November 20, 2025 • 35 mins
Scientists say the auroas brought us milstone solar radiation. Plus NASA's possible new chief is expected to appear before Congress again next month. NASA has released some 3i/ATLAS photos and they don't show much. Plus a one of a kind triple star system has been photographed by JWST!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar, asterism and uranus. Listen,
that's your own risk.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
When made of stars, made them stars, mad sizes. When
made of stars, you could be from high they would
New Mexicomus, where all stars.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
When we are made of stars.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
I'm West Carol, joined by my good friend doctor Sean
Cruisin from Lamba State Universities, Coca Cola Space Science Center.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Hey Sean, Hey.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Wess good to be here this morning.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
All right, we're gonna go back and talk about radiation
and the Aurora's the amazing phenomenon that happened now in
the last two years. Three times we're here as far
south as Columbus, Georgia, where we record the show. We
(01:28):
were able to see aurora in the sky, further south
than us were able to in some of those occasions.
And we're at the point now where like it's fun,
you go out, you see it, you experience it, and
then the science takes over and says, all right, well,
let's talk about what was actually going on then, And
because you know, you and I both watched a video
(01:50):
I sent it to you and I stumbled into it
where it was someone talking about, hey, the auroras are
all fun and everything, but you know, if we had
maintained hours of radiation at the level we were at,
it would have destroyed all of our communications. And I
think he said, uh, you know, blew us back to
(02:10):
the Stone Age or whatever. Obviously we weren't anything close
to that. That's just one of those clickbait kind of things,
I guess. But anyway, so what was actually going on?
Because we've got some info here on research done on
the ground, right, I mean it's not.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
That we're entirely allergic to clickbait on this show.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Absolutely well.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Part of what we do, though, is we try to
kind of explain some of that so that you don't
have to fall for it later. I mean, that's we've
touched on that before, and you know, so I guess
that means we have to, you know, click it so that.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Other people don't have to.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
Maybe I don't know, so you don't have that's right.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
It kind of feels a little bit of that.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
But but now.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
The other thing where you know, if you if you've clicked,
were the antidote, right, we already clicked and you already
read it. You're really worried you're losing sleep. Yeah, you're welcome.
We're the medication to sort you out. That's that's what
we like to be.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
We try to do that.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
And I guess we can start with this, you know,
actual science being done on the ground.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, it's weird. The world's ending. That's crazy. Well, I
mean at some point, but not today, friends, not today,
not for this reason anyway. All right, let's get to
the real stuff. Here's what happened. Hey, you remember that
really cool aurora phenomena that happened on Veterans Day and
(03:39):
on November eleventh, twenty twenty five, where they saw man,
they saw all. They saw Aurora all the way down
to El Salvador, which is just crazy. Right. As Wes mentioned,
it's the third time in like eighteen months. There's a
reason for that, friends. We are at solar maximum. That's
the Sun's period of maximum activity, the most sunspot's, the
(03:59):
most solar layers, the most twisted up and wound up
magnetic field. Soon the sun will begin sorting itself out.
It'll reverse polarity on the polar the poles of its
magnetic field, so it doesn't actually flip over. It reverses
polarity as the north pole becomes the south pole. South
pole becomes the north pole of the magnetic field, not
(04:22):
of its rotation axis. And so when that happens, then
everything begins to quiet down and we have eleven years
until we're back. So enjoy your aurora phenomenon now while
we're at solar max. We won't be back to solar
max again until around twenty thirty six. Okay, So all
that's kind of just in the category of understood. Now,
(04:43):
this is a story about the November eleventh aurors that
lots of people photographed, and good job out there photographing
and all those auroras and posting them up on Facebook,
so I didn't have to everybody was out there doing that.
I actually missed this one. I think I told West
this offline, but I just sleeping. Let's just be honest anyway,
So I missed this one, but I saw her Bridi's pictures,
(05:04):
thank you very much. Okay. So on that night, there
were a couple of coronal mass ejections from the Sun
that managed to arrive at the Earth at the same time.
One was moving a little faster than its predecessor, caught
up to it and had a double coronal mass ejection
or CME impact on the Earth that was more or
less simultaneously, and so it triggered aurora phenomenon that lasted
(05:29):
for hours and was visible in all fifty states of
the US, including Hawaii. That just doesn't happen every day.
So a group of UK researchers began to look into
this event, and they began to look at the radiation
monitoring stations around the world, and that tells us Okay,
(05:51):
we saw the aurora in the sky. We know these
coronal mass ejections hit our magnetic field, but how much
of that radiation actually made its way down to what
we call the ground level? And yes, the ground level
includes thirty thousand feet where airplanes fly. That's more or
less ground level in our thoughts about the atmosphere and
(06:12):
the surface of the Earth.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
Okay, this is exactly what Einstein was talking about about relativity, right.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
It is event that is a relatively thin layer compared
to the size of the universe. Okay, So the idea
is that these UK researchers from the Surrey Space Center
and the UK Met Office that's not the Metropolitan Opera
by the way, that is the Meteorological Office. The UK
Met Office began to measure all this aviation and otherwise
(06:40):
monitoring stations for the radiation effects, and they found that
the radiation at aviation altitude during that event on November
eleventh jumped to its highest level in two decades, so
it had not been that high. Again, Remember, this is
large particles managing to get through our or i should
(07:04):
say sub atomic particles. Not all of them are charged
because neutrons aren't, but sub atomic particles making it through
that both the atmosphere and the magnetic field are protective
shields down to the ground, so that we can say
we've had radiation doses. This is the highest ground level
radiation dose event since December thirteenth, two thousand and six. Thus,
(07:26):
as Professor Clive Dyer of the Surrey Space Center, he
went on to say that neutron monitors around the world
also detected it, so it was detected at monitoring stations
around the globe. So this event began as an X
five class solar flare. If you follow the show, that's
a strong one. It's not among the strongest ones, but
(07:50):
it's a pretty good one. Right. But again, what then
happened is you had two coronal mass ejections, two solar flares.
Those CMEs caught each other and arrived simultaneous. And as
that happened, Dire and his colleagues found that elevated radiation
doses were at rates were at elevated dose rates at
forty thousand feet that's up there where the airplanes fly.
(08:13):
So certain high altitude transatlantic flights may have received twice
the normal amount of radiation than the ambient cosmic ray
radiation doses. So you're gonna get any time you fly,
you're gonna get a little bit of a dose of radiation.
But this dose of radiation was about twice the normal level.
(08:35):
Now that's elevated, but it's not to the point where
we get super concerned about humans. But remember, you're flying
in an aircraft and a machine. And in twenty twenty five,
that aircraft is more controlled by computer technology than ever before.
(08:56):
It's a fly by wire kind of vehicle. In other words,
it's not all mechanical systems. And just electricity flowing through wires. No, no, no,
it has chips and it has it components that allow
decisions to be made autonomously for the pilots. So the
really interesting thing is that this radiation level, whereas it
(09:20):
may cause some minor health effects for passengers, probably not,
but it was much more of a concern for the avionics,
the electronics on board because during the storm's peak, the
researchers estimate that single event upsets. Now this is where
like a bit flips on the computer memory. Right, it
(09:42):
was a one, now it's a zero. Now the data
doesn't mean the same thing it meant before. Now some
processors are trying to read that data and they can't
figure it out all because some kind of an electronic
particle came in from the Sun during a coronal mass
ejection arriving at the Earth. Okay, those single event upsets
or data flips could have occurred at rates about sixty
(10:05):
errors per hour per gigabyte. Sixty errors per hour, one
per minute per gigabyte. So if you're on an eight
hour flight, let's just say I don't know how many
gigabytes the average aircraft has in its memory of you know,
(10:27):
all the electronics on board. But that's a lot of flips,
and you can actually have issues where the avionics of
an aircraft could be overloaded. Now we're not aware that
any of that happened on November eleventh, but let's just
say the ground level event of radiation detected by the
(10:50):
Surrey Space Center in the UK Met Office was beginning
to be at a level of concern for avionics.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
So I think about it like this because, like you say,
you don't know what this effect would have been or whatever,
but typically when you fly take you have to take
your phone and turn it off or put it on
airplane mode. That alone tells me it probably potentially couldn't
take much of anything, right, I mean, if you're just
(11:22):
talking about oops, I tried to send a text message, Eh,
you know, we got problems like that to me, says
you know, even mine ear, And I understand you got
a plane full of people. Everybody needs to do it.
So I guess that's maybe how I thought of this
in those terms.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
You know, there are certain redundancies and there are certain
protective measures built into these computer systems. It's not like
the good engineers at Boeing have never thought about this.
So so there are those measures on board. But Wes
is right. The fact that you're being asked to shut
your cell phone off so that you're not sending out
(12:03):
radio frequencies from little transmitters in all the seats on
the aircraft is due to the fact that they don't
want to disrupt any of the electronics on board the
aircraft or the communications with the ground. So those are
those are the reasons. And so random electrically charged particles
(12:24):
coming in from the Sun through an aircraft at higher
and higher levels, it's just something that you've got to
be aware of and you might want to avoid them.
And I say when I say you, I don't mean you,
I don't mean you've got to be aware of it.
I mean the airlines and the aircraft manufacturers and the
people who are whose job it is to ensure safe
(12:47):
travel across oceans. Those people need to be aware of
what's taking place on the Sun and what effects it
may have on their operations of the airlines. Now listen,
in nineteen fifty six on I Worried the twenty third,
there was an even more massive ground level event. That
ground level event. Back in nineteen fifty six, air travelers
(13:11):
would have received doses of radiation more than one hundred
times the normal level, and that is high enough to
potentially ground flights. So nineteen fifty six may feel like
a long way to you, as depending on how old
you are, it's a long time ago. But really in
(13:32):
the history of the Sun and of the human beings
on the surface of the Earth, that was like yesterday,
all right.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
So the notion is.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
The Sun can indeed produce coronal mass ejections of sufficient
verocity that they become difficult for our modern electronics to
deal with. Okay, last week's gl or ground level event
was about two percent of what nineteen fifty six event was.
(14:03):
But if scientists look at tree rings and ice cores
that they do some nature based forensics and look back
in time for evidence of radiation events in the past,
they actually find them, and they find that they at
times have been far more intensive than either what happened
(14:25):
on November eleventh or back in nineteen fifty six. Tree
rings and ice coores reveal gls that were thousands of
times more intense than what have been reported in recent millennia.
So these are interesting knowing that these are in the
historic record they're called Miyaki events. They have a name Miyaki,
(14:49):
m i yak e, Miyaki events and modern society, And
when it's put in this context, it means society who
have a lot of their lives depending on electronics. Modern
society has not experienced a Mijaki event yet. However, Professor
Dyer from the Sury Space Center says, big events are
(15:13):
coming and we need to be ready. So just kind
of justifying their science, why are they studying this, why
are they looking into it? Because it actually can have
a strong effect on your daily life. So yes, everybody,
astronomy is relevant. Why you guys always look it up
in the sky, because sometimes giant radiation clouds just pop
out of the sky and knock out your cell phone.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
And sadly everything turns into eventually, uh oh, we got
to get ready for this, because there's just a lot
of that in science, right.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
I mean, I don't know what we do. I'm not
sure how exactly how we get ready for you know,
that kind of level of event where every piece of
electronic I mean, you know you got to have like
your own water supply and you know, your own farm,
your own cows. I mean this is how you get ready.
I encourage everybody just start prepping. Now. I'm joking, by
the way, I'm just mildly joking about that, but those
(16:08):
who build aircraft are actually getting ready. Sorry, here we go.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
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Speaker 4 (17:39):
More Made of Stars.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
Right after this, well, let's talk about getting ready for
(18:06):
maybe finally having a new chief at NASA. And it's
one that was brought up once before and then removed
and then hey, maybe that should be the guy.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
And it looks like.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
We're now going to get an opportunity to maybe have
that move forward next month.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
It is almost twenty twenty six as we're recording the show.
This is November of twenty twenty five, and there hasn't
been a director of NASA in the latest rendition of
the Trump administration. So NASA's been just I guess it's
like a fire hose with nobody holding the end. That's
(18:47):
not true. There have been some some competent interim people
who've jumped in and who headed up NASA and setting
the direction for NASA. But the NASA is a really
important agency. It has a lot of very important initiatives,
both from a geopolitical standpoint, but also just from the
advancement of technology in our country standpoint. And so the
(19:09):
fact that it's run for a while without a director
not great. Reuters dot Com friends, and it's all in
various other news outlets as well. But Reuters dot Com
is reporting that the US Senate has set a date
in December for a hearing for proposed NASA chief Jared Isaacman.
So they got to do He already did the hearings
(19:31):
ones passed them with flying colors, and then they he
got booted out of the process. I was back in April,
so now we're about to do it again. That's the
last time he testified in front of the Senate Commerce, Science,
and Transportation Committee was on April ninth, twenty twenty five.
Now Jared Isaacman is slated to meet with that same committee,
(19:53):
give probably largely the same testimony and talk about some
of the same issues on December third of this year.
So just within a couple of weeks or a few
weeks from right now, Jared Isaacman will be appearing again
in front of the US Senate Commerce Committee and will
be discussing why he is the best candidate to lead
(20:15):
NASA now. As Wes and I have outlined many times
on this show, he funded, organized, and commanded two flights
to ear or the two flights above Earth using SpaceX
rockets and capsules. That was the Inspiration four, which occurred
back in September of twenty twenty one, and the Polaris
Dawn mission, which occurred in September of twenty twenty four.
So Isaacman himself been in space twice. On Polaris Dawn,
(20:40):
he actually did a spacewalk himself. He would be one
of the first ever directors of NASA to have that
much space experience. There have been a few other astronauts
that have headed NASA. I can't remember off the top
of my head if those other astronauts had done spacewalks,
but Jared is it's in spacewalk was the farthest from
(21:02):
Earth since the Apollo era. So so he's got some
street crab, he's got some accomplishments to hang behind. Just
being an acquaintance of Elon Musk.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
I mean, you go that far, you stick your head
out of the window. It gives you a certain amount
of street cred, you know. I mean it's there and
that's what he did, and I would be We've talked
about this too. I would be pro. You know, when
he if we get to the point where he gets
approved and he becomes the chief and he's running NASA. Hey,
when I go up to the International Space Station, see
(21:34):
how things are doing, you know, do one of those
like spot checks, one of those.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Hey, the boss is coming.
Speaker 5 (21:40):
We got to clean things up a little bit. I mean,
why not get in there and go through his clipboard
and they're doing a good job, guys, and then he
comes back home.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Why not he could do it?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Or perhaps you have an episode of Undercover Boss. Yeah,
maybe he just grows some facial hair and puts on
a ball cap. Yeah, then goes up there goes, oh,
I'm just a random astronaut they asked to come to
the space station. I'm not the director of NASA or
anything like that. What do you guys think about that
new director? Huh, He's a jerk, isn't he.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
And then listen to what they say, you could do
that and then he peels off the beer and they're like,
w we were pretty sure that was you the whole time,
Jared things.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Oh we never recognized you, not even with those giant ears.
We never knew you were Jared isacman.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
For one second, let's give an update on Comet three
I Atlas. This is we got new photos to go
with this, as we've slowly been coming to the realization
that that comet that has come from beyond our solar
system and for the most part, did everything that a
(22:47):
comet would do, except for a couple of weird things
that didn't quite seem right and got people a little
worked up and excited, and then it started acting like
a comet again, and then you go, Okay, well it's
it's it's I guess I don't know. There's still some
people who won't give up on the dream. But these
new images look pretty good.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Though, so so listen. I get it. When people say
some shall we say, elevated comments about something in outer
space colickbait, perhaps clickbait. It turns things exciting for the
average person who doesn't really have a burning passion for astronomy,
(23:28):
but maybe they read the words is this comment an
alien spacecraft? And that turns on their fires of imagination.
If you fall into that category. Welcome to the podcast. Friends,
we've been missing you. We're glad you're here. But this
was never an alien spacecraft. In fact, in my world,
that's not even why it's interesting that somebody said it
(23:49):
was an alien spacecraft. It's interesting because it's actually an
intergalactic visitor. It's an interstellar comment and I gotta be
careful myself. Intergalactic means it came from another galaxy. It's
a show. We call it a trans galactic It came
from a different side of our galaxy, right, So anyway,
so in an interstellar object, this comet was born in the
(24:14):
cloud of a different star than our sun. It had
different chemistry, It formed in a different part of the
Milky Way galaxy. It is speeding through our solar system
at a high rate of speed, and as it does,
we're getting to check out the chemistry of a cloud
(24:36):
that birthed a solar system that is not ours, and that,
to me, friends, is of course, the most interesting thing
about it. However, because of a lot of Internet speculation
about whether or not this comet was actually an alien spacecraft,
then there began the drum beat of NASA's withholding its images.
(24:57):
It's not releasing its images. It took images of this comment,
it's not sharing them with the public. This is all
part of the conspiracy. No, they don't say conspiracy. This
is all part of the result of NASA knowing that
this thing is a spaceship from another solar system. Let's
not forget, folks, that the government has been shut down,
(25:18):
that these people who are employed at NASA don't even
have a job to go to for a period of time.
Let us not forget, friends, that they couldn't release the
images because they were home due to the government shutdown.
So now on Wednesday of this week, as we're recording
the show, was very recently this particular set of images
(25:41):
from NASA was finally released. And as NASA released these images,
they are, in my words, unspectacular. It's hard to tell
it's even a comet. It is just a little fuzzy ball.
Maybe there's some hint of a tail and some of
the images. And I know it's hard to talk about
(26:03):
images on a podcast, but I've shared these with Wes.
But you can actually check this out on the NBC
news dot com article. But we got what're you got?
Speaker 5 (26:12):
Two that you sent me, though one is unspectacular. The
other one looks pretty spectacular.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, So all of the NASA images were taken with
you know, spacecraft around the Sun or you know, like
the Punch satellite, so the Solar and Healospheric Observatory, or
spacecraft around Mars like the Mars Atmospheric and Volatile Evolution
Mission which is called MAVEN, or the Perseverance Rover from
the surface of Mars, and all of those are bad
(26:38):
pictures because they're just not those instruments are not made
not designed to take images of comments. So the image
I shared with Wes, which is a fantastic image, actually
came from an amateur astronomer that posted it to spaceweather
dot com, and doctor Tony Phillips, who runs the website
(27:01):
spaceweather dot com, made an archive of these kinds of
images that are now coming in from amateur astronomers. The
amateur astronomers are indeed on Earth because this comet is
now finally visible in some twilight, and so amateur astronomers,
being clever at getting great pictures, have figured out some
(27:21):
data management procedures to make these images really look good,
and so we're actually well in the words, of doctor
Tony Phillips from Space Weather Quote. NASA's cameras reveal the
comet to be a fuzzy blob, but photos being taken
by amateur astronomers on Earth are far more informative. That's
(27:42):
just because you can see more structure in both the coma,
which is the main part of the comet where the
nucleus is embedded, and in the tails. And this comment
has multiple tales. It has you know, twin tails out
the back when a dust tail, want a gas tail,
it's the gas tail that's the most prevalent. But this
also as a forward facing sunpointing anti tail, and that
(28:05):
makes this interesting. Also, the colors of a comet obtained
by the amateur stromers show the difference in chemistry between
that tail, which is an eye on tail, and the
actual nucleus itself, which is letting go or sublimating large
amounts of volatile gases and pieces of ice. So so
(28:26):
there you go. NASA did release its images, so just
that everybody calmed out about the whole NASA won't release
their images thing, and what was on them not much,
And what's being photographed by amateurstronomers with good telescopes and
cameras quite a lot. Check out spaceweather dot com.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
All right, so Star Wars is known for its you
twin star system.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Now we've got this.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
Really cool image from James webspace telescope of a triple
star system. It's like a giant fry egg in the sky.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
It does look a little bit like that. It looks
one could say, it looks a bit like a pinwheel.
You know, it's got a pin wheel kind of effect on.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
I mean, honestly, I went to fried egg just because,
I mean, who doesn't like a fried egg? But I
think the first thing I thought when I saw it
is it definitely looks like an eyeball.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Kind of looks a bit like an eyeball. Yeah, it does.
And you know, it could be that we're recording the
show around lunchtime. So the whole idea of food is
a good thing.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
So yeah, the more you say it, the more I
see a fried egg. By the way. Anyway, So all right,
so once again here we are on a podcast describing
an image. This image is a lovely collection of multiple
colors of oranges, reds, purples, and blues. All false color
images by the way, obtained by the James Web Space telescope. Now,
the colors mean things, but this isn't exactly what your
(29:49):
eye would see. Remember, the James Web is the JWSD
is taking pictures in the infrared part of the spectrum
where you can't even see anyway, So you wouldn't detect
any of these colors. Okay, but go check out the
images on space dot Com of this triple star system
because it's really really beautiful for one thing, and then
when you figure out what's going on on the inside,
(30:11):
it's even more interesting. You see, when stars that are
similar to our sun live out their lifetime, in their
toward their final stages of life, they begin to lose
the outer layers of their atmosphere, and as that begins
to happen, they move into a category of stars that
astronomers have defined as wolf Rea stars Wolfraya. That's rye
(30:36):
t is how that second word is spelled, wolf Rea stars.
So a wolf Raya star is a massive star that's
just losing all of its outer atmosphere, shedding it off
into space. And what James Web is captured is one
of these systems of stars that have wolf raya stars
on the inside, and it has been nicknamed a pet
(31:01):
apep you see, was named after the Egyptian god of
chaos or in this case, cosmic chaos. What jwst has
photographed is a triple star system where two of the
stars in this three way star system are wolf Reya stars.
They are both arriving at the end stages of their
(31:24):
life at the same time, and like all wolf Rea stars,
they have powerful stellar winds which are blowing all this
material out into kind of a bubble. But they are
also injecting huge clumps of material and exposing a nitrogen,
helium and carbon rich interior of that star. Those are
(31:45):
the elements made during the final phases of fusion in
these stars. So wolf Raya stars a really important step
in the evolutionary process of stars. Here's something interesting. In
all the universe so far observed by our telescopes, we
only know about about a thousand of these stars. That
may seem like a big number, but remember we know
(32:07):
about billions and billions and billions of stars, and there's
only about a thousand of those that are wolf Rea stars.
That's because in part, stars don't live very long in
this stage. They don't spend very much time there, so
if they're not there for very long. When you look
out at a whole survey of stars out there in
the universe, there are just not many that happen to
(32:29):
be at that specific frame of time where you can
capture them in the wolf Raia stage. Well, that makes
this object then even more interesting that James Webb has captured,
because not only have they found one new wolf Rea star,
they have found two of them, and they are in
a gravitational dance with yet a third star, and they
are spewing their material out into this Frida egg or
(32:52):
eyeball shaped object. That makes if you just like the
art of things from space, it makes a lovely site.
It's a beautiful image from the James web Space Telescope.
But it's also helping astronomers understand how stars evolve as
they go through the process of the end of their
lifetimes in the wolf Aa stage.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
More made of stars.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
Right after this, we are coming up on Thanksgiving one
(33:39):
week from today as we record, and I know you
guys have some adjusted hours to talk about there at
Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Side Center.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Yeah, we will be We will be closing for Thanksgiving
on Thursday and Friday, but we will reopen on the
Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend, So we're going to get
you past that Black Friday. Lets you go get all
those great deals, or stay home an online shop or
whatever it is you have to do. You know, just
get over the trip to fan overdose, whatever you need
to do on the couch, perhaps for some football games
(34:09):
on or things. But on Saturday, it's time to come
back and learn space again, friends, So we'll be reopening
the doors of the Space Science Center on Saturday as scheduled. Also,
just follow us on Facebook or check out our website
for some additional modified hours as we go into the
Christmas holiday toward the middle of December. So that's it
for now. And by the way, friends, we are going
(34:32):
to be having some brand new exhibits in our exhibit gallery.
We have a Mars Rover simulation game now up and running,
where you can both drive the Perseverance Rover around specifically,
or you can also fly the Ingenuity helicopter and go
out and check actual geological features on the surface of Mars.
That's a really fun kind of video game simulation. We
(34:55):
are also modifying our flight simulators. We've been working on
that project and that is near completion. That should be
done also by the Thanksgiving holiday, So come down and
check out all of those new features in our exhibit
gallery at Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
Sean and I thank you for listening, and we will
do this again next weeks. Overhead Door Company of Columbus
has all of your garage door needs covered residential and
commercial service and repairs. If you need a new garage door,
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Overhead Door Company of Columbus has you covered. Plus they've
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Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar, asterism and uranus. Listen,
that's your own risk.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
When made of stars, made them stars, mad sizes. When
made of stars, you could be from high they would
New Mexicomus, where all stars.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
When we are made of stars.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
I'm West Carol, joined by my good friend doctor Sean
Cruisin from Lamba State Universities, Coca Cola Space Science Center.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Hey Sean, Hey.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Wess good to be here this morning.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
All right, we're gonna go back and talk about radiation
and the Aurora's the amazing phenomenon that happened now in
the last two years. Three times we're here as far
south as Columbus, Georgia, where we record the show. We
(01:28):
were able to see aurora in the sky, further south
than us were able to in some of those occasions.
And we're at the point now where like it's fun,
you go out, you see it, you experience it, and
then the science takes over and says, all right, well,
let's talk about what was actually going on then, And
because you know, you and I both watched a video
(01:50):
I sent it to you and I stumbled into it
where it was someone talking about, hey, the auroras are
all fun and everything, but you know, if we had
maintained hours of radiation at the level we were at,
it would have destroyed all of our communications. And I
think he said, uh, you know, blew us back to
(02:10):
the Stone Age or whatever. Obviously we weren't anything close
to that. That's just one of those clickbait kind of things,
I guess. But anyway, so what was actually going on?
Because we've got some info here on research done on
the ground, right, I mean it's not.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
That we're entirely allergic to clickbait on this show.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Absolutely well.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Part of what we do, though, is we try to
kind of explain some of that so that you don't
have to fall for it later. I mean, that's we've
touched on that before, and you know, so I guess
that means we have to, you know, click it so that.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Other people don't have to.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
Maybe I don't know, so you don't have that's right.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
It kind of feels a little bit of that.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
But but now.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
The other thing where you know, if you if you've clicked,
were the antidote, right, we already clicked and you already
read it. You're really worried you're losing sleep. Yeah, you're welcome.
We're the medication to sort you out. That's that's what
we like to be.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
We try to do that.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
And I guess we can start with this, you know,
actual science being done on the ground.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, it's weird. The world's ending. That's crazy. Well, I
mean at some point, but not today, friends, not today,
not for this reason anyway. All right, let's get to
the real stuff. Here's what happened. Hey, you remember that
really cool aurora phenomena that happened on Veterans Day and
(03:39):
on November eleventh, twenty twenty five, where they saw man,
they saw all. They saw Aurora all the way down
to El Salvador, which is just crazy. Right. As Wes mentioned,
it's the third time in like eighteen months. There's a
reason for that, friends. We are at solar maximum. That's
the Sun's period of maximum activity, the most sunspot's, the
(03:59):
most solar layers, the most twisted up and wound up
magnetic field. Soon the sun will begin sorting itself out.
It'll reverse polarity on the polar the poles of its
magnetic field, so it doesn't actually flip over. It reverses
polarity as the north pole becomes the south pole. South
pole becomes the north pole of the magnetic field, not
(04:22):
of its rotation axis. And so when that happens, then
everything begins to quiet down and we have eleven years
until we're back. So enjoy your aurora phenomenon now while
we're at solar max. We won't be back to solar
max again until around twenty thirty six. Okay, So all
that's kind of just in the category of understood. Now,
(04:43):
this is a story about the November eleventh aurors that
lots of people photographed, and good job out there photographing
and all those auroras and posting them up on Facebook,
so I didn't have to everybody was out there doing that.
I actually missed this one. I think I told West
this offline, but I just sleeping. Let's just be honest anyway,
So I missed this one, but I saw her Bridi's pictures,
(05:04):
thank you very much. Okay. So on that night, there
were a couple of coronal mass ejections from the Sun
that managed to arrive at the Earth at the same time.
One was moving a little faster than its predecessor, caught
up to it and had a double coronal mass ejection
or CME impact on the Earth that was more or
less simultaneously, and so it triggered aurora phenomenon that lasted
(05:29):
for hours and was visible in all fifty states of
the US, including Hawaii. That just doesn't happen every day.
So a group of UK researchers began to look into
this event, and they began to look at the radiation
monitoring stations around the world, and that tells us Okay,
(05:51):
we saw the aurora in the sky. We know these
coronal mass ejections hit our magnetic field, but how much
of that radiation actually made its way down to what
we call the ground level? And yes, the ground level
includes thirty thousand feet where airplanes fly. That's more or
less ground level in our thoughts about the atmosphere and
(06:12):
the surface of the Earth.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
Okay, this is exactly what Einstein was talking about about relativity, right.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
It is event that is a relatively thin layer compared
to the size of the universe. Okay, So the idea
is that these UK researchers from the Surrey Space Center
and the UK Met Office that's not the Metropolitan Opera
by the way, that is the Meteorological Office. The UK
Met Office began to measure all this aviation and otherwise
(06:40):
monitoring stations for the radiation effects, and they found that
the radiation at aviation altitude during that event on November
eleventh jumped to its highest level in two decades, so
it had not been that high. Again, Remember, this is
large particles managing to get through our or i should
(07:04):
say sub atomic particles. Not all of them are charged
because neutrons aren't, but sub atomic particles making it through
that both the atmosphere and the magnetic field are protective
shields down to the ground, so that we can say
we've had radiation doses. This is the highest ground level
radiation dose event since December thirteenth, two thousand and six. Thus,
(07:26):
as Professor Clive Dyer of the Surrey Space Center, he
went on to say that neutron monitors around the world
also detected it, so it was detected at monitoring stations
around the globe. So this event began as an X
five class solar flare. If you follow the show, that's
a strong one. It's not among the strongest ones, but
(07:50):
it's a pretty good one. Right. But again, what then
happened is you had two coronal mass ejections, two solar flares.
Those CMEs caught each other and arrived simultaneous. And as
that happened, Dire and his colleagues found that elevated radiation
doses were at rates were at elevated dose rates at
forty thousand feet that's up there where the airplanes fly.
(08:13):
So certain high altitude transatlantic flights may have received twice
the normal amount of radiation than the ambient cosmic ray
radiation doses. So you're gonna get any time you fly,
you're gonna get a little bit of a dose of radiation.
But this dose of radiation was about twice the normal level.
(08:35):
Now that's elevated, but it's not to the point where
we get super concerned about humans. But remember, you're flying
in an aircraft and a machine. And in twenty twenty five,
that aircraft is more controlled by computer technology than ever before.
(08:56):
It's a fly by wire kind of vehicle. In other words,
it's not all mechanical systems. And just electricity flowing through wires. No, no, no,
it has chips and it has it components that allow
decisions to be made autonomously for the pilots. So the
really interesting thing is that this radiation level, whereas it
(09:20):
may cause some minor health effects for passengers, probably not,
but it was much more of a concern for the avionics,
the electronics on board because during the storm's peak, the
researchers estimate that single event upsets. Now this is where
like a bit flips on the computer memory. Right, it
(09:42):
was a one, now it's a zero. Now the data
doesn't mean the same thing it meant before. Now some
processors are trying to read that data and they can't
figure it out all because some kind of an electronic
particle came in from the Sun during a coronal mass
ejection arriving at the Earth. Okay, those single event upsets
or data flips could have occurred at rates about sixty
(10:05):
errors per hour per gigabyte. Sixty errors per hour, one
per minute per gigabyte. So if you're on an eight
hour flight, let's just say I don't know how many
gigabytes the average aircraft has in its memory of you know,
(10:27):
all the electronics on board. But that's a lot of flips,
and you can actually have issues where the avionics of
an aircraft could be overloaded. Now we're not aware that
any of that happened on November eleventh, but let's just
say the ground level event of radiation detected by the
(10:50):
Surrey Space Center in the UK Met Office was beginning
to be at a level of concern for avionics.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
So I think about it like this because, like you say,
you don't know what this effect would have been or whatever,
but typically when you fly take you have to take
your phone and turn it off or put it on
airplane mode. That alone tells me it probably potentially couldn't
take much of anything, right, I mean, if you're just
(11:22):
talking about oops, I tried to send a text message, Eh,
you know, we got problems like that to me, says
you know, even mine ear, And I understand you got
a plane full of people. Everybody needs to do it.
So I guess that's maybe how I thought of this
in those terms.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
You know, there are certain redundancies and there are certain
protective measures built into these computer systems. It's not like
the good engineers at Boeing have never thought about this.
So so there are those measures on board. But Wes
is right. The fact that you're being asked to shut
your cell phone off so that you're not sending out
(12:03):
radio frequencies from little transmitters in all the seats on
the aircraft is due to the fact that they don't
want to disrupt any of the electronics on board the
aircraft or the communications with the ground. So those are
those are the reasons. And so random electrically charged particles
(12:24):
coming in from the Sun through an aircraft at higher
and higher levels, it's just something that you've got to
be aware of and you might want to avoid them.
And I say when I say you, I don't mean you,
I don't mean you've got to be aware of it.
I mean the airlines and the aircraft manufacturers and the
people who are whose job it is to ensure safe
(12:47):
travel across oceans. Those people need to be aware of
what's taking place on the Sun and what effects it
may have on their operations of the airlines. Now listen,
in nineteen fifty six on I Worried the twenty third,
there was an even more massive ground level event. That
ground level event. Back in nineteen fifty six, air travelers
(13:11):
would have received doses of radiation more than one hundred
times the normal level, and that is high enough to
potentially ground flights. So nineteen fifty six may feel like
a long way to you, as depending on how old
you are, it's a long time ago. But really in
(13:32):
the history of the Sun and of the human beings
on the surface of the Earth, that was like yesterday,
all right.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
So the notion is.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
The Sun can indeed produce coronal mass ejections of sufficient
verocity that they become difficult for our modern electronics to
deal with. Okay, last week's gl or ground level event
was about two percent of what nineteen fifty six event was.
(14:03):
But if scientists look at tree rings and ice cores
that they do some nature based forensics and look back
in time for evidence of radiation events in the past,
they actually find them, and they find that they at
times have been far more intensive than either what happened
(14:25):
on November eleventh or back in nineteen fifty six. Tree
rings and ice coores reveal gls that were thousands of
times more intense than what have been reported in recent millennia.
So these are interesting knowing that these are in the
historic record they're called Miyaki events. They have a name Miyaki,
(14:49):
m i yak e, Miyaki events and modern society, And
when it's put in this context, it means society who
have a lot of their lives depending on electronics. Modern
society has not experienced a Mijaki event yet. However, Professor
Dyer from the Sury Space Center says, big events are
(15:13):
coming and we need to be ready. So just kind
of justifying their science, why are they studying this, why
are they looking into it? Because it actually can have
a strong effect on your daily life. So yes, everybody,
astronomy is relevant. Why you guys always look it up
in the sky, because sometimes giant radiation clouds just pop
out of the sky and knock out your cell phone.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
And sadly everything turns into eventually, uh oh, we got
to get ready for this, because there's just a lot
of that in science, right.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
I mean, I don't know what we do. I'm not
sure how exactly how we get ready for you know,
that kind of level of event where every piece of
electronic I mean, you know you got to have like
your own water supply and you know, your own farm,
your own cows. I mean this is how you get ready.
I encourage everybody just start prepping. Now. I'm joking, by
the way, I'm just mildly joking about that, but those
(16:08):
who build aircraft are actually getting ready. Sorry, here we go.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
Well, if you're listening Tomato Stars, there's a good possibility
you or someone in your life may be interested in
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Speaker 4 (16:20):
Well, the folks at Old.
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And if that wasn't enough, because you're a Made of
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Use promo code WES and get that fifteen percent off discount.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
More Made of Stars.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
Right after this, well, let's talk about getting ready for
(18:06):
maybe finally having a new chief at NASA. And it's
one that was brought up once before and then removed
and then hey, maybe that should be the guy.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
And it looks like.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
We're now going to get an opportunity to maybe have
that move forward next month.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
It is almost twenty twenty six as we're recording the show.
This is November of twenty twenty five, and there hasn't
been a director of NASA in the latest rendition of
the Trump administration. So NASA's been just I guess it's
like a fire hose with nobody holding the end. That's
(18:47):
not true. There have been some some competent interim people
who've jumped in and who headed up NASA and setting
the direction for NASA. But the NASA is a really
important agency. It has a lot of very important initiatives,
both from a geopolitical standpoint, but also just from the
advancement of technology in our country standpoint. And so the
(19:09):
fact that it's run for a while without a director
not great. Reuters dot Com friends, and it's all in
various other news outlets as well. But Reuters dot Com
is reporting that the US Senate has set a date
in December for a hearing for proposed NASA chief Jared Isaacman.
So they got to do He already did the hearings
(19:31):
ones passed them with flying colors, and then they he
got booted out of the process. I was back in April,
so now we're about to do it again. That's the
last time he testified in front of the Senate Commerce, Science,
and Transportation Committee was on April ninth, twenty twenty five.
Now Jared Isaacman is slated to meet with that same committee,
(19:53):
give probably largely the same testimony and talk about some
of the same issues on December third of this year.
So just within a couple of weeks or a few
weeks from right now, Jared Isaacman will be appearing again
in front of the US Senate Commerce Committee and will
be discussing why he is the best candidate to lead
(20:15):
NASA now. As Wes and I have outlined many times
on this show, he funded, organized, and commanded two flights
to ear or the two flights above Earth using SpaceX
rockets and capsules. That was the Inspiration four, which occurred
back in September of twenty twenty one, and the Polaris
Dawn mission, which occurred in September of twenty twenty four.
So Isaacman himself been in space twice. On Polaris Dawn,
(20:40):
he actually did a spacewalk himself. He would be one
of the first ever directors of NASA to have that
much space experience. There have been a few other astronauts
that have headed NASA. I can't remember off the top
of my head if those other astronauts had done spacewalks,
but Jared is it's in spacewalk was the farthest from
(21:02):
Earth since the Apollo era. So so he's got some
street crab, he's got some accomplishments to hang behind. Just
being an acquaintance of Elon Musk.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
I mean, you go that far, you stick your head
out of the window. It gives you a certain amount
of street cred, you know. I mean it's there and
that's what he did, and I would be We've talked
about this too. I would be pro. You know, when
he if we get to the point where he gets
approved and he becomes the chief and he's running NASA. Hey,
when I go up to the International Space Station, see
(21:34):
how things are doing, you know, do one of those
like spot checks, one of those.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Hey, the boss is coming.
Speaker 5 (21:40):
We got to clean things up a little bit. I mean,
why not get in there and go through his clipboard
and they're doing a good job, guys, and then he
comes back home.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Why not he could do it?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Or perhaps you have an episode of Undercover Boss. Yeah,
maybe he just grows some facial hair and puts on
a ball cap. Yeah, then goes up there goes, oh,
I'm just a random astronaut they asked to come to
the space station. I'm not the director of NASA or
anything like that. What do you guys think about that
new director? Huh, He's a jerk, isn't he.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
And then listen to what they say, you could do
that and then he peels off the beer and they're like,
w we were pretty sure that was you the whole time,
Jared things.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Oh we never recognized you, not even with those giant ears.
We never knew you were Jared isacman.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
For one second, let's give an update on Comet three
I Atlas. This is we got new photos to go
with this, as we've slowly been coming to the realization
that that comet that has come from beyond our solar
system and for the most part, did everything that a
(22:47):
comet would do, except for a couple of weird things
that didn't quite seem right and got people a little
worked up and excited, and then it started acting like
a comet again, and then you go, Okay, well it's
it's it's I guess I don't know. There's still some
people who won't give up on the dream. But these
new images look pretty good.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Though, so so listen. I get it. When people say
some shall we say, elevated comments about something in outer
space colickbait, perhaps clickbait. It turns things exciting for the
average person who doesn't really have a burning passion for astronomy,
(23:28):
but maybe they read the words is this comment an
alien spacecraft? And that turns on their fires of imagination.
If you fall into that category. Welcome to the podcast. Friends,
we've been missing you. We're glad you're here. But this
was never an alien spacecraft. In fact, in my world,
that's not even why it's interesting that somebody said it
(23:49):
was an alien spacecraft. It's interesting because it's actually an
intergalactic visitor. It's an interstellar comment and I gotta be
careful myself. Intergalactic means it came from another galaxy. It's
a show. We call it a trans galactic It came
from a different side of our galaxy, right, So anyway,
so in an interstellar object, this comet was born in the
(24:14):
cloud of a different star than our sun. It had
different chemistry, It formed in a different part of the
Milky Way galaxy. It is speeding through our solar system
at a high rate of speed, and as it does,
we're getting to check out the chemistry of a cloud
(24:36):
that birthed a solar system that is not ours, and that,
to me, friends, is of course, the most interesting thing
about it. However, because of a lot of Internet speculation
about whether or not this comet was actually an alien spacecraft,
then there began the drum beat of NASA's withholding its images.
(24:57):
It's not releasing its images. It took images of this comment,
it's not sharing them with the public. This is all
part of the conspiracy. No, they don't say conspiracy. This
is all part of the result of NASA knowing that
this thing is a spaceship from another solar system. Let's
not forget, folks, that the government has been shut down,
(25:18):
that these people who are employed at NASA don't even
have a job to go to for a period of time.
Let us not forget, friends, that they couldn't release the
images because they were home due to the government shutdown.
So now on Wednesday of this week, as we're recording
the show, was very recently this particular set of images
(25:41):
from NASA was finally released. And as NASA released these images,
they are, in my words, unspectacular. It's hard to tell
it's even a comet. It is just a little fuzzy ball.
Maybe there's some hint of a tail and some of
the images. And I know it's hard to talk about
(26:03):
images on a podcast, but I've shared these with Wes.
But you can actually check this out on the NBC
news dot com article. But we got what're you got?
Speaker 5 (26:12):
Two that you sent me, though one is unspectacular. The
other one looks pretty spectacular.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, So all of the NASA images were taken with
you know, spacecraft around the Sun or you know, like
the Punch satellite, so the Solar and Healospheric Observatory, or
spacecraft around Mars like the Mars Atmospheric and Volatile Evolution
Mission which is called MAVEN, or the Perseverance Rover from
the surface of Mars, and all of those are bad
(26:38):
pictures because they're just not those instruments are not made
not designed to take images of comments. So the image
I shared with Wes, which is a fantastic image, actually
came from an amateur astronomer that posted it to spaceweather
dot com, and doctor Tony Phillips, who runs the website
(27:01):
spaceweather dot com, made an archive of these kinds of
images that are now coming in from amateur astronomers. The
amateur astronomers are indeed on Earth because this comet is
now finally visible in some twilight, and so amateur astronomers,
being clever at getting great pictures, have figured out some
(27:21):
data management procedures to make these images really look good,
and so we're actually well in the words, of doctor
Tony Phillips from Space Weather Quote. NASA's cameras reveal the
comet to be a fuzzy blob, but photos being taken
by amateur astronomers on Earth are far more informative. That's
(27:42):
just because you can see more structure in both the coma,
which is the main part of the comet where the
nucleus is embedded, and in the tails. And this comment
has multiple tales. It has you know, twin tails out
the back when a dust tail, want a gas tail,
it's the gas tail that's the most prevalent. But this
also as a forward facing sunpointing anti tail, and that
(28:05):
makes this interesting. Also, the colors of a comet obtained
by the amateur stromers show the difference in chemistry between
that tail, which is an eye on tail, and the
actual nucleus itself, which is letting go or sublimating large
amounts of volatile gases and pieces of ice. So so
(28:26):
there you go. NASA did release its images, so just
that everybody calmed out about the whole NASA won't release
their images thing, and what was on them not much,
And what's being photographed by amateurstronomers with good telescopes and
cameras quite a lot. Check out spaceweather dot com.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
All right, so Star Wars is known for its you
twin star system.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Now we've got this.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
Really cool image from James webspace telescope of a triple
star system. It's like a giant fry egg in the sky.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
It does look a little bit like that. It looks
one could say, it looks a bit like a pinwheel.
You know, it's got a pin wheel kind of effect on.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
I mean, honestly, I went to fried egg just because,
I mean, who doesn't like a fried egg? But I
think the first thing I thought when I saw it
is it definitely looks like an eyeball.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Kind of looks a bit like an eyeball. Yeah, it does.
And you know, it could be that we're recording the
show around lunchtime. So the whole idea of food is
a good thing.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
So yeah, the more you say it, the more I
see a fried egg. By the way. Anyway, So all right,
so once again here we are on a podcast describing
an image. This image is a lovely collection of multiple
colors of oranges, reds, purples, and blues. All false color
images by the way, obtained by the James Web Space telescope. Now,
the colors mean things, but this isn't exactly what your
(29:49):
eye would see. Remember, the James Web is the JWSD
is taking pictures in the infrared part of the spectrum
where you can't even see anyway, So you wouldn't detect
any of these colors. Okay, but go check out the
images on space dot Com of this triple star system
because it's really really beautiful for one thing, and then
when you figure out what's going on on the inside,
(30:11):
it's even more interesting. You see, when stars that are
similar to our sun live out their lifetime, in their
toward their final stages of life, they begin to lose
the outer layers of their atmosphere, and as that begins
to happen, they move into a category of stars that
astronomers have defined as wolf Rea stars Wolfraya. That's rye
(30:36):
t is how that second word is spelled, wolf Rea stars.
So a wolf Raya star is a massive star that's
just losing all of its outer atmosphere, shedding it off
into space. And what James Web is captured is one
of these systems of stars that have wolf raya stars
on the inside, and it has been nicknamed a pet
(31:01):
apep you see, was named after the Egyptian god of
chaos or in this case, cosmic chaos. What jwst has
photographed is a triple star system where two of the
stars in this three way star system are wolf Reya stars.
They are both arriving at the end stages of their
(31:24):
life at the same time, and like all wolf Rea stars,
they have powerful stellar winds which are blowing all this
material out into kind of a bubble. But they are
also injecting huge clumps of material and exposing a nitrogen,
helium and carbon rich interior of that star. Those are
(31:45):
the elements made during the final phases of fusion in
these stars. So wolf Raya stars a really important step
in the evolutionary process of stars. Here's something interesting. In
all the universe so far observed by our telescopes, we
only know about about a thousand of these stars. That
may seem like a big number, but remember we know
(32:07):
about billions and billions and billions of stars, and there's
only about a thousand of those that are wolf Rea stars.
That's because in part, stars don't live very long in
this stage. They don't spend very much time there, so
if they're not there for very long. When you look
out at a whole survey of stars out there in
the universe, there are just not many that happen to
(32:29):
be at that specific frame of time where you can
capture them in the wolf Raia stage. Well, that makes
this object then even more interesting that James Webb has captured,
because not only have they found one new wolf Rea star,
they have found two of them, and they are in
a gravitational dance with yet a third star, and they
are spewing their material out into this Frida egg or
(32:52):
eyeball shaped object. That makes if you just like the
art of things from space, it makes a lovely site.
It's a beautiful image from the James web Space Telescope.
But it's also helping astronomers understand how stars evolve as
they go through the process of the end of their
lifetimes in the wolf Aa stage.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
More made of stars.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
Right after this, we are coming up on Thanksgiving one
(33:39):
week from today as we record, and I know you
guys have some adjusted hours to talk about there at
Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Side Center.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Yeah, we will be We will be closing for Thanksgiving
on Thursday and Friday, but we will reopen on the
Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend, So we're going to get
you past that Black Friday. Lets you go get all
those great deals, or stay home an online shop or
whatever it is you have to do. You know, just
get over the trip to fan overdose, whatever you need
to do on the couch, perhaps for some football games
(34:09):
on or things. But on Saturday, it's time to come
back and learn space again, friends, So we'll be reopening
the doors of the Space Science Center on Saturday as scheduled. Also,
just follow us on Facebook or check out our website
for some additional modified hours as we go into the
Christmas holiday toward the middle of December. So that's it
for now. And by the way, friends, we are going
(34:32):
to be having some brand new exhibits in our exhibit gallery.
We have a Mars Rover simulation game now up and running,
where you can both drive the Perseverance Rover around specifically,
or you can also fly the Ingenuity helicopter and go
out and check actual geological features on the surface of Mars.
That's a really fun kind of video game simulation. We
(34:55):
are also modifying our flight simulators. We've been working on
that project and that is near completion. That should be
done also by the Thanksgiving holiday, So come down and
check out all of those new features in our exhibit
gallery at Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
Sean and I thank you for listening, and we will
do this again next weeks. Overhead Door Company of Columbus
has all of your garage door needs covered residential and
commercial service and repairs. If you need a new garage door,
you're just looking to upgrade or repair your current door,
(35:33):
Overhead Door Company of Columbus has you covered. Plus they've
got your emergency repairs or service covered as well. Seven
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