Latest / Made of Stars / X-37B Set to Launch Tonight... Weather Permitting

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X-37B Set to Launch Tonight... Weather Permitting · Made of Stars

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  Speaker 1: Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar, asterism and uranus. Listen,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: that's your own risk.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Go ahead.
• 0:22
  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,
• 0:39
  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 cruising from Columbus State
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  Speaker 4: Universe City's Coca Cola Space Science Center. Morning Shawn, Good morning, Wes.
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  Speaker 2: Good to be here today.
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  Speaker 4: We record our shows on Thursday. Typically it is Thursday.
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  Speaker 4: It's worth noting because our first story for the week
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  Speaker 4: involves a launch that is scheduled to take place late tonight,
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  Speaker 4: weather permitting. There's always that situation, especially if there's you know,
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  Speaker 4: severe weather right off the coast of Florida. So I
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  Speaker 4: guess that's maybe where we are. But tonight we could
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  Speaker 4: see the launch of the X thirty seven B.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we need that breaking news sound bumper.
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  Speaker 5: Whatever that is.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know what it is yeah, breaking news, ladies
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  Speaker 2: and gentlemen. And this is why those of you who
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: you know you sign up to be notified when new
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  Speaker 2: Native Stars podcasts come out. Congratulations to you because you
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  Speaker 2: know in enough time that you could actually watch this
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  Speaker 2: launch as it's carried live on spaceflight now dot com.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Spaceflightnow dot com is where I got story. So SpaceX
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  Speaker 2: launching the X thirty seven B. Friends, if you don't
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  Speaker 2: know what the X thirty seven B is, you're probably
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  Speaker 2: in the majority. But it is a shall we call it,
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  Speaker 2: somewhat mysterious semi secret spaceplane from the United States military.
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  Speaker 2: It looks like it looks like the Space Shuttle got
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  Speaker 2: put in the dryer too long and just shrunk. So
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  Speaker 2: now it's just a little tiny space Shuttle looking thing.
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  Speaker 2: But no people fly in it's it's a well, no
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  Speaker 2: people that we know of fly in it. It's a
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  Speaker 2: it's a robotic spaceplane that the US military uses for
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  Speaker 2: a variety of somewhat secret, if not entirely secret missions
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  Speaker 2: from the Kennedy Space Center down there in Florida.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, if we don't know what all of the
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  Speaker 4: missions are, and you can't ask and find out what
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  Speaker 4: they are at the very least they're semi secret.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean they'll tell you no, this is a
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  Speaker 2: top secret mission and we're going to be testing communications
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  Speaker 2: systems from right. It's like, well, wait a minute. If
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  Speaker 2: it's top secret, why did you just tell me that part?
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  Speaker 4: Okay, well, then it can't be top secret. It's got
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  Speaker 4: to be semi secret. I mean, if you know some
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  Speaker 4: of it, then it sounds like semi secret is the
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  Speaker 4: right term.
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  Speaker 2: It's at least clouded in mystery.
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  Speaker 4: Oh that's good. Yeah, yeah, so.
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  Speaker 2: The clouded in mystery. Yeah. X thirty seven B Space
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  Speaker 2: Shuttle that got put in the drawer too long in
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  Speaker 2: trunk is going to be launching today as we're recording
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  Speaker 2: the podcast. Weather permitting, it'll be its schedule for a
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  Speaker 2: eleven fifty pm Eastern daylight time launch from launch Pad
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  Speaker 2: number thirty nine A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center down
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  Speaker 2: in Florida. It'll be launching a top A Falcon nine rocket.
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  Speaker 2: It has a couple of different designations for its mission.
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  Speaker 2: It is Orbital Test Vehicle eight or OTV eight, and
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  Speaker 2: then it's also called us SF thirty six. Now, for
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  Speaker 2: those of you who are not up on your latest
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  Speaker 2: military acronyms. That's the United States Space Force. See, because
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  Speaker 2: there's this other branch of the military now that has
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  Speaker 2: to do with space, and that's the us SF. So
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  Speaker 2: this is apparently number thirty six launching from the us
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  Speaker 2: SF series of missions to space. See, that's why they
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  Speaker 2: named it that.
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  Speaker 4: Right, Yeah. And then OTV eight on the TV eight.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, if you're in the test vehicle world, you're
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  Speaker 2: referring to this thing as OTV eight.
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  Speaker 4: So there's that, and then it's launch pad thirty nine. A.
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  Speaker 4: We got a lot of we got a lot of
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  Speaker 4: numbers and letters.
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  Speaker 2: You know, when you're talking and it's the X thirty
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  Speaker 2: seven B when you're talking about military missions. It just
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  Speaker 2: makes it so much cooler, it does. Yeah, to just
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  Speaker 2: have just nothing but letters and numbers that no one
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  Speaker 2: really knows what they needs. Right, that's the semi secret
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  Speaker 2: shrouded in secrecy, that's right. So it's looking like there's
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  Speaker 2: only a sixty five percent chance of an actual favorable
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  Speaker 2: conditions or we call that FC for liftoff. We call
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  Speaker 2: that l O at the opening launch window. We call
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  Speaker 2: that the LW. Tonight Thursday, we call that THH.
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  Speaker 4: If I had my younger son LCC his initials. He
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  Speaker 4: could give us a very accurate description of what the
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  Speaker 4: weather's looking like tonight, but he's not here. He's at school.
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  Speaker 2: So well, if he was here, he would say there's
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  Speaker 2: a sixty five percent chance of FC for L during
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  Speaker 2: the ol W on THH tonight.
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  Speaker 4: He might even say there's a fifty percent chance that
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  Speaker 4: it's already raining. He might do that, I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: He might just say, dudes, it's raining. What do you
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  Speaker 2: what are you asking me about this?
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  Speaker 4: For Yeah, so sixty five percent chance it's gonna go tonight.
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  Speaker 4: I'm gonna make a bold per day right here, and
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  Speaker 4: I don't have any inside info. I don't have my
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  Speaker 4: son here to give me the weather forecast for the area.
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  Speaker 4: I predict this will not launch tonight. That's my prediction.
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  Speaker 4: I just got a hunch this is not going to
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  Speaker 4: happen tonight. And I guess depending on how important the
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  Speaker 4: super secret missions are based on the likelihood of this
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  Speaker 4: thing being able to get launched properly. That's just my hunch.
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  Speaker 4: I don't know. I may be dead wrong.
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  Speaker 2: I mean to have FC conditions for liftoff of the
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  Speaker 2: lo O, I mean you know, you gotta watch this
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  Speaker 2: hurricane that's zipping around out there, right, So.
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  Speaker 4: That would be the reason for my hunch.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, there's yet another element to the story, which is
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  Speaker 2: this hurricane named erin Or we called that the h
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  Speaker 2: hurricane Aaron, and it continues to move alongside the East coast.
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  Speaker 2: We call that the ec of the United States. We
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  Speaker 2: called that the US.
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  Speaker 4: How far can we go with this? Is it back
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  Speaker 4: to hurricane it was hurricane, it was tropical storm, it
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  Speaker 4: was hurricane, there was tropical storm. Is it back to hurricane?
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  Speaker 4: I know it's kind of all over the place, but
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  Speaker 4: having those moments where it's in and out. But anyway,
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  Speaker 4: the point is it's not it's not great conditions for
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  Speaker 4: launching a tiny little space shuttle. That's the point.
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  Speaker 2: You can check with the NHC at the NAA and
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  Speaker 2: they'll be able to tell you about the you know,
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  Speaker 2: the FC for l O. Yeah, during the olw on.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, Yes, so we'll see, we'll see if it launches.
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  Speaker 4: And all we can really do next, you know, at
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  Speaker 4: some point in the future is tell you if it
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  Speaker 4: launched or not. That's all we can really do. Uh,
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  Speaker 4: let's talk about this giant fireball in Japan. How about that.
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  Speaker 4: Uh So, for everybody's.
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  Speaker 2: Still listening, congratulations, you made it through that nonsense that
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  Speaker 2: I just did. So I'm very proud of you for
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  Speaker 2: hanging in there. Thank you very much. That was, you know,
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  Speaker 2: like a short joke taken very long and those.
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  Speaker 4: And you're probably one of our ogs.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely an og at this point. So all right, So, yes,
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  Speaker 2: there was a giant fireball over the nation of Japan.
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  Speaker 2: And it was really scary because it happened right over
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  Speaker 2: the top of a volcano. So when you have a
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  Speaker 2: fireball from space falling on top of a not long
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  Speaker 2: extinct volcano on an island where volcanism and earthquakes are common,
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  Speaker 2: and so are exploding nuclear power plants, this is a
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  Speaker 2: disturbing sequence of events, right, So, yes, it was a
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  Speaker 2: fireball that lit up the skies over southern Japan. Sakura
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  Speaker 2: Jima Volcano is the giant mountain that can be seen
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  Speaker 2: in the numerous surveillance camera and dash cam videos of
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  Speaker 2: this particular event that took place near the cities of
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  Speaker 2: Kogashima and Kamamoto. So this is a place in southern
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  Speaker 2: Japan is not terribly far from Osaka, which is maybe
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  Speaker 2: a city that people are a bit more familiar with.
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  Speaker 2: Osaka's Kansai Airport is about one hundred and twenty four
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  Speaker 2: miles away way from where the majority of videos came
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  Speaker 2: from on this event. But social media is just full
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  Speaker 2: of all of these great shots of this event, and
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  Speaker 2: space dot com has the story on their website. You
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  Speaker 2: can check it out there if you want to see
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  Speaker 2: an honest to goodness bowlide. Friends, what is a bull lide? Well,
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  Speaker 2: that's actually a science word that means a larger than
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  Speaker 2: normal medior coming through our atmosphere and really lighting up
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  Speaker 2: the ground. It's occasionally referred to as a fireball kind
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  Speaker 2: of colloquially, but the real name for it is a bowlide.
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  Speaker 2: And so this bowlid happened on August nineteenth, just a
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  Speaker 2: couple of days ago as we're recording the show. And
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  Speaker 2: if you want to see a giant bowlide come in
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  Speaker 2: over a volcano in Japan, there's a lot of great
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  Speaker 2: footage out there, and some of the footage is actually
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  Speaker 2: kind of startling now, unlike the media riite we talked
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  Speaker 2: about last week, which came in over Atlanta, Georgia, and
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  Speaker 2: landed on somebody's house and put a whole in the roof.
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  Speaker 2: The fragments for this particular giant bowl lide came in
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  Speaker 2: probably over the Pacific Ocean. As they fragmented and fell,
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  Speaker 2: they did not mostly fall on land. They mostly fell
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  Speaker 2: out in the water. So you'd have to go for
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  Speaker 2: a swim or a deep dive to pick up those fragments.
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  Speaker 2: The show does not recommend that you try that process,
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  Speaker 2: so but check out the video online because that first
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  Speaker 2: of all, you have very little chance of drowning, and
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  Speaker 2: second of all, it's a pretty cool video.
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  Speaker 4: We got something else to look at in the sky
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  Speaker 4: if you're in the right part of the world. As
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  Speaker 4: we now enter into this, we're getting close to the
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  Speaker 4: astronomical start of fall, right, and I guess suppose we
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  Speaker 4: also have that Let's let's do this quickly, because we've
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  Speaker 4: talked about this a few times. There's the astronomical start
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  Speaker 4: of the seasons, right, and then there's there's also the
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  Speaker 4: unofficial start of the seasons. We've got those, especially when
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  Speaker 4: it comes to you know, summer, we go Memorial Day
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  Speaker 4: and we got to Labor Day and they go, that's
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  Speaker 4: kind of and then we have you know, the calendar
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  Speaker 4: sort of the accepted seasons based on the calendar, So
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: basically the unofficial end of summer Labor Day will actually
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  Speaker 4: also be it'll coincide on the first of September, which
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  Speaker 4: will be sort of when the calendar alignment is for it.
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  Speaker 4: But we're sometimes, even with the astronomical side, some of
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  Speaker 4: the things that are associated with those seasons start to
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  Speaker 4: happen a little early. Yeah, and that's what we got
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  Speaker 4: going on here.
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  Speaker 2: There's you know, meteorologists and astronomers can be friends. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: we can go to coffee together. We both look up,
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  Speaker 2: you know. There's you know, like geologists, environmental scientists that
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: are usually looking down, and that's fine, they do what
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: they do. Meteorologists and astronomers are usually looking up. I
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: happen to be one of those people. That's why I
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  Speaker 2: fall into holes because I look up all the time.
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  Speaker 2: And so those of us who watch the sky we
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  Speaker 2: can get along, you know, we can tell jokes together.
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  Speaker 2: But quite frankly, meteorology is not astronomy and astronomy is
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  Speaker 2: not meteorology. So so this whole business about, oh, it's
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: the first day of summer on June twenty first or thereabouts. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: for anybody who lives where Wes and I live here
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  Speaker 2: in the southeastern United States. You know good and well
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  Speaker 2: that by June twenty first, summer has been on for
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  Speaker 2: quite some time, right, And I believe this is what
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  Speaker 2: Wes is referring to to say, you know, that whole
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  Speaker 2: summer thing, I don't think it waited for June twenty first. Well,
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  Speaker 2: that's because astronomically, we don't really call it the first
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  Speaker 2: day of summer. We call it the summer salstice. The
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: word salstice is derived from a phrase that means sun
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: standing still. And what astronomers noticed is there's a day
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  Speaker 2: in this And when I say astronomers, by the way,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: I mean archaeo astronomers, like ancient astronomers, notice this. They
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: notice there's a day in the period of time when
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: it's really hot called summer, that the sun gets to
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  Speaker 2: a point in the sky that it's as far north
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  Speaker 2: as it's going to get, and it stops for a
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  Speaker 2: few days, and then it turns around and begins to
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  Speaker 2: move down again. Now, really that moment is just an
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: instant in time. But as far as we can tell,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: just being ground observers, it's a little bit hard to
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  Speaker 2: tell that the sun is moving, so we say, wow,
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  Speaker 2: the sun stood still for a couple of days in
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: its north south motion. It didn't get any higher, but
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: it's not really heading south much either, So they named
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  Speaker 2: that the solstice sun standing still. There's one of those
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  Speaker 2: that happens in the winter too, honor about December twenty first,
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  Speaker 2: And then there's a couple of halfway points. One is
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  Speaker 2: in the fall. We call that the autumnal equinox Honor
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  Speaker 2: about September twenty first. That's when the day and night
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  Speaker 2: hours are roughly equal. And then there's one in the spring.
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  Speaker 2: Vernal equinox day and night hours roughly equal, happens on
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  Speaker 2: our around March twenty first. Okay, so to say that
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: the winter stalstice is the first day of winter. And
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: if you're from anywhere, like oh, I want to know Canada,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: you haven't been paying attention. It's already been snowing and
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: quite cold. Yes, since oh, as West mentioned September, because
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: that's really there's probably like a date that's halfway between
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  Speaker 2: the summer salstice and the vernal or I'm sorry, the
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: autumnal equinox that you would say, well falls kicking off,
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  Speaker 2: and that's right, and that's you know, that's honor about
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  Speaker 2: the first part of September there, and so yep, that's
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  Speaker 2: when the meteorological seasons begin. They begin at the halfway
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  Speaker 2: points between these astronomical points. So all right, why are
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: we talking about all that, Well, because we're we're kind
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: of at one of those right now. We're coming up,
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  Speaker 2: We're coming up, not too terribly far in the future
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  Speaker 2: to the autumnal equinox, and people in the northern latitudes
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: have already begun to notice that it's no longer midnight
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: suntime anymore for much of Alaska and Canada. It is
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: now actually getting dark. And what happens when it gets
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: dark in Canada is that you could probably see some
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: northern light activity, particularly at a time like now when
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: we are near solar maximum. So guess what. On August
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: nineteenth and the next day of the twentieth, the sun
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: shot a giant accelerated solar windstream at the Earth. That
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: kind of event can cause northern lights, and sure enough
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: it did because it actually was getting dark in the
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Great White North and you can see these Aurora borealis phenomenon,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: and people all across the most northern tier of nations
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: happened to capture a lot of great pictures of Aurora
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: borealis in the northern hemisphere, telling us it's a sign
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: of fall, and any sign of fall if you live
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: in the southeast is very welcome because we are tired
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: of it feeling like ninety eight degrees and ninety eight
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: percent humidity every single day. So yeah, we will take
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: these northern lights as a beautiful indicator that fall is
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: returning to the northern hemisphere of planet Earth.
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: Coming up after a quick break, we'll give an update
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: on the interstellar comet we've been talking about over the
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: past few shows.
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: We'll do that next.
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: So it's been about a month since the interstellar comet
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: was discovered, and as it gets closer, obviously they're studying
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: it more. I mean they're they're studying it. I'm sure
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: they're just staring at it right now, aren't They're just
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: one guy just looking through a telescope, going, yeah, there
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: it is, Yeah, look at it. And then somebody went,
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: wait a minute, is the tail in the right spot?
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Somebody said, this comment has its tail on backwards. I
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: wonder if the comment knows somebody should tell it so
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: we could switch its tail around.
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: So how does that work. I think we've had these
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: in the past, though, haven't we comments with tails in
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: the wrong direction?
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: We've had one or two. Yeah. So so here's the thing.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: If it's an interstellar commet, that means it's coming from
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: another solar system that's not our own solar system. So
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: that's only one of three confirmed interstellar objects that we've
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: measured coming through the Solar system in recent years. This
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: one is called Comment three eye slash Atlas, three meaning
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: the number and I meaning interstellar. Therefore the third interstellar
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: object Comment three eye Atlas. All right, so here's what's
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: weird about comet three eye Atlas. It probably is a comet.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: First of all, you have to say, well, is it
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: a comet or is it an asteroid or you know,
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: some of that's more rocky. Clearly, this comet is beginning
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: to melt as it gets close to the Sun. It's
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: actually sublimation that's taking place. And as the comet gets
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: close to the Sun and it begins to shed off
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: some of its material, what normally happens with a comet
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: is that the material coming off is so fine in nature,
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: mostly gas, that the solar wind blows the tail of
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: material out away from the nucleus of that comet in
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: the opposite direction of the sun, in other words, in
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: an antisolar direction. So the Sun is to the right,
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: tail goes off to the left. All right, here's what's weird.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Hubble Space telescope just took a close up shot of
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: three Eye Atlas and there is indeed fuzzy material coming
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: off of the cometary nucleus, and so it's indeed growing
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: a tail. But here's the weird part. The material is
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: not streaming away from the sun. Oh no, it appears
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: to be coming out in the direction of the Sun,
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: and so it's forming a bit of a tail, a
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: little bit of tail growth. But the tales in the
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: wrong direction, pointing toward the Sun instead of away from it.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: What gives? Some might say, I would say that.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: I would I would love to know what gives?
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: Thank you for that question, Wes. You're gonna get extra
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: credit in this in this week's class because you ask
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: the pertinent question what gives?
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: I have nothing if not a kiss up?
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: You know, some people get through college that way. It's
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: just it's just a thing, you know, that's true. It's
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: a survival skill they've adopted all right, so this story,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: by the way, from spaceweather dot com, there's a quote
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: from a researcher named David Jewett from the University of
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: California at Los Angeles, and they are actually studying these
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Hubble space telescope images and say this quote, says David Jewett,
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: it is due to the preferential sublimation of ice on
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: the hot day side of the nucleus and the near
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: absence of sublimation on the night side. Why didn't David
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: put some some acronyms in there. I'm not really sure.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: We could probably make a few up, but I won't.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: I think I saturated the first part of the.
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: Show with them if we exhausted the.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Which is why I didn't say UCLA by the way.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: So anyway, so what's happening, friends, is the side of
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: this comet that's facing the sun is getting more melty
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: than the other side. But the stuff that's coming off
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: is less gassy and more rocky, and that rocky stuff
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: coming off doesn't respond to the solar wind as easily
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: as the gassy stuff, and so therefore it's not blowing
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: back out away from the commet in the direction opposite
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: the Sun. It's kind of just coming off in the
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: direction that it's melting, which is the side facing the sun,
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: and it's creating that anti solar I'm sorry, it's creating
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: a solar face again, not an antisolar tail. And so
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: so now it's it's just because of a hotspot, right, So,
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: as the nucleus of that comet rotates, then there are
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: different hotspots that spring up, but then they also pushed
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: out towards the side. As Wes mentioned earlier, this is
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: not the first time that we've seen these solar facing
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: tails on commets. They are somewhat rare that you have
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: a sun word facing plume, but not completely unheard of.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: And so right now Comet three eye Atlas has a
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: fairly noticeable sunword facing plume and just a little bit
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: of a dwarf antisolar tail, which is what we would
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: consider a normal tail, stringing out behind it. We will
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: continue to watch the strange progression of this visitor from
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: another solar system, Commet three I Atlas with the backward tail.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: All right, we have to do this every now and then.
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: This is all most become like a maintenance thing that
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: we have to do every now and then, where we
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: get these things that pop into our social media feeds
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: and sometimes they're just ridiculous and they don't make any sense,
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: and people will fall for them just because they see
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: it on social media. Fake news. Dare I say it's
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: the old fake news?
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Added, it's certainly clickbait.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: I would I would say that clickbait, yes, But sometimes
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: I think that fake news thing falls into the category
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: of clickbait, because that's that's really what it is. So
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: let's let's talk about moons, because we get this every
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: every month. There's a different name for the moon. No,
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: this is the so and so moon, this is the
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: harvest moon, and sometimes they all make sense and you go, well,
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: this is about the time when a full moon would
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: help people doing late night harvesting or whatever. And then
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: they get moons that are named after you know, colors.
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: We've had pink moons, blue moons, and we all know
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: blue moons are when there's a new Smurf is born.
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: That's what we learned, if nothing else, from the Smurf's
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: animated series. So, uh, now this currently, we're getting the
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: black moon, and let's talk about what is a black moon?
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: What does that mean? Does it mean? And let me
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: just I'm not an expert on the moons. Most of
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: them make some sense, but I'm just it seems to
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: me as we're getting close to the black moon or
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: the black moon's happening, like, I don't know, is there
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: a is there a Halloween connection to that one? I mean,
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: it seems like it would kind of fit in with
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: that maybe.
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna let you talk about the moons.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Well, so thank you for teaming me up on this
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: particular topic. West. You know, I enjoy a good pink
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: moon or blue moon or blood moon or black moon.
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: Whichever one's come in. Lucky charms are my favorite.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's those are? Yeah, those I love. Can we
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: put black moons in lucky charms? I don't think that
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: goes I don't.
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: Know if you can do that anymore. I think that
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: those rules are changing.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: And one of the other things, friends, is you might
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: want to be careful if you web search any of
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: these names with the kiddos sitting next to you. Can
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: I just.
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: Say that's a good point.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: A really going to go web search the phrase pink
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: moon or black moon just.
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: Blood moon might might not be good for anybody. Nobody
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: wants to see that.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Maybe check it out on your own, you know, electronic
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: device before sharing it with the kids, just to make
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: sure you're heading the right direction. Yeah. Can I also
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: tell you, friends that all of these are colloquialisms. In
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: other words, none of them are true astronomical terms. So,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: for all my friends who listen to my podcast, thank
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: you so much for listening to my podcast. We love
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: the audience out there. Thank you for listening. But please
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: stop asking me about So what's this black moon that's happening?
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: Do you know about this blood moon?
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: Maybe they're asking you because they don't want to look
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: it up on Google, and that's smart.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Maybe.
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: Well, okay, so you've got a point there because you're
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: not gonna pull out photos look at that.
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: Huh.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: This is what they're wanting me to do. Is they
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: want me to look it up on Google.
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: This is a blood moon? Look at that? Disgusting?
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: Huh?
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: Tell me what I'm seeing here? I looked up pink
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: moon because tell me what I'm okay. Yeah, So, so
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: the astronomical terms are are kind of specific. When you
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: when the when this thing pops up in your Facebook feed,
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: that says, hey, there's gonna be a blood moon. We
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: call that a lunar eclipse. See here's what happens. The
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Earth gets between the Sun and the moon, and some
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: light gets all bendy around Earth's atmosphere and still hits
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: the moon, but that light is reddened by a process
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: called Raleigh scattering, and therefore the moon looks kind of orange. Now,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: some guy wanted to sell a lot of books, so
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: he made up a term and called it a blood
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: moon back in twenty thirteen. And now ever since he
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: did that, I've been having to try to explain to
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: people what a blood moon is, and I have to
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: tell them it's not an astronomical term, so please call
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: it lunar eclipse and don't look up the term blood
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: moon on Google it in front of small children. Well
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: it's happening again. Friends, you've seen it, you know if
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: you look up any stories on the sky, and I
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: suspect you do. If you're listening to this podcast, you
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: have come across the term black moon. Hey, there's all
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: black moon coming. Oh, the rare black moon event. And
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: I'm thinking, yeah, it's rare. It's so rare that I
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: have no idea what you're even talking about. So I
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: had to Wes. I had to do it. I had
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: to go. Okay, all right, duck, duck go. What is
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: a black moon? Was first used around twenty sixteen, which
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: means it hasn't been around long, that's my point, yeap,
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Which means it's not an accepted astronomical term. It's something
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: that someone made up so that they can put it
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: in your story and get clicks. Right, Oh, a rare
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: black moon. I'll bet you want to know what a
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: black moon is? Okay, So a black moon, as defined
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: by those who define what a black moon is, is
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: either one of two things. It can't even be one thing.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: It has to be one of two things. It's a
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: moon that has a new phase for the second time
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: in a single month, or for the third out of
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: four times in those seasons that Wes and I were
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: just talking about the period of time between say, the
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. So not directly related
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: to Halloween, but there is a little essence of that
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: in there. Based on seasonal The term appears to have
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: some significance to those of Pagan or Wiccan followings. So
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: if you're Pagan or Wickan, apparently you're tracking the number
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: of new moons that occur between astronomical points like the
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: summersaulstice and the autumnal equinox something like that. So so
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: then somebody finds out, oh, you know, there's this term
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: called black moon. It has a meaning an astronomy. It's
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: an astronomy word, black moon. And then they start putting
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: it in the headlines of stories and the next thing
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: you know, your Facebook feed is full of check out
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: the black moon. All right, so can I just say,
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: please stop, friends, just stop, Well said, let's let's let's
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: put these terms back in the crypt out of which
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: they crawled and not use them. So let me say,
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: on September seventh of twenty twenty five, there's going to
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: be a lunar eclipse, not a blood moon. It's a
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: lunary eclipse, and it's gonna not be visible in the
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: United States. And then from August twenty third, twenty second,
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: and twenty third, that night of August twenty second, twenty third,
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: there's going to be the third full moon in a
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: three month seasonal period, which sounds a lot less sexy
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: than black moon, doesn't it. It does, yeah, but that's
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: exactly what it is, and it will not be visible
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: to anyone because you can't see the new moon because
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: there's no light shining on it, which is why it's
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: a new moon. It's in the direction of the sun.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: You can see it when it actually blocks the sun,
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: we call that a solar eclipse. But when you can't
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: see it because it doesn't block the sun, we call
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: it you can't see that.
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: It's the official name.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: That's my official name for it. So stop, people, just stop.
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: Please, yeah, knock it off.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Lunar eclipse, new moon. Thank you. Have a nice day.
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well said. Let's talk about Columbus State University's Coca
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: Cola Space Science Center as you're, you know, coming out
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: of the summer season and into the fall season, and
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: many new moons have their been I'm confused back to
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: school seasons, and I guess that would make two and
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: all of that fun stuff. So yeah, let's talk about
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: what you guys have going on right now as you're
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: getting ready to start welcoming the kids back.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center has been
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: in a major remodeling and renovation period. We have renovations
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: going on on our flight simulators, on our Mars Rover
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: exhibit on two of our classrooms and on our Omosphere theater.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: So if you come and see us today, just accept
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: the dust, friends, because it's kind of messy in here.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: But we're hoping to have all of that cleaned up
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: and ready to go by the second week in September
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: when schools begin to come back for field trips, and
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: that's going to be the school field trip season kicking
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: off just after Labor Day. We're super excited about all
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: the students coming back to see us. They will be
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: coming by the bus loads, which means for everyone else,
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: for everyone else who's not a school student, who's going
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: to come see us on a big cheese wagon parking
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: out in front. For the rest of you, come in
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: the afternoon. Just just plan your trip, come visit us
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: in the afternoon unless you just love to watch school
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: kids and all of their antics and fun that they're having,
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: because they're going to be here from you know, roughly
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: nine to one, so come, you know, come at one pm.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: We're open still from one to four that day, So
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: in fact, we're open from ten am to four pm
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: during the week, but you'll want to come in the
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: latter half of that unless you just love school children,
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: and when you come you'll be like, oh wow. If
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: you come in the afternoon, you'd be like, I have
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: the whole place to myself. It's not entirely true, but
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: our but our seats are a lot more full in
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: our Homisphere theater in the morning than they are in
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: the afternoon, so you get a better chance of picking
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: your favorite seat in our planetarium for our planetarium show.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: So and you will still be able to check out
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: the new flight simulators, the new Mars Rovers, the new
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: two gaming simulate that we have for both rocketbuilding and
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: driving on the service of Mars, and check out the
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: lovely new robotics classroom. Just ask about it. We'll be
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: happy to show you and give you a little tour
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: of that. Come down and see us at the Coca
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: Cola Space Science Center this fall. If you've got a choice,
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: come in the afternoon. We'd love to have you come
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: and see us at Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: Science Center.
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: Sean and I thank you for listening, and we'll do
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: this again next week. Overhead Door Company of Columbus has
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: all of your garage door needs covered, residential and commercial
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: service and repairs. If you need a new garage door,
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: or you're just looking to upgrade or repair your current door,
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  Speaker 4: Overhead Door Company of Columbus has you covered. Plus they've
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  Speaker 4: got your emergency repairs or service covered as well. Seven
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  Speaker 4: oh six three five eight forty five hundred seven oh
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  Speaker 4: six three five eight forty five hundred o DC Columbus
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: dot com. Get ready for dragon Con twenty five Labor
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: Day weekend downtown Atlanta with the dragon Con Pregame Show
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: coming August twenty third and twenty fourth to a radio
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: station near you if you live in the state of
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: Georgia or one of the states near enough to the
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: State of Georgia to pick up a radio signal coming
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: from the network of stations in the State of Georgia
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: that'll be carrying the show, and there are many in
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: Alabama and Tennessee and the Carolinas that'll have a chance
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: to hear it, even down into Florida. Or simply listen
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: to it on the dragon Con Pregame Show podcast wherever
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: you listen to your podcast, yes, where you're listening to
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: this podcast. You can also find past editions of the
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: dragon Con Pregame Show podcast with interviews with William Shatner,
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: other stars from Star Trek, The Walking Dead, the Marvel
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: Cinematic Universe, many animated stars, some of your favorite Disney stars.
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: Chances to hear interviews with them and this year's wagon
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: Conn pregame show will drop to the podcast on August
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: twenty third, and you can hear this year's interviews. It's
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: sponsored by Columbus State Universities Coca Cola Space Science Center,
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: where doctor Sean Cruisin and I often like to discuss
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: the science behind the science fiction and the connections between
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: where science fiction sometimes leads to science science sometimes leads
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: to science fiction. It's just a weird connection that's already there.
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: It's built into it. And I say it's weird, but
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: it's really not. It makes perfect sense. The two go
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: together very well. Learn more about the Coca Cola Space
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: Science Center at CCSSC dot org. Learn more about this
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: year's dragon Con the website, which is DragonCon dot org