WEBVTT

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Heidi Campo: Welcome back to another episode of space

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nuts.

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Generic: 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.

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10, 9. Ignition

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sequence start. Space nuts. 5, 4, 3,

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2. 1. 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4,

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3, 2, 1. Space nuts. Astronauts

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report. It feels good.

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Heidi Campo: This will be a Q A episode where you, the

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listeners, have written in your questions and

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we will answer them for you.

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I am your host, Heidi Campo, joining you

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for possibly my last episode.

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We don't know quite yet. Andrew might be back

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next week, but if he's not, then

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I'll be back and I will say goodbye again.

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But until then, we still have, um, for now

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and the foreseeable future, we have our

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beloved professor Fred Watson, astronomer at

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large. How are you doing, Fred?

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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, good to see you again, Heidi, as

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always. And, um, yes, this could be the

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longest goodbye ever. Couldn't it really? It

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could go on for weeks.

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Heidi Campo: It's like when you, uh, are parting ways with

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someone, you say goodbye and then you realize

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you're walking the same direction.

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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I know. Yeah. I do that

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all the time.

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Heidi Campo: And then I never quite know. It's like, well,

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do I keep talking to them? Do I say goodbye

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again? Do I pretend they're not there?

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I usually end up commentating and narrating

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the whole thing to make it more awkward.

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Um, well, anyways, let's just jump into

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our questions because you guys have some

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really fantastic questions, as always, which

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we appreciate. Our first question of the

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evening is a written question from John

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Kerr. And John says,

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hey, space nutters. This dilemma is driving

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me nuts. If the moon's gravitational

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pull has such an effect on our Ocean's

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tides, for example, a, uh, 30 centimeter

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rise in tidal waters twice a day, that's a

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lift of 300 kg worth of water per

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meter square. Why doesn't the moon's gravity

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affect us as drastically as the

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oceans? I will sleep better once resolved

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with. Thanks.

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Oh, so I have so much. I have so much. I feel

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like I could say about this one too. But

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please get Fred.

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Professor Fred Watson: You might give a better answer than me,

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Heidi. Um,

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so it. Yes, well, it does. The

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moon's gravity does affect us as drastically

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as the oceans because we go up and down with

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the oceans. Uh, in fact, the land itself

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goes up and down slightly. If I remember.

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It's about a foot or something. Oceans

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sometimes go, uh, much, much more

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than that. Um, that 30 centimeter that

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John mentions. Uh, you know, sometimes it's

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many, many meters. So what's, um,

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happening here? It's. The critical

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feature of tides is that they

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are caused because of the

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difference in the gravitational pull

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of a body like the moon. And let's just think

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about the moon and the Earth. Uh,

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it's a difference between the moon's pull on

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one side of the earth and the other side

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of the Earth. So tides are all about

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the difference in the gravitational pull of

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an object, uh, across the diameter of

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another object, a big object, and that's the

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Earth. And so, um, the reason why our

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bodies don't stretch and shrink is that we're

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only, you know, we're only a couple of meters

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tall. Uh, actually my son's a two meters

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tall, but that's quite tall. All right, one

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and a half meters tall. But we're certainly

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not, uh, tens of thousands of kilometers,

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uh, which is what you need for the

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gravitational effect to be noticeable,

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um, as it is with the ocean tides. So

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we don't get stretched and um,

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shrunk. We would if we were near a black

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hole. That's the principle of

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spaghettification. It's when your feet feel a

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higher gravitational pull than your head head

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and you get turned into spaghetti. Uh, that's

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a uh, tidal effect, uh, an extreme

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tidal effect. But um, you need

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something very peculiar like a black hole to

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notice that. So for, ah, an

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object like the moon, we simply just go up

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and down with the oceans. If we're on the

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ocean, we go up and down with the land if

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we're on the land. But we don't get stretched

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and shrunk because we're too small.

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I hope he's Jonas. I hope you sleep better

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after that.

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Heidi Campo: Well, maybe I'll scare him because I was

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gonna say, but it does affect us

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a little bit. Not like the oceans at all.

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But the human body is roughly

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60% water and every cell in our body is

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roughly 70 to 80% water. Now

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what I'm about to say next is not something

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I'm looking at a science review for. It's

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more anecdotal. But, um,

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nurses will all stay like often

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say that there is way more um,

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emergency room activity on a full moon.

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Police officers will say that people are

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crazier on a full moon. And there's a lot

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of lore around women's cycles

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aligning, ah, with moon cycles. Um,

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more women go into labor and give birth

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around the moon cycles. And

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historically there is a lot of

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um, I guess stories

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about personality around moons. You

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think of werewolf stories. So humans do. We

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are affected by the moon to some degree. And

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that would be an interesting, probably

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further research. And I'm sure there's whole

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departments dedicated to the

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psychobiological effects of humans and the

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moon. But it is interesting. So no we're not

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affected like the oceans but there is

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some, something to that.

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Professor Fred Watson: Absolutely. Yeah. And you, you, you're quite

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right. You know this natural cycles that

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align with um, with the moon and,

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and it's not just humans as well with things

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like coral spawning that's um, very much tied

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to lunar phases. Uh and some of that's

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not very well understood. Uh, but uh, I think

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the thrust of, of John's question is

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why, why aren't we being stretched and shrunk

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like the oceans are? Uh, perhaps I've got it

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wrong. But anyway that's the answer. Um, and

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I agree.

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Ben: Space nuts.

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Heidi Campo: Our next question is an audio

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question from Ben. Uh, with our

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audio questions. We like to cue those up so

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you the listeners can hear their question as

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well. I'm just going to give Fred a second to

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get his question ready as well and we are

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going to play Ben's question for you now.

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Ben: Hey guys, uh, it is Ben.

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Um, American, living in Mexico.

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Um, thanks for answering my last question

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about how observatories interrupt

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their observing schedules to deal with

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transient events. And I've just got a follow

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up question. Are there any,

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any um, scheduled observing

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things that uh, might be immune to these

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sorts of interruptions? Um,

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I know sometimes uh, there are time sensitive

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observations of uh, like

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transits or something um, that

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astronomers use to determine shapes of ah,

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objects and stuff like that that uh, need to

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occur at a specific time. So I was thinking

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maybe those are something that wouldn't be

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interrupted. Um, but yeah, that's

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my question. Thanks, loving the show.

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Voice Over Guy: Bye.

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Professor Fred Watson: That's a great question from Ben. Uh, and

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Ben's absolutely right and he's actually

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um, highlighted at least one of the uh,

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the reasons why you wouldn't interrupt

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observ. So um, his original question

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was about what we might call target

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of opportunity observations where uh,

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an observer on the telescope would

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stand aside if there was something

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like a supernova explosion, uh, that

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needed the same instrument uh to

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observe it to give us something that was only

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going to last for a very short time. And that

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happens a lot. Um, the, the,

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perhaps the best known of those was back

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in 1987 which I remember very well when

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that was the last time a naked eye

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supernova uh, went off in our skies

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down here in the southern hemisphere. It was

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in the Large Magellanic Cloud, our nearest

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uh, dwarf large dwarf galaxy.

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Uh, it was visible to the unaided eye first

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for 400 years. Uh and of course

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the Telescope, our telescope was only 10

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years old then. It was state of the art and

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pretty well everything was pushed off for

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observations of this, of this object.

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Um, but um, it

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is usually um, you

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know, it's not usually uh,

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an event, uh, where there will

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be a conflict between the scheduled

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observer and the person who was

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requiring the target of opportunity

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observations. It's uh, usually the

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scheduled observer would have uh, uh,

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had an understanding at the outset that

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uh, they might need to stand by and um,

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let somebody else take over the telescope for

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the purpose of whatever their observations

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are. However, uh, Ben's

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absolutely right. There are some observations

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which are scheduled which themselves are time

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critical. And so you would rule

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out the telescope being taken over

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uh, for those events. Uh, one I was

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involved with, um, because I was astronomer

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in charge of the telescope at the time. And

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this is probably 10 years ago there was an

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occultation of Pluto.

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Um, so what that means is

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uh, actually it was an occultation of a star

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by Pluto. What that means is Pluto passed in

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front of a distant star, uh, and

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we could observe the brightness of the star.

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And what we wanted to do was

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look uh, at the way the star's

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light um, diminished uh, as

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it passed through Pluto's atmosphere. This

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actually it was before um, New Horizons

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flew by Pluto in 2015.

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So we didn't really know much about Pluto's

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atmosphere. It's very thin, very tenuous. But

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the observations that were made actually

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allowed us to um, you know, form

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details of it. In particular that it's quite

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layered. It's not a smooth, smoothly changing

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distribution. So that was very much a time

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critical observation. And you would not get

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uh, even if there'd been a bright supernova

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uh, in the sky that night, it probably would

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not have taken over the telescope. I think it

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would have, uh, the occultation

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by uh, Pluto would have been, would have been

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the thing. And as uh, exactly as Ben says,

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occultations are when an object passes in

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front of a star usually or another object.

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Uh, but it's a way of allowing us to work out

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the shapes of asteroids and things of that

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sort if they pass in front of a star. So

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that's really quite, quite important

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observations and very much time critical in

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themselves. So you wouldn't want them to be

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taken over by others. But it's a great

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question.

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Heidi Campo: It was a really interesting one. Yeah, it

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kind of gives us the inner workings of

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astronomy.

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Our next question, um, I'm actually going to

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read two questions because they are

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similar, but we want to get both

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questions perspectives. So the first one

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we're going to read is from David and

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David says hello Heidi and Fred. My

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question is regarding meteor showers and why

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we keep seeing them annually. If meteor

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showers such as Persidius occur

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when the Earth passes through the debris left

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behind by comets as they orbit the

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sun, what prevents the Earth from clearing

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the debris from our orbital path after

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the first pass, leaving our orbit free of

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debris until the next comet pass, uh, uh,

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next comet comes past. Cheers

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Dave. And then we have

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Brian with his question which is similar.

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And then Brian says, can you explain the

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orbital dynamics associated with annual

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meteor showers? We orbit the sun, but

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the whole solar system is rotating around the

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Milky Way, which itself is moving. So

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is the comet trail in a static stripe of

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debris which we bisect on the same

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point in our orbit total in our orbit each

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year or is it in the orbit

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of the sun or a galactic

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center or other? If it's in our

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solar orbit, why do we catch up with it? And

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why don't we effectively leave a hole in the

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debris diminishing the meteors every year

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from the dark state, uh, from the dark

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stars. North Yorkshire Moons

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National Park.

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Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, the national, It's North Yorkshire, um,

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Moors National Park. It's a place I know well

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in fact, uh, in the north of England and

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they do have dark sky, dark stars. Uh, this

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is from Brian there. I wonder whether Brian

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knows my friend Paul Cass who also works at

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the North Yorkshire Moors Dark Sky

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Park. Anyway, that's a different uh, aspect

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of all this Heidi. Um, and I might mention

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that um, they've uh. Dave who

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had.

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The other question was from, from Inverell

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here in New South Wales. So a question from

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the UK and a question from Australia, both

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effectively asking the same thing which I

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thought was uh, worth while bringing

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these two people together. So yes,

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the, the bottom line is, and you've got to

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sort of think of it in three dimensions, um,

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it is to do with the orbits of

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comets. Uh, a uh, comet

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moves in a usually a very elongated

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orbit. Um, and the sun is um, one

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end of um, uh, passes close to

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the sun and then disappears into the depths

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of the solar system. Uh, when it gets near

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the sun, uh, the comet starts

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basically projecting dust, uh,

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and that dust trail remains within

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the comet's orbit. And so those dust

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particles are sort of moving with the

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comet. They're um, moving in the orbit as

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well. But they smear out because they've got

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their own uh, motion. And so

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essentially ah, a comet leaves a trail of

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dust exactly in its orbit and

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if that orbit intersects the Earth's orbit,

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then the Earth will pass through the trail of

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dust. And that's exactly what it does. And

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when that happens, that's when we get a

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meteor shower. But the reason why,

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um, you know, it doesn't soak up all the dust

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as it goes through is because that dust

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itself is moving. Uh, and, um,

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it's not just a single dust cloud that you're

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punching a hole in. The dust is a stream of

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stuff that's moving through space with the

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same velocity, more or less as the comet had.

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Uh, and so what you've got is a region of

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space that's rich in dust, but it's being

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replenished, um, by the motion of the

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particles. So, yes, the Earth plows through,

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uh, doesn't really make a hole in it because,

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you know, we only sweep up,

351
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um, 12,000 km diameter

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worth of it, because that's the Earth's

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diameter. Um, and the dust stream might

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be many, uh, tens of thousands

355
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and perhaps even millions of kilometers, uh,

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wide. Maybe not millions, but certainly

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tens, hundreds of thousands, possibly.

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So you've got a wide trail of dust that is

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a reservoir for the Earth to

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sweep up and see the meteor showers. So

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it's constantly being replenish. That's the

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bottom line. Uh, and hopefully that's the

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answer to both those gentlemen's questions.

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Voice Over Guy: Oh.

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Heidi Campo: Ah, that is fantastic, Fred.

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Generic: Okay, we checked all four systems, and.

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Heidi Campo: Being with a girl, space nuts, I'm getting

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sad.

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I'm gonna do my last question now. Unless.

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Unless I'm back next week. We will see.

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So backstory for. For um, those of you who

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might be new listeners, our regular host,

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Andrew. He's been on a cruise around the

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00:16:07.900 --> 00:16:10.840
world and he's back now, but he

375
00:16:10.840 --> 00:16:13.230
has quite the conundrum. Uh,

376
00:16:14.040 --> 00:16:16.000
getting settled back in. We'll let him tell

377
00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:18.720
you all that story and him and Fred get

378
00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:21.400
caught up when. When he is back. But he's had

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00:16:21.400 --> 00:16:22.520
quite an exciting time.

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All right, so our last question is. Excuse

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00:16:25.960 --> 00:16:28.920
me. An audio question from Lou.

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Voice Over Guy: Hello, Heidi, and, um, Fred. My name is Noah

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00:16:31.720 --> 00:16:34.440
from Manchester, England. I'm asking

384
00:16:34.520 --> 00:16:36.780
question about the Goldilocks Zone. The

385
00:16:36.860 --> 00:16:39.780
Goldilocks Zone is only habitable for

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life on, uh, Earth. For estrus rescues,

387
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however, they might need to exist at the very

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edge of the solar system or at the very

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center of it. Is the Goldilocks Zone nearly

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00:16:49.860 --> 00:16:52.220
compatible for all life in the universe? Love

391
00:16:52.220 --> 00:16:53.980
the podcast. Hope you keep making more.

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00:16:54.460 --> 00:16:57.060
Professor Fred Watson: Lovely question from Lou. Um, Manchester,

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00:16:57.060 --> 00:16:59.300
again, a place I know well. I grew up not

394
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very far from Manchester in the north of

395
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England. So this has been a bit of, a, bit of

396
00:17:03.820 --> 00:17:06.649
a nostalgia segment for me. Um, but the

397
00:17:06.649 --> 00:17:09.449
great question, uh, you know, is the, is

398
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the Goldilocks Zone applicable to all

399
00:17:12.649 --> 00:17:15.609
extraterrestrial life? And I think the answer

400
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is no. Uh, because

401
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we, when we talk about the Goldilocks Zone,

402
00:17:21.889 --> 00:17:24.849
it's that region surrounding a star where

403
00:17:24.849 --> 00:17:27.249
the temperature is not too hot and it's not

404
00:17:27.249 --> 00:17:29.769
too cold, but it's just right for, for life

405
00:17:29.769 --> 00:17:32.209
to exist. It's why it's called the Goldilocks

406
00:17:32.209 --> 00:17:33.969
Zone. I've got a feeling it was a colleague

407
00:17:33.969 --> 00:17:36.169
of mine who coined that expression as well. A

408
00:17:36.169 --> 00:17:38.990
long, long, um, uh,

409
00:17:39.750 --> 00:17:41.830
it relies on the fact

410
00:17:42.550 --> 00:17:45.550
that we are, ah, beings. In

411
00:17:45.550 --> 00:17:47.430
fact, all life on Earth is

412
00:17:47.790 --> 00:17:50.790
uh, based uh, on water. We use water

413
00:17:51.430 --> 00:17:53.970
as our working fluid. Uh,

414
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as you mentioned, um, in our question on

415
00:17:57.190 --> 00:18:00.030
tides, Heidi, most of our bodies are made of

416
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water. Uh, and the same is

417
00:18:02.870 --> 00:18:05.670
true of most living organisms. Uh, water

418
00:18:05.670 --> 00:18:08.430
is a large part of it. And so

419
00:18:08.670 --> 00:18:11.470
liquid, uh, water is for us,

420
00:18:12.130 --> 00:18:12.990
uh, the,

421
00:18:14.670 --> 00:18:17.310
perhaps the strongest feature that

422
00:18:18.210 --> 00:18:20.590
um, might be used

423
00:18:22.110 --> 00:18:24.910
as an indicator of where life might form. If

424
00:18:24.910 --> 00:18:27.150
you've got water, maybe you will have life.

425
00:18:27.870 --> 00:18:29.990
That's always been the mantra. Follow the

426
00:18:29.990 --> 00:18:32.550
water. Um, so the

427
00:18:32.550 --> 00:18:35.030
Goldilocks Zone is where you could put a

428
00:18:35.030 --> 00:18:37.150
planet and it would be capable of having

429
00:18:37.150 --> 00:18:39.870
liquid water on its surface. Not frozen, not

430
00:18:39.870 --> 00:18:42.510
vapor, but liquid, which is what we need.

431
00:18:42.990 --> 00:18:45.950
So it's very specific is the Goldilocks Zone

432
00:18:45.950 --> 00:18:48.670
to um, life forms that are like

433
00:18:48.670 --> 00:18:51.470
ourselves, that are based on water and.

434
00:18:51.550 --> 00:18:53.830
Yeah, well, maybe if there is life anywhere

435
00:18:53.830 --> 00:18:55.870
else in the universe, it will be based on

436
00:18:55.870 --> 00:18:58.230
water. But there are other possibilities as

437
00:18:58.230 --> 00:19:00.230
well. And people have wondered whether

438
00:19:00.550 --> 00:19:02.870
perhaps the season lakes of Titan,

439
00:19:03.430 --> 00:19:06.430
one of Saturn's moons, uh, whether. Which

440
00:19:06.430 --> 00:19:08.750
are made of liquid ethane and methane,

441
00:19:08.750 --> 00:19:11.030
whether they might have, uh, living

442
00:19:11.430 --> 00:19:13.510
creatures in them that rely on those

443
00:19:13.990 --> 00:19:16.710
supercooled liquids as their working fluid.

444
00:19:16.710 --> 00:19:18.990
We don't know. We've not seen any evidence of

445
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that. But it is possible. And so if that was

446
00:19:21.710 --> 00:19:23.910
the case, then you'd be looking at entirely

447
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different type of Goldilocks Zone. If

448
00:19:26.580 --> 00:19:28.580
liquid natural gas was what you needed,

449
00:19:29.560 --> 00:19:32.060
uh, for these creatures, uh, then your

450
00:19:32.060 --> 00:19:34.340
Goldilocks Zone will be a very different one

451
00:19:34.580 --> 00:19:36.780
from the one that we have. It will be much

452
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further from your parent star. Uh, so

453
00:19:38.940 --> 00:19:41.060
Goldilocks Zones are not universal. They're

454
00:19:41.060 --> 00:19:43.780
not, um, kind uh, of, you know, common

455
00:19:44.100 --> 00:19:47.020
to all species because

456
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we don't know enough about what other species

457
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might be like. But it's a good start. That's

458
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why we look at the Goldilocks Zone with

459
00:19:54.060 --> 00:19:56.840
interest because the only life forms that we

460
00:19:56.840 --> 00:19:59.800
know use water. Uh, and Goldilocks

461
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Zone is where water might exist. So that's

462
00:20:02.080 --> 00:20:02.880
why we look there.

463
00:20:04.080 --> 00:20:06.680
Heidi Campo: Fred, have you ever seen that TV show, I

464
00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:09.120
think it's on Netflix or Amazon, called

465
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Alien Worlds, where they. They break

466
00:20:12.040 --> 00:20:14.440
down scientifically the conditions that would

467
00:20:14.440 --> 00:20:16.360
be needed for. For different life on

468
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different planets. Then they hypothetically

469
00:20:18.800 --> 00:20:21.720
come up with a planet that's a

470
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certain way. Have you seen it?

471
00:20:23.340 --> 00:20:25.070
Professor Fred Watson: M. I haven't, but it sounds like one that I

472
00:20:25.070 --> 00:20:25.750
ought to see.

473
00:20:26.310 --> 00:20:28.990
Heidi Campo: It's very interesting. And that might be one

474
00:20:28.990 --> 00:20:30.990
that Lou's interested in, because they come

475
00:20:30.990 --> 00:20:33.390
up with four hypothetical planets. One of

476
00:20:33.390 --> 00:20:35.790
them's a jungle, one of them's a desert. One

477
00:20:35.790 --> 00:20:38.430
of them is, um, the

478
00:20:38.430 --> 00:20:41.430
atmosphere is so dense that it's

479
00:20:41.430 --> 00:20:44.350
almost like water. So there's all these

480
00:20:44.350 --> 00:20:47.310
animals that look marine like, but they are

481
00:20:47.310 --> 00:20:49.870
like birds. And it's very cool just to play

482
00:20:49.870 --> 00:20:52.790
around because they use real physics and then

483
00:20:52.790 --> 00:20:54.630
talk about the hypothetics. It's kind of fun.

484
00:20:54.770 --> 00:20:56.330
Then I won't tell you about the last planet,

485
00:20:56.330 --> 00:20:58.410
because it's kind of a. It's a fun surprise.

486
00:20:58.410 --> 00:21:00.450
It's a fun surprise planet. It's not Earth.

487
00:21:00.530 --> 00:21:03.330
It's not Earth. Um, it's a very

488
00:21:03.330 --> 00:21:06.330
interesting hypothetical planet. Um, but I do

489
00:21:06.330 --> 00:21:07.250
recommend that show.

490
00:21:08.130 --> 00:21:10.689
Professor Fred Watson: Sounds great. I'll check it out. Sounds,

491
00:21:10.689 --> 00:21:11.250
Heidi.

492
00:21:11.330 --> 00:21:12.370
Heidi Campo: Yeah, it's a good one.

493
00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:15.970
Um, well, I guess that's it for our Q

494
00:21:15.970 --> 00:21:18.290
and A episode. So I just want to say, if this

495
00:21:18.290 --> 00:21:20.730
is my last episode, that it has been an

496
00:21:20.730 --> 00:21:23.130
absolute pleasure and delight being on here.

497
00:21:23.130 --> 00:21:25.690
Thank you all for your wonderful and kind

498
00:21:25.690 --> 00:21:27.990
questions. Fred, thank you for having me. If

499
00:21:27.990 --> 00:21:29.830
y' all want to stay in touch, you can follow

500
00:21:29.830 --> 00:21:32.710
me on LinkedIn. My. It's just my name, Heidi

501
00:21:32.710 --> 00:21:35.710
Campo, which is C, A, M, M, P, O.

502
00:21:35.710 --> 00:21:37.910
And then I think it's on. There is comma, C

503
00:21:37.910 --> 00:21:40.270
S, C S, which is one of my certifications.

504
00:21:40.670 --> 00:21:43.590
That would be Comet sun, if we're spelling

505
00:21:43.590 --> 00:21:46.190
it phonetically. Comet son. Comet son. So,

506
00:21:46.190 --> 00:21:48.310
Heidi Campos, C.S.C.S. if you want to follow

507
00:21:48.310 --> 00:21:50.950
me on LinkedIn, I'm also on Instagram, but

508
00:21:50.950 --> 00:21:53.030
it's mostly just pictures of my dog and me

509
00:21:53.030 --> 00:21:55.230
talking about fitness stuff, which may not be

510
00:21:55.230 --> 00:21:57.960
everybody's cup of tea. Um, Fred,

511
00:21:57.960 --> 00:21:59.560
it's been a delight. Thank you.

512
00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:03.160
Professor Fred Watson: Oh, it's been a delight for me too, Heidi.

513
00:22:03.160 --> 00:22:06.040
And, um, I hope we do this again sometime.

514
00:22:06.120 --> 00:22:08.480
It might be next week, but. It might be next

515
00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:08.640
week.

516
00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:11.120
Heidi Campo: It might be next week. Yeah, we'll be in

517
00:22:11.120 --> 00:22:13.000
touch. And I'm. I'm always here if you need

518
00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:15.080
me. Um, till then,

519
00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:17.560
we'll catch, uh, you all next time.

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Professor Fred Watson: Take care.

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00:22:20.600 --> 00:22:23.400
Voice Over Guy: To the Space Nuts podcast, Mission complete

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00:22:23.400 --> 00:22:26.050
Eastern. Available at Apple, Apple Podcasts,

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00:22:26.050 --> 00:22:28.650
Spotify, iHeartRadio, or your

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00:22:28.650 --> 00:22:31.170
favorite podcast player. You can also stream

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00:22:31.170 --> 00:22:34.090
on demand at bitesz.com this. Has been

526
00:22:34.090 --> 00:22:36.450
another quality podcast production from

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00:22:36.450 --> 00:22:37.570
bitesz.com