0:02

Hello and welcome to another

0:04

bonus episode of the Supermassive podcast

0:06

from the Royal Astronomical Society with

0:09

me, science journalist Izzy Clark, astrophysicist

0:11

Dr. Becky Smithers and the society's

0:13

deputy director, Dr. Robert Massey. This

0:16

is the place where we dive

0:18

into the Supermassive mailbox and answer

0:20

all of your brilliant, brilliant questions

0:22

that make us scratch

0:25

your head and be like, do you even know anything? I'm

0:29

just like, okay. But

0:31

before we do that, we've had some really nice

0:33

messages and emails that I would like to

0:35

run through. Bookitavir on Instagram loved that we

0:38

did an episode on Voyager and she said,

0:40

my dad sold a sensor to NASA that's

0:42

on board. I don't have any questions, but

0:45

I got to do the coolest show and

0:47

tell in school. That's amazing. Isn't it? So

0:49

I went back and said to her, I

0:51

was like, oh my God, what did this

0:54

sensor do? I need to know. More details,

0:56

please. More details, please. So she said, it

0:58

was about temperature using a heated wire. There

1:00

are the main products back then measured

1:03

fluid flow and particulates. Dad

1:05

trained us setting up experiments

1:07

at home using his company's

1:09

equipment, how to design an

1:11

experiment, controls, parameters, et cetera,

1:13

from a very young age.

1:16

Then we'd get to go with him on

1:18

business trips. Boeing could hardly say that the

1:20

equipment was too complex if a six-year-old girl

1:22

in the 1960s could

1:24

demonstrate it and recommend on the fly

1:27

an experiment after seeing their top secret

1:29

military jet wing for the first time.

1:33

Great sales pitch and we really enjoyed

1:35

it. I got to meet the professor

1:37

who invented the tornado F-scale and demonstrate

1:39

a sensor on a mini tornado he

1:41

spun up in his lab. I

1:43

know, how cool is this? Dad was great way

1:45

ahead of his time in treating girls equally and

1:47

then taking them to work ages before that was

1:50

a thing. I mean, what a

1:52

guy. That's so cool. Yeah. So,

1:54

so cool. And nice to know that that little piece of

1:57

him sort of lives on in Voyager as well, just

1:59

leaving the solar system. I know

2:01

it's amazing and we.

2:03

Just happen to be recording this by necessitate.

2:05

A very important time because at

2:07

the twins according if it's last

2:10

week and. There was a big

2:12

old bright flash see sky. a circus.

2:14

It did anyone see the Aurora Borealis?

2:16

Yes Over Oxford I was just black

2:19

ops. A gobsmacked elected never believed in

2:21

my life. I'd see why. Did like

2:23

when we live in talk and old

2:25

has been a soloist overdrawn. Go outside

2:28

and look know I expected. like. A

2:30

little fuzzy green glow on the horizon you

2:32

know and so point out people who do

2:35

it Really? is it that way it was

2:37

like insane was know it was like right

2:39

above like my head so shitty big streaks

2:41

of green and purple and pink that like

2:43

a one point I could even see the

2:45

past or colors with with my either know

2:47

what i see like phones boy out better

2:49

the color but like ah. Just.

2:52

Incredible. I was up with the my

2:54

local restaurants such loose and we've gathered at his

2:56

side. The old racecourse above the town of it

2:58

happens to be some studies me any with telescopes

3:00

to get laid back on would. I'm.

3:02

Obviously we just got lucky. We news coming on

3:04

the alerts and we thought will it happen not

3:06

a significant game is a was Mc Get to

3:08

the look and see anything. Strawberries

3:11

started his golden globe and expanded over the

3:14

whole sky. In it was really remarkable for

3:16

me to actually see colors with the eyes

3:18

will see greens and reds and blues, yellows,

3:21

So easily. The best display I've

3:23

ever seen. Only the second time in my life have

3:25

seen it all. And really. Unprecedented said

3:27

resist object model. Get see more than one or

3:29

two more these in my life in the Uk

3:31

at least a. So. Get thirty! Recommend

3:34

if you get alerts if you know something's

3:36

coming. Just. On the off chance,

3:38

don't take a look. Guys. I have

3:40

a compressor. I didn't

3:42

see it. Ah Amy know

3:44

I'd I am indeed you try and see

3:46

a Saturday night I admit and many that

3:48

level of the matter Yes And I had

3:50

no. I cannot tell you how. Heartbreak and

3:53

I'm like I'm not okay about this

3:55

so is. there are times when so

3:57

case of phone you have passed by.

3:59

yeah. Oh my god yeah it's

4:01

not even with me. my side was

4:03

going mad I was a semi was

4:05

basically i love my friends is probably

4:08

listen to this or that her head

4:10

day I'm on I was. Occasionally.

4:12

Just leaving it to go to stand

4:14

in the street to be like now

4:16

Now Now and Isis either. They just

4:18

couldn't see. It and. Ago

4:21

Maybe you. Are a bit too well

4:24

with breast on your hand is no

4:26

to sit around and I thought I

4:28

wasn't that bad and wasn't that bad

4:30

and. Either. though of it's just

4:33

really got his to be on sit. At

4:35

their really bad now fully no no

4:37

no line I'm celebrating everyone's and I'm

4:40

just like leaning into the we going

4:42

into Sailor Maximum that will the I

4:44

have other opportunities yeah my Billie be

4:47

another solar storm Vienna? Yes. Exempt. You

4:49

know, I know the broads. Rory in Lives

4:51

and Eighty Nine and Two Thousand and Three.

4:53

I think in the first case because I

4:55

was just in the pub, you know said

4:57

no system. Innocent Thousand and three. I just

4:59

didn't hear about it till afterwards. So. Well

5:01

it cool though. It's like because I just

5:03

saw the Aurora last year in Iceland by

5:06

the first time more with cool with comparing

5:08

like what again as like Hayes is when

5:10

we were nice and like it was. It

5:12

was directly overhead like a rabid but you

5:14

could see it. You could see that it

5:16

was bright green like with your eyes and

5:18

also you could see it move like in

5:20

real time as well. You could fully see

5:23

it rippling like just staring at it and

5:25

looking at it. And and it was cool.

5:27

like comparing it to how you couldn't see

5:29

the colors but you could see the same.

5:31

Sort of funds here but it was still

5:33

by oh the heads and if you look

5:35

for long enough you could tell that is

5:37

changed from like when you are looking at

5:40

it like a minute earlier but you couldn't

5:42

necessary see it like ripple that quickly and

5:44

move said called combat. I did see the

5:46

top yeah was impressive. I thought the colors

5:48

you know rudy obvious which I was. There

5:50

was only five minutes or so. I can see the colors

5:52

is my eye and it was a pastel. Rather like

5:54

neon green Know. Yeah.

5:57

so i'm gonna die as a tiny

5:59

little I'm just so worried. I'm going to

6:01

start like my own solidarity club with any other

6:03

listeners that might have missed it and we're just

6:05

going to go and do our own thing and

6:08

it's fine. It's fine. I

6:10

tell myself it's fine. It's a

6:12

port group. Hi Izzy. I'm

6:15

in my studio more in 2000 people. Basically.

6:19

Basically. Okay. Right. Let's go and do

6:22

some actual questions. So Robert, can you

6:24

help with this question from Alex in

6:26

Bristol? Absolutely love the

6:28

pod. I was lucky enough to catch a

6:30

glimpse of the northern lights the other evening

6:33

despite being all the way down in sunny

6:35

Bristol. An absolute beautiful sight

6:37

and if it wasn't for my neck

6:39

ache I would have stayed out all

6:41

night. My two questions

6:43

to you are firstly what causes

6:45

the aurora borealis and secondly why

6:47

did my phone camera pick up

6:49

so much more of its colour

6:51

than the naked eye could. Thanks

6:53

so much Alex. Actually a

6:55

brilliant question there Alex and well done for

6:57

you seeing it in Bristol. My old friends

6:59

in Bristol are on a great view as

7:01

well and do approach them if you want

7:03

to share pictures or find out other ways

7:05

to look at the sky. But to answer

7:07

your questions it's often said not least by

7:09

many media outlets that the lights are a

7:11

result of pastels and the sun directly crashing

7:14

into the atmosphere. And that's a

7:16

misconception I had for a long time as

7:18

well. It's not quite true. There's

7:20

a really good article in the conversation if you look

7:22

online from Alex McKinnon from the University of Glasgow who

7:24

wrote an explanation of this a couple of years ago.

7:28

It is true that the originating source

7:30

is a coronal mass ejection, a big

7:32

eruption of material from the sun or

7:34

a CME as we call them. And these eject

7:36

a lot of charged particles from the sun into

7:38

space. Moving charged particles have

7:40

magnet-generate magnetic fields. If they reach the

7:43

earth they then off it our own

7:45

magnetic field, the magnetosphere of the earth.

7:48

That Can cause a breakdown, twist around

7:50

the line, sort of cause a bit of

7:52

chaos in the field. And When it all

7:54

connects together again, it releases a lot of

7:56

energy and you get electrical currents and those

7:58

accelerate electrons. Pushed into the

8:00

upper atmosphere and those particles they collide with

8:03

oxygen and nitrogen atoms and that's what B

8:05

C to Beautiful display they pick site dig

8:07

site the atoms and they as a D

8:09

cide the photons that come out of the

8:11

give us these wonderful. Now

8:14

the second bid real question I should say

8:16

guy a few small proportion of those particles

8:18

does come from the some of the most

8:20

of his excited locally. But. The

8:22

second question about the color and why your

8:24

smartphone the so much better is the at

8:26

night our eyes are using. The Socal rub

8:28

sample was never a good for night vision

8:30

is routed. Really? Dot. So.

8:33

Good for detecting low light, but Iranian

8:35

black and white such see color. We

8:37

need more light. And. We needed to

8:39

be bright enough to trigger these kinds cells in

8:42

Central. The I'd. Some. Nice thing to

8:44

rory wouldn't like a blight is flow but

8:46

newsweek We were lucky enough to see colors

8:48

with our i'm pretty dramatically him and I've

8:50

never seen anything like and I think one

8:53

or or displayed before. This is astonishing. And

8:56

or even brighter on a smartphone. Biggest muffins, you

8:58

just much more sensitive that they're geared up to

9:00

detect color in low light of on the the

9:02

chips they've got and in a single exposure they're

9:05

also gathering that like for lot longer typically anyway

9:07

than your eyes do. So that's why your smartphone

9:09

with the colors that much more insular. Betty

9:12

Keys ran says hi this is

9:14

me kids ran a young listener

9:16

of your amazing pockets to which

9:18

I owe my longtime fascination with

9:20

space science field by the incredible

9:22

enthusiasm that Doctor Becky sites for

9:24

astrophysics on how you Tube channel

9:26

know thing of Kiss and having

9:28

a growing interest in the peculiar

9:31

giant of our solar system I'm

9:33

writing to you to ask about.

9:35

Seeped is great blue spot. What

9:37

exactly is it? How does it

9:39

form? How is it detected and

9:41

doesn't. Have any connection to it's more

9:43

well known. Read counterpart.

9:46

I will. Let's start there is around kids

9:48

site the great Red spot is like an

9:50

A real actual spot right that we can

9:53

see with our eyes. It's a real storm

9:55

on Jupiter right? so you could. You can

9:57

really call it a spotlight this one. the

9:59

great. Incidentally, not

10:01

blue and I don't know if you could

10:04

spot for it's okay. so this is actually

10:06

a feature in Jupiter's magnetic fields. To me,

10:08

look at the minus it feels rent the

10:10

cross Jupiter and we plot that out. We

10:13

like drawing on a diagram in terms of

10:15

like the face of Jupiter. You

10:18

end up seeing like a really strong concentration

10:20

near the equator and because of how we

10:22

plot things to that like the human I

10:24

can interpret data like scientific data. We use

10:26

color to do that right. And so the

10:28

color scheme that the authors of of and

10:30

with this paper pick to our this is

10:32

first published like picked is that. It.

10:34

Was blue Fri in this blue spot on the

10:36

equator and that was what was like showing this

10:38

struggling messy field and so they dubbed it the

10:41

Great Billie Spot to so have you know how

10:43

to play on like the big Red spot and

10:45

Gibson. Said. Not really blue

10:47

at it's not really spot is

10:49

this is really strong blob of

10:51

my messy field as fit our

10:53

formed. Is

10:56

any either. Because he

10:58

went nowhere get on. It really is

11:00

really not clear like what drives it

11:02

at all species. I think we talked

11:04

about it and the puck as before

11:06

right the ladies magnetic fields upon it said

11:09

a generated by said he had charged

11:11

particles in the in the core of

11:13

as the planet in vain liquid metal

11:15

knees and around is very. Chaotic Am and

11:17

so we're not really sure why this is

11:19

like big Blob. this is so much stronger

11:21

like we don't know why that like it's

11:24

it's kind of an anomaly. really like why

11:26

it's even there in the first place to

11:28

has been a lot of interest in it

11:30

now and how wasted again how it's been

11:33

detected in the first they says well with

11:35

street you know the probe that's currently in

11:37

orbit around Jupiter is the do not says

11:40

like targeted fly bys So I like closer

11:42

and closer to the surface of Jupiter to

11:44

got into an on board that can detect.

11:46

The strength of been as the magnetic field

11:48

and it's thought to be that is perhaps

11:51

just. Sort. Of like wave

11:53

like behavior really deep inside the core

11:55

of Jupiter that could be leading to

11:57

the sort of like a normal. The

12:00

north to the fact that it it's kind

12:02

of moving as well all the time again

12:04

just something else. We can't explain the how

12:06

this great blue spot but you know maybe

12:09

if we didn't he paper that comes out

12:11

about it is we should definitely cover again

12:13

on a on a feature Puck as upset.

12:16

Yeah, deathly and as kids, right? As a

12:18

young listener, hey, maybe they might go into

12:20

actually discuss all. Yeah, a little bit of

12:22

our backers, so no pressure, but that. Stay

12:24

here and I think this a gross.

12:26

They did say they had a growing

12:28

interest a day as I mean you

12:30

never know when I grow to the

12:32

interest of okay and Robert Sarver Torres

12:34

it might be saboteurs I'm has sent

12:36

us an email. She. Says

12:38

hi all see massive put courses. I

12:41

love the poor costs and I've been

12:43

to Listen. So one of the episodes

12:45

society is It and I have a

12:47

question probably silly if the sun loses

12:50

it's mass by giving hour energy will

12:52

that affect the gravity and orbit of

12:54

the sun itself and the planets in

12:56

the distant future? For example, when it

12:59

runs out of fuel and sought swelling

13:01

as a large planets except more gravitational

13:03

influence on the sun and the sun

13:06

accept less gravitational pull on the planet.

13:08

Or will it be negligible? Thanks so

13:10

and keep. Up the good work Well

13:12

Hi Sarah A. Keep listening and when

13:14

you say city question for us, we

13:17

tend to psych great question Which means

13:19

we're we're thinking very, very odd about

13:21

the onset of said. It definitely isn't

13:23

a silly question. sold. On.

13:25

The roof and the as the sun

13:28

season rations to the hydrogen or helium

13:30

as a mass loss of about four

13:32

point three million tons of the second

13:35

massive energy. It's of equivalent of Einstein's

13:37

theories. The not masses transfer

13:39

to map electromagnetic radiation said lights

13:41

and he took such with it

13:43

ultimately warns the. And

13:45

you're right that that muscles does indeed would use

13:47

the pool of gravity between the some the planet's

13:50

including yours that it means that the earth is

13:52

moving away from the some By that a centimeter

13:54

obvious are not very much really very hard to

13:56

detect to change the small the dose of of

13:58

the then have a very much. Effect on

14:00

the sun to and it's marginal because the

14:02

sun's got about a million times much masses.

14:05

Our planet and even Jupiter is only a

14:07

thousand. The mass of the Sons of Effect

14:09

is pretty small there as well, for on

14:11

very long time scales billions of years. It's

14:13

also to add up to something. And.

14:15

It might help. same Mars escape being

14:17

consumed by the Some when the some

14:19

becomes red giant. Thought: That said, there

14:22

are other effects to that the billions

14:24

of years like the long term stability

14:26

of all the planetary orbits not certain

14:28

that will be either a whole time

14:30

scale solar system, a gravitational radiation being

14:32

emitted from plans for the orbit, the

14:34

something to lose a bit of energy

14:36

inspired in a tiny amount as well

14:38

and even in not in the sense

14:40

that we understand illness but even source

14:42

of friction as planets hit particles and

14:45

other things. That minuscule the is very

14:47

important the early solar system because of their

14:49

conditions and more material around and it could

14:51

be really important to earth at the At

14:53

does end up on the edge of the

14:55

red. John Sullivan could get the of the.

14:58

Danny. A baked rock by that point of

15:00

nowhere to live. But it could then mean

15:02

that the is more likely to be consumed

15:04

by that red giant son and billions of

15:06

years in the future. However, we have at

15:09

least hundreds of millions of years of ugly

15:11

anyway. clement life on earth that before any

15:13

of this happened, side. Of

15:15

mana about this. One I think. I have.

15:17

Oh good. okay I. Have

15:21

I'm Becky William Morgan says hello

15:23

from the U S. I've been

15:25

having a great time, listen to

15:27

your pocket and learning a ton

15:29

from each episode, but I've been

15:31

hearing something come up pretty often

15:33

the I'm not quite sure I

15:35

fully understand. Many times I'll hear

15:37

something about how some kind of

15:39

sample rock comment planet or other

15:41

objects in the universe is x

15:43

number of years old, but how

15:46

exactly is that? Age Determined if

15:48

everything was created at the same

15:50

time from the big fan. Is

15:52

it difficult for scientists to determine

15:54

specific ages apart from you know,

15:56

the beginning of the universe? Yeah,

15:58

that is another great. In

16:00

William so like yes in the

16:02

very early days of the universe

16:04

when the being this is a

16:06

very young and everything was just

16:09

as like hot plasma of particles

16:11

can you still have like electrons

16:13

and protons completely separate from each

16:15

other? The first items and elements

16:17

to form was solely like hydrogen,

16:19

helium and like the tiniest amount

16:21

of lithium. So when we age

16:23

things it's not like were aging

16:26

things all the way back to

16:28

those. Original sort of. I asked him

16:30

that forms that. He way billion years

16:32

ago like what were aging. It's

16:34

almost like when stuff came together

16:36

to to be what it actually

16:38

is So it took me like

16:40

many generations of start then create

16:42

all the other elements that we

16:44

find in nature today like in

16:46

the big for nuclear forges that

16:48

start ah didn't produce things like

16:51

carbon, oxygen, nitrogen that make up

16:53

like losing that you listed red

16:55

rocks and comments and planet that.

16:57

So the way we then date

16:59

rocks in the material that. Makes

17:01

rocks up whether that's.

17:04

Iraq the final s a terrestrial

17:06

rocks or rocks. Outside of

17:08

An Extraterrestrial rocks race. You.

17:11

Know it like have meet. You I saw nino lumps

17:13

rock from the moon or Mars or anything

17:15

else. Is a

17:17

Gandhi very young, complex chemistry or been

17:19

affected by radiation neck is really difficult

17:22

to get updates on their age, but

17:24

the approach that we tend to use

17:26

the set of the oldest rocks that

17:28

you can do this with his radioactive

17:30

dating you might have had about before

17:33

rights. Essentially what you're doing here is

17:35

measuring the amount of like an original

17:37

radioactive substance what we call an isotope

17:39

to the get a specific flavor of

17:41

a particular asked to. That means that

17:44

the nucleus has a set number of

17:46

as. neutrons essentially and so for example

17:48

you can use like uranium to sweet

17:50

eight and not to cave in to

17:52

lead to have sex with two different

17:55

types or isotopes of an element a

17:57

do that with what's known as a

17:59

half life of 4.5

18:01

billion years. So that means that essentially in

18:03

four and a half billion years you'll have

18:05

half the amount of uranium that you did

18:07

in the beginning. And so for example

18:09

you can also use an even longer decay right? Rubidium

18:12

87 goes to strontium 87

18:14

with a half-life of 49 billion

18:17

years right? That was typically used by meteorocysts right?

18:19

So I guess that makes it sound very simple

18:21

right? All you have to do is just

18:23

measure the ratio of how much of this thing

18:25

do you have and how much of this thing

18:28

do you have but it can get

18:30

quite complicated right? Because to do that you need

18:32

what's known as a mass spectrometer essentially like this

18:34

device that where you can put a sample in

18:36

and then it will split out

18:39

all that sample apart into its separate atomic nuclei

18:41

right? It does it using like magnetic fields and

18:43

stuff and then you can get a really accurate

18:45

measurement of how much of each element that

18:47

actually is. Plus also you have

18:49

to understand like the history of the sample too like how much

18:51

like radiation from the sum was it exposed to all of that

18:53

kind of stuff. And it means that

18:55

we essentially know that you know a lot of

18:58

meteorites were formed not long after the solar system

19:00

itself and so we can sort

19:02

of age-date the solar system in that way and

19:04

the oldest things in it and know that the

19:06

Sun and all the solar system formed around about

19:08

four and a half billion years ago and that's

19:11

how we get those kind of numbers. Yes

19:14

we specifically get those numbers the three

19:16

of us. Yes yes. When we do the

19:18

calculations. We did the Royal Wii there. When

19:21

we specifically run the numbers that's the

19:23

other one. Amazing. Well

19:25

thank you everyone for sending in your

19:28

questions do keep them coming. You

19:30

can email podcast.res.ac.uk and we're

19:32

also on Instagram at SupermassivePod.

19:34

We'll be back in next

19:36

time with a full-length episode

19:38

all about the lunar standstill

19:40

which is very mysterious sounding.

19:43

I love it you'll have to tune in to

19:45

find out what that's all about but until next

19:47

time everybody happy stargazing.