WEBVTT 1 00:00:03.399 --> 00:00:07.719 Welcome to Bedtime Astronomy. Explore the wonders of the cosmos 2 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:12.279 with our soothing Bedtime Astronomie podcast. Each episode offers a 3 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:16.320 gentle journey through the stars, planets, and beyond, perfect for 4 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:20.239 unwinding after a long day. Let's travel through the mysteries 5 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:22.440 of the universe as you drift off into a peaceful 6 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:23.800 slumber under the night sky. 7 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:28.679 I really want you to just take a moment right 8 00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:32.920 now and picture the moon. And I don't mean a 9 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:36.719 high resolution photograph from some astronomy textbook, but the actual 10 00:00:36.759 --> 00:00:38.960 moon you see when you step outside on a clear 11 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:40.079 night and just look up. 12 00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:42.679 Right, just that familiar glowing sphere we all. 13 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:45.560 Know exactly to the naked eye. It's just this well, 14 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:50.159 this glowing cratered ball. It's undeniably beautiful, but it also 15 00:00:50.200 --> 00:00:53.679 looks like a completely dead, dusty rock, just sort of 16 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:55.119 floating in the cold void. 17 00:00:55.479 --> 00:00:57.719 Yeah, and I mean humanity has grown up with that 18 00:00:57.799 --> 00:01:01.799 exact same image. Yeah, for tens of thousands of years, 19 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:04.920 we look up and we basically just see a monochrome desert. 20 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:07.400 We do. But okay, what if you could put on 21 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:09.280 a pair of magic glasses. What if the second you 22 00:01:09.319 --> 00:01:13.079 slip those glasses on that pale gray rock completely transformed. 23 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:15.159 Oh I love this analogy. It's like flipping a switch 24 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:15.799 on the universe. 25 00:01:15.959 --> 00:01:18.480 Right Suddenly you know you aren't looking at a lifeless 26 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:22.040 desert anymore. You're looking at this vibrant neon glowing map 27 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:25.400 of hidden chemical elements spreading all across the lunar surface. 28 00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:30.000 You'd see pockets of brilliant blues, sweeping streaks of radiant reds, 29 00:01:30.519 --> 00:01:32.359 deep pools of vivid greens. 30 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:35.480 Yeah, exactly, you would be seeing the actual chemical makeup 31 00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:38.480 of the Moon glowing in real time. It would completely 32 00:01:38.519 --> 00:01:41.400 rewrite our understanding of our closest celestial neighbor. 33 00:01:41.799 --> 00:01:45.400 It's an absolutely stunning visual to imagine it really is. 34 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:48.400 What is truly incredible about where we stand right now 35 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:53.359 in astrophysics is that we are no longer confined to 36 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:54.439 just imagining it. 37 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:55.519 We're building them. 38 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:59.239 Yes, we are actively building those magic glasses. 39 00:01:58.680 --> 00:02:01.719 And that is the massive breakthrough we are getting into 40 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:04.959 today because a team of researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University, 41 00:02:05.319 --> 00:02:09.319 specifically led by Ori Tida and Professor Yuchiro Izoe, have 42 00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:12.719 developed something that frankly feels like it belongs in a 43 00:02:12.759 --> 00:02:13.319 sci fi. 44 00:02:13.240 --> 00:02:15.639 Novel, it really does. It sounds like pure science. 45 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:18.840 Fiction, but it's real. They have created this highly compact 46 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:21.879 X ray telescope that is capable of giving humanity its 47 00:02:22.039 --> 00:02:26.240 very first complete, comprehensive chemical map of the lunar surface. 48 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:29.039 And we really need to establish the stakes here right away. 49 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:34.039 This effort. It's not about capturing prettier, more colorful pictures 50 00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:35.960 of the Moon to just hang in a gallery or 51 00:02:35.960 --> 00:02:37.199 put on a magazine. 52 00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:39.319 Cover, right, It's not just for the aesthetics. 53 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:41.919 Not at all. We are looking at a fundamental paradigm 54 00:02:41.960 --> 00:02:46.159 shift in space exploration. This specific technology is going to 55 00:02:46.199 --> 00:02:52.240 completely change how we understand the Moon's deep, violent geological history. 56 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:54.719 Which is fascinating on its own. But there's a practical 57 00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:55.560 side too, right. 58 00:02:55.520 --> 00:02:59.719 Oh, massively practical, perhaps even more importantly for our lifetime. 59 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:03.400 The data this telescope gathers is going to literally dictate 60 00:03:03.439 --> 00:03:06.759 the Moon's potential to support human life in the very 61 00:03:06.759 --> 00:03:07.280 near future. 62 00:03:07.319 --> 00:03:09.439 Okay, So let's unpack this a bit because whenever someone 63 00:03:09.479 --> 00:03:14.599 says X ray telescope, my mind immediately goes to these massive, 64 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:17.719 multi billion dollar orbital observatories. 65 00:03:17.719 --> 00:03:21.120 Oh sure, like Chandra or XMM Newton. Yeah, the giants. 66 00:03:21.319 --> 00:03:23.400 I'm picturing these instruments that are the size of a 67 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:26.520 school bus, requiring the largest rockets we have just to 68 00:03:26.520 --> 00:03:29.560 get them off the ground. How can a single university 69 00:03:29.560 --> 00:03:32.879 team be building something that maps the entire Moon? Are 70 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:35.639 we talking about sending a massive new space station into 71 00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:36.520 lunar orbit? 72 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:40.879 That is the crucial engineering hurdle that makes this breakthrough 73 00:03:41.240 --> 00:03:44.280 so significant. If you know anything about the history of 74 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:47.639 X ray astronomy, you know that traditional X ray telescopes 75 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:49.400 are notoriously massive. 76 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:50.159 They're huge. 77 00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:53.919 They are some of the heaviest, most cumbersome instruments humanity 78 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:57.560 is ever put into space. And there is a very specific, 79 00:03:57.759 --> 00:04:02.360 unforgiving physical reason for that bulk. You can't just shrink 80 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:03.000 them normally. 81 00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:05.400 Right. It has to do with how X rays behave 82 00:04:05.479 --> 00:04:08.120 compared to normal visible light, Because I know that if 83 00:04:08.120 --> 00:04:11.319 I take a standard telescope mirror like the kind you 84 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:13.439 might have in your backyard to look at Jupiter, and 85 00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:15.360 I try to point it at an X ray source, 86 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:16.360 it just doesn't work. 87 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:18.160 It doesn't work at all. It's useless. 88 00:04:18.279 --> 00:04:19.800 Why is that? Why doesn't it reflect? 89 00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:24.040 Because X rays are incredibly high energy photons They carry 90 00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:27.360 so much energy, and their wavelengths are so incredibly short 91 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:29.680 that if you fire an X ray at a standard 92 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:33.279 curved optical mirror, it will not bounce off the surface 93 00:04:33.319 --> 00:04:35.600 and focus into an eyepiece like normal light does. 94 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:37.720 So what does it do? Does it just break the mirror? 95 00:04:37.959 --> 00:04:41.040 Well, it will either be completely absorbed by the mirror's 96 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:43.759 material or it will just blast right through it, almost 97 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:44.879 like the mirror wasn't even there. 98 00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:48.079 Oh wow, So I'm imagining like trying to bounce a 99 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:50.879 tennis ball off a wall. A tennis ball bounces easily. 100 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:53.759 That's our visible light. But an X ray is like 101 00:04:53.879 --> 00:04:56.800 firing a high caliber bullet at a piece of tissue paper. 102 00:04:56.959 --> 00:05:00.439 That is a fantastic analogy. Yes, the tissue or doesn't 103 00:05:00.439 --> 00:05:02.879 stand a chance of deflecting that bullet. It just punches 104 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:03.879 a hole straight through. 105 00:05:04.040 --> 00:05:05.680 So how do you fix that? How do you catch 106 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:06.800 a bullet with a mirror. 107 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:11.040 Well, because of that penetrating power, astronomers in the mid 108 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:15.839 twentieth century had to completely reinvent how a telescope even works. 109 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:19.120 In order to capture X rays. They had to vent 110 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:21.240 something called grazing incidents. 111 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:23.199 Mirror the raising incidents. Okay, I think I know where 112 00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:25.079 this is going. But break down the physics for me. 113 00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:28.560 How do you force a high energy bullet to actually bounce? 114 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:31.759 You have to change the angle. Think about the angle 115 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:34.319 of attack. Imagine you're standing on the shore of a 116 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:37.560 completely calm lake. If you take a heavy stone and 117 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:40.040 throw it straight down into the water, what happens? 118 00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:43.560 It just violently breaks the surface and sinks immediately exactly. 119 00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:46.480 That is our X ray hitting a standard mirror head on. 120 00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:50.519 But if you take that exact same stone, crouch down 121 00:05:50.560 --> 00:05:53.560 low and throw it at a very shallow, almost parallel 122 00:05:53.560 --> 00:05:54.160 angle to the. 123 00:05:54.079 --> 00:05:56.759 Water, Oh, it skips. It skips across the surfer right. 124 00:05:56.800 --> 00:05:59.560 It skips Even though water is soft and the stone 125 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:03.079 is heavy. The extreme shallow angle forces the stone to 126 00:06:03.079 --> 00:06:07.480 deflect grazing incidence. Mirrors work on that exact same principle. 127 00:06:07.639 --> 00:06:10.040 So instead of a dish that faces the target directly, 128 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:12.439 like a satellite dish on a house, what does it 129 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:12.839 look like? 130 00:06:13.480 --> 00:06:17.160 X ray mirrors are shaped like long, hollow cylinders, and 131 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:19.680 they're often nested one inside the other, kind of like 132 00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:20.839 Russian nesting dolls. 133 00:06:21.079 --> 00:06:23.279 Wait, hollow cylinders, how does the light get in? 134 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:26.279 The incoming X rays enter the open top of the cylinder, 135 00:06:26.519 --> 00:06:28.639 and because the walls are angled, it's just a fraction 136 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:31.600 of a degree. The X rays skip off the ultra 137 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:34.800 smooth inside surface like the stone on the pond precisely. 138 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:38.319 They skip and skip, and they are slowly funneled down 139 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:40.959 a long tube until they hit a detector at the 140 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:41.480 far end. 141 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:44.439 I see the problem immediately, though. To skip an X 142 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:46.439 ray down a tube and actually bring it to a 143 00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:49.560 focused point, that too has to be incredibly long. 144 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:53.079 It has to be immensely long. The focal lengths required 145 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:56.560 to gently guide these high energy photons requires so much 146 00:06:56.600 --> 00:07:00.800 physical space, so the telescope ends up being ten, ten, fifteen, 147 00:07:00.959 --> 00:07:02.399 or even twenty meters long. 148 00:07:02.519 --> 00:07:04.319 That's the size of a building it is. 149 00:07:04.839 --> 00:07:07.160 And they are incredibly heavy due to the layers of 150 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:11.560 dense metal required to make those nested cylindrical mirrors, which 151 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:14.120 means they are astronomically expensive to launch. 152 00:07:14.879 --> 00:07:16.800 So if you want to put a massive X ray 153 00:07:16.839 --> 00:07:19.920 observatory into orbit around the Earth, you put it on 154 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:22.920 top of a heavy lip rocket, blast it into low 155 00:07:22.959 --> 00:07:24.639 Earth orbit, and you just leave it there. And we've 156 00:07:24.680 --> 00:07:25.079 done that. 157 00:07:25.160 --> 00:07:27.519 We have. It takes massive resources, but we do it. 158 00:07:27.879 --> 00:07:30.319 But sending something that huge all the way to the Moon. 159 00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:34.079 I mean, that's a completely different mathematical universe, isn't it. 160 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:37.759 It is an absolute logistical nightmare. Launching a massive payload 161 00:07:37.800 --> 00:07:41.000 from Earth's surface is hard enough. But pushing a school 162 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:44.000 bus sized instrument across the quarter million miles to. 163 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:46.120 The Moon, Yeah, that takes so much fuel. 164 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:49.000 And not just to get it there. You have to 165 00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:53.160 carry enough heavy rocket fuel to physically slow that massive 166 00:07:53.199 --> 00:07:55.759 object down once it arrives, so it doesn't just fly 167 00:07:55.959 --> 00:07:58.600 right past the Moon into deep space. Oh right, You 168 00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:02.480 have to hit the brakes exactly. The fuel requirements alone 169 00:08:02.519 --> 00:08:05.680 for lunar orbit insertion of traditional X ray observatory would 170 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:09.120 bankrupt most space agencies. It's just not feasible, which. 171 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:12.279 Brings us directly to the core of the Tokyo Metropolitan 172 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:17.519 University breakthrough. If traditional telescopes are heavy, long, and basically 173 00:08:17.560 --> 00:08:21.000 impossible to maneuver into a tight lunar orbit, what did 174 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:22.879 Touda and Eazoe actually build. 175 00:08:23.079 --> 00:08:27.199 They built a telescope that completely upends those traditional engineering constraints. 176 00:08:27.720 --> 00:08:30.800 The instrument they've designed is not weigh thousands of kilograms. 177 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:34.360 The entire sensor payload weighs less than ten kilogram. 178 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:36.080 Wall, I need to stop you their ten kilograms. 179 00:08:35.639 --> 00:08:37.159 Less than ten kilograms? Yes, this is. 180 00:08:37.240 --> 00:08:39.960 Roughly the weight of a medium sized dog, or like 181 00:08:40.559 --> 00:08:43.360 a couple of bags of groceries. How is it physically 182 00:08:43.399 --> 00:08:47.279 possible to replace a twenty meter long, multi ton orbital 183 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:49.840 observatory with something I could carry on too an airplane 184 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:50.720 as hand luggage. 185 00:08:50.759 --> 00:08:51.639 It sounds impossible. 186 00:08:51.639 --> 00:08:54.559 I know what is the catch here? Because you know 187 00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:57.440 in physics you can't shoot the rules. There is always 188 00:08:57.440 --> 00:08:57.879 a catch. 189 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:01.639 It's the exact right question to ask. You cannot cheat physics. 190 00:09:02.279 --> 00:09:06.080 The high energy nature of X rays hasn't magically changed. 191 00:09:06.759 --> 00:09:09.600 What is fascinating here is that the catch isn't a 192 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:12.799 loss of precision or some magical new element. 193 00:09:13.039 --> 00:09:14.200 So what is it? 194 00:09:14.200 --> 00:09:18.080 It is a brilliant, radical change in engineering strategy. And 195 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:20.360 to understand that strategy we actually have to look at 196 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:24.039 where this technology was born, because this ultra lightweight telescope 197 00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:26.120 was not originally invented to look at the Moon at all. 198 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:27.639 Really, what was it for? 199 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:31.240 It was initially developed to study Earth's magnetosphere. 200 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:34.799 So this entire lunar mapping project is actually a pivot 201 00:09:34.879 --> 00:09:36.159 from a totally different mission. 202 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:38.200 A magnificent opportunistic pivot. 203 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:38.679 Yes. 204 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:41.879 For years, researchers have been trying to figure out how 205 00:09:41.879 --> 00:09:46.039 to put highly sensitive, extremely lightweight X ray detectors into 206 00:09:46.200 --> 00:09:47.080 orbit around. 207 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:48.919 Earth to monitor what exactly. 208 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:51.200 A monitor how the violent solar wind interacts with our 209 00:09:51.240 --> 00:09:54.639 planet's magnetic shield. They needed an instrument that was nimble, 210 00:09:54.840 --> 00:09:57.200 something that could be launched cheaply in large clusters. 211 00:09:57.480 --> 00:10:00.320 Uh okay, So they needed something small, right. 212 00:10:00.279 --> 00:10:04.320 So material scientists and astrophysicists collaborated and they developed something 213 00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:06.200 called micropoor optics. 214 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:10.120 Micropoor optics, Okay, I'm guessing micromeans. We are shrinking those 215 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:14.000 giant skipping stones cylinders down, but how do you shrink 216 00:10:14.039 --> 00:10:16.120 a twenty meter telescope mirror? 217 00:10:16.519 --> 00:10:20.919 You basically replace those massive, heavy nested metal cylinders with 218 00:10:21.080 --> 00:10:25.480 incredibly thin, lightweight plates. Imagine a plate made of advanced 219 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:30.039 silicon or glass that is absolutely riddled with microscopic. 220 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:31.519 Holes like a sponge kind of. 221 00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:34.440 But much more structured. These aren't just random round holes 222 00:10:34.519 --> 00:10:38.639 drilled into a plate. They are perfectly structured microscopic square pores. 223 00:10:38.840 --> 00:10:41.519 I am struggling to visualize this a bit. Why square 224 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:43.720 pores and how small are we actually talking. 225 00:10:43.879 --> 00:10:46.360 We are talking about pores that are fractions of a 226 00:10:46.360 --> 00:10:49.840 millimeter wide, tiny, and the reason they are square is 227 00:10:49.879 --> 00:10:52.039 critical to the physics of focusing the X ray. 228 00:10:52.120 --> 00:10:54.159 How does the square shape help focus it? 229 00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:56.679 Well? When an X ray enters a microscopic square poor, 230 00:10:56.799 --> 00:10:59.720 it skips off the flat internal walls of that tiny tunnel. 231 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:02.799 By having a square geometry, the X ray can reflect 232 00:11:02.840 --> 00:11:05.279 off two adjacent walls in sequence. 233 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:07.440 So it hits like the top wall and then immediately 234 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:08.879 hits the sidewall exactly. 235 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:13.200 This double reflection inside the microscopic pore mimics the exact 236 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:16.960 same shallow grazing incidents funneling effect of the giant metal 237 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:18.320 cylinders we talked about earlier. 238 00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:21.919 Oh, but it accomplishes it in a fraction of the distance. 239 00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:24.759 Yes, you get the exact same skipping stone effect, but 240 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:26.720 shrunk down to the microscopic level. 241 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:30.360 So instead of one giant tube slowly funneling a photon 242 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:34.960 over twenty meters, you have millions of microscopic square tubes 243 00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:38.000 rapidly funneling millions of photons over a distance of just 244 00:11:38.039 --> 00:11:39.000 a few centimeters. 245 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:43.080 That is the exact mechanism. You're replacing brute force mass 246 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:47.240 with hyper engineer geometry. The X rays skip through these 247 00:11:47.320 --> 00:11:50.759 microscopic pores just like they do through the giant orbital observatories, 248 00:11:51.080 --> 00:11:53.120 but the whole apparatus is shrunk down. 249 00:11:53.080 --> 00:11:56.639 And so the weight drops from tons to kilograms. 250 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:58.840 Precisely from a school bus to a bag of groceries. 251 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:01.399 It sounds so Sima went to the evolution of computing. 252 00:12:01.399 --> 00:12:04.679 To me, like moving from those giant room size vacuum 253 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:07.519 tube computers of the nineteen fifties down to a modern 254 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:09.240 silicon microchip. 255 00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:12.039 That is a very solid parallel. You aren't changing the 256 00:12:12.039 --> 00:12:14.919 fundamental math of computing, or in this case, the physics 257 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:18.919 of X rays. You are just miniaturizing the physical architecture 258 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:19.960 that performs the task. 259 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:20.879 That's brilliant. 260 00:12:21.240 --> 00:12:24.919 And when the team at TMU, led by Toyta and Ezoi, 261 00:12:25.399 --> 00:12:28.879 look at the performance specifications of this micro poor technology, 262 00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:30.960 they realize something profound. 263 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:32.960 They realized it was perfect for. 264 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:36.080 The Moon exactly. They realized they were holding the perfect 265 00:12:36.159 --> 00:12:39.679 tool for a lunar orbital mission. But the brilliance of 266 00:12:39.720 --> 00:12:42.720 their proposal doesn't stop it just sending one of these 267 00:12:42.759 --> 00:12:44.000 small telescopes to the Moon. 268 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:46.399 What do you mean They're sending more than one. 269 00:12:46.279 --> 00:12:49.519 Because the individual units are so incredibly lightweight and small, 270 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:53.000 A single lunar orbiting satellite doesn't have to carry just 271 00:12:53.080 --> 00:12:55.559 one sensor. It can carry a grid of them. 272 00:12:55.879 --> 00:12:58.480 Oh, they're packing multiples onto one satellite. 273 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:02.480 Specifically, they have designed the system that utilizes a five 274 00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:06.799 y five array. That's twenty five individual micropoor X ray 275 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:11.559 telescopes all mounted together on a single lightweight orbital platform. 276 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:14.399 I love the elegance of this concept. If you have 277 00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:17.039 a ten kilogram sensor, you don't just celebrate that it's 278 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:19.759 light and launch one. You take advantage of that weight 279 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:22.240 savings to multiply your observational Pathwer. 280 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:24.039 Absolutely, it's incredibly efficient. 281 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:27.200 It immediately reminds me of the compound eye of a fly. 282 00:13:27.639 --> 00:13:30.200 Oh how so well, a human eye is essentially one 283 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:33.159 massive lens trying to take in a wide field of view. 284 00:13:33.639 --> 00:13:37.039 But a fly doesn't have the space or mass for 285 00:13:37.159 --> 00:13:41.120 a giant, heavy eye, so nature gave it thousands of tiny, 286 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:46.240 highly efficient individual lenses. Right omatidia, right, the little facets. Yeah, 287 00:13:46.279 --> 00:13:49.120 each one captures a tiny sliver of light, but when 288 00:13:49.159 --> 00:13:53.039 the fly's brain stitches all those slivers together, it gets 289 00:13:53.039 --> 00:13:57.159 this massive, wide angle, highly sensitive view of its entire environment. 290 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:01.200 The five x five array is basically a mechanical compound. 291 00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:03.679 Eye that analogy hits the nail right on the head. 292 00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:07.799 By utilizing a five y five array of micropoor telescopes, 293 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.159 the TMU team is exponentially compounding the power of the. 294 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:13.279 Instrument, because if you only had one, you'd just be 295 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:14.159 looking through a straw. 296 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:18.080 Exactly, if you only had one small telescope in lunar orbit, 297 00:14:18.679 --> 00:14:20.679 you w'ud be looking at a tiny pinprick of the 298 00:14:20.759 --> 00:14:24.320 lunar regolith at any given moment. You would take millennia 299 00:14:24.360 --> 00:14:25.440 to map the whole surface. 300 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:26.559 But with the array. 301 00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:30.480 With the array, you are sweeping a massive, wide net 302 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:34.919 across the regolith. As the satellite orbits, you dramatically increase 303 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:38.080 the coverage area and the overall speed of data collection. 304 00:14:38.360 --> 00:14:40.639 So the catch I asked about earlier really isn't a 305 00:14:40.679 --> 00:14:42.799 compromise in the quality of the science at all. It 306 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:45.799 is just a completely different engineering philosophy. 307 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:49.440 Precisely, instead of building one giant, heavy ducat to catch 308 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:53.200 X ray slowly, we are casting a wide net of tiny, 309 00:14:53.320 --> 00:14:55.480 hyper efficient buckets to catch them rapidly. 310 00:14:55.759 --> 00:14:59.679 We are utilizing a smart, distributed geometric design rather than 311 00:14:59.720 --> 00:15:02.559 brew force physical mass. I love that, but we have 312 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:05.080 to remember the design of the telescope array itself is 313 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:07.120 only half of the equation, right right. 314 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:08.919 The telescope is just a passive receiver. 315 00:15:09.159 --> 00:15:11.919 It is essentially just a very fancy camera lens sitting 316 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:14.639 in the dark. To understand how we can actually map 317 00:15:14.679 --> 00:15:17.440 the chemical elements of the Moon, we need to understand 318 00:15:17.440 --> 00:15:19.759 the source of the signal. We need a flash of light. 319 00:15:20.200 --> 00:15:23.559 Yes, because this telescope isn't shooting X rays down at 320 00:15:23.559 --> 00:15:24.840 the Moon like a radar dish. 321 00:15:24.919 --> 00:15:26.559 It's waiting for something to happen. 322 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:30.320 It is, and that's something is an incredibly violent interaction 323 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:31.399 between the Moon and the Sun. 324 00:15:31.559 --> 00:15:35.360 Let's dive into the cosmic physics here. Specifically, this mechanism 325 00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:38.519 called X ray fluorescence because this is the cool part oh. 326 00:15:38.600 --> 00:15:41.399 X ray fluorescence or XRF, is one of the most 327 00:15:41.639 --> 00:15:45.639 elegant and reliable mechanisms in all of astrophysics. It is 328 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:49.120 the core physical process that makes this entire mission possible. 329 00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:51.840 Okay, so how does it work? How does XRF let 330 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:53.360 us map a giant rock? 331 00:15:54.360 --> 00:15:57.120 Well, to truly grasp how it allows us to map 332 00:15:57.120 --> 00:15:59.759 a celestial body, we actually need to zoom all the 333 00:15:59.799 --> 00:16:02.559 way down to the microscopic atomic level. Think about the 334 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:03.279 lunar surface. 335 00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:05.240 Okay, the dirt, the rocks. 336 00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:08.120 Every rock, every boulder, every single grain of that fine 337 00:16:08.120 --> 00:16:11.639 abrasive dust we call regolith is made of atoms. You 338 00:16:11.639 --> 00:16:15.080 have oxygen, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, iron. 339 00:16:14.919 --> 00:16:17.759 The fundamental building blocks of planetary geology. 340 00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:21.279 Correct and in a normal, calm state, these atoms are 341 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:24.480 just sitting there on the lunar surface doing nothing to 342 00:16:24.519 --> 00:16:27.240 an X ray telescope. They are completely dark. They're not 343 00:16:27.320 --> 00:16:29.559 emitting any high energy radiation on their own. 344 00:16:29.399 --> 00:16:31.919 So the telescope would just see pitch black exactly. 345 00:16:32.360 --> 00:16:36.399 But our Sun is not a calm, quiet neighbor. The 346 00:16:36.440 --> 00:16:42.159 Sun is a raging, churning, violently magnetic ball of superheated plasma. 347 00:16:42.240 --> 00:16:45.080 It's basically a continuous explosion, and due. 348 00:16:44.919 --> 00:16:48.159 To the complex twisting of its magnetic fields, it frequently 349 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:49.960 unleashes intense solar flares. 350 00:16:50.320 --> 00:16:54.759 These flares are massive eruptions, right like billions of megatons 351 00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:58.320 of energy just snapping and exploding outward into the solar system. 352 00:16:58.440 --> 00:17:02.159 Yes, magnetic reconnection of and during these events, the Sun 353 00:17:02.200 --> 00:17:05.240 throws massive amounts of extremely high energy X rays out 354 00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:07.839 into the void of space, traveling outward at the speed 355 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:08.160 of light. 356 00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:10.599 I am really trying to picture the sheer scale of this. 357 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:14.720 The Sun erupts and this wave of invisible high energy 358 00:17:14.839 --> 00:17:18.200 X rays washes over the entire inner Solar system. 359 00:17:18.279 --> 00:17:20.000 It's a cosmic tsunami of radiation. 360 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:22.599 But here on Earth we don't really notice when a 361 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:25.559 solar flares X rays hit us, unless we are looking 362 00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:31.319 at specific atmospheric phenomena like the auroras or monitoring satellite interference. 363 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:33.960 Why is that? Why don't we get cooked? 364 00:17:34.119 --> 00:17:39.000 Because Earth has armor, We have a remarkably thick, dense atmosphere, 365 00:17:39.240 --> 00:17:42.680 and we have a powerful global magnetic field generated by 366 00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:46.599 our planet's spinning molten core, our shield. Right when those 367 00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:50.160 high energy solar X rays hit Earth, our atmosphere absorbs 368 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:52.960 and scatters them long before they ever reach the surface. 369 00:17:53.400 --> 00:17:56.279 That atmospheric shield is the only reason complex life can 370 00:17:56.319 --> 00:17:57.000 exist down here. 371 00:17:57.200 --> 00:17:59.680 The Moon doesn't have that. The Moon has no atmosphere 372 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:01.839 at all, just the hard vacuum of space right down 373 00:18:01.839 --> 00:18:02.519 to the dirt. 374 00:18:02.519 --> 00:18:06.359 None, and it has no active global magnetic field. It 375 00:18:06.440 --> 00:18:08.119 is completely naked and exposed. 376 00:18:08.200 --> 00:18:09.400 So when that wave hits and. 377 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:12.200 The solar flare erupts those high energy X rays from 378 00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:16.839 the Sun slam unimpeded, directly into the raw, exposed lunar regolith. 379 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:19.519 Okay, here's where I really need you to explain the 380 00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:21.920 quantum mechanics of this, because it sounds like magic if 381 00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:25.319 we don't break it down. What actually happens when a 382 00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:28.519 high energy solar X ray traveling at the speed of 383 00:18:28.599 --> 00:18:33.480 light slams into a single atom of say aluminum, sitting 384 00:18:33.559 --> 00:18:35.000 quietly on the lunar surface. 385 00:18:35.240 --> 00:18:37.000 It's a violent microscopic collision. 386 00:18:37.079 --> 00:18:39.839 Does the atom just absorb the heat? Does it shatter? 387 00:18:39.960 --> 00:18:40.599 What happens? 388 00:18:40.680 --> 00:18:43.960 It triggers a very specific atomic reaction. Think of the 389 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:47.000 aluminum atom as a miniature solar system. You have it 390 00:18:47.240 --> 00:18:50.319 dense nucleus in the center, and you have electrons orbiting 391 00:18:50.400 --> 00:18:51.960 around it in different shells. 392 00:18:51.640 --> 00:18:53.759 Or energy level like planets around the Sun. 393 00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:58.519 Exactly now, the incoming solar X ray essentially acts like 394 00:18:58.599 --> 00:19:02.839 an unimaginably fat microscopic cubeall on a billiard table. It 395 00:19:02.920 --> 00:19:05.599 smashes into the aluminum atom with so much energy that 396 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:09.160 it completely bypasses the outer electrons and strikes one of 397 00:19:09.160 --> 00:19:10.680 the atom's innermost electrons. 398 00:19:10.839 --> 00:19:12.119 It goes straight for the inner shell. 399 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:14.920 It does, it transfers its energy and knocks that inter 400 00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:17.720 electron completely out of its orbit and ejects it from 401 00:19:17.720 --> 00:19:18.640