Celestial Encounters: Fireballs, Astronauts, and Black Holes
In this captivating episode of Space Nuts, hosts Heidi Campo and Professor Fred Watson embark on a journey through the cosmos, sharing thrilling stories and discoveries that will ignite your curiosity. From witnessing a stunning fireball to celebrating the legacy of astronaut Jim Lovell, this episode is packed with cosmic insights and reflections on the universe's wonders.
Episode Highlights:
- A Meteor Experience: Fred recounts his recent sighting of a bright green fireball while driving to Canberra, discussing its atmospheric origins and the excitement it generated in the media. Heidi shares her own memories of witnessing meteors, sparking a conversation about the sounds and colors associated with these celestial events.
- Remembering Jim Lovell: The hosts pay tribute to astronaut Jim Lovell, known for his pivotal role in the Apollo 13 mission. They reflect on his calm demeanor under pressure and the impact he had on space exploration, drawing lessons from his life that resonate beyond the stars.
- The Cosmic Horseshoe and a Record-Breaking Black Hole: Fred introduces a recent discovery of a black hole estimated to be 36 billion times the mass of the sun, found within the cosmic horseshoe. The discussion delves into gravitational lensing and how this phenomenon allows astronomers to glean insights into distant galaxies.
- Unsticking Mars Rovers: The episode wraps up with an exploration of NASA's rovers and the challenges they face on the Martian surface. Fred shares how recent research has improved our understanding of why rovers get stuck and how engineers can adapt their techniques to navigate the sandy terrain more effectively.
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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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00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Heidi Campo: Welcome back to another fun and
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 exciting episode of space nuts.
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 Generic: 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.
00:00:09 --> 00:00:11 10, 9. Ignition
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 sequence start. Space nuts. 5, 4, 3,
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 2, 1. 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4,
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 3, 2', 1. Space nuts. Astronauts
00:00:20 --> 00:00:22 report it feels good.
00:00:23 --> 00:00:25 Heidi Campo: On your host for this episode, Heidi Campo.
00:00:25 --> 00:00:27 And joining us today is Professor Fred
00:00:27 --> 00:00:30 Watson, astronomer at large for. Fred,
00:00:30 --> 00:00:32 how are you doing today? You've been quite
00:00:32 --> 00:00:33 busy.
00:00:33 --> 00:00:35 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, I've been traveling a little bit. Just
00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 uh, down to the nation's capital, the city of
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 Canberra, which is uh, about three and a half
00:00:41 --> 00:00:44 hour drive from here on a road
00:00:44 --> 00:00:46 that's really pretty good because it's sort
00:00:46 --> 00:00:48 of dual carriageway all the way, so you don't
00:00:48 --> 00:00:51 have to worry about not being able to pass
00:00:51 --> 00:00:54 heavy trucks and things. Um, but it had a.
00:00:54 --> 00:00:57 The drive down on Sunday evening, uh, had
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 a little bit of astronomical interest
00:00:59 --> 00:01:01 because, uh, as I was
00:01:02 --> 00:01:04 getting the Acambra, which is down to the
00:01:04 --> 00:01:06 south of us, um, and approaching the state of
00:01:06 --> 00:01:09 Victoria, which is still quite a long way
00:01:09 --> 00:01:10 away. But never mind, that's where I was
00:01:10 --> 00:01:13 approaching. Um, I saw a fireball, uh,
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 uh, a, uh, bright meteor, very bright
00:01:17 --> 00:01:20 meteor. Uh, it was, uh, right in my field of
00:01:20 --> 00:01:21 vision. Uh, so the car must have been
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 pointing kind of southwest. Uh, this thing
00:01:24 --> 00:01:27 was probably 15, 20 degrees above the
00:01:27 --> 00:01:30 horizon. Uh, came in, uh,
00:01:30 --> 00:01:33 very bright green fireball,
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 green coming from partly the atmospheric
00:01:36 --> 00:01:38 oxygen, partly from the iron in the object.
00:01:39 --> 00:01:42 Uh, and sort of, I guess it lasted for
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 maybe 0.9 of a
00:01:45 --> 00:01:47 second, something like that, uh, and then at
00:01:47 --> 00:01:49 the end just disappeared in an orange dot.
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 But, uh, the next morning the media were full
00:01:52 --> 00:01:55 of this, uh, meteor that had been
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 seen in Victoria, the state of Victoria,
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 which was probably a good 300km from where
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 I was. Um, and uh, some
00:02:03 --> 00:02:04 people said they heard the sonic boom that
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 went with it. So there's a big media blitz.
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 Yesterday I got a, um, call from
00:02:10 --> 00:02:13 one of the radio stations to talk about it
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 yesterday afternoon actually on the drive
00:02:15 --> 00:02:17 back. So, yeah, a really
00:02:17 --> 00:02:20 exciting thing. Um, I've seen, ah,
00:02:20 --> 00:02:23 being an astronomer and used to work at
00:02:23 --> 00:02:25 night, I've seen a lot of those, um,
00:02:25 --> 00:02:28 well, by a lot, maybe a dozen throughout my
00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 working life where you see something bright
00:02:30 --> 00:02:33 enough to light up the landscape. Uh, but
00:02:33 --> 00:02:34 it's quite a long time since I've seen one.
00:02:34 --> 00:02:37 So it was good to reconnect with the world
00:02:37 --> 00:02:40 of, uh, immediate, uh, astronomy
00:02:40 --> 00:02:43 where the Earth is plowing up bits of dust
00:02:43 --> 00:02:44 and debris through the atmosphere.
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 Heidi Campo: Well, it really. And when you do see them,
00:02:47 --> 00:02:49 it's such an amazing experience. I remember
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 I'VE seen a few of them in my lifetime. I
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 think just three. But the one really
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 brilliant one that I remember, um, I want
00:02:57 --> 00:03:00 to ask you if my memory has inserted this
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 sound into it or if this is possible.
00:03:03 --> 00:03:05 But it was so bright and it was sparkling,
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 like, like magical. Like some animator had
00:03:07 --> 00:03:09 put sparkles in the sky.
00:03:09 --> 00:03:09 Professor Fred Watson: Okay.
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 Heidi Campo: And it's just sparkling and glitzing across
00:03:11 --> 00:03:14 the sky. And I can swear in my memory
00:03:14 --> 00:03:17 I hear like, almost like the firecracker
00:03:17 --> 00:03:19 sound or like the sound like a sparkler makes
00:03:19 --> 00:03:22 as it's going across the sky. But I'm like,
00:03:22 --> 00:03:24 man, is my memory just inserting that sound
00:03:24 --> 00:03:26 because that's what it looks like, or did it
00:03:26 --> 00:03:27 really make that sound?
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 Professor Fred Watson: Um, so the. The issue with these
00:03:30 --> 00:03:32 things, if that was a meteor and it sounds
00:03:32 --> 00:03:35 though it was, um, um. And a fireball is a
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 bright meteor, there is a definition. I can't
00:03:37 --> 00:03:39 remember what it is as to how bright it. It
00:03:39 --> 00:03:42 has to become to be called a fireball. Well,
00:03:42 --> 00:03:44 did you see any color in it? In the. In the
00:03:44 --> 00:03:47 crackles? Could you see any colors or.
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 Sorry. In the. I remember pops.
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 Heidi Campo: The biggest. The biggest memory I have is the
00:03:51 --> 00:03:52 pops of color.
00:03:52 --> 00:03:53 Professor Fred Watson: Like just.
00:03:53 --> 00:03:54 Heidi Campo: Just like a sparkler.
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. Um, the thing
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 is that, um, where they hit the atmosphere,
00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 it's about 90 kilometers, 60 miles up,
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 uh, in the air. And so
00:04:06 --> 00:04:08 it's too far away to
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 technically to hear, um, the
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 sound it makes as it's just as it's
00:04:16 --> 00:04:18 exploding. But, um, the fact that it is
00:04:18 --> 00:04:20 moving so fast through the atmosphere means
00:04:20 --> 00:04:23 that you sometimes do get a sonic boom,
00:04:23 --> 00:04:26 uh, which is the bang. Uh, and it's a single
00:04:26 --> 00:04:29 bang rather than set of pops. Uh, but that
00:04:29 --> 00:04:32 can be up to, um. It can
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 be up to 90 seconds after you've seen the
00:04:35 --> 00:04:36 visual thing because it takes that long for
00:04:36 --> 00:04:39 the sound wave to propagate down through the
00:04:39 --> 00:04:41 atmosphere from that height. Um,
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 so, um, it may well be that you were, uh,
00:04:44 --> 00:04:47 hearing something else or it was perhaps,
00:04:47 --> 00:04:49 um, inserted by your brain as you
00:04:49 --> 00:04:52 suggested. Usually, uh, the sonic boom
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 will be after any noise, will be after the
00:04:54 --> 00:04:55 event.
00:04:55 --> 00:04:58 Heidi Campo: Well, that's good education. It's good to
00:04:58 --> 00:05:01 always have you as our reference to ask us.
00:05:01 --> 00:05:04 And speaking of bright stars in
00:05:04 --> 00:05:07 the sky, we lost a big one.
00:05:07 --> 00:05:10 And that's our first story today. Jim Lovell.
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, A veteran
00:05:13 --> 00:05:16 astronaut, Uh, a
00:05:16 --> 00:05:19 name that, for me, you know,
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 in the early years of the space age,
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 following every move with,
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 uh, intense scrutin. Uh,
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 it's a name that's very familiar. Jim Lovell.
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 Uh, the commander, uh, of
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 not um, sure whether he was the commander,
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 um, he was commander of Apollo
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 13, but his earlier mission was Apollo
00:05:40 --> 00:05:43 8. Uh, he was on the classic Apollo 8 mission
00:05:43 --> 00:05:45 which we talked about a couple of episodes
00:05:45 --> 00:05:48 ago, uh with the earthrise crater.
00:05:48 --> 00:05:49 Apollo 8, 1968.
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 Um, so uh, he um, was as
00:05:53 --> 00:05:55 I said, the commander of Apollo 13.
00:05:56 --> 00:05:59 Uh, I think it was his voice that um,
00:05:59 --> 00:06:02 uttered those immortal words.
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 Houston, we have a problem. When the fuel
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 cell exploded in the service module of Apollo
00:06:07 --> 00:06:10 13. So very, very famous uh
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 figure, his um,
00:06:13 --> 00:06:16 supreme ability to cope with
00:06:16 --> 00:06:19 disaster uh, I think was a big
00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 contributor into the success of
00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 Apollo 13. The fact that um, the mission,
00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 whilst they didn't touched down on the moon.
00:06:27 --> 00:06:29 I think everybody knows the story. The fuel
00:06:29 --> 00:06:31 cell exploded on the way out to the moon.
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 They just did a translunar orbit, came
00:06:34 --> 00:06:36 back, uh, and um,
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 essentially um, uh did a direct re
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 entry uh of the command
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 module and landed safely and
00:06:45 --> 00:06:47 were picked up. An extraordinary story. Uh,
00:06:47 --> 00:06:50 the movie is well worth watching. Apollo 13,
00:06:50 --> 00:06:52 it's pretty accurate. Uh, fairly close to the
00:06:52 --> 00:06:54 truth. But yeah, I think a lot of the success
00:06:54 --> 00:06:57 of that was just the cool head of this
00:06:57 --> 00:07:00 astonish astronaut, uh, who
00:07:00 --> 00:07:03 um, I think um, retired from the astronaut
00:07:03 --> 00:07:06 corps not that long afterwards and
00:07:06 --> 00:07:09 went into business I think. Um, so
00:07:09 --> 00:07:12 a very very well known name at the time and
00:07:13 --> 00:07:16 basically uh, somebody who we've
00:07:16 --> 00:07:18 now lost a link with those
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 early years of the space uh,
00:07:21 --> 00:07:24 adventures, human spaceflight. He was 97
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 when he died. A week or so ago.
00:07:27 --> 00:07:29 Heidi Campo: Yeah. And you know, and I, I, I think, you
00:07:29 --> 00:07:31 know, I don't, I, I don't really know what
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 his, his lifestyle or health was like. But I
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 do know that those personality types, those
00:07:35 --> 00:07:38 people who are able to stay calm under
00:07:38 --> 00:07:40 pressure and manage their stress, it really
00:07:40 --> 00:07:42 does wonders for your health. And the fact
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 that he made it to 97 I think is a little bit
00:07:45 --> 00:07:46 of a testament to that. So.
00:07:46 --> 00:07:47 Professor Fred Watson: That's, that's right.
00:07:48 --> 00:07:49 Heidi Campo: So these are people that we need to remember.
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 They're not just role models in space, but
00:07:51 --> 00:07:54 they're role models for like how to, how to
00:07:54 --> 00:07:56 kind of live our life and conduct ourselves
00:07:56 --> 00:07:59 here on Earth. I think it's a uh, little bit
00:07:59 --> 00:08:01 cheesy, but it's like, you know, you think of
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 astronauts is just kind of like these larger
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 than life superstars in so many ways. And
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 it's like they are the, they are the ones
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 who, they have to operate well under
00:08:10 --> 00:08:12 pressure. And that's a good reminder of how
00:08:12 --> 00:08:14 we should handle. You know, if someone cuts
00:08:14 --> 00:08:15 you off in traffic, it's maybe not as
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 dramatic as fuel cell exploding, but how can
00:08:18 --> 00:08:21 we react, um, to those little
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 crises here on Earth?
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, Yep. Yeah, that's a, that's a really
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 good point, actually. Um, you know, it's the
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 whole demeanor of the person that, that uh,
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 um, it tells you,
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 uh, if you can behave like that under those
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 stresses, it, uh, tells you that you can
00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 probably cope with every. Anything. Including
00:08:41 --> 00:08:43 being cut off in traffic.
00:08:43 --> 00:08:46 Heidi Campo: Absolutely. So his character was played by,
00:08:47 --> 00:08:48 um, Tom Hanks, right?
00:08:49 --> 00:08:51 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, that's correct. Yes. Yes, indeed.
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 In, in the, in the movie. That's right. Um,
00:08:54 --> 00:08:57 yeah, it just, you know, it's uh,
00:08:57 --> 00:09:00 it was. And of course it was very early,
00:09:00 --> 00:09:03 um, in the Apollo missions. It
00:09:03 --> 00:09:06 was the third mission to land
00:09:06 --> 00:09:09 on the moon. Apollo 11, the first Apollo 12
00:09:09 --> 00:09:11 successful. Apollo 13 was going to be the
00:09:11 --> 00:09:14 next one. Uh, but, um,
00:09:15 --> 00:09:17 it didn't happen. Uh, and I guess it also
00:09:17 --> 00:09:20 illuminated not just the character of the
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 person in charge of the mission on board the
00:09:23 --> 00:09:25 spacecraft, but also the technology that was
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 being used. NASA, ah, would have learned
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29 lessons from that, uh, about the way they
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 handle their fuel cells and the design of the
00:09:31 --> 00:09:34 fuel cells, just as they did with the other
00:09:34 --> 00:09:37 major tragedy of the Apollo era. Uh,
00:09:37 --> 00:09:40 Apollo 1, uh, in which three astronauts
00:09:40 --> 00:09:42 perished in a fire, uh, in the
00:09:42 --> 00:09:45 capsule while it was still on the ground. It
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 was a sort of dress rehearsal. It wasn't
00:09:47 --> 00:09:49 actually a mission. Uh, and they were in the
00:09:49 --> 00:09:52 space capsule. And um, it was at that
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 time that, uh, NASA used an all
00:09:55 --> 00:09:58 oxygen atmosphere within
00:09:58 --> 00:10:00 these capsules. But oxygen is very, very
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 reactive. It'll burn with anything.
00:10:03 --> 00:10:06 Uh, and after that they changed that so
00:10:06 --> 00:10:08 that Apollo 1 actually led to
00:10:08 --> 00:10:11 major design changes in the Apollo missions,
00:10:11 --> 00:10:13 uh, as I'm sure Apollo 13 did as.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:17 Heidi Campo: Yeah, I just, ah, I want to read you guys
00:10:17 --> 00:10:19 this last line of the article. That was a
00:10:19 --> 00:10:22 statement from his family. Um, he had four
00:10:22 --> 00:10:25 children and his family says we will miss his
00:10:25 --> 00:10:27 unshakable optimism, his sense of humor,
00:10:27 --> 00:10:30 and the way he made each of us feel like we
00:10:30 --> 00:10:32 could do the impossible. I think that's a
00:10:32 --> 00:10:33 really beautiful line.
00:10:34 --> 00:10:34 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah.
00:10:35 --> 00:10:36 Heidi Campo: You know, those are the things that we want
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38 to remember when we, when these people who
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 are larger than life leave us is, you know,
00:10:41 --> 00:10:43 who's going to be next? Who? How can they
00:10:43 --> 00:10:46 inspire us to be the next. The next. You
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 know, as we are in the Artemis era now. It's
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 going to be that next person to fill those
00:10:51 --> 00:10:52 shoes.
00:10:52 --> 00:10:52 Professor Fred Watson: Yes.
00:10:54 --> 00:10:56 Andrew Dunkley: Let's take a break from the show now to tell
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00:12:45 --> 00:12:47 Professor Fred Watson: 0T and I feel fine.
00:12:47 --> 00:12:50 Heidi Campo: Space Nuts and there are big shoes to fill. I
00:12:50 --> 00:12:51 mean there's so much out there.
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54 And it looks like our next article here, if
00:12:54 --> 00:12:56 we'll roll right into that is, we're thinking
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 we may have just discovered the biggest black
00:12:59 --> 00:13:00 hole ever.
00:13:02 --> 00:13:02 Professor Fred Watson: That's right.
00:13:02 --> 00:13:04 Heidi Campo: Uh, is this a recent discovery?
00:13:05 --> 00:13:06 Professor Fred Watson: It is, yes. So, um,
00:13:08 --> 00:13:11 it's from an object that is
00:13:11 --> 00:13:13 known. But uh, the research
00:13:14 --> 00:13:16 that has led to this, which has been done by
00:13:16 --> 00:13:18 British uh, astronomers, um,
00:13:19 --> 00:13:22 they've analyzed what we already know about
00:13:22 --> 00:13:25 this object. Uh, and
00:13:25 --> 00:13:28 uh, it's essentially something
00:13:28 --> 00:13:31 that's very visually appealing to look
00:13:31 --> 00:13:33 at. Um, and it's well known. It's called the
00:13:33 --> 00:13:36 cosmic horseshoe. You uh, can find
00:13:36 --> 00:13:39 it probably on many of the websites.
00:13:39 --> 00:13:41 Um, uh, uh, because
00:13:42 --> 00:13:45 uh, it's such a visually inspiring thing to
00:13:45 --> 00:13:48 look at. What we've got is a field of
00:13:48 --> 00:13:51 galaxies. These are distant galaxies with one
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53 in particular that's relatively bright. What
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 we call an elliptical galaxy. One that
00:13:55 --> 00:13:58 doesn't have structure but around it is an
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00 almost complete circle, uh, of
00:14:00 --> 00:14:03 bluish light. And that is the
00:14:03 --> 00:14:05 image of a more distant galaxy,
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08 uh, which is being distorted by the
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10 gravitational field of the galaxy in the
00:14:10 --> 00:14:13 foreground. Um, so the horseshoe
00:14:13 --> 00:14:16 is actually a blurred out image
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 of a very distant object
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 behind the blob of light that you can
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 see in the middle of the horseshoe because
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 that's the galaxy which is, we call it the
00:14:26 --> 00:14:29 lensing galaxy because it is actually acting
00:14:29 --> 00:14:32 like a lens. The space around that galaxy
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35 is being distorted so that it mimics a
00:14:35 --> 00:14:38 lens that sort of magnifies and distorts the
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 image uh, of the galaxy behind it. And
00:14:40 --> 00:14:43 it's an almost perfect alignment, uh,
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 where you've got uh, a galaxy
00:14:46 --> 00:14:49 which is very distant with
00:14:49 --> 00:14:52 one immediate, sorry, one directly in
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 front of it that's much nearer, uh, but
00:14:54 --> 00:14:57 the two are exactly aligned as uh, seen from
00:14:57 --> 00:14:59 our uh, vantage point in our own Milky Way
00:14:59 --> 00:15:02 galaxy. And that alignment produces this
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 distortion of the image which we call an
00:15:04 --> 00:15:07 Einstein ring because they were predicted by
00:15:07 --> 00:15:10 Einstein that you would see, uh,
00:15:10 --> 00:15:12 this distorted view of galaxies.
00:15:13 --> 00:15:16 Uh, the uh, Einstein rings were something
00:15:16 --> 00:15:19 he thought we'd never see. Uh, but
00:15:19 --> 00:15:21 we actually started seeing them in the 1970s
00:15:21 --> 00:15:23 when telescopes got sensitive enough to
00:15:23 --> 00:15:26 detect uh, these really extraordinary
00:15:26 --> 00:15:29 structures in space. So that's what we see.
00:15:29 --> 00:15:32 That's the basic observation. But what
00:15:32 --> 00:15:34 has now um, uh,
00:15:34 --> 00:15:37 emerged is detail of
00:15:37 --> 00:15:40 the structure of the nearer
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42 galaxy. The galaxy that's doing the lensing,
00:15:42 --> 00:15:45 the one that's distorting the space. Um,
00:15:45 --> 00:15:48 it's about 5.6 billion light years
00:15:48 --> 00:15:51 from our, our own, uh, Milky Way
00:15:51 --> 00:15:54 galaxy. Uh, and what they've done
00:15:54 --> 00:15:56 is the scientists have analyzed
00:15:57 --> 00:16:00 basically the gravitational field, uh,
00:16:00 --> 00:16:03 around that uh, nearer galaxy,
00:16:03 --> 00:16:05 that one 5.6 billion years light years
00:16:05 --> 00:16:08 away. Um, and from, in
00:16:08 --> 00:16:11 doing that they have been able to estimate
00:16:11 --> 00:16:14 the size of the, um,
00:16:15 --> 00:16:18 the, the, excuse me, the, sorry, um,
00:16:18 --> 00:16:19 I thought it was going to sneeze there, uh,
00:16:19 --> 00:16:22 the size of the black hole at the center of
00:16:22 --> 00:16:24 this galaxy. Uh, with. We think that all
00:16:24 --> 00:16:27 galaxies have a supermassive black hole at
00:16:27 --> 00:16:29 their center. If not all of them, certainly
00:16:29 --> 00:16:32 most of them. And this particular one, uh,
00:16:32 --> 00:16:35 indeed has uh, a black hole. And by
00:16:35 --> 00:16:38 analyzing the shape of the cosmic horseshoe,
00:16:38 --> 00:16:40 you can measure its mass.
00:16:41 --> 00:16:44 Uh, and this, um,
00:16:45 --> 00:16:47 I'm just reading this in detail again.
00:16:48 --> 00:16:51 Um, and I think what I'm saying is
00:16:51 --> 00:16:53 not, it's, well it's true, it's not the
00:16:53 --> 00:16:56 real truth of the story, which is the one is
00:16:56 --> 00:16:59 the galaxy that is beyond the one that is
00:16:59 --> 00:17:01 being imaged, the one whose image is being
00:17:01 --> 00:17:03 distorted by the nearer galaxy.
00:17:04 --> 00:17:07 Um, now the
00:17:07 --> 00:17:10 size uh, of that object,
00:17:10 --> 00:17:13 uh, is being estimated from
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 all these distortions. I'm not telling this
00:17:15 --> 00:17:17 story very clearly, Heidi. I apologize for
00:17:17 --> 00:17:19 that. But the bottom line is that they
00:17:19 --> 00:17:22 believe that the uh, that mass of the
00:17:22 --> 00:17:25 black hole at the center of this galaxy, uh,
00:17:25 --> 00:17:27 is something like
00:17:27 --> 00:17:30 36 billion times
00:17:30 --> 00:17:33 the mass of the sun. Uh, and that will be a
00:17:33 --> 00:17:35 record that, that will be a record that the
00:17:35 --> 00:17:37 one at the center of our own galaxy,
00:17:38 --> 00:17:41 Sagittarius, uh, a star is
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43 its name, uh, is only,
00:17:44 --> 00:17:47 it's about 4 million times the
00:17:47 --> 00:17:49 mass of the sun. So this one is something
00:17:49 --> 00:17:52 like 10, 10 times bigger,
00:17:52 --> 00:17:55 uh, than the one that we are seeing.
00:17:56 --> 00:17:58 Uh, uh, uh, sorry, the one that, the one that
00:17:58 --> 00:18:00 we have at the center of our own galaxy. So
00:18:00 --> 00:18:03 it's uh, really um, quite
00:18:03 --> 00:18:05 remarkable that you can glean this sort of
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08 information from uh, looking
00:18:08 --> 00:18:11 at structures in space which are, ah,
00:18:11 --> 00:18:13 remarkable in their appearance. They're quite
00:18:13 --> 00:18:16 beautiful. Um, but tell you a
00:18:16 --> 00:18:19 lot about what's going on, the absolute, the
00:18:19 --> 00:18:21 actual physical properties of what's going on
00:18:21 --> 00:18:24 out there in space. So a system of two
00:18:24 --> 00:18:26 galaxies, one of which has the record
00:18:26 --> 00:18:28 breaking black hole at its center.
00:18:29 --> 00:18:31 Heidi Campo: That's amazing. Uh, to be the person who
00:18:31 --> 00:18:33 discovered that would be pretty exciting.
00:18:34 --> 00:18:36 Until we find another bigger one.
00:18:36 --> 00:18:38 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, that's right. Um, yeah, there's nothing
00:18:38 --> 00:18:41 like a record breaker is there, for kind
00:18:41 --> 00:18:43 of attracting people's attention. It's the
00:18:43 --> 00:18:46 headline that you always want to be able to
00:18:46 --> 00:18:48 make. The biggest or the most distant or the
00:18:48 --> 00:18:50 faintest or the, or the um,
00:18:51 --> 00:18:54 uh, mostest. The mostest. Yeah. I
00:18:54 --> 00:18:56 do remember um, once being able to do a radio
00:18:56 --> 00:18:59 recorder radio program about the most
00:18:59 --> 00:19:02 distant objects known at that time. This was
00:19:02 --> 00:19:04 back in 1982, believe it or not. Uh,
00:19:05 --> 00:19:07 the discovery of a, is actually a quasar
00:19:07 --> 00:19:09 discovered by the Anglo Australian telescope
00:19:09 --> 00:19:11 here in Australia. I was actually in Scotland
00:19:11 --> 00:19:13 at the time and I recorded an interview about
00:19:13 --> 00:19:16 this object which was the most distant
00:19:16 --> 00:19:19 object ever discovered. Um, I
00:19:19 --> 00:19:22 listened for it on the radio the following
00:19:22 --> 00:19:24 morning, um, but there was no sign of it
00:19:24 --> 00:19:26 because that was the day that Argentina
00:19:26 --> 00:19:29 invaded the Falkland Islands, which was very,
00:19:29 --> 00:19:31 very big news in the uk. So all
00:19:31 --> 00:19:34 astronomical stories just got wiped. So
00:19:35 --> 00:19:37 my first radio interview ended up on the
00:19:37 --> 00:19:40 cutting room floor thanks to geopolitical
00:19:40 --> 00:19:42 events beyond my commercial troll.
00:19:43 --> 00:19:44 Heidi Campo: That's a bummer. Well now look at you.
00:19:45 --> 00:19:47 Professor Fred Watson: Well, there you go. Yeah, that's right.
00:19:47 --> 00:19:48 Indeed, that's true.
00:19:48 --> 00:19:51 Heidi Campo: Uh, looking at this image, it's called the
00:19:51 --> 00:19:53 Horseshoe, but it almost reminds Me, you
00:19:53 --> 00:19:54 nerds out there. If you guys are looking at
00:19:54 --> 00:19:57 this image, you'll appreciate this. It
00:19:57 --> 00:20:00 reminds me of, um, the, the franchise
00:20:00 --> 00:20:02 Alien, of the alien embryo with the tail
00:20:02 --> 00:20:05 wrapping around when it's rolled up in the
00:20:05 --> 00:20:07 egg. That's what it looks like to me is, uh,
00:20:07 --> 00:20:10 the alien logo. So that's a, uh, that's a
00:20:10 --> 00:20:13 little bit kind of eerie. What if there's a.
00:20:13 --> 00:20:15 Some kind of creature in there?
00:20:15 --> 00:20:18 Professor Fred Watson: There could be. Who knows, somebody, you
00:20:18 --> 00:20:20 know, some, some creature that likes black
00:20:20 --> 00:20:20 holes.
00:20:21 --> 00:20:22 Heidi Campo: Would that be. Would that be something?
00:20:23 --> 00:20:26 Well, one thing we do know finally
00:20:26 --> 00:20:29 is why the rover kept getting
00:20:29 --> 00:20:32 stuck. And we have finally figured out how
00:20:32 --> 00:20:35 to unstuck stick this poor little rover.
00:20:36 --> 00:20:39 Professor Fred Watson: It's true. Um, so,
00:20:39 --> 00:20:41 uh, NASA's rovers
00:20:42 --> 00:20:44 and the four that come to mind are Spirit and
00:20:44 --> 00:20:46 Opportunity in the early 2000s,
00:20:47 --> 00:20:49 uh, and curiosity I think
00:20:49 --> 00:20:52 2012, uh, and
00:20:52 --> 00:20:55 perseverance 2021. Those
00:20:55 --> 00:20:58 are the, what you might call the iconic
00:20:58 --> 00:21:00 rovers on the lunar surface. There are more.
00:21:00 --> 00:21:03 Uh, Tianwen 1 is the Chinese one, which I
00:21:03 --> 00:21:06 think is now, uh, defunct. I think,
00:21:06 --> 00:21:09 um, its batteries ran out.
00:21:09 --> 00:21:12 And there were other, earlier NASA ones, if I
00:21:12 --> 00:21:14 remember. Sojourner was one of the first
00:21:14 --> 00:21:17 ones. But, um, these rovers,
00:21:17 --> 00:21:20 uh, pretty well all of them have six wheels,
00:21:20 --> 00:21:22 uh, which are sort of independently
00:21:22 --> 00:21:25 controlled. They're fitted with tires that
00:21:25 --> 00:21:28 are made of kind of springy metal, um, with
00:21:28 --> 00:21:30 indentations, uh, in them,
00:21:31 --> 00:21:34 uh, in order to get purchase
00:21:34 --> 00:21:36 on the sandy soil of
00:21:36 --> 00:21:39 Mars. But as you say, they,
00:21:39 --> 00:21:42 they do occasionally get stuck. Uh, and
00:21:42 --> 00:21:45 in fact, um, sometimes
00:21:45 --> 00:21:48 that getting bogged, as we would perhaps
00:21:48 --> 00:21:50 call it, is, um, in Australian
00:21:50 --> 00:21:53 parlance, anyway. You got your car bogged,
00:21:53 --> 00:21:54 did you? Yeah, well, you got your rover
00:21:54 --> 00:21:57 bogged. It's um, that's a, uh,
00:21:57 --> 00:22:00 basically sometimes led to the end of the
00:22:00 --> 00:22:03 life of some of these rovers. I think Spirit
00:22:03 --> 00:22:06 was one that got bogged and perhaps, um,
00:22:06 --> 00:22:08 Opportunity as well. Uh, now
00:22:09 --> 00:22:12 the reason why this is, uh, a bit
00:22:12 --> 00:22:15 of a pain for NASA engineers
00:22:15 --> 00:22:18 is that when they do the modeling of
00:22:18 --> 00:22:20 how a rover with
00:22:21 --> 00:22:23 the metal tires will behave
00:22:24 --> 00:22:27 in an environment where the
00:22:27 --> 00:22:29 gravity is only a third of what the Earth's
00:22:29 --> 00:22:32 gravity is, uh, they do the
00:22:32 --> 00:22:34 modeling and it says that they shouldn't get
00:22:34 --> 00:22:37 bugged. Um, uh, it's uh,
00:22:37 --> 00:22:39 you know, that they shouldn't actually have
00:22:39 --> 00:22:41 this phenomenon. They uh, shouldn't get
00:22:41 --> 00:22:44 stuck, uh, in the soil of
00:22:44 --> 00:22:47 Mars. Uh, and so
00:22:47 --> 00:22:49 they've looked at this problem again
00:22:50 --> 00:22:53 and essentially solved it.
00:22:53 --> 00:22:56 As you've said, Heidi. Um, what
00:22:56 --> 00:22:59 they've done is look
00:22:59 --> 00:23:01 not just at the way the lower
00:23:01 --> 00:23:04 gravity makes the rover itself
00:23:04 --> 00:23:07 behave, but the way the lower gravity
00:23:07 --> 00:23:10 makes the sand that they're trying to drive
00:23:10 --> 00:23:12 through behave. Uh, and
00:23:13 --> 00:23:15 when they use these uh, simulations,
00:23:15 --> 00:23:18 including the gravitational, the lower
00:23:18 --> 00:23:20 gravitational force on the dust particles
00:23:20 --> 00:23:23 themselves, um, then they
00:23:23 --> 00:23:26 realize that why they're getting stuck.
00:23:26 --> 00:23:28 Oh, well, they're obviously going to get
00:23:28 --> 00:23:30 stuck if you, if you do that.
00:23:31 --> 00:23:33 Uh, it's a, ah, it's a. Basically they've
00:23:33 --> 00:23:36 used, this is a number of uh, uh,
00:23:36 --> 00:23:38 scientists who've used a,
00:23:39 --> 00:23:42 a, uh, physics engine, um, Project
00:23:42 --> 00:23:45 Chrono it's called. Uh, and they've used that
00:23:45 --> 00:23:47 to essentially disentangle uh,
00:23:49 --> 00:23:51 what causes this bogging the
00:23:52 --> 00:23:54 wheels to get stuck. And that's the
00:23:54 --> 00:23:56 conclusion they've come to. If you take into
00:23:56 --> 00:23:59 account uh, the lower gravity
00:24:00 --> 00:24:02 and its effect on the sand particles
00:24:02 --> 00:24:05 themselves, uh, you're
00:24:05 --> 00:24:07 going to get stuck from time to time. And
00:24:07 --> 00:24:10 indeed they do. Now will
00:24:10 --> 00:24:12 that help, uh, the
00:24:12 --> 00:24:14 people who drive these rovers, Will it help
00:24:14 --> 00:24:17 them to get the, the vehicle's unstuck? And
00:24:17 --> 00:24:19 the answer is probably yes. These
00:24:19 --> 00:24:22 people have for long had
00:24:22 --> 00:24:25 um, I guess tricks, you might call them
00:24:25 --> 00:24:28 techniques is probably a more sober word, uh,
00:24:28 --> 00:24:30 to try and unstick stuck, uh, up
00:24:30 --> 00:24:33 Mars rovers, uh, usually it's pretty well
00:24:33 --> 00:24:35 what you do here on Earth. Try and drive the
00:24:35 --> 00:24:37 thing backwards and forwards until it comes
00:24:37 --> 00:24:40 unstuck. Um, they might be able to
00:24:40 --> 00:24:42 modify those techniques in the light of this
00:24:42 --> 00:24:44 new information that uh, you have to take
00:24:44 --> 00:24:47 into account the lower gravity on um, the
00:24:47 --> 00:24:49 dust itself and not just the spacecraft.
00:24:50 --> 00:24:51 Heidi Campo: Wow.
00:24:51 --> 00:24:53 Professor Fred Watson: Sounds pretty obvious really, doesn't it
00:24:54 --> 00:24:54 Fred?
00:24:54 --> 00:24:57 Heidi Campo: Have you ever seen ah, one of these like, up
00:24:57 --> 00:24:59 close, um,
00:25:00 --> 00:25:01 like models of them?
00:25:01 --> 00:25:03 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, uh, I have indeed.
00:25:03 --> 00:25:06 Um, uh, the most memorable one
00:25:06 --> 00:25:08 actually is uh, it's in
00:25:09 --> 00:25:12 uh, in Flagstaff, Arizona and
00:25:12 --> 00:25:14 it's actually the lunar rover. It's one of
00:25:14 --> 00:25:16 the lunar rovers that went with the Apollo
00:25:16 --> 00:25:19 astronauts. Uh, I think it was
00:25:20 --> 00:25:22 the last four Apollo missions, I can't
00:25:22 --> 00:25:25 remember the exact number, carried a rover to
00:25:25 --> 00:25:28 carry the astronauts around on the moon. Uh,
00:25:28 --> 00:25:31 and there's not just a replica, it was
00:25:31 --> 00:25:34 a prototype model. It's in the foyer of one
00:25:34 --> 00:25:36 of the uh, geological science
00:25:36 --> 00:25:39 centers, I think in Flagstaff, Arizona. And
00:25:39 --> 00:25:41 it's sitting there and you can see how big it
00:25:41 --> 00:25:44 is, you know, just the
00:25:44 --> 00:25:46 extraordinary size of it. But the, the
00:25:46 --> 00:25:49 um, uh, and I have seen models of some of the
00:25:49 --> 00:25:50 other ones I think Spirit and Opportunity,
00:25:50 --> 00:25:53 they're in various museums that I've had the
00:25:53 --> 00:25:55 great privilege to visit in your wonderful
00:25:55 --> 00:25:58 country, Heidi. Uh, and Always, uh, take away
00:25:58 --> 00:26:00 very warm memories of those museums.
00:26:01 --> 00:26:02 Heidi Campo: That's good. Yeah, that was what I was going
00:26:02 --> 00:26:05 to say is. I think the surprising thing is we
00:26:05 --> 00:26:08 don't realize the scale of these when we see
00:26:08 --> 00:26:11 images of them. And so to think something
00:26:11 --> 00:26:14 this massive is getting stuck.
00:26:14 --> 00:26:16 It's not like your little, you know, whatever
00:26:16 --> 00:26:18 vehicle you drive. I have a little, um,
00:26:19 --> 00:26:20 Subaru. Ah, Crosstrek. It's not like your
00:26:20 --> 00:26:23 little Subaru Crosstrek gets its wheel stuck
00:26:23 --> 00:26:25 in a little ditch. It's like this is a
00:26:25 --> 00:26:28 mammoth of a machine and for it to get stuck
00:26:28 --> 00:26:31 is a big, big bottleness.
00:26:31 --> 00:26:33 Professor Fred Watson: That's right. Certainly Spirit, uh, sorry,
00:26:33 --> 00:26:34 Curiosity and Perseverance, which are very
00:26:34 --> 00:26:37 similar. They're basically the same, the same
00:26:37 --> 00:26:39 rover. They are big machines.
00:26:39 --> 00:26:42 Absolutely. As you say, size, uh, of a
00:26:42 --> 00:26:44 bigger car than yours. I think.
00:26:46 --> 00:26:48 Heidi Campo: I always think of them like little, uh, like
00:26:48 --> 00:26:50 Wall E, the robot from the Pixar animated
00:26:50 --> 00:26:52 series. Tiny Things.
00:26:52 --> 00:26:54 Professor Fred Watson: Good old Wall E. Yeah, I'd forgotten about
00:26:54 --> 00:26:55 Wally.
00:26:55 --> 00:26:56 Heidi Campo: That was a cute one.
00:26:57 --> 00:26:58 Professor Fred Watson: A very cute one.
00:26:59 --> 00:27:01 Heidi Campo: Well, Fred, those, those cover our stories
00:27:01 --> 00:27:02 for today.
00:27:02 --> 00:27:04 Did you, uh, have anything you wanted to add
00:27:04 --> 00:27:06 to anything that we talked about?
00:27:07 --> 00:27:10 Professor Fred Watson: Um, I did have a comment and I forgot what it
00:27:10 --> 00:27:12 was. I was gonna make another comment about,
00:27:13 --> 00:27:16 uh, about the rovers. Uh, the, uh,
00:27:16 --> 00:27:19 you know, you know that the thing that
00:27:19 --> 00:27:21 I, I guess just to highlight what you've just
00:27:21 --> 00:27:23 been saying that these are big machines. It's
00:27:23 --> 00:27:26 also the complexity of them
00:27:26 --> 00:27:29 and the ingenuity. Uh, and
00:27:29 --> 00:27:32 yes, this has reminded me of what I was
00:27:32 --> 00:27:35 going to say. Uh, another story that's
00:27:35 --> 00:27:38 been in the headlines this week, uh, is
00:27:38 --> 00:27:41 the head of NASA the acting head of
00:27:41 --> 00:27:43 NASA suggesting that by
00:27:44 --> 00:27:47 2000s, uh, NASA will want to
00:27:47 --> 00:27:50 deploy a nuclear reactor on the moon? I
00:27:50 --> 00:27:52 don't know whether you caught that story. Uh,
00:27:52 --> 00:27:54 in order to be able to provide electrical
00:27:54 --> 00:27:57 power, it's one 100 kilowatt
00:27:57 --> 00:27:59 nuclear reactor they're talking about. And
00:27:59 --> 00:28:01 the reason why I remember I was thinking
00:28:01 --> 00:28:04 about that in the context of rovers is that
00:28:05 --> 00:28:07 Curiosity, uh, and Perseverance both
00:28:07 --> 00:28:10 carry effectively nuclear reactors. They're
00:28:10 --> 00:28:12 not reactors in the same sense. And, uh,
00:28:13 --> 00:28:15 they're only delivering 100 watts rather than
00:28:15 --> 00:28:17 100 kilowatts. But they're called
00:28:17 --> 00:28:20 radioisotope thermoelectric generators. They
00:28:20 --> 00:28:22 are carried on board, uh, both Spirit and
00:28:22 --> 00:28:24 Opportunity and a number of other spacecraft
00:28:24 --> 00:28:27 like the Voyagers have them on board as well
00:28:27 --> 00:28:30 to generate the power that they need. Uh, so,
00:28:30 --> 00:28:32 um, you know, the idea of nuclear, uh,
00:28:32 --> 00:28:35 processes, uh, in space to power
00:28:36 --> 00:28:38 missions is Not a new one. It's just that
00:28:38 --> 00:28:41 the idea of 100 kilowatt nuclear reactor on
00:28:41 --> 00:28:43 the moon is a little bit bigger than some of
00:28:43 --> 00:28:45 the other ones. Um, that was the additional
00:28:45 --> 00:28:47 comment I was going to make.
00:28:47 --> 00:28:49 Heidi Campo: Well, that. And that's just, ah, uh, so
00:28:49 --> 00:28:52 valuable to just think of the size and scale
00:28:52 --> 00:28:54 and power of these because I think, you know,
00:28:54 --> 00:28:57 we, we hit the little memes of it's singing
00:28:57 --> 00:28:59 Happy Birthday to itself. And again, we think
00:28:59 --> 00:29:02 of them as just these cute little, small,
00:29:03 --> 00:29:05 fragile little things. And they're not.
00:29:05 --> 00:29:07 They're huge, powerful, massive
00:29:07 --> 00:29:10 machines. And so the fact that we're now
00:29:10 --> 00:29:13 learning how to, you know, improve on how
00:29:13 --> 00:29:16 we're handling them on this soil is really
00:29:16 --> 00:29:18 fun and exciting. There's always, there's
00:29:18 --> 00:29:21 always breakthroughs every week. Every week
00:29:21 --> 00:29:22 there's new breakthroughs. There's new things
00:29:22 --> 00:29:25 we discover and learn and do and see and.
00:29:26 --> 00:29:28 Such an exciting, exciting time to be a part
00:29:28 --> 00:29:30 of the space industry, is it not?
00:29:30 --> 00:29:31 Professor Fred Watson: That's right. Absolutely.
00:29:33 --> 00:29:35 Heidi Campo: Well, Fred, this has been, uh, wonderful
00:29:35 --> 00:29:37 chatting with you today. Thank you so much.
00:29:38 --> 00:29:40 And for all of you who have been missing
00:29:40 --> 00:29:43 Andrew, he is still enjoying
00:29:43 --> 00:29:46 his world cruise. I forgot to mention Andrew
00:29:46 --> 00:29:47 at the beginning of the episode, if you're
00:29:47 --> 00:29:50 new here. Um, Andrew is normally our
00:29:50 --> 00:29:53 host and he's been on a world
00:29:53 --> 00:29:55 cruise lately. But he will be
00:29:55 --> 00:29:58 back in a few weeks. So you guys only have me
00:29:58 --> 00:30:01 for a few short weeks left. So send in.
00:30:01 --> 00:30:03 Um, our next episode will be a Q and A
00:30:03 --> 00:30:06 episode. So keep sending in your Q and
00:30:06 --> 00:30:09 A's to us and we'll answer those. And
00:30:09 --> 00:30:11 you'll only have me for a few more weeks
00:30:11 --> 00:30:12 before Andrew's back.
00:30:12 --> 00:30:15 Professor Fred Watson: It's been fabulous. Actually, Heidi, just
00:30:15 --> 00:30:17 my comment on that. It's been wonderful.
00:30:18 --> 00:30:20 You've, uh, risen to the challenge of, um,
00:30:21 --> 00:30:23 duplicating Andrew Dunkley, um,
00:30:24 --> 00:30:27 in ways that even Andrew
00:30:27 --> 00:30:28 Dunkley can't achieve. There you go.
00:30:29 --> 00:30:31 Heidi Campo: Well, thank you so much. All right,
00:30:31 --> 00:30:34 everybody. Well, we are looking forward to,
00:30:34 --> 00:30:37 um, catching you with our next episode, which
00:30:37 --> 00:30:40 will be a Q and A episode. Till then, we'll
00:30:40 --> 00:30:40 talk to you later.
00:30:41 --> 00:30:43 Andrew Dunkley: Hi, Heidi. Hi, Fred. Hi, Huw.
00:30:43 --> 00:30:44 In the studio, it's Andrew on the Crown
00:30:44 --> 00:30:47 Princess. As we get to the last latter
00:30:47 --> 00:30:50 stages of our world cruise. And
00:30:50 --> 00:30:53 since I spoke to you last, we have been right
00:30:53 --> 00:30:56 up to the very top of Norway. We made our
00:30:56 --> 00:30:58 first stop in Bergen, and
00:30:58 --> 00:31:01 that is just a wonderful sailing through the
00:31:01 --> 00:31:04 fjords, under the big bridges, uh, right
00:31:04 --> 00:31:07 into Bergen. And, uh, what we did was a
00:31:07 --> 00:31:10 little day trip out into the country where
00:31:10 --> 00:31:12 we visited uh, some amazing um,
00:31:13 --> 00:31:15 sites. We uh, waterfalls, uh, a little
00:31:15 --> 00:31:17 shopping or not a shopping village, a little
00:31:18 --> 00:31:20 fishing village type of place and just had a
00:31:20 --> 00:31:22 really good look around the fjords and the
00:31:22 --> 00:31:24 waterfalls and the landscape. Just a
00:31:24 --> 00:31:27 beautiful country. Of course Norway uh,
00:31:28 --> 00:31:30 uh, is a very forward thinking country, very
00:31:30 --> 00:31:32 ah, liberal. Attitude towards a lot of
00:31:32 --> 00:31:35 things. And they generate
00:31:35 --> 00:31:38 98% of their electricity
00:31:38 --> 00:31:41 through hydro power. Uh,
00:31:41 --> 00:31:43 so um, yeah, quite amazing. The downside of
00:31:43 --> 00:31:45 Norway is it doesn't have a lot of usable
00:31:45 --> 00:31:48 land because it's so mountainous. And if it's
00:31:48 --> 00:31:50 not mountains it's water because of the
00:31:50 --> 00:31:53 fjords. And uh, so they don't have much
00:31:53 --> 00:31:56 land to, to live on, let alone use for things
00:31:56 --> 00:31:58 like agriculture. So they're kind of trapped
00:31:58 --> 00:32:01 in that regard. After that we went to
00:32:01 --> 00:32:04 uh, another um, place in Norway,
00:32:05 --> 00:32:07 uh, where sh, uh,
00:32:08 --> 00:32:10 Shoulden I think it's pronounced.
00:32:10 --> 00:32:13 Yeah. And we went and looked at a glacier,
00:32:13 --> 00:32:16 the biggest glacier in Europe. Uh, we
00:32:16 --> 00:32:18 couldn't get too close to it but uh, just a
00:32:19 --> 00:32:21 spectacle to behold, uh, getting um, that
00:32:21 --> 00:32:24 close to one, uh, and being able to
00:32:24 --> 00:32:26 photograph it. And you could feel the wind
00:32:26 --> 00:32:28 coming off it. It was a warm day. But when
00:32:28 --> 00:32:31 you get to the glacier it just um, blows this
00:32:31 --> 00:32:34 chill wind off the mountains and um, yeah you
00:32:34 --> 00:32:36 can really feel the difference. And the water
00:32:36 --> 00:32:38 coming off that glacier as it melts and it's
00:32:38 --> 00:32:40 melting a lot faster than it ever has before
00:32:40 --> 00:32:43 is a beautiful aqua blue as it
00:32:43 --> 00:32:46 flows down into the fjord. And then
00:32:46 --> 00:32:49 we went to Honingsvag and
00:32:49 --> 00:32:52 uh, that's right up north and, and took a
00:32:52 --> 00:32:55 um, a look around uh, Nord Cap,
00:32:55 --> 00:32:58 otherwise known as north cape on the 71st
00:32:58 --> 00:33:00 parallel, uh, right inside the Arctic
00:33:00 --> 00:33:03 Circle. And they used to think it was the end
00:33:03 --> 00:33:05 of the world because well there is
00:33:05 --> 00:33:07 practically nothing north of that except for
00:33:07 --> 00:33:10 a few islands, uh, and then the uh, the
00:33:10 --> 00:33:12 ice cap, uh, and, and the 24 hour
00:33:12 --> 00:33:15 daylight is something to behold. I went up on
00:33:15 --> 00:33:18 the deck at midnight to have a look one night
00:33:18 --> 00:33:21 and there was like it was daytime,
00:33:21 --> 00:33:24 the sun had set. We've reached a point in the
00:33:24 --> 00:33:26 year where the sun does set for two hours
00:33:27 --> 00:33:30 but it doesn't get dark. So no northern
00:33:30 --> 00:33:33 lights, no northern lights. After that
00:33:33 --> 00:33:35 trip, uh, or visit, we started heading
00:33:35 --> 00:33:38 southwest, uh, and we're heading
00:33:38 --> 00:33:41 towards Iceland. So that's our
00:33:41 --> 00:33:43 next stop, uh, which is due to happen
00:33:43 --> 00:33:45 tomorrow our time. By the time you get this
00:33:45 --> 00:33:47 we'll have done it already. Uh, we'll be
00:33:47 --> 00:33:50 visiting Reykjavik and uh,
00:33:50 --> 00:33:53 essence of a jaw, which is not how you
00:33:53 --> 00:33:56 pronounce it. I said North Cape.
00:33:56 --> 00:33:57 Mentioned all that. Weren't you listening? My
00:33:57 --> 00:34:00 wife's come in to remind me to tell you we
00:34:00 --> 00:34:01 went to North Cape.
00:34:02 --> 00:34:05 Can25 of you email
00:34:05 --> 00:34:07 her and tell her I actually did it.
00:34:08 --> 00:34:11 Got. Got. I got a look. I got a look.
00:34:11 --> 00:34:14 No, yeah, we did. We did that. Dude, I've
00:34:14 --> 00:34:17 done all that. Um, and. And, yeah. Uh,
00:34:17 --> 00:34:20 so should I do it again? No, I won't.
00:34:20 --> 00:34:22 Uh, but, um, looking forward to the rest of
00:34:22 --> 00:34:24 our trip. Only a couple of more stops, as I
00:34:24 --> 00:34:26 said. Iceland, Greenland, Halifax, and then
00:34:26 --> 00:34:29 we're getting off in New York, which, uh, is
00:34:29 --> 00:34:30 not that far away now.
00:34:31 --> 00:34:33 All right, that's about it. Hope all is. Oh,
00:34:33 --> 00:34:34 I forgot to mention. That's the thing I
00:34:34 --> 00:34:36 forgot to mention. I've met a Space Nuts
00:34:36 --> 00:34:39 listener on board. Oddly enough, we met
00:34:39 --> 00:34:42 in a toilet. That happens on cruise ships,
00:34:42 --> 00:34:45 because you need to go there a lot. Um, but,
00:34:45 --> 00:34:47 yeah, it was nice to catch up. My name
00:34:47 --> 00:34:48 escapes you. I tried to look up the message
00:34:48 --> 00:34:50 when you told me you were getting on at
00:34:50 --> 00:34:53 Dover, uh, and I couldn't find it. So
00:34:53 --> 00:34:54 my apologies. I know you're listening, but it
00:34:54 --> 00:34:56 was great to run into you. If you run into us
00:34:56 --> 00:34:59 again, please, let's have another chat. Uh,
00:34:59 --> 00:35:01 but, yeah, at least one Space Nuts listener
00:35:01 --> 00:35:04 on board the Crown Princess. That's it for
00:35:04 --> 00:35:06 now. Take care. Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye.
00:35:07 --> 00:35:09 Voice Over Guy: You've been listening to the Space Nuts.
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