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Frozen Frontiers: Snowball Earth, Dinosaur Origins, and Hubble Tension
In this captivating holiday episode of Space Nuts , hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson embark on a journey through time and space, discussing the intriguing concept of Snowball Earth, the origins of the dinosaur-killing asteroid, and the ongoing debate surrounding the Hubble tension in cosmology.
Episode Highlights:
- Snowball Earth: Andrew and Fred explore the fascinating theory of Snowball Earth, a period when our planet was completely frozen over, and how recent geological findings in Scotland and Australia shed light on this icy epoch.
- Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Origins: The hosts delve into the latest research pinpointing the Chicxulub impactor's origins within the asteroid belt, revealing the chemical markers that help trace its journey through the solar system.
- The Hubble Tension: A discussion on the so-called crisis in cosmology, as the hosts dissect the differing measurements of the universe's expansion rate and how new data from the James Webb Space Telescope may provide clarity.
- Listener Questions: The episode wraps up with engaging listener questions, including a fascinating inquiry about the impact of a frozen Earth on its diameter, prompting a thoughtful discussion on planetary changes over time.
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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.
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Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/30732090?utm_source=youtube
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Space Nuts is taking a bit of a break at
00:00:02 --> 00:00:04 the moment. Uh Fred and I will be back
00:00:04 --> 00:00:06 uh in the not too distant future with
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 fresh episodes. In the meantime, enjoy
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 some of uh the key episodes that we have
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 presented over the years, major events
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 in astronomy and space science and we'll
00:00:17 --> 00:00:19 see you real soon.
00:00:19 --> 00:00:20 >> Space Nuts.
00:00:20 --> 00:00:22 >> Hi there. Thanks for joining us on
00:00:22 --> 00:00:24 another episode of Space Nuts. Andrew
00:00:24 --> 00:00:26 Dunley here and it's good to have your
00:00:26 --> 00:00:29 company. Coming up on this episode,
00:00:29 --> 00:00:31 we're going to be looking at Snowball
00:00:31 --> 00:00:33 Earth. There was a time where it was
00:00:33 --> 00:00:37 just a frozen sphere of nothingness for
00:00:37 --> 00:00:39 well, billions of years. Uh, now they
00:00:39 --> 00:00:41 have a new theory about that and it's no
00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 Irish joke.
00:00:43 --> 00:00:46 There's a clue in there. Uh, the
00:00:46 --> 00:00:48 dinosaur asteroids origin has been
00:00:48 --> 00:00:50 revealed. Yep. The thing that started
00:00:50 --> 00:00:52 the
00:00:52 --> 00:00:54 getting rid of them all across the
00:00:54 --> 00:00:57 planet. We know where it came from. and
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 uh the so-called crisis in cosmology
00:00:59 --> 00:01:01 might not be a crisis at all. We're
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 talking about the Hubble tension. We'll
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 talk about all of that on this episode
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 of Space Nuts.
00:01:07 --> 00:01:12 >> 15 seconds. Guidance is internal. 10 9
00:01:12 --> 00:01:14 Ignition sequence start.
00:01:14 --> 00:01:15 >> Space Nuts.
00:01:15 --> 00:01:20 >> 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1
00:01:20 --> 00:01:21 >> Space Nuts.
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 >> Astronauts report. It feels good. And to
00:01:24 --> 00:01:27 help us uh unravel all of that, decipher
00:01:27 --> 00:01:30 it, and uh use his code book to figure a
00:01:30 --> 00:01:32 few more things out is Professor Fred
00:01:32 --> 00:01:34 Watson, an astronomer at large. Hello,
00:01:34 --> 00:01:34 Fred.
00:01:34 --> 00:01:36 >> Hello, Andrew. Keep up the good work
00:01:36 --> 00:01:40 there. It's going very well.
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 >> Uh good to see you. Now I I just I
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 thought I'd sort of start out of left
00:01:44 --> 00:01:48 field because um I I spotted a story uh
00:01:48 --> 00:01:52 only today actually uh which doveetales
00:01:52 --> 00:01:53 with something we talked about some time
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 ago and and that was the work that's
00:01:55 --> 00:01:59 being done to perfect uh engine
00:01:59 --> 00:02:02 technology to achieve greater speeds
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 >> uh for interstellar travel in years to
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 come or maybe not interstellar but
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 interplanetary perhaps. And we know NASA
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 is is working on this kind of technology
00:02:12 --> 00:02:16 to to create uh really
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 fast and high performance engines.
00:02:19 --> 00:02:20 They're working with I think it's
00:02:20 --> 00:02:23 General Electric to achieve that. Uh
00:02:23 --> 00:02:25 they may have been gazumped. Fred, have
00:02:25 --> 00:02:29 you heard about this? Uh no.
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 Uh the Chinese the Chinese claim to have
00:02:32 --> 00:02:36 developed a a new engine that can
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 achieve a speed of 12
00:02:39 --> 00:02:44 mph or 19 km an hour and uh the
00:02:44 --> 00:02:47 aircraft can reach an altitude of 30
00:02:47 --> 00:02:49 kilome. Now you compare that to the
00:02:49 --> 00:02:55 Concord uh it's uh Mac 16 versus Mac 2
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 uh which is an extraordinary claim. Now,
00:02:58 --> 00:02:59 apparently they've released a paper
00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 which has been peer reviewed from what I
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 understand. Um, and it's not April the
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 1st. I'm confident of that. So, they
00:03:08 --> 00:03:10 reckon that they've they've made this
00:03:10 --> 00:03:15 leap in technology to develop a Max 16
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 engine. And just think of this, Fred,
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 you'd be able to fly from Sydney to New
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 York in 50 minutes.
00:03:23 --> 00:03:24 >> Yes, that's what
00:03:24 --> 00:03:28 >> 50 minutes. Uh, That's extraordinary if
00:03:28 --> 00:03:31 it if it's real. And I I don't see why
00:03:31 --> 00:03:32 it wouldn't be, but you never know with
00:03:32 --> 00:03:35 these things. But um apparently uh
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 according to the paper, the engine
00:03:37 --> 00:03:38 operates in two modes. There's a
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 continuous rotating detonation engine,
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 which is a scary thing in itself by the
00:03:42 --> 00:03:43 sound of it, which will get it to mark
00:03:43 --> 00:03:47 7. And uh you know, the air and the fuel
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 create a rotating shock wave with
00:03:49 --> 00:03:52 continuous thrust. and then a straight
00:03:52 --> 00:03:55 line oblique detonation engine which
00:03:55 --> 00:03:58 fires above Mark 7 and pushes it all the
00:03:58 --> 00:04:02 way to Mark 16. Um, it sounds amazing.
00:04:02 --> 00:04:06 Sounds amazing. Uh, how far short they
00:04:06 --> 00:04:08 are of getting this into production, I
00:04:08 --> 00:04:10 don't know, but um, it certainly sounds
00:04:10 --> 00:04:12 like it's in development. That would be
00:04:12 --> 00:04:15 amazing to to be able to achieve those
00:04:15 --> 00:04:17 kinds of speeds. Uh, it would
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 revolutionize travel around the world.
00:04:20 --> 00:04:23 But it's been done already
00:04:23 --> 00:04:24 by
00:04:24 --> 00:04:26 >> Yeah. The British have been working on
00:04:26 --> 00:04:31 this for decades now with their air.
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 It's an air breathing um it's a hybrid
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 engine that breathes air at at at low
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 altitudes and turns into a rocket motor
00:04:40 --> 00:04:41 when you get above the Earth's
00:04:41 --> 00:04:41 atmosphere.
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 >> Yeah, I think I did hear about that. I
00:04:44 --> 00:04:45 didn't know it got to those sorts of
00:04:45 --> 00:04:45 speeds.
00:04:46 --> 00:04:47 >> Yeah. Well, it can it's capable of
00:04:47 --> 00:04:49 entering orbit. So, it can get up to,
00:04:49 --> 00:04:52 you know, 26 kilometers an hour, but
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 but but it's then acting as a rocket
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 motor. So, it's um the project was
00:04:56 --> 00:05:00 called well hotel was the style of thing
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 horizontal takeoff and landing. Um, so
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 it's flies like a plane, takes off like
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07 a plane with the air burning jet
00:05:07 --> 00:05:11 engines, just gradually accelerates, uh,
00:05:11 --> 00:05:15 clicks over into being a, um, a rocket
00:05:15 --> 00:05:17 motor, uh, when the atmosphere gets too
00:05:17 --> 00:05:20 rarified and then sends you up to orbit.
00:05:20 --> 00:05:22 Uh, but the, as I remember right, I
00:05:22 --> 00:05:24 think it's called the Saber, the engine,
00:05:24 --> 00:05:26 if I remember right, it's Saber. But the
00:05:26 --> 00:05:31 big problem was, um, keeping the air
00:05:31 --> 00:05:32 cool.
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 And there was some the main breakthrough
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 was apparently a heat exchanger that
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 could bring the temperature of the air
00:05:39 --> 00:05:43 uh down from 700° C or something to
00:05:44 --> 00:05:45 liquid nitrogen temperatures in
00:05:46 --> 00:05:47 something like a thousandth of a second
00:05:47 --> 00:05:49 as it passes through the engine.
00:05:49 --> 00:05:51 >> Um and and that was a big breakthrough.
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 Now we've I think we've spoken about it
00:05:53 --> 00:05:54 before a long long time ago because
00:05:54 --> 00:05:56 there hasn't really been much news. It
00:05:56 --> 00:05:58 was being supported by the British
00:05:58 --> 00:05:59 government. I don't know whether that
00:05:59 --> 00:06:03 support has has now dwindled um because
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 it would be you know the idea about this
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 was economics. It was to be able to have
00:06:07 --> 00:06:08 the same spa spacecraft that will take
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 you up there and bring you back and was
00:06:10 --> 00:06:13 completely reusable and to some extent I
00:06:13 --> 00:06:16 think um uh Elon Musk SpaceX and their
00:06:16 --> 00:06:18 Falcon 9 have kind of cornered the
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 market on the because they've they've
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 now got reusable spacecraft which are
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 routinely being used every day uh
00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 almost. So maybe there's no space for
00:06:27 --> 00:06:29 it, but yeah, extraordinary technology
00:06:29 --> 00:06:32 and and I'm sure the Chinese technology
00:06:32 --> 00:06:34 is is above board what you've just been
00:06:34 --> 00:06:34 describing.
00:06:34 --> 00:06:36 >> Yeah, it's from the Beijing Power
00:06:36 --> 00:06:38 Machinery Institute and they've
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40 published their paper in the Chinese
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 Journal of Propulsion Technology. I can
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 I can see a problem with it though.
00:06:44 --> 00:06:46 Let's say they do create an airliner
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 that can do that trip in 50 minutes from
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 New York to Sydney, for example. You'd
00:06:51 --> 00:06:52 leave at 7:00 in the morning in New
00:06:52 --> 00:06:55 York. You'd arrive at 11:00 p.m. 50
00:06:55 --> 00:06:59 minutes later in Sydney. So you'd get up
00:06:59 --> 00:07:01 and get on the plane and then get to
00:07:01 --> 00:07:02 Sydney and then have to go to bed wide
00:07:02 --> 00:07:03 awake.
00:07:03 --> 00:07:05 >> Yes,
00:07:05 --> 00:07:08 >> that's right. That's the issue is it
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 would make jet lag all the more worse.
00:07:10 --> 00:07:13 >> Yeah. You know, I think I'd put up with
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 that rather than have all those
00:07:15 --> 00:07:16 >> 20 hours.
00:07:16 --> 00:07:19 >> Yeah. 20our flight. Yeah. I've got one
00:07:19 --> 00:07:21 of those coming up very soon actually.
00:07:21 --> 00:07:22 >> You do? That's right. Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 >> Yeah. It'll be Yeah. It's a watch this
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 space story, but I just find it
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 fascinating these these kinds of um
00:07:28 --> 00:07:30 leaps in technology.
00:07:30 --> 00:07:32 >> Let's move on. Uh a new theory about
00:07:32 --> 00:07:35 snowball earth. Fred, I said there's um
00:07:36 --> 00:07:37 there's no Irish joke attached to this,
00:07:37 --> 00:07:41 and there's a good reason I said that,
00:07:41 --> 00:07:42 >> which I'm probably going to sidestep
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 completely. Uh it's about rocks in
00:07:45 --> 00:07:47 Scotland and in Australia.
00:07:48 --> 00:07:49 >> I thought it was I thought they said
00:07:49 --> 00:07:50 there was some of these rocks in Ireland
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 as well. Yeah, I think I think there are
00:07:52 --> 00:07:55 I think that's right. I think that's the
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 loose connection I made with it.
00:07:58 --> 00:08:02 >> Um it it also includes rocks in Namibia
00:08:02 --> 00:08:05 uh and North America uh as well as uh
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 Scotland. Uh you're probably right,
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 Ireland in Ireland because um it's the
00:08:10 --> 00:08:11 west of Scotland where these where these
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 rocks are that have recently been
00:08:13 --> 00:08:17 analyzed. Uh and the I mean it's an
00:08:17 --> 00:08:18 interesting story. I've often wondered
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 about Snowball Earth. never really
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 looked at at the details of it. So, it's
00:08:23 --> 00:08:27 a period of about 60 million years ago.
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 Oh, sorry, 60 million years long, but it
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 was a long time ago. It began 700
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 million years ago. Uh, in fact, probably
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39 more like 720 million years ago and
00:08:39 --> 00:08:41 lasted until about 635 million years
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 ago. And it's called the Cryogenian
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 Cryogenian geological period. And
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 anything with cryo in the front of it
00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 means it's frozen solid.
00:08:50 --> 00:08:51 >> Yeah.
00:08:51 --> 00:08:54 >> And so um and so I thought well how do
00:08:54 --> 00:08:58 we know this? And the way we know it
00:08:58 --> 00:09:01 and the way we know that glacial ice
00:09:02 --> 00:09:05 covered the whole planet is because you
00:09:05 --> 00:09:08 can see in the geology the effects of
00:09:08 --> 00:09:10 glaciation
00:09:10 --> 00:09:13 uh everywhere. It's not just, you know,
00:09:13 --> 00:09:15 I I grew up in a country where 10
00:09:15 --> 00:09:17 years ago, the whole of the northern
00:09:17 --> 00:09:20 part of Britain was under ice. And so my
00:09:20 --> 00:09:22 all my school lessons were about glacial
00:09:22 --> 00:09:25 features uh in the north of England. And
00:09:25 --> 00:09:29 so so you could tell from rocks uh
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 whether something has been glaciated.
00:09:32 --> 00:09:34 And that's how we know everywhere there
00:09:34 --> 00:09:37 is this layer of rock uh corresponding
00:09:37 --> 00:09:40 to looking back you know six 6 700
00:09:40 --> 00:09:42 million years where you see the evidence
00:09:42 --> 00:09:45 of glaciation. Um and so the
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 interpretation of that is that you uh
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51 you had an ice age that was the put it
00:09:51 --> 00:09:54 the the grandfather of all ice ages. Uh
00:09:54 --> 00:09:58 the whole planet was frozen. Uh and so
00:09:58 --> 00:10:00 the the new research concerns uh
00:10:00 --> 00:10:03 evidence from rocks in Scotland. Uh and
00:10:03 --> 00:10:08 what's remarkable is that uh the sort of
00:10:08 --> 00:10:10 glacia the glacial evidence there shows
00:10:10 --> 00:10:13 up really clearly. Uh for some reason
00:10:13 --> 00:10:16 that has been preserved very well uh
00:10:16 --> 00:10:17 there, you know, underneath the
00:10:18 --> 00:10:20 sediments that were dropped on top of on
00:10:20 --> 00:10:24 top of it um later on. But um the bottom
00:10:24 --> 00:10:28 line about the uh the reason why we got
00:10:28 --> 00:10:32 this ice age is a is a question um I'm
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 not sure that the article I sent you it
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 goes into detail about it. Uh but the
00:10:37 --> 00:10:41 thinking is that we were seeing a period
00:10:41 --> 00:10:45 when um or before this period uh we were
00:10:45 --> 00:10:51 seeing a time when uh volcanic rocks
00:10:51 --> 00:10:54 were being were being uh eroded. They
00:10:54 --> 00:10:56 were being weathered very rapidly. And
00:10:56 --> 00:10:58 apparently these were particularly in
00:10:58 --> 00:11:01 Canada uh these volcanic rocks. I'm
00:11:01 --> 00:11:03 looking back now perhaps 720 million
00:11:04 --> 00:11:08 years. um they were eroded by weathering
00:11:08 --> 00:11:11 and that process sucks carbon dioxide
00:11:11 --> 00:11:14 out of the atmosphere. Uh and so um what
00:11:14 --> 00:11:18 you're seeing is a situation where the
00:11:18 --> 00:11:22 atmospheric carbon dioxide is lower uh
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 than normal and in fact uh it is
00:11:25 --> 00:11:28 probably was probably about half uh what
00:11:28 --> 00:11:31 today's level is. today's levels in the
00:11:31 --> 00:11:33 region of 400 parts per million of
00:11:33 --> 00:11:35 carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And
00:11:35 --> 00:11:37 that's enough to blanket our planet and
00:11:37 --> 00:11:39 keep the temperature stable. Uh unless
00:11:39 --> 00:11:41 you put more in in which case the
00:11:41 --> 00:11:43 temperature goes up as you know. Uh but
00:11:43 --> 00:11:46 uh if you drop too far down uh then you
00:11:46 --> 00:11:50 get an ice ball. Um they estimate the
00:11:50 --> 00:11:54 atmospheric carbon dioxide levels uh
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56 back in the cryogenic period or
00:11:56 --> 00:11:59 cryogenonian period. uh they estimate
00:11:59 --> 00:12:02 they were below 200 parts per million.
00:12:02 --> 00:12:04 And what that does is lets the heat just
00:12:04 --> 00:12:07 radiate out into the uh into space and
00:12:07 --> 00:12:09 you lose heat. The earth's surface
00:12:09 --> 00:12:12 becomes very cold. Uh and uh and
00:12:12 --> 00:12:13 basically you get the snowball earth.
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 You get an earth that is covered with
00:12:15 --> 00:12:18 ice. Um the it's the same sort of thing
00:12:18 --> 00:12:20 that we think happened on Mars. Mars is
00:12:20 --> 00:12:22 very low carbon dioxide content and
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 that's why we think it got cold and dry
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 rather than warm and white as it once
00:12:26 --> 00:12:27 was. M
00:12:28 --> 00:12:29 >> the other there's a lot of moving parts
00:12:29 --> 00:12:32 to this story but uh one of the things I
00:12:32 --> 00:12:37 found most interesting was if this mega
00:12:37 --> 00:12:40 freeze hadn't happened life as we know
00:12:40 --> 00:12:42 it may not have developed
00:12:42 --> 00:12:44 >> because up until this time it was just
00:12:44 --> 00:12:47 microbial just that was it.
00:12:47 --> 00:12:50 >> That's that's correct. Um so uh and the
00:12:50 --> 00:12:52 thinking yes it was it was
00:12:52 --> 00:12:54 single-sellled organisms until that time
00:12:54 --> 00:12:56 and they they were around for you know
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 three billion years or so um that
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 nothing happened except these single
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 cellled organisms uh principally
00:13:03 --> 00:13:05 cyanobacteria they just did their thing
00:13:05 --> 00:13:08 and got on with life but didn't evolve
00:13:08 --> 00:13:12 in any way. Uh but the end this this end
00:13:12 --> 00:13:17 of the glacial period was such a sort of
00:13:17 --> 00:13:20 rapid climate change by the standards of
00:13:20 --> 00:13:23 the of the time by geological standards
00:13:23 --> 00:13:25 that the thinking is that you've got to
00:13:25 --> 00:13:30 uh almost an arms race uh to adapt um to
00:13:30 --> 00:13:34 to to this new situation where the
00:13:34 --> 00:13:36 microbes are not permanently in deep
00:13:36 --> 00:13:39 freeze. you've got a warming climate and
00:13:39 --> 00:13:41 the and the evolution of the microbes
00:13:41 --> 00:13:44 kicks in at a much higher level than it
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 was before and that is where uh we think
00:13:47 --> 00:13:49 that the multi-elled organism started to
00:13:49 --> 00:13:52 be formed and that's what are the
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 ancestors of all the animals that we see
00:13:54 --> 00:13:56 today. Yeah. So basically those who
00:13:56 --> 00:14:00 survived the thor or adapted to it uh
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02 created life as we know it. Yeah. just
00:14:02 --> 00:14:06 this extraordinary um sort of factor to
00:14:06 --> 00:14:09 come out of it. The other thing I and I
00:14:10 --> 00:14:11 correct me if I'm wrong, but these rocks
00:14:12 --> 00:14:13 we were talking about in Ireland and
00:14:13 --> 00:14:15 Scotland and Australia and everywhere
00:14:15 --> 00:14:19 else uh the reason that these are so
00:14:19 --> 00:14:21 different is I believe these were rocks
00:14:21 --> 00:14:24 that actually stuck out of the ice. Is
00:14:24 --> 00:14:27 that correct?
00:14:27 --> 00:14:29 >> During that period,
00:14:29 --> 00:14:32 >> they may have done or or at least been
00:14:32 --> 00:14:34 subject to less glacial activity. So,
00:14:34 --> 00:14:37 yes, they they they may have, you know,
00:14:37 --> 00:14:39 had only a thin layer of ice over them
00:14:39 --> 00:14:41 rather than be under kilometers of ice.
00:14:42 --> 00:14:44 Um, so I think you're right there. And
00:14:44 --> 00:14:47 and and just to to confirm, you're quite
00:14:47 --> 00:14:48 right that some of these rocks are in
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51 Ireland as well. Uh I hadn't spotted
00:14:51 --> 00:14:53 that, Andrew, in my reading of the
00:14:53 --> 00:14:58 paper. Uh but yes, so you've got um uh
00:14:58 --> 00:15:01 particularly you've got uh these rocks
00:15:01 --> 00:15:03 on some of the Scottish islands. These
00:15:04 --> 00:15:06 are small islands called the Gavllas. Uh
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 and it's um basically in the west of
00:15:09 --> 00:15:13 Scotland. Uh it's under the Portas
00:15:13 --> 00:15:15 formation. This is a geological area.
00:15:15 --> 00:15:17 Potas very well known to Scots people
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 because it's a name of a well-known pipe
00:15:19 --> 00:15:22 tune. Um so let me quote from one of the
00:15:22 --> 00:15:25 authors of this work um and he's he's
00:15:25 --> 00:15:30 actually a PhD uh candidate at the UN uh
00:15:30 --> 00:15:33 University College London. The layers of
00:15:33 --> 00:15:35 rocks exposed on the Garvellis are
00:15:35 --> 00:15:37 globally unique. Underneath the rocks
00:15:37 --> 00:15:40 laid down during the unimaginable cold
00:15:40 --> 00:15:43 of the glaciation are 70 m of older
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 carbonate rocks formed in tropical
00:15:45 --> 00:15:48 waters. These layers record a tropical
00:15:48 --> 00:15:50 marine environment with flourishing
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 cyanobacterial life that gradually
00:15:52 --> 00:15:54 became cooler, marking the end of a
00:15:54 --> 00:15:56 billion years or so of a temperate
00:15:56 --> 00:15:59 climate on Earth. Um, most areas of the
00:15:59 --> 00:16:01 world are missing this remarkable
00:16:01 --> 00:16:04 transition because the ancient glacias
00:16:04 --> 00:16:06 scraped and eroded the way the rocks
00:16:06 --> 00:16:08 underneath. But in Scotland, by some
00:16:08 --> 00:16:10 miracle, the transition can be seen. And
00:16:10 --> 00:16:12 I think that's underlining what you
00:16:12 --> 00:16:13 said. They were either sticking up
00:16:13 --> 00:16:14 through the ice or they weren't
00:16:14 --> 00:16:17 particularly deeply covered by ice. So,
00:16:18 --> 00:16:20 it's minerals and uh radiometric dating
00:16:20 --> 00:16:23 of the minerals that have allowed this
00:16:23 --> 00:16:26 discovery to to to be made.
00:16:26 --> 00:16:28 >> Yeah. It's incredible, isn't it? All the
00:16:28 --> 00:16:30 answers are right there in front of us
00:16:30 --> 00:16:31 in the dirt sometimes.
00:16:31 --> 00:16:33 >> Simple as that.
00:16:33 --> 00:16:36 >> That's how we it's we know so much about
00:16:36 --> 00:16:38 the history of not just our planet, but
00:16:38 --> 00:16:40 the you know, the other planets of the
00:16:40 --> 00:16:42 solar system. just learned from looking
00:16:42 --> 00:16:44 at the rocks. That's right.
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 >> Yeah. Fantastic. Uh if you'd like to
00:16:46 --> 00:16:49 read the article or chase up that story,
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 it's uh on the cosmosine.com
00:16:52 --> 00:16:55 website. This is Space Nuts. Andrew
00:16:55 --> 00:16:58 Dunley here with Professor Brad Watson.
00:16:58 --> 00:17:00 Let's take a break from the show to tell
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00:18:39 --> 00:18:41 notes.
00:18:41 --> 00:18:43 >> You're clear also.
00:18:43 --> 00:18:44 >> Space nuts.
00:18:44 --> 00:18:47 >> Uh speaking of dirt, Fred, uh we've got
00:18:47 --> 00:18:49 we've got the dirt on the dinosaur
00:18:49 --> 00:18:52 asteroid. We uh uh we now know thanks to
00:18:52 --> 00:18:55 a new study where it came from. This is
00:18:55 --> 00:18:57 fascinating, too.
00:18:57 --> 00:18:59 >> It it is. That's right. Uh and you know,
00:18:59 --> 00:19:01 it's not that long ago that people were
00:19:01 --> 00:19:04 really still speculating about where the
00:19:04 --> 00:19:07 remnants of this asteroid was. Uh we're
00:19:07 --> 00:19:09 now pretty certain that it's in the
00:19:09 --> 00:19:12 Chicelog Basin
00:19:12 --> 00:19:15 in the Gulf of Mexico. that that is the
00:19:15 --> 00:19:18 uh the site which uh actually was the
00:19:18 --> 00:19:20 impact site of this asteroid. So what
00:19:20 --> 00:19:23 you can do is you can look at the the
00:19:23 --> 00:19:26 rocks um that you find in that region.
00:19:26 --> 00:19:28 Once again, we're looking down at the
00:19:28 --> 00:19:32 dirt and um but basically look to see
00:19:32 --> 00:19:35 whether we know of anything like it out
00:19:35 --> 00:19:40 there in the solar system. Um and the
00:19:40 --> 00:19:45 bottom line is that yes we do find that
00:19:45 --> 00:19:47 uh in in particular and this is work
00:19:48 --> 00:19:49 being done at the University of Cologne
00:19:49 --> 00:19:54 in Germany um the uh the element
00:19:54 --> 00:19:56 ruthenium
00:19:56 --> 00:20:00 um is basically a chemical marker if I
00:20:00 --> 00:20:04 can put it that way that is found in the
00:20:04 --> 00:20:07 debris around the chicks impactor And
00:20:07 --> 00:20:09 apparently in other sediments around the
00:20:09 --> 00:20:11 world because the debris from that
00:20:11 --> 00:20:13 explosion spread all around the world.
00:20:13 --> 00:20:16 It was so, you know, such a uh such a a
00:20:16 --> 00:20:20 major uh piece of uh piece of of
00:20:20 --> 00:20:22 explosive material. It it was only
00:20:22 --> 00:20:24 explosive because it hit the ground at a
00:20:24 --> 00:20:27 very high speed, probably 30 or 40
00:20:27 --> 00:20:30 kilometers/s. Um but the the fingerprint
00:20:30 --> 00:20:32 of ruthenium has been found in that
00:20:32 --> 00:20:36 debris. And it turns out that that
00:20:36 --> 00:20:40 coincides with rocks in the the main
00:20:40 --> 00:20:43 asteroid belt. That's the region between
00:20:43 --> 00:20:47 Mars and Jupiter, but at the outer edge
00:20:47 --> 00:20:50 uh outer edge of the main asteroid belt.
00:20:50 --> 00:20:52 Not sort of not the kind of place you'd
00:20:52 --> 00:20:55 expect. You would think if the if that
00:20:55 --> 00:20:57 rock had come from uh the asteroid belt,
00:20:57 --> 00:20:58 you'd think it would be the near the
00:20:58 --> 00:21:01 inner edge, but the chemical um
00:21:01 --> 00:21:03 specifics tell you that it's actually at
00:21:03 --> 00:21:07 the outer edge. Uh and um that is really
00:21:07 --> 00:21:11 very very interesting deduction. Uh who
00:21:11 --> 00:21:12 would have thought that we we would be
00:21:12 --> 00:21:14 able to pinpoint where that asteroid
00:21:14 --> 00:21:17 came from uh 66 million years after the
00:21:17 --> 00:21:19 event. Uh and um
00:21:19 --> 00:21:21 >> maybe the asteroid I
00:21:21 --> 00:21:22 >> Yeah, I guess they worked it out on the
00:21:22 --> 00:21:25 chemical composition elements rather
00:21:25 --> 00:21:27 than backtracking.
00:21:27 --> 00:21:29 >> Yes, that's right. Um it's it we don't
00:21:29 --> 00:21:31 have enough information to backtrack. We
00:21:31 --> 00:21:33 don't know what angle it came in at or
00:21:33 --> 00:21:35 you know what its orbit was before it
00:21:35 --> 00:21:37 collided with Earth. So it's it's all
00:21:37 --> 00:21:40 about chemistry is this and um and in
00:21:40 --> 00:21:43 particular some quite uh quite
00:21:43 --> 00:21:44 sophisticated well I suppose you call it
00:21:44 --> 00:21:47 chemical physics because they're using
00:21:47 --> 00:21:51 radiation techniques uh basically to to
00:21:51 --> 00:21:54 to look for these levels of runium uh in
00:21:54 --> 00:21:57 in the basically in the debris from the
00:21:57 --> 00:22:01 uh from the um uh asteroid uh crater and
00:22:01 --> 00:22:06 and surroundings. uh and um basically uh
00:22:06 --> 00:22:09 you know looking at uh how it compares
00:22:09 --> 00:22:13 with other um asteroid impacts and
00:22:13 --> 00:22:16 carbonatous meteorites which also come
00:22:16 --> 00:22:18 from that region of the of the solar
00:22:18 --> 00:22:20 system.
00:22:20 --> 00:22:23 >> So what might have caused a rock from
00:22:23 --> 00:22:25 that particular part of the solar system
00:22:26 --> 00:22:28 to you know turn its attention to us?
00:22:28 --> 00:22:30 Did Saturn get upset and chuck a rock at
00:22:30 --> 00:22:33 us or something? is
00:22:33 --> 00:22:37 um it's probably uh it's it's probably
00:22:37 --> 00:22:42 um a a just a gravitational disturbance,
00:22:42 --> 00:22:47 you know, something that disturbed the
00:22:47 --> 00:22:49 uh orbit of this asteroid in its
00:22:49 --> 00:22:52 comfortable zone of the asteroid belt.
00:22:52 --> 00:22:53 Maybe an interaction with another
00:22:54 --> 00:22:56 asteroid because when objects come
00:22:56 --> 00:22:58 together, they needn't necessarily
00:22:58 --> 00:23:01 collide. But if they can interact with
00:23:01 --> 00:23:02 each other gravitationally so that one
00:23:02 --> 00:23:05 of them gets thrown out of of of its
00:23:05 --> 00:23:07 orbits and you know it's possible that
00:23:07 --> 00:23:09 that would have been the case. U it's
00:23:09 --> 00:23:11 kind of like being in a crowd at a
00:23:11 --> 00:23:14 Chinese supermarket. Really? That's
00:23:14 --> 00:23:15 >> that's what it's like.
00:23:15 --> 00:23:16 >> Yes. Yes.
00:23:16 --> 00:23:18 >> You didn't want to go that way but you
00:23:18 --> 00:23:20 you ended up going
00:23:20 --> 00:23:21 >> you have to you have to go that way.
00:23:21 --> 00:23:23 Yeah. Just because everything's so
00:23:23 --> 00:23:25 crowded. It's it's it's a bit like that.
00:23:25 --> 00:23:30 The um um the thing is that that event
00:23:30 --> 00:23:31 whatever tipped it out of its
00:23:31 --> 00:23:34 comfortable orbit that might have
00:23:34 --> 00:23:36 happened a long time before the 66
00:23:36 --> 00:23:41 million year date a ago uh that we for
00:23:41 --> 00:23:43 the uh for the impact for the extinction
00:23:43 --> 00:23:45 of the dinosaurs. So it might have been
00:23:45 --> 00:23:47 in a in an orbit that intersected the
00:23:47 --> 00:23:49 earth's orbit for a long long time uh
00:23:50 --> 00:23:52 before the crunch finally came when it
00:23:52 --> 00:23:53 tried to be in the same place at the
00:23:53 --> 00:23:56 same time as the earth. Uh so yes, so so
00:23:56 --> 00:23:58 we there's details for this story that
00:23:58 --> 00:24:02 we still have a long way to finding out.
00:24:02 --> 00:24:04 Um but it may well have been, as I said,
00:24:04 --> 00:24:07 it's either a collision with another uh
00:24:07 --> 00:24:11 asteroid or maybe even something like
00:24:11 --> 00:24:13 the gravitational pull of gas giants.
00:24:13 --> 00:24:17 Maybe Jupiter uh perturbed that object's
00:24:17 --> 00:24:19 orbit in such a way that it interacted
00:24:19 --> 00:24:21 with another asteroid and got got thrown
00:24:21 --> 00:24:24 out of uh thrown out of the asteroid
00:24:24 --> 00:24:26 belt. We probably will never know that.
00:24:26 --> 00:24:27 Uh it's interesting enough, I think, to
00:24:27 --> 00:24:30 to discover whereabouts it came from.
00:24:30 --> 00:24:32 >> Yes. The other thing that uh came out of
00:24:32 --> 00:24:36 this is that it all but writes off that
00:24:36 --> 00:24:38 this was a comet impact.
00:24:38 --> 00:24:38 >> Yes.
00:24:38 --> 00:24:41 >> Um but not absolutely.
00:24:41 --> 00:24:43 >> Yeah, that's right. There's still uh
00:24:43 --> 00:24:45 there's still a possibility, but you
00:24:45 --> 00:24:47 know, comets are a different beast from
00:24:48 --> 00:24:51 from asteroids. They contain lots of ice
00:24:51 --> 00:24:53 uh as well as the rock. And that means
00:24:53 --> 00:24:57 that the chemistry of the the residual
00:24:57 --> 00:24:59 material from the impact would have
00:24:59 --> 00:25:02 different properties. Uh so I think um
00:25:02 --> 00:25:05 it's uh you know you can never say never
00:25:05 --> 00:25:09 but the the the body of opinion seems to
00:25:09 --> 00:25:10 be that it was actually an asteroid
00:25:10 --> 00:25:11 rather than a comet.
00:25:11 --> 00:25:12 >> Yeah.
00:25:12 --> 00:25:14 >> I do have just one more question about
00:25:14 --> 00:25:16 this story and this is the most
00:25:16 --> 00:25:19 important one for it. most important.
00:25:19 --> 00:25:22 You mentioned the element recinium.
00:25:22 --> 00:25:22 >> Yes.
00:25:22 --> 00:25:24 >> So, was the person who discovered that
00:25:24 --> 00:25:28 named Ruth?
00:25:28 --> 00:25:30 >> Um, that's a good question. I'd have to
00:25:30 --> 00:25:31 take that one on notice, but my guess is
00:25:31 --> 00:25:35 that that's where the name came from or
00:25:35 --> 00:25:38 maybe maybe it was somebody who was
00:25:38 --> 00:25:39 ruthless.
00:25:39 --> 00:25:41 >> And they thought, "Yeah, I'll call it
00:25:41 --> 00:25:43 Runthenian because I'm ruthless." Who
00:25:43 --> 00:25:44 knows that?
00:25:44 --> 00:25:46 >> Yeah. Yeah, that's that's a thought,
00:25:46 --> 00:25:49 too. Uh that story if you would like to
00:25:49 --> 00:25:53 read it is available at space.com.
00:25:54 --> 00:25:55 >> This is Space Nuts. Andrew Dunley here
00:25:55 --> 00:26:01 with Professor Fred Watson
00:26:01 --> 00:26:02 and I feel
00:26:02 --> 00:26:03 >> space nuts.
00:26:03 --> 00:26:07 >> Uh now Fred to the so-called crisis in
00:26:07 --> 00:26:09 cosmology. We're talking about uh the
00:26:09 --> 00:26:12 the Hubble tension. Now we've we've done
00:26:12 --> 00:26:14 this story a few times over the years.
00:26:14 --> 00:26:18 This this is where the basically the
00:26:18 --> 00:26:21 expansion speed of the universe um
00:26:21 --> 00:26:23 depending on how how you calculate
00:26:24 --> 00:26:25 uh that number comes up with two
00:26:25 --> 00:26:27 different answers and they have never
00:26:27 --> 00:26:30 been able to figure out why. But now
00:26:30 --> 00:26:32 they're starting to think well there's
00:26:32 --> 00:26:36 no crisis at all. Everything's right. Um
00:26:36 --> 00:26:39 yes. So
00:26:39 --> 00:26:43 um the let me just explain how the this
00:26:43 --> 00:26:45 this tension the Hubble tension comes
00:26:45 --> 00:26:45 about.
00:26:46 --> 00:26:46 >> Yeah.
00:26:46 --> 00:26:48 >> Uh because there are there are two ways
00:26:48 --> 00:26:52 of of measuring uh the expansion of the
00:26:52 --> 00:26:57 universe. Uh one uses standard candles
00:26:57 --> 00:27:00 and the other uses a standard ruler.
00:27:00 --> 00:27:02 >> Um put it that way. So the standard
00:27:02 --> 00:27:05 candle's taking that first. Um if you
00:27:05 --> 00:27:07 know how bright your candle is, then you
00:27:07 --> 00:27:09 can work out how far away it is from
00:27:09 --> 00:27:12 you. Uh because you you you know you
00:27:12 --> 00:27:13 know it's real brightness, it's
00:27:13 --> 00:27:15 intrinsic brightness, then you can work
00:27:15 --> 00:27:19 out what is going on uh in terms of
00:27:19 --> 00:27:21 because we know the way light gets
00:27:21 --> 00:27:23 fainter. We know the rule by which light
00:27:24 --> 00:27:25 gets fainter as you move to greater and
00:27:25 --> 00:27:27 greater distances. It's what called the
00:27:27 --> 00:27:30 inverse square law. Um it it goes as the
00:27:30 --> 00:27:31 square of the distance or one over the
00:27:31 --> 00:27:34 square of the distance. So uh standard
00:27:34 --> 00:27:39 candles are usually stars in galaxies.
00:27:40 --> 00:27:43 Uh and in fact this is what uh let us
00:27:43 --> 00:27:45 detect the expansion of the universe in
00:27:46 --> 00:27:48 the first place because u in the early
00:27:48 --> 00:27:52 years of the last century around 1900 um
00:27:52 --> 00:27:54 a group of astronomers uh in the United
00:27:54 --> 00:27:57 States measured the intrinsic brightness
00:27:57 --> 00:27:59 of a particular kind of variable star.
00:27:59 --> 00:28:01 one whose brightness varies uh but it
00:28:01 --> 00:28:04 varies in a in a periodic way. And it
00:28:04 --> 00:28:05 turns out that there's a relationship
00:28:05 --> 00:28:08 between how frequently it varies and
00:28:08 --> 00:28:10 what the intrinsic brightness is. And
00:28:10 --> 00:28:11 you usually take it at peak brightness
00:28:11 --> 00:28:13 or minimum brightness, whichever it
00:28:13 --> 00:28:14 doesn't doesn't really matter as long as
00:28:14 --> 00:28:17 you know what it is. And so that's the
00:28:17 --> 00:28:20 timehonored way of working out how far
00:28:20 --> 00:28:23 away galaxies are. uh to look for these
00:28:23 --> 00:28:27 variable stars and then basically uh
00:28:27 --> 00:28:30 look at um uh you know how bright they
00:28:30 --> 00:28:32 look to us and from that work out the
00:28:32 --> 00:28:35 distance. Uh and that lets you produce a
00:28:35 --> 00:28:36 value for what we call the Hubble
00:28:36 --> 00:28:40 constant which is the number that
00:28:40 --> 00:28:42 basically tells you how fast the
00:28:42 --> 00:28:45 universe is expanding. Uh the Hubble
00:28:45 --> 00:28:48 constant is in units of kilometers/s per
00:28:48 --> 00:28:50 mega par. But we don't really need to
00:28:50 --> 00:28:52 worry about that because at the moment
00:28:52 --> 00:28:54 all we're interested in is the number.
00:28:54 --> 00:28:58 And so until now uh the best estimates
00:28:58 --> 00:29:00 uh from the standard candles in other
00:29:00 --> 00:29:03 words the sephiid variables have come
00:29:03 --> 00:29:07 out at uh about 74 kilometers/s mega
00:29:07 --> 00:29:10 parc. But then the standard ruler method
00:29:10 --> 00:29:13 is uh looking back at the flash of the
00:29:13 --> 00:29:14 big bang, the cosmic microwave
00:29:14 --> 00:29:17 background radiation which we see uh as
00:29:17 --> 00:29:20 it was about 13 billion years ago. And
00:29:20 --> 00:29:22 there are features in that variation
00:29:22 --> 00:29:26 which uh have separations that we know
00:29:26 --> 00:29:29 would be characteristic of a certain the
00:29:29 --> 00:29:31 particular time and and what we're
00:29:31 --> 00:29:33 talking about here when I say features I
00:29:33 --> 00:29:35 mean peaks and troughs in the
00:29:35 --> 00:29:37 temperature of the big bang. effectively
00:29:37 --> 00:29:39 what you're looking at. Um and from that
00:29:39 --> 00:29:41 you can also deduce the Hubble constant
00:29:42 --> 00:29:44 the expansion rate as it is today. Uh
00:29:44 --> 00:29:48 but the answer you get from that is 67.5
00:29:48 --> 00:29:50 kilometers/s per mega par.
00:29:50 --> 00:29:51 >> Yeah.
00:29:51 --> 00:29:53 >> Uh which is round about 6 and a half
00:29:53 --> 00:29:56 kilometers/s per mega par different from
00:29:56 --> 00:29:58 the other one. And that is now we're in
00:29:58 --> 00:30:01 such a precise era that now now has
00:30:01 --> 00:30:04 people worried. Um so what's happened?
00:30:04 --> 00:30:07 Well, the same team who've done a huge
00:30:07 --> 00:30:10 amount of this work in the past led by
00:30:10 --> 00:30:13 um Dr. Wendy Free Freriedman, one of the
00:30:13 --> 00:30:15 big names in this kind of science in the
00:30:15 --> 00:30:18 United States. Uh Wendy and her team
00:30:18 --> 00:30:23 have used our new toy, the web, the
00:30:23 --> 00:30:25 James Web Space Telescope. Uh
00:30:25 --> 00:30:27 >> we always knew it would it would solve
00:30:27 --> 00:30:28 this problem.
00:30:28 --> 00:30:30 >> We knew it would certainly help. It
00:30:30 --> 00:30:32 would either make it worse or it would
00:30:32 --> 00:30:33 solve it. And yeah, you're right. to cut
00:30:34 --> 00:30:35 to the chase, it's probably solved it
00:30:35 --> 00:30:39 because it's now looking as though the
00:30:39 --> 00:30:43 method um is more like that, you know,
00:30:43 --> 00:30:44 the method where you measure the
00:30:44 --> 00:30:46 brightness of these variable stars is
00:30:46 --> 00:30:47 giving an answer more like 70
00:30:47 --> 00:30:50 kilometers/s per mega parc which is much
00:30:50 --> 00:30:52 closer to that 67.5 that you get from
00:30:52 --> 00:30:54 the cosmic microwave background
00:30:54 --> 00:30:56 radiation. And it turns out that when
00:30:56 --> 00:30:59 you think about the the error uh
00:30:59 --> 00:31:01 potential error of both of them, then it
00:31:01 --> 00:31:04 overlaps. So in that regard, you've got
00:31:04 --> 00:31:05 something that falls within the error
00:31:05 --> 00:31:08 bounds of both of these methods. And so
00:31:08 --> 00:31:10 maybe we are seeing the right answer at
00:31:10 --> 00:31:10 last.
00:31:10 --> 00:31:12 >> So it it basically brings it back to an
00:31:12 --> 00:31:14 average.
00:31:14 --> 00:31:16 >> That's right. Methods. Yeah.
00:31:16 --> 00:31:19 >> Yes. Yeah. You know when I started my
00:31:19 --> 00:31:23 career, Andrew, um there were two camps
00:31:23 --> 00:31:25 uh and basically they were using similar
00:31:26 --> 00:31:29 methods. uh one said that the uh Hubble
00:31:29 --> 00:31:31 constant was 50 kilometers/s per mega
00:31:31 --> 00:31:33 per second. The other said it was 100
00:31:33 --> 00:31:35 kilometers/s per mega per second. They
00:31:35 --> 00:31:37 were both right.
00:31:37 --> 00:31:39 They thought they were both right and it
00:31:39 --> 00:31:41 turned out that the the answer the real
00:31:41 --> 00:31:44 answer was the average of the 70 or 75
00:31:44 --> 00:31:45 for that.
00:31:45 --> 00:31:48 >> There you go. Um pretty simple solution
00:31:48 --> 00:31:50 at the end of the day, but a lot of hard
00:31:50 --> 00:31:53 work went into went in finding it and we
00:31:53 --> 00:31:55 yeah we hope that's that resolves the
00:31:55 --> 00:31:56 Hubble tension. It would be great.
00:31:56 --> 00:31:57 Hopefully
00:31:57 --> 00:31:59 >> cosmic crash disappeared. Yeah.
00:31:59 --> 00:32:01 >> Yeah. I I wouldn't be surprised though
00:32:01 --> 00:32:03 in months to come somebody comes up with
00:32:03 --> 00:32:05 a debunking theory.
00:32:05 --> 00:32:07 >> Uh well, there you go.
00:32:07 --> 00:32:09 >> It could happen. It could happen. But um
00:32:09 --> 00:32:12 at this point in time, looks like it
00:32:12 --> 00:32:14 might have been resolved. This has been
00:32:14 --> 00:32:16 frustrating for a long time, but u may
00:32:16 --> 00:32:18 may be as simple as Oh, hang on a sec.
00:32:18 --> 00:32:20 >> You're both right, and here's why.
00:32:20 --> 00:32:21 >> Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:21 --> 00:32:23 >> Yeah. Um that's stories on
00:32:23 --> 00:32:25 scitecdaily.com.
00:32:25 --> 00:32:27 Um question without notice, Fred, that's
00:32:27 --> 00:32:29 come through from one of our live
00:32:29 --> 00:32:32 viewers. Uh Wayne, hi Wayne. Um this
00:32:32 --> 00:32:35 harks back to the snowball earth story
00:32:35 --> 00:32:38 we did. Uh Wayne asks, "I wonder how
00:32:38 --> 00:32:40 much bigger the diameter of a frozen
00:32:40 --> 00:32:43 earth would be to the current earth. Do
00:32:43 --> 00:32:45 we have any idea what that might have
00:32:45 --> 00:32:45 been?"
00:32:46 --> 00:32:48 >> Yeah, I it probably wasn't that much
00:32:48 --> 00:32:52 different. Um it um you know I mean at
00:32:52 --> 00:32:54 the moment a lot of that water's still
00:32:54 --> 00:32:56 there but it's wet.
00:32:56 --> 00:32:59 Uh and you know this is now it's it's
00:32:59 --> 00:33:02 turned into ice. So um it's not going to
00:33:02 --> 00:33:05 be it's certainly not going to be k um
00:33:05 --> 00:33:08 tens of kilometers different um it might
00:33:08 --> 00:33:10 be a few kilometers different um on
00:33:10 --> 00:33:12 average and I'm talking about the
00:33:12 --> 00:33:14 average uh but but I don't think it
00:33:14 --> 00:33:15 would uh you know it wouldn't have
00:33:15 --> 00:33:17 turned into a gas giant or anything like
00:33:17 --> 00:33:18 that. It's an interesting question
00:33:18 --> 00:33:20 though because we think it's because of
00:33:20 --> 00:33:22 frozen water out in the depths of the
00:33:22 --> 00:33:26 solar system adding to the mass of the
00:33:26 --> 00:33:28 gas giants as they were being formed. We
00:33:28 --> 00:33:30 think that is one reason why they became
00:33:30 --> 00:33:32 so big because they had enough bands to
00:33:32 --> 00:33:36 hold onto a a gas envelope. Um and so
00:33:36 --> 00:33:39 it's a good question to to ask that what
00:33:39 --> 00:33:40 difference would the ice make? But it
00:33:40 --> 00:33:42 but this is really just a surface layer
00:33:42 --> 00:33:45 of ice rather than a solid block of ice
00:33:45 --> 00:33:47 which may be at the core of the of the
00:33:47 --> 00:33:48 gas giants.
00:33:48 --> 00:33:50 >> Indeed. All right. Thank you, Wayne.
00:33:50 --> 00:33:52 Nice to get questions without notice
00:33:52 --> 00:33:54 while we're going out live during our
00:33:54 --> 00:33:56 recording sessions. Good to hear from
00:33:56 --> 00:33:58 you. Uh Fred, we're just about done.
00:33:58 --> 00:33:59 Thank you very much.
00:33:59 --> 00:34:02 >> A pleasure, Andrew. Good to talk and uh
00:34:02 --> 00:34:04 some interesting topics and there'll be
00:34:04 --> 00:34:05 more next week.
00:34:05 --> 00:34:07 >> Indeed there will. Thanks, Fred.
00:34:07 --> 00:34:08 Professor Fred Watson, astronomer at
00:34:08 --> 00:34:11 large. Don't forget to check us out
00:34:11 --> 00:34:13 online, spacenutspodcast.com,
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00:34:16 --> 00:34:18 become a supporter of the podcast if
00:34:18 --> 00:34:20 you're interested. Um, just have a bit
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00:34:32 --> 00:34:34 and uh, thanks to Hugh in the studio as
00:34:34 --> 00:34:36 always. And from me, Andrew Dunley, we
00:34:36 --> 00:34:38 will see you again soon on the very next
00:34:38 --> 00:34:41 episode of Space Nuts. Bye-bye.
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