Latest / Made of Stars / Molecules Key for Life Found on Bennu

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Molecules Key for Life Found on Bennu · Made of Stars

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Speaker 1: Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
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Speaker 1: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
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Speaker 1: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
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Speaker 1: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar asterism and uranus. Listen,
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Speaker 1: that's your own risk.
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Speaker 2: Go ahead.
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Speaker 3: When made of stars, made them stars, madies. When made
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Speaker 3: of stars, you could be from high they would New Mexicomus,
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Speaker 3: where all stars?
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Speaker 4: When we are made of stars. I'm West Carol, joined
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Speaker 4: by my good friend doctor Sean Cruiser from Columbus State
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Speaker 4: Universities Coca Cola Space Science Center.
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Speaker 2: Hey Sean, Hey Wes, good to be here today. Got
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Speaker 2: an exciting lineup of stories today we do.
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Speaker 4: One is for us. I guess a little bit of
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Speaker 4: a head scratcher that we'll start with. But we have
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Speaker 4: a really exciting update on Benu and we'll get to
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Speaker 4: that in just a little bit. But let's start with
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Speaker 4: those stranded astronauts at the International Space Station. This story
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Speaker 4: is just one of those ones. It's like it's like
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Speaker 4: you've stepped in something in a pair of shoes designed,
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Speaker 4: you know, for lots of traction, and you know it's
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Speaker 4: gonna be a little difficult to get everything off the shoe, right,
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Speaker 4: That's what I feel like. This is a story that just.
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Speaker 2: It just won't go away.
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Speaker 4: We tried to do everything we could here on this
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Speaker 4: show to say, look, there's always been some sort of
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Speaker 4: a way to get them home. They actually have a ride,
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Speaker 4: an actual ship attached to the International Space Station. They
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Speaker 4: haven't been even if you want to say when they
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Speaker 4: were without a ship that they were stranded.
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Speaker 2: But they have a ship now.
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Speaker 4: There's nothing stranded about it. It's not like, you know,
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Speaker 4: they've just been the person that was their ride left
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Speaker 4: and then there's no other car available. There's an uber
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Speaker 4: that's already parked outside waiting for them and scheduled to
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Speaker 4: come home next month, less than a month from now, right,
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Speaker 4: So they're not stuck. But this verbiage of stranded has
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Speaker 4: lived on and on and on through this story with
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Speaker 4: its clickbait. It just I don't know, it gets people talking,
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Speaker 4: I guess, at least about the International Space Station. That's
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Speaker 4: the one positive in all of it. But now let's
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Speaker 4: jump into this latest entry. As now this week the
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Speaker 4: new president has sounded off on this. It's a real
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Speaker 4: it's a real shame that they've been stranded, and we're
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Speaker 4: stranded by the previous administration. We got to get them home, elon.
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Speaker 4: So I get, what's what's the latest here? Or can
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Speaker 4: can should we just cave? I mean, is this like
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Speaker 4: just becoming a Chiefs fan after hating them for so long?
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Speaker 4: Do we just now start pulling for him? I mean,
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Speaker 4: at some point you just have to go, fine, they're stranded.
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Speaker 2: Well, the difference between this and the Kansas City Chiefs is,
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Speaker 2: at least, even if you hate them, at least you're
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Speaker 2: recognizing greatness. In this particular story, I'm not sure we're
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Speaker 2: recognizing greatness. I think we are hitting our heads against
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Speaker 2: a very hard concrete wall. Well, that's what I do
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Speaker 2: over and over again.
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Speaker 4: That's what I do every time I see, you know,
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Speaker 4: the Bills get a first down and then they don't
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Speaker 4: call it for the Bills, and then the works to
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Speaker 4: the Chief's advantage. I beat my heads again into the wall.
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Speaker 4: So you know, that's that's kind of not too far off,
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Speaker 4: I guess.
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Speaker 2: I mean, I know the play that you're talking about,
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Speaker 2: and I have a little bit of a flat spot myself.
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Speaker 2: There were there were on my forehead from that play.
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Speaker 4: There were at least three of them in that game.
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Speaker 2: But that's I will tell I will tell you just
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Speaker 2: on an NFL side note that I'm not crazy about
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Speaker 2: the play calls that led to those, you know, decisions
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Speaker 2: by the referee. Shall we h The Bill's play calling questionable,
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Speaker 2: That's all I'm gonna say. I got an NFL coach,
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Speaker 2: but that was questionable.
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Speaker 4: Tony Romo was never my guy when he was playing
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Speaker 4: in the NFL, but he's an outstanding color commentator. And
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Speaker 4: if he knows that Josh Allen is running on a
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Speaker 4: short play going left over the left guard, I'm pretty
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Speaker 4: sure Steve Spagnola, the defensive coordinator for the Chiefs, knows
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Speaker 4: that that's happening as well.
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Speaker 2: That's all I've got to say about that. But anyway,
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Speaker 2: I couldn't be more with you, my friend, and I
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Speaker 2: was thinking the exact same thoughts while hitting my head
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Speaker 2: against that concrete wall. So anyway, that all that being said,
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Speaker 2: let me just say I've got three major points on
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Speaker 2: this particular story that deals with Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore,
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Speaker 2: the two quote unquote stranded astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
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Speaker 2: Number one, My number one point is nothing has changed
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Speaker 2: aboard the International Space Station. They still have their ship,
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Speaker 2: they're still part of Crew nine. The other two Crew
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Speaker 2: nine astronauts are already on the International Space Station. They're
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Speaker 2: planning to all go home together. By the way, the
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Speaker 2: other two astronauts, Nick Haig and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbanov are
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Speaker 2: already board ISS. They can all four. They could go
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Speaker 2: home today. They could jump in that capsule and simply
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Speaker 2: drive home right now. Okay, that's point one. Point two.
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Speaker 2: There was an actual change in the planning in the
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Speaker 2: scheduling at the International Space Station, which is that a
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Speaker 2: new Dragon capsule is being introduced into the Commercial Crew
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Speaker 2: program's fleet, a brand new Dragon capsule from SpaceX that
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Speaker 2: has not yet carried any astronauts, and as part of
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Speaker 2: the vetting process for the friends. Let me just make
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Speaker 2: sure we're not talking about the one that's already in
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Speaker 2: space that could take Butch and Sunny home tomorrow, today,
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Speaker 2: in the next hour whatever. We're not talking about that one.
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Speaker 2: We're talking about one that's on the ground that has
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Speaker 2: never yet been used to go to space. It's a
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Speaker 2: new one. In fact, it's the last new one that
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Speaker 2: is in the NASA and SpaceX planning to be added
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Speaker 2: as a Dragon capsule to the commercial crew program. Okay,
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Speaker 2: So in the vetting of that on the ground capsule
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Speaker 2: that will be part of Crew ten, a different crew,
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Speaker 2: they found an issue and so they're working through the
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Speaker 2: issue on this new capsule on the ground. Well, the
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Speaker 2: NASA plan was we'll let Crew nine hang out until
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Speaker 2: the Crew ten mission astronauts arrive at ISS, we'll do
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Speaker 2: a big crew swap, and then we'll send them home. Well,
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Speaker 2: so that got bumped from late February until no earlier
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Speaker 2: than late March, so one month for Crew ten to launch. Okay,
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Speaker 2: So that's point number two. Here comes point number three.
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Speaker 2: Remember point one, nothing has changed aboard the International Space Station.
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Speaker 2: They already have their right home. Point two a scheduling
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Speaker 2: conflict on the ground. Point three. Whether you like them,
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Speaker 2: whether you hate them, it doesn't seem to be much
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Speaker 2: in between. That's not important to the story. There are
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Speaker 2: two very important people who decided to go to social
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Speaker 2: media and make some statements. The first of those people
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Speaker 2: happens to be the CEO of SpaceX, oh, but also
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Speaker 2: a member of the Trump administration, and that would be
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Speaker 2: Elon musk Elon took to the artist formerly known as
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Speaker 2: X and made this quote, quote, the potus has asked
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Speaker 2: SpaceX to bring home the two astronauts stranded on the
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Speaker 2: space station as soon as possible. We will do so
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Speaker 2: terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long unquote,
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Speaker 2: so much to impact there. I don't even really think
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Speaker 2: I I'd rather just leave it in the suitcase.
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Speaker 4: Let me just let me just say two things. One,
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Speaker 4: you said it backwards the artist currently known as X,
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Speaker 4: formerly known as Twitter uh. And then small catch. But
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Speaker 4: then the other thing is that's been the plan the
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Speaker 4: whole time is to bring them home as soon as possible.
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Speaker 4: I mean, that's the plan is to bring them home
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Speaker 4: as soon as possible. So that hasn't changed. This is
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Speaker 4: a very to me. It just seems like a very
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Speaker 4: crafty little way for two people. We'll get to this
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Speaker 4: because you're about to say the second person. But you
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Speaker 4: got you got one person taking a shot at a
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Speaker 4: political opponent, and then you get another shot the person
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Speaker 4: taking a shot here, you know, indirectly at the uh
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Speaker 4: maybe a rival space company. All right, So onto the
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Speaker 4: next message on the artists currently and always known as
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Speaker 4: truth Social.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the formerly known was just a you know, a
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Speaker 2: shot at Prince but whatever. Anyway, all right, so here
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Speaker 2: we go, then, President Donald Trump to truth Social. As
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Speaker 2: Wes just mentioned with this quote quote, I have asked
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Speaker 2: Elon Musk at SpaceX to go get the two brave
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Speaker 2: astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the
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Speaker 2: Biden administration. They have been waiting for many months on
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Speaker 2: the space station. Elon will soon be on his way.
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Speaker 2: Hopefully all will be safe. Good luck Elon three exclamation
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Speaker 2: points unquote. So my favorite line in both of these
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Speaker 2: quotes is Elon will soon be on his way. It's
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Speaker 2: almost like Santa at Christmas, and you can track him
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Speaker 2: on nora ad Radar. Santa's on his way, kids, let's
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Speaker 2: track him on norrad Radar.
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Speaker 4: Or he's a five star uber driver who's heading there
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Speaker 4: to pick him up, right, and to track it on
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Speaker 4: your phone. There's Elon, his little head moving around anyway.
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Speaker 2: Friends of the show. I am not either an Elon
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Speaker 2: fan nor hater, but this is just funny. I mean,
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Speaker 2: at some point, Elon will soon be on his way,
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Speaker 2: says President Trump, and meaning that he will be there
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Speaker 2: to rescue the virtually abandoned in space Butch Willmore and
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Speaker 2: Sodney Williams one more time, one more time, for those
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Speaker 2: of you missed point one. There's a capsule with seats
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Speaker 2: for both of them attached to the International Space Station
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Speaker 2: right now. It's a SpaceX Dragon. The number of things
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Speaker 2: that SpaceX has to do to quote unquote rescue these
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Speaker 2: people is zero. They have to do zero things because
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Speaker 2: there's already a space capsule there.
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Speaker 4: That they provided, Yeah, that they provided. And but this
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Speaker 4: is and this is one of those things where you
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Speaker 4: have to first of all, the hyperbole. This shouldn't surprise anybody,
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Speaker 4: right we know right away, we know right away that
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Speaker 4: there's going to be some hyperbole. But it both of
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Speaker 4: these messages are very artfully crafted. I would argue that
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Speaker 4: when you say they have been virtually abandoned, you're not
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Speaker 4: saying they've been abandoned. They've virtually been abandoned. I mean,
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Speaker 4: and maybe you could make the case they've virtually been abandoned,
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Speaker 4: and then you know we're going to bring them home
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Speaker 4: as soon as possible. We will do so. I mean
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Speaker 4: that's been the plan the whole time. Not only is
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Speaker 4: Elon soon On his way.
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Speaker 2: He's already there. Elon Claus is coming to town. That's
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Speaker 2: all we know.
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Speaker 1: He's the uber is parked outside.
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Speaker 4: He's got the bottle of water in there and everything,
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Speaker 4: maybe some mints, something to recharge your phone.
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Speaker 2: He's just waiting there for you.
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Speaker 4: All you got to do is get in the ship
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Speaker 4: and come home.
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Speaker 2: All right. So I'm gonna quote the you know I'm
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Speaker 2: gonna I'm gonna reference, let's say, the story from spaceflight
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Speaker 2: now dot com. There are many, obviously news outlets covering
13:23
Speaker 2: this very same thing. Spaceflightnow dot Com followed up all
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Speaker 2: of the stuff with this statement. It is unclear if
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Speaker 2: the statements would actually change the Space Agency's timeline. Neither
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Speaker 2: specified whether the White House would order NASA to change
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Speaker 2: its plan, so there may not be any there there.
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Speaker 2: Spaceflightnow dot Com did say that they had reached out
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Speaker 2: to the Space Agency NASA and there had been no
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Speaker 2: statement following. Now, Hey, but friends of the show, it's
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Speaker 2: Jared Isaacman, right, So what's Jared like? Jared like the
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Speaker 2: new head of NASA. He's going, Oh my gosh, would
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Speaker 2: you two guys please get off Twitter. You're killing me.
14:05
Speaker 2: You're killing me over here. You're killing me, Smalls.
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Speaker 4: I was waiting on his opportunity to jump in and say,
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Speaker 4: it's a shame that they were quasi left stranded in space.
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Speaker 2: It's a shame that the Biden administration left the Hubble
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Speaker 2: Space Telescope trended virtually stranded in space. I I was
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Speaker 2: willing to fix that. Now that has not happened. Thank you,
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Speaker 2: Thank you Jaredis for not taking that low road anyway.
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Speaker 2: Here we are, this is Space News five West. Here.
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Speaker 4: We are still trying to scrub it off the bottom
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Speaker 4: of my shoes. That's what I've been trying to do
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Speaker 4: since we stepped in it way way, way, way way
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Speaker 4: back months ago. All Right, let's follow up on a
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Speaker 4: this's a cool story. I mean, this is what we've
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Speaker 4: been hoping to hear or to find out, I guess,
14:52
Speaker 4: I mean a lot of people have been hoping. I know,
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Speaker 4: the people who decided to do this mission. But we
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Speaker 4: have an update on Osyrus Rex. Let's go back and
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Speaker 4: recap what the mission was and now what they've actually found.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, So for our friends whose souls were just a
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Speaker 2: little bit darkened by the last story, we apologize. We're
15:11
Speaker 2: a Space News podcast. I mean we have to talk
15:13
Speaker 2: about that that was maybe not awesome. This story is
15:18
Speaker 2: absolutely awesome, So prepare to have your energy lifted. USA.
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Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Universe Today dot Com. Universe Today dot Com
15:26
Speaker 2: is one of many outlets with this story, but they're
15:29
Speaker 2: the ones that we took the material from, primarily O
15:32
Speaker 2: Cyrus Rex. If you don't remember O Cyrus Rex, then
15:37
Speaker 2: you're not a friend of this show. What are you doing? Listen?
15:38
Speaker 2: No anyway, so go back and listen to previous episodes
15:41
Speaker 2: from a couple of years ago. But it's the origins
15:43
Speaker 2: Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security REGULITH Explorer simply rolls
15:51
Speaker 2: off the tongue, right. That is a really well, it's
15:54
Speaker 2: a really strange acronym, but it's one of the coolest
15:57
Speaker 2: names for a spaceship ever, O Cyrus Rex. So if
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Speaker 2: we just say the acronym, it's really cool. So NASA's
16:02
Speaker 2: O Cyrus Rex mission back in twenty eighteen was launched.
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Speaker 2: They went out and tapped an asteroid and I'm sorry,
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Speaker 2: the rendezvous, the actual tapping of the asteroid was in
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Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, and then they brought the samples back from
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Speaker 2: that asteroid to Earth in September of twenty twenty three,
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Speaker 2: scientists have been analyzing the samples of this asteroid. The
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Speaker 2: asteroids asteroid's name is Benunnu. Benu is a potentially hazardous asteroid.
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Speaker 2: In other words, it's one that could potentially hit the Earth.
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Speaker 2: So it's a little bit of a dangerous asteroid, so
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Speaker 2: we want to know all the things we can about it. Plus,
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Speaker 2: asteroids themselves tend to be time capsules left over from
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Speaker 2: a period of the formation of the Solar System, so
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Speaker 2: we can study what things were like in that early
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Speaker 2: Solar system by sampling the surface of an asteroid. So
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Speaker 2: here's what NASA scientists have found in the soils collected
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Speaker 2: from Benu by Osyrus rex. All five of the nitrogen bases. Now,
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Speaker 2: if you don't know what that means, because you don't
17:12
Speaker 2: remember your organic chemistry, there are yes, right exactly if
17:19
Speaker 2: because who doesn't remember the organic chemistry.
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Speaker 4: But anyway, I don't remember my organic chemistry, but even
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Speaker 4: I remember these five nitrogen bases.
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Speaker 2: Come on, there you go, here and here they come. So,
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Speaker 2: as Wes just pointed out, you should know these friends.
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Speaker 2: Memorize them, all right, All five of the nitrogen bases
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Speaker 2: molecules that are required for building DNA and RNA. Two
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Speaker 2: of the most important fundamental building blocks of life are
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Speaker 2: these things, adding gunyine, cytosine, thimine, and uracill These are
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Speaker 2: the five nitrogen bases. In other words, they're organic molecules
17:57
Speaker 2: that have nitrogen in them. And these nitrogen based molecules
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Speaker 2: are part of Actually I said organic, some of them
18:06
Speaker 2: are not organic, so this is just chemistry anyway, biochemistry.
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Speaker 2: So some of these, all of these are required for
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Speaker 2: building DNA and RNA. Some of them have carbon, some
18:17
Speaker 2: of them don't. So these are very important molecules for
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Speaker 2: building the things that we're built out of. In fact,
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Speaker 2: the proteins necessary to build amino acids, there's twenty of them.
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Speaker 2: They have found fourteen of those in the soils of Benu,
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Speaker 2: which means the very building blocks of life are in
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Speaker 2: the soils of the asteroid Benu, which means it's kind
18:45
Speaker 2: of a piece of support for people who postulate that
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Speaker 2: perhaps life on Earth somehow got its life chemistry available
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Speaker 2: on the surface of the Earth because asteroids like Benu
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Speaker 2: into the surface in the path in the past and
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Speaker 2: deposited those molecules on the surface of the Earth. So
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Speaker 2: this is a really important discovery. It's telling us something
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Speaker 2: about solar system chemistry and its relationship to the molecules
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Speaker 2: necessary for life. And now we have this new evidence
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Speaker 2: that we can build some of our further models and
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Speaker 2: further hypotheses on. So really interesting stuff coming from Benu,
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Speaker 2: and certainly a hat tip to all of the astrobiologists
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Speaker 2: out there who are looking for signs of life or
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Speaker 2: the chemistry necessary for life in other places in our
19:38
Speaker 2: solar system.
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Speaker 4: A quick note, uruscill I think would be a good
19:42
Speaker 4: name for a medicine like flomax, you know, something to
19:46
Speaker 4: help with the prostate. That's just what I thought when
19:48
Speaker 4: I heard ursoll. I thought, wow, that's a wasted opportunity
19:51
Speaker 4: for a medicine.
19:52
Speaker 2: Name of the branding, think of the branding available. I mean,
19:55
Speaker 2: it's just it's there. Just go with it.
19:58
Speaker 4: Coming up after a quick break, we will talk about
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Speaker 4: volcanic activity on io. We'll get into that next. You're
20:28
Speaker 4: a still perfect for urine this, you know, it'll be
20:31
Speaker 4: like one of those deals.
20:33
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, who doesn't need more urcill in
20:36
Speaker 2: their life? I would say, I don't know. And by
20:39
Speaker 2: the way, I don't mind poking fun at myself because
20:41
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes my head is just floating somewhere. I
20:44
Speaker 2: understand that inorganic chemistry is necessary to understand those life
20:49
Speaker 2: building I said, organic chemistry. Mostly I'm just joking around,
20:52
Speaker 2: but you know, sometimes I trip on scientific traps and
20:56
Speaker 2: those who are out there fact checking us, thank you,
20:58
Speaker 2: thank you for noticing. I appreciate it. Yeah, or all
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Speaker 2: the organic and organic chemistry involved there.
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Speaker 4: All the emails are coming to me anyway, so you know,
21:05
Speaker 4: and you.
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Speaker 2: Know what, I'm sorry because you know I'm I'm the source.
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Speaker 2: I'm the source of misinformation in this podcast. I should be.
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Speaker 2: I should be the fact checker.
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Speaker 4: But I covered you as best I could. For the
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Speaker 4: people screaming about that it's now called x and not Twitter,
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Speaker 4: you know, that's all.
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Speaker 2: I covered that one.
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Speaker 4: All right, let's uh, let's talk about the uh and
21:23
Speaker 4: there's some chiefs fans I know that are mad at us.
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Speaker 2: No, those calls were right, man.
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Speaker 4: Uh. Let's talk about the uh Juno mission because UH
21:32
Speaker 4: yes doing its thing and checking out well specifically in
21:37
Speaker 4: this case, UH the moon. I.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, So listen, there's some really cool stuff going
21:44
Speaker 2: on in the exploration of Jupiter and its system of moons.
21:49
Speaker 2: This really great mission called JUNO has given us all
21:52
Speaker 2: kinds of information about Jupiter, the planet itself, but then
21:57
Speaker 2: also it's it's planet sized. So Jupiter has some very
22:01
Speaker 2: large moons, one of them bigger than the planet Mercury
22:05
Speaker 2: in fact Ganymye. So this is a system of many worlds,
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Speaker 2: really many am I and I many worlds and so
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Speaker 2: so Io is one of those. Io of these large
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Speaker 2: moons happens to be the closest to the planet Jupiter.
22:21
Speaker 2: And because of the tidal shearing in other words, the
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Speaker 2: force of gravity twisting and tugging on Io, it heats
22:27
Speaker 2: up the interior. And Io is actually the most volcanic
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Speaker 2: world in the Solar System, more volcanically active even than
22:36
Speaker 2: the Earth itself. So that's pretty interesting in terms of
22:40
Speaker 2: just the basic science of planets and moons in the
22:43
Speaker 2: Solar System. However, JUNO back in December took a photograph
22:49
Speaker 2: of the southern polar region of Io and found something
22:52
Speaker 2: absolutely amazing, the most powerful volcanic activity to date on
22:59
Speaker 2: the most active volcanic world in our entire Solar system,
23:05
Speaker 2: which is the moon Io. So the event that they
23:09
Speaker 2: recorded was absolutely an extreme event, and they've actually recorded
23:14
Speaker 2: a series of extreme events in this region. But this
23:19
Speaker 2: large outburst released six times the total energy of all
23:25
Speaker 2: the world's power plants combined, according to those who researched
23:31
Speaker 2: these things. Okay, so, in other words, this volcano was
23:35
Speaker 2: one of the strongest eruptions that we have ever seen
23:38
Speaker 2: anywhere in our Solar system. And it was captured back
23:41
Speaker 2: in December through what they call the Gyram camera, which
23:47
Speaker 2: is an infrared immager aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft. So really
23:52
Speaker 2: cool stuff. It's one thing to say that Ioa has volcanoes,
23:56
Speaker 2: but it's another thing to say this is absolutely the
24:00
Speaker 2: wrongest eruption that we've ever seen on this volcanic Moon. Now,
24:03
Speaker 2: there's a researcher by the name of Scott Bolton at
24:07
Speaker 2: the Southwest Research Institute who's the mission's principal investigator, and
24:12
Speaker 2: he had this to say. Quote, JUNO had two really
24:15
Speaker 2: close flybys of io during Juno's extended mission, and while
24:20
Speaker 2: each flyby provided data on the tormented Moon that exceeded
24:24
Speaker 2: our expectations, the data from this latest and more distant
24:28
Speaker 2: flyby really blew our minds. Again, this is Scott Bolton
24:33
Speaker 2: Primary Era Missions Principal Investigator, Southwest Research Institute. He goes
24:38
Speaker 2: on to say this quote, this is the most powerful
24:41
Speaker 2: volcanic event ever recorded on the most volcanic world in
24:46
Speaker 2: our Solar system. So that's really saying something unquote. So
24:50
Speaker 2: there you go. That's the latest. There's a really cool
24:54
Speaker 2: picture of it. You can find it on a lot
24:56
Speaker 2: of different sites. Once again, but NASA dot gov is
24:59
Speaker 2: where I found the press release where I pulled these quotes.
25:02
Speaker 2: NASA dot gov has an excellent image of the latest
25:06
Speaker 2: giant volcanic eruption taking place on the world Io, discovered
25:11
Speaker 2: by the Juno spacecraft.
25:13
Speaker 4: We got a breaking news I just saw here on
25:16
Speaker 4: x a tweet from Jared Isaacman. He says, it's too
25:20
Speaker 4: bad the previous NASA administrator didn't strand those astronauts on
25:24
Speaker 4: Io where they could have a great game of the
25:27
Speaker 4: floor is lava.
25:30
Speaker 2: It's an weird, just weird thing. It's so strange that
25:35
Speaker 2: the timing of that just came out right, because weren't
25:38
Speaker 2: we just discussing we were It was like almost like
25:40
Speaker 2: that was no. Of course that's not a real thing,
25:43
Speaker 2: all right, but that would be a great place to
25:45
Speaker 2: play it if it's so much volcanic activity, and then oh,
25:49
Speaker 2: what a game you could have of the floor is lava?
25:51
Speaker 2: You could do that? All right?
25:54
Speaker 4: This is speaking of stranding astronauts. There's been an astronauts stranded.
26:00
Speaker 4: I don't know since what twenty eighteen sort of. I've
26:04
Speaker 4: had my theories about this particular astronaut. I had them
26:07
Speaker 4: back then. We haven't discussed them in a long time.
26:11
Speaker 4: But let's talk about an asteroid that ended up not
26:15
Speaker 4: being an asteroid because it was something very different.
26:19
Speaker 2: Why does no one talk about this particular stranded astronaut
26:23
Speaker 2: that we will refer to in a moment. I don't know,
26:25
Speaker 2: but you know, let's set up the story. Okay, there's
26:28
Speaker 2: a place called the Minor Planet Center, and the Minor
26:32
Speaker 2: Planet Center is at Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
26:39
Speaker 2: Why is that important, Well, it's important for two reasons.
26:42
Speaker 2: Number one, that organization acts as a clearing house for
26:47
Speaker 2: information on small Solar system bodies. What does that mean. Well,
26:50
Speaker 2: that means this. If somebody thinks they found a brand
26:53
Speaker 2: new asteroid or a brand new comment that nobody's ever
26:56
Speaker 2: observed before, then they report their observations to the Minor
27:01
Speaker 2: Planet Center at Harvard CFA, and then Harvard CFA puts
27:05
Speaker 2: out a memo to all the observatories around the world
27:08
Speaker 2: that are part of that group. Hey, can you please
27:11
Speaker 2: jump in and start tracking this asteroid because it may
27:15
Speaker 2: be a newly discovered object and we don't know where
27:18
Speaker 2: it's going. It might be potentially hazardous for the Earth.
27:21
Speaker 2: So that's what their role is. They're sponsored by the
27:24
Speaker 2: International Astronomical Union. Okay, So on January second, the MPC,
27:31
Speaker 2: the Minor Planet Center announced the discovery of a brand
27:34
Speaker 2: new and unusual asteroid and its designation was twenty eighteen
27:39
Speaker 2: CN forty one. Now, the observations that led to this
27:45
Speaker 2: were made by an amateur astronomer who saw this object
27:49
Speaker 2: and said, I can't tell where this object that I'm
27:53
Speaker 2: seeing that I can clearly tell as moving against the
27:56
Speaker 2: background of stars lines up with any known asteroid in
27:59
Speaker 2: the catalogs. So therefore I'm going to report this to
28:03
Speaker 2: the Minor Planet Center. Now, the Minor Planet Center's role.
28:06
Speaker 2: The next thing they do is they double check that
28:09
Speaker 2: that is true. So they go through the catalog of
28:11
Speaker 2: known asteroids, they check the orbital motions of this new
28:17
Speaker 2: object that's discovered against the catalog of known objects. If
28:20
Speaker 2: they can't find it, they say, oh hey, this is
28:23
Speaker 2: a new one. Please help us observe it and figure
28:25
Speaker 2: out where it's going. So they put that announcement out.
28:28
Speaker 2: They couldn't connect it to any known asteroids. They put
28:31
Speaker 2: the announcement out and they said, you know, qualified as a
28:35
Speaker 2: near Earth object and it's worth monitoring for its potential
28:39
Speaker 2: to someday slam into the Earth. Very important announcement, but
28:45
Speaker 2: a mere seventeen hours later, the Minor Planet Center issued
28:51
Speaker 2: an editorial notice. It said it was deleting twenty eighteen
28:57
Speaker 2: one from its records because, as it turns out, the
29:00
Speaker 2: object was not an asteroid. It was a very fuel efficient,
29:06
Speaker 2: renewable energy automobile. It was a cherry red Tesla Roadster
29:14
Speaker 2: with stars on behind the wheel. It was a car
29:18
Speaker 2: with some guy in a spacesuit driving it, as that
29:22
Speaker 2: if it had flown right out of the nineteen eighties
29:25
Speaker 2: motion picture Heavy Metal and so so, yeah, that was
29:31
Speaker 2: not an asteroid, right, Yeah, So this this opens up
29:35
Speaker 2: all kinds of questions. You know, first of all, does
29:40
Speaker 2: the Minor Planet Center track Tesla roadsters I'm gonna go
29:44
Speaker 2: ahead and say no, because they didn't have it in
29:47
Speaker 2: their catalog Number two. Why didn't they? Why isn't in
29:52
Speaker 2: some kind of a database that they can refer to. Well,
29:55
Speaker 2: remember that it doesn't technically orbit the Earth. It orbits
30:00
Speaker 2: the Sun in an orbit that brings it around near
30:04
Speaker 2: the Earth from time to time like an asteroid. So
30:09
Speaker 2: it's not part of the monitored space debris catalogs that
30:14
Speaker 2: are in orbit around the Earth because it doesn't orbit
30:18
Speaker 2: the Earth. So that makes it a little bit more
30:20
Speaker 2: tricky to keep track of it. The third thing, is
30:28
Speaker 2: is it an asteroid?
30:30
Speaker 4: Well, I was just about to ask, do we know
30:33
Speaker 4: for certain that the other asteroids aren't just where, you know,
30:37
Speaker 4: someone launched some other thing out into space and let
30:40
Speaker 4: it fly around.
30:41
Speaker 2: Let us not forget the object that passed through the
30:44
Speaker 2: Solar system called umwawm wow. I'm not gonna try to
30:49
Speaker 2: say you can say that again because it's just what
30:52
Speaker 2: it is. But there was there was an asteroid like
30:55
Speaker 2: object that flew through our solar system just a couple
30:59
Speaker 2: of a few years ago that everybody was up in
31:02
Speaker 2: arms because it did not have the properties of an asteroid.
31:09
Speaker 2: It also wasn't acting like a comet, and people like
31:13
Speaker 2: Auvi Lobe from Harvard University speculated that it might be
31:17
Speaker 2: a spacecraft from other solar systems passing through our Solar
31:23
Speaker 2: system and our part of the Milky Way. So it
31:27
Speaker 2: turns out that we never really got a very clear
31:30
Speaker 2: classification on him. Wild wow, And and that object is
31:34
Speaker 2: now known as what they call a dark comet. We
31:38
Speaker 2: can look up the dark comet definition if you want to.
31:40
Speaker 2: But what are the classifications for cherry red roadsters? Right?
31:46
Speaker 2: I mean? May maybe does it fit into the dark
31:49
Speaker 2: comet classification? Does it? Could it be wedged into the
31:53
Speaker 2: definition of an asteroid? It's certainly human made, but clearly
31:58
Speaker 2: now it's an object passing through our part of the
32:00
Speaker 2: Solar system. Maybe the definition for asteroid needs to be
32:05
Speaker 2: expanded to include cherry red roadsters driven by starmen. What
32:12
Speaker 2: do you think, wes Uh?
32:13
Speaker 4: My next question is if they're if they're if this
32:16
Speaker 4: thing is passing around and they're starting to call this
32:18
Speaker 4: this you know, uh near Earth object.
32:23
Speaker 2: Is there any danger.
32:26
Speaker 4: Even in you know, like a million years, this thing's
32:29
Speaker 4: gonna slam into the Earth and you know, kill half
32:31
Speaker 4: the population? Is that even a possibility.
32:34
Speaker 2: Well, so pieces of that are correct. So in a
32:39
Speaker 2: few million years, according to orbital calculations, it will slam
32:44
Speaker 2: into the Earth.
32:46
Speaker 4: I was just a lucky guess. By the way, I
32:48
Speaker 4: haven't been I haven't been prepping ahead of time.
32:51
Speaker 2: But it was a good guess. It's it's like you
32:53
Speaker 2: were on that team calculating the orbit man it was,
32:57
Speaker 2: and the and the Tesla roadster.
32:58
Speaker 4: It was full like Sherlock. I had all of the
33:00
Speaker 4: you know, all of that. I could see all the
33:03
Speaker 4: numbers floating around my head. It was it just kind
33:06
Speaker 4: of I did it anyway.
33:07
Speaker 2: It was elementary, I guess it was. So. So the
33:10
Speaker 2: the other part of the coin is that will it
33:14
Speaker 2: kill millions of people? Know, this thing will just burn
33:17
Speaker 2: And if they're going to drop the International Space Station
33:19
Speaker 2: in the atmosphere here shortly and hope it burns up,
33:22
Speaker 2: the cherry red roaster stands no chance, if you know
33:25
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. So it's gonna burn up pretty easily.
33:27
Speaker 4: Let me ask this, then, is there a chance that
33:30
Speaker 4: aliens somewhere in space that are going to come into
33:33
Speaker 4: you know, into our galaxy and they're gonna go Hang
33:37
Speaker 4: on a minute, This is a weird spacecraft these guys
33:41
Speaker 4: sent out. The pilot isn't moving. We don't understand what's
33:46
Speaker 4: going on there. We're gonna follow this thing. Oh it's
33:49
Speaker 4: headed straight for that blue marble over there. I mean
33:54
Speaker 4: that can kill us all.
33:55
Speaker 2: It's so you asked me, is it possible? So you're
33:59
Speaker 2: saying there's a chance. Statistics are a funny thing. I
34:03
Speaker 2: don't have the data to roll out that scenario in
34:08
Speaker 2: my mind.
34:08
Speaker 4: In my mind not that not that it's gonna kill
34:11
Speaker 4: us all things, but in my mind, the eventual Roadster
34:16
Speaker 4: and Starman story at some point comes in contact with
34:20
Speaker 4: some life from outside of our Solar system that's going
34:24
Speaker 4: to be so baffled at what in the world is
34:27
Speaker 4: going on? What is this vehicle? What is this creature
34:31
Speaker 4: that is sitting in this vehicle? Did someone die? How
34:36
Speaker 4: long have they been dead? We have to take this
34:38
Speaker 4: back to you know, planet Grebdar and do some tests
34:41
Speaker 4: on it. And I mean, I want to how did
34:43
Speaker 4: they power this vehicle? I just somewhere in my head
34:46
Speaker 4: that has to eventually happen.
34:48
Speaker 2: Wes, this is such a good point. But but you've
34:52
Speaker 2: forgotten your planet of the Apes, right, let's let's just say,
34:56
Speaker 2: you know, millions of years go by, and we we
35:00
Speaker 2: just forget that there is even a cherry red roaster
35:03
Speaker 2: up there as a human civilization humans millions of years
35:06
Speaker 2: for now, they're gonna be very different. They're gonna be
35:09
Speaker 2: behaving different, They'll have different transportation. You know, who knows
35:13
Speaker 2: what X will be like. You know, like we're going to.
35:15
Speaker 4: A volt where messages out by then who knows our
35:19
Speaker 4: next won't even be able to look up by that point. Well,
35:21
Speaker 4: if just all of our evolution will be staring down
35:25
Speaker 4: at screens so we are able to look at the sky.
35:29
Speaker 2: We can't even track this roadster for seven years. How
35:34
Speaker 2: are we gonna No one's gonna have any idea. This
35:37
Speaker 2: thing's out there in you know, a couple of billion years,
35:40
Speaker 2: and then now it's on this potentially earth directed crash
35:44
Speaker 2: course and people are gonna maybe they'll have more advanced
35:49
Speaker 2: technology by then. I mean, that's one view of the future.
35:53
Speaker 2: So what if they do. AI is gonna be looking
35:55
Speaker 2: at this and say, yeah, we don't know. You know,
35:59
Speaker 2: even AI is gonna be like, yeah, this is too well,
36:01
Speaker 2: I have no idea what this is. It certainly doesn't
36:05
Speaker 2: look natural in origin. Maybe it's an alien spacecraft. So
36:10
Speaker 2: the Earth people might think in millions of years that
36:13
Speaker 2: it's an alien vehicle. Come who says? Who says that?
36:18
Speaker 2: That won't happen, right, So this is a very it's
36:21
Speaker 2: a very disturbing possibility for future generations here on Earth.
36:25
Speaker 2: And by the way, the article I read in astronomy
36:27
Speaker 2: dot com pointed that out. They said, you know, hey,
36:31
Speaker 2: millions of years, we'll probably lose this thing. No, you
36:34
Speaker 2: lost it in seven years, So yeah, millions of years.
36:37
Speaker 2: There's almost zero chance of us remembering what this is.
36:40
Speaker 4: Is that an asteroid headed for us. It looks like
36:43
Speaker 4: an electric car from the early twenty first century. Coming up,
36:48
Speaker 4: after one more quick break, we're going to talk about
36:50
Speaker 4: the Parade of Planets and an update on Common Atlas next.
37:07
Speaker 3: Planets.
37:14
Speaker 4: All right, So my social media was lit up over
37:17
Speaker 4: the weekend with people talking about the Parade of planets,
37:20
Speaker 4: the alignment of planets. A few people had to jump
37:22
Speaker 4: in and go, who whoa, whoa, whoa whoa, Not so fast,
37:25
Speaker 4: it's not an alignment. A few people got corrected or
37:27
Speaker 4: eventually got to the right place, which was great. And
37:31
Speaker 4: then I said well, thanks for listening, because we would
37:33
Speaker 4: have already told you all that. You didn't have to
37:35
Speaker 4: hear it from some schmo on social media. You could
37:37
Speaker 4: have found it. So if you're not already following the
37:41
Speaker 4: show and downloading each episode every week on Thursdays when
37:45
Speaker 4: we upload them, you would already have known all this information.
37:49
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Mative Stars, party, ladies and gentlemen, where
37:53
Speaker 2: you could have known that for weeks. But that's okay,
37:56
Speaker 2: we're happy to have you here now. So yeah, the
37:58
Speaker 2: parade of planets is a phrase that we're using to say, Hey,
38:02
Speaker 2: all of the really bright visible planets kind of gathered
38:05
Speaker 2: on one side of the sky. That's good enough anyway,
38:08
Speaker 2: So Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn all together in the evening
38:14
Speaker 2: sky last weekend. They're still up there now, by the way,
38:19
Speaker 2: so it's not like, oh, O, darn I missed it. No,
38:21
Speaker 2: they're still out there. They don't move that fast. You
38:25
Speaker 2: can still go see them. But it just turns out
38:27
Speaker 2: that about one hundred and fifty people came down and
38:31
Speaker 2: joined us at the Coca Cola Space Science Center for
38:33
Speaker 2: our open house on Saturday, where they got to actually
38:36
Speaker 2: take a look at these planets through our telescopes. I'd
38:39
Speaker 2: just like to throw out a thank you to the
38:41
Speaker 2: crowd who came down and viewed the parade of planets
38:43
Speaker 2: here at Space Science Center. We're glad that you're interested
38:46
Speaker 2: in astronomy. We hate to correct misconceptions always because we
38:50
Speaker 2: sound grumpy, but we just want you to know the
38:52
Speaker 2: right way to describe and talk about these things with
38:56
Speaker 2: your children. So there we go, parade of planets. And
38:59
Speaker 2: by the way, you can still see them tonight, so
39:01
Speaker 2: take the binoculars out. The brightest stars you're going to
39:03
Speaker 2: see in the evening sky are likely to be the planets,
39:06
Speaker 2: because that's what's going on right now. So that's really cool.
39:10
Speaker 2: In addition to that, there was a comet that made
39:13
Speaker 2: just the briefest appearance above the northern hemisphere horizon but
39:18
Speaker 2: mostly has been a Southern hemisphere object. It's Comet Atlas
39:23
Speaker 2: G three. We talked about it on last week's show.
39:25
Speaker 2: It lost its head, in other words, the nucleus basically
39:29
Speaker 2: vaporized or crumbled away as it made a close pass
39:32
Speaker 2: by the Sun. But that doesn't mean that it's not
39:35
Speaker 2: providing an absolute show in the Southern hemisphere. And there's
39:40
Speaker 2: a great place to see beautiful pictures of this historic
39:44
Speaker 2: comet apparition from the Southern Hemisphere. You can check out
39:48
Speaker 2: one of our favorite websites to quote, which is spaceweather
39:51
Speaker 2: dot com. They have an archive of comet atlas G three.
39:56
Speaker 2: Make sure you get the right comet atlas. There was
39:57
Speaker 2: two of them. This one's G three. I'm at Atlas
40:00
Speaker 2: G three. There's an archive of photos, and check that
40:03
Speaker 2: out with your friends' family, kids, whatever, because those pictures
40:07
Speaker 2: absolutely are artwork. They're phenomenal pictures coming from our friends
40:12
Speaker 2: in the South. We're glad that our folks down in
40:14
Speaker 2: New Zealand, Australia, South America and other parts of the
40:17
Speaker 2: Southern Hemisphere are seeing this absolutely wonderful display of a comet.
40:23
Speaker 2: We're a little jealous up here in the Northern Hemisphere,
40:25
Speaker 2: but you know, we'll get another bright comet sometime.
40:29
Speaker 4: And let's quickly just talk about music under the Dome.
40:32
Speaker 4: We're a little over a month away from beginning the
40:35
Speaker 4: second half of the season.
40:37
Speaker 2: For those of you in our area. If you've heard
40:39
Speaker 2: about music under the Dome, you're curious about it, but
40:41
Speaker 2: you've never been to one. They're absolutely amazing concerts performed
40:46
Speaker 2: inside the planetarium of the Coca Cola Space Science Center.
40:50
Speaker 2: They're presented by the faculty and students of the Schwub
40:52
Speaker 2: School of Music. Come here live music combined with beautiful
40:56
Speaker 2: planetarium graphics. Music under the Dome next concert is in March.
41:01
Speaker 2: Tickets are already on sale and they're already beginning to
41:04
Speaker 2: sell out. So if you are in the area and
41:06
Speaker 2: you do want to come to these concerts, don't wait
41:09
Speaker 2: to get your tickets, get them early. I heard a
41:13
Speaker 2: report just a few days ago from my staff saying
41:16
Speaker 2: that that number is dwindling, So jump online buy tickets
41:19
Speaker 2: for Music under the Dome. There are concerts also in
41:21
Speaker 2: April and May of twenty twenty five, So check out
41:25
Speaker 2: all those great events, ticket sales, upcoming astronomy nights, all
41:30
Speaker 2: of those kinds of things at our website www dot
41:34
Speaker 2: cc SSC dot org. Charlie Charlie SamSam Charlie dot org.
41:41
Speaker 4: Sean and I thank you for listening, and we'll do
41:43
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