00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 all right let's rock and roll Welcome to
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 another episode of Space Nuts I am your
00:00:06 --> 00:00:09 host Heidi Combo today filling in for
00:00:09 --> 00:00:11 Andrew Dunley and I'm here with
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 Professor Watson astronomer at
00:00:14 --> 00:00:18 large Professor Fred Watson Actually I
00:00:18 --> 00:00:21 just say Watson If I just say Watson it
00:00:22 --> 00:00:23 makes it sound like this is a mystery
00:00:23 --> 00:00:25 podcast and not a space podcast Yeah
00:00:25 --> 00:00:30 that's right Elementary my dear Watson
00:00:30 --> 00:00:32 All right Well speaking of mysteries we
00:00:32 --> 00:00:34 have a lot of really good questions with
00:00:34 --> 00:00:38 mysteries for you to solve today And our
00:00:38 --> 00:00:40 first question
00:00:40 --> 00:00:44 uh comes from Rusty from Donnie Brook
00:00:44 --> 00:00:46 Hey Andrew and Fred It's Rusty and Donny
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 Brook I'm sitting out in a beautiful
00:00:49 --> 00:00:53 clear night and looking due north I see
00:00:53 --> 00:00:57 Mars there and it's quite close to the
00:00:57 --> 00:01:00 twins Caster and Pock the Gemini
00:01:00 --> 00:01:04 twins It's closest to
00:01:04 --> 00:01:09 Pock which is it's an orange giant
00:01:09 --> 00:01:14 star and it looks redder Pock looks
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 redder than Mars
00:01:17 --> 00:01:21 Um and if we look to the southwest from
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 there we can see Beetlejuice part of
00:01:24 --> 00:01:26 Orion That one looks redder again So the
00:01:26 --> 00:01:28 question my question
00:01:28 --> 00:01:32 is when you take a picture through a
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 very large telescope and you can really
00:01:35 --> 00:01:38 see uh these colors close up how
00:01:38 --> 00:01:42 colorful are they is is a red giant as
00:01:42 --> 00:01:43 red as
00:01:43 --> 00:01:45 um as
00:01:45 --> 00:01:49 a tomato or a pillar
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 box and what about the the blue stars
00:01:52 --> 00:01:55 how blue do they get is it like when we
00:01:55 --> 00:01:59 call them red and blue is that fair
00:01:59 --> 00:02:03 dinkham anyway have a good one And so I
00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 can imagine so Rusty is one of our
00:02:06 --> 00:02:08 regular questioners Donny Brook Donny
00:02:08 --> 00:02:11 Brook in Western Australia uh and always
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 asking intriguing intriguing questions
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 and I think what he's thinking of here
00:02:15 --> 00:02:19 is if you sat yourself at the eyepiece
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 for example of the biggest telescope in
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 Australia uh the one that I used to be
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 astronomer in charge of up in Kuna
00:02:26 --> 00:02:30 Baraban with its uh 3.9 m diameter
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 mirror and you looked through an
00:02:32 --> 00:02:36 eyepiece uh at some of these objects
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 what would you would you see the colors
00:02:38 --> 00:02:41 more richly than we do with a small
00:02:41 --> 00:02:43 instrument and the answer's a bit a
00:02:44 --> 00:02:45 little bit
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 um I suppose disappointing really
00:02:48 --> 00:02:52 because the colors are still subtle Um
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 looking through a very big telescope and
00:02:54 --> 00:02:55 I've actually done it with the Anglo
00:02:55 --> 00:02:57 Australian telescope It's quite hard to
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 get an eyepiece on a telescope like that
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 because it's funed with spectrographs
00:03:01 --> 00:03:05 and uh autoguiders and instruments of
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 all different kinds that don't have an
00:03:07 --> 00:03:09 eyepiece on them But when you look
00:03:09 --> 00:03:12 through yes you do see the colors uh
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 Mars looking red serious looking
00:03:15 --> 00:03:18 dazzlingly white um some blue stars the
00:03:18 --> 00:03:20 the the jewel box which is a cluster of
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 stars in um in the constellation of the
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 southern cross uh so named because it's
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27 it's got stars of different colors
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 including a particularly red one uh
00:03:30 --> 00:03:32 which is a sort of ruby colored stars
00:03:32 --> 00:03:35 Those those colors are exaggerated but
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 perhaps not as much as you think they
00:03:37 --> 00:03:41 would be rusty They they um you know
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 they don't go deep red or anything like
00:03:43 --> 00:03:46 that The colors are still as subtle as
00:03:46 --> 00:03:48 you see them But if I can put it this
00:03:48 --> 00:03:50 way it's just like sliding up the
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 saturation button on your color editor
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 uh in whatever whatever photo editing
00:03:56 --> 00:03:59 system you use Slide up saturation a bit
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 and you get a bit more color Likewise
00:04:01 --> 00:04:04 with the size of a telescope What you
00:04:04 --> 00:04:07 what you might be surprised at though is
00:04:07 --> 00:04:11 that um the the detail that you see with
00:04:11 --> 00:04:15 a big telescope uh is is not as fine as
00:04:15 --> 00:04:17 you'd expect And that's all about the
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 way the atmosphere behaves The
00:04:19 --> 00:04:22 atmosphere in terms of the way
00:04:22 --> 00:04:24 turbulence in the atmosphere spoils the
00:04:24 --> 00:04:26 view through a telescope it's actually
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 far less forgiving of a big telescope
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 than it is in a smaller one A smaller
00:04:30 --> 00:04:32 one you might just see the object moving
00:04:32 --> 00:04:34 around but you can see it quite sharply
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 Whereas with a big telescope it just
00:04:36 --> 00:04:39 tends to blur it out It still moves out
00:04:39 --> 00:04:40 Would have totally thought it was the
00:04:40 --> 00:04:42 other way around I would have thought
00:04:42 --> 00:04:45 those big telescopes were like high def
00:04:45 --> 00:04:49 4K perfect picture Uh they are with with
00:04:49 --> 00:04:53 modern technology Uh these new uh not
00:04:53 --> 00:04:54 really new they've been around for 30
00:04:54 --> 00:04:55 years but it's only within the last
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57 decade that they've been perfected what
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 we call adaptive optics systems which
00:05:00 --> 00:05:01 actually it it's all about the
00:05:01 --> 00:05:03 turbulence the mirror the telescopes
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 themselves if they were in space they
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07 would reveal perfect images exactly like
00:05:07 --> 00:05:09 the web telescope or the Hubble
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 telescope do but because they're at the
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 bottom of an atmosphere with a lot of
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 turbulence in the air even on top of
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 mountains there's turbulence uh that's
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 what spoils the view but modern
00:05:21 --> 00:05:22 technology lets you sense that
00:05:22 --> 00:05:25 turbulence it lets you see what is the
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 distortion that the atmosphere is
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 providing and then just like a pair of
00:05:30 --> 00:05:33 noiseancelling headphones it cancels it
00:05:33 --> 00:05:35 out It provides the opposite signal Uh
00:05:35 --> 00:05:39 so it cancels out the the turbulence Uh
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 it's very hard technology because you
00:05:41 --> 00:05:45 have to uh measure the star Uh we use
00:05:45 --> 00:05:47 what's called a reference star which is
00:05:47 --> 00:05:50 sometimes artificial Uh the you've got
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 to measure that star a thousand times a
00:05:52 --> 00:05:55 second for this process to work Uh so it
00:05:55 --> 00:05:58 needs very fast readout sensors much
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 much faster than what you find in a in
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 for example a mobile phone Uh but the
00:06:03 --> 00:06:04 same sort of thing but they're reading
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 out a thousand times a second at least
00:06:06 --> 00:06:09 in fact sometimes twice that That is so
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 incredible I just every day I'm so proud
00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 of humanity for what we've come up with
00:06:13 --> 00:06:15 It's just fantastic to think and if you
00:06:16 --> 00:06:17 know if we all just worked together as a
00:06:17 --> 00:06:20 team this would be you know we'd already
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 have you know gone past our own solar
00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 system by now if we all worked as a big
00:06:24 --> 00:06:26 team That is so incredible just to think
00:06:26 --> 00:06:31 of all the details of these technologies
00:06:31 --> 00:06:32 Let's take a little break from the show
00:06:32 --> 00:06:36 to tell you about our sponsor SY As you
00:06:36 --> 00:06:38 know my wife and I like to travel We've
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40 been overseas um quite a few times in
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00:06:43 --> 00:06:46 plan to do more And one of the things I
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 really like to do is make sure I've got
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 access to mobile phone data particularly
00:06:50 --> 00:06:53 when I'm using maps because it's so easy
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00:06:54 --> 00:06:58 unfamiliar environment Some time ago we
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 did use an eim service uh from a from
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00:07:04 --> 00:07:06 it left us in a very difficult position
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00:07:10 --> 00:07:13 not happy and we didn't have any backup
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00:07:16 --> 00:07:18 disconcerting So we we had no one to
00:07:18 --> 00:07:20 call to say look this doesn't work what
00:07:20 --> 00:07:23 can you do uh and it it it just left us
00:07:23 --> 00:07:25 in a really um difficult position and
00:07:25 --> 00:07:28 left a nasty taste in our mouths as well
00:07:28 --> 00:07:30 I wish I'd known about SY at that point
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00:07:58 --> 00:08:00 need from whatever country Uh and away
00:08:00 --> 00:08:03 you go Simple as that Right now there's
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 a discount available to Space Nuts
00:08:05 --> 00:08:08 listeners And all you have to do when
00:08:08 --> 00:08:10 you buy whatever coverage area you've
00:08:10 --> 00:08:13 chosen is put space nuts uh the code
00:08:13 --> 00:08:16 word in at the checkout Okay so Space
00:08:16 --> 00:08:18 Nuts at the checkout will get you a
00:08:18 --> 00:08:21 discount as a Space Nuts listener on
00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 sale I highly recommend uh when you're
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 overseas to use a service like this Uh
00:08:27 --> 00:08:28 so if you would like to get that
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 discount as a as a Space Nuts listener
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 on sale you download the app from your
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 Android or Apple device and when you get
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00:08:38 --> 00:08:39 Nuts in as the code word for the
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00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 what you plan to do this is a service
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 that will back you 100% And you can read
00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 all about it as well at
00:08:50 --> 00:08:54 s.com/spacenuts That's
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 sail.com/spacenuts and get all that
00:08:56 --> 00:08:58 stress out of your overseas travel This
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00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 about All the details of course are in
00:09:01 --> 00:09:02 our show
00:09:02 --> 00:09:05 notes Now back to the show Okay we
00:09:05 --> 00:09:07 checked all four systems and being with
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 Space Nuts Well our next question is
00:09:10 --> 00:09:15 from Dan from California Dan the man He
00:09:15 --> 00:09:18 says "I was reading about gammaray
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 bursts and how devastating they can be
00:09:20 --> 00:09:22 should they hit Earth Can you explain
00:09:22 --> 00:09:25 why gamma ray bursts become less lethal
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 the further away they are because the
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29 majority of space is a void rather than
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32 dust?" I assume the same goes for radio
00:09:32 --> 00:09:34 waves where over distance they get
00:09:34 --> 00:09:37 weaker and weaker Is this really due to
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 dust and gas that are weakening the
00:09:39 --> 00:09:43 signals thanks
00:09:43 --> 00:09:46 Um yes it's actually nothing to do with
00:09:46 --> 00:09:50 dust and gas Uh uh Dan sorry wrong
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 name Reading the wrong bit of the
00:09:52 --> 00:09:56 question Uh Dan the uh the reason why
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 things get weaker the further away you
00:09:58 --> 00:10:01 get is because of a fundamental law of
00:10:01 --> 00:10:02 physics which is called the inverse
00:10:02 --> 00:10:07 square law uh and that is that uh if you
00:10:07 --> 00:10:09 double the distance that you are from a
00:10:09 --> 00:10:11 source of gamma rays or radio waves or
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 whatever you double the distance uh the
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 signal drops by a factor of four It's
00:10:16 --> 00:10:18 the square of the distance That's why
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 it's called the inverse square law Uh so
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 double the distance um you get you know
00:10:23 --> 00:10:26 a quarter of the signal and if you then
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 double the distance again um it goes
00:10:28 --> 00:10:32 down by an equally large you know it
00:10:32 --> 00:10:33 goes down by the square of the the new
00:10:33 --> 00:10:35 distance The new distance is four so it
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38 goes down by 16 a factor of 16 and
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 that's why uh all these signals get
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 weaker Uh dust and gas do impact on them
00:10:44 --> 00:10:48 Uh um and for example um the perhaps the
00:10:48 --> 00:10:50 best example of that is the center of
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 our Milky Way galaxy at a distance of
00:10:52 --> 00:10:57 about 25 light years Um we can't see
00:10:57 --> 00:10:58 the center of that with visible light
00:10:58 --> 00:11:00 telescopes because of the dust that
00:11:00 --> 00:11:03 blocks our view It's dusty in the Milky
00:11:03 --> 00:11:05 Way and the center of our galaxy is
00:11:05 --> 00:11:08 hidden uh infrared radiation penetrates
00:11:08 --> 00:11:10 the dust and that's why we can actually
00:11:10 --> 00:11:12 see it uh see the center of our galaxy
00:11:12 --> 00:11:15 in infrared but not with visible light
00:11:15 --> 00:11:17 So dust certainly has an effect but it's
00:11:17 --> 00:11:19 the distance that is the real effect
00:11:19 --> 00:11:21 This inverse square or means it you know
00:11:22 --> 00:11:24 it's the square of the distance uh by
00:11:24 --> 00:11:28 which it drops every time you move away
00:11:28 --> 00:11:30 I wonder if that's uh everyone has that
00:11:30 --> 00:11:32 crazy friend that always is just on
00:11:32 --> 00:11:34 speaker phone And they're like "Oh I
00:11:34 --> 00:11:35 don't want to hold the phone up to my
00:11:35 --> 00:11:37 head I don't want the waves to get me
00:11:37 --> 00:11:40 I'm going to hold my phone." Yeah You
00:11:40 --> 00:11:41 know two feet away from my face and I'm
00:11:42 --> 00:11:43 going to shout into it so everybody can
00:11:43 --> 00:11:46 hear my conversation Who knows maybe
00:11:46 --> 00:11:48 they might be on to something Well
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50 you're you're right that sound waves
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 also uh are affected by the inverse
00:11:52 --> 00:11:55 square law So So if you double the
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 distance from the person who's yelling
00:11:57 --> 00:12:00 into their phone uh then it's going to
00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 go down by a factor of four So that you
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 you know you try try you know doubling
00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 the distance twice and it'll drop by a
00:12:08 --> 00:12:10 factor of 16
00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 Yeah I can't hear
00:12:13 --> 00:12:16 you All right our next question is from
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 Mike from the UK It's Mike Cupid from
00:12:19 --> 00:12:22 the UK here Uh a very quick question if
00:12:22 --> 00:12:25 I may I have heard many many questions
00:12:25 --> 00:12:27 over the years into you guys about
00:12:27 --> 00:12:30 terraforming Mars uh which is obviously
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 something that is beyond our capability
00:12:32 --> 00:12:35 but a lot of people dream about Um what
00:12:35 --> 00:12:38 about terraforming Venus uh it's not
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 something I've heard a lot about Now
00:12:40 --> 00:12:44 obviously it it's probably still beyond
00:12:44 --> 00:12:46 our capability So let's just talk sort
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49 of theoretical but would it just be a
00:12:49 --> 00:12:52 case of blocking out some of the sun's
00:12:52 --> 00:12:54 rays to cool the planet down and
00:12:54 --> 00:12:57 potentially reverse that runaway
00:12:57 --> 00:12:59 greenhouse effect that's happening on on
00:12:59 --> 00:13:03 Venus so potentially just thinking
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06 outside the box possibly um collide to
00:13:06 --> 00:13:10 uh asteroids together and let the debris
00:13:10 --> 00:13:12 catch in the orbit of Venus blocking out
00:13:12 --> 00:13:15 some of the sun and then cooling it down
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17 or potentially even sort of build a
00:13:17 --> 00:13:19 structure to block some of the sun's
00:13:19 --> 00:13:22 rays Um and the other question as well
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 and like I say I know this is probably
00:13:24 --> 00:13:27 beyond our capability but if we did
00:13:27 --> 00:13:30 manage to do that and cool the planet
00:13:30 --> 00:13:33 down if we could get the conditions on
00:13:33 --> 00:13:36 Venus to be similar to what they are on
00:13:36 --> 00:13:39 Earth um which would probably never
00:13:39 --> 00:13:42 happen anyway but would it
00:13:42 --> 00:13:46 stabilize or would the greenhouse
00:13:46 --> 00:13:49 runaway effect happen again um is it too
00:13:49 --> 00:13:53 close to the sun to hold a stable
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56 atmosphere and a similar temperature to
00:13:56 --> 00:13:59 Earth um love the show It's my favorite
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 podcast in the uh in the world I listen
00:14:01 --> 00:14:03 to it all the time I think I've listened
00:14:03 --> 00:14:05 to just about every episode So uh
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 regardless of whether you answer my
00:14:07 --> 00:14:08 question or not please keep up the good
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10 work and thank you very much for your
00:14:10 --> 00:14:14 time Yeah that's a a great question Mike
00:14:14 --> 00:14:19 Um terraforming Venus Venus is so
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 different from the Earth in its natural
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 environment that it's hard to think of a
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 more well you can think of more
00:14:26 --> 00:14:28 different planets because exoplanets are
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 even wider in range But yes here we've
00:14:30 --> 00:14:32 got a planet with a surface temperature
00:14:32 --> 00:14:36 of about 460° C Hot enough to melt lead
00:14:36 --> 00:14:39 uh uh hot enough that the rocks probably
00:14:39 --> 00:14:42 glow a dull red as well uh because of
00:14:42 --> 00:14:44 that temperature uh and an atmosphere
00:14:44 --> 00:14:46 whose pressure is 100 times the pressure
00:14:46 --> 00:14:49 of the Earth's atmosphere laden with
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 carbon dioxide And just to add to that
00:14:51 --> 00:14:55 lovely um benign picture uh in the upper
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57 atmosphere it drizzles sulfuric acid So
00:14:57 --> 00:15:00 you've really got a hellish uh
00:15:00 --> 00:15:04 circumstance for anybody on Venus Uh how
00:15:04 --> 00:15:07 could you terraform it well you you're
00:15:07 --> 00:15:11 you're right that the fact that Venus is
00:15:11 --> 00:15:12 you know it's much nearer the sun than
00:15:12 --> 00:15:15 we are on Earth that contributes and
00:15:15 --> 00:15:17 goes back to the question we were just
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 talking about You you it's the inverse
00:15:19 --> 00:15:21 square law Uh so you're actually getting
00:15:21 --> 00:15:23 far more radiation than you might think
00:15:23 --> 00:15:26 just by being um you know a few million
00:15:26 --> 00:15:28 kil a few tens of millions of kilometers
00:15:28 --> 00:15:32 nearer to the sun Um the idea of
00:15:32 --> 00:15:34 blocking the sun's light is something
00:15:34 --> 00:15:37 that has been suggested quite seriously
00:15:37 --> 00:15:42 uh on on Earth uh in order to reduce the
00:15:42 --> 00:15:45 carbon footprint that we're all making
00:15:45 --> 00:15:48 Uh if you um launch I'm trying to
00:15:48 --> 00:15:50 remember who suggested it at first It's
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 somebody I know and I can't remember who
00:15:52 --> 00:15:55 it was Uh but if you launch a swarm of
00:15:55 --> 00:15:58 spacecraft and put them at what we call
00:15:58 --> 00:16:00 the L2 point the second mrange point
00:16:00 --> 00:16:03 which is a stable position between any
00:16:03 --> 00:16:05 planet and the sun where the gravity
00:16:06 --> 00:16:07 balances out you put this swarm of
00:16:08 --> 00:16:09 spacecraft This was suggested for the
00:16:09 --> 00:16:11 Earth but it would equally apply to
00:16:11 --> 00:16:13 Venus You can do the same thing to try
00:16:13 --> 00:16:16 and block down the sun's light I'm not
00:16:16 --> 00:16:19 convinced that that would actually have
00:16:19 --> 00:16:23 any uh positive effect on the uh on the
00:16:23 --> 00:16:25 atmosphere of Venus It would certainly
00:16:25 --> 00:16:27 cool the radiation that it feels from
00:16:27 --> 00:16:31 the sun Uh that uh the the the carbon
00:16:31 --> 00:16:33 dioxide rich atmosphere would still act
00:16:33 --> 00:16:36 as a um you know as a a runaway
00:16:36 --> 00:16:39 greenhouse atmosphere Uh so I think you
00:16:39 --> 00:16:41 would still have these very high
00:16:41 --> 00:16:44 temperatures and I don't think there is
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 any technology we could imagine that
00:16:46 --> 00:16:49 would change that and if you were going
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 to think about terraforming somewhere uh
00:16:52 --> 00:16:53 and I should say it's pretty well
00:16:54 --> 00:16:55 impossible but if you were going to
00:16:55 --> 00:16:58 think of it Mars will be a better bet Uh
00:16:58 --> 00:17:00 you'd have to keep on terraforming it
00:17:00 --> 00:17:01 though because Mars doesn't have enough
00:17:01 --> 00:17:03 gravity to hang on to an atmosphere like
00:17:03 --> 00:17:07 the Earth's So um I think you're right
00:17:07 --> 00:17:09 that you would not um you would not lose
00:17:09 --> 00:17:11 the runaway greenhouse effect It would
00:17:11 --> 00:17:15 not uh it would not go away basically
00:17:15 --> 00:17:17 Yeah Venus is really I'm sorry Venus
00:17:18 --> 00:17:21 It's a terrible terrible planet It's uh
00:17:21 --> 00:17:24 really I think pretty pretty nasty as
00:17:24 --> 00:17:26 far as everything that's going on on
00:17:26 --> 00:17:29 that planet But you know we we did
00:17:30 --> 00:17:31 historically used to think that that was
00:17:31 --> 00:17:34 going to be the most similar closest
00:17:34 --> 00:17:37 planet to us and then we flew some
00:17:37 --> 00:17:38 satellites by it and we're like "Oh
00:17:38 --> 00:17:40 that's terrifying."
00:17:40 --> 00:17:42 But yeah you're right I mean it is
00:17:42 --> 00:17:44 similar It's virtually the same size as
00:17:44 --> 00:17:47 Earth Uh there's some new research just
00:17:47 --> 00:17:50 been uh released actually which I nearly
00:17:50 --> 00:17:51 thought we might talk about on Space
00:17:51 --> 00:17:53 Nuts Uh and it's about the crust of
00:17:53 --> 00:17:58 Venus uh the the because like the Earth
00:17:58 --> 00:18:02 uh Venus has we don't know what's at its
00:18:02 --> 00:18:04 core It doesn't have a magnetic field So
00:18:04 --> 00:18:06 it's probably not an iron core like ours
00:18:06 --> 00:18:08 A mantle a sort of soft rock above that
00:18:08 --> 00:18:11 and a crust Uh and we live on the
00:18:12 --> 00:18:13 Earth's crust for example which is not
00:18:13 --> 00:18:16 very thick It's 30 or 40 kilometers
00:18:16 --> 00:18:19 thick which is quite slender But the
00:18:19 --> 00:18:22 thinking is that uh Venus has a much
00:18:22 --> 00:18:24 thicker crust and that there is what we
00:18:24 --> 00:18:26 call convection This you know heat
00:18:26 --> 00:18:29 rising or material rising because of
00:18:29 --> 00:18:31 because of heat convection taking place
00:18:31 --> 00:18:34 in the crust of Venus which may be why
00:18:34 --> 00:18:36 Venus has the largest number of
00:18:36 --> 00:18:39 volcanoes of any object known in the
00:18:39 --> 00:18:40 solar system Now we don't know if
00:18:40 --> 00:18:42 they're active or not Uh this is just
00:18:42 --> 00:18:44 counting craters from radar measurements
00:18:44 --> 00:18:47 of its surface It's uh got the largest
00:18:47 --> 00:18:50 number of certainly volcanic structures
00:18:50 --> 00:18:52 Uh and the thinking now is that that
00:18:52 --> 00:18:54 comes from convection in the crust
00:18:54 --> 00:18:55 rather than convection in the mantle
00:18:55 --> 00:18:57 which is what we have here on Earth Just
00:18:57 --> 00:18:59 a little factoid about Venus that I
00:18:59 --> 00:19:02 think contributes to its um its
00:19:02 --> 00:19:06 reputation as uh Earth's ugly system
00:19:06 --> 00:19:08 Well that's a that is a such a fun fact
00:19:08 --> 00:19:13 though I never knew that about Venus
00:19:13 --> 00:19:20 3 2 1 Space nuts Our very last question
00:19:20 --> 00:19:23 is from Todd who's from Utah Um I I am
00:19:24 --> 00:19:26 also from Utah So Todd thank you for uh
00:19:26 --> 00:19:29 representing our our little state
00:19:29 --> 00:19:31 Hopefully you're uh winding up for some
00:19:31 --> 00:19:34 good weather there I know springtime um
00:19:34 --> 00:19:36 in Salt Lake's always really beautiful
00:19:36 --> 00:19:38 and I don't know if you're a skier if
00:19:38 --> 00:19:40 you got some good skiing in this season
00:19:40 --> 00:19:44 but that's my little plug to a fellow
00:19:44 --> 00:19:47 Uton His question is "Hello gentlemen I
00:19:48 --> 00:19:50 have a question about the double slit
00:19:50 --> 00:19:53 experiment." Well truthfully I have many
00:19:53 --> 00:19:55 questions about it but let's just focus
00:19:55 --> 00:19:58 on one for now I have seen that some
00:19:58 --> 00:20:00 have done this experiment by shooting
00:20:00 --> 00:20:04 individual um photons at the double slit
00:20:04 --> 00:20:07 one at a time Yet this still produces an
00:20:07 --> 00:20:10 inference pattern This of course boggles
00:20:10 --> 00:20:13 my mind I've read that I've read that
00:20:13 --> 00:20:16 this is an example of quantum superos
00:20:17 --> 00:20:19 superposition and that somehow those
00:20:19 --> 00:20:22 photons are interacting with themselves
00:20:22 --> 00:20:24 Can you and Fred please elaborate on
00:20:24 --> 00:20:27 what exactly we understand is happening
00:20:27 --> 00:20:29 here is this something silly along the
00:20:29 --> 00:20:31 lines of photons not being bound by time
00:20:31 --> 00:20:34 speaking of time thank you for yours
00:20:34 --> 00:20:37 Finally I have an observational joke for
00:20:37 --> 00:20:42 you In 3,25 years from now life on Earth
00:20:42 --> 00:20:45 will either be really good or really bad
00:20:45 --> 00:20:46 It's
00:20:46 --> 00:20:51 50/50 That is from uh Todd from Utah USA
00:20:51 --> 00:20:53 Thank you so much for the joke Todd and
00:20:53 --> 00:20:56 the question I like the joke a lot but
00:20:56 --> 00:20:58 nobody I've told it to so far gets it So
00:20:58 --> 00:21:01 I'm obviously losing something in the
00:21:01 --> 00:21:03 retelling there Uh it's a good one Thank
00:21:03 --> 00:21:05 you I think you need a better audience
00:21:06 --> 00:21:07 They're not laughing at that They're
00:21:08 --> 00:21:13 maybe So yeah Anyway the question yeah
00:21:13 --> 00:21:15 this is and just to you know sort of
00:21:15 --> 00:21:16 fill in the backstory what are we
00:21:16 --> 00:21:18 talking about with the double slit
00:21:18 --> 00:21:22 experiment um if you pass beams of light
00:21:22 --> 00:21:25 through two slits uh under the right
00:21:25 --> 00:21:27 circumstance they will interfere with
00:21:27 --> 00:21:29 one another and that means we will see
00:21:29 --> 00:21:32 bright and dark patterns because of the
00:21:32 --> 00:21:36 way the waves mix Uh so waves of light
00:21:36 --> 00:21:38 basically can add together or can cancel
00:21:38 --> 00:21:40 out and it's where they add together and
00:21:40 --> 00:21:42 cancel out that we see these bright and
00:21:42 --> 00:21:45 dark patterns I was very keen on
00:21:45 --> 00:21:47 interferometry the technique of doing
00:21:47 --> 00:21:49 that and making measurements by it when
00:21:49 --> 00:21:53 I was a young student Uh but um so that
00:21:53 --> 00:21:56 uh is basically it was the proof of the
00:21:56 --> 00:21:59 fact that light is a wave motion um
00:21:59 --> 00:22:02 because Newton thought it was particles
00:22:02 --> 00:22:04 uh but it was demonstrated not long
00:22:04 --> 00:22:06 after Newton's time that it was a wave
00:22:06 --> 00:22:08 motion by virtue of this double slit
00:22:08 --> 00:22:11 experiment at the beginning of the 19th
00:22:11 --> 00:22:16 century But now um we know that light is
00:22:16 --> 00:22:19 particles and waves
00:22:19 --> 00:22:21 uh and sometime maybe the way to imagine
00:22:21 --> 00:22:24 it is as wave packets These photons
00:22:24 --> 00:22:28 particles of light are sort of also a
00:22:28 --> 00:22:30 wave Uh that was the way we kind of
00:22:30 --> 00:22:32 looked at things perhaps in the 50s and
00:22:32 --> 00:22:34 60s that photons were packets of waves
00:22:34 --> 00:22:36 because that would let you then use
00:22:36 --> 00:22:39 particles but the that they would still
00:22:39 --> 00:22:40 do this interference trick So that
00:22:40 --> 00:22:43 proved they had a wave motion Along
00:22:43 --> 00:22:46 comes quantum theory that says particles
00:22:46 --> 00:22:49 are basically made of waves Uh they're
00:22:49 --> 00:22:51 not just packets of waves they're made
00:22:51 --> 00:22:56 of waves in a very odd way And uh that
00:22:56 --> 00:22:59 uh experiment that uh that Todd has
00:22:59 --> 00:23:02 referred to is the one that tells you
00:23:02 --> 00:23:04 that there's something really peculiar
00:23:04 --> 00:23:08 going on uh because if you shoot photons
00:23:08 --> 00:23:11 single photons through this double slit
00:23:11 --> 00:23:13 experiment one at a time so that they
00:23:13 --> 00:23:16 they never come together in a wave meth
00:23:16 --> 00:23:18 method you still get the interference
00:23:18 --> 00:23:20 pattern building up that proves that
00:23:20 --> 00:23:24 they're waves And I think um you know uh
00:23:24 --> 00:23:25 Todd's comment about is it something
00:23:25 --> 00:23:30 silly like uh photons not being bound by
00:23:30 --> 00:23:34 time in a way it is uh I think it's more
00:23:34 --> 00:23:39 about the the mystery of uh quantum
00:23:39 --> 00:23:41 entanglement that these particles are
00:23:41 --> 00:23:43 entangled together which means that they
00:23:43 --> 00:23:45 behave like a single particle So if
00:23:46 --> 00:23:47 you've got one going through one side of
00:23:47 --> 00:23:49 the slit or one half of the slit one
00:23:49 --> 00:23:52 going through another uh they're still
00:23:52 --> 00:23:54 part of the same object even if they're
00:23:54 --> 00:23:57 going through at different times So
00:23:57 --> 00:24:00 that's perhaps yes that they're not
00:24:00 --> 00:24:01 bound by time in that sense but I think
00:24:02 --> 00:24:03 it's more to do with the phenomenon of
00:24:03 --> 00:24:06 quantum entanglement that things behave
00:24:06 --> 00:24:08 as though they're a single quantum
00:24:08 --> 00:24:09 object even though they're quite
00:24:09 --> 00:24:11 separate They're separated sometimes by
00:24:11 --> 00:24:15 very large distances uh uh but they they
00:24:15 --> 00:24:17 have common behavior between them and I
00:24:17 --> 00:24:19 think that's how the double slit
00:24:19 --> 00:24:22 experiment arises when you use photons
00:24:22 --> 00:24:25 separate photons I probably left you
00:24:25 --> 00:24:28 completely cold and hiding I thought
00:24:28 --> 00:24:30 this was fantastic and all went
00:24:30 --> 00:24:34 completely over my head Yeah but it's
00:24:34 --> 00:24:36 one of the it's one of the sort of
00:24:36 --> 00:24:39 fundamental experiments of physics that
00:24:39 --> 00:24:41 tells you that light is both a wave and
00:24:41 --> 00:24:44 a particle but the two somehow mix
00:24:44 --> 00:24:46 together in a very mysterious way I
00:24:46 --> 00:24:48 think that's the bottom line Okay Well I
00:24:48 --> 00:24:51 I I think I can understand that it's a
00:24:51 --> 00:24:53 mystery and they miss I understood those
00:24:53 --> 00:24:54 words
00:24:54 --> 00:24:57 Yeah Oh wow I mean once again thank you
00:24:57 --> 00:25:00 so much Fred for you always take um such
00:25:00 --> 00:25:02 such patience and care with answering
00:25:02 --> 00:25:05 these questions and making making things
00:25:05 --> 00:25:07 make sense and just making it fun and
00:25:07 --> 00:25:09 relatable and just and just exploring
00:25:09 --> 00:25:12 and thinking together So thank you so
00:25:12 --> 00:25:15 much for um everything that you provided
00:25:15 --> 00:25:18 us with today It's a pleasure Kaidie
00:25:18 --> 00:25:20 Thank you for being the the colonel of
00:25:20 --> 00:25:23 the of the show by keeping it going I
00:25:23 --> 00:25:26 mean K E R N E L rather than C O
00:25:26 --> 00:25:29 N C English language is uh quite
00:25:29 --> 00:25:31 interesting Well thank you so much
00:25:31 --> 00:25:35 everybody for listening in to today's
00:25:35 --> 00:25:37 episode This today's question and answer
00:25:37 --> 00:25:40 episode of Space Nuts and we will catch
00:25:40 --> 00:25:42 you next week I will be back here again
00:25:42 --> 00:25:44 for just a couple more weeks and then
00:25:44 --> 00:25:46 you'll get your dear sweet Andrew back
00:25:46 --> 00:25:48 But until then you're stuck with me Uh
00:25:48 --> 00:25:50 thanks again to those of you I heard
00:25:50 --> 00:25:52 that um a few of you wrote in with some
00:25:52 --> 00:25:54 kind words about me So thank you so much
00:25:54 --> 00:25:57 if you guys had compliments I appreciate
00:25:57 --> 00:26:01 that Um but until next time we will be
00:26:01 --> 00:26:03 signing off Thank you so much Thank you
00:26:04 --> 00:26:05 Heidi And thanks also to Hugh in the
00:26:06 --> 00:26:07 background there back in the studio
00:26:07 --> 00:26:10 keeping us all honest We'll see you next
00:26:10 --> 00:26:13 time Heidi Bye for now Space nuts You'll
00:26:13 --> 00:26:17 be listening to the Space Nuts podcast
00:26:17 --> 00:26:20 available at Apple Podcasts Spotify
00:26:20 --> 00:26:23 iHeart Radio or your favorite podcast
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00:26:25 --> 00:26:28 byes.com This has been another quality
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