Space Nuts Episode 515: K2 18b, Polar Orbits, and the Lucy Mission
In this fascinating episode of Space Nuts, host Heidi Campo takes the helm for her final week as Andrew Dunkley prepares to return. Joined by the ever-knowledgeable Professor Fred Watson, they delve into some of the most exciting recent discoveries in astronomy, including the much-discussed K2 18b, the peculiar polar orbit of a newly discovered planet, and the latest from NASA's Lucy mission.
Episode Highlights:
- K2 18b's Potential for Life: Heidi and Fred explore the latest findings on K2 18b, a planet in the habitable zone of its star that exhibits chemical signatures potentially linked to life. They discuss the significance of dimethyl sulfide and dimethyldisulfide and the challenges of confirming these findings through the James Webb Space Telescope.
- The Mystery of Polar Orbits: The duo shifts gears to discuss the surprising discovery of a planet orbiting in a polar configuration around a binary star system. Fred explains the implications of this unusual orbit and the theories surrounding its formation, raising questions about the nature of planetary systems.
- The Lucy Mission: The episode wraps up with an exciting update on NASA's Lucy mission, which aims to explore Trojan asteroids. Heidi and Fred discuss the mission's unique goals, the significance of the asteroid named after paleoanthropologist Donaldjohanson Johanson, and the intriguing connections between the mission's title and its namesake.
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Stay curious, keep looking up, and join us next time for more stellar insights and cosmic wonders. Until then, clear skies and happy stargazing.
(00:00) Welcome to Space Nuts with Heidi Campo and Fred Watson
(01:15) Discussion on K2 18b and its potential for life
(15:30) The polar orbit discovery around binary stars
(25:00) Updates on NASA's Lucy mission and its asteroid flyby
For the 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/26787672?utm_source=youtube
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Welcome back to another exciting episode
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 of Space Nuts. I am your temporary host
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 and this will be my last week here
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 before you get your beloved Andrew
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 Dunley back. But my name is Heidi Compo
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 and I am here with the wonderful,
00:00:15 --> 00:00:17 delightful, brilliant Professor Fred
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 Watson, astronomer at large.
00:00:20 --> 00:00:24 Oh, Heidi, you can you can come again.
00:00:24 --> 00:00:26 It's very, very generous introduction
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 there. Thank you very much. Oh, well,
00:00:28 --> 00:00:29 we're just excited to have you here,
00:00:29 --> 00:00:31 Fred. And yes, you are all listening to
00:00:31 --> 00:00:35 another episode of Space Nuts. 15
00:00:35 --> 00:00:39 seconds. Guidance is internal. 10 9
00:00:39 --> 00:00:43 Ignition sequence start. Space Nuts. 5 4
00:00:43 --> 00:00:48 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 Space Nuts.
00:00:48 --> 00:00:51 Astronauts report. It feels good. And
00:00:51 --> 00:00:53 today on this episode of Space Nuts, we
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 are going to be first and foremost
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 talking about the conversation that is
00:00:57 --> 00:01:01 on everybody's mind. It's been the hot
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 topic in space science lately. And no,
00:01:04 --> 00:01:06 it is not what you're thinking. It is
00:01:06 --> 00:01:09 actually talking about K2
00:01:09 --> 00:01:13 18b, the planet. And we are going to be
00:01:13 --> 00:01:16 talking about all of the news that's
00:01:16 --> 00:01:19 real versus what's kind of fake. There's
00:01:19 --> 00:01:20 probably a lot of misinformation out
00:01:20 --> 00:01:23 there. So, Fred, let's start with just
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 breaking down what's the big news about
00:01:25 --> 00:01:28 this planet. Uh, yeah, it's big news
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 that's been, I guess, a fairly long time
00:01:30 --> 00:01:33 coming because this planet has uh
00:01:33 --> 00:01:35 captured the interest of astronomers and
00:01:35 --> 00:01:37 astrobiologists in particular, and
00:01:37 --> 00:01:39 they're the scientists who study the
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 origin of life and whether there is life
00:01:41 --> 00:01:44 elsewhere in the universe. Um, because
00:01:44 --> 00:01:47 uh first of all, its uh orbits in its in
00:01:47 --> 00:01:50 its uh home star. The planet orbits in
00:01:50 --> 00:01:54 its its stars Goldilock zone. Uh the
00:01:54 --> 00:01:55 Goldilock zone where it's not too hot
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 and it's not too cold, but it's just
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 right for liquid water to exist. Uh the
00:02:00 --> 00:02:04 star itself, K28, is uh a red dwarf
00:02:04 --> 00:02:06 star, which means it's much cooler than
00:02:06 --> 00:02:08 our sun. And so this planet orbits
00:02:08 --> 00:02:11 closer to its to its parent star than we
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 do. But it still has the right
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 temperature for liquid water to exist.
00:02:15 --> 00:02:17 And in fact, it's been hypothesized that
00:02:17 --> 00:02:20 this was what's called a hyen world, uh,
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 which is a world, uh, which is covered
00:02:22 --> 00:02:25 with a liquid water ocean, uh, and
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 probably a, um, a hydrogen atmosphere.
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 We we we don't know for certain that
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 these worlds exist, but they fit the
00:02:31 --> 00:02:33 modeling. And so, um, the evidence seems
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 to be coming from
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 K28b, uh, that it's a world like this.
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41 And partly that's due to earlier
00:02:41 --> 00:02:43 observations which showed uh
00:02:43 --> 00:02:46 concentrations of both carbon dioxide
00:02:46 --> 00:02:49 and methane in its atmosphere. Uh so
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 that has sort of put this planet on the
00:02:53 --> 00:02:56 um kind of hit list of astrobiologists.
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 Uh you know it's made them aware of the
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 fact that it's a planet that could just
00:03:01 --> 00:03:04 possibly harbor life. And so, uh, the
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 group of scientists who have kind of hit
00:03:06 --> 00:03:10 the headlines with this story, uh, have
00:03:10 --> 00:03:12 used the, uh, they've been using the
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 James Webb Space Telescope, uh, our kind
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 of currently best tool for doing this
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 kind of thing, uh, in order to probe
00:03:20 --> 00:03:24 more deeply into the atmosphere of K28b.
00:03:24 --> 00:03:26 And by more deeply, I mean in more
00:03:26 --> 00:03:28 detail uh, and with greater sensitivity.
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 The James Webb telescope's a 6 and a
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 half meter diameter telescope. So it's
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 got good light p gathering power. Uh but
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 it has to be said and this is the caveat
00:03:38 --> 00:03:39 at the beginning of all all discussions
00:03:39 --> 00:03:41 of this kind that the observations that
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 these scientists are making are very
00:03:43 --> 00:03:46 very difficult ones. Uh because what you
00:03:46 --> 00:03:49 have to do is look at the light from the
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 star since you don't see the planet
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53 itself. All you can see is the combined
00:03:53 --> 00:03:55 light of the star and the planet. You
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 look at the light from the star. you uh
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 examine it with the spectrograph. That's
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 the device that breaks the light up into
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 its rainbow of colors and gives us this
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 barcode of information about what's in
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 the atmosphere of the star. And then uh
00:04:08 --> 00:04:10 when the planet passes in front of the
00:04:10 --> 00:04:12 star, you've got a tiny additional
00:04:12 --> 00:04:16 component that comes from starlight
00:04:16 --> 00:04:18 which is passing through the atmosphere
00:04:18 --> 00:04:20 of the planet itself. So there's this
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 tiny little ring of atmosphere that is
00:04:22 --> 00:04:24 superimposed on the disc of the star. We
00:04:24 --> 00:04:26 don't see any of that, but we know
00:04:26 --> 00:04:29 that's what's happening. And in that um
00:04:29 --> 00:04:31 in the atmosphere,
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 uh the that basically uh puts an extra
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 dimension into the spectrum. It gives
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38 you a little bit more information in the
00:04:38 --> 00:04:41 spectrum and you can deduce what is
00:04:41 --> 00:04:43 coming from the atmosphere of the planet
00:04:43 --> 00:04:45 and what's coming from the star itself.
00:04:45 --> 00:04:47 And so uh to cut to the chase, the new
00:04:47 --> 00:04:51 observations uh seem to confirm at a
00:04:51 --> 00:04:55 confidence level they say of 99.7%
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57 uh which is pretty confident uh but they
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 seem to confirm earlier observations
00:04:59 --> 00:05:02 that hinted at two chemicals in the
00:05:02 --> 00:05:05 atmosphere of the planet K28b
00:05:05 --> 00:05:09 uh which are usually and certainly
00:05:09 --> 00:05:12 always on earth uh they are generated by
00:05:12 --> 00:05:16 living organisms. Uh the two chemicals
00:05:16 --> 00:05:19 are dime dimethile sulfide and dimethile
00:05:19 --> 00:05:22 dulfide. Two with very similar names. Uh
00:05:22 --> 00:05:24 organic chemicals, carbon containing
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 chemicals. As I said on earth they come
00:05:27 --> 00:05:30 from living organisms. And so uh that is
00:05:30 --> 00:05:34 the story as we know it to date. And of
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 course the excitement comes from the
00:05:36 --> 00:05:40 fact that if those chemicals are only
00:05:40 --> 00:05:42 you know generated by living organisms
00:05:42 --> 00:05:46 on earth maybe the same is true on this
00:05:46 --> 00:05:50 so-called or possible highan world. Now
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 to to to put a sober touch on it. Um uh
00:05:53 --> 00:05:55 it's really difficult uh first of all
00:05:56 --> 00:05:57 it's really difficult to make the
00:05:57 --> 00:05:58 observations and there are still some
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 people who think that might go away that
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 the dimethile sulfide and dimethile dul
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 sulfide aren't really there and what
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 will happen on that front is more
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 observations will be made certainly with
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 the James Webb telescope and in a few
00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 years time we hope with the extremely
00:06:13 --> 00:06:15 large telescope that European monster
00:06:15 --> 00:06:17 that's being built in the northern
00:06:17 --> 00:06:21 Andes. Uh so that's the first thing. The
00:06:21 --> 00:06:24 second thing is, can these chemicals
00:06:24 --> 00:06:26 only be produced by life? Are there
00:06:26 --> 00:06:29 other explanations? And a number of
00:06:29 --> 00:06:31 scientists have raised that as a
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 possibility. They're saying, well, it's
00:06:34 --> 00:06:36 so hard to pick a biomarker, something
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 that is an absolutely dead certain uh
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 piece of evidence about biology. Uh it's
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 very hard to pick things like, you know,
00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 that that are that are um give you a a
00:06:47 --> 00:06:49 rock solid case that you've got living
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 organisms. And so what they're saying is
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 maybe there are other natural processes
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 that don't involve life, abiotic as we
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 call them, abiotic processes that uh co
00:06:59 --> 00:07:02 cause these chemicals to exist but don't
00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 come from life. And one suggestion is
00:07:05 --> 00:07:07 volcanic activity of a kind that we're
00:07:07 --> 00:07:11 not yet familiar with. Uh and so uh I
00:07:11 --> 00:07:13 loved one of the comments in one of the
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 news articles. You might have seen it
00:07:15 --> 00:07:18 too, Heidi. Uh that this might uh not be
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 Vulcans but might be vulcanism. Uh which
00:07:21 --> 00:07:22 I thought was quite
00:07:22 --> 00:07:26 neat. Uh so so that's the story so far.
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 Um and it's one of these stories that I
00:07:28 --> 00:07:30 think will evolve over time as it has
00:07:30 --> 00:07:32 done already and maybe we'll cover it on
00:07:32 --> 00:07:34 Space Nots when the news breaks if it
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 does.
00:07:36 --> 00:07:38 So tell me what the timeline of this
00:07:38 --> 00:07:40 evolution could look like. Uh we we are
00:07:40 --> 00:07:42 building satellites that can give us
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 more information, but we're really kind
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 of just holding here. We're sitting here
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 um on the edge of our seats waiting for
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 this information. So the satellites will
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 tell us more, but with how far away this
00:07:52 --> 00:07:53 planet is, and I I forget how far away
00:07:54 --> 00:07:55 you said it was, how long would it take
00:07:55 --> 00:07:57 for us to get a probe there to even
00:07:57 --> 00:07:59 collect soil samples? That's a really
00:07:59 --> 00:08:02 good question. Um its distance
00:08:02 --> 00:08:08 is 124 light years. So, with the best
00:08:08 --> 00:08:10 available, the fastest available
00:08:10 --> 00:08:13 spacecraft we have at present, we'd be
00:08:13 --> 00:08:14 looking at more than a million years to
00:08:14 --> 00:08:16 get there. Um, I did the calculation. I
00:08:16 --> 00:08:18 did it in my head actually, so it might
00:08:18 --> 00:08:19 be wrong, but it is at least a million
00:08:19 --> 00:08:21 years. It probably So, remember that
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 part earlier when I said the brilliant,
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 wonderful, that's that's what we're
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 talking about right here.
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 Well, yeah, it's um I'm thinking of, you
00:08:30 --> 00:08:32 know, it would take about 60 years
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 to with a with a spacecraft like New
00:08:34 --> 00:08:35 Horizons, which for a while was the
00:08:35 --> 00:08:38 fastest uh man humanmade object
00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 traveling through the solar system. Um
00:08:41 --> 00:08:43 it would take about 60 years to get
00:08:43 --> 00:08:45 to Alpha Centuri, the nearest of the
00:08:45 --> 00:08:47 stars, and that's four light years away.
00:08:47 --> 00:08:48 So, you can do the kind of do the
00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 calculation. Yeah. So, that's you know,
00:08:50 --> 00:08:51 that's not happening anytime soon. But,
00:08:52 --> 00:08:53 you know, with a lot of the new
00:08:53 --> 00:08:55 technologies coming out, maybe we will
00:08:55 --> 00:08:59 see the possibility of soil sampling um
00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 in our lifetime. I know I was just at
00:09:01 --> 00:09:03 the um Texas Space Grant Consortium
00:09:03 --> 00:09:05 design showcase this past weekend and
00:09:05 --> 00:09:06 there were some really really cool
00:09:06 --> 00:09:09 engineering ideas being presented with
00:09:09 --> 00:09:13 um nuclear um propulsion and lots of
00:09:13 --> 00:09:15 other really cool things that were
00:09:15 --> 00:09:17 really kind of just on the fringe of
00:09:17 --> 00:09:18 that may may we may have those
00:09:18 --> 00:09:21 breakthroughs very soon.
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 You're right. And I mean um in fact
00:09:23 --> 00:09:25 breakthrough is the word because um the
00:09:25 --> 00:09:28 breakthrough funding body uh has set up
00:09:28 --> 00:09:32 it's a foundation uh founded by um
00:09:32 --> 00:09:33 gentleman if I remember rightly his name
00:09:33 --> 00:09:36 is Yuri Milner Yuri Milner who is a
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 Russian billionaire who set up these
00:09:38 --> 00:09:40 foundations one of which is called
00:09:40 --> 00:09:42 breakthrough starshot which looks at the
00:09:42 --> 00:09:45 possibility of using light sails to
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 accelerate a spacecraft to something
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 like half the speed of light. Uh and if
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 you could do that then you can get to
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 the nearest star in well eight years
00:09:55 --> 00:09:56 rather than four years. Four years it
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 takes light to come here. Eight years
00:09:58 --> 00:10:00 would do it. Uh then you've got to wait
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 four years for the signals to come back
00:10:02 --> 00:10:04 to show us what we've found there. Uh
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 but yeah as you say a lot of
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 technologies are are in the mix. Very
00:10:09 --> 00:10:11 briefly though, um what will happen I
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 think on the nearer time scale uh more
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 James Web telescope observations I'm
00:10:16 --> 00:10:20 sure of K 218b and as I said the when
00:10:20 --> 00:10:23 the uh extremely large telescope is with
00:10:23 --> 00:10:26 it 39.3 meter diameter mirror comes
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 online in 2028 you can bet your life
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 this will be one of the first targets uh
00:10:30 --> 00:10:32 that they'll turn their spectrographs on
00:10:32 --> 00:10:34 to just to see what else is there.
00:10:34 --> 00:10:37 That's all really really exciting. Fred,
00:10:37 --> 00:10:40 I am wondering if you could tell tell me
00:10:40 --> 00:10:42 and some of our other listeners who are
00:10:42 --> 00:10:43 just maybe curious a little bit about
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 the operational side of these things.
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 When we get some cool breakthroughs with
00:10:49 --> 00:10:52 this, do the researchers have to apply
00:10:52 --> 00:10:54 for grants with telescope time or
00:10:54 --> 00:10:56 satellite time to be able to look at
00:10:56 --> 00:10:58 these planets?
00:10:58 --> 00:11:01 Yep, that's how it works. uh and those
00:11:01 --> 00:11:05 those applications uh are generally
00:11:05 --> 00:11:07 speaking uh you know that there will be
00:11:07 --> 00:11:10 a facility like the James Web and an
00:11:10 --> 00:11:13 independent entity which will look at
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 the merits of the scientific proposals
00:11:15 --> 00:11:18 that have been put forward for
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 observation on the James Web and they'll
00:11:20 --> 00:11:23 they'll basically give them their uh
00:11:23 --> 00:11:25 their time based on merit. It's quite
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 it's almost a cutthroat process. It's
00:11:27 --> 00:11:29 very uh if you're a researcher and I
00:11:29 --> 00:11:31 used to do this myself years and years
00:11:31 --> 00:11:35 ago uh you you have to you kind of got
00:11:35 --> 00:11:36 you're holding your breath when when you
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 know this committee is meeting and
00:11:38 --> 00:11:39 you're holding your breath for what the
00:11:39 --> 00:11:41 outcome is as to whether you're going to
00:11:41 --> 00:11:43 get your nights of time as it used to be
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 on groundbased telescopes. I think they
00:11:45 --> 00:11:48 have uh hours of time on on JWST. You
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50 get two or three hours and you've done
00:11:50 --> 00:11:54 very well. Um uh yeah. So, so it is it's
00:11:54 --> 00:11:57 a a pretty egalitarian process. It's um
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 really just based on merit uh generally
00:11:59 --> 00:12:01 speaking rather than who can pay or
00:12:01 --> 00:12:04 anything like that. Yeah. I always I
00:12:04 --> 00:12:06 always think of the movie Contact and I
00:12:06 --> 00:12:07 think it's every scientist's dream to
00:12:07 --> 00:12:10 just have this uh wealthy benefactor
00:12:10 --> 00:12:12 with unlimited resources show up out of
00:12:12 --> 00:12:14 nowhere and give you unlimited telescope
00:12:14 --> 00:12:18 time. Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:18 --> 00:12:21 Roger. You're here also. space nuts.
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 Well, you know, that is something that
00:12:24 --> 00:12:27 is very, very exciting. But as our next
00:12:27 --> 00:12:28 article says, you know, there are other
00:12:28 --> 00:12:31 big surprises out there. And this is not
00:12:31 --> 00:12:33 the only exciting thing happening in
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 space. So, I wanted to kind of pivot to
00:12:35 --> 00:12:37 the next article that you had on the
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 deck for today, which is talking about
00:12:39 --> 00:12:42 the perpendicular orbit around these
00:12:42 --> 00:12:44 pairs of stars. I mean, this kind of
00:12:44 --> 00:12:45 sounds almost like there's some black
00:12:46 --> 00:12:48 hole stuff going on here. Maybe there
00:12:48 --> 00:12:51 is. Uh yeah that's right. It's uh some
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54 results that have come from the European
00:12:54 --> 00:12:56 Southern Observatory which we've in
00:12:56 --> 00:12:57 indirectly just mentioned because
00:12:57 --> 00:12:59 they're they're the organization uh
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 which is putting together the extremely
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 large telescope at Sarah Amazon in
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 northern Chile. uh about 10 kilometers
00:13:06 --> 00:13:09 from that site is the site of actually
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 no it's about 20 kilometers from that
00:13:11 --> 00:13:13 site let me get it right uh is a
00:13:13 --> 00:13:15 mountain called Sarah Pararinal which
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17 has got what is currently the sort of
00:13:17 --> 00:13:20 largest set of telescopes uh and
00:13:20 --> 00:13:22 certainly the the most effective set of
00:13:22 --> 00:13:25 telescopes in the southern hemisphere uh
00:13:25 --> 00:13:28 the four telescopes of the VT the very
00:13:28 --> 00:13:30 large telescope and that is a very
00:13:30 --> 00:13:34 powerful facility and some results that
00:13:34 --> 00:13:37 have come from that uh actually uh
00:13:37 --> 00:13:40 carried out by researchers uh based uh
00:13:40 --> 00:13:41 at the University of Birmingham in the
00:13:41 --> 00:13:43 UK and they would have had to apply for
00:13:43 --> 00:13:46 time on these telescopes as as we've
00:13:46 --> 00:13:47 just been talking about and I know it's
00:13:47 --> 00:13:50 a very rigorous process. It's a quite a
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 difficult thing to go through. Anyway,
00:13:52 --> 00:13:56 uh they have been looking at uh an
00:13:56 --> 00:13:58 object oh gosh, aren't we good at giving
00:13:58 --> 00:14:01 names to things? an object called
00:14:01 --> 00:14:05 2M151 0 open brackets A B close brackets
00:14:05 --> 00:14:09 B that's the name of this planet but it
00:14:09 --> 00:14:12 sounds like Elon Musk's kid oh yeah
00:14:12 --> 00:14:15 don't go there Heidi
00:14:15 --> 00:14:18 um it it's it's a planet that is in
00:14:18 --> 00:14:22 orbit around not one star but a pair of
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 stars and that I'm sure would be
00:14:25 --> 00:14:27 familiar to you as a science fiction aic
00:14:28 --> 00:14:29 afficionado
00:14:29 --> 00:14:30 I never know how to pronounce that. Is
00:14:30 --> 00:14:34 it Tatooine? Tatooine. Tatooini.
00:14:34 --> 00:14:36 I think. Yeah, we think we've got it.
00:14:36 --> 00:14:38 Yes. Star Wars. The sand the sand desert
00:14:38 --> 00:14:42 planet. Yeah. So, a a planet orbiting a
00:14:42 --> 00:14:44 pair of stars. Well, that's exactly what
00:14:44 --> 00:14:46 2M1510
00:14:46 --> 00:14:50 etc. is doing. But the surprise that has
00:14:50 --> 00:14:53 come from this is uh the way in which it
00:14:54 --> 00:14:56 orbits is exactly as he said in the
00:14:56 --> 00:14:59 intro. We've got two stars which are in
00:14:59 --> 00:15:01 orbit around one another. It's what we
00:15:01 --> 00:15:04 call a binary system and these are very
00:15:04 --> 00:15:06 very common throughout our galaxy. Um in
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 this case it's two brown dwarf stars.
00:15:09 --> 00:15:14 Again the um the stars that are cool and
00:15:14 --> 00:15:16 a bit like the ones we've one we've just
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 been talking about with that other
00:15:18 --> 00:15:20 planet orbiting around it. So we're
00:15:20 --> 00:15:22 doing two planet stories this this week.
00:15:22 --> 00:15:26 Uh but this is curious um because uh the
00:15:26 --> 00:15:29 planet orbits the pair of stars in a
00:15:29 --> 00:15:32 plane perpendicular to the plane in
00:15:32 --> 00:15:34 which they orbit. If I can that might
00:15:34 --> 00:15:37 not be very clear but uh the the two
00:15:37 --> 00:15:39 stars orbit one another that defines a
00:15:39 --> 00:15:41 plane at right angles to that is the
00:15:41 --> 00:15:44 plane in which the planet orbits. It's
00:15:44 --> 00:15:48 what we call a polar orbit. Uh it's um
00:15:48 --> 00:15:50 it's something that's very hard to
00:15:50 --> 00:15:53 understand. And the reason why is that
00:15:53 --> 00:15:55 we think that when planets form around a
00:15:55 --> 00:16:00 star um they they form in a single plane
00:16:00 --> 00:16:03 which is usually the same plane as the
00:16:03 --> 00:16:05 as which the star is rotating in. In
00:16:05 --> 00:16:08 other words, the equatorial plane of the
00:16:08 --> 00:16:09 star and that's just because of the
00:16:09 --> 00:16:13 mechanism uh in which stars form. And
00:16:13 --> 00:16:15 now if you've got a binary pair of stars
00:16:15 --> 00:16:17 which are orbiting one another that
00:16:17 --> 00:16:19 defines a plane which probably had what
00:16:19 --> 00:16:21 we call a protolanetary disc in it where
00:16:21 --> 00:16:25 planets are being formed. Uh but somehow
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 this planet is not part of that disc.
00:16:28 --> 00:16:32 And it it raises questions like um has
00:16:32 --> 00:16:35 it been captured from another solar
00:16:35 --> 00:16:38 system that passed by this pair of stars
00:16:38 --> 00:16:40 too close and their gravity grabbed uh
00:16:40 --> 00:16:42 hold of this planet put it into this
00:16:42 --> 00:16:46 weird weird orbit uh and and there it is
00:16:46 --> 00:16:50 as we find it today. Um I I just one
00:16:50 --> 00:16:54 quote from uh one of the authors. Uh I
00:16:54 --> 00:16:57 said um we reviewed all possible
00:16:57 --> 00:16:59 scenarios and the only one consistent
00:16:59 --> 00:17:01 with the data is a planet on a polar
00:17:01 --> 00:17:03 orbit about this binary. The discovery
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 was serendipitous in the sense that our
00:17:05 --> 00:17:08 observations were not collected to seek
00:17:08 --> 00:17:10 such a planet or orbital configuration
00:17:10 --> 00:17:12 and as such it's a big surprise.
00:17:12 --> 00:17:14 Overall, I think this shows to us
00:17:14 --> 00:17:16 astronomers, but also to the public at
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18 large what is possible in the
00:17:18 --> 00:17:20 fascinating universe we inhabit. Quite
00:17:20 --> 00:17:23 poetic. I like what they've said there.
00:17:23 --> 00:17:25 Um, they'll be working on mechanisms for
00:17:26 --> 00:17:28 which this has occurred just to try and
00:17:28 --> 00:17:30 work out what the history of this
00:17:30 --> 00:17:33 unusual system is.
00:17:33 --> 00:17:34 Well, it does look pretty spectacular
00:17:34 --> 00:17:37 based off of the um I guess the artist
00:17:37 --> 00:17:39 renderings of what these orbital
00:17:39 --> 00:17:41 patterns would look like. And I guess,
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43 you know, this is another one of those
00:17:43 --> 00:17:45 things we'll see. And it's uh, you know,
00:17:45 --> 00:17:47 and it really makes me hope that we can
00:17:47 --> 00:17:49 continue to get plenty of funding for
00:17:49 --> 00:17:51 all the research that's going on because
00:17:51 --> 00:17:53 while what's going on, what's really
00:17:53 --> 00:17:56 exciting with um, uh,
00:17:56 --> 00:17:58 K218b, that's that's going to take away
00:17:58 --> 00:18:00 from telescope time going on with this
00:18:00 --> 00:18:05 orbit pattern, right? Yes. Yeah. I just
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08 extra. So, go ahead. No, sorry, Heidi.
00:18:08 --> 00:18:10 That is a really good point. you know
00:18:10 --> 00:18:13 that these resources are a limited uh
00:18:13 --> 00:18:16 they're a limited quantity. So typically
00:18:16 --> 00:18:17 uh on the telescope I used to work on
00:18:17 --> 00:18:19 the Anglo Australian telescope, the
00:18:19 --> 00:18:22 biggest one in Australia. Uh we were for
00:18:22 --> 00:18:24 every night on the telescope there were
00:18:24 --> 00:18:26 three or four different research groups
00:18:26 --> 00:18:29 wanting to use it. Uh so telescope time
00:18:29 --> 00:18:33 is a limited resource and if like I was
00:18:33 --> 00:18:35 several times you get washed out by bad
00:18:35 --> 00:18:38 weather uh then you've just got to start
00:18:38 --> 00:18:40 again from scratch uh and you know
00:18:40 --> 00:18:43 compete with uh with other other
00:18:43 --> 00:18:46 sometimes perhaps better um experiments
00:18:46 --> 00:18:48 that people want to do measurements that
00:18:48 --> 00:18:51 they want to make. So yes a limited a
00:18:51 --> 00:18:53 limited um commodity. uh the more
00:18:53 --> 00:18:56 telescopes we have, the better we can
00:18:56 --> 00:18:58 fulfill those requirements. But of
00:18:58 --> 00:19:00 course, the more expensive it becomes.
00:19:00 --> 00:19:02 And governments who tend to fund these
00:19:02 --> 00:19:04 things are not that generous when it
00:19:04 --> 00:19:07 comes to astronomical uh facilities
00:19:07 --> 00:19:08 compared with some of the more pressing
00:19:08 --> 00:19:11 demands on their public purses.
00:19:11 --> 00:19:13 Yeah. And that's all, you know, that's
00:19:13 --> 00:19:15 all something to consider what, you
00:19:15 --> 00:19:16 know, depending on every nation that
00:19:16 --> 00:19:18 you're a part of. But I mean, space is
00:19:18 --> 00:19:20 really becoming such a global economy
00:19:20 --> 00:19:22 and I know we have listeners from all
00:19:22 --> 00:19:24 over the world. So, you know, make sure
00:19:24 --> 00:19:25 that you're paying attention to what's
00:19:25 --> 00:19:28 going on in your country and how you can
00:19:28 --> 00:19:33 support the space industry as it grows.
00:19:33 --> 00:19:35 Okay, we checked all four systems and
00:19:35 --> 00:19:38 being with the go space nets. Um, and so
00:19:38 --> 00:19:39 it's kind of funny. I'm looking at our
00:19:39 --> 00:19:43 our our last article for today and um
00:19:43 --> 00:19:45 it's Easter Sunday for me and it is
00:19:45 --> 00:19:48 Monday morning for you. I always I still
00:19:48 --> 00:19:50 I don't I don't know if I will be able
00:19:50 --> 00:19:51 to live my whole life and still be able
00:19:51 --> 00:19:53 to wrap my head around the the time
00:19:54 --> 00:19:57 difference of Australians, but um my
00:19:57 --> 00:20:00 article for today and your article for
00:20:00 --> 00:20:02 yesterday, I guess it was the Lucy pro
00:20:02 --> 00:20:07 Lucy probe flew around um an asteroid
00:20:07 --> 00:20:10 and it looks like its name is Donald
00:20:10 --> 00:20:12 Johnson is the name of the asteroid.
00:20:12 --> 00:20:14 Yeah, Donald Johansson. Yeah, that's
00:20:14 --> 00:20:18 right. And it is a I really like this
00:20:18 --> 00:20:19 story actually because it touches lots
00:20:19 --> 00:20:22 of little quirky things. NASA is so
00:20:22 --> 00:20:26 great at picking names for the projects
00:20:26 --> 00:20:30 that they do. Um so what Lucy is about
00:20:30 --> 00:20:32 uh and this is a spacecraft. It was
00:20:32 --> 00:20:36 launched back in uh oh can't remember it
00:20:36 --> 00:20:40 was um 2021 I think or thereabouts. uh
00:20:40 --> 00:20:44 it's uh was launched uh in order to
00:20:44 --> 00:20:47 probe the what we call the Trojan
00:20:47 --> 00:20:49 asteroids and these are two clusters of
00:20:49 --> 00:20:52 asteroids uh which are in the same orbit
00:20:52 --> 00:20:57 as Jupiter but uh bunch 60° ahead of
00:20:57 --> 00:21:00 Jupiter in its orbit and 60° behind
00:21:00 --> 00:21:03 Jupiter in its orbit. So two lumps of
00:21:03 --> 00:21:05 asteroids and they come about because of
00:21:05 --> 00:21:08 these stable gravitational points that
00:21:08 --> 00:21:10 uh are beloved actually of space nuts
00:21:10 --> 00:21:12 listeners. We get so many questions on
00:21:12 --> 00:21:13 these. They're called the Lrange points
00:21:14 --> 00:21:16 named after the mathematician who who
00:21:16 --> 00:21:17 discovered them in the actually in the
00:21:17 --> 00:21:19 18th century discovered that they they
00:21:19 --> 00:21:22 should exist. Um and they collect
00:21:22 --> 00:21:24 debris. And so Jupiter has I think it's
00:21:24 --> 00:21:27 7 in one of those two points and
00:21:27 --> 00:21:29 9 in the other. It's a huge number
00:21:29 --> 00:21:32 of asteroids. Um there are the
00:21:32 --> 00:21:36 equivalent on uh objects in in around
00:21:36 --> 00:21:38 other planets or orbiting uh
00:21:38 --> 00:21:40 co-orbiterally with other planets but
00:21:40 --> 00:21:43 Jupiter's is the richest of the Trojan
00:21:43 --> 00:21:44 asteroids and of course that's because
00:21:44 --> 00:21:46 it's the biggest and most massive planet
00:21:46 --> 00:21:48 more massive than all the other planets
00:21:48 --> 00:21:50 put together. Um, now we've never
00:21:50 --> 00:21:54 visited a Trojan asteroid and it may be
00:21:54 --> 00:21:56 that they have a different sort of
00:21:56 --> 00:21:59 structure from the uh the normal
00:21:59 --> 00:22:01 asteroids that we find in the main
00:22:01 --> 00:22:03 asteroid belt. They might have different
00:22:03 --> 00:22:06 composition uh different
00:22:06 --> 00:22:08 uh different origins, different
00:22:08 --> 00:22:10 histories that we can interpret from
00:22:10 --> 00:22:11 measurements of their surfaces and
00:22:12 --> 00:22:14 things of that sort. And so the Lucy
00:22:14 --> 00:22:16 mission is going to visit uh Trojan
00:22:16 --> 00:22:20 asteroids, not just one but seven of
00:22:20 --> 00:22:22 them. Um so it's going to do a kind of
00:22:22 --> 00:22:25 grand tour and in fact I think it's six
00:22:25 --> 00:22:28 in one of the clouds of Trojans and one
00:22:28 --> 00:22:29 in the in the other one. I can't
00:22:29 --> 00:22:30 remember which way around it is. Quite
00:22:30 --> 00:22:33 the road trip. Yeah, it's a an absolute
00:22:33 --> 00:22:36 road trip. That's right. Um, but on the
00:22:36 --> 00:22:41 way they are flying by a a main belt
00:22:41 --> 00:22:42 asteroid, and that's the one that we're
00:22:42 --> 00:22:45 talking about, Donald Johansson. Number
00:22:45 --> 00:22:50 5246 is its number. Uh, now um the the
00:22:50 --> 00:22:54 backstory here is that Lucy got its name
00:22:54 --> 00:22:58 from that 3.2 million year old fossil
00:22:58 --> 00:23:01 skeleton of I wonder if I could say
00:23:01 --> 00:23:05 Oralopic Oralopithecus.
00:23:05 --> 00:23:08 Apharensis Lucy, you probably won't
00:23:08 --> 00:23:10 recall. Well, you definitely won't
00:23:10 --> 00:23:12 recall because you weren't born then,
00:23:12 --> 00:23:16 but back in 1974, this little homminid
00:23:16 --> 00:23:18 fossil was discovered in Africa, in
00:23:18 --> 00:23:22 Ethiopia, in fact. um and given the name
00:23:22 --> 00:23:26 Lucy by the the
00:23:26 --> 00:23:29 um basically the anthropologists
00:23:29 --> 00:23:31 uh and in fact paleo anthropologists who
00:23:32 --> 00:23:34 who dug up the skeleton and found it.
00:23:34 --> 00:23:36 They called it Lucy. And the reason they
00:23:36 --> 00:23:38 called it Lucy is because the whole time
00:23:38 --> 00:23:40 that they were doing the dig and uh
00:23:40 --> 00:23:42 talking about this wonderful fossil that
00:23:42 --> 00:23:44 they discovered that's only it's it's a
00:23:44 --> 00:23:47 a female fossil. It's only a few feet
00:23:47 --> 00:23:49 tall. Um, they were playing the Beatles
00:23:49 --> 00:23:52 Lucy in the Sky with diamonds the whole
00:23:52 --> 00:23:54 time that they were digging it up. And
00:23:54 --> 00:23:58 so, uh, they basically, so NASA picked
00:23:58 --> 00:24:03 up on this. They had a little nod to one
00:24:03 --> 00:24:04 of the in instruments that the
00:24:04 --> 00:24:08 spacecraft carries which uh has a
00:24:08 --> 00:24:10 fundamental part which is a disc of lab
00:24:10 --> 00:24:14 grown diamonds. So the spacecraft itself
00:24:14 --> 00:24:17 is carrying diamonds. Uh, so what else
00:24:17 --> 00:24:20 but to call it Lucy in the sky with
00:24:20 --> 00:24:23 diamonds. So that's a really nice touch.
00:24:24 --> 00:24:26 But the I thought the clincher was that
00:24:26 --> 00:24:27 the asteroid that they're visiting on
00:24:27 --> 00:24:29 the way, as you've said, is called
00:24:29 --> 00:24:32 Donald Johansson. Donald Johansson was
00:24:32 --> 00:24:35 the lead paleoanthro anthropologist on
00:24:35 --> 00:24:39 that uh on that dig to find Lucy. He's
00:24:39 --> 00:24:42 the person whose name is forever
00:24:42 --> 00:24:45 attached to the Lucy homminid and is his
00:24:45 --> 00:24:48 asteroid is sitting out there in space
00:24:48 --> 00:24:50 waiting for a visit by the Lucy
00:24:50 --> 00:24:51 spacecraft. I think it might have
00:24:51 --> 00:24:52 already happened actually as we're
00:24:52 --> 00:24:56 speaking. It was due uh on Sunday uh I
00:24:56 --> 00:24:59 think probably Houston time.
00:24:59 --> 00:25:02 So Donald finds Lucy and then Lucy finds
00:25:02 --> 00:25:04 Donald.
00:25:04 --> 00:25:07 That's a lovely Yeah. Yeah. cute uh cute
00:25:07 --> 00:25:09 little roundabout uh thing of just you
00:25:09 --> 00:25:11 know rocks and diamonds and all these
00:25:11 --> 00:25:14 fun little things in space. And what a
00:25:14 --> 00:25:16 what a fun backstory. Thank you so much
00:25:16 --> 00:25:18 for sharing that with us, Fred. So what
00:25:18 --> 00:25:20 do you what do you think that they're
00:25:20 --> 00:25:23 kind of expecting to or really hoping to
00:25:23 --> 00:25:28 find? So it will be a flyby. Uh so what
00:25:28 --> 00:25:31 will happen is we'll see lots of images.
00:25:31 --> 00:25:33 Uh we will
00:25:33 --> 00:25:37 see the um the surface of the the
00:25:37 --> 00:25:39 asteroid. I think I think Lucy flies by
00:25:39 --> 00:25:44 at something like 500 uh 500 kilometers
00:25:44 --> 00:25:46 from the asteroid. So it's a close
00:25:46 --> 00:25:50 approach. Uh we'll start to see uh
00:25:50 --> 00:25:52 details of its surface. As I said,
00:25:52 --> 00:25:54 there's a spectrometer attached to the
00:25:54 --> 00:25:56 spacecraft. It's been characterized as a
00:25:56 --> 00:25:58 carbonatous asteroid, a sea type
00:25:58 --> 00:26:02 asteroid, uh, which is a, you know, one
00:26:02 --> 00:26:04 of of interest, uh, because it's got
00:26:04 --> 00:26:09 high carbon content. Um, what I was just
00:26:09 --> 00:26:11 wanting to check, uh, and I think that's
00:26:11 --> 00:26:17 not the case is, uh, yep, uh, Donald
00:26:17 --> 00:26:21 Johansson is 81 years old, uh, in he was
00:26:22 --> 00:26:24 born in Chicago, so he's still around.
00:26:24 --> 00:26:26 and hopefully cheering the spacecraft on
00:26:26 --> 00:26:28 to the asteroid that is named after him.
00:26:28 --> 00:26:33 That's wonderful. What a fun story.
00:26:33 --> 00:26:35 Do you have any planets or asteroids
00:26:35 --> 00:26:39 named after you? Uh, I do. Really?
00:26:39 --> 00:26:42 Asteroid 5691 is called Fred Watson.
00:26:42 --> 00:26:44 Yes, it's all one word. Fred Watson.
00:26:44 --> 00:26:46 That was named in
00:26:46 --> 00:26:50 2003, I think. Um, must be quite the
00:26:50 --> 00:26:52 quite the Hansen asteroid. Uh, I think
00:26:52 --> 00:26:55 it's, do you know, um, I could tell you
00:26:55 --> 00:26:57 what its main characteristic is. It's
00:26:57 --> 00:27:00 totally boring. Um, because it's just a
00:27:00 --> 00:27:02 main belt asteroid that orbits between
00:27:02 --> 00:27:05 the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. When,
00:27:05 --> 00:27:07 um, when we had news that that asteroid
00:27:07 --> 00:27:09 had been named after me, which I
00:27:09 --> 00:27:11 honestly I was blown away by. My two
00:27:11 --> 00:27:14 boys were quite young then. Uh, and I
00:27:14 --> 00:27:16 came home and told them they've they've
00:27:16 --> 00:27:17 named an asteroid after me. They said,
00:27:17 --> 00:27:19 "Dad, that's terrible. If it hits the
00:27:19 --> 00:27:22 earth, it'll be your fault. Um, and so
00:27:22 --> 00:27:24 so they were quite, you know, they were
00:27:24 --> 00:27:26 only young then, but it's a good point,
00:27:26 --> 00:27:28 but it never will. It's so boring. It'll
00:27:28 --> 00:27:30 never hit the Earth. That's the Well,
00:27:30 --> 00:27:32 that's going to be that's going to be
00:27:32 --> 00:27:33 the asteroid that we find some weird
00:27:33 --> 00:27:35 alien spacecraft on. That's where
00:27:35 --> 00:27:37 they've been hiding out this whole time.
00:27:37 --> 00:27:39 Then you'll go down in history. That's
00:27:40 --> 00:27:41 right. That would that would indeed be
00:27:42 --> 00:27:44 the case. Yes.
00:27:44 --> 00:27:46 Well, excellent, Fred. This has been a
00:27:46 --> 00:27:49 really fun conversation just talking
00:27:49 --> 00:27:53 about the most exciting discoveries and
00:27:53 --> 00:27:55 we really got to talk today about, you
00:27:55 --> 00:27:57 know, how these discoveries happened and
00:27:57 --> 00:27:59 a little bit of the drama behind, you
00:27:59 --> 00:28:01 know, the the competition of getting
00:28:01 --> 00:28:03 that satellite time and that telescope
00:28:03 --> 00:28:05 time and then, you know, the fun
00:28:05 --> 00:28:07 exciting um I think just kind of the
00:28:07 --> 00:28:09 tender personable moments of this whole
00:28:09 --> 00:28:10 industry. you know, people making
00:28:10 --> 00:28:12 discoveries and having things named
00:28:12 --> 00:28:15 after them and just the tribute to
00:28:15 --> 00:28:17 people's hard work.
00:28:17 --> 00:28:20 That's right. It it's a a global
00:28:20 --> 00:28:22 endeavor. Um, you know, all of this
00:28:22 --> 00:28:24 research in both space science and in
00:28:24 --> 00:28:27 astronomy, and it's a fairly, I guess, a
00:28:27 --> 00:28:29 fairly close-knit bunch of people, and
00:28:30 --> 00:28:31 certainly there are only 10
00:28:31 --> 00:28:33 astronomers in the world, professional
00:28:34 --> 00:28:35 astronomers, which is not that many when
00:28:36 --> 00:28:38 you consider how many people there are.
00:28:38 --> 00:28:40 uh it's might be a bit more than that
00:28:40 --> 00:28:42 now. It's probably more like 15 but
00:28:42 --> 00:28:44 it's still a relatively small number. Uh
00:28:44 --> 00:28:46 the space industry of course is a
00:28:46 --> 00:28:47 commercial industry has much bigger
00:28:47 --> 00:28:50 numbers and uh ultimately more money but
00:28:50 --> 00:28:52 nevertheless the things that we do
00:28:52 --> 00:28:54 entwine so closely that we learn from
00:28:54 --> 00:28:56 each other. Each community learns from
00:28:56 --> 00:28:57 the other one. So yeah, it's nice to be
00:28:57 --> 00:28:59 able to talk about the way these things
00:28:59 --> 00:29:02 happen on a on an episode of Space
00:29:02 --> 00:29:06 Ducks. Yeah, it's a kind of a a space
00:29:06 --> 00:29:08 community, a space family, and we're al
00:29:08 --> 00:29:11 kind of just a big global family. I
00:29:11 --> 00:29:13 heard a fun comment the uh over the last
00:29:14 --> 00:29:16 week, somebody said that um Houston,
00:29:16 --> 00:29:19 Texas is the gateway to the galaxy. And
00:29:19 --> 00:29:21 it made me think it's like, wow, you
00:29:21 --> 00:29:22 know, we think of like, you know,
00:29:22 --> 00:29:24 Houston, Texas is big space city, but
00:29:24 --> 00:29:26 it's like this is really going to end up
00:29:26 --> 00:29:28 just being a pit stop onto the bigger
00:29:28 --> 00:29:31 bigger things that we go on to discover
00:29:31 --> 00:29:33 in the future. So Fred, did you have
00:29:33 --> 00:29:35 anything else you wanted to add or
00:29:35 --> 00:29:37 commentate on the articles we talked
00:29:37 --> 00:29:39 about today? Not really. Uh I think
00:29:39 --> 00:29:41 we've covered them pretty well, but I
00:29:41 --> 00:29:44 would like to say uh I think this is
00:29:44 --> 00:29:46 probably our last get together for a
00:29:46 --> 00:29:48 while. Uh it's been great talking to
00:29:48 --> 00:29:50 you. Actually, it's not quite the last
00:29:50 --> 00:29:52 because we've got a Q&A session to do as
00:29:52 --> 00:29:53 well. But in the main sessions, thank
00:29:53 --> 00:29:56 you very much, Heidi, for your uh expert
00:29:56 --> 00:30:00 um handling of all our topics and the
00:30:00 --> 00:30:02 lovely questions that you've asked. Oh,
00:30:02 --> 00:30:03 well, thank you so much, Fred. I
00:30:03 --> 00:30:04 appreciate that. And thank you to all
00:30:04 --> 00:30:07 the listeners who wrote in and um said
00:30:07 --> 00:30:08 thank you that I'm doing a good job.
00:30:08 --> 00:30:10 That certainly made me feel really nice.
00:30:10 --> 00:30:11 So, thank you to the listeners. Thank
00:30:11 --> 00:30:14 you, Fred. And you will all have um
00:30:14 --> 00:30:15 Andrew back next week. You get me for
00:30:16 --> 00:30:18 one more Q&A, but then you get Andrew
00:30:18 --> 00:30:21 back after that. So, thank you so much.
00:30:21 --> 00:30:23 Um until next time, everybody, this has
00:30:23 --> 00:30:26 been another wonderful out of this world
00:30:26 --> 00:30:29 episode of Space Nuts. Space Nuts.
00:30:30 --> 00:30:32 You'll be listening to the Space Nuts
00:30:32 --> 00:30:34 podcast
00:30:34 --> 00:30:37 available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
00:30:37 --> 00:30:39 iHeart Radio, or your favorite podcast
00:30:40 --> 00:30:42 player. You can also stream on demand at
00:30:42 --> 00:30:45 byes.com. This has been another quality
00:30:45 --> 00:30:49 podcast production from byes.com.