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Cosmic Discoveries: Exo-Asteroids, Martian Secrets, and Galactic Habitable Zones
In this thrilling episode of Space Nuts, hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson delve into the intriguing world of exo-asteroids, the secrets of Mars unveiled by the InSight mission, and the concept of a galactic habitable zone. With a blend of personal anecdotes and scientific exploration, this episode promises to captivate and inform.
Episode Highlights:
- Exo-Asteroid 3I Atlas: Andrew and Fred Watson discuss the recently discovered interstellar object 3I Atlas, its unusual characteristics, and the insights provided by the James Webb Space Telescope. The pair explores the peculiar ratios of gases found within the comet, raising questions about its origins and the environment of its host star system.
- Insights from Mars: The InSight mission continues to reveal fascinating details about Mars's history. Fred Watson explains how seismic data is shedding light on the planet's deep, complex interior, hinting at a tumultuous past marked by impacts and geological activity.
- The Galactic Habitable Zone: The discussion shifts to the concept of a galactic habitable zone, where conditions may be more favourable for life. Andrew and Fred Watson examine the implications of stellar migration and the significance of searching for habitable planets in specific regions of our galaxy.
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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 --> 00:00:01 Andrew Dunkley: Hi there. Look who's back.
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 Yes, it's me. Back from,
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 uh, everywhere we went. Everywhere. Anyway, I
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 won't bore you with all of that. Andrew
00:00:10 --> 00:00:12 Dunkley here. Great to have your company on
00:00:12 --> 00:00:14 another episode of Space Nuts.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 And coming up on today's show, we will
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 be diving into the weird world
00:00:20 --> 00:00:23 of exo. Asteroids or
00:00:23 --> 00:00:26 exocomets or whatever they are. 30, uh,
00:00:26 --> 00:00:29 one atlas to be exact. And it turns
00:00:29 --> 00:00:31 out it's a bit of a strange one. Uh, also in
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 Insight, uh, the Insight mission is
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 unravelling Mars's secrets, uh,
00:00:37 --> 00:00:39 particularly its deep, dark past. And believe
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 me, it's a little bit ugly. And
00:00:42 --> 00:00:45 a galactic habitable zone.
00:00:45 --> 00:00:48 Is there such a thing? What does it mean? And
00:00:48 --> 00:00:49 what are we going to find there? We'll find
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 out on this episode of space nuts. 15
00:00:52 --> 00:00:54 seconds. Guidance is internal.
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 Voice Over Guy: 10, 9. Ignition
00:00:57 --> 00:01:00 sequence start. Space nuts. 5, 4,
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03 3. 2. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 Space nuts. Astronauts report it feels good.
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 Andrew Dunkley: And joining us to do all the unravelling
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 is Professor Fred Watson Watson, astronomer
00:01:13 --> 00:01:14 at large. Hello, Fred Watson.
00:01:15 --> 00:01:18 Professor Fred Watson: Welcome back, Andrew. It's, um, a, uh, treat
00:01:18 --> 00:01:19 to see your smiling face.
00:01:21 --> 00:01:23 Andrew Dunkley: It's a treat. It's a treat to be back and
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 doing this after it's been three months. I
00:01:25 --> 00:01:28 can't believe that, uh, it's been.
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31 Judy and I were only saying today we cannot
00:01:31 --> 00:01:33 get our heads around the fact that we're away
00:01:33 --> 00:01:34 for three months because it doesn't feel like
00:01:34 --> 00:01:37 it. It's just, you know, it
00:01:37 --> 00:01:40 went so fast. But, gee, we had a good time,
00:01:40 --> 00:01:43 Fred Watson. We had an amazing time. Um,
00:01:43 --> 00:01:45 unfortunately, did not get to see the
00:01:45 --> 00:01:47 northern lights. And that was
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 one of my. But I might get another
00:01:50 --> 00:01:52 opportunity. You know, it's not the last time
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 we'll go away somewhere, so fingers crossed.
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 But, um, even as far north as, uh,
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 North Cape, the northern tip of Europe, right
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 up inside the Arctic Circle, did not see a
00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 thing. Uh, probably because it was nearly
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 daylight every minute of the day and night.
00:02:08 --> 00:02:10 So that doesn't help.
00:02:12 --> 00:02:15 Um, but, yeah, a terrific holiday. I don't. I
00:02:15 --> 00:02:16 wouldn't know where to start to tell you
00:02:16 --> 00:02:18 about it. I know I posted a lot of pictures
00:02:18 --> 00:02:21 that people saw, uh, every time we went away
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 or went somewhere, um, but just
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 saw some amazing things, met some amazing
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 people, had some amazing moments. Just,
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 um, little things that we didn't expect.
00:02:31 --> 00:02:34 Like, uh, the captain of the ship suddenly
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 deciding at the last minute to take us up,
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 um, Prince Christian Sound
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 in Norway, which is somewhere where not
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 many people get to go. And the only way to
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 get there is by ship. And it is Full of
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 icebergs and wildlife and
00:02:51 --> 00:02:54 just, um, glacier after glacier
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 after glacier right there in front of you.
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 Um, it's indescribable. Uh, it's just the
00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 most amazing scenery. Uh, we sat
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 up on the deck for seven and a half hours
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 straight just taking it all in. We did not
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 move. It was that captivating.
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 Um, that was one of the highlights.
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 Um, Namibia was amazing. Loved
00:03:16 --> 00:03:19 Namibia. Uh, we,
00:03:19 --> 00:03:22 um, loved Scotland. Loved Edinburgh,
00:03:22 --> 00:03:25 Fred Watson. What a terrific place. Um, we
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27 had porridge for breakfast and.
00:03:27 --> 00:03:29 Professor Fred Watson: You have haggis for lunch, didn't you?
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 Andrew Dunkley: And had haggis for lunch, which, surprise was
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 surprisingly nice. I, you know, you hear
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 horror stories, but it was actually quite
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 tasty. Really enjoyed it. And,
00:03:38 --> 00:03:41 um, look, the countries we visited were,
00:03:41 --> 00:03:44 were many. Uh, the highlights were
00:03:44 --> 00:03:47 numerous. I wouldn't, I could talk for
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 hours, which probably wouldn't work well on a
00:03:49 --> 00:03:52 space podcast. So I won't, um,
00:03:53 --> 00:03:54 I won't say too much more about that.
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 Although at Tenerife we did see the
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 observatory up, um, above the snow
00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 line there. Above the, um, uh,
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 tree line, actually, not the snow line. Um,
00:04:06 --> 00:04:08 you drive up the hill, you've probably done
00:04:08 --> 00:04:10 this bread, and all of a sudden there's no
00:04:10 --> 00:04:12 vegetation, it's just gone.
00:04:13 --> 00:04:15 And, um, there's an observatory up there
00:04:15 --> 00:04:17 which is primarily a solar observatory,
00:04:18 --> 00:04:18 so.
00:04:18 --> 00:04:21 Professor Fred Watson: That's right, yeah. Got to have. So Tad is
00:04:21 --> 00:04:22 the name of the mountain, Katie.
00:04:22 --> 00:04:22 Andrew Dunkley: That's right.
00:04:22 --> 00:04:23 Professor Fred Watson: Yep, yep, yep.
00:04:23 --> 00:04:24 Andrew Dunkley: Yes.
00:04:25 --> 00:04:26 But, uh, here we are back again.
00:04:27 --> 00:04:29 Professor Fred Watson: Um, yeah, I do have a question for you about.
00:04:29 --> 00:04:30 Andrew Dunkley: Oh, ah, yeah.
00:04:31 --> 00:04:33 Professor Fred Watson: Andrew, did you. Did you run into any space
00:04:34 --> 00:04:35 nuts? I did,
00:04:36 --> 00:04:37 I actually did.
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 Andrew Dunkley: Um, one in particular who I ran into
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 in a toilet on a ship. On our
00:04:44 --> 00:04:47 cruise ship. I was walking out
00:04:47 --> 00:04:48 and this, he said, um, are you Andrew
00:04:48 --> 00:04:51 Dunkley? And I went, yes, he said, he
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 said, I'm a Space Nuts listener, he said. And
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 I remember he did message. Message me to say
00:04:56 --> 00:04:58 he'd be on the cruise and getting on in Dover
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 and I'd forgotten about that. And, uh, yeah,
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 we ran into each other in passing. So,
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 um. And as always, I've forgotten his
00:05:06 --> 00:05:08 name and I apologise for that. But it was
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 nice to catch up. So, yes, we did. No, it ran
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 into a few. A few people I did pass, uh, or
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 speak to on the ship knew me, but I don't
00:05:16 --> 00:05:19 know if they knew me from radio or from the
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 podcast. We never really clarified that. But
00:05:22 --> 00:05:24 yeah, it was, uh, it was quite extraordinary.
00:05:25 --> 00:05:27 Um, but if you jump on Facebook, all
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 my photos are on my Facebook page and
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 Instagram So you should be able to see most
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 of what we did. So I don't take up the rest
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 of the show talking about it,
00:05:36 --> 00:05:38 although I'll probably, probably have times
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 where I'll make references to things we saw
00:05:41 --> 00:05:43 and didn't. Yeah.
00:05:44 --> 00:05:47 Now, um, we've got a lot to talk about, but
00:05:47 --> 00:05:49 one of the things you do want to discuss and
00:05:49 --> 00:05:51 I think you did that with Heidi. Oh, and I'd
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 like to say just my, um,
00:05:55 --> 00:05:57 sincere thanks to Heidi for stepping up and
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 covering the last few months. It was a, it
00:05:59 --> 00:06:02 was a big job and she did, did fantastically.
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 The feedback I've been getting, uh, even
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 while I was away was, uh, was glowing. So
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 well done, Heid Heidi and thank you, Much
00:06:09 --> 00:06:12 appreciated. Uh, and you
00:06:12 --> 00:06:13 talked to her last week and you want to
00:06:13 --> 00:06:15 mention again, the Australian Dark sky
00:06:15 --> 00:06:17 alliance is looking for some support.
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 Professor Fred Watson: That's right. So if you're not
00:06:21 --> 00:06:24 either resident in or a citizen of Australia,
00:06:24 --> 00:06:26 you can zone out for a minute while I talk
00:06:26 --> 00:06:29 about a petition which the Australasian
00:06:29 --> 00:06:32 Dark sky alliance, uh, is trying
00:06:32 --> 00:06:34 to get put up to the, the federal government,
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 the government of Australia, in order to
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 put legislation in place to limit light
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 pollution, to actually restrict it as an
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 environmental issue, not just for
00:06:44 --> 00:06:46 astronomers, but for wildlife, for human
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 health, all of the above. So if you do fall
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 into one of those categories, uh, the place
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 to go is their website, which is all one
00:06:53 --> 00:06:54 word,
00:06:54 --> 00:06:58 australasiandarkskyalliance.org
00:06:58 --> 00:06:59 uh, and so
00:06:59 --> 00:07:02 australasiandarkskyalliantiance.org will take
00:07:02 --> 00:07:04 you to their website, which on the front page
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 has instructions on how to sign the petition.
00:07:07 --> 00:07:09 And you've got till September 19th. And
00:07:09 --> 00:07:11 thank you for that plug and.
00:07:12 --> 00:07:15 Andrew Dunkley: Uh, my great pleasure. Uh, and hopefully the
00:07:15 --> 00:07:17 politicians will listen. Hopefully you get
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 the numbers. That's the most important thing.
00:07:21 --> 00:07:23 And it's a really important thing. I mean,
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 uh, we've talked about light pollution
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 many, many times over the years. And it's
00:07:29 --> 00:07:31 just one of those growing problems,
00:07:32 --> 00:07:34 uh, which doesn't seem to get a lot of
00:07:34 --> 00:07:35 attention because no one really thinks about
00:07:35 --> 00:07:38 it as a problem. I suppose that's the
00:07:38 --> 00:07:38 problem.
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 Professor Fred Watson: It is, uh, uh, on the other hand, it is one
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 of the easiest to fix because flick of switch
00:07:44 --> 00:07:47 actually does it. Um, but you're right, I
00:07:47 --> 00:07:49 mean there's certainly regulations in regard
00:07:49 --> 00:07:52 to noise pollution, uh, and of course every
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 other kind of pollution. We're seeing
00:07:54 --> 00:07:56 regulation coming in on plastics pollution.
00:07:56 --> 00:07:59 But light pollution is the orphan pollution
00:07:59 --> 00:08:00 at the moment. And it's an important one.
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 It's one that's more important than Most
00:08:02 --> 00:08:05 people realise, and one statistic, uh, you
00:08:05 --> 00:08:06 might not be aware of this Andrew, but light
00:08:06 --> 00:08:09 pollution is increasing globally at
00:08:09 --> 00:08:12 10% per year. So that
00:08:12 --> 00:08:14 comes from cities and science. Yeah, we know
00:08:14 --> 00:08:16 uh, that the stars are disappearing at that
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19 rate, 10% a year, it's very
00:08:19 --> 00:08:20 ugly indeed.
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 Andrew Dunkley: That is, that's not good at all. And having
00:08:23 --> 00:08:26 witnessed now 24 hour day sunlight, I
00:08:26 --> 00:08:28 do understand how it could mess you with your
00:08:28 --> 00:08:31 brain. So it's not good for human
00:08:31 --> 00:08:33 healthy. Uh, so that's
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 australasiandarkskyaalliance.org
00:08:37 --> 00:08:40 uh, 10 signatures by the 19th
00:08:40 --> 00:08:41 of September if you will.
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 Uh, right, our first topic, Fred Watson,
00:08:45 --> 00:08:47 takes us uh, into the realm of uh,
00:08:47 --> 00:08:50 interstellar objects. 31 Atlas.
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 Um, now I did see this one pop up in the
00:08:53 --> 00:08:55 news while I was away. I did try to keep in
00:08:55 --> 00:08:57 touch but um, when you're moving into
00:08:57 --> 00:08:59 different time zones of different parts of
00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 the world, your news suddenly changes,
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 which is a little bit weird. Uh, but
00:09:04 --> 00:09:07 31 Atlas, um, this one was only a recent
00:09:07 --> 00:09:09 discovery and it's hammering way through our
00:09:09 --> 00:09:12 ah, system as we speak. Uh, but they've been
00:09:12 --> 00:09:14 uh, able to analyse it thanks to the James
00:09:14 --> 00:09:17 Horace Webb Space Telescope. And this one's a
00:09:17 --> 00:09:18 little bit unusual.
00:09:19 --> 00:09:22 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, that's right. And um, because all the
00:09:22 --> 00:09:25 text you've read is in uh,
00:09:25 --> 00:09:28 Arial, uh, font, you wouldn't
00:09:28 --> 00:09:30 have no way of knowing that it's actually 3I
00:09:30 --> 00:09:32 Atlas. Holy
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 circumstances. 3I
00:09:35 --> 00:09:37 being the third interstellar, the third
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 interstellar, uh, object to pass through the
00:09:39 --> 00:09:41 solar system and uh, Atlas, of course, and
00:09:41 --> 00:09:43 then the facility that discovered it.
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 Andrew Dunkley: I'm using jet lag as an excuse.
00:09:46 --> 00:09:48 Professor Fred Watson: It doesn't matter. Even if you weren't jet
00:09:48 --> 00:09:50 lag, you wouldn't have known because now.
00:09:52 --> 00:09:53 Andrew Dunkley: 31.
00:09:54 --> 00:09:56 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, but it's 3i. Never mind.
00:09:57 --> 00:10:00 You see that's the advantage of uh, times,
00:10:00 --> 00:10:03 Times New Roman. That would, that would solve
00:10:03 --> 00:10:05 the problem. Um, anyway,
00:10:05 --> 00:10:08 this is being observed uh, as it flies by
00:10:08 --> 00:10:11 the solar system. It's closest to the sun if
00:10:11 --> 00:10:13 I remember rightly, on the 29th of October.
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 So unlike uh, uh, unlike
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 Oumuamua, which was one eye, the first
00:10:19 --> 00:10:22 um, interstellar object, uh, we
00:10:22 --> 00:10:25 didn't catch up with that until it was on its
00:10:25 --> 00:10:28 way out of the solar system Atlas, uh,
00:10:28 --> 00:10:31 uh, we found on the way in. Uh,
00:10:31 --> 00:10:34 and one reason for that is that it's a much
00:10:34 --> 00:10:37 bigger object. Um, I think um, the
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 best estimate we got for the size of
00:10:39 --> 00:10:42 Oumuamua was something like 40,
00:10:43 --> 00:10:45 maybe 100 metres long, something of that
00:10:45 --> 00:10:46 sort. I can't remember the exact number but
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 this thing is thought to be about 20
00:10:48 --> 00:10:51 kilometres across um and
00:10:51 --> 00:10:53 it's despite um the
00:10:53 --> 00:10:56 prognostications of Avilob who wanted uh
00:10:56 --> 00:10:59 it to be an interstellar spacecraft.
00:10:59 --> 00:11:02 It's behaving exactly like a comet in that
00:11:02 --> 00:11:05 it's uh, as it approaches the sun the
00:11:05 --> 00:11:07 material that it's made of which is a mixture
00:11:07 --> 00:11:10 of ice and dust uh that
00:11:10 --> 00:11:13 heats up the ice turns into a vapour, the
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 dust gets released and it generates what we
00:11:15 --> 00:11:18 call a coma um coma is just a word meaning
00:11:18 --> 00:11:21 hair and it's uh, a sort of fuzzy bit of
00:11:21 --> 00:11:24 the uh, of the comet and um,
00:11:24 --> 00:11:26 develops a tail and indeed three eye Atlas
00:11:26 --> 00:11:29 has done that. Um it's uh,
00:11:29 --> 00:11:32 what's of interest uh of course is
00:11:32 --> 00:11:35 that there are mixed in with the dust
00:11:35 --> 00:11:37 there are atoms and in fact molecules of the,
00:11:38 --> 00:11:40 of the material that binds it together, the
00:11:40 --> 00:11:42 ices that bind it together. And it's not just
00:11:42 --> 00:11:44 water ice. We know that comets are made
00:11:44 --> 00:11:47 mostly of water ice. Water as we've said many
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 times on space knots is the most common
00:11:50 --> 00:11:53 two element uh molecule in the universe.
00:11:53 --> 00:11:56 Uh so it's natural that we should find water
00:11:56 --> 00:11:57 in comets. But there's also
00:11:59 --> 00:12:02 basically uh carbon dioxide, CO2, carbon
00:12:02 --> 00:12:04 monoxide CO uh and those
00:12:04 --> 00:12:07 uh gases are revealing their presence by
00:12:07 --> 00:12:10 their spectra. Uh the rainbow spectra that
00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 you can analyse the light that's coming from
00:12:13 --> 00:12:16 them and indeed uh, exactly as you've said
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 the James Webb Space Telescope is
00:12:19 --> 00:12:21 being uh used by a number of
00:12:21 --> 00:12:24 authors mostly in the United States.
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 Uh Goddard Space Flight Centre and the
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 Catholic University of America are two of the
00:12:28 --> 00:12:31 organisations represented. So you've
00:12:31 --> 00:12:33 got carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide,
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 you've got something called carbonyl
00:12:35 --> 00:12:38 sulphide. Uh all of these are
00:12:38 --> 00:12:41 ah, not unexpected because that's what
00:12:41 --> 00:12:43 we find in comets that belong to the solar
00:12:43 --> 00:12:46 system. But here's the rub,
00:12:47 --> 00:12:49 um and it's the ratio of these
00:12:50 --> 00:12:52 molecules to each other that is
00:12:53 --> 00:12:56 uh the peculiarity of three I atlas
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 uh and in particular the ratio
00:12:59 --> 00:13:02 of carbon uh dioxide to water
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06 is actually eight to one. So eight
00:13:06 --> 00:13:09 parts of carbon dioxide to one part of water
00:13:10 --> 00:13:12 and that's higher than any other comet that's
00:13:12 --> 00:13:15 ever been seen and way, way above the normal
00:13:15 --> 00:13:18 value um, which is I think
00:13:18 --> 00:13:20 two or three to one, something like that. I
00:13:20 --> 00:13:23 can't remember the exact number. Um however
00:13:23 --> 00:13:26 carbon monoxide has uh
00:13:26 --> 00:13:29 a ratio with water that's more or
00:13:29 --> 00:13:32 less the same as ah, um solar system
00:13:32 --> 00:13:35 comets. It's 1.4. So
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 there's a puzzle uh why is the carbon
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 dioxide, so much more abundant. Uh, and
00:13:40 --> 00:13:42 of course, as always, when faced with a
00:13:42 --> 00:13:45 puzzle, um, astronomers start trying
00:13:45 --> 00:13:48 to work out what's going on, uh, and
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 they basically think
00:13:51 --> 00:13:54 that they have sort of solved
00:13:54 --> 00:13:56 it. Um,
00:13:57 --> 00:13:59 um, it's. One possibility
00:14:00 --> 00:14:03 is if you imagine the host
00:14:03 --> 00:14:06 star system in which this object was created
00:14:06 --> 00:14:09 and it would have formed like the, uh, solar
00:14:09 --> 00:14:11 system's comets, probably in an Oort cloud
00:14:11 --> 00:14:13 like the one we have around our solar system,
00:14:14 --> 00:14:17 which is made of, uh, cometary bodies,
00:14:17 --> 00:14:18 uh, which eventually fall in towards the
00:14:18 --> 00:14:20 inner solar system. And that's when we see
00:14:20 --> 00:14:23 them. Uh, there's a suggestion that if you've
00:14:23 --> 00:14:25 got very high levels of ultraviolet
00:14:27 --> 00:14:29 radiation, uh, from that
00:14:29 --> 00:14:32 host star, and that would be the case if it
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35 was a young and very massive star, um,
00:14:35 --> 00:14:38 that apparently could change this ratio of
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 water to carbon dioxide.
00:14:40 --> 00:14:43 Um, and another comment that's been
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 suggested is that maybe, um,
00:14:45 --> 00:14:48 it's uh, a part of that, um,
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51 of the solar system in which it was born.
00:14:51 --> 00:14:54 That's a long way from the host star,
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57 uh, and above the host star's carbon
00:14:57 --> 00:15:00 dioxide ice line. So beyond
00:15:00 --> 00:15:03 a certain distance you get more carbon
00:15:03 --> 00:15:06 dioxide in relation to
00:15:06 --> 00:15:08 water. Uh, and, you know,
00:15:09 --> 00:15:11 that's another possibility. There's several
00:15:11 --> 00:15:14 more that are being thought of. But, uh, the
00:15:14 --> 00:15:16 bottom line is, nearly as always with stories
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 like this, Andrew, what we need is more
00:15:18 --> 00:15:21 observations. Uh, and uh, you know,
00:15:21 --> 00:15:24 we don't have very long before it will get
00:15:24 --> 00:15:27 too faint to observe. It'll be probably
00:15:27 --> 00:15:29 next year when it starts, um, really
00:15:29 --> 00:15:31 disappearing out of the solar system. But,
00:15:31 --> 00:15:33 uh, so we've got this golden opportunity to
00:15:34 --> 00:15:36 analyse it and, and investigate it. And
00:15:36 --> 00:15:37 that's exactly what's happening.
00:15:38 --> 00:15:41 Andrew Dunkley: How, how visible is this one going to be as
00:15:41 --> 00:15:44 it reaches the inner sanctum of
00:15:44 --> 00:15:44 our solar system?
00:15:44 --> 00:15:47 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, not, not that visible
00:15:47 --> 00:15:49 because, um, in fact, I don't have a figure
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51 for its magnitude, the gobbledygook number
00:15:51 --> 00:15:54 that astronomers use for brightness. Uh, but
00:15:54 --> 00:15:56 it's. It's certainly, um, very much the
00:15:56 --> 00:15:59 province of big telescopes. The thing is, uh,
00:15:59 --> 00:16:01 its nearest approach to Earth, uh,
00:16:02 --> 00:16:05 um, I can't remember. It's more than one
00:16:05 --> 00:16:06 astronomical unit, I think, which is the
00:16:06 --> 00:16:08 distance between the Earth to the sun. I
00:16:08 --> 00:16:10 can't remember the exact distance. Uh,
00:16:11 --> 00:16:14 it's not that close to the sun either. Uh,
00:16:14 --> 00:16:16 and I think I'm right in saying
00:16:17 --> 00:16:19 that when it's closest to the sun, we can't
00:16:19 --> 00:16:21 see it because it's in the same direction.
00:16:21 --> 00:16:24 It's sort of passing behind the Sun. Um, that
00:16:24 --> 00:16:27 was one of the comments that ah avilaeur made
00:16:27 --> 00:16:30 uh suggesting that maybe uh when it was at
00:16:30 --> 00:16:32 its brightest um its orbit had been chosen so
00:16:32 --> 00:16:34 that we couldn't see it it when it was at its
00:16:34 --> 00:16:36 brightest um and the other thing he pointed
00:16:36 --> 00:16:39 out was that it passes very close to or
00:16:39 --> 00:16:42 closeish to Venus, Mars and Jupiter.
00:16:42 --> 00:16:44 Um and um, you know the suggestion was that
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 there might be intelligent design behind
00:16:46 --> 00:16:49 that. But uh, I think he's the only person
00:16:49 --> 00:16:51 in the astronomical community he thinks.
00:16:51 --> 00:16:54 Andrew Dunkley: That he might be
00:16:54 --> 00:16:57 right. Uh, you got to give him credit
00:16:57 --> 00:16:57 though.
00:16:57 --> 00:17:00 Professor Fred Watson: He's always um. Yeah we need ideas like
00:17:00 --> 00:17:01 that. Absolutely.
00:17:01 --> 00:17:04 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. Yeah. Okay so uh,
00:17:04 --> 00:17:07 and is this one honking along like the others
00:17:08 --> 00:17:08 at a.
00:17:08 --> 00:17:11 Professor Fred Watson: Greater rate of knots, 60 something
00:17:11 --> 00:17:13 kilometres per second which is kind of one of
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 the things that tells you that it doesn't
00:17:15 --> 00:17:16 belong to our solar system. It's going too
00:17:16 --> 00:17:17 fast.
00:17:17 --> 00:17:20 Andrew Dunkley: Right, There you are. Okay, uh you can read
00:17:20 --> 00:17:23 up on that one uh@universetoday.com
00:17:23 --> 00:17:25 uh3iatlas
00:17:26 --> 00:17:29 Got it. This is Space Nuts with Andrew
00:17:29 --> 00:17:32 Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson Watson.
00:17:36 --> 00:17:39 Space Nuts, our uh next story. Fred Watson
00:17:39 --> 00:17:41 takes us to a place I rarely
00:17:41 --> 00:17:44 mention. Uh it is the red planet Mars.
00:17:45 --> 00:17:47 Uh INSIGHT has uh been um
00:17:47 --> 00:17:50 sort of examining some of the secrets of Mars
00:17:50 --> 00:17:53 and come up with uh new information
00:17:54 --> 00:17:57 that kind of might surprise people about uh
00:17:57 --> 00:17:59 Mars's deep dark and ugly past.
00:18:00 --> 00:18:02 Um, there's been a few revelations.
00:18:03 --> 00:18:05 Professor Fred Watson: There have, yes. Um, I mean INSIGHT is the
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08 gift that keeps on giving really. Um because
00:18:08 --> 00:18:11 it switched off in 2022. Uh
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 um it's ah a spacecraft that
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 landed near Mars's equatorial region.
00:18:17 --> 00:18:20 Uh I think in about 2019 was when
00:18:20 --> 00:18:23 it uh touched down um and you might
00:18:23 --> 00:18:25 remember we discussed a lot the instruments
00:18:25 --> 00:18:27 that are on board it because one of them was
00:18:27 --> 00:18:30 a seismometer uh which has been incredibly
00:18:30 --> 00:18:33 successful and the other one was the interior
00:18:33 --> 00:18:35 thermometer which was incredibly unsuccessful
00:18:35 --> 00:18:38 because they were trying to drill a hole to
00:18:38 --> 00:18:41 put this thermometer down under the surface
00:18:41 --> 00:18:43 of uh Mars and I think can't remember what
00:18:43 --> 00:18:44 happened. The drill correct. Kept breaking or
00:18:44 --> 00:18:47 something um unsatisfying
00:18:47 --> 00:18:50 happened uh until that part of the experiment
00:18:50 --> 00:18:52 was not as successful but the seismograph has
00:18:53 --> 00:18:56 done its job and um the results from
00:18:56 --> 00:18:59 that keep um on being reanalysed
00:18:59 --> 00:19:01 uh because as time goes on we've got
00:19:02 --> 00:19:04 many more analytical facilities at our
00:19:04 --> 00:19:07 disposal which we didn't have before. Uh and
00:19:07 --> 00:19:09 um, you can now look at these seismic records
00:19:09 --> 00:19:12 with a lot more meaning and
00:19:12 --> 00:19:15 what's been discovered. It's actually um,
00:19:15 --> 00:19:18 from an analysis of eight seismic
00:19:18 --> 00:19:21 Events, uh, uh, two
00:19:21 --> 00:19:23 of which were probably caused by
00:19:23 --> 00:19:26 meteorite impact on Mars.
00:19:27 --> 00:19:29 Remember um, that the two mechanisms, because
00:19:29 --> 00:19:31 Mars doesn't have plate tectonics, it's
00:19:31 --> 00:19:34 called a single uh, crust. Um,
00:19:35 --> 00:19:38 it's uh, stretching and shrinking of the
00:19:38 --> 00:19:40 crust and sort of rift valleys forming and
00:19:40 --> 00:19:42 things like that that give you the seismic
00:19:42 --> 00:19:45 events or meteorite impacts. And two of
00:19:45 --> 00:19:47 those seismic events as I said, were
00:19:47 --> 00:19:49 meteorite impacts. But um,
00:19:50 --> 00:19:52 it's the way that the uh,
00:19:52 --> 00:19:55 relative frequencies of the vibrations, the
00:19:55 --> 00:19:57 uh, seismic vibrations, the relative
00:19:57 --> 00:20:00 frequencies of these, uh, that
00:20:00 --> 00:20:02 allows people to basically
00:20:02 --> 00:20:05 examine the interior of Mars, uh,
00:20:06 --> 00:20:09 in a very intelligent way. Um,
00:20:09 --> 00:20:12 so you look for higher frequency waves
00:20:12 --> 00:20:15 compared with uh, low frequency waves. And
00:20:15 --> 00:20:17 basically uh, that tells you
00:20:18 --> 00:20:21 uh, about the length of transmission time
00:20:21 --> 00:20:23 uh for these different waves, how long it
00:20:23 --> 00:20:25 takes you to get from the site of impact,
00:20:25 --> 00:20:28 wherever that is, uh to the seismograph.
00:20:28 --> 00:20:30 And uh, one of the authors uh, of this
00:20:30 --> 00:20:33 work. I um, think there's ah, certainly
00:20:33 --> 00:20:35 authors at Imperial College London and
00:20:36 --> 00:20:39 uh, other institutions, uh, but one of the
00:20:39 --> 00:20:41 authors m made a comment, um, which I
00:20:41 --> 00:20:44 liked. These signals show clear signs of
00:20:44 --> 00:20:46 interference as they travel through Mars's
00:20:46 --> 00:20:49 deep interior. That's consistent
00:20:49 --> 00:20:52 with a mantle full of structures of different
00:20:52 --> 00:20:55 compositional origins, leftovers from
00:20:55 --> 00:20:57 Mars's early days. And what that means is
00:20:57 --> 00:21:00 so the mantle is the region between the crust
00:21:00 --> 00:21:03 of uh, Mars and its core,
00:21:03 --> 00:21:06 its hot core. Uh, we've got a mantle on
00:21:06 --> 00:21:09 Earth. I think Mars's mantle is rather uh,
00:21:09 --> 00:21:11 deeper than ours relative to the diameter of
00:21:11 --> 00:21:14 the planet. Um but what they found is that
00:21:14 --> 00:21:17 the mantle isn't a sort of uniform, um,
00:21:18 --> 00:21:21 uh, paste of semi
00:21:21 --> 00:21:23 solid rock, uh but it has
00:21:23 --> 00:21:26 structure in it. Uh, and that structure
00:21:26 --> 00:21:29 is thought to come from uh,
00:21:29 --> 00:21:32 events that took place during Mars
00:21:32 --> 00:21:34 origins. Uh and in fact what they're
00:21:34 --> 00:21:37 suggesting is that um,
00:21:39 --> 00:21:42 when Mars was being formed about
00:21:42 --> 00:21:44 4.5 billion years ago, um,
00:21:44 --> 00:21:47 it was at a time as we've talked about it
00:21:47 --> 00:21:50 before. Not long after that there was the um,
00:21:50 --> 00:21:52 what's it called, The Late Heavy Bombardment,
00:21:53 --> 00:21:55 uh when there was a lot of stuff careering
00:21:55 --> 00:21:58 around the solar system. Big objects the size
00:21:58 --> 00:22:01 of uh, many planets really banging into
00:22:01 --> 00:22:03 everything else. And the suggestion
00:22:04 --> 00:22:06 is that at that period
00:22:07 --> 00:22:10 some of these planetoids or planetesimals,
00:22:10 --> 00:22:13 uh actually collided with Mars and
00:22:13 --> 00:22:16 basically melted parts of Mars,
00:22:16 --> 00:22:19 uh into oceans of
00:22:19 --> 00:22:22 molten magma. Uh, and
00:22:22 --> 00:22:25 then you find that these
00:22:25 --> 00:22:27 regions cool, but
00:22:28 --> 00:22:31 when they're cooled they have
00:22:31 --> 00:22:33 a different structure from the stuff that
00:22:33 --> 00:22:35 didn't get clouted and melted, uh, by
00:22:35 --> 00:22:38 an impact so what you're doing is you're
00:22:38 --> 00:22:40 differentiating between different zones of
00:22:40 --> 00:22:43 Mars's mantle and what they're saying
00:22:43 --> 00:22:46 is that what they're detecting with this uh,
00:22:46 --> 00:22:49 inhomogeneity in Mars's mantle
00:22:49 --> 00:22:51 is evidence of these, what they describe as
00:22:51 --> 00:22:54 compositionally distinct chunks of material.
00:22:54 --> 00:22:56 Uh so um, you know Mars
00:22:57 --> 00:23:00 as mantle has got some bits that were never
00:23:00 --> 00:23:03 reheated and others that were reheated after
00:23:03 --> 00:23:06 the planet's formation by these collisions
00:23:06 --> 00:23:09 probably molten, uh then they hardened and
00:23:09 --> 00:23:11 they crystallised and that gives you a
00:23:11 --> 00:23:13 different structure which is what's now been
00:23:13 --> 00:23:16 seen. So um, it's ah, you know
00:23:16 --> 00:23:18 one of the comments, uh, the same author, uh,
00:23:19 --> 00:23:22 uh, who I just um, I just uh, mentioned
00:23:22 --> 00:23:24 most of this chaos likely unfolded in Mars
00:23:24 --> 00:23:27 first 100 million years. The fact that we can
00:23:27 --> 00:23:30 still detect its traces after 4.5 billion
00:23:30 --> 00:23:33 years shows just how sluggishly Mars's
00:23:33 --> 00:23:36 interior has been churning ever since. Uh
00:23:36 --> 00:23:39 unlike the Earth's which is much more active.
00:23:39 --> 00:23:42 So yeah, um, the Mars story from
00:23:42 --> 00:23:45 Insight keeps on amazing us. We keep
00:23:45 --> 00:23:48 uh, discovering new facts about it and um.
00:23:48 --> 00:23:49 Long may it continue Andrew.
00:23:50 --> 00:23:52 Andrew Dunkley: Yes, yes, hopefully. Um,
00:23:52 --> 00:23:55 and there's so much more to learn. This is
00:23:55 --> 00:23:58 what I love about uh, these inner
00:23:58 --> 00:24:01 planets uh, and the outer planets as well.
00:24:01 --> 00:24:02 The more we look at them and the more we
00:24:02 --> 00:24:05 analyse the data that we're receiving from
00:24:05 --> 00:24:07 various missions, the more interesting they
00:24:07 --> 00:24:10 get and the stranger they get sometimes as is
00:24:10 --> 00:24:12 the case with Mars in this particular
00:24:13 --> 00:24:15 situation. So uh, yeah it's a fascinating
00:24:15 --> 00:24:18 place. Uh, cosmosmagazine.com
00:24:18 --> 00:24:20 is where you need to go to uh, find out more
00:24:20 --> 00:24:22 about that if you'd like to follow up on that
00:24:22 --> 00:24:24 story. Andrew Dunkley here, Fred Watson
00:24:24 --> 00:24:27 Watson there. You're listening to Space Nuts.
00:24:31 --> 00:24:32 Professor Fred Watson: Space Nuts.
00:24:32 --> 00:24:35 Andrew Dunkley: And uh, our final story today is about
00:24:35 --> 00:24:38 a galactic habitable zone. Now we
00:24:38 --> 00:24:40 know about the habitable zone in our own
00:24:40 --> 00:24:43 solar system, uh, which is affectionately
00:24:43 --> 00:24:46 called the Goldilocks Zone. And we
00:24:46 --> 00:24:48 know about that because we're in it. That's
00:24:48 --> 00:24:50 the only thing that keeps us alive really.
00:24:51 --> 00:24:53 Uh, but Fred Watson, my question
00:24:54 --> 00:24:56 first up is uh, are they talking about a
00:24:56 --> 00:24:59 Goldilocks Zone on a galactic scale?
00:24:59 --> 00:25:00 Is that what this is?
00:25:01 --> 00:25:04 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, effectively. Um, but um, it's
00:25:04 --> 00:25:07 not the temperature that's not too
00:25:07 --> 00:25:10 hot and m not too cold but just right as it
00:25:10 --> 00:25:12 is in our Goldilocks Zone the temperature's
00:25:12 --> 00:25:15 just right at this distance from the sun for
00:25:15 --> 00:25:18 liquid water to exist. And we know it
00:25:18 --> 00:25:20 does because we see it pretty well every day
00:25:20 --> 00:25:23 uh, in our um, in Our
00:25:23 --> 00:25:25 reservoirs of water, whether they're a
00:25:25 --> 00:25:28 bathtub or a ah sea. Um, but
00:25:28 --> 00:25:30 that's not what the galactic habitable zone
00:25:30 --> 00:25:32 is about. And it is being called that the
00:25:32 --> 00:25:35 GHz or GHz if you're on
00:25:35 --> 00:25:38 the other side of the Pacific. Um,
00:25:38 --> 00:25:40 it's uh, it's a region where
00:25:41 --> 00:25:43 you might um, expect
00:25:44 --> 00:25:47 to find more habitable planets
00:25:47 --> 00:25:50 than nearer to the centre of our
00:25:50 --> 00:25:51 galaxy or
00:25:53 --> 00:25:56 further out towards the edge of the galaxy.
00:25:57 --> 00:25:58 Uh and it basically
00:26:00 --> 00:26:03 comes uh about uh. Because you can
00:26:03 --> 00:26:06 analyse, you know we know a lot about the way
00:26:06 --> 00:26:09 stars evolve. Uh and we know a
00:26:09 --> 00:26:11 lot about the um, chemicals
00:26:13 --> 00:26:15 um that have basically been found in
00:26:15 --> 00:26:18 stellar interiors and their atmospheres. And
00:26:18 --> 00:26:21 we can trace this history of stars very
00:26:21 --> 00:26:24 accurately. Um and we can
00:26:24 --> 00:26:27 also uh, look at the
00:26:27 --> 00:26:29 orbits of stars around the centre of our
00:26:29 --> 00:26:31 galaxy. Uh and we can work out to some
00:26:31 --> 00:26:34 extent where they've come from because uh, we
00:26:34 --> 00:26:37 think that the orbits of stars actually um,
00:26:37 --> 00:26:39 ah, they actually change in a process called
00:26:39 --> 00:26:42 stellar migration where
00:26:42 --> 00:26:44 stars, orbits change around the centre of the
00:26:44 --> 00:26:47 galaxy. Uh and you,
00:26:47 --> 00:26:50 you know, you can find that they uh, move.
00:26:51 --> 00:26:54 And so one of the studies, uh, one
00:26:54 --> 00:26:57 of the um, comments that's come from
00:26:57 --> 00:26:58 this particular study. It's actually an
00:26:58 --> 00:27:01 international uh team of scientists who have
00:27:01 --> 00:27:03 looked at this. Uh, this is published in
00:27:03 --> 00:27:06 strongly in Astrophysics, one of the main uh
00:27:06 --> 00:27:08 learned journals of astronomy. What they've
00:27:08 --> 00:27:11 discovered is that
00:27:11 --> 00:27:14 um, there's a five times
00:27:15 --> 00:27:18 greater likelihood of
00:27:18 --> 00:27:21 stars migrating from
00:27:22 --> 00:27:24 one part of a
00:27:24 --> 00:27:27 galaxy to another for
00:27:27 --> 00:27:29 habitable planets, for stars that have
00:27:29 --> 00:27:31 habitable planets compared to,
00:27:32 --> 00:27:35 with a lack of any stellar migration. So
00:27:35 --> 00:27:38 it's a slightly, this is a slightly obtuse
00:27:38 --> 00:27:40 thing to look for. Um, but um,
00:27:41 --> 00:27:43 what it says is, you know,
00:27:43 --> 00:27:46 it's all about for example whether you
00:27:47 --> 00:27:49 uh, are in a part of the galaxy
00:27:50 --> 00:27:53 where your solar system could uh,
00:27:53 --> 00:27:56 host gas giant planets because they
00:27:56 --> 00:27:59 would basically have an effect on
00:27:59 --> 00:28:01 the formation of the kind of rocky planets
00:28:01 --> 00:28:04 that we think are the habitable one. Um,
00:28:04 --> 00:28:07 so I might just read um, a ah, quote
00:28:07 --> 00:28:10 from this paper. Uh, it's a little
00:28:10 --> 00:28:13 bit uh, technical but um,
00:28:13 --> 00:28:15 I think it's an interesting quote. It sort of
00:28:15 --> 00:28:17 illuminates what we're talking about. Uh, in
00:28:17 --> 00:28:20 this study we have significantly expanded
00:28:20 --> 00:28:23 the exploration of the parameter space
00:28:23 --> 00:28:26 defining the galactic habitable zone
00:28:26 --> 00:28:29 compared to previous analyses present in
00:28:29 --> 00:28:31 literature. Uh, our findings are particularly
00:28:31 --> 00:28:33 relevant in the context of upcoming space
00:28:34 --> 00:28:36 missions such as the ESA
00:28:37 --> 00:28:40 PLATO mission, that's planetary transits and
00:28:40 --> 00:28:42 oscillations of stars, the uh, ESA Aerial
00:28:42 --> 00:28:45 Space Mission and large Interferometer
00:28:45 --> 00:28:47 for exoplanets. That's life.
00:28:49 --> 00:28:50 And these missions will deliver
00:28:50 --> 00:28:52 unprecedented, um, data on planetary
00:28:52 --> 00:28:55 properties, orbital architectures and
00:28:55 --> 00:28:58 atmospheric concepts, compositions. So what
00:28:58 --> 00:29:01 they're basically saying is, uh,
00:29:01 --> 00:29:02 if you're going to look for habitable
00:29:02 --> 00:29:05 planets, you want to be careful where you
00:29:05 --> 00:29:07 look. Because if there is such a thing as a
00:29:07 --> 00:29:09 stellar or a galactic habitable zone,
00:29:10 --> 00:29:13 um, then, uh, we want to be looking there
00:29:13 --> 00:29:16 if we're going to look for, uh, you know,
00:29:16 --> 00:29:19 for uh, habitable planets. It's an old
00:29:19 --> 00:29:21 idea, actually. The GHz, uh, or
00:29:21 --> 00:29:24 GHz, uh, comes, goes back to the 1980s.
00:29:25 --> 00:29:27 Um, and it's all about, you know, the um, the
00:29:27 --> 00:29:29 formation of the heavier elements.
00:29:30 --> 00:29:33 The ones that are basically work
00:29:33 --> 00:29:36 like iron, silicon, uh,
00:29:36 --> 00:29:39 oxygen, all of these elements. You've got to
00:29:39 --> 00:29:41 form them. You've got to form them in the
00:29:41 --> 00:29:43 right place in a galaxy. And uh, you've got
00:29:43 --> 00:29:46 to then, uh, let that environment
00:29:46 --> 00:29:49 breed these, uh, elements into molecules
00:29:49 --> 00:29:52 which basically become the, um,
00:29:52 --> 00:29:54 uh, precursors of life.
00:29:55 --> 00:29:57 I'm sorry, that's the Gobbler book. Uh,
00:29:57 --> 00:29:58 explanation.
00:29:59 --> 00:30:02 Andrew Dunkley: No, fair enough. Um, so
00:30:02 --> 00:30:04 does that mean that in our ongoing search for
00:30:04 --> 00:30:07 exoplanets, we should be focusing on
00:30:07 --> 00:30:10 the GHz areas?
00:30:11 --> 00:30:13 Uh, or do we not really care where the
00:30:13 --> 00:30:15 exoplanets are? Finding them is imperative
00:30:15 --> 00:30:16 regardless.
00:30:17 --> 00:30:20 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, no, no, that's. That's exactly right.
00:30:20 --> 00:30:21 That's exactly what these authors are saying.
00:30:21 --> 00:30:23 We should be looking in the right place if we
00:30:23 --> 00:30:26 want to find, uh, habitable planets.
00:30:26 --> 00:30:29 Uh, and, um, uh, and indeed,
00:30:29 --> 00:30:31 um, you know, the, the PLATO mission, for
00:30:31 --> 00:30:33 example, is going to look at a million stars.
00:30:33 --> 00:30:35 It's a bit like Kepler. The Kepler mission,
00:30:35 --> 00:30:38 it was. It's finding planets by transits.
00:30:39 --> 00:30:42 Uh, so that's going to scan a million stars
00:30:42 --> 00:30:44 and, and you want to make sure you're looking
00:30:44 --> 00:30:46 at them in the right place. That's the, uh,
00:30:46 --> 00:30:47 bottom line.
00:30:47 --> 00:30:50 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. Although some would say, well, if we
00:30:50 --> 00:30:52 focus only on those areas, we might miss
00:30:52 --> 00:30:55 something important in the not so habitable
00:30:55 --> 00:30:57 zones. You just never know.
00:30:58 --> 00:31:00 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, and part of the problem with that is that
00:31:00 --> 00:31:02 we've only got one example of life, and
00:31:02 --> 00:31:04 that's here on Earth. And so we're sort of
00:31:04 --> 00:31:05 looking for the same kind of chemical
00:31:05 --> 00:31:08 reactions that formed life here on Earth.
00:31:08 --> 00:31:11 Earth, uh, to, to form similar life
00:31:11 --> 00:31:12 elsewhere, but there might be other kinds of
00:31:12 --> 00:31:14 life that don't need those reactions.
00:31:15 --> 00:31:18 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, Ah, it's, um, it's funny
00:31:18 --> 00:31:19 you mentioned that because it just reminded
00:31:19 --> 00:31:21 me while we were on our cruise ship, we, we
00:31:21 --> 00:31:23 played a lot of trivia because, you know,
00:31:23 --> 00:31:26 that's what you do. And one of the questions
00:31:26 --> 00:31:28 that came up was, um, um,
00:31:29 --> 00:31:31 what was. I can't remember the wording, but
00:31:31 --> 00:31:33 they basically wanted you to explain what the
00:31:33 --> 00:31:36 Drake equation was. And I think
00:31:36 --> 00:31:39 only two of us got it out of 200
00:31:39 --> 00:31:42 people. Uh, I was very proud of
00:31:42 --> 00:31:42 myself, actually.
00:31:43 --> 00:31:44 Professor Fred Watson: I'm sure you will be. Yeah. Good on you.
00:31:46 --> 00:31:48 Andrew Dunkley: Uh, okay, so if you want to find out more
00:31:48 --> 00:31:51 about the Galactic Habitable Zone, you
00:31:51 --> 00:31:53 can do that through the universetoday.com
00:31:53 --> 00:31:55 website. It's a really interesting article
00:31:55 --> 00:31:57 too. I did manage to read the first
00:31:57 --> 00:31:57 paragraph.
00:31:58 --> 00:32:01 Uh, now, um, one thing I wanted
00:32:01 --> 00:32:02 to mention when you were talking about
00:32:02 --> 00:32:04 Insight and Mars and Mars not having
00:32:04 --> 00:32:07 tectonics, I, uh, I meant
00:32:07 --> 00:32:09 to add this onto the end of that segment, but
00:32:09 --> 00:32:11 I'll do it now. While we were overseas, uh,
00:32:11 --> 00:32:14 we went to Iceland and what an
00:32:14 --> 00:32:17 amazing place Iceland is. Uh, we got to
00:32:17 --> 00:32:19 walk along a rift valley where the
00:32:20 --> 00:32:22 Eurasian tectonic plate
00:32:22 --> 00:32:25 and the American tectonic plate meet. You can
00:32:25 --> 00:32:28 actually walk along it and the American
00:32:28 --> 00:32:30 plate is going up and over, the Eurasian
00:32:30 --> 00:32:33 plate is going down and under, and you can
00:32:33 --> 00:32:35 walk right on top of that.
00:32:36 --> 00:32:38 And you're walking along thinking, isn't this
00:32:38 --> 00:32:41 amazing? And, um,
00:32:41 --> 00:32:43 then you start seeing the plaques that
00:32:43 --> 00:32:45 explain, well, this was an earthquake in
00:32:45 --> 00:32:48 2011, this was an earthquake in 2015.
00:32:48 --> 00:32:50 And you're thinking, why am I standing here?
00:32:52 --> 00:32:53 Quite incredible.
00:32:53 --> 00:32:55 Professor Fred Watson: So the place you were at is a place called
00:32:55 --> 00:32:58 Thingback. Uh, it's, uh,
00:32:59 --> 00:33:01 uh, not that far from Reykjavik. Uh,
00:33:01 --> 00:33:04 Bungs. Uh, it's not plates colliding, it's
00:33:04 --> 00:33:06 plates dragging apart because you're in the
00:33:06 --> 00:33:08 middle of. Yeah, so they're
00:33:08 --> 00:33:10 separating. So you need to be even more
00:33:10 --> 00:33:12 careful because if they separate a bit faster
00:33:12 --> 00:33:14 on the day you're walking through it, you're
00:33:14 --> 00:33:15 going to drop right into the hole.
00:33:16 --> 00:33:18 Andrew Dunkley: Well, there are a lot of cracks in the ground
00:33:18 --> 00:33:21 in that part of the. So it does make sense.
00:33:21 --> 00:33:24 Um, I must not have read the literature
00:33:24 --> 00:33:26 when they explained what was happening
00:33:26 --> 00:33:28 exactly, but I thought they said colliding.
00:33:28 --> 00:33:31 Professor Fred Watson: So it's coming
00:33:31 --> 00:33:33 apart. It's the Mid Atlantic Ridge. That is
00:33:33 --> 00:33:36 the only place where the Mid Atlantic Ridge
00:33:36 --> 00:33:39 is on the surface. And Tingviklijk is
00:33:39 --> 00:33:41 where it's where it's most obvious. There is
00:33:41 --> 00:33:43 another place, uh, not very far from there.
00:33:43 --> 00:33:46 So actually on the Reykjanesput
00:33:46 --> 00:33:49 Peninsula to the west of,
00:33:49 --> 00:33:51 uh, Reykjavik. And there, there's a bridge
00:33:51 --> 00:33:54 across this border. Uh, and you
00:33:54 --> 00:33:56 can stand on one side of the bridge and
00:33:56 --> 00:33:58 you're on the Eurasian plate Stand on the
00:33:58 --> 00:33:59 other. You're on the American complaint. And
00:33:59 --> 00:34:01 all the locals think it's a great joke
00:34:01 --> 00:34:03 because you know there are things like this
00:34:03 --> 00:34:05 all over the island. Basically the island
00:34:05 --> 00:34:08 splitting in. In pieces because of the. Of
00:34:08 --> 00:34:09 that separation.
00:34:09 --> 00:34:12 Andrew Dunkley: But yeah, saw photos of
00:34:12 --> 00:34:13 people doing that. But we didn't go. We
00:34:13 --> 00:34:15 didn't go there but we went to. Oh, we went
00:34:15 --> 00:34:18 to a lot of places in Iceland. But um.
00:34:19 --> 00:34:21 One of the things we learned about a lot
00:34:22 --> 00:34:25 in places like Iceland and Greenland and up
00:34:25 --> 00:34:27 in um, Northern Europe was how
00:34:27 --> 00:34:30 fast the glaciers are melting. M. And
00:34:31 --> 00:34:34 shocking. It is very shocking.
00:34:34 --> 00:34:37 Some of them are um, uh. Ah, losing
00:34:37 --> 00:34:39 20 metres or 200 metres a year
00:34:40 --> 00:34:43 I should say, which is staggering. And
00:34:44 --> 00:34:47 that's lost forever. Um, we can't
00:34:47 --> 00:34:50 reverse that. So ah, it is rather
00:34:50 --> 00:34:53 shocking in fact. Uh, we were, I think it was
00:34:53 --> 00:34:56 when we were in the um, uh,
00:34:56 --> 00:34:59 Saint Christian Sound, uh, Prince Christian
00:34:59 --> 00:35:02 Sound, uh, they were saying um,
00:35:02 --> 00:35:04 see that rock in front of that uh, glacier?
00:35:04 --> 00:35:07 And we all went yeah. Well it was actually
00:35:07 --> 00:35:10 covered in ice two years ago. Yeah, that's
00:35:10 --> 00:35:12 how bad it's getting. And this is just this
00:35:12 --> 00:35:14 rock in the middle of nowhere and the ice is
00:35:14 --> 00:35:17 way, way, way back. So yeah,
00:35:17 --> 00:35:19 pretty shocking stuff. Um,
00:35:19 --> 00:35:21 that's just about it. Fred Watson, thank you
00:35:21 --> 00:35:22 so much.
00:35:23 --> 00:35:25 Professor Fred Watson: It's a pleasure. Andrew, it's great to
00:35:25 --> 00:35:27 welcome you back and um, I um,
00:35:28 --> 00:35:31 look forward to continuing the uh, recordings
00:35:31 --> 00:35:33 at a um, time that
00:35:34 --> 00:35:36 you don't have to choose between awkward
00:35:36 --> 00:35:38 times on different sides of the planet. Which
00:35:38 --> 00:35:40 is what we could do. Heidi and uh, I juggling
00:35:40 --> 00:35:42 our uh, respective uh, days.
00:35:43 --> 00:35:44 Andrew Dunkley: It's a bit difficult with those time
00:35:44 --> 00:35:46 differences. Well, while we were on the ship
00:35:46 --> 00:35:49 we sold a few and bought a house which in the
00:35:49 --> 00:35:51 early phases was simple because it was only a
00:35:51 --> 00:35:52 few hours time difference. But when it got to
00:35:52 --> 00:35:55 the real crunch of you know, settling it all,
00:35:56 --> 00:35:58 uh, the time difference was 12 hours. So it
00:35:58 --> 00:36:01 really got difficult. But uh, it's done now
00:36:01 --> 00:36:03 and yes, we're in our new place. I should
00:36:03 --> 00:36:06 show it to you. I've got the, I've got the
00:36:06 --> 00:36:09 um, the Yankees Red uh, Sox
00:36:09 --> 00:36:10 baseball game background on. Because I took
00:36:10 --> 00:36:12 that photo when we went and watched a game in
00:36:12 --> 00:36:15 New York the other day uh, which was a lot of
00:36:15 --> 00:36:16 fun and the Red Sox one.
00:36:16 --> 00:36:17 Professor Fred Watson: Whoops.
00:36:17 --> 00:36:20 Andrew Dunkley: Um, but um, yeah, I'll put a normal
00:36:20 --> 00:36:22 background on so you can see the new place
00:36:22 --> 00:36:24 which pretty much looks the same as the old
00:36:24 --> 00:36:26 place. But anyway, whatever. Thanks
00:36:26 --> 00:36:28 Fred Watson. We'll catch you real soon.
00:36:28 --> 00:36:30 Professor Fred Watson: Sounds good. Thanks Andrew. Take care.
00:36:31 --> 00:36:33 Andrew Dunkley: Uh, you too. And don't forget, uh, if you
00:36:33 --> 00:36:36 would like to support the Australasian Dark
00:36:36 --> 00:36:38 sky alliance and get, uh, those
00:36:38 --> 00:36:40 signatures on their petition, it's
00:36:40 --> 00:36:43 australiandarkskyalliance.org
00:36:43 --> 00:36:46 and, uh, just follow the prompts, uh, for
00:36:46 --> 00:36:49 Australian signatories only. Australian,
00:36:49 --> 00:36:50 uh, Australasian
00:36:50 --> 00:36:53 darkskyalliance.org uh,
00:36:53 --> 00:36:55 that's it from me. And, oh, I forgot to thank
00:36:55 --> 00:36:58 Huw in the studio, which
00:36:58 --> 00:37:01 I quite often do. Uh, from me, Andrew
00:37:01 --> 00:37:03 Dunkley. Thanks for your company. See you on
00:37:03 --> 00:37:05 the next episode of Space Nuts. Bye. Bye.
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