Source:
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/452-early-universe-mysteries-galactic-demise-dark-matter-interactions--61704599
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Join Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson in this engaging Q&A episode of Space Nuts, where they tackle intriguing questions from our listeners about the universe, galaxies, the origin of life, and dark matter.
Episode Highlights:
- The Older Universe: Bob from Florida asks about the appearance of galaxies in the older parts of the universe and their spatial relationships over time.
- Galaxies and Black Holes: Shaun from British Columbia inquires if all galaxies will eventually be consumed by their central supermassive black holes.
- Origin of Life on Earth: James from Maine discusses the potential for life on Earth to have begun as far back as 4.1 billion years ago and the implications for finding microbial life elsewhere in our solar system.
- Dark Matter Interactions: Michael from Illinois questions whether dark matter interacts with itself gravitationally.
Chapters:
- 00:00:00 - Space nuts asks you to send us questions and we try to answer them
- 00:02:03 - Bob says galaxies that far away should be closer together with expanding universe
- 00:05:57 - Are all galaxies eventually going to get sucked into their central supermassive black holes
- 00:08:32 - There is tantalising evidence that life may have begun on earth 4.1 billion years ago
- 00:15:25 - Michael: Does dark matter gravitationally interact with itself
For more Space Nuts, including our continually updating newsfeed, visit our website at https://www.spacenutspodcast.com. Follow us on social media at SpaceNutsPod on facebook, X, YouTube Music, and TikTok. We love engaging with our community, so be sure to drop us a message or comment on your favourite platform. For more Space and Astronomy News Podcasts, visit our HQ at https://www.bitesz.com. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts/support. Stay curious, keep looking up, and join us next time for more stellar insights and cosmic wonders. Until then, clear skies and happy stargazing.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 hello once again this is Space Nuts it's
00:00:02 --> 00:00:05 a Q&A Edition you know what that means
00:00:05 --> 00:00:10 uh we ask nothing and you do the rest um
00:00:10 --> 00:00:11 all we ask of you is to send us
00:00:12 --> 00:00:14 questions and you do do that and we try
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 to answer them uh including a question
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 from Bob about the older
00:00:18 --> 00:00:22 Universe uh which Fred remembers uh sha
00:00:22 --> 00:00:24 has a question about galaxies and their
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 demise James is talking about the origin
00:00:27 --> 00:00:30 of life on Earth and Michael uh does
00:00:30 --> 00:00:33 Dark Matter uh interact with itself
00:00:33 --> 00:00:35 those are the questions that we'll be
00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 tackling today on a Q&A edition of Space
00:00:38 --> 00:00:43 Nuts 15 seconds guidance is internal 10
00:00:43 --> 00:00:48 9 ignition sequence start Space Nuts 5 4
00:00:48 --> 00:00:53 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 2 1 Space Nuts as the
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 nuts report it feels good he's back
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 again for more his name is Professor
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 Fred Watson hello Fred hello and his
00:01:01 --> 00:01:04 name is Professor Andrew Dunley oh I
00:01:04 --> 00:01:06 don't think I'll ever get that kind of
00:01:06 --> 00:01:09 title sir Andrew Dunley how's
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 that what Jordy like that yeah no he's
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 barking mad about the idea that's
00:01:15 --> 00:01:18 what is barking mad full stuff I can
00:01:18 --> 00:01:21 tell you yeah oh yes well you know he's
00:01:21 --> 00:01:22 a terrier isn't he all Terriers are
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 barking mad it's well yes don't know
00:01:26 --> 00:01:27 he's he's he's barking mad but he's a
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 poodle a poodle oh well they're of a
00:01:30 --> 00:01:33 similar ilk they are a similar yes he I
00:01:33 --> 00:01:35 think all those kinds of dogs suffer
00:01:36 --> 00:01:38 from small dog syndrome that's what I
00:01:38 --> 00:01:42 think is just angry because they're
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 tiny yes that's just a theory not a dog
00:01:45 --> 00:01:48 person so I don't know um should we try
00:01:49 --> 00:01:51 to answer some questions Fred Oh I
00:01:51 --> 00:01:52 thought we were just G to have a chat
00:01:52 --> 00:01:56 but well we can do that b dogs about
00:01:56 --> 00:01:59 dogs and dogs and cats living together
00:01:59 --> 00:02:00 um
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 or we can answer this question from Bob
00:02:03 --> 00:02:06 gentlemen Karma Bob from Central Florida
00:02:06 --> 00:02:08 and the United States it occurs to me
00:02:08 --> 00:02:11 that as we look back at the older and
00:02:11 --> 00:02:14 older parts of the universe it seems
00:02:14 --> 00:02:17 that the galaxies that far away should
00:02:17 --> 00:02:20 be farther back in time but closer
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 together does that make sense from our
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 perspective this is the surface of a
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 sphere far away and we're at the center
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 of it and yet back then the universe
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 hadn't been expanding as long thank you
00:02:32 --> 00:02:35 very much thank you Bob uh sounds like
00:02:35 --> 00:02:37 it was at the mall I could hear music in
00:02:37 --> 00:02:41 the background um uh I'm not I've
00:02:41 --> 00:02:43 listened to the question a few times I'm
00:02:43 --> 00:02:45 just I'm not quite sure where he's
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 coming from and maybe it's just me but
00:02:47 --> 00:02:50 um what what what's the question about
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 Fred well no no offense Bob I'm not
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 having a crack at you but no no Bob
00:02:54 --> 00:02:58 Bob's right um so what Bob's saying is
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 okay we live uh in a univers
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 30.8 billion years old it's been
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 expanding for the whole of that time and
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 now we have the capability with the
00:03:07 --> 00:03:09 James web telescope and other things
00:03:09 --> 00:03:12 coming on stream before too long uh to
00:03:12 --> 00:03:16 see back probably 13 billion of those
00:03:16 --> 00:03:19 years uh you know we can see very early
00:03:19 --> 00:03:23 galaxies and so uh Bob's comment is okay
00:03:24 --> 00:03:27 the the universe has expanded by a a
00:03:27 --> 00:03:29 large fraction by over that time you
00:03:30 --> 00:03:31 know factors
00:03:31 --> 00:03:34 like 20 something like that 12 to 20
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 thereabouts shouldn't the galaxies look
00:03:37 --> 00:03:42 closer together and they do uh they do
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 but it it's a little bit more
00:03:45 --> 00:03:49 subtle because the way we know they they
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 look closer together wait till you get
00:03:52 --> 00:03:55 this one oh boy if you thought Bob's
00:03:55 --> 00:03:58 comment was strange gets even stranger
00:03:58 --> 00:04:01 the the galaxies actually look bigger uh
00:04:01 --> 00:04:04 with the expanding Universe you look
00:04:04 --> 00:04:08 further back in time and eventually uh I
00:04:08 --> 00:04:09 mean galaxies start to look smaller
00:04:10 --> 00:04:12 smaller as you look out in the distance
00:04:12 --> 00:04:13 you expect that that's the way
00:04:13 --> 00:04:17 everything works in normal space but um
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 the universe isn't normal space it's
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 been expanding and it's got curious
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 properties and you get to a certain
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 point which I don't think we've actually
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27 reached yet I'm not sure that this is uh
00:04:27 --> 00:04:30 something that's been proven
00:04:30 --> 00:04:32 but the theory says that the galaxies
00:04:32 --> 00:04:36 should look bigger uh and that's because
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38 they're closer together so what what
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 what it is is the space between them is
00:04:40 --> 00:04:44 smaller and that means the Galaxy look
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 and it sounds completely cockeyed but
00:04:46 --> 00:04:49 that is what um the relativistic model
00:04:49 --> 00:04:52 of the universe tells you so what's the
00:04:52 --> 00:04:55 answer the answer is Bob's right all
00:04:55 --> 00:04:58 right okay well done
00:04:58 --> 00:05:01 Bob and I was in Florida not that long
00:05:01 --> 00:05:04 ago and it was great yeah I love Florida
00:05:04 --> 00:05:06 we'll be there next year as a matter of
00:05:06 --> 00:05:10 fact lucky you uh I think we go in
00:05:10 --> 00:05:13 March yes although I'm a little bit
00:05:13 --> 00:05:15 confused because we've got we're going
00:05:15 --> 00:05:16 to
00:05:16 --> 00:05:21 Miami via Vancouver oh yeah figure that
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 funnily enough that's what we did that's
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 that's the Long Haul yeah but but we had
00:05:27 --> 00:05:31 a a fortnite in between them oh right
00:05:31 --> 00:05:33 we've done Vancouver so we're just going
00:05:33 --> 00:05:36 to jump off one plane and jump onto the
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 other a lovely city it is beautiful the
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 Vancouver Marathon was on while we were
00:05:41 --> 00:05:45 there oh okay yeah yeah so you had to go
00:05:45 --> 00:05:46 I got to
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49 watch cuz it was just behind our hotel
00:05:49 --> 00:05:51 ah it was lovely and went through the
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 park and had had to look around yeah
00:05:53 --> 00:05:54 beautiful city
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 beautiful um thank you Bob uh for your
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 question our next question comes from
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 sha oh speaking of Canadia he's from
00:06:03 --> 00:06:04 British
00:06:04 --> 00:06:08 Columbia uh all uh question all are all
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 galaxies eventually going to get sucked
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 into their Central super massive black
00:06:14 --> 00:06:18 holes if so then
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 what or then what get the inflection
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 right I think then what is correct then
00:06:23 --> 00:06:26 what as in now
00:06:26 --> 00:06:30 what yeah um no probably not um because
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 black holes um they do suck stuff in but
00:06:34 --> 00:06:36 only if it happens to be kind of lying
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 around yeah and so a black hole compared
00:06:39 --> 00:06:41 with the size of a Galaxy is very very
00:06:41 --> 00:06:44 small uh so I think what will happen in
00:06:44 --> 00:06:48 the longer term is galaxies will lose
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 all their hydrogen fuel because that
00:06:50 --> 00:06:52 will go into making stars stars will
00:06:52 --> 00:06:54 live their lives they'll create heavy
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 elements they'll blow up and either
00:06:56 --> 00:06:58 create black holes or white dwarfs or
00:06:58 --> 00:07:00 neutron stars or of the end products of
00:07:00 --> 00:07:02 Stellar Evolution and eventually they'll
00:07:02 --> 00:07:04 just become dark they'll run out of
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 energy they'll become cold and dark uh
00:07:07 --> 00:07:09 but not necessarily getting sucked into
00:07:09 --> 00:07:11 the super massive black hole uh they may
00:07:12 --> 00:07:13 well just orbit around it and continue
00:07:13 --> 00:07:16 doing that until the Big Rip occurs or
00:07:16 --> 00:07:18 whatever is going to happen to SpaceTime
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 the expanding universe or the ganab Gibb
00:07:21 --> 00:07:24 the ganab Gibb that's
00:07:24 --> 00:07:28 right okay oh that's it is it there us
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 yeah I mean we we see we see galaxies
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 which have been uh which are devoid of
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 their hydrogen fuel we call them
00:07:35 --> 00:07:36 elliptical galaxies because they're
00:07:36 --> 00:07:38 quite different from the spiral galaxies
00:07:38 --> 00:07:40 they're Blobs of stars shaped like a
00:07:40 --> 00:07:44 football elongated quite often uh and uh
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 and they um they don't have any Star
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 formation going on in them not much gas
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 to speak of probably super massive black
00:07:51 --> 00:07:53 hole at the middle but not doing much um
00:07:53 --> 00:07:55 in terms of eating stuff up because it's
00:07:55 --> 00:07:57 all it's eating it all up what's
00:07:57 --> 00:08:00 available and uh it's surrounded by a
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 retinue of stars that it can't touch
00:08:02 --> 00:08:03 because they're too far
00:08:03 --> 00:08:07 away okay very good uh thank you Sean uh
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 this is Space Nuts Andrew Dunley here
00:08:10 --> 00:08:13 with Professor Fred
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 Watson let's take a break from the show
00:08:15 --> 00:08:17 to tell you about our sponsor in cogny
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 and I'll be giving you a special Space
00:08:20 --> 00:08:24 Nuts URL so you can get up to 60% off
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00:08:53 --> 00:08:55 most significantly it greatly reduces
00:08:55 --> 00:08:58 your risk of being scammed and that is
00:08:58 --> 00:09:02 just such a viral thing that's happening
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00:10:07 --> 00:10:10 with incog check out all their plans
00:10:10 --> 00:10:12 today at incog
00:10:12 --> 00:10:18 tocom SPAC nuts now back to the show 3 2
00:10:18 --> 00:10:22 1 Space Nuts and you're listening to a
00:10:22 --> 00:10:26 Q&A Edition and uh yes um we love it
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 when you send us your questions so you
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 can do that via website to give you all
00:10:30 --> 00:10:33 the details at the end of the program uh
00:10:33 --> 00:10:37 our next question Fred comes from James
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 good day gentlemen this is James from
00:10:39 --> 00:10:42 the mountains of Maine I have enjoyed
00:10:42 --> 00:10:45 your podcast since your first episode
00:10:45 --> 00:10:47 please keep doing what you do here is my
00:10:47 --> 00:10:50 question I've been reading recently that
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 there is now tantalizing evidence that
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 life may have begun on Earth as far back
00:10:55 --> 00:10:59 as 4.1 billion years ago I believe this
00:10:59 --> 00:11:01 overlaps with the heavy bombardment
00:11:01 --> 00:11:05 period of our Earth's history if this is
00:11:05 --> 00:11:08 truly the case and we find microbial
00:11:08 --> 00:11:11 life elsewhere in our solar system is it
00:11:11 --> 00:11:14 possible or perhaps even likely that it
00:11:14 --> 00:11:17 originally came from Earth thanks again
00:11:17 --> 00:11:20 for keeping the nerd and me
00:11:20 --> 00:11:23 alive oh our great pleasure James and
00:11:23 --> 00:11:26 thanks for the question the origin of
00:11:26 --> 00:11:28 life on Earth uh there are those that
00:11:28 --> 00:11:33 say it probably um came in from all
00:11:33 --> 00:11:35 sorts of different sources and got mixed
00:11:35 --> 00:11:40 up and voila there we are um yeah it's a
00:11:40 --> 00:11:42 tough one to answer because
00:11:42 --> 00:11:44 um you know we've got evidence of life
00:11:44 --> 00:11:47 on Earth but how on Earth did it
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 actually originate uh it needed the
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 right formula it needed the right
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 environment it needed the right um
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56 substances to mix
00:11:56 --> 00:12:00 with um yeah yeah could it have already
00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 been here get you know ready to flourish
00:12:03 --> 00:12:05 during the early
00:12:05 --> 00:12:10 bombardment good question yeah so so I I
00:12:10 --> 00:12:12 mean um you know
00:12:12 --> 00:12:16 James's uh postulate that maybe life was
00:12:16 --> 00:12:17 in existence on the earth as early as
00:12:17 --> 00:12:20 4.1 billion years I think the the
00:12:20 --> 00:12:22 evidence is still fairly tenuous on that
00:12:23 --> 00:12:25 but certainly 3.8 billion years uh there
00:12:25 --> 00:12:27 are rocks that show evidence that there
00:12:27 --> 00:12:33 was life there so um it is very old now
00:12:33 --> 00:12:37 uh the idea of Life coming to Earth from
00:12:37 --> 00:12:40 elsewhere is called the panspermia
00:12:40 --> 00:12:47 theory um and that is one that is not
00:12:47 --> 00:12:50 generally favored by astrobiologists I
00:12:50 --> 00:12:52 think most astrobiologists think a
00:12:52 --> 00:12:54 little bit as James has suggested that
00:12:54 --> 00:12:57 life formed on the Earth itself because
00:12:57 --> 00:12:58 we had the right conditions and the
00:12:58 --> 00:13:00 right
00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 um Prebiotic chemicals all those
00:13:02 --> 00:13:04 Organics that we've already found out in
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 Space the fats and lipids that you need
00:13:06 --> 00:13:08 to hold cell walls together and all of
00:13:08 --> 00:13:11 that sort of thing uh so maybe life did
00:13:11 --> 00:13:14 kick off on Earth uh if we find it
00:13:14 --> 00:13:19 elsewhere like if for example
00:13:19 --> 00:13:21 perseverance uh on on some of those
00:13:21 --> 00:13:23 little capsules that it's got left on
00:13:23 --> 00:13:25 the planet's surface on Mars uh if
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 bringing some of those back found that
00:13:27 --> 00:13:29 yes there is life
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 uh living organisms in there or even
00:13:32 --> 00:13:34 fossilized ones uh if we could somehow
00:13:34 --> 00:13:36 sequence the DNA of those and found that
00:13:36 --> 00:13:40 it had um factors in common with life on
00:13:40 --> 00:13:43 Earth yeah then you could be pretty sure
00:13:43 --> 00:13:44 that that's what's happened that the
00:13:44 --> 00:13:46 late heavy bombardment has stirred
00:13:46 --> 00:13:48 things up enough uh that you've got life
00:13:48 --> 00:13:51 spreading throughout the solar system uh
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53 and and it we're not at a stage in the
00:13:54 --> 00:13:55 history of our exploration of the solar
00:13:55 --> 00:13:59 system that we can yet say that uh with
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 still got a long way to go uh but it is
00:14:01 --> 00:14:04 possible uh that that might turn out to
00:14:04 --> 00:14:06 be the case so it's not impossible James
00:14:06 --> 00:14:09 it's a good suggestion yeah I just want
00:14:09 --> 00:14:12 to follow up on his um suggestion that
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 life could have been in existence 4.1
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 billion years ago and you're saying well
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 no probably not that far back but 3.8
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 3.7 it doesn't sound like that's a big
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 gap but I suppose it realistically is in
00:14:25 --> 00:14:27 terms of the development of Life 300
00:14:27 --> 00:14:29 million years yeah well not no you're
00:14:29 --> 00:14:34 right because uh life didn't do much uh
00:14:34 --> 00:14:36 until only about still
00:14:36 --> 00:14:38 doesn't well you know in terms of
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 evolution oh
00:14:40 --> 00:14:43 right it didn't do much until about 700
00:14:43 --> 00:14:44 million years ago when we started
00:14:44 --> 00:14:47 getting all these multicell organisms so
00:14:47 --> 00:14:50 you've got this huge gap uh you know
00:14:50 --> 00:14:52 more than three billion years where all
00:14:52 --> 00:14:55 you had was single cell slime probably
00:14:55 --> 00:15:01 just slime uh and so
00:15:01 --> 00:15:05 um if we if yes 3.8 billion year old
00:15:05 --> 00:15:08 slime and 4.1 billion year old slime
00:15:08 --> 00:15:10 might not be very different if I can put
00:15:10 --> 00:15:14 it that way um so but but you um you
00:15:14 --> 00:15:17 know James's point is correct that
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 that's the period when the late heavy
00:15:19 --> 00:15:23 bombardment was was in full swing uh
00:15:23 --> 00:15:24 things were charging about all over the
00:15:24 --> 00:15:26 solar system we think it's when the most
00:15:26 --> 00:15:29 of the big um Mario the moon were
00:15:29 --> 00:15:32 created and the 8kin South Pole Basin
00:15:32 --> 00:15:34 that biggest of all impact craters that
00:15:34 --> 00:15:36 we know about in the solar system so it
00:15:36 --> 00:15:38 was a Wild and Woolly place and it may
00:15:38 --> 00:15:41 well be that debris spread into space
00:15:41 --> 00:15:44 carrying microbes may have evolved into
00:15:44 --> 00:15:48 other things on mars or even Venus you
00:15:48 --> 00:15:49 know Venus May well have had a very
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51 different climate back
00:15:51 --> 00:15:54 then yeah well we've spoken in the past
00:15:54 --> 00:15:57 about the fact that um scientifically
00:15:57 --> 00:16:00 they've suggested that at one stage
00:16:00 --> 00:16:02 there were three livable planets in the
00:16:03 --> 00:16:06 solar system yes uh Venus Earth and Mars
00:16:06 --> 00:16:10 so um yeah that's a possibility uh and
00:16:10 --> 00:16:13 as you say the interesting thing will be
00:16:13 --> 00:16:16 if if perseverance finds evidence of
00:16:16 --> 00:16:20 past life on mars or we find evidence of
00:16:20 --> 00:16:22 Life somewhere else in the solar system
00:16:22 --> 00:16:25 maybe beneath the surface of the some of
00:16:25 --> 00:16:29 the ice moons and we can do a DNA test
00:16:29 --> 00:16:32 and find out who it's related to uh
00:16:32 --> 00:16:34 that's right and and the the big
00:16:34 --> 00:16:37 revelation will be yes it's the same as
00:16:37 --> 00:16:39 life on Earth it's come from the same
00:16:39 --> 00:16:43 Source or it's completely different
00:16:43 --> 00:16:44 that's right and that that's the big
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 question and and if it's completely
00:16:46 --> 00:16:49 different you could probably assume that
00:16:49 --> 00:16:51 it's fairly common throughout the
00:16:51 --> 00:16:54 Universe uh because you've got you know
00:16:54 --> 00:16:57 widely different circumstances in which
00:16:57 --> 00:16:59 life might have taken hold in solar
00:16:59 --> 00:17:01 system and if it's completely different
00:17:01 --> 00:17:03 then that's that'll lead you to the
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 conclusion that it might form everywhere
00:17:05 --> 00:17:08 almost yeah well wouldn't that be
00:17:08 --> 00:17:12 something um we just got to find it
00:17:12 --> 00:17:13 that's just got to get out there and
00:17:13 --> 00:17:16 find it yeah we do indeed thank you
00:17:16 --> 00:17:19 James great question uh love those early
00:17:19 --> 00:17:21 life questions and we've got one more
00:17:21 --> 00:17:24 question to tackle today from uh Michael
00:17:25 --> 00:17:26 who lives in
00:17:26 --> 00:17:29 Illinois uh I've just now listened to
00:17:29 --> 00:17:32 the Dark Matter story in the most recent
00:17:32 --> 00:17:33 podcast which is no longer the most
00:17:33 --> 00:17:36 recent podcast uh naturally I'm now
00:17:36 --> 00:17:39 prompted to ask yet another Dark Matter
00:17:39 --> 00:17:41 question does Dark Matter gravit
00:17:42 --> 00:17:45 gravitationally interact with itself as
00:17:45 --> 00:17:47 always your best uh Michael thanks
00:17:47 --> 00:17:51 Michael um we don't often get dark
00:17:51 --> 00:17:54 matter questions so thanks for
00:17:54 --> 00:17:56 that
00:17:56 --> 00:18:01 um that's right so um I I'm looking now
00:18:01 --> 00:18:02 at a
00:18:02 --> 00:18:06 article uh when was it published uh June
00:18:06 --> 00:18:09 0.1 billion years ago no yeah so so the
00:18:09 --> 00:18:13 model that we have uh of Dark Matter
00:18:13 --> 00:18:16 this is the standard model and and dark
00:18:16 --> 00:18:17 matter we don't know what it is so you
00:18:17 --> 00:18:20 know you're always working in the dark
00:18:20 --> 00:18:23 here if I could put it that way um light
00:18:23 --> 00:18:26 dark photons weekly interactive ma
00:18:26 --> 00:18:29 interacting massive particles primordial
00:18:29 --> 00:18:32 black holes all of those things uh but
00:18:32 --> 00:18:38 the model that we have of the basically
00:18:38 --> 00:18:40 the the the the you know the way the
00:18:40 --> 00:18:42 building blocks of of matter
00:18:42 --> 00:18:47 work um the model suggests that whatever
00:18:47 --> 00:18:51 it is dark matter doesn't interact with
00:18:51 --> 00:18:54 itself uh and and because it can only
00:18:54 --> 00:18:58 interact with gravity but not in itself
00:18:58 --> 00:19:02 but the article I'm looking at uh is
00:19:02 --> 00:19:05 from a paper set of papers I'm not going
00:19:05 --> 00:19:07 to go through it in detail but you can
00:19:07 --> 00:19:10 find it on Universe today it is called
00:19:10 --> 00:19:12 evidence of Dark Matter interacting with
00:19:12 --> 00:19:17 itself in elgordo merger El Gordo is uh
00:19:17 --> 00:19:18 is the name of a galaxy cluster if I
00:19:18 --> 00:19:22 remember rightly and it's one merging
00:19:22 --> 00:19:25 with another one and so uh there is some
00:19:25 --> 00:19:29 evidence of Dark Matter interacting with
00:19:29 --> 00:19:32 itself from that um that that Galaxy
00:19:32 --> 00:19:34 cler and it comes from gravitational
00:19:34 --> 00:19:35 lensing you can plot where the dark
00:19:35 --> 00:19:37 matter is by looking at the
00:19:37 --> 00:19:40 gravitational lensing so the answer uh
00:19:40 --> 00:19:42 yesterday would have been no it doesn't
00:19:42 --> 00:19:43 interact with itself but since I saw
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 this article today it's well maybe it
00:19:46 --> 00:19:49 does okay and then and what would that
00:19:49 --> 00:19:51 interaction
00:19:51 --> 00:19:54 entail uh basically it means well the
00:19:54 --> 00:19:58 the way that they uh have uh drawn that
00:19:58 --> 00:19:59 conclusion
00:19:59 --> 00:20:00 is that when you plot where the dark
00:20:00 --> 00:20:03 matter is in these two Galaxy clusters
00:20:03 --> 00:20:06 normally what we see and there are a
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08 number of examples of this you you can
00:20:08 --> 00:20:09 you can look at Galaxy clusters that are
00:20:09 --> 00:20:12 emerging they're colliding you can see
00:20:12 --> 00:20:15 that the stars and the gas all pile up
00:20:15 --> 00:20:18 into central region but the dark matter
00:20:18 --> 00:20:19 just keeps on going as though nothing
00:20:19 --> 00:20:22 had happened yeah uh we see that but
00:20:22 --> 00:20:24 there is some evidence in this
00:20:24 --> 00:20:28 particular one that shows some sort of
00:20:28 --> 00:20:30 stream between the two blobs of Dark
00:20:30 --> 00:20:32 Matter associated with these two
00:20:32 --> 00:20:35 clusters colliding and that's that's
00:20:35 --> 00:20:37 what uh it has led to this suggestion
00:20:37 --> 00:20:40 that perhaps dark M does interact with
00:20:40 --> 00:20:42 itself I'm not sure whether this might
00:20:42 --> 00:20:45 be a story we covered actually Andrew um
00:20:45 --> 00:20:48 it was uh not very long ago as I've said
00:20:48 --> 00:20:51 last June uh we perhaps should put it on
00:20:51 --> 00:20:53 the agenda to talk about in a little bit
00:20:53 --> 00:20:58 more detail Pro possibly so yes um I'm
00:20:58 --> 00:21:00 yeah there's there's that much research
00:21:00 --> 00:21:03 going into this kind of thing there's
00:21:03 --> 00:21:04 always something to talk about when it
00:21:04 --> 00:21:07 comes to dark matter and uh always a
00:21:07 --> 00:21:09 question or two to answer we get the
00:21:09 --> 00:21:11 occasional one ourselves um thank you
00:21:11 --> 00:21:14 Michael um but the answer is possibly
00:21:14 --> 00:21:16 yes at this
00:21:16 --> 00:21:20 stage um so the answers today went yes
00:21:20 --> 00:21:21 um
00:21:21 --> 00:21:26 no not likely and yes that's right I
00:21:26 --> 00:21:29 think yeah PR good yeah half yes this is
00:21:29 --> 00:21:31 not bad would have been a much shorter
00:21:31 --> 00:21:35 episode if I just went yes no yes maybe
00:21:35 --> 00:21:38 not you know done would been over in a
00:21:38 --> 00:21:40 minute yeah could have done yeah yeah
00:21:40 --> 00:21:42 wouldn't have helped much uh thanks
00:21:42 --> 00:21:44 Michael great to hear from you if you've
00:21:44 --> 00:21:46 got a question for us go to our website
00:21:46 --> 00:21:47 because that's where you can send it
00:21:47 --> 00:21:51 through space nuts podcast.com SPAC nuts
00:21:51 --> 00:21:53 up the top there's a little tab that
00:21:53 --> 00:21:56 says AMA and you click on that and you
00:21:56 --> 00:22:00 can uh submit a text question or you can
00:22:00 --> 00:22:02 record if you've got a device with a
00:22:02 --> 00:22:05 microphone wham bam thank you ma'am uh
00:22:05 --> 00:22:07 you can record a question straight onto
00:22:07 --> 00:22:09 our website and send it through to us
00:22:09 --> 00:22:11 don't forget to tell tell us who you are
00:22:11 --> 00:22:12 and where you're from and I haven't
00:22:12 --> 00:22:14 mentioned this in a while but uh if you
00:22:14 --> 00:22:17 are listening to us through whatever
00:22:17 --> 00:22:20 platform please leave a review uh
00:22:20 --> 00:22:22 reviews are very helpful um you know if
00:22:22 --> 00:22:24 the if it's only got one star well we
00:22:24 --> 00:22:27 know we're got to lift our game um if
00:22:27 --> 00:22:29 it's got a few that's great if it's got
00:22:29 --> 00:22:33 five um thanks for lying but uh it's
00:22:33 --> 00:22:37 it's all good uh we um yeah we we value
00:22:37 --> 00:22:39 your reviews greatly uh they help us to
00:22:39 --> 00:22:42 be found uh so do that as well if you
00:22:42 --> 00:22:45 will uh Fred we're done thank you very
00:22:45 --> 00:22:48 much um it's a pleasure thank you Andrew
00:22:48 --> 00:22:51 and we'll talk soon we will indeed
00:22:51 --> 00:22:52 Professor Fred Watson astronomer at
00:22:52 --> 00:22:55 large and here in the studio uh I don't
00:22:55 --> 00:22:58 think he's surfaced today so one star
00:22:58 --> 00:23:01 one star for you here and from me Andrew
00:23:01 --> 00:23:02 Dunley thanks for listening we'll see
00:23:02 --> 00:23:05 you next time on another edition of
00:23:05 --> 00:23:06 Space Nuts
00:23:07 --> 00:23:09 bye-bye you been listening to the Space
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