Hi there, thanks for joining us. This is a Q and a edition
of Space Nuts. My name is Andrew Dunkley. Coming up, we're going
to be telling Pete he answered his question about space junk. I think we
kind of talked about that a bit in the previous episode. Philip wants to
know about gravity waves, Gego is asking about matter, and Beverly wants to
talk about seeing an eclipse. That's all coming up on this Q and a
edition of Space Nuts. Fifteen seconds in channel ten nine ignition siguench space nuts
ny or three two space nuts as when I re bought it. Neil's good
and he's here again. It's like he never left. Professor Fred, what's
an astronomer at La Cello? Fred? I do good to not see you
today since we see each other. Yeah, we're flying blind because something's chewing
up bandwidth and we thought, well, if we just turn the cameras off,
it might improve. But no, technology isn't it great? Now?
Fred? We might as well get stuck straight into this. I've got a
couple of text questions and a couple of audio questions, and being as clever
as I am, I have completely lost the questions. As we speak,
which is very unusual for me. So I'm going to switch things around and
we will play an audio question first up from Philip Old Fred Nun Philip bape
Here originally on Classical to Australia when I was a weird bout air never lost
the upset. Two things for your debt, so astly I wanted to give
a big show Gilmot, specially agencies who of course to putting old rocket up
the northern end of Australia. They're amazing and I wish them all the best
in their grand quest. Factly, I get the idea that gravity works by
masters attracting each other and exerting a pool like magnets do. But what the
heck are gravity waves made of? Then? That can't be made at white
book ons but just pushed things around you can they? Is it possible?
Despite what Nicholson and morally discovered, that there is indeed some kind of matrix
permeating every square micro into the universe that has gravity waves flowing through it,
just as waves on the ocean move through water until rising the dump swimmers on
the hedge at on thy Beach. If I'm right the I reckon, I
could have my Nobel Prize now I'd be happy to share it with you.
Bonny lads Ay, love the show and why not just keep recording extra shows
so we can be listening to you both century if I'm new cheers Philip.
I love the accent, by the way, that sounds great, but one
hundred years worth of episodes that did take us a little bit of work or
reckon, Fred, that's what it feels like already, and true have to
say yes, never mind a great question from Philip, and yes, lovely
accent. I thought I detected a little bit of Highland in there, as
well as the Glasgow, but anyway, that's a different story. Be in
a better position to pick up on that than me. Ireland. Scottish has
got a very distinctive sound to it, and there's just a few sounds in
Philip's accent there made me wonder anyway. Thank you very much for the question
though, And yes, Gilmour Space doing a great job gravitational waves. Philip,
you're kind of on the money. Really we accept that, we don't.
We no longer think of gravity as being forces between between massive objects.
That's what Newton thought, and it's actually very nearly the truth modeling it that
way makes it, you know, makes the calculations fit what we see in
space generally very well. But there's difficulties, which are what led Einstein back
in nineteen fifteen to propose his general theory of relativity, which says that actually
what's happening is a massive object distorts the space around it, and that distortion
is what we feel as gravity. So here's the Earth sitting in space,
a massive object. It's bending the space around it so that the space at
your feet has a slightly different shape from the space at your head, and
the effect of that is that you feel as though you're being pulled down.
It's an extraordinarily different way of looking at things from Newtont's but actually worked very
well, and in fact, we've never managed to find a flaw in the
theory of general relativity. And it's because of that distortion of space that you
can have gravity wave or gravitational wave, because space can distort. So it's
not entirely rigid. It's billions of times more rigid than steel. That's actually
incredibly rigid, but it's still malleable. It's still bendable by mass, and
hence its ability to transmit waves. And so in that regard, what you're
saying, Philip is it's not too far from the truth. Yes, because
and Marley experiment did show that there was no ether that would transmit light,
because that would have shown up. Had the space been permeated by an ether,
then you would have been able to see changes in the speed of light
depending on which way the Earth was going, you know, in regard to
which way the light is going, and those changes were never detected because they
don't exist. And that's because the speed of light is an absolute constant that
you know, doesn't need an ether to transmit. So the old idea of
an ether has now become what we would perhaps refer to as the fabric of
space, something which can actually bend. It is a matrix, as you
put it, that doesn't fill space. It's not something in space. It
just is space, and through that gravitational waves can travel. It's quite esoteric
stuff, and I think you're touching on some really deep questions here in terms
of the physics that are involved. But suffice it to say that space does
have a structure and that it can change if you put mass in it.
A few weeks ago we did discuss gravitational wave background in the universe. Is
that akin to what Philip was talking about or is that a completely different concept.
No, it's a consequence of what we're talking about. Yeah, that
you've got the gravitational wave background is exactly as you described it in that lovely
analogue that you presented of throwing a handful of pebbles into a pond. So
you've got waves. You know, every pebble has its own splash, and
you've got all these waves, you know, basically traveling across the surface of
the pond, and that would be a background to you know, if you
threw a rock in after that, there'd be a very big splash and lots
of big waves which will be kind of superimposed on that background of lower level
gravitational waves. And that's what the gravitational wave background is about. Okay,
Yeah, I love Phillip's question, not only for the accent, but he's
obviously been thinking hard about this particular situation and it's spawned some ideas that yeah,
he didn't miss the mark at all, really did he, Philip?
Your Nobel prizes in the post. It's we're happy to be happy to share
it with you. Too, thank you. Yes, absolutely, your name
can go first. Philip was your idea. I'm great to hear from you
and keep sending your questions into us. So I've got a text question Fred,
Hi, Fred, and Andrew. As with all questions submitters, I'm
a great fan of the podcast. In recent weeks, there's been multiple mentions
of space debris and dealing with it is by burning it up through attempted re
entry to Earth's atmosphere. This may well deal with most of the larger physical
pieces that could cause damage. However, presumably at least some of the component
elements of the junk don't suddenly cease to exist. I'm wondering if burning up
is really just another example of what I've heard Karl Krishlnitski say he was told
in his early steel meal days. The solution to pollution is dilution. As
you often say, space, even just our atmosphere, is really big.
But are we kidding ourselves to call burning up the final solution. That's Pete
from marmong point. I think Pete's sent questions in before. It is an
interesting problem. It is a subject to a lot of discussion globally how we
deal with space junk and the people who sends material into space are responsible for
it. These days, Jordi knows that, yes, and I yeah.
And there are times where space junk comes back to Earth it doesn't get burnt
up completely. There was a famous case in the last year or so where
a farmer down in the southern Highlands of New South Wales found a piece of
a SpaceX rocket. I think it was on his property. There's been all
sorts of bits and pieces popping up from time to time. It is a
problem, that's right. I think that was if I remember rightly, it
was parts of the service module of a Dragon capsule. If I remember rightly,
Oh yeah, m yes, but there was, you know, not
but roughly at the same time there was it's a huge fuel tan washed up
on the beach in Wa which came from an Indian space launch, so that's
where it was eventually traced back to. So, yes, you're right,
Andrew that. For the bigger objects that you know, maybe way more than
a few one hundred kilograms, they often will not burn up completely in the
atmosphere until you get debris falling to Earth, and most of it, most
of that is controlled. You can sort of control where the spacecraft is going
to hit the atmosphere, where the burn up will take place, and where
any debris might fall. And there is a particular spot in the Pacific Ocean,
the South Pacific Ocean, which it's got a name which I can't remember
at the moment, but it's the furthest point from land anywhere on the planet,
and at the bottom of that ocean, it's a very deep part of
the Pacific Ocean. There's a lot of space debris because that's where you know,
you try and if you've got something that you gonna is massive and there
is a risk that it will not all burn up in the atmosphere, that's
where you want to put it, so that you're far away as possible from
any likely damage. But so that's one part of the problem. But I
think what Pete's question is really aimed at is the stuff that does burn up,
you know, and for a small satellite's like a Starling satellite, which
is yes, it's a quarter of aton, but it's still relatively small that
will burn up completely in the atmosphere. And what happens is the materials of
which it's made are vaporized and they do hang around, and I think we
covered a story probably a few weeks ago, maybe a few months ago,
that basically amounted to the fact that atomic species have been detected in the upper
atmosphere which can only have come from the material of spacecraft. What it's saying
is that, yes, the solution to pollution is dilution, but that dilution
of the debris by being burned up and turned into vapor, that's not a
process that means it disappears. There's still evidence of stuff being around up there
in the upper atmosphere, and it's now in an atomic form rather than you
know, solid, solid objects, but we can still detect it. So
it's a good question that Pete raises. Yep, we are to some extent
polluting the upper atmosphere by the amount of re entering debris. Well, the
alternative is to just shoot it off into oblivion, I suppose. But yeah,
that's probably not as easy as it sounds, that's right, because then
you've got to, you know, reach the escape velocity of the Earth that's
eleven kilometers per second. What they do at geostationary orbits, So these are
the orbits of the geostationary satellites thirty six one thousand kilometers above the surface.
When they are no longer being used and regarded as a potential danger to other
geestationary satellites, they put them into what are called graveyard orbits. So these
are orbits that are pretty stable but a long way out of the way.
So it's doing exactly what you just suggested, shooting them off into oblivion.
You're putting them in an orbit that where it's in orbit around the Earth,
but it's not not going to do any damage down the track. And I
think that place in the Pacific that you were referring to is Point Nemo Okay,
which is twenty six hundred and eighty eight kilometers from the nearest land,
and it's the furthest point from anywhere in the world in terms of solid land.
It's at forty eight forty eight degrees fifty two point six minutes south one
hundred and twenty three degrees twenty three point six minutes west. If you want
to pinpoint it. Nearest land is Dulcey Island, which is part of the
Pitcan Group. Apparently there you go. Yeah, so if you need to
go looking for space junk, that's the spot. It is all right,
thank you, Pete. Love the question, and yes, the problem with
space junk continues. This is Space Nuts, not Space Junks. With Andrew
Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson. Let's take a quick break from the show to
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Now back to the show. Okay, we take a space Nuts now,
Fred another text question, Hello Fred and Andrew. This is Geargo from
Slovakia. My question is about the matter we have in our universe. If
I understand it correctly. All the matter we have is with us since the
Big Bang, but energy can be converted to matter, and with the expansion
of the universe, new energy, vacuum energy is being added to our universe.
Could this vacuum energy be converted into matter, thus creating matter that has
not been with us from the very beginning? Thank you in advance for your
longer version of no love your show ge goo. Oh, I love that
at least is confident. Maybe let's let's modify it slightly and make it perhaps
or perhaps not. H So we we have talked before about the process of
converting energy into matter. Ah we we we commonly convert matter into energy.
That's what happens in nuclear reactors. You're you know, you're turning the mass
of your uranium fuel or whatever it is, directly into energy, without needing
it to go through other processes chemical processes, for example. And so that's
that's where that equivalence come. Excuse me, it comes from equals mc squared
the tour are equivalent. There are only a few natural processes and we did
talk about them, and I can't remember what they were that work the other
way, and I think they only occur in very high intensity energy situations by
working the other way, I mean, converting energy directly into matter. There
are a few examples of it, but I can't remember what they are.
We did cover it, and I remember reading up about it. So you
know, the idea of the vacuum energy, the dark energy as we also
call it, turning into something solid. It's quite frightening. Actually, you
know, space is getting more and more rarefied, and so the vacuum energy
is not in any sense in a high energy situation where you might get this
process of energy being directly converted into matter. But it is an interesting question,
So I hope that's a long enough version of no go. I think
back in the sixties thread they looked into this problem of dark energy turning into
matter and decided that the only thing that dark energy could turn into was a
rolling pin, so usually in a domestic environment. Well, that's really that's
black energy. Isn't it very dangerous topic too? That one? It is.
Yeah, Sogo, the answer is no ish. No great question.
Thank you for it. It was a good question, and one more quick
one to finish off. This is a little bit behind the times, but
only because of me having to find files that got ditched by my computer without
my permission. It happens. This is Beverly. Hello, spetsnuts. This
is Beverly from College Station, Texas. I hope to be seeing my first
Total Selary clips very soon, and I'm beyond excited. I was wondering if
either or both of you had seen a Total Sulery clips. I would mind
sharing your experiences and maybe your thoughts, your feelings about seeing Natty clips,
and any insight you have. I really appreciate your podcasts and I listened to
it in the mornings when I walk. Thank you so much, have a
great day. Thank you, Beverly. A lovely question. I threw that
one in, Fred because I wanted to see if you could figure out how
many you've actually witnessed, because I know you've seen a few. I haven't
in person ever witnessed one. Never. Well, you should come with us
on one of our clips to us. Actually, you are you are going
to you are going to see one in twenty twenty eight. So yes,
yes, yes, indeed exactly. I don't have to go anywhere, I
just have to wait. But how many of you, saying Fred, I
think the April eighth eclipse, which is the one Beverly's talking about. She
was before April eight when she recorded that. I think that was the sixth.
In fact, I'm sure it was the sixth. One of them,
just one was clouded out, and that was the one in the Faroe Islands
where they get two hundred days of rain per year, and so we weren't
expecting big events. I did see just a little bit of the eclipse phenomena.
I saw something called Bailey's beads, which is where the Sun's discs shines
through the valleys between the mountains of the Moon. So I did see that
through binoculars, but it wasn't a crystal clear experience the one in Texas,
and we were probably not that far from Beverly. We were in a little
village called I think it was Bristol and British name, but it's not very
far from Fort Worth and Dallas. So we had a cloudy morning there and
the eclipse was sort of round about the middle of the day and Marley had
forecast she'd looked at all the best forecasts that said the sky will clear in
tanthony clips and during the period when you're leading up to the total eclipse,
which is as the Moon's disc gradually covers the disc of the Sun. It's
an extraordinary times sort of building tension and it's just like you know, it's
like a live show, Andrew done by the very best impresarios, where you
build up people's excitement and then there's a climax of a few minutes of the
Sun being blacked out completely. During that period when the Moon was gradually crossing
the disc of the Sun, we were seeing quite a lot of it through
holes in the cloud, but it was still basically cloudy. And then seconds
before totality, the sky completely cleared. It just cleared totally and we had
the most perfect view of the total eclipse that you could expect. And then
throughout the afternoon it was clear. It was sensational and just turning to what
bever Is asked about the you know, the emotional it is almost a spiritual
experience, if I can put it that way, Andrew, where you recognize
that something deep and profound is happening. You've got this exact alignment between your
spot on the Earth, and it's not there for everybody. It's only where
the Moon's shadow crosses passes across the Earth and the moonshadow is only typically one
hundred kilometers or so wide. You've got that alignment between your spot on the
Earth, the moon itself, and the Sun, and it's the geometry of
that that it just somehow breathtaking, that it gives you this unique experience of
a black disk surrounded by the corona of the Sun and sometimes, as we
saw on the eighth of April, Prominence's pink dots around the edge of the
Sun which are clouds of glowing hydrogen. So it is, Yes, it's
quite all inspiring. People burst into tears, you know, there's so much
emotion tied to it. Of that is just the build up as the you
know, as the thing gradually takes place, and you see all these interesting
phenomena as the sky gets darker. You see things called shadow buns, which
are little bunds of shade that race across the surface of the Earth caused by
turbulence in the upper atmosphere. It's the whole excuse me, a whole array
of different phenomena that's well worth watching for so, yes, very very rare.
Indeed. Yeah. The next total solar eclipse is the twelfth of August
twenty twenty six, which will start I would basically up in the northern Arctic
region, and then we'll move down across the Atlantic into southern Europe by the
look of it, and then the next one is the twenty twenty seven August,
and then ours in twenty twenty eight, the twenty second of July.
In fact, I'm just looking at the future map for total eclipses for it,
and this is an interesting phenomenon. There'll be two in a row that
will cross the will cross continental Australia and they will actually intersect around about southwest
Queensland, northwest New South Wales and probably northeast South Australia. So that particular
spot will get two in a row in twenty twenty eight and twenty thirty,
which will be very exciting. That'd be the place to go. Yeah,
there's actually five if you I think there's four more if you include the one
on the twenty third of April last year which was off the which just touched
the Exmouth, the coast at Exmouth in western Australia. Including that one,
there are five coming up in the next twenty years or so, I think
up to twenty thirty five. So quite right. They are really interesting.
They passed to across in an unusual way that is related to the sort of
cycles that determine how eclipses work, because you know, everything in the in
the Solar system is cyclic going round each other, so they do repeat in
a sort of complex way. Twenty twenty seven. Sorry, the one in
twenty twenty seven will intersect with the one in twenty thirty four, so there'll
be another place where you can go to the same place twice. But I
found the interesting one that also the twenty twenty seven eclipse will end where the
twenty twenty eight clips will begin. Oh that was interesting. Yeah, I
think it is a click phenomena. We're going to be in Gibraltar for the
twenty twenty six eclipse, I believe. Nice, So the southern tip of
southern tip of Spain if you're interested, Yes, yeah, it could be
the go. Yeah, I can see that one on the screen here.
That one's going to stretch out over the Arctic and then move down through the
Atlantic Ocean by the look of it, or that area anyway. But yeah,
a lot of them do start in the ocean. But that's just because
seventy five percent of the surfaces ocean. I suppose it's just the way it
works out exactly, but Beverly, yeah, I hope you've got great joy
out of witnessing your eclipse. I'm still waiting for my first one, so
one ahead of me. And don't forget to keep sending your questions in.
You can do that via our website, space nuts podcast dot com or space
nuts dot io. You can send text and audio questions via the AMA tab
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in your reviews via your favorite podcasting platform. Fred, we are done.
Thank you so much, great pleasure, Andrew always good to chat and thanks
for all the questions. Everybody wonderful. It's fabulous. We'll talk to you
soon. Fred Fred Watson, Astronomer at Large and Hugh in the studio is
doing what he does best and I don't know what that is, but thanks
anyway, Hugh, and from me Andrew Dunkley, thanks for your company on
this episode. Catch you on the next episode of Space Nuts soon. Bye
bye Spacenuts. You'll be listening to the Space Nuts podcast available at Apple Podcasts,
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