EITM: Dr. Amber Straughn 4/9/24

The NASA astrophysicist recaps her trip to see the eclipse and more.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi doctor Amber, Hi, goodmorning. So on a scale of one
to ten, how was it?Oh, it was at eleven. It
was amazing. I got to tellyou, I got so wrapped up in
it yesterday and listen, I wasn'tlike you where I was like right in
the middle of totality. It wasfreaking awesome yesterday. Yeah, yeah,

(00:20):
it was amazing, and I wasI was trying to tell, you know,
my friends that couldn't travel to totality. I was like, a partial
eclipse is still incredible, go seeit. But yeah it was. It
was absolutely incredible. And where wereyou? You were you were someplace remote?
Yeah, I was in I wasin Arkansas. So I grew up
in rural Arkansas in a tiny littletown called b Branch, and my mom

(00:41):
still lives there and her house wasliterally like right in the center of totality.
So I went back to Arkansas andenjoyed it with my family. And
so was it was it emotional foryou? Yeah? Absolutely. So I
saw the total eclipse in twenty seventeenin Nashville, so I felt like I

(01:02):
was a little bit prepared because Ihad seen one before, but no,
it still was. It's just it'ssuch an indescribable thing to happen. And
it's like it's like it's you know, you see pictures of the eclipse.
You you know, people feel likethey kind of have an idea of what
it looks like, but it's thepictures don't do adjust it. It's such

(01:23):
a full body experience. You know, you see it with your eyes,
but you also you feel it.You feel the temperature drop. You hear
like the crickets start to chirp becausethey think it's nighttime, and it's it's
such a weird, just a weird, transcendent experience. And yeah, I
did. I definitely got emotional,you know what. It's funny to hear

(01:44):
you say that, because I'd likeand maybe it's just you. You know,
as time goes by, you youyou just don't remember things as clearly
or as much as you did whenthey happen. So like, think it
back to twenty seventeen, Like,I know, we went up on the
work building, the building here atwork, and you know, like we
had our glasses and we looked atit that way and then yet but I

(02:05):
don't remember like being so enthralled withit in twenty seventeen as I was yesterday
in a parking lot in Arlington.But we all agreed that we want in
twenty years, if any of usare still alive, we want to travel
to Totality to see what it's likein Totality. And we were looking at
like, Okay, what city dowe want to go to? But you

(02:27):
said something that was pretty interesting,the idea that like, you're in this
remote town, this kind of likesmall town that isn't Cleveland or Indianapolis or
like a big or Buffalo or NiagaraFalls. There was a big city.
I wonder if it'd be fun togo to, Like what was the place
that I wanted to go to,like Labio, Ohio or something like that,
where you, like you said,you could hear the cricket start because

(02:49):
they think it's nighttime. Yeah.So in twenty seventeen, I was in
Nashville and we were in like ahuge park with thousands and thousands of people
in the middle of Nashville, andand yeah, like I said yesterday,
I was just with my you know, with my family. There were six
of us total, I guess.And and my mom's house is in you

(03:10):
know, it's in the middle ofnowhere in Arkansas. Like huge fields in
every direction, and being somewhere rulelike that did give it a completely different
experience instead of being I mean,it was fun to be surrounded by people
because you sort of also get thecamaraderie of the crowd. You know.
In Nashville, you know, itwas it was pretty cloudy that day,

(03:31):
and so a cloud would pass infront of the sun and the whole crowd
would boo and and then it wouldclear away and everybody would year. But
being being in a rule place wasincredible because I feel like I noticed the
surroundings more, you know, youdo, like you said, you do
hear the crickets, and I noticedwhich I hadn't noticed in twenty seventeen.

(03:54):
Uh, we got over four minutesof totality, so it's it's still it
by fast. But we were ableto you know, I didn't stare at
the sun the whole time, youknow, I looked around and I noticed
the like the three hundred and sixtydegrees sunset like it was, it looked
like a sunset in every single direction. And I think we only got that
effect because we were somewhere rule whereyou could see out in all directions.

(04:18):
Hey, so let me ask youthis from now now to put on your
professional hat. What did like,I know that there were there were stories
that were coming out that NASA wasgoing to launch rockets and drones during the
during the eclipse. What what arewe studying? Yeah, so, so
NASA has what's called a sounding rocketprogram. Of course, NASA launches huge

(04:41):
rockets and launches satellites to space,but these are our smaller rockets that we
launch, uh instruments essentially just upinto sometimes sort of suborbital space or are
kind of lower right, not allthe way handed outer space. And so
yeah, there were there were threeof these sounding rockets that were launched just
yesterday. I think one was rightbefore a few half an hour before the

(05:03):
eclipse, one was during, andone was after. And what those were
doing were studying the the ionosphere ofthe Earth, the upper atmosphere, to
be able to understand how the solareclipse, how that essentially the shadow of
the Moon on the Earth was affectingthe upper atmosphere of the Earth. And

(05:27):
then like, if that was theone that went all the way up,
is that what all of them studiedor was each one kind of doing something
a little different? Yeah, Sothe three the three rockets that were launched
yesterday were all doing these studies ofthe first atmosphere, but it was in
you know, slightly different So ofcourse anyone that was in the passive totality

(05:48):
noticed that the temperature dropped like dramaticallyduring during the eclipse, and so part
of it was to to help usunderstand how the ion a sphere response to
those kind of local changes and temperaturein density and conductivity and all those other
sorts of things. Hey, andso let me well, by the way,

(06:10):
you know the other thing that wasbeautiful with some of the pictures from
the International Space Station. Yeah,you know, I haven't even gotten it.
She gets to get online and lookat those yet. But every time
there's a clip an eclipse, there'ssome incredible photos from space and yeah,
and there's also incredible videos that NASAhas several you know, Earth observing satellites

(06:30):
as well, and you can findthese incredible videos of the Earth of the
moon shadow just traversing over the Earth. It's really cool. Hey, can
I ask you this? Like obviously, you know, yesterday was a was
a was a big deal for forall of us because the eclipse took place
in the in the US. Butwhen when an eclipse takes place that's not
in the US, does does NASAplay well with everybody? Like do does

(06:54):
NASA study eclipses that aren't just inthe US? I mean, I think
so, NASA, we definitely,you know, if our you know,
if our international partners like the EuropeanSpace Agency or someone like that in Europe
is you know, celebrating the eclipse, we would certainly you know, partner
with them in any way we can. But but no, it's definitely it's

(07:17):
a special thing to have an eclipseover over the US like the one yesterday,
because that is an opportunity for NASAto to use its resources that are
based here in the US in orderto do that that type of those type
of scientific experiments. Hey, wasthere any other than the crickets like there
was there was video out of Dallasyesterday, doctor Amber where like you see

(07:39):
like the giraffes running around. Wehad heard that they were going to keep
an eye on turtles to see ifthey start mating, because I guess the
second like it starts to dim durersare like, yeah, it's go time.
But there was a lot of likeanimal study that was that that was
going on. NASA doesn't get involvedin any of that though, right,

(08:01):
not as much. Of course,there are other you know, government agencies
and other types of organizations that dothe detailed animal studies. One of the
things that that NASA does do.NASA has several what we call citizen science
programs where you know, you canlist normal regular people around the world to
to sort of participate in NASA science. And there was a little, uh

(08:26):
citizen science project on how do eclipsesaffect animals? And so it was a
way where you could just go andrecord what you're observing and then sort of
submit that that observation to NASA.So that was I believe that was the
only the only way that NASA isparticipating in how eclipses affect animals. By
the way, you know what myluck would be, I would get selected

(08:46):
to be like in the citizen testing, which I think would be an honor,
but my group would be let's seewhat happens when you stare at the
sun the whole time. Now NASAdoes not condone. By the way,
I should thank you. The NASAglasses are awesome. Oh yeah, you're

(09:09):
welcome, of course. Yeah,we've been giving those out in droves over
the last several months. Hey,and then looking forward, doctor Amber,
Like, if you look at likeNASA and you go like, obviously there's
still a push for us to makeit to the Moon and then beyond that
to Mars. Does anything that welearn during an eclipse factor into just the

(09:33):
future of whether it's whether it's theMoon or Mars or is that just solely
Earth based? Well, yeah,I mean it all kind of you know,
it kind of relates because anytime westudy the Moon, you know,
we're working on that future goal ofeventually getting people back to the Moon,

(09:56):
and you know, the Moon holdsthese clues use to the evolution of the
Earth and the planets and the Suneven you know, even other things that
are happening around the galaxy. Andso so yeah, I think it's all
related. It all touches each otherand you know, unique, unique science
that we can do during an eclipse. But we're we're definitely looking forward to

(10:20):
to the the day in the nottoo district future when we send humans back
to back to the Moon and theneventually on to Mars. Hey, when
when when it is time for moonlanding technology will be so good that it's
going to be like I'm there withthem, right, Like I'm going to
see the whole thing in HD liveas it happens. Like technology will allow

(10:41):
for that, right, I mean, it will definitely, definitely be better
than you think back to the Apollovideos, which absolutely were. It was
amazing that we were able to capturethose videos as the moon landings you know,
back in the in the late sixtiesand seventies. But yeah, for
sure, So the technology is obviouslyso much better. And yeah, I'm

(11:03):
I'm, I mean, I amsuper excited about about what we'll be able
to see when when we we humansget back to the Moon. Yeah,
it should be amazing. So whatis like, So, so what is
the next what is the next bigthing on the NASA docket for us?
Oh, well, there's a lotof big things coming up. Of course,
we are working hard on this onthe Artemis program. Uh and and

(11:26):
that's that's a big thing coming upin the next two years, a couple
more, another test launch and thenyou know, Cindy Humans and the capsule
to orbit the Moon and then eventuallyin a few years sending Cindy Humans back
to the Moon on the science side. Of course, the Web Telescope is
doing amazing things. But in justa couple more years, we're going to

(11:48):
launch the next big astrophysics telescope calledthe Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. It's
the first astrophysics mission named after awoman, which is cool Nancy grey Room
and was a pioneering astronomer in theearly days of NASA. She was essentially
one of the driving forces to gettingthe Hubble Space Telescope launched. Oh so

(12:09):
she's often known affectionately as the Motherof Hubble. So this telescope is named
after her, and we're designing itto study exoplanets planets that orbit other stars,
as well as dark energy, whichis this mysterious force in the universe
that is causing the universe to speedup all the time and its expansion.

(12:31):
We have no idea why. Sothat telescope is going to launch no later
than twenty twenty seven, and thenlooking beyond that in astrophysics, we're already
starting to work on the technologies thatwill ultimately enable or calling the Habitable World
Observatory, which will be a telescopethat's specifically designed to find life in the

(12:54):
universe. Dude, that's awesome.Although you know what you know what's seen.
I mean obviously that that that's huge, But the other one, I
don't understand it. And when it'stime, I'm going to need you to
break it down from me. ButI don't know why. Maybe it's because
I have a lot of dark energy, but that dark energy thing sounds very
very interesting to me. Uh yeah, it is extremely interesting and very mysterious,

(13:18):
and we have no idea what itis. I mean, it's wild
because you know, you look atthese images from web of like all the
galaxies, and so we we knowso our Milky Way galaxy has a couple
hundred billion stars, right a lot. Milky Way is big, But we
know that there are several hundred billionother galaxies and there's a ton of stuff

(13:39):
in the universe. But still allof that stuff that we know about that
we can measure and see with ourtelescopes, we know all that stuff only
makes up about five percent of theuniverse. So the rest of it,
the other ninety five percent, wehave no idea what it is. So
that's a little disturbing, and sowe're building a telescope to try to help
us under and wine, dark matter, and dark energy make up most of

(14:01):
the universe, and yeah, wehave no idea what it is. Dude.
That's freaking awesome, Doctor Amber.I'm glad, well, a couple
of things. Number One, I'mglad that you got to go enjoy the
eclipse yesterday. I'm glad that youwere able to check in. That's awesome.
I appreciate it so much on whatwas a busy day for you guys.
I really appreciate the time. Sure, thank you so much.