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(00:00) Welcome to Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and Fred Watson Watson
(01:20) Discussion on gravitational waves and listener questions
(15:00) Exploring the relationship between space-time and dark matter
(25:30) The concept of laser propulsion and light sails
(35:00) Cosmic jokes and their scientific explanations
For commercial-free versions of Space Nuts, join us on Patreon, Supercast, Apple Podcasts, or become a supporter here: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts-astronomy-insights-cosmic-discoveries--2631155/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts-astronomy-insights-cosmic-discoveries--2631155/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss) .
Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/27305983?utm_source=youtube
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Hi there, Andrew Dunley here. You're
00:00:02 --> 00:00:04 listening to or watching Space Nuts, a
00:00:04 --> 00:00:07 Q&A edition. Good to have your company.
00:00:07 --> 00:00:10 And coming up, we have got questions
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 from all over the district. Uh or maybe
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 all over the planet. Uh we're going to
00:00:15 --> 00:00:17 be surfing gravitational waves. Well,
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 the question is, can we, but I'll I'll
00:00:20 --> 00:00:22 elaborate when we get to that. Uh the
00:00:22 --> 00:00:25 rotation of spaceime has come up. Uh
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 firing lasers into space, and we we've
00:00:28 --> 00:00:32 got a couple of jokes. uh which is nice,
00:00:32 --> 00:00:35 but they're so funny nobody laughs
00:00:35 --> 00:00:37 because we don't understand them. But uh
00:00:37 --> 00:00:39 that's the nature of of the jokes
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 because Jud wants Fred to explain why
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 they're funny. So we'll get we'll get to
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 that and much more on this episode of
00:00:47 --> 00:00:50 Space Nuts. 15 seconds. Guidance is
00:00:50 --> 00:00:55 internal. 10 9 ignition sequence start.
00:00:55 --> 00:01:01 Space nuts. 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 space nuts. Astronauts report. It feels
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 good. And he's back again. And he's
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 reached a point in his life where he can
00:01:08 --> 00:01:12 tell great dad jokes. Great great great
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 dad jokes perhaps. Hello Fred. Uh yeah.
00:01:15 --> 00:01:17 No, I'm not a great granddad. I am a
00:01:17 --> 00:01:20 great dad though. Um and yes, and with a
00:01:20 --> 00:01:23 new a new granddaughter who we'll be
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 seeing this week sometime. Yeah.
00:01:25 --> 00:01:28 Excellent. It's very good news. Um, yes.
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 Uh, good to see you, Fred, by the way.
00:01:30 --> 00:01:32 Thanks for joining us. Uh, oh, passing
00:01:32 --> 00:01:34 by. I thought might as well drop. Yeah,
00:01:34 --> 00:01:36 I couldn't do this without you because,
00:01:36 --> 00:01:38 um, I would have no idea about some of
00:01:38 --> 00:01:41 the answers to these questions. Uh, but
00:01:41 --> 00:01:43 we might as well just go straight to it.
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46 And our first question comes from sunny
00:01:46 --> 00:01:49 California. Uh, Renie wants to know, uh,
00:01:49 --> 00:01:51 theoretically, can gravitational waves
00:01:51 --> 00:01:53 pick up any kind of subatomic particles
00:01:54 --> 00:01:56 or larger objects and carry them for a
00:01:56 --> 00:01:58 certain period of time and drop them off
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 as they get weaker? Kind of like a
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 surfer catching a wave. Now, got to tell
00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 you, in one of my science fiction
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 novels, I did this exact thing. Although
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 it wasn't a small object, it was a it
00:02:09 --> 00:02:13 was a a a space battle cruiser that got
00:02:13 --> 00:02:16 picked up by a um a neutron bomb
00:02:16 --> 00:02:18 explosion which created a gravitational
00:02:18 --> 00:02:20 wave. But that's another story. And it's
00:02:20 --> 00:02:21 science fiction, so I could do whatever
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 I like. But uh yeah, um that's a good
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 question. Uh can they pick anything up
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 and carry it for a distance? Well, no.
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 Um apparently not. Uh I I checked this
00:02:32 --> 00:02:39 one up uh a while ago. Uh and uh it so
00:02:39 --> 00:02:43 gravitational waves are a defamation of
00:02:43 --> 00:02:48 spacetime and uh objects feel them um
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 because that's how we detect them. the
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 fact that the shape of space changes
00:02:53 --> 00:02:55 slightly as a gravitational wave passes
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 through. Um it's a basically a vibration
00:02:58 --> 00:03:02 of spaceime. Uh and we detect that by
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 well one way of detecting it is by using
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 two mirrors uh 4 kilometers apart in the
00:03:08 --> 00:03:10 case of LIGO the uh laser
00:03:10 --> 00:03:12 interpherometer gravitational wave
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 observatory. uh two mirrors whose
00:03:15 --> 00:03:19 separation can be measured to what is it
00:03:19 --> 00:03:22 110th of the diameter of a a neutron
00:03:22 --> 00:03:25 I think a proton wow it's ridiculous
00:03:25 --> 00:03:28 it's ridiculous but that's what you need
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 because the as we've talked about before
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 the u in fact I think we mentioned this
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 last week the flexibility of space is
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 very very low it's very stiff uh 100
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 billion billion times the stiffness of
00:03:40 --> 00:03:43 steel if you use young's modulus as a
00:03:43 --> 00:03:44 yard
00:03:44 --> 00:03:48 Uh so uh but space does vibrate but
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51 that's what happens. So it vibrates as
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 the wave passes through but you don't
00:03:54 --> 00:03:56 get surfed by the wave. You know it
00:03:56 --> 00:03:57 doesn't pick things up and carry them
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 with it. That's which is Ren's point I
00:04:00 --> 00:04:04 think. Uh it it things feel its
00:04:04 --> 00:04:06 presence. They feel it by the the
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 vibrations that it sets up. Uh but they
00:04:09 --> 00:04:12 they stay put. And that's just as well
00:04:12 --> 00:04:13 because you know the earth's being
00:04:13 --> 00:04:15 bombarded by gravitational waves all the
00:04:15 --> 00:04:17 time. We really wouldn't want to be
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 carried away uh from our neat and tidy
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 orbit around the sun by passing through.
00:04:22 --> 00:04:24 But you know what you've just done?
00:04:24 --> 00:04:26 You've debunked my book.
00:04:26 --> 00:04:29 Well uh that's um I wasn't going to
00:04:29 --> 00:04:31 mention that. However, however, I I will
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 I will qualify it by saying it wasn't,
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 you know, a standard gravitational wave.
00:04:37 --> 00:04:39 That was a neutron bomb gravitational
00:04:39 --> 00:04:42 create created by human action. So, you
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 know, I I might get away with that one.
00:04:44 --> 00:04:49 But, uh yeah. Um so, you did say they're
00:04:49 --> 00:04:51 hitting us all the time because I
00:04:51 --> 00:04:52 remember when we first talked about
00:04:52 --> 00:04:55 gravitational waves being discovered. Um
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57 yeah, it seemed like a rare event, but
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 it's not. No, that's right. And in fact,
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 you and I have spoken about the the sort
00:05:01 --> 00:05:03 of background noise of gravitational
00:05:03 --> 00:05:07 waves that that swirling around the the
00:05:07 --> 00:05:11 planet all the time. Um, and yes, it's
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 just as well that uh space is so stiff
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 because otherwise we'd be getting
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 rattled pretty badly all the time by
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 gravitational waves, but
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 well, okay, good. Other things can
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 rattle us. Yes, they can. And that
00:05:27 --> 00:05:28 neutron bomb explosion might actually
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 rattle us to the one you were talking
00:05:30 --> 00:05:31 about in your book. Yeah. But that will
00:05:32 --> 00:05:33 be a shock wave, not a gravitational
00:05:33 --> 00:05:34 wave.
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 Yes, indeed. All right. Thank you,
00:05:37 --> 00:05:38 Renie. Lovely to hear from you. Renie is
00:05:38 --> 00:05:40 one of our regular contributors. Our
00:05:40 --> 00:05:42 next question comes from yet another
00:05:42 --> 00:05:46 regular contributor. His name is Rusty.
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49 Good day, Fred and Andrew. It's Rusty in
00:05:49 --> 00:05:50 Donny Brook. Now, we know that in the
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 realm of physics, human logic often goes
00:05:52 --> 00:05:56 a right. Here's a try. Anyway, thinking
00:05:56 --> 00:06:00 about the big bang, initially, no matter
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 came out of it. It was was all energy.
00:06:03 --> 00:06:06 And most of this was in the form of
00:06:06 --> 00:06:10 spaceime looking at uh black holes which
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 is the opposite. This is matter going
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 into a black hole after the event
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 horizon. And when it finally gets to the
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 singularity, it can't exist as matter.
00:06:21 --> 00:06:25 So it must exist as as matter's
00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 equivalent, which is energy. We also
00:06:27 --> 00:06:30 know that spaceime can rotate. We've
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 seen uh photographs now of frame
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 dragging and we know that it even exists
00:06:35 --> 00:06:39 uh around the earth. So we've got some
00:06:39 --> 00:06:41 interesting things there about uh
00:06:41 --> 00:06:45 spacetime. It has mass. It can rotate.
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 So is this energy dark matter? It must
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 also have a mass equivalence if it's got
00:06:52 --> 00:06:55 energy. So, uh, if it does, if it is
00:06:55 --> 00:06:57 dark matter, could that be could it be
00:06:57 --> 00:07:00 of the rotation of space
00:07:00 --> 00:07:03 itself on a galactic scale influencing
00:07:03 --> 00:07:05 the rotation of spiral
00:07:05 --> 00:07:08 galaxies? That's my question. Pretty
00:07:08 --> 00:07:11 difficult day. Okay, cheers. Yeah. Yeah,
00:07:11 --> 00:07:14 Rusty, you love asking these curveball
00:07:14 --> 00:07:16 questions. I know. Uh, I think you sit
00:07:16 --> 00:07:18 there trying to figure out what to throw
00:07:18 --> 00:07:20 at us next. Uh, this is an interesting
00:07:20 --> 00:07:22 one. We we have talked about the
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 rotation of spaceime before or whether
00:07:24 --> 00:07:27 or not it does. Uh dark energy is always
00:07:27 --> 00:07:29 coming up and we spoke about a new
00:07:29 --> 00:07:33 theory on um dark matter in our last
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 episode and we keep sort of cross
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 referencing dark matter and dark energy
00:07:37 --> 00:07:42 but um yeah. Okay. So um does spaceime
00:07:42 --> 00:07:47 rotate?
00:07:47 --> 00:07:53 um the mass of spaceime, could that be
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 dark matter? I think I preed that too
00:07:56 --> 00:07:59 much, but anyway, um that was the guts
00:07:59 --> 00:08:05 of the question. So, um the the energy
00:08:05 --> 00:08:09 uh that the universe contained at first
00:08:09 --> 00:08:13 was photons. it was um electromagnetic
00:08:13 --> 00:08:19 energy uh and that they then basically
00:08:19 --> 00:08:21 collapsed into matter. So the big bang
00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 was very efficient at that process. Uh
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 when things cool down a bit um when they
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 when something crosses the event horizon
00:08:30 --> 00:08:32 goes into a black hole
00:08:32 --> 00:08:36 um it remains as matter uh even though
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 it's now been squashed into an infinite
00:08:38 --> 00:08:40 decimal point.
00:08:40 --> 00:08:42 Um so
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 the
00:08:45 --> 00:08:47 the material concept content of a black
00:08:48 --> 00:08:51 hole uh is is mass. It's matter because
00:08:51 --> 00:08:54 it increases its mass. Uh we know that
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 mass and energy are related by equals
00:08:56 --> 00:09:00 mc². Rusty certainly knows that. Uh so
00:09:00 --> 00:09:03 um I'm just
00:09:03 --> 00:09:08 um I'm not sure I'm following the logic
00:09:08 --> 00:09:14 there. We do know uh that um the you
00:09:14 --> 00:09:17 know we've had this issue with the
00:09:17 --> 00:09:20 asymmetric sorry the unequal rotation of
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 galaxies clockwise and anticlockwise uh
00:09:23 --> 00:09:24 that seem to be more one way than the
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 other and that has raised the suggestion
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 that the universe is rotating and it
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 turns out if it rotates once every 500
00:09:31 --> 00:09:35 billion years uh then you can get rid of
00:09:35 --> 00:09:37 the Hubble tension. I think that's the
00:09:37 --> 00:09:42 bottom line there. And so, uh, I mean,
00:09:42 --> 00:09:44 you know, Rusty's points are all well
00:09:44 --> 00:09:47 made. I I don't think we get rid of dark
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 matter and dark energy, though, by those
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 considerations. I think we're still
00:09:52 --> 00:09:54 stuck with puzzles that we don't
00:09:54 --> 00:09:57 understand. Yeah. I I don't think he was
00:09:57 --> 00:09:58 talking about getting rid of dark
00:09:58 --> 00:10:01 matter, but he was talking about the
00:10:01 --> 00:10:05 ums of spaceime being dark matter. Yeah.
00:10:05 --> 00:10:08 Sorry. I'm I'm using the wrong words
00:10:08 --> 00:10:10 there. I'm using my words uh that's all
00:10:10 --> 00:10:12 right very loosely. Yes. Uh that's
00:10:12 --> 00:10:18 right. But but dark matter uh is you
00:10:18 --> 00:10:23 know it's clumpy. It's not it's not uh
00:10:23 --> 00:10:25 something that is equal throughout the
00:10:25 --> 00:10:29 universe which if it was spacetime it
00:10:29 --> 00:10:31 would be. I mean spacetime itself
00:10:31 --> 00:10:33 doesn't have mass. M it's the fabric
00:10:33 --> 00:10:37 within which mass um within within which
00:10:37 --> 00:10:38 it
00:10:38 --> 00:10:44 exists. So uh I think it's an
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 interesting suggestion as Rusty's always
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 are but I'm not sure that it it works
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 out.
00:10:51 --> 00:10:52 Throwing the equation of state there.
00:10:52 --> 00:10:54 That'll do it. Oh yes. Talking about
00:10:54 --> 00:10:57 that last episode. Yes. Oh gosh. Here we
00:10:57 --> 00:11:01 go. The headache worthy material this
00:11:01 --> 00:11:03 Yes. That's right. Um, when you talk
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 about the universe and spacetime, like
00:11:06 --> 00:11:07 spacetime, you said it doesn't have
00:11:08 --> 00:11:10 mass. It's just everything that's in it
00:11:10 --> 00:11:14 is what's mass. Is it strung out evenly
00:11:14 --> 00:11:19 across a um um universal plane or it's
00:11:19 --> 00:11:20 not evenly
00:11:20 --> 00:11:24 spread 360° in all directions, is it?
00:11:24 --> 00:11:27 Well, it it it more or less is, but it
00:11:27 --> 00:11:30 but it's you're right. It's it's ch it
00:11:30 --> 00:11:32 you know it changes from one place to
00:11:32 --> 00:11:35 another because ma matter changes the
00:11:35 --> 00:11:39 shape of spaceime. Um so if you've got a
00:11:39 --> 00:11:42 lump of matter then you've you're
00:11:42 --> 00:11:44 distorting the space around it. And yes
00:11:44 --> 00:11:47 frame dragging something um that um uh
00:11:47 --> 00:11:49 that Rusty mentioned. Frame dragging is
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 the way a rotating object drags the
00:11:51 --> 00:11:53 spaceime around with it. But even if
00:11:53 --> 00:11:55 it's not rotating, it's still deforming
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 the spaceime around. It's how
00:11:57 --> 00:12:00 gravitational lenses work. And so space
00:12:00 --> 00:12:05 spacetime is this uh crinkled pattern of
00:12:05 --> 00:12:07 uh of
00:12:07 --> 00:12:09 irregularity that comes from the matter
00:12:09 --> 00:12:12 within it. And we think the you know the
00:12:12 --> 00:12:15 the what we call the cosmic web, this
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 entangled web of almost like a foam of
00:12:19 --> 00:12:22 dark matter that itself has mass and
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 changes the shape of spaceime. That's
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 how we think the galaxies formed and how
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 we think we we got the structure that we
00:12:28 --> 00:12:32 see today. Uh but you need mass within
00:12:32 --> 00:12:35 spaceime in order to get those
00:12:35 --> 00:12:38 phenomena. Gotcha. All right. Uh thank
00:12:38 --> 00:12:42 you Rusty um stirring the pot as always.
00:12:42 --> 00:12:44 This is Space Nuts. Andrew Dunley here
00:12:44 --> 00:12:47 and Fred Watson just he's right next to
00:12:47 --> 00:12:50 me. Now, let's take a quick break from
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00:15:28 --> 00:15:30 code spacen nuts. We've got all the
00:15:30 --> 00:15:34 details in our show notes. Now back to
00:15:34 --> 00:15:41 Space Nuts. 3 2 1 Space Nuts. Our next
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43 question comes from Dave. Daves in
00:15:43 --> 00:15:46 Indiana, which is also the name of my
00:15:46 --> 00:15:49 sister-in-law's cat. Uh, if you fire I
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51 don't know why I said that. If you fire
00:15:51 --> 00:15:53 a laser into space, would the emission
00:15:53 --> 00:15:55 impart a force in the opposite
00:15:55 --> 00:15:58 direction? If not, could a broad beam be
00:15:58 --> 00:16:01 used on a space sail to effectively move
00:16:01 --> 00:16:05 a spacecraft? Uh, thank you Dave. Um, we
00:16:05 --> 00:16:07 have talked about this concept before.
00:16:08 --> 00:16:11 They're um talking about uh experiments
00:16:11 --> 00:16:16 of um of spacecraft using interstellar
00:16:16 --> 00:16:18 sails or whatever you want to call them
00:16:18 --> 00:16:23 uh being pushed along by laser. Um I
00:16:23 --> 00:16:25 don't know if they've actually done it
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 yet or maybe they've tried it in small
00:16:28 --> 00:16:30 scales. I can't remember. We have we
00:16:30 --> 00:16:32 have come across this before. There was
00:16:32 --> 00:16:35 some uh some research that was published
00:16:35 --> 00:16:37 and we talked about it on Space Nuts.
00:16:37 --> 00:16:39 It's probably a couple of years ago now.
00:16:39 --> 00:16:41 Yeah. Uh in fact it might even be longer
00:16:41 --> 00:16:44 which demonstrated that a light sail
00:16:44 --> 00:16:47 will actually provide an acceleration to
00:16:47 --> 00:16:48 a spacecraft. I think this was using
00:16:48 --> 00:16:51 sunlight if I remember rightly but um it
00:16:51 --> 00:16:54 was a spacecraft that uh was just an
00:16:54 --> 00:16:56 experimental one. They used a light
00:16:56 --> 00:16:58 sail. They could tilt it in different
00:16:58 --> 00:17:01 directions and it basically provided
00:17:02 --> 00:17:04 accelerations exactly what they expected
00:17:04 --> 00:17:06 from the transfer of momentum of from
00:17:06 --> 00:17:10 the photons to the to the sail itself.
00:17:10 --> 00:17:13 Uh so um yes and the answer is yes. So
00:17:13 --> 00:17:18 there is a whole study uh uh um Dave
00:17:18 --> 00:17:22 looking at this uh it's the project is
00:17:22 --> 00:17:25 called Breakthrough Starshot. Uh I'm not
00:17:25 --> 00:17:27 sure whether it's still running but uh
00:17:27 --> 00:17:32 the idea was to do a a feasibility study
00:17:32 --> 00:17:35 uh funded by a Russian billionaire
00:17:35 --> 00:17:38 called Yuri Milner uh under the the
00:17:38 --> 00:17:40 Breakthrough Foundations
00:17:40 --> 00:17:44 uh Aegis. They were basically doing a
00:17:44 --> 00:17:47 feasibility study to see whether you
00:17:47 --> 00:17:50 could use powerful lasers to fire
00:17:50 --> 00:17:53 photons at a light sail and accelerate a
00:17:53 --> 00:17:56 spacecraft to maybe half the speed of
00:17:56 --> 00:17:59 light. Uh maybe a little bit less, but
00:17:59 --> 00:18:00 certainly a significant fraction of the
00:18:00 --> 00:18:03 speed of light by bombarding it with
00:18:03 --> 00:18:05 these photons all the time. uh to see
00:18:06 --> 00:18:07 whether you could get it to Alpha
00:18:07 --> 00:18:10 Centuri uh or Proxima Centuri, the
00:18:10 --> 00:18:12 nearest star to our solar system in a
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 reasonable time. In other words, you
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 know, decade or so, rather than rather
00:18:17 --> 00:18:19 than the 60 years it would take
00:18:19 --> 00:18:21 using conventional rockets. So, it has
00:18:21 --> 00:18:24 been well looked after. So um your idea
00:18:24 --> 00:18:28 is is good and is already you know
00:18:28 --> 00:18:29 already in trained and in fact has
00:18:29 --> 00:18:32 already been demonstrated by this this
00:18:32 --> 00:18:34 experiment that was uh carried out in
00:18:34 --> 00:18:36 Earth orbit low and and if you were to
00:18:36 --> 00:18:38 fire a laser into space there would be
00:18:38 --> 00:18:40 no recoil. There'd be no backwash or
00:18:40 --> 00:18:43 whatever you want to call it. I think
00:18:43 --> 00:18:45 that's correct. Uh I need to check that
00:18:45 --> 00:18:47 but I think that is correct. Uh cuz yes,
00:18:47 --> 00:18:50 you wouldn't want your laser firing off
00:18:50 --> 00:18:52 at the opposite direction. Yeah, it's
00:18:52 --> 00:18:54 not it's not like firing a bullet. Um
00:18:54 --> 00:18:57 you shoot from shooting light. Um and
00:18:57 --> 00:18:59 there's no recoil from a torch or a
00:18:59 --> 00:19:02 flashlight to Well, uh but yes, I mean
00:19:02 --> 00:19:05 there might be Yeah, I I think that is
00:19:05 --> 00:19:06 correct. I think that's correct. Yeah,
00:19:06 --> 00:19:08 you you'd never detect it in a torch
00:19:08 --> 00:19:12 anyway. No, definitely not. Um I have
00:19:12 --> 00:19:14 just done a bit of a search and I found
00:19:14 --> 00:19:17 a website called planetary.org. or and
00:19:17 --> 00:19:20 this is an organization that is working
00:19:20 --> 00:19:23 on light sail technology. Okay, good. Uh
00:19:23 --> 00:19:27 through the planetary society and uh
00:19:27 --> 00:19:30 they're doing a light sail program and
00:19:30 --> 00:19:32 they demonstrated that uh solar sailing
00:19:32 --> 00:19:35 is a viable means of propulsion and for
00:19:35 --> 00:19:38 small satellites. Uh solar sails are use
00:19:38 --> 00:19:40 uh use sunlight instead of rocket fuel
00:19:40 --> 00:19:42 for propulsion.
00:19:42 --> 00:19:44 They are one of the few technologies
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 that could be used for interstellar
00:19:46 --> 00:19:50 travel. Uh their light sail 2 spacecraft
00:19:50 --> 00:19:53 uh was in space from June uh 2019 to
00:19:53 --> 00:19:56 November 2022 and successfully use
00:19:56 --> 00:19:59 sunlight uh alone to change its orbit
00:20:00 --> 00:20:01 around Earth. So that's probably what
00:20:01 --> 00:20:02 you were thinking of Fred. It is. Yes,
00:20:02 --> 00:20:06 that's right. Yeah. So that's a website
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08 worth visiting Dave, if you want to
00:20:08 --> 00:20:10 check it out,
00:20:10 --> 00:20:12 planetary.org. But there are so many
00:20:12 --> 00:20:14 other stories about light sail
00:20:14 --> 00:20:17 technology and uh lots of people giving
00:20:17 --> 00:20:21 this very very serious thought. So uh
00:20:21 --> 00:20:23 worth worth chasing up if you want to
00:20:23 --> 00:20:25 find out more about it. And thank you
00:20:25 --> 00:20:30 Dave for the question
00:20:30 --> 00:20:33 and I feel space nuts. Now final
00:20:33 --> 00:20:35 question is not a question at all except
00:20:35 --> 00:20:38 it's a question that needs to be
00:20:38 --> 00:20:40 answered. doesn't make sense. But um
00:20:40 --> 00:20:43 Jud, who uh is in Brisbane, formerly
00:20:43 --> 00:20:46 Sydney, the traitor traitor, uh says,
00:20:46 --> 00:20:49 "Good day, Andrew and Fred. Heidi did a
00:20:49 --> 00:20:51 great job of co-hosting while Andrew was
00:20:51 --> 00:20:53 away. It could take years for her to
00:20:53 --> 00:20:55 bring her dad jokes to Andrew's level,
00:20:55 --> 00:20:58 though." Yes, that's very true. Um, you
00:20:58 --> 00:21:00 know, there's there's no comparison to
00:21:00 --> 00:21:04 how bad I am. Uh, I I I came across this
00:21:04 --> 00:21:06 zinger online. He says, "Uh, if you use
00:21:06 --> 00:21:09 it, maybe Fred could explain why it's
00:21:09 --> 00:21:12 funny." Uh, that always goes down down
00:21:12 --> 00:21:13 well with my wife, he says. All right,
00:21:13 --> 00:21:17 here we go. Two spinal uh spinal two sp
00:21:17 --> 00:21:20 spiral galaxies walk into a pub. The
00:21:20 --> 00:21:22 first one goes up to the bar and asks
00:21:22 --> 00:21:24 the two drinks, one for him and one for
00:21:24 --> 00:21:26 his friend. The barman looks
00:21:26 --> 00:21:28 suspiciously at the second spiral galaxy
00:21:28 --> 00:21:30 and says, "I'm sorry, but I can't serve
00:21:30 --> 00:21:32 your friend. He'll have to go." The
00:21:32 --> 00:21:35 first spiral galaxy complains. Why can't
00:21:35 --> 00:21:39 you serve him? The barman replies. He's
00:21:39 --> 00:21:42 barred. Deafening silence. Why is that?
00:21:42 --> 00:21:44 Why is that funny? I'm chuckling away to
00:21:44 --> 00:21:47 myself here. Ho ho
00:21:47 --> 00:21:52 ho. Ho ho ho. So, um it's interesting.
00:21:52 --> 00:21:55 There's three different um three
00:21:55 --> 00:21:59 different uses of the word bar here. Ah,
00:21:59 --> 00:22:04 the bar the barman's got. Um, and a bar
00:22:04 --> 00:22:06 being something that prevents you from
00:22:06 --> 00:22:09 doing something, you barred. But also,
00:22:09 --> 00:22:11 we talk about spiral galaxies having a
00:22:11 --> 00:22:13 bar. I kind of figured it was something
00:22:14 --> 00:22:16 like that by that sort of bar. Think of
00:22:16 --> 00:22:20 a chocolate bar this time. Um, spiral
00:22:20 --> 00:22:23 galaxies that rather than just having a
00:22:23 --> 00:22:26 central bulge with spiral arms coming
00:22:26 --> 00:22:28 from them, they've got the central
00:22:28 --> 00:22:30 bulge, but they've also got a bar
00:22:30 --> 00:22:32 across. And the spiral arms start with
00:22:32 --> 00:22:35 the from the ends of the bar. Uh indeed
00:22:35 --> 00:22:38 our own galaxy has one which has been
00:22:38 --> 00:22:40 observed and measured by the GIA
00:22:40 --> 00:22:42 spacecraft and many others. So our
00:22:42 --> 00:22:44 galaxy has one. We sort of look at it
00:22:44 --> 00:22:46 sideways from our vantage point or
00:22:46 --> 00:22:50 obliquely if I can put it that way. Um
00:22:50 --> 00:22:54 it's a uh you know it's a phenomenon
00:22:54 --> 00:22:58 that is very common among galaxies. Uh,
00:22:58 --> 00:23:00 we call them B spirals. There you are.
00:23:00 --> 00:23:03 B. They are B spirals. So, your friend's
00:23:03 --> 00:23:06 a B. Your friend's B. That's because
00:23:06 --> 00:23:09 he's a B spiral. Sorry. It it took um it
00:23:09 --> 00:23:12 took a long time to get that through.
00:23:12 --> 00:23:14 No. Well, it it it certainly required
00:23:14 --> 00:23:16 explanation. I'm sure some people
00:23:16 --> 00:23:18 immediately went, "Oh, yeah. I get it."
00:23:18 --> 00:23:20 Uh, but others like myself would have
00:23:20 --> 00:23:22 gone, "I don't know. I'm scratching my
00:23:22 --> 00:23:24 head." Uh, although it's prompted
00:23:24 --> 00:23:26 another dad joke. You ready for this,
00:23:26 --> 00:23:31 Jud? Um, so the Milky Way can't Here we
00:23:31 --> 00:23:34 go. is non-alcoholic because it's it's
00:23:34 --> 00:23:36 barred.
00:23:36 --> 00:23:38 There we go. Yes. Yeah, it's about
00:23:38 --> 00:23:40 spiral.
00:23:40 --> 00:23:43 Yeah. Terrible. Horrible joke. U,
00:23:43 --> 00:23:45 thanks, Jud. Oh, he had a bonus joke.
00:23:46 --> 00:23:48 Uh, the the bartender says, "I don't
00:23:48 --> 00:23:51 serve anyone faster than light. A
00:23:51 --> 00:23:54 neutrino walks into the bar."
00:23:54 --> 00:23:57 Why is Why is that funny? So that was
00:23:57 --> 00:24:00 when um it's a story it's quite an
00:24:00 --> 00:24:02 entertaining story which we covered.
00:24:02 --> 00:24:04 This is going back maybe even a decade
00:24:04 --> 00:24:07 right uh there is a particle detector at
00:24:07 --> 00:24:12 Grand Saso in Italy northern Italy which
00:24:12 --> 00:24:14 detected neutrinos that were being
00:24:14 --> 00:24:16 emitted by the large hadron collider on
00:24:16 --> 00:24:18 the French Swiss border. Now remember
00:24:18 --> 00:24:20 neutrinos barely interact with anything
00:24:20 --> 00:24:22 so they travel through rock cheerfully.
00:24:22 --> 00:24:24 They go right through the earth no
00:24:24 --> 00:24:29 problem. But the uh problem was these
00:24:29 --> 00:24:31 neutrinos seemed to arrive at Grand
00:24:31 --> 00:24:33 Sasso
00:24:33 --> 00:24:36 uh in a time that was less than what it
00:24:36 --> 00:24:38 would take them if they were traveling
00:24:38 --> 00:24:39 at the speed of light, which is about
00:24:39 --> 00:24:41 the speed that they do travel. They
00:24:41 --> 00:24:42 travel very close to the speed of light,
00:24:42 --> 00:24:46 right? And so, uh this was
00:24:46 --> 00:24:49 uh it really hit the headlines big time,
00:24:49 --> 00:24:52 faster than light neutrinos.
00:24:52 --> 00:24:55 And you know, people commented on it.
00:24:55 --> 00:24:59 They were relativistic theories. People
00:24:59 --> 00:25:01 digging up what could be going on here.
00:25:01 --> 00:25:03 They were all trying to think of how the
00:25:03 --> 00:25:06 theory of relativity could be modified
00:25:06 --> 00:25:09 to accept this to make it work. And a
00:25:09 --> 00:25:10 few other people were saying, "I bet it
00:25:10 --> 00:25:11 goes away. I bet there's something wrong
00:25:12 --> 00:25:15 with the equipment." About a month after
00:25:15 --> 00:25:19 that experiment had been reported, uh
00:25:19 --> 00:25:21 they fessed up at Grand Sasso that they
00:25:21 --> 00:25:24 had discovered a faulty connector. Uh
00:25:24 --> 00:25:27 and it was that faulty connector that
00:25:28 --> 00:25:31 was giving the uh the mistaken
00:25:31 --> 00:25:32 impression that these nutrinos was
00:25:32 --> 00:25:33 traveling faster than the speed of
00:25:34 --> 00:25:35 light. It's to do with their clocking.
00:25:35 --> 00:25:38 And it was so embarrassing that the
00:25:38 --> 00:25:41 director is he resigned. Director
00:25:41 --> 00:25:43 resigned. Yeah.
00:25:43 --> 00:25:45 Wow. I mean, we've we've talked about
00:25:45 --> 00:25:49 certain gaffs in science discoveries,
00:25:49 --> 00:25:51 etc. in the past, but that that's a
00:25:51 --> 00:25:53 that's a big price to pay, isn't it? It
00:25:53 --> 00:25:55 is. Yeah. Yeah. It was uh I think he
00:25:55 --> 00:25:58 felt that um he'd have put Italy on the
00:25:58 --> 00:26:00 scientific map for the wrong reasons
00:26:00 --> 00:26:02 because they had a faulty connector. But
00:26:02 --> 00:26:04 it does remind me of another joke that
00:26:04 --> 00:26:06 was going on around about the same time.
00:26:06 --> 00:26:08 This was back in 2012 when the Higs Bzon
00:26:08 --> 00:26:12 was discovered. Um, which I always
00:26:12 --> 00:26:15 liked. Uh, and it's very quick. A Higs
00:26:15 --> 00:26:20 Bzon walks into a bar and No, let me do
00:26:20 --> 00:26:21 Let me start again. That's the wrong
00:26:21 --> 00:26:23 joke.
00:26:23 --> 00:26:25 Wrong joke. That was funny. That was
00:26:25 --> 00:26:26 funny. That's good, wasn't it? A Higs
00:26:26 --> 00:26:30 boson. A Hig boson walks into a
00:26:30 --> 00:26:32 church and the priest says, "I'm sorry,
00:26:32 --> 00:26:34 we don't allow Hig bosons into this
00:26:34 --> 00:26:36 church." And the Higs boson said, "Well,
00:26:36 --> 00:26:39 how do you have mass then?" Love it.
00:26:39 --> 00:26:42 Yeah, I have heard that before. Yes, I'm
00:26:42 --> 00:26:43 sure you have. Yeah, it was doing the
00:26:43 --> 00:26:46 rounds. I've got a a somewhat spacey
00:26:46 --> 00:26:49 joke because um GPS operates using
00:26:49 --> 00:26:53 global positioning satellites. Um I I I
00:26:53 --> 00:26:55 I'm going to buy you one of these, Fred.
00:26:55 --> 00:26:58 This is a um a GPS navigation system for
00:26:58 --> 00:27:00 seniors.
00:27:00 --> 00:27:04 Okay. It uh not only tells you where to
00:27:04 --> 00:27:07 go is how to get there. It tells you why
00:27:07 --> 00:27:09 you wanted to go there in the first
00:27:09 --> 00:27:12 place.
00:27:12 --> 00:27:13 Yeah, that's a good one. And probably it
00:27:13 --> 00:27:15 needs to tell you where you've come from
00:27:15 --> 00:27:18 as well and how to get back. Yeah. How
00:27:18 --> 00:27:20 to get back. You I'm not quite at that
00:27:20 --> 00:27:23 stage yet. My my GPS gets used a lot and
00:27:23 --> 00:27:25 I always know why I'm going there.
00:27:25 --> 00:27:27 Although sometimes I do wonder. Well,
00:27:28 --> 00:27:30 it's reached a point where we wonder how
00:27:30 --> 00:27:32 we dealt without it. Is amazing, isn't
00:27:32 --> 00:27:34 it? We used to have those big thick road
00:27:34 --> 00:27:37 map books in the car.
00:27:37 --> 00:27:39 Yeah. I used to have them on the
00:27:39 --> 00:27:42 passenger seat with page markers in them
00:27:42 --> 00:27:44 so I could, you know, when I got to that
00:27:44 --> 00:27:46 the end of end of one map, I could turn
00:27:46 --> 00:27:48 it over and find where I was on the
00:27:48 --> 00:27:51 next. Terribly dangerous. Yeah. And the
00:27:51 --> 00:27:52 way it was. Yeah. You're not allowed to
00:27:52 --> 00:27:54 touch your phone in a car, but you can
00:27:54 --> 00:27:55 read a book.
00:27:56 --> 00:27:59 Yes. That's right. Yes. Yeah. H It's
00:27:59 --> 00:28:02 Yeah. And for all you young people, they
00:28:02 --> 00:28:05 used it was made of paper with colored
00:28:05 --> 00:28:09 maps inside. It was a very very some of
00:28:09 --> 00:28:12 them anyway. And instead of it following
00:28:12 --> 00:28:14 you along on your phone, you just ran
00:28:14 --> 00:28:17 your finger along the red line. Okay, I
00:28:17 --> 00:28:20 got to turn left there. Um. Yes. All
00:28:20 --> 00:28:22 right, we're done, Fred. Thank you so
00:28:22 --> 00:28:25 much. It's a pleasure. Uh, and we will
00:28:25 --> 00:28:27 talk again soon, I hope. Yes. Yes. I
00:28:27 --> 00:28:28 think I've got one more recording
00:28:28 --> 00:28:30 session before I head off and hand over
00:28:30 --> 00:28:33 to Heidi again for a while. But um won't
00:28:33 --> 00:28:36 I I will be reporting in from my various
00:28:36 --> 00:28:38 destinations around the world. So we'll
00:28:38 --> 00:28:40 um we'll u yeah tell you more about that
00:28:40 --> 00:28:42 down the track. Don't forget to visit us
00:28:42 --> 00:28:43 online too cuz we need some more
00:28:43 --> 00:28:45 questions. Um we are desperately short
00:28:46 --> 00:28:48 as it turns out. Cleaning out the closet
00:28:48 --> 00:28:50 of questions was probably a bad idea but
00:28:50 --> 00:28:53 anyway it got done. Uh
00:28:53 --> 00:28:56 spaceodcast.com spacenuts.io IO is where
00:28:56 --> 00:28:58 you can send us your questions on the
00:28:58 --> 00:29:01 AMA link. Uh audio or text. Either way,
00:29:01 --> 00:29:02 tell us who you are and where you're
00:29:02 --> 00:29:05 from. We love to know that. And uh Hugh
00:29:05 --> 00:29:08 in the studio. Well, I think you'll know
00:29:08 --> 00:29:10 where this is going. He couldn't be with
00:29:10 --> 00:29:15 us today because he's barred. And from
00:29:15 --> 00:29:17 from me, Andrew Dunley, thanks for your
00:29:17 --> 00:29:19 company. We'll see you on the next
00:29:19 --> 00:29:22 episode. Goodbye. Space Nuts. You'll be
00:29:22 --> 00:29:26 listening to the Space Nuts podcast
00:29:26 --> 00:29:29 available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
00:29:29 --> 00:29:31 iHeart Radio, or your favorite podcast
00:29:31 --> 00:29:34 player. You can also stream on demand at
00:29:34 --> 00:29:37 byes.com. This has been another quality
00:29:37 --> 00:29:41 podcast production from bites.com.
00:29:41 --> 00:29:43 I I love getting a wait for this one. A
00:29:43 --> 00:29:47 barb in at a good. Yes, I like that,
00:29:47 --> 00:29:48 too. You should have should have thrown
00:29:48 --> 00:29:50 that in somewhere. Well, I haven't
00:29:50 --> 00:29:51 stopped recording yet, but I'm going to
00:29:51 --> 00:29:55 press stop now.