Navigating the Cosmic Questions: Gravity Assists, Neutrinos, and Time Dilation Explained | Space...

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_02] Hi there, thanks for joining us. This is Space News Today, a Q&A edition, and we've got a bunch of questions to get through. Larry wants to know about orbital velocity, and his question is quite timely because he brings up the BepiColombo mission, and we have an update on that.

[00:00:17] [SPEAKER_02] Eduardo is asking us about neutrinos. In fact, these last three questions dovetail into each other. So, Eduardo about neutrinos. Shumo's asking about interstellar beacons that might be powered by neutrinos. And Colin is asking about time dilation. So, plenty to talk about on this Q&A edition of Space Nuts. Stick around.

[00:00:40] [SPEAKER_05] 15 seconds. Guidance is internal. 10, 9, ignition sequence start. Space Nuts. 5, 4, 3, 2. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Space Nuts. Astronauts report it feels good.

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_02] And he's back again to solve all those riddles for us. It's Professor Fred Watson, astronomer at large. Hello, Fred. How are you doing, Andrew? I'm doing well. You're looking rather, um, um, Cold. Yes, maybe. Yeah, we had a really good warm spell there for a while and then it just petered out and we're back to some quite chilly weather. It's fairly chilly.

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_02] By the time this podcast comes out, it could be back to warm again. You know, it's, it's that time of year where we've got the tug of war between winter trying to hang on and spring trying to take over. And so you get, uh, you get a little warm snap and then it's cold again and then you get another warm snap and then one day it just stays warm and then it gets hot, hot, hot. And then the opposite happens going into autumn or fall or whatever, wherever you're from and however you say it. But, um, yeah, right now we're into spring.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_02] Um, very windy weather this time of year out our way, nothing to do with actual wind. It's just so many people sneezing. You just, you know, volatile environment.

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Did you, um, you were going to try and get some shots of, uh, of pollen?

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_02] I did try and so far have failed.

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_03] Okay.

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_02] I haven't been, uh, but see last time I got the, uh, pollen Corona photo, I was using an older model phone and I've got a feeling that the new phone compensates and actually stops me from getting a shot. Okay. Yeah. But I'll give it another try. Uh, I might've been too early cause the best time is mid afternoon, isn't it?

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_03] Probably. Yeah. You should, you should be able to see it with the naked eye and that should tell you what you, you know, what your phone is likely to pick up. A good friend of mine once told me though, never to look at the sun. Uh, indeed I tell people that all the time, but that's why what you do is you get the sun behind a wall or a building or something just enough that you can see the immediate sky around it. And that's where you might see these color bands.

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_03] And just in case any of our listeners wonder what we're talking about, um, pollen, uh, particles in the atmosphere, because they're many, many millions of them and they're all of a uniform size. They have an effect on light called diffraction. Uh, and that means that you can get colored rings around the sun caused by the diffracting effect of these pollen, uh, particles. And that's what Andrew's looked for. I've seen them in Coonabarabran on occasion when I used to live out there.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_03] We tend not to see them in Sydney because the air is probably not clear enough.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_02] That's because there's more pollution in the air than pollens.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_03] There is pollen. Pollenution. Yeah.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah. It's quite spectacular though. Uh, yes, I think we, we talked about it on an episode and I said, okay, um, challenge accepted and went outside, took one photo and got it. Yeah. Yes, that's right. Proving more difficult this time. Let's get into our questions. Uh, this first one comes from Larry. Hello Fred and Andrew.

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_04] This is Larry from York, Nebraska. That is. I've been listening to your podcast almost continually for months.

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_04] I've heard an old edition talking about, uh, using the gravitational boost around planets, particularly BepiColombo.

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_04] Fred said that, uh, had to use, uh, nine boosts to get the BepiColombo spacecraft to speed up to the speed of Mercury. However, from previous podcasts, it seems the more you speed up the orbital velocity, the further away from the sun you get.

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_04] So don't you have to use the gravitational wells to slow down to get to Mercury? Because Mercury's orbital velocity should be a whole lot less than Earth's.

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_02] Thank you. Thank you, Larry. And, uh, hope all is well in wonderful Nebraska. Um, yeah, he brings up an interesting point. Uh, maybe we can discuss that after we break the, uh, the news about, uh, Bepi Columbo, the Bepi Columbo mission to Mercury. Uh, and we did talk about how it had to do, uh, quite a bit of maneuvering, um, to, to achieve the velocity it required.

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_02] And you might remind us about that, Fred, and then tell us what's, um, what's happening now.

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_03] Uh, yes. So, uh, BepiColombo, a, a joint, um, uh, ESA JAXA mission, I think, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. Um, eight years, it's been on its way so far. And I, I, there have been nine, I think I'm right, nine gravity assists. One of Earth, two of Venus and six of Mercury itself. Yes.

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_03] Uh, and the reason why it's in the news at the moment is because, um, the spacecraft has separated from its, um, something called the, the MTM. Uh, uh, which is the, uh, uh, Mercury transfer module. In other words, it's almost like a service module that has been, uh, attached to the spacecraft. It's got solar panels.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_03] It's got, um, you know, various, uh, um, uh, feeds, uh, on, on board for the, the requisites of the spacecraft itself. That has now basically been jettisoned. Uh, and so Bepi Columbo is on its own, uh, as it spirals down towards the planet Mercury to eventually go into orbit around Mercury.

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_02] And seeing they've now separated, uh, the lawyers will be deciding who gets what assets.

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_03] Who gets what, yeah.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah.

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_03] Indeed. That's right. Um, but let's just go to, um, to Larry's question. Uh, and Larry's, uh, you're absolutely right. This is something I think it does all our heads in that if you, if you speed, if you've got a spacecraft in orbit around something and you speed it up, what happens is it goes to a higher orbit, but it slows down. Um, and that's the bottom line. Mm-hmm.

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_03] And, uh, the reverse is true with Bepi Columbo going to Mercury. So, um, remembering that the Earth's orbital velocity around the Sun is 30 kilometers per second, uh, Mercury has an orbital velocity which is in the region of 50 kilometers per second. Wow.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_03] Uh, because it's nearer the Sun, it needs a higher velocity to stop it from falling into the Sun. Mm-hmm. So 50 kilometers per second is its speed. So in that respect, Bepi Columbo is catching up, uh, in terms of speed with, uh, with Mercury. But to do that, you slow it down.

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_03] You have to shed the Earth's orbital velocity to push the spacecraft in towards the Sun, which speeds it up, uh, so that it would be traveling faster than the Earth, if I can put it that way. It's all about the balance between gravity and velocity.

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_03] Uh, I'm probably not making this sound very clear, but the bottom line is that it's taken those, uh, nine gravity assists to get from 30 kilometers per second going around the Earth to roughly 50 kilometers per second average speed of Mercury. I think it gets significantly higher and lower because Mercury has got quite an elliptical orbit. Yeah. Um, believe its maximum is 59 kilometers per second when it's closest to the Sun.

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_03] So you're talking about a significant increase in velocity, which you achieve by slowing the spacecraft down. So it falls in towards the inner solar system.

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah. I think we talked about, uh, when, when this first came up, we talked about how much more difficult it is to go towards the center of our solar system than it is to go outwards. In that regard it is, that's correct. Yes. Yeah. So there's a lot of, um, mathematicians at work trying to figure this one out. Um, uh, you know, taking into account orbital mechanics and the, uh, everything that goes into it.

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_02] Uh, it's, it's quite an amazing feat to be honest, to, uh, to come up with this. And, and you think a jump of only 20 kilometers per second, 30 to 50 wouldn't, it doesn't sound all that difficult, but when you look at what they've actually had to do to achieve it.

[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. That's right. Quite extraordinary. It is, it's, it's, it's, it is a significant amount. Well, when you think about it, you know, you're like that 20 kilometers per second, uh, is, uh, it's, I think it was about the same orbital speed that, um, New Horizons was launched at when it was one of the fastest spacecraft ever launched. I think it was 23 kilometers per second it had. So it's a not insignificant jump in velocity.

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_02] Hmm. It just takes a lot of maneuvering to make it happen. Indeed. Yeah. That's right. There you go. Larry explained and, um, still scratching my head. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for the question. Um, this is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson. It's a Q and A edition.

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_00] I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. Space Nuts.

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_02] Now, next question comes from Eduardo. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. Um, he says given that neutrinos are the second most abundant subatomic particle just after photons, uh, but contrary to photons, they don't seem to interact that much with matter. Do black holes swallow neutrinos or do they just pass through them? Are neutrinos affected by gravity at all?

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_03] Um, so yes, they are. Uh, and I mean, you know, light is as well, of course, blight. That's the thing about a black hole. It, um, uh, it won't even allow the release of light beyond the event horizon. Uh, and the same is true with neutrinos. So neutrinos, they can't pass through a black hole. Uh, if they cross the event horizon, they're trapped, uh, just like a particles of light.

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_03] Uh, um, it's, uh, it is a bit weird with neutrinos because they're, they exactly, um, as Eduardo says, they pass through normal matter very easily. They don't interact much with normal matter. Uh, but nevertheless, uh, gravity and the curvature of space time, which is really what we're talking about with a black hole, uh, they affect them just the same as everything else.

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_04] Hmm.

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_03] Simple as that.

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_02] There wouldn't be too much that would not be affected by gravity.

[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_03] Yes, that's right. Uh, we think, um, dark matter is too. Well, we know dark matter is. That's the only way we know it exists. So, yes.

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_02] Well, it seems to clump in higher gravitational fields, doesn't it? Yes, that's correct. Yes. Um, even though we don't really understand it, although we do think they may have identified it recently. Uh, I think we talked about that last episode. So, um, yeah, we, we, we're slowly chipping away at the mystery of, of dark matter. Hopefully. Yeah. So he said that, um, neutrinos are the second most abundant subatomic particle. Is that, is that right?

[00:12:48] [SPEAKER_03] Um, I'd need to check that, but I think it's probably right. Yes. Uh, I think, I think that's the, uh, correct statement. Do we know what they're supposed to do? What's their function? Well, yeah, they're, they're, um, byproducts of, uh, of nuclear reactions. They, they're, and they are prolific as, as, as, as, uh, Eduardo suggested.

[00:13:10] [SPEAKER_03] So, um, with, um, for example, the nuclear reactions that power the sun, the, the, uh, the, um, what's it called? The fusion reactions. Uh, it's got the name proton, proton reaction. There's, there's several different ones. Anyway, they not only produce, uh, helium from hydrogen, uh, but the energy that they produce, uh, is in gamma rays and in neutrinos as well.

[00:13:36] [SPEAKER_02] There you go. Fascinating. Um, Eduardo, that's, um, about all we can tell you about that, but thanks for the question. Lovely to hear from you. We're whipping through them, Fred. We are.

[00:13:46] Yeah.

[00:13:47] [SPEAKER_02] Uh, this is Space Nuts, a Q and A edition with Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson.

[00:13:59] [SPEAKER_06] Space Nuts.

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_02] Our next question comes from Shumo who says, hi, Fred and Andrew. Another alien communication question. SETI, understandably, concentrates on radio and optical signals, but are we being too anthropo- I can't say it. Anthropocentric. That's it. About the carrier.

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER_02] Uh, couldn't advanced civilization use high energy gamma rays or even neutrinos as an interstellar beacon encoding information in the timing or energy of individual events. For example, repeated gamma ray or neutrino events from the same point in the sky following the prime numbers would be very difficult to explain naturally. Given that we're all, uh, we all, uh, we already have gamma ray and neutrino observatories watching the sky.

[00:14:47] [SPEAKER_02] Why has anyone systematically searched their data for mathematically structured patterns that might be artificial? That comes from Shumo in Oxford in the UK. That's a really good question. Like that's out of the box, isn't it?

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_03] Um, it, it is a good question. And in a way, um, the answer lies in the fact that, uh, when gamma ray bursts were first detected, uh, which you'll remember were detected by spacecraft satellites that had been launched specifically to look for evidence of breaches of the nuclear test ban treaty, the atmospheric nuclear test ban treaty. That's what they were built for. That's what they were built for.

[00:15:27] [SPEAKER_03] And they didn't see any nuclear tests, but they saw, uh, they saw these things coming from the sky, uh, bursts of radiation. So the first thing you think of when you see something like that is, is this a, a SETI signal, uh, or something artificial?

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_03] Now, um, with gamma rays and indeed neutrino, uh, radiation, I guess you would tend to put that fair, to put an artificial origin fairly low on the list of candidate, um, reasons why these things are flying through space because they're very, very high energetic, you know, high energy, um, carriers. Uh, we're talking about high energy universe here.

[00:16:12] [SPEAKER_03] Um, having said that, I recently wrote the foreword for a book by a group of colleagues at the Western Sydney university, which is called high energy astrobiology. Uh, and there you have it, the link between these high energy physics phenomena and the science of the origin and evolution of life. Uh, and so I can't remember actually the details of the chapters.

[00:16:39] [SPEAKER_03] I did, um, uh, I do have a copy of the book, which I looked through and enjoyed, uh, reading, but, uh, I can't, so I can't remember the details, but, um, I, I wouldn't mind betting that somewhere in there, somebody is, uh, basically highlighting the same, essentially the same question that Shumo has raised here. Yeah. So, yeah.

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah. I, I imagine so, but surely there'd be easier ways to send a message if you were-

[00:17:07] [SPEAKER_03] Rather than blowing up a planet or something like that, which is, you know, the kind of energies that we're talking about here.

[00:17:13] [SPEAKER_02] Yes. Well, and it kind of worked for, uh, the empire, didn't it?

[00:17:19] [SPEAKER_03] It depends on whose side you're on really. Yeah, I suppose so.

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_02] But, um, would lasers be feasible over parsecs? Well, yeah, they are.

[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_03] I mean, and so, yes, but, you know, in, in that regard, uh, I guess, um, uh, the, you know, Shumo's already raised the, the, the issue that, um, we've, we've got, uh, the idea of optical communications as part and parcel of our retinue of researchers when it comes to, uh, when it comes to, uh, when it comes to, uh, uh, possible SETI signals. Mm.

[00:17:54] [SPEAKER_03] Um, and, uh, exactly as, uh, Shumo says, uh, SETI understandably concentrates on radio and optical signals. And yeah, that's why, because they're going to be the easiest to produce. Yeah. Um, very much so. Optical signals, I think, have been neglected a bit in comparison with radio signals, uh, but, but that is coming to an end because the, uh, you know, the latest instruments that we have looking at the optical scale,

[00:18:21] [SPEAKER_03] optical and near infrared sky, and I'm thinking particularly of the Vera C. Rubin observatory now, it, it finds transient events, uh, millions per night by transient events. I mean, things that come and go in the dark and of course communication signals would fall into that category. Yeah.

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_02] When I was doing the research for my new sci-fi trilogy, um, the, the first book in the series is called The Signal. Yeah. And I, I did, uh, quite a bit of research on what signal would be likely to be received on earth by an alien intelligence.

[00:19:01] [SPEAKER_02] And it basically came down to the signals we use every day on our own planet, the, the signals in the hydrogen line, the, the, the, uh, 1.4 to 1.66 gigahertz, um, 14, 20 megahertz range that, that AM radio frequencies basically, um, more or less. Uh, so that's what I based it on.

[00:19:24] [SPEAKER_02] Um, but that, that's, that's more likely to be the kind of signal that would be sent by a communicative intelligence beyond earth. And that's where the Drake equation comes in. Um, I think they're based on an intelligence that is capable of communication.

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_03] And you're absolutely right. The, you know, the, right from the beginning of the, the, what you might call the SETI era, looking for extraterrestrial intelligence, that hydrogen line that you've spoken of, 21 centimeter line to put it in wavelength rather than frequency is, um, uh, is what cold hydrogen emits.

[00:20:06] [SPEAKER_03] So it's the most prolific, uh, spectral line in the whole, in the whole universe of, of any, uh, frequency band. Uh, and so, um, it is naturally where you would start thinking about broadcasting if you were trying to send a signal out, uh, to, uh, to another intelligence, which that's the whole, I guess, the whole, um, proposition of SETI that, uh, the intelligent species out there,

[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_03] they might want to communicate and how are they going to do it? Well, they're going to use the spectral line that we're looking for anyway, because that's something we're using to map the universe.

[00:20:45] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah. Was the wow signal in that frequency range? I think, uh, I think it was, yes. Yeah. I think it was. And that, that came from the, um, Sagittarius constellation region of spaces if not, cause I, I researched that as well. I can just go off the top of my head, but, um, that they have actually studied that part of the universe and they at this moment cannot find anything to suggest that it was an artificial signal.

[00:21:13] [SPEAKER_02] But, um, they still haven't figured that one out, have they?

[00:21:16] [SPEAKER_03] No, there've been a few ideas like, uh, radio emission from comets. That was one, uh, cause I think there were comets in the sky at the time, but, um, yeah, it's, it's still, it's still an open question.

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, I guess so. All right. Um, that's a great question. Thanks, uh, Shumo for sending it in. Um, but, uh, yeah, there's probably easier ways to do things. And, uh, if you're going to send a signal to an alien civilization, you probably want them to be able to figure it out rather than send them something complex and they go, no, no, I don't know what that was. Um, let's go to our final question from Colin.

[00:21:56] [SPEAKER_01] Hello, Andrew and Fred. Colin from Adelaide. I love the science fiction movie Project Hail Mary, which I've seen twice, but I'm still quite confused about the time dilation effects in the movie. Ryan Grace travels twelve light years to his destination at Tau Ceti in four years and eight months. How can this be?

[00:22:20] [SPEAKER_01] The beetles, powered by the astrophage fuel carrying Tau Miba, the solution to the astrophage problem with the sun, reach Earth even quicker than this. How can that be? And lastly, if Ryan Grace had returned to Earth, how much younger would he be than those he left behind? Very confusing. I hope you can help. Thank you. Love the podcast.

[00:22:48] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, thanks Colin. I've seen, um, I've seen the movie a couple of times myself and I've got to confess that I'm as confused as Colin in regard to the distances traveled and how fast they achieved it. Even though they came up with a new drive concept that, um, even that I had trouble getting my head around. They, they did explain it.

[00:23:10] [SPEAKER_02] And I just sat there sort of glazed look on my, on my face, um, because it was, uh, it was very cleverly done, but I don't know how they did it. Someone else might be able to explain it to me. Um, I suppose we can tackle the question in two ways. My answer, Colin is it's science fiction. You can do whatever you damn well like. Um, but that's just, that's the, that's a very simplistic answer.

[00:23:40] [SPEAKER_02] Um, when I write my science fiction novels, I want at least some of it to be as believable as possible. And so I'm, I'm in your boat. I want to know how they did it. Um, the other, yeah, the other side of it is, um, that we should explain time dilation and see where that falls within the parameters of the film. Have you, you haven't seen it, Fred, have you? Hmm. Oh, you have. What did you think?

[00:24:10] [SPEAKER_03] Um, so, uh, well, I was hoping you'd have the answer to this question. Not likely. Cause I did, I did watch it. I watched it on a flight from, on a flight from Sydney to Paris, um, which, uh, gave me enough time to watch the movie, uh, thoroughly. But still, I was still vaguely half asleep at the time. Yeah.

[00:24:36] [SPEAKER_03] Um, and Luke, so I can't, I can't comment on those, um, those, uh, values, uh, that, um, uh, that Colin's given us, but.

[00:24:45] [SPEAKER_02] Well, I, I got it. I've just done a quick search. Okay. And, um, so the, the destination for our hero of the movie, uh, was the star system, Tau Ceti, which was, is 11.9 light years from Earth.

[00:24:59] [SPEAKER_04] Mm-hmm.

[00:25:00] [SPEAKER_02] To get there, um, the, the spacecraft was powered by a micro organism called astrophage that converts mass into pure energy. And that enabled the constant acceleration of 1.5 G for the first half of the trip. And then it flips and decelerates at 1.5 G for the second half of the trip. It's peak velocity was roughly 92% the speed of light. Mm-hmm. Okay.

[00:25:29] [SPEAKER_02] If that's the case, traveling 11.9 light years would take longer than 11, 11.9 years. And he got there in, I think it was four years. That's, that's why Colin's confused.

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_03] Well, I mean, time dilation only works. Yes. When you, when you're talking about two separate frames of reference.

[00:25:52] [SPEAKER_02] Well, it's 11.9 light years if you're staying on Earth.

[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_03] Yes.

[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_02] That's right. And when you're traveling, it's a different kettle of fish.

[00:26:00] [SPEAKER_03] Yes, that's correct. Um, and so the time dilation, you know, the time basically slows down for you as you're traveling relative to the person back on Earth.

[00:26:38] [SPEAKER_02] Mm-hmm. And so the time dilation, you know, the time dilation was, you know, the time dilation was, you know, the time dilation was cut quite dramatically.

[00:27:05] [SPEAKER_02] But in doing so, you didn't age, but everybody back on Earth did still age the, so many light years. Mm-hmm.

[00:27:27] [SPEAKER_02] And it doesn't take that amount of time to get there because of the fact that they're moving through space at a, at a high velocity and, um, yeah.

[00:27:41] [SPEAKER_03] I really struggle to explain this stuff. Well, you should, yeah. The calculation's easy for time dilation. I've seen it. It's just one over one, one over the square root of one minus V squared over C squared. You could do that in your head, Andrew.

[00:27:55] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, I actually had it written down. I did have it written down.

[00:27:59] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah.

[00:28:00] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, that's the one. Um, but yeah, it's, I don't know.

[00:28:03] [SPEAKER_03] In fact, nearly everything in special relativity has this terminate of one over the square root of one minus V squared over C squared. It pops up everywhere. Time dilation, Lorentz contraction, all of those things. It's the same, the same factor, which is why I can remember it.

[00:28:19] [SPEAKER_02] I could suggest to Colin, um, if he wants to read the Human Epoch part one, uh, there's, there is an explanation of it in there. This is your trilogy.

[00:28:29] [SPEAKER_03] Yes. Part one of the trilogy. Yeah. I think that's what you probably should do, Colin. Yeah. Uh, and then you can bug Andrew about it.

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_02] Well, I've already had a few people come to me and say, hang on a minute. Hang on a minute. How did you figure that out?

[00:28:45] [SPEAKER_03] As you say, you're a science fiction writer. You can say whatever you want. Yeah.

[00:28:50] [SPEAKER_02] But I like, I like to get things right. So yeah. Well, you should. That's right. All right. Uh, Colin, that's a fun question and it is a really great film. If, uh, if you haven't seen it, it's still one of the top picks on some of those, um, streaming platforms because it's, uh, it's such a, it's almost a delightful film in, in some ways.

[00:29:11] [SPEAKER_03] Well, yeah, I thought it was a comedy actually.

[00:29:13] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah. It bordered on that. Yeah. And it sort of had a little bit of the Muppet show in it at times, but, but it really was a great story. I loved it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Colin. Great to hear from you. Thanks to everyone who sent us questions. Don't forget you can do the same via our website, space nuts, podcast.com, space nuts.io, and just click on the, ask me anything tab at the top. And don't forget to tell us who you are and where you're from and have a look around while you're there.

[00:29:42] [SPEAKER_02] And don't forget to leave reviews wherever you listen or watch us, um, because they help. Don't know who they help. I don't know why they help, but apparently they help. Uh, unless they're not good reviews, then they don't help. See that's, you know, that's, that's harder to explain than time dilation. Uh, and, uh, thank you Fred for your help today. Couldn't have done it without you.

[00:30:05] [SPEAKER_03] I don't think I could have done it without you either, Andrew. So there you go. Yeah. Just as well we're here. You're welcome. And we'll talk again soon.

[00:30:13] [SPEAKER_02] We will. Professor Fred Watson, astronomer at large. And thanks to Hugh in the studio. Couldn't be here due to an issue with time dilation, but we're expecting him in the year 2154. And from me, Andrew Dunkley, thanks for your company. We'll see you on the next episode of space nuts. Bye. Oh, hang on. Bye.

[00:30:31] [SPEAKER_06] Spacenuts. You'll be listening to the space nuts podcast. Available at Apple podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or your favorite podcast player. You can also stream on demand at bytes.com. This has been another quality podcast production from bytes.com.