30:30
  Speaker 6: daily fix of space and astronomy news updates. We're constantly
• 30:34
  Speaker 6: updating the site with the latest discoveries, mission updates, and
• 30:37
  Speaker 6: cosmic wonders until our next adventure through the Cosmos. Keep
• 30:41
  Speaker 6: looking up and stay curious about the mysteries that surround
• 30:44
  Speaker 6: us in space.
• 30:45
  Speaker 5: At Space Nuts, you'll listen to the Spice Nuts podcast.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: Available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, oh, your favorite podcast player.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: You can also stream on demand at bides dot com.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: This has been another quality podcast production from nights dot com.