Lunar Tides, Galactic Twins & Holiday Cheer: #481

Hi, Andrew Dunkley. Here, Fred and I are taking a little bit of a break over the Christmas New Year period, just to catch our breath. We'll be back sometime around mid January. In the meantime, we've been digging through the archives at some of the most perplexing and popular episodes that we've done in recent times. So sit back and enjoy, and we'll see you in twenty twenty five fifteen. Seconds in Channel ten nine ignition. Sequence Space Nuts or three two one Space Nurse, as when I reported Neil's good as usual. Joining me is Astronomer at Large Professor Fred Watson. Hello, Fred, Hi Andrew, Good morning, tis morning as we record this so I can say good morning. Yes is yes, Now I'm at a different location today. Do you love my Teal wall? Well, it looks like what is it? Yeah, it looks like a green screen, you know, for you're getting a good background on TV there. Yeah, it's very nice. Yeah, it does, doesn't it. Yeah, it's just somebody painted the entire office that I work in Teal. It's I mean, if I turned the camera around and showed you every wall in the place, they'd all be that color. It's rather dreadful, but anyway, we carry on regardless. Okay, Fred, let's get down to business. We'll start off with this warning from NASA that the Moon is approaching a cycle which, when combined with the climate change issues that the planet is facing, we'll see high tides exceeding flooding thresholds in some parts of the world. Now they're talking the mid twenty thirties. This is quite quite astonishing. Yes, that's right. It's so, it's nothing new as far as the astronomy is concerned. What we've got is a situation where astronomy and climate change of coming together, if I'm putting anyway. So, the Moon, you know, it goes through various cycles. The most the one we all know is the monthly cycle. It's a That's why we call it a month, because once a month the Moon goes round in its orbits around the Earth. But the orbit itself undergoes other cycles as well, and in particular, there is an eighteen point six year cycle that is to do with the procession of the Moon's orbits. Now, I think we've talked about the precession of the Earth's axis before, and that's something easy to understand if you think of the Earth as a big spinning top. It's spinning rotates once every twenty four hours, but its axis is also rotating around, just like a spinning tops does, and that's called precession. In the case of the Earth's axis, it goes around once in twenty six thousand years, so it's a much longer period phenomenon. But the Earth, sorry, the Moon's orbit around the Earth does that. Who it's the if you think of the orbit as being in a flat plane and then imagine a perpendicular to that plane, it's that perpendicular that's processing very slightly around around a pole a. Bit like a bit like the axis does. And that's an eighteen point six year cycle. And what it does is it changes the Moon's orbit, not by much, it's certainly nothing you'd notice with the naked eye, but it changes it enough to affect the Moon's influence on the tides on Earth. And so what happens is that sometimes during that eighteen point six year cycle, you get high tides being a bit lower and low tides being a bit higher, which means the range is getting smaller. But at other times kind of you know the other half of the cycle. If I can put it that way, the high tides are higher and the low tides are lower. And that's what NASA scientists, along with scientists in the University of Hawaii have raised an alert on, not not to be alarmist, but to make the point that what this has, you know, it's practical effect, is that coastal, low lying coastal areas will have more of these things that are sometimes called nuisance floods, floods where you've got a high, really high tide and it floods the streets of the of the you know, the coastal areas. There will be more of those. That's the point that they're making, and in particular, this is likely to be the case from the mid twenty thirties for a few years. And so what they're saying is not, oh, you know, this is a terrible situation, We're all going to die. It's not that. It's about it's about, you know, advising city planners and local authorities that look after the the flood protection on coastlines and things of that sort, all of these people who need to know that we're likely to see more of these events in the twenty thirties. What about low lying places like the Maldives that are only like one or two meters above sea level. What sort of an impact would it have on places like. That, Yes, exactly, so that you know there are also places that are at risk because you might not get it won't be dramatically that much higher than it is now, but it will be more often. You know, it might be it is probably still a fraction of a meter that we're talking about the difference, but it will happen more often. So and we've heard of king tides happening. Yeah, and that's the act. Yeah, yeah, right, so good, Maybe a bigger king tides is what we're talking about. That, that's exactly it. So technically a king so a springtide is when the moon and the some basically in the same direction, so you get higher and lower tides. A king tide usually is that combined with meteorological effects, which you know, if you get a low pressure region, then the tide comes up higher, so you can get these king tides. It's nothing like a tsunami. It's not that kind of thing we're talking about. It's just an increase in the tidal range. What I guess concerns me or interests me about this is that with a sea level rise, that is a process that's going to continue for a very long time. So when we get to the next phase of the of the Moon's you know, processional period, which will be in the twenty fifties, we're probably going to get even more effects from this. So the twenty fifties we're going to see much more of these coastal intrusions of water. So it's yeah, it's a it's a good warning. It's actually come from ocean scientists as well as astronomers. This work. It's been done, very careful work. It's easy to find the reports on it. They've taken the results from many, many oceanographic studies and folded them into what we know about the effect of tides in the Moon's the Moon's orbit. So yeah, it's yeah, it's a well mant and well placed warning. Yes, indeed, and it looks like their projections go right out to about twenty eighty, so they've got a pretty good idea of what's going to happen. I would imagine that if you're in the the twenty thirties and one of these super king tides, I suppose they'll end up calling them in journalism starts to happen at the same time as you get a massive low pressure system and a tropical storm of some kind in the same area. I can imagine what that would do. That's right, let's hope that doesn't happen. Yeah, exactly, all right, very interesting stuff and you can actually look up that paper. I think it's available through NASA and it's widely published, so it shouldn't be difficult to find. By the bye. Fred I used to live in Mackay in North Queensland. Julie and I have moved up there just after we got married. Now they have king tides, they have playing fields around some of the beaches there and quite often they'll go a couple of food underwater when they have big tide. And the real interesting thing that they've done in MacKaye to try and alleviate some of these title surges is that they have built channels in the city that when you get a big tide comes in, the channels fill up so the land doesn't go under. We used to live in a house that had these channels behind them and it sometimes was full to the brim of seed water and then six hours later it was empty. It was fascinating, quite fascinating as well. That's how some places, especially because it moves so fast that when the tides going out, that water actually goes in a rush. And it's a different world up there. I mean I grew up around the Newcastle area where the tides were pretty mild. Mega would be the word, and to be the same in Sydney. But up in Mackay you can actually walk with the incoming tide. Oh it's really fascinating. Yeah, very slow walking pace, but it came in that fast, and I know there are other parts of the world where it actually comes in like a wave. So yeah, it's really I find that kind of influence of things like the moon on our water ways here just quite intriguing. I do find it amazing, and I've witnessed some pretty amazing tides and king tides over the years too. You are listening to the Space Nuts podcast with Andrew Dunkley and the good Professor Fred Watson Spacemuts. Hello, space Nutters. I'm Anna, the host of the Astronomy Daily podcast, and I'm here to share a couple of the stories we've been following this week as special bit extra for this holiday edition. Of space nuts. Today, we've got some heartwarming holiday cheer from the International Space Station and an exciting discovery about a galaxy that looks remarkably like our own Milky Way in its youth. So let's kick things off with a story befitting the season. The International Space Station is truly embracing the holiday spirit this year, with the crew sending down a delightful video message from their orbital home. Picture this, floating candy canes, and even a creative snowman made from stowage bags decorating their space sanctuary two hundred and sixty miles above Earth. Commander Sunita Williams sporting festive reindeer antlers, gathered with NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore, Don Pettitt, and Nick Haig, along with their Russian colleagues alexey Ovchinin, even Wagner and Alexander Gorbunov. To share their unique celebration. While being away from their earthbound families during the holidays might seem challenging, the crew has created their own special festivities aboard the station. They've transformed their orbital outpost into a cozy holiday haven, complete with a small artificial Christmas tree adorned with ornaments featuring photos of their loved ones. The ground teams have made sure our space explorers won't miss out on holiday treats, preparing special festive meals for the crew. As Don Pettitt enthusiastically shared, they're all set for quite a feast up there. It's particularly touching to note that they're not alone in their holiday duty. Ground crews across the globe are also spending their holidays ensuring our astronaut's mission continues smoothly. It's a reminder of the dedication and sacrifice that keeps our space program running even during the festive season. Now, let me tell you about an absolutely fascinating discovery that's got the astronomy world buzzing. The James Webb Space Telescope has just captured images of what we might call our galaxy's baby photos. Except these aren't actually of the Milky Way, but rather its ancient twin. Scientists have nicknamed this celestial gem the Firefly Sparkle, and it's giving us an unprecedented glimpse into our cosmic past. This remarkable galaxy came into being just six hundred million years after the Big Bang, which in cosmic terms is like looking at the universe in its infancy. What makes this discovery particularly special is that it features ten distinct star clusters, each one shimmering like a firefly on a summer night. These clusters formed at different times, creating a structure that mirrors what astronomers believe our own Milky Way looked like in its early days. The Wellesley College team behind this discovery couldn't have asked for better images. The galaxy appears wrapped in a delicate, faint arc, and its mass matches what scientists estimate the Milky Ways would have been at the same stage of development. This is incredibly rare. Most galaxies we've spotted from this early period are actually much more massive than our own was at that time. This discovery is like finding a photo album of our galaxy's childhood, giving us a unique opportunity to understand how our cosmic home came to be. The stunning detail captured by the web telescope shows us various phases of star formation happening simultaneously, painting a picture of a dynamic, evolving system that's helping us piece together the story of galaxy formation in the early universe. The most remarkable aspect of this discovery lies in the numbers. When astronomers measured the firefly sparkles mass, they found something extraordinary. It perfectly matches what we believe our own Milky Way weide during its formative years. This is a cosmic coincidence that's giving scientists unprecedented insights into our galactic history. Think of it as finding your exact genetic twin, someone who not only looks like you, but shares your precise genetic makeup. It's essentially what we've found here in space. While other galaxies we've observed from this early period tend to be much larger, the firefly Sparkle is giving us a precise mirror image of our galaxy's youth. This discovery opens up exciting new possibilities for understanding how galaxies like our own come together. By studying the Firefly Sparkle in detail, astronomers can now observe in real time the processes that shaped our cosmic neighborhood billions of years ago. It's like having a window into our own past, allowing us to watch as stars form, clusters develop, and the basic structure of a galaxy takes shape. The level of detail we can see in this ancient galaxy is unprecedented. Thanks to the incredible capabilities of the James Web Space Telescope, scientists can now examine everything from individual star clusters to the overall galactic structure, providing valuable data that will help refine our models of galaxy formation and evolution. That's all for today's short news update. I've been your host, Anna, and I must say sharing these fascinating stories about holiday celebrations in space and ancient galaxy discoveries has been absolutely thrilling. Whether it's astronauts creating festive memories aboard the iss or groundbreaking discoveries about our galaxies, cosmic twin the universe never ceases to amaze us. If you're hungry for more space and astronomy updates, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and visit our website at Astronomy Daily dot io, where we bring you fresh cosmicdiscoveries every single day until next time. Keep looking up and stay curious about the wonders above us. At Face Nuts, you'll be listening to this Spice Nuts podcast available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, oh your favorite podcast player. You can also stream on demand at bides dot com. This has been another quantity podcast production from nights dot com