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#440: Earth Swap Hypotheticals & Europa Clipper Countdown · Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights & Cosmic Discoveries

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi there, Thanks for joining us on this a Q
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and A edition of Space Nuts. Andrew Dunkley here and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: coming up we'll be answering questions about Earth changing places
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: with another planet in our Solar system, just a hypothetical.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: We love hypotheticals. We're also going to talk about the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Europa Clipper mission and what it's all about, because it's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: getting close to launch time and well Brady and his
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: son want to know all about it. We're also going
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to talk about proto planets and why they don't turn
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: into stars. And Martin has sent us a very unusual
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: question indeed, and it involves Mars, but it's the production
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: that went into the question that we're so well, we.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Just want to share it with you.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: That's coming up on this edition of Space Nuts.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Fifteen in Channel ten nine Ignition.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Space Nutsie or.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Three two Space Nurse than I report it.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Neil Wood here is again to solve all of these puzzles,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: as sent in by Space and Arts listeners. Professor Fred
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: what's an astronomer at large?
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: Hi?
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Fred? I'm not sure about the soulf word. I think
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: contemplate is a better word to contemplate Peru's I love
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: that word.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, well we might as well just go straight into it.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: And our first question today comes from Carrick.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: I think, hello Andrew and besa Fred Watson. This is
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: Carrick cooling in from Loganay and Zealands. Why is that
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: a quick question in terms of a episode I was
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: recently listening to about the Moon being titally locked to
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: pre made had a bit of a hypothetical question if
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: we were to replace or somehow we're able to get
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: the Earth to replace.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: A position with.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: Venus or even mercury, I would assume that eventually the
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: Earth would become tightly locked with the Sun of sorts. Now,
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: if that was to occur, or even if that wasn't
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: to occur, what would happen with our atmosphere or with
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: our oceans? Would they be slowly sucked off of the
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: Earth and eventually we no longer have any liquid water
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: on the Earth, or would the Earth essentially boil to
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: the point where that would happen, you know, the water
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: would boil off before the water was sucked off essentially.
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: Just had a bit of a curiosity in relation to
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: that as a bit of a hypothetical question. Otherwise, hope
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: you have a lovely day or night wherever you are
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: and give up a good work.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Thanks Kerk.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: We're in Australia, mate, so we're We're not far away,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: We're just across the ditch. So I think, Keric, you're
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: going to be horribly disappointed with what will happen because
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: we are exactly where we need to be.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: At the moment.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Any closer. I don't want to think about it.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: What do you reckon for it? Well, yeah, that's right, yes,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: I mean you're right, Andrew the moving Exchanging places with
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: either of the inner planets would not be a good
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: outcome because our atmosphere is so delicately poised to be
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: appropriate for living organisms at our distance from the Sun,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: so you change that. But it's an interesting thought about
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: tidal locking, and mercury and Venus are kind of quasi
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: tidally locked to the Sun. They're not like the moon
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: is where it simply faces one side to the Earth.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: That's the real tidal locking. But they've got very peculiar
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: rotation properties which are due to basically resonances of this kind,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: which is what unlocking, how the process works. So and
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: of course they're both very different worlds from the Earth
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Venus with this horribly thick atmosphere kind of ninety times
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: the pressure on Earth and horrible temperature once it four
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: hundred and sixty degrees celsius something like that. You can
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: imagine that swapping places with Venus, because Venus and the
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Earth might have at some stage been very similar planets.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Not now, hence the name the Sodly System, which is
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: the name we usually give to Venus.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: So it reminds me some time ago we did talk
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: about Venus and Mars and Earth all at one stage
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: possibly being livable planets.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in the history and yeah, but so you know,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Venus has interesting attributes. Is highly volcanic. It's probably has
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: water vapor in its atmosphere, but it's well vaporized. It's
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: way above boiling point. The atmosphere of Venus is perhaps
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: the most interesting bit because there are heights above the
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: surface of Venus where the temperature is sort of earth like.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: It's fifteen degrees celsius, so except it's now seventeen degrees
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: celsius average temperature certainly on one day two days last week.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: But the bottom line is that the Venus's atmosphere, it's
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: not the really the bottom line. It's the top line
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: because that's a place where life may have formed. And
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: we've had a few interesting false alarms recently about the
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: prospects Biomarchus being discovered in Venus' atmosphere. There's nothing certain.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: It's probably not the case, but that would be your
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: best bet if you were on a planet that was
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: you know, if you'd evolved on a planet like Venus,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: your best bet would have been to evolve as an
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: aerial organism in the atmosphere. And so I think swapping
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: the Earth around, you know, we'd be in big trouble.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: The Earth, the assertions will be will be lost, they'd
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: be vaporiyed. The atmosphere would not be in good shape.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: You probably have a long the way greenhouse effect like
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Venus has got, and it would be nice at all.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, Venus and Earth are around about the
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: same size. The other stark difference, I suppose is that
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Venus rotates in the wrong direction, doesn't it.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: That's that sort of resonance that I was talking about.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: It may maybe maybe it was clouded by something else
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: in the early history of the Solar System, but it
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: also may just be a phenomenon connected with tidal locking
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: where you're slowing down the rotation. It's a very slow rotation.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: As you said, it's in the wrong direction.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so, Carrick, not a good idea. Everything you theorized
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: is probably what would happen. Yeah, the oceans would vaporize,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: runaway greenhouse effect. Dogs and cats living together, it just
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be wouldn't be very nice at all. In fact,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I think dogs and cats are living together on Earth already.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: They're sort of doing this household, but it's generally a
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: continuous standoff on the frame.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Thanks Kerk, lovely to hear from you, and our next
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: question comes from Brady. Hello from the great state of Florida.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: As we get closer to the Europa Clipper mission, I
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: wanted to learn more about it, like how it will
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: be searching for conditions that could create life. Also how
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: long it will take to get there and how long
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: until we start getting data. I can't wait to watch
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the launch in person. I may make the one and
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: a half hour drive to be at Titusville.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: Keep up the.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Great work and never quit the dad jokes, Brady. Thank you, Brady,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: at least someone appreciates them. You wrote a clipper. Yeah,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: we are not getting far away from a launch. I
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: think it's slated for October. The tenth of October twenty
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: twenty four is the launch window it is, indeed, So yeah,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: we're definitely getting ready for that one. And it's exciting
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: because its primary goal is to search for the signs
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: of life.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: That's that's right, And just to answer a lot of
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Brady's questions, it will go into or a Jukiter planned
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: anyway on the eleventh of April twenty thirty, so we've
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: got a six year rather less than six year journey.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: It's it's going to be a Falcon Heavy that will
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: launch it, by the way as well. Oh wow, yeah,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: it's interesting stuff. Now the question about what it's going
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: to do is well, rather a lot. It's actually one
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: of the biggest planetary exploration spacecraft that's ever been launched.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: It's a very sizable piece of kit, a launch mass
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: of about six tons thereabouts. It's full of instruments which
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: are all designed to look at the surface of Europa
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: in great detail and to probe beneath the surface as well.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: So it's really as you said, Andrew, its main goals
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: are to investigate the habitability of Europa, whether there could
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: be life there not whether there is life there, it
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: could be life there, and look for landing sites and
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: so you know, it's it's that's one of them that
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: will be done from all of it. Of course, it's
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: going to sense whether there is liquid water there, which
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: we believe there is underneath the surface, what the chemistry
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: of the of the materials that we find on Europa
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: is all about, and what the you know, energy requirements
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: are for for any chemical reactions to take place. So
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: just just quoting from from this actually from the Wikipedia
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: page on Europa. The objectives are, it says, to study
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: first of all the ice shall and ocean, confirm the
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: existence and characterize the nature of water within underneath the
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: ice and processes of sub ice ocean exchange. That's an
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: interesting one, how you know, material exchanges between the ocean
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: itself and the and the ice the underneath of the
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: ice layer, composition, distribution and chemistry, key compounds and the
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: links to ocean composition. The geology, the characteristics and formation
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: of surface features, including the sites of recent or current activity,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: is their tectonic activity in the ice layers of Europa,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: and so you know, the instrumentation for doing that. I
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: think there is something like eleven different it's actually nine
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: different instruments that will study Europe as interior and ocean
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: and the geology and the chemistry and habitability the things
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: we've just described there.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I think that's a saxophone trumpet.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: As long as there's a guitar on board, I'm quite happy. Yeah.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: So look, just running down the list, Thermal imaging systems, mapping, imaging, spectrometer,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: that's very much. It's what's called hyperspectroscopy. Very much the
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: stock in trainin of of you know, remote sensing from orbit,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: various imaging systems, and ultraviolet spectrograph. There's radar. This is
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: something that I like, especially the acronym. The acronym is
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: reason r E as r N and it's the radar
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: for Europe assessment and sounding ocean to near surface. There
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: you go, very nicely done. Interior characterization of Europe. Are
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: using magnetroumetry. Another nice acronym ice mag two. You know,
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: there'll be magnetometism board that will sense the magnetic field
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: of Europe and that believed it or not is one
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: of the key indicators of whether there's an ocean there
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: and whether it's water and other plasma instruments, plasma instrument
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: for magnetic sounding, mass spectrometer for planetary exploration, surface dust analyzer,
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: gravity and radio science. These are using the radio anten
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: to do other experiments to learn about how the spacecraft
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: moves within Europa's gravitational field. It's going to have forty
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: five flybys of Europa and we will no doubt learn
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: a lot beyond twenty thirty. So I'm very interested, and
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: I'm delighted that Brady might be able to watch the launch,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: you know, if he does call in and tell us.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, jealous. We don't get to see many of them
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: out of this country, but in some parts of the
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: world it's yeah, you can get along and.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: Watch them fairly regularly these days in Florida. That's right.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, this is going to be an exciting mission
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: for all of those reasons. And how quickly will it be,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Like it'll take betwenty five and six years to get there,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: I guess once it gets into orbit and gets itself organized,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: and it's going to come in at a fairly close
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: altitude at times sixteen miles twenty five kilometers, how fast
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: will it be able to start sending us telemetry.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: I think we'll get that from the word go. We'll
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: start very very quickly. I think you know, from the
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: orbit and perhaps from some of the magnetometry. I think
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: these will all show up for interesting results quickly. So yeah,
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: there might be really really spectacular things coming from so Europe.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, very good, thanks Brady. Great to hear from you.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: This is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and Professor Freed Watson.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break from the show to tell
• 14:32
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• 16:03
  Speaker 1: the show. Okay, we take being with the girl space nuts. Okay,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: another text question and it comes from Matthew. Hey, guys,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: First of all, I'm a power line worker, so my
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: knowledge is very minimal. I don't know why, but I
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: was lamely explaining the nebular hypothesis to my eleven year
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: old son. But when I got to proto planets, he
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: asked me an interesting question. He asked why don't the
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: proto planets become stars themselves. I did a bit of
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: digging and I think I came down to it came
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: down to a lack of mass and fuel to achieve
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: nuclear fission fusion.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: Is this correct?
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: And are you able to explain this in more detail?
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Thanks and appreciate everything you guys do. Matthew Raisin, Thanks Matthew.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I was doing a bit of reading on this thread
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: and proto planetary disc. One article I read said oh,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: just theoretical. We don't really know what they are or
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: even if they exist. I thought a minute, what, But yeah,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: it does open up the question, doesn't it.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: Yes, but there you've only to look at what the
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Alder telescope array in the Atta Kama has done. It's
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: imaged many many protoplanetary discs. Then they're definitely a reality.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: We can even see planets forming inside them. So I
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: think that article might have been very old or possibly so. Yeah,
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: so so the I mean, the protoplanetary disc is the
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: swirling disc of gas and dust which is in orbit
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: around a new, newly born star. So the star has collapsed,
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: its gas content has collapsed to form basically a massive
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: a massive compact object. The creature has gone up enough,
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: the nuclear fusion has started, and the radiation pressure of
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: that nuclear fusion stops further collapse until you've got effectively
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: a star. That's what keeps the Sun going. It's that
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: balance between gravity and radiation. The bottom line, I mean,
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Matthew is absolutely correct. The bottom line is that the
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: stuff in the protoplanetary disc has you know, a tiny,
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: tiny mass compared with the mass of the star itself,
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: and it's far too small to get to temperatures for
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: its gravity to collapse things to temperature and course temperatures
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: that enough for nuclear fusion. It's just not massive enough.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: There's not enough energy until you get cool planets for
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: me by accretion. They stick together by their mutual gravity,
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: and that basically is the story. The remain dust and
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: gas that isn't isn't used in that process. Some of
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: it's blown away by winds from the star, some of
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: it the gas. Some of the gas goes towards the
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: envelopes of gas giant planets like Juply and we've got some. Yeah,
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: so we've got a sort of stable solar system like
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: our own. I think Matthew's got it. Got it in one.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: It's the protoplanets are not are not big enough. There's
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: there's an intermediate stage, by the way, called planets wolves
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: planetism waves are things, you know, a few hundred meters across,
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: and they group together to build protoplanets, which then group
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: together to build planets. So it's a hierarchy process.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Do gas giants form in these proto planetary discs, and
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: if so, I mean they are just a step short
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: of becoming a brown dwarf, which is, you know, a
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: failed star.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: I suppose you could say that's correct. Yes, so they do.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: They form in the protocolantry discs. But the process that
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: keeps a brown dwarf hot is not nuclear fusion. It's
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: it's a fission process. It's called deuterium burning. And so
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: it's that these are not they counted the stars because
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: there is nuclear processes going on in the interior, but
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: it's not the conventional nuclear fusion that runs a runs
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: a star. And they by definition, they've got to be
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: more than thirteen times the massive Jupiter. So something thirteen
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: times Jupiter's mass will turn into a brown dwarf. You're
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: quite right, but it's not a stark. But you're quite right.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: You've you've essentially pinpointed one aspect of Matthew's question that
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: I missed, so well done.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Didn't didn't meant to just my head as we're going along.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: I don't know that any brown dwarfs are known in
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: orbits around a big star. In fact, we were talking
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: in the last episode about the what was it eater
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: in the a The eater in this system actually contains
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: two brown dwarfs. It's a triplet system with a red
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: dwarf and two brown dwarfs. So that's near as you
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: get to brown dwarfs being in orbits around around the start.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Fair enough, all right, there you go, Matthew, you spot on,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: and you can tell your son that what you told
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: him was correct. Now a final question comes from a
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: regular who always asks us some interesting questions, but this
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: time he's taken it to a whole new level.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Who knows what question?
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: Election in corfar low space knots and years. My last question,
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: Mars is primeorgial atmosphere if it were sort of comparable
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: to the thickness of Earth's press day atmosphere, roughly how
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: long would it have taken to leak away into outer space?
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: And might any intelligent creatures there have noticed it happening
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: in real time as it were with in their lifetimes.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Oh and excellent job.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: Doctor Watson concealing the whereabouts of the planet Falcon, which
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: of course is hidden within a planetary cooking device since
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: the unfortunate shoots Charleston eighteenth Discovery.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Wow, Martin, he's changed. He's set a new level. I
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: don't know if it's up or down, but he's set
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: a whole new level for audio questions. So who knows
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: what we're going to get next. But thank you Martin,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and well done on the production.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: That's there was a lot of work went into that.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: What was he wanted?
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: What do you want to know? Atmosphere?
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: If it's some stage It was similar to worth, how
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: long did it take to eke away vanish? Well it's
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: not vanished completely though, hasn't.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: No, that's right, but it's very very small. Look it's
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: the answer is, of course it depends, but in this
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: particular Okase, I think we can say it's over millions
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: of years. So you've got a process that is a
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: leakage of the atmosphere, and there is actually a spacecraft
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: that's investigating that Marven or Mayven Mars Atmosphere and Volatile
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: Evolution Mission, which is still active. It's a NASSA mission
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: looking at the leakage of gas from Mars's atmosphere. So
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: we know that the sort of rate that that's going
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: on now, and so it means you're talking about millions,
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: if not billions of years for that leakage to take place.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: It's the main cause is well, first of all, Mars
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: is not massive enough to hold on to an atmosphere permanently,
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: and you don't have a magnetic field. That means the
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: radiation from the Sun is you know, it reaches the surface,
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: it can essentially damage the atmosphere and so basically you've
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: got this stripping off the atmosphere by the effect of
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: the Sun and the lack of gravity. Already bleak. Really, yes,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: it's bleak. So if there were species on Mars, would
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: they notice, Yeah, probably, you know, millions of years would
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: take will be a slow process, but they kind of
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: realized because they'd have artifacts from the previous eras that
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: things were changing. And so what they might have done
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: is custod eye on the next planet towards the Sun.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: And so that looks like a better bet and headed
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: that way.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's probably why we're here for it.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: It could be why we're here. Yeah.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: I think that was portrayed in a movie once, that
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: we were actually seeded here by Martians who left the
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: planet because it was well, it was dying because I
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: got hit by an asteroid.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: But yeah, good.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: What was that red planet? I think it was called
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Mission to Mars. I can't remember which. They both came
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: out around the same time, but both great films.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Did we finish.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Answering Martin's question, yes, it would happen over millions of years,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: and yes, people probably if they were there, would have
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: noticed and ye had taken off for Earth if they're good,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: which we might have to do one day, are still around, If.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: We're still around, we might.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: That's correct, and I dare say that by then we
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: may well have the technology to do so, who knows. Yes,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Thank you Martin, great question, and again congratulations on the production.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: One more thing, Fred before we go. A joke from
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Misty West, one of our regular listeners and one of
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: our administrators on Facebook, eating too much cake is the
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: sin of gluttony. However, eating too much pie is okay
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: because the sin of pie is always zero. That's clever, Yes,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: too clever for me.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you, mistery Fred.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: We're all done again, Thank you, sir.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: It's a pleasure. So I'm just sick about mister thank you.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: That's very clever. Thank you, Thank you, Andrew. And we'll
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: see you next week.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: I'm sure we will, indeed, Professor Fread Watson unless yeah,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: we'll keep an eye on that. Martin will tell us
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: and we'll see you. So, Fred Watson, Astronomer at Large.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: And don't forget to visit our website if you haven't
• 27:16
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• 27:20
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• 27:23
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• 27:26
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• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Thanks to here in the studio as always and from
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: me Andrew Dunkley. See you on the very next episode
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: of Space Nuts. Until then, bye bye.
• 27:55
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