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
00:08:24 --> 00:08:28 incog but first what's incog all about
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 uh it's a way of cleaning up your online
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00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 just via a hacker who's trying to fleece
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 you or other people it's also a great
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 way to reduce spam emails and spam phone
00:08:47 --> 00:08:50 calls reduce the risk of identity theft
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 which is Big Business these days I think
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
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 around the world at the moment so how
00:09:04 --> 00:09:08 does all this work well it's simple all
00:09:08 --> 00:09:10 you have to do is sign up to incog give
00:09:10 --> 00:09:12 them permission to act on your behalf
00:09:12 --> 00:09:14 and they'll do the rest they'll troll
00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 the internet and remove your personal
00:09:16 --> 00:09:19 information from the web the stuff that
00:09:19 --> 00:09:21 can be found on search engines public
00:09:21 --> 00:09:25 websites even private data basis it's
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 all easily accessible and let's face it
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29 are you really going to be able to clean
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 up the entire worldwide web of your
00:09:31 --> 00:09:33 personal information by
00:09:33 --> 00:09:37 yourself right now incog is offering a
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 significant discount for Space Nuts
00:09:39 --> 00:09:42 listeners up to 60% off and that comes
00:09:42 --> 00:09:46 with a 30-day money back guarantee just
00:09:46 --> 00:09:49 go to incog
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00:09:55 --> 00:09:59 docomo to find out more and they have
00:09:59 --> 00:10:01 special prices for students and
00:10:01 --> 00:10:03 graduates as well make your personal
00:10:03 --> 00:10:06 information much harder to find online
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
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