00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Heidi Campo: Welcome back to another Q and A session of
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 Space Nuts. I'm your host for this
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 American summer, an Australian winter,
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 Heidi Campo. And joining us today to
00:00:11 --> 00:00:13 answer all of your questions is Professor
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 Fred Watson, astronomer at large.
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 Generic: 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.
00:00:19 --> 00:00:21 10, 9. Ignition
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 sequence start. Space nets 5, 4,
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 3, 2, 1. 2, 3, 4, 5, 5,
00:00:27 --> 00:00:30 4, 3, 2', 1. Space nuts
00:00:30 --> 00:00:31 astronauts report it feels.
00:00:33 --> 00:00:33 Heidi Campo: Fred, how are you doing?
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 Professor Fred Watson: Oh, pretty well, thanks Heidi. Nearly as well
00:00:37 --> 00:00:39 as I was the last time I saw you.
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 Heidi Campo: Oh, inside jokes. For those of you regular
00:00:44 --> 00:00:46 listeners, you know what's going on.
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. Because you were
00:00:49 --> 00:00:50 a bit under the weather before.
00:00:50 --> 00:00:53 Heidi Campo: I, I am. So if you guys hear my voice sounds
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 a little bit scratchy, I apologize. I was
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 doing some traveling recently and I was
00:00:58 --> 00:01:00 probably picked up a little germ at the
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03 airport. But that's I, I, I'll be okay. I
00:01:03 --> 00:01:04 think I'll survive this time.
00:01:05 --> 00:01:06 Professor Fred Watson: Hopefully.
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 Heidi Campo: Hopefully. Yeah, I don't know. I guess you
00:01:08 --> 00:01:10 never know. Could be, could be.
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 didn't like you think about those crazy cases
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 where it's like didn't Bob, Bob Marley died
00:01:15 --> 00:01:17 from skin cancer and it's like, I guess you
00:01:17 --> 00:01:17 really never know.
00:01:19 --> 00:01:20 Professor Fred Watson: That's true.
00:01:21 --> 00:01:23 Heidi Campo: Well, hey, here's something that hopefully
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 you can answer for us, Fred.
00:01:26 --> 00:01:28 Rennie from S.A. sunny West
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 Hills, CA asks
00:01:31 --> 00:01:33 theoretically, if an observer
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 scientist outside our universe was able to
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 look into our universe, would that
00:01:39 --> 00:01:42 observers re research on light
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 speed and other phenomenon match our
00:01:45 --> 00:01:46 scientists findings?
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 Professor Fred Watson: It's a great question, Rennie. Rennie's one
00:01:52 --> 00:01:55 of our regular questioners and always asks
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58 the provocative ones. I like it very much
00:01:59 --> 00:01:59 so.
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 Professor Fred Watson: We'Ve got to envisage an observer that's in
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 some other universe where the light
00:02:08 --> 00:02:10 speed and other, you know, other
00:02:11 --> 00:02:14 fundamental quantities, speed
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 of light, mass of the electron, things like
00:02:16 --> 00:02:18 that, they might be quite different.
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 so you would have to
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 basically think outside the box.
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 We're talking now about the biggest boxes
00:02:27 --> 00:02:28 that could exist. If we're talking about
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 separate universes, you'd have to
00:02:31 --> 00:02:34 look into our universe and use yardsticks
00:02:34 --> 00:02:37 that were basically part and
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 parcel of our universe in order to measure
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 those fundamental quantities. So
00:02:43 --> 00:02:45 you'd need to have a way of determining
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 distance, and that way you could
00:02:48 --> 00:02:51 perhaps use a way of determining time
00:02:51 --> 00:02:54 to determine the speed of light. you might
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 well be able to determine that the speed of
00:02:57 --> 00:02:58 light in our universe was different from the
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 speed of light in your universe, which will
00:03:00 --> 00:03:03 be a very interesting property. and
00:03:03 --> 00:03:05 it's actually one of the reasons why People
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 speculate, Heidi, that, there might be other
00:03:08 --> 00:03:11 universes. The fact that those physical
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 parameters in our own universe are
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 so well suited to, the
00:03:16 --> 00:03:19 formation of stars, galaxies,
00:03:19 --> 00:03:21 planets, stability that,
00:03:22 --> 00:03:25 would allow molecules to be created that
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27 could eventually turn into living organisms.
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 One of the reasons astronomers think there
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 might be other universes is because those
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 properties of our own universe are so well
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 tuned to life that maybe there are other
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 universes where that is not the case. And
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 so if you were standing in one of those
00:03:42 --> 00:03:44 universes and looking back at our own, you
00:03:44 --> 00:03:46 might well say, well, that's ridiculous. The
00:03:46 --> 00:03:48 speed of light, there's only 300
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51 kilometers per second. It's much faster than
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53 that here. So, you know, you could be looking
00:03:53 --> 00:03:55 at different parameters. So I think, Rennie,
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 it's an interesting thought experiment and,
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 thank you very much for the question.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 Heidi Campo: It's very, interstellar when he goes into the
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 dimension where they're looking through a
00:04:06 --> 00:04:06 different plane.
00:04:07 --> 00:04:10 Our next question is from Dean, and
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 Dean says, I believe you all
00:04:13 --> 00:04:15 had mentioned previously that in a,
00:04:15 --> 00:04:18 protoplanetary disk, heavier
00:04:18 --> 00:04:20 elements reside closer to the star,
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 which is the reason the interior planets of
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 our system are, quote, rocky.
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 The protostar is too hot for
00:04:28 --> 00:04:31 volatile materials to become solid,
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 and the solar wind blows the lighter elements
00:04:34 --> 00:04:35 away. My question
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 was Earth in a belt of protoplanetary
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43 disk where liquid or water orbited?
00:04:43 --> 00:04:46 Could such a belt exist in protoplanetary
00:04:46 --> 00:04:47 disk?
00:04:49 --> 00:04:52 Professor Fred Watson: yeah. It is another great
00:04:52 --> 00:04:55 question. And I suppose what Dean is
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57 saying is, is there
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 a Goldilocks zone in the protoplanetary disk?
00:05:01 --> 00:05:04 because the protoplanetary disk is
00:05:04 --> 00:05:06 where the planets were formed. and
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 yes, the temperature of material in that disk
00:05:09 --> 00:05:12 will vary. It'll be much hotter near the star
00:05:12 --> 00:05:14 itself and much colder outside. And
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 we do see, just in the way the
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 planets of our solar system are distributed,
00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 with the four rocky ones internally and then
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 the four, gaseous ones and icy
00:05:26 --> 00:05:28 ones further out, we see that
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 effect of, the
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 Goldilocks zone. So Mars sits
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 just within the sun's ice.
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 what's it called? The ice limit?
00:05:41 --> 00:05:44 Can't remember. Anyway, it's something like
00:05:44 --> 00:05:47 that. It's where, water ceases to be
00:05:47 --> 00:05:50 a vapor and becomes ice.
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 so beyond the orbit of Mars,
00:05:54 --> 00:05:56 things, things basically freeze.
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 if, if, if you've got water vapor. and
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 that is thought to be why the gas giants
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 grew so big, the four gas giants,
00:06:05 --> 00:06:08 because, the fact that their water is
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 actually the commonest two element molecule
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 in the whole universe. so if the
00:06:13 --> 00:06:15 water vapor becomes something solid,
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 beyond that that ice limit, then,
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 then you're going to get the
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 collection of much more mass
00:06:24 --> 00:06:26 in a planet that's being built by this
00:06:26 --> 00:06:29 process of accretion. so because the
00:06:29 --> 00:06:32 water is now in a solid form, you can build a
00:06:32 --> 00:06:34 much bigger planetary core. and
00:06:34 --> 00:06:37 that is why you can then get something big
00:06:37 --> 00:06:39 enough that it actually hangs onto the gases
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 surrounding it and you've got a gas giant. So
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 that's the picture that we imagine is
00:06:45 --> 00:06:47 the way planets form. So
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 just turning to Dean's question. Was Earth in
00:06:52 --> 00:06:54 a belt of the protoplanetary disk where
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 liquid water orbited? it wouldn't have been
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 liquid because you can't have
00:06:59 --> 00:07:02 liquid in a vacuum. but you
00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 can get water molecules in
00:07:05 --> 00:07:08 vapor form basically or in the
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 form of ice. And yes, there would have been a
00:07:10 --> 00:07:12 step there I think in the protoplanetary disk
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 where the ice solidified, where you've got
00:07:15 --> 00:07:18 solid ice. so I think that's a really
00:07:18 --> 00:07:21 good question and I believe
00:07:21 --> 00:07:23 I've seen some
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 papers recently, which suggest that
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 we are actually observing that in fact, very
00:07:29 --> 00:07:30 recently, I think it might even have been
00:07:30 --> 00:07:33 last week, Heidi, there was a paper that
00:07:33 --> 00:07:36 reported the detection of ice in a
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 protoplanetary disk. so that's one to
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 check out. it's yeah, it's there and
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 in the inner regions it's probably too warm
00:07:45 --> 00:07:47 for it to exist as a solid material.
00:07:48 --> 00:07:51 Heidi Campo: So Dean's, Dean's onto something. We get a
00:07:51 --> 00:07:53 lot of really smart people who follow along
00:07:53 --> 00:07:54 this show too.
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 Andrew Dunkley: Let's take a break from the show to tell you
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00:09:21 --> 00:09:22 disturbance.
00:09:23 --> 00:09:24 Now back to the show.
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 Generic: Three, two, one.
00:09:28 --> 00:09:29 Space Nuts.
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32 Heidi Campo: Our next question comes from Ron. And he
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 says hello from upstate New York. Ron. That
00:09:35 --> 00:09:36 is where my husband is from. I wonder if
00:09:36 --> 00:09:39 you're from the Catskills area. Beautiful
00:09:39 --> 00:09:41 place, if any of you guys ever get to visit.
00:09:42 --> 00:09:42 Generic: Hello.
00:09:42 --> 00:09:45 Heidi Campo: Ron says hello from upstate New York. I was
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 wondering, with the extreme lifetime of red
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51 dwarf stars being one of the
00:09:51 --> 00:09:53 order of trillions of years, could there be
00:09:53 --> 00:09:56 any population of, I think that says
00:09:56 --> 00:09:59 of population three. Sorry, Population
00:09:59 --> 00:10:01 three red dwarf stars. Maybe I should ask
00:10:01 --> 00:10:04 first, do we think red dwarf stars were
00:10:04 --> 00:10:07 formed right after the Big Bang to be a part
00:10:07 --> 00:10:10 of the population 3 stars? Thank you for
00:10:10 --> 00:10:12 considering my question and always
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 informative podcast from Ron.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:18 Professor Fred Watson: Thanks, Ron. and greetings to upstate New
00:10:18 --> 00:10:20 York. yeah, that's another.
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 They're all great questions that we count
00:10:23 --> 00:10:26 space nuts. and it's a very
00:10:26 --> 00:10:29 intelligent one as well. And just to sort of
00:10:29 --> 00:10:31 give the backstory of this Population three
00:10:31 --> 00:10:33 stars, and it's usually written as a Roman
00:10:33 --> 00:10:36 three stars. They're
00:10:36 --> 00:10:39 what we think of as being the first stars to
00:10:39 --> 00:10:42 form in the universe back
00:10:42 --> 00:10:45 probably within the first 2 or 300 million
00:10:45 --> 00:10:48 years of the Big Bang, which we believe
00:10:48 --> 00:10:50 happened 13.8 billion years ago.
00:10:50 --> 00:10:53 so we. What would signify
00:10:53 --> 00:10:56 a population three star? It would be a star,
00:10:56 --> 00:10:59 whose spectrum, when you analyze its
00:10:59 --> 00:11:02 light, reveals only the presence of
00:11:02 --> 00:11:04 hydrogen and helium, because they were the
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 elements that were predominantly produced in
00:11:06 --> 00:11:08 the Big Bang. There were a few other things
00:11:08 --> 00:11:10 produced in very, very small quantities,
00:11:12 --> 00:11:15 like lithium, but really it was
00:11:15 --> 00:11:16 mostly hydrogen and helium that were produced
00:11:16 --> 00:11:19 in the Big Bang. And so population
00:11:19 --> 00:11:22 3 stars will be stars that only show
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 the signatures of those chemical
00:11:25 --> 00:11:28 elements in their spectrum. We haven't
00:11:28 --> 00:11:30 actually found any yet. We found some that
00:11:30 --> 00:11:33 look very nearly like Population 3 stars, but
00:11:33 --> 00:11:35 they still have a little trace of iron in
00:11:35 --> 00:11:37 them, the ones that have been found, and iron
00:11:37 --> 00:11:39 is formed, in the interior of
00:11:39 --> 00:11:41 stars. And so you know that anything that
00:11:41 --> 00:11:44 shows up iron is not the first generation of
00:11:44 --> 00:11:47 stars ever to exist because other stars have
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 been there first, and have formed the iron.
00:11:50 --> 00:11:53 So population three stars are a bit of a holy
00:11:53 --> 00:11:55 grail, actually. Trying to find Them, I've
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 worked with, people here in Australia
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00 whose sole scientific mission has been to
00:12:00 --> 00:12:02 find population, three stars. And they've
00:12:02 --> 00:12:03 come pretty near it with these very early,
00:12:04 --> 00:12:06 what we call metal pore stars. Metals,
00:12:07 --> 00:12:09 unlike the way we think of metals in everyday
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 life, things that
00:12:12 --> 00:12:14 contribute steel and brass and stuff like
00:12:14 --> 00:12:16 that, metals are anything other than hydrogen
00:12:16 --> 00:12:18 and helium. To an astronomer it's a very
00:12:18 --> 00:12:21 curious expression. so metal poor stars are
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 ones that don't have much of anything other
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 than hydrogen, helium. So the
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 cutting to the nub of Ron's question though,
00:12:30 --> 00:12:33 we think the very first generations of stars
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 to form in the universe
00:12:36 --> 00:12:38 were not, were not red
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 dwarfs. we don't think they were dwarf stars
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 at all. We think they were
00:12:43 --> 00:12:46 very massive stars, perhaps 20,
00:12:46 --> 00:12:48 maybe even up to 100 times the mass of the
00:12:48 --> 00:12:51 sun, that had very short lives, and
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54 exploded, you know, within perhaps less than
00:12:54 --> 00:12:57 a million years. Such a short life that,
00:12:57 --> 00:13:00 remember our sun is four, and a half
00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 billion years old and it's in its sort of
00:13:02 --> 00:13:05 middle age, midlife, not a crisis, but a
00:13:05 --> 00:13:08 midlife term. So red dwarfs
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 probably did not form in the early universe.
00:13:11 --> 00:13:14 And in any case, what categorizes a
00:13:14 --> 00:13:16 red dwarf star, is actually the
00:13:16 --> 00:13:19 fact that it has
00:13:19 --> 00:13:22 seen many generations of stars before it
00:13:23 --> 00:13:25 because they're rich in all
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 kinds of different chemical elements, not
00:13:27 --> 00:13:29 just hydrogen and helium. they are
00:13:30 --> 00:13:33 basically, you know, cool
00:13:33 --> 00:13:36 stars, which show the characteristic
00:13:36 --> 00:13:38 signatures of all sorts of things, even
00:13:38 --> 00:13:40 molecules. I think some molecules. Molecules
00:13:40 --> 00:13:42 don't usually exist in stars because they get
00:13:42 --> 00:13:45 torn apart. The atoms get torn apart by the
00:13:45 --> 00:13:47 heat. But I think red dwarf stars have some
00:13:47 --> 00:13:50 molecular signatures as well. so the answer
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 is, I think no. red dwarf stars weren't
00:13:52 --> 00:13:55 formed right after the Big Bang. And there
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57 probably aren't any population three red
00:13:57 --> 00:13:59 dwarf stars. But you're absolutely right that
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 the lifetime of red dwarf stars is very, very
00:14:01 --> 00:14:04 long. Maybe, up to trillions of years as
00:14:04 --> 00:14:06 you've suggested. Ron, thanks very much for
00:14:06 --> 00:14:06 the question.
00:14:07 --> 00:14:10 Heidi Campo: Very interesting, very interesting indeed.
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 Andrew Dunkley: Okay, we checked all four systems.
00:14:15 --> 00:14:16 Professor Fred Watson: Space nets.
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 Heidi Campo: Our very last question is another
00:14:20 --> 00:14:23 great question from Jake Johnston.
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 He says. Hey, space nuts, quick question.
00:14:27 --> 00:14:29 While it is totally possible that there is no
00:14:29 --> 00:14:32 life in our solar system except for on Earth,
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35 if you had to guess where the most
00:14:35 --> 00:14:38 likely other place in our solar system is
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 to find either current or ancient life,
00:14:41 --> 00:14:44 what would you choose? Titan. Mars.
00:14:44 --> 00:14:45 Thanks.
00:14:48 --> 00:14:50 Professor Fred Watson: let's give you a shot at this one, Heidi.
00:14:50 --> 00:14:51 What do you think the answer to that would
00:14:51 --> 00:14:52 be?
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 Heidi Campo: Oh, you know, I was actually thinking in my
00:14:54 --> 00:14:56 head of playing a joke and just saying some
00:14:56 --> 00:14:58 random planet and then going, oh, oops, he
00:14:58 --> 00:15:01 must have meant this for you. I
00:15:01 --> 00:15:03 don't know. I really think that
00:15:05 --> 00:15:07 it's gonna, for some
00:15:07 --> 00:15:10 reason I think there's probably something on
00:15:10 --> 00:15:12 a moon somewhere because
00:15:13 --> 00:15:14 I'm just imagining
00:15:15 --> 00:15:18 primordial solar system, everything's
00:15:18 --> 00:15:21 crashing into each other and when
00:15:21 --> 00:15:24 it, when that matter ends up on a
00:15:24 --> 00:15:27 planet it's getting churned through its
00:15:27 --> 00:15:29 core and getting heated up and everything
00:15:29 --> 00:15:32 that maybe existed, even bacteria, is just
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35 getting cooked and destroyed. But on a moon
00:15:35 --> 00:15:37 it's not getting that turnover. So I would
00:15:37 --> 00:15:40 assume, and this is with my background
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42 not in this at all, I would assume that we
00:15:42 --> 00:15:43 would find something on a moon.
00:15:45 --> 00:15:47 Professor Fred Watson: I think you're right actually. so I
00:15:47 --> 00:15:50 guess the most obvious
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 places to look, first of all Mars,
00:15:53 --> 00:15:56 Mars we know has been warm and wet
00:15:56 --> 00:15:58 in the past. we know that it was warm and wet
00:15:58 --> 00:16:00 at a time when the first living organisms
00:16:00 --> 00:16:03 were forming on Earth. So if all you need is
00:16:03 --> 00:16:05 the right atmospheric conditions while they
00:16:05 --> 00:16:08 were there on Mars. And so Mars
00:16:08 --> 00:16:11 may show signs of ancient microbial life.
00:16:11 --> 00:16:12 Unfortunately we don't at the moment have the
00:16:12 --> 00:16:15 wherewithal to find it. We've got samples
00:16:16 --> 00:16:19 of rocks and soil that have been taken by the
00:16:19 --> 00:16:21 Perseverance rover on Mars which are stashed
00:16:21 --> 00:16:23 away for a future mission to go and collect
00:16:23 --> 00:16:26 them. Sadly that mission is a bit in
00:16:26 --> 00:16:28 doubt at the moment because it's turned out
00:16:28 --> 00:16:30 to be very expensive. but there may be
00:16:30 --> 00:16:33 evidence on Mars. but you're
00:16:33 --> 00:16:35 absolutely right that some of the moons of
00:16:35 --> 00:16:38 the solar system are perhaps the next on the
00:16:38 --> 00:16:41 list because first of all, and
00:16:41 --> 00:16:43 this is the one that's really the poster
00:16:43 --> 00:16:45 child of looking for life on moons in the
00:16:45 --> 00:16:47 solar system is Europa. Europa, one
00:16:47 --> 00:16:50 of Jupiter's moons, which we know has
00:16:50 --> 00:16:53 a rocky core, it's got a liquid water ocean
00:16:53 --> 00:16:56 over that core, and that is sealed in
00:16:56 --> 00:16:58 by a layer of solid ice on top of it.
00:16:58 --> 00:17:01 And we have seen evidence of geysers
00:17:01 --> 00:17:04 of ice, crystals coming
00:17:04 --> 00:17:05 through that
00:17:07 --> 00:17:09 layer of ice because of cracks in it.
00:17:10 --> 00:17:12 there is evidence as well that there are
00:17:13 --> 00:17:16 quite complex carbon containing molecules,
00:17:16 --> 00:17:19 on the surface of Europa got a
00:17:19 --> 00:17:22 reddish brown colour which looks as though
00:17:22 --> 00:17:24 it's the effect of sunlight
00:17:25 --> 00:17:27 and solar radiation on these carbon
00:17:27 --> 00:17:29 containing molecules. So the ingredients for
00:17:29 --> 00:17:32 life might very well be there. likewise,
00:17:33 --> 00:17:35 further out in the solar system, Enceladus,
00:17:35 --> 00:17:38 Saturn's moon which was explored by Cassini,
00:17:38 --> 00:17:40 that definitely has these geysers of ice
00:17:40 --> 00:17:42 crystals because we've seen them and in fact
00:17:42 --> 00:17:44 Cassini flew through them and measured some
00:17:44 --> 00:17:47 of the contents, of them. in terms
00:17:47 --> 00:17:49 of it's mostly water ice, but there's also
00:17:49 --> 00:17:51 molecular hydrogen and some other really
00:17:51 --> 00:17:53 interesting ingredients that suggest that
00:17:53 --> 00:17:56 there are geothermal vents down at the bottom
00:17:56 --> 00:17:59 of Enceladus oceans. Maybe that
00:17:59 --> 00:18:01 is where life could have kicked off. We think
00:18:01 --> 00:18:03 life might have kicked off on Earth down in
00:18:03 --> 00:18:06 hydrothermal vents, maybe on Enceladus too.
00:18:07 --> 00:18:09 And you know, Dean mentions also Titan.
00:18:10 --> 00:18:12 I, beg your pardon, Jake. I'm sorry, Jake,
00:18:12 --> 00:18:15 the wrong name there. Jake also mentions
00:18:15 --> 00:18:17 Titan, which is another of these ice
00:18:17 --> 00:18:19 worlds with the same sort of structure and a
00:18:19 --> 00:18:22 liquid ocean, but it's also got these lakes
00:18:22 --> 00:18:25 of methane and ethane, natural liquefied
00:18:25 --> 00:18:28 natural gas. The only place we
00:18:28 --> 00:18:30 know anywhere in the universe other than
00:18:30 --> 00:18:33 Earth where there's liquid in equilibrium
00:18:33 --> 00:18:36 with an atmosphere. And Titan has a thick
00:18:36 --> 00:18:38 atmosphere, mostly carbon dioxide, but
00:18:38 --> 00:18:41 hydrocarbons in there as well. So these are
00:18:41 --> 00:18:44 all great candidates for living organisms.
00:18:44 --> 00:18:47 and if I had to pick one, let's go with
00:18:47 --> 00:18:50 Titan because I think you get two shots at it
00:18:50 --> 00:18:52 there. There might be water, based life in
00:18:52 --> 00:18:54 the oceans underneath the surface, but there
00:18:54 --> 00:18:57 might also be carbon, some weird carbon
00:18:57 --> 00:19:00 based life in the liquid, natural
00:19:00 --> 00:19:03 gas, lakes and seas on Titan. And we might
00:19:03 --> 00:19:05 find that when the Dragonfly spacecraft
00:19:05 --> 00:19:07 visits Titan later, in.
00:19:07 --> 00:19:10 Heidi Campo: The decade, these are
00:19:10 --> 00:19:11 all very exciting.
00:19:11 --> 00:19:14 I mean there is just so much happening in
00:19:14 --> 00:19:16 space right now. Every single week we are
00:19:16 --> 00:19:19 closer and closer to new breakthroughs and
00:19:19 --> 00:19:22 new discoveries. and I'll even share a
00:19:22 --> 00:19:25 program that I'm a part of that anybody who
00:19:25 --> 00:19:28 is a high school, or like if you're
00:19:28 --> 00:19:29 in high school, if you're doing your
00:19:29 --> 00:19:31 undergrad graduate or early career
00:19:31 --> 00:19:33 professional, you can join this too. It's
00:19:33 --> 00:19:35 called the L space, so l
00:19:35 --> 00:19:38 apostrophe space program. And it is
00:19:38 --> 00:19:41 a competitive proposal writing program
00:19:41 --> 00:19:44 where they select different individuals.
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 So you can apply. I'm in the summer program
00:19:46 --> 00:19:48 right now, but you can apply for the fall
00:19:48 --> 00:19:50 program. But all of us got put into different
00:19:50 --> 00:19:53 interdisciplinary teams and we are going to
00:19:53 --> 00:19:56 be coming up with a proposal that is
00:19:56 --> 00:19:58 going to address one of NASA's gaps. And they
00:19:58 --> 00:20:01 have a whole training on how to write
00:20:01 --> 00:20:04 proposals the way NASA wants them written and
00:20:04 --> 00:20:06 the taxonomy of everything they're looking
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08 for. And the gaps that need to get filled.
00:20:08 --> 00:20:11 But the cool thing is, is that, the
00:20:11 --> 00:20:13 proposals that we come up with, one, of them
00:20:13 --> 00:20:15 will be selected as the winner. And the
00:20:15 --> 00:20:17 winner will get thousands of dollars of grant
00:20:17 --> 00:20:20 money and it will probably go on to become a
00:20:20 --> 00:20:22 real project. So if you are
00:20:22 --> 00:20:25 an engineer, even a high school or early
00:20:25 --> 00:20:28 career professional or anyone in between who
00:20:28 --> 00:20:30 feels like you have a lot of good ideas for
00:20:30 --> 00:20:33 discovering these kinds of things, like I've
00:20:33 --> 00:20:36 been co hosting now for a while and I've seen
00:20:36 --> 00:20:37 how smart you guys are. So I would really
00:20:37 --> 00:20:40 encourage you to all get involved and use
00:20:40 --> 00:20:43 your, creativity to help push humanity
00:20:43 --> 00:20:46 forward into the stars. Because every single
00:20:46 --> 00:20:48 one of you has something to add. And never,
00:20:48 --> 00:20:50 ever, ever let imposter syndrome get in the
00:20:50 --> 00:20:53 way of that. Because every creative mind
00:20:54 --> 00:20:56 add something to all of this. And that's my,
00:20:56 --> 00:20:58 that's my rah rah for this week.
00:20:59 --> 00:21:01 Professor Fred Watson: Remind us again what the program's called.
00:21:02 --> 00:21:04 Heidi Campo: It's L Space. So it's an L
00:21:04 --> 00:21:07 apostrophe and then S, P, A, C, E.
00:21:07 --> 00:21:09 And the program that I'm in, they have
00:21:09 --> 00:21:11 several different programs. So I'm in the,
00:21:11 --> 00:21:14 proposal writing. So np, W, E,
00:21:14 --> 00:21:17 E. NASA Proposal
00:21:17 --> 00:21:20 writing Experience. Something, something,
00:21:20 --> 00:21:22 something, something. It's. They love, they
00:21:22 --> 00:21:25 love acronyms. They just.
00:21:25 --> 00:21:28 They, But yeah, L, Space. and you can look
00:21:28 --> 00:21:30 that up. I can probably send the link to that
00:21:30 --> 00:21:33 to you guys to post, in the
00:21:33 --> 00:21:35 link and the description of this episode if
00:21:35 --> 00:21:38 anybody is interested in adding to
00:21:39 --> 00:21:41 their contributions into space.
00:21:42 --> 00:21:45 Professor Fred Watson: Fantastic. great program. and
00:21:45 --> 00:21:47 I look forward to checking out on the Web.
00:21:47 --> 00:21:49 Heidi Campo: On the Web, absolutely. Well, thank you so
00:21:49 --> 00:21:52 much, Fred. This has been another wonderful
00:21:52 --> 00:21:55 Q A session of Space Nuts.
00:21:55 --> 00:21:56 We'll catch you.
00:21:56 --> 00:21:56 Professor Fred Watson: Thank you.
00:21:57 --> 00:22:00 Heidi Campo: We'll catch you all next week. Bye for now.
00:22:01 --> 00:22:03 Generic: You've been listening to the Space Nuts
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