September 25, 2025 • 37 mins
NASA says the Artemis II Moon mission could happen in six months and there's a way your name can travel with it. NASA and SpaceX sent up three probes to study space weather. NASA's VIPER mission has come back to life. And stars have been spotted eating things.
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Episode Transcript
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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, madies. 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. I'm Wes Carol, joined
by my good friend doctor Sean, cruising from Columbus State
University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Hay Sean, good morning, Wes. Good to be here today.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
All right, it's official. I mean we knew, but it's
even more official now than it's ever been before.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
We're going back to the Moon. Yeah, I mean we were.
We knew we were going back to you.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
And I went to Kennedy to see the rocket and.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
We got that rocket pull up. We were pretty sure.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
It seemed like they pulled it out of that giant
cigar container that was docked there, and they pulled the
thing out. It took forever to come out. I was
I did some interviews with some astronauts and some engineers
while they were pulling it out, and when I came back,
it still wasn't all the way out, but at that
point they rolled it into the VA B and we thought,
(01:47):
this seems like it's a good thing, that we're probably
going to go back to the moon. And we taught
you and I both interviewed several of the engineers and
project managers that have been working on it, and all
of that certainly indicated that we were going back to
the moon. And now I guess we've gotten another big
announcement that, yes, in fact, is happening next year.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
We are going back to the moon. So listen, friends,
all all of the interviews that Wes talked about are
in the database of Native Stars podcasts, and you are
more than welcome to go back and listen to those
spectacular interviews with all variety of program managers and very
important people involved with the Artemis program. That's happened just
(02:30):
a little bit more than a year ago anyway. So
what's happening right now is this As of yesterday, which
is Wednesday, the twenty fourth, NASA officials have given an
update on the Artemis two program, And what they're saying
is they are announcing that yes, we are going, and
they've moved the data to as early as potentially February
(02:52):
the fifth. Now here's the reason that this is like
a new story, right. So, yes, we've been talking a
lot about Artemis two. It's going to be the first
mission to fly people around the backside of the Moon,
including the first woman and first Canadian. But here's the
big thing is they've moved that up substantially, so this
would be less than six months from now if they
(03:15):
can hit all their target dates, and they actually have
laid out a plan to achieve all those target dates.
Lakeisha Hawkins, the Artemis two mission manager at NASA's Kennedy
Space Center, has set in a news conference, we together
have a front row seat to history. We're returning to
the Moon after over fifty years, which is true, right,
(03:38):
So it's been since nineteen seventy two that we've had
anybody fly around the backside of the Moon. That was
during the Apollo seventeen mission. So this time we're going
to be setting some folks who who are brand new
to space travel. But some of them are not even
from this country, right, So that's kind of a new feature.
(03:59):
One of them is will be the first woman to
fly around the backside of the Moon. That's a new feature,
and this is leading the way for a lot of
science to be done, but also the colonization of the
surface of the Moon. If you remember, the one of
the Artemis catchphrases is we're going back to the Moon
for good. And yes that's a double entendre. It means
(04:21):
to stay permanently. It also means for the betterment of humanity, right,
So these are both really great things and great objectives.
So anyway, check there's a story on IFL Science, one
of our favorite sites. There's lots of stories out there
about returning to Artemis returning to the Moon within less
than six months. Check that out. Brand new from NASA.
(04:43):
Check out IFL science because they have the best website
name they do.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Of all the websites that we reference, that is definitely
one of them. So this is something cool also that
you can do that involves this particular mission, is that
the folks at NASA are giving you the opportunity to
send your name around the backside of the Moon with
these astronauts. And here's the kicker it's free. Like when
(05:11):
do you hear about something cool? Like usually it's like, hey,
we're gonna name a star after you for just you know,
one hundred and seventy five dollars or whatever, and you go,
all right, is this official? Well no, but in this case,
they will send your name in a database. It'll be
like on an SD card, I think, is what they're saying.
So they're gonna make this database of all of these
(05:33):
names and then they're gonna put it on the SD card.
It's gonna fly around the moon, it's gonna come back
to Earth, and your name will have been part of history.
So that's kind of cool. And I know you can
probably think, well, it's just my name on an SD card. Yeah,
but if you don't submit your name on the SD card,
guess what, your name's not gonna fly around the moon.
That's all I'm saying. And it's free, that's the other
(05:54):
part of it. And it takes. And I've already submitted
my name. I've submitted the names of my family. My
dog is in there. You know, you can do. Made
of Stars is flying around the moon officially, I got mine.
They'll give you a little boarding pass. You'll get a
little QR code. I guess you're gonna be able to
track stuff. I don't know, But the point is they're
trying to get excitement from citizens to say, hey, I
(06:18):
want to be a part of this, and it's a
way to be a part of it, and it's free.
You just go to NASA dot gov. As of the
release of the show this week here in late September.
It's on the front page. You just got to scroll
down a little bit, but there it is one click,
or you can on their X page. I guess they've
also posted a link and it just it'll take you
two minutes and you get a cool little boarding pass
(06:41):
and you just put you submit your name and it's
not asking you for a bunch of stuff. It doesn't
want to know your email address. It just wants your
name and a pin number. That's all it wants. And
then with the pin number, maybe there'll be some other
stuff you can do later. But again, it's free, so
you can be a part of this for free.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And you know, if we're if we're really thinking that
inspiration is a very important part of inspiring the next
generation of scientists and engineers to actually major in those fields.
Later on, which we do every day here at Coca
Cola Space Science Center, and that's what we try to do.
We try we try to provide the inspiration that leads
to the education, that leads to that future career workforce,
(07:20):
which is so important for America. Do this with your kids,
or do this with your grandkids, or do this with
a dog. I mean that's what I did, yeah, or
that you know, even that inspire your dog to be
an engineer? No, anyway, I mean, who knows who the
first dog on the moon is going to be. We
don't know. That dog may already be out.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
There somewhere just waiting for a chance to go. We
just watched dogs.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Could be a listener to this podcast. We don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
We just rewatched Superman. Uh, you know, and crypto is
all the rage right now, so you know, you never know.
But it's a pretty cool way to connect with people
doing it and it's easy, and it takes very little
of your time and it's free. So yes, you're exactly right.
Do it with your kids, give them an opportunity. And
I think classrooms should be doing this. I think every
(08:09):
opportunity for people to take advantage of a cool connection
to something that's going to be happening so and happening
sooner than we thought.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, yeah, you know, maybe even before the super Bowl.
Who knows.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
That would be amazing, that would be wild. All right,
let's let's talk about something that happened yesterday. Because we
had this this launch yesterday, you just in time sent
me a link to it so I could track the launch. Again,
I appreciate that. I always love when I get a
text from you it's like this right now, which I
(08:42):
get right now, and I was able to check that
out yesterday morning.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So it's a it's a really cool mission that involves
some space weather probe. So these are spacecraft that I
would call them a satellite, but they're not really orbiting
the Earth. They're orbiting the Sun with the Earth, which
I guess maybe there are still satellites of the Sun.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, I guess I don't know anyway, so let's just
call them space probes. So there are three new spacecraft
that have been deployed to help us better understand phenomenon
associated with the Sun and its effect on the Earth.
And they are first of all, the main mission, the
IMAT mission. This is called the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe.
(09:26):
So what they're looking at is effects of the Sun
and its activity on the Solar System in general, and
particularly watching for space weather impacts on satellite and communication
systems around the Earth, how the Sun may be affecting
power grids, and just enabling a better preparedness for some
deep understanding of how space weather and solar storms affect
(09:50):
the Earth. Right. So that's the number one mission, the
IMAP mission. That's a NASA mission. The second mission, and
again this is three for the price of one. So
the second mission is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
a mission called the Space Weather follow On Lagrange one
(10:11):
rolls off the tongue Space Weather follow On Lagrange one.
I intentionally put a little gap in there because it's
the SWAFFO mission SWFO DASH L one. And here's the thing.
The mission could just be called the Space Weather follow On,
which is a spacecraft that is going to be deploying
(10:35):
a set of instruments to look at the corona and
the thermal plasma which is around the Sun itself. It's
instruments coronal mass ejection. So it's kind of an early
warning system for space Weather. It's looking at the effects
of magnetic fields, both the Sun's magnetic field and its
(10:56):
impact on the Earth's magnetic field. So it's doing a
lot of different things. The space Weather mission. It's being
deployed to Lagrange point one, So Lagarannge point one is
actually a location. In fact, all three of these space
probes are going to this location. Lagrange point one is
a balance point in the mutual gravitational field of the
(11:18):
Sun and the Earth. And because the Sun's gravity and
the Earth's gravity would be pulling on that spacecraft with
the same amount of force, then the spacecraft just stays
balanced right there and orbits around the Sun with the Earth. Now,
that's almost easy to imagine if it's like right in
(11:41):
Earth's same orbit, because Kepler's laws would tell you that
anything at that orbital range would orbit at that speed.
But this thing is actually closer to the Sun than
the Earth, so you might think by if you know
anything about Kepler's laws, you might say, well, should be
going faster like Venus does, or like mercury does. It
goes around the Sun faster than the Earth. Right, they
(12:01):
have shorter orbital periods than the Earth does because they're closer.
So this spacecraft indeed would be closer to the Sun,
but it doesn't have a shorter orbital period because it's
locked in by Earth's gravitational force as well as the Sun's.
It's at that weird balance point of lagrange one, so
it just hangs right between the Earth and the Sun,
(12:23):
which is absolutely perfect for a spaceship that you want
to be an early warning system for solar storms, because
all of the charged particles and waves of material ejected
during a solar flare are going to arrive at that
spacecraft about half an hour before they arrive at the Earth.
(12:44):
So in other words, we can radio up to the
astronauts aboard the International Space Station or other spacecraft that
might be up there and say, hey, there has been
a solar storm. We just had a detection that that
material is traveling in and it's about a half hour away,
so you have about thirty minutes to be able to
hunker down and protect yourself from this oncoming coronal mass ejection.
(13:05):
So that's one of the many purposes of space weather
follow on mission or the SWAFFO dash L one mission
SAFFO at lagrange one, So that's two of the missions. Now,
the third one is called the Carruthers Geo Corona Observatory.
Let's break that down. It's named after doctor George R. Carruthers,
(13:27):
who is one of the early visionary scientists and inventors, educator,
engineer who helped discover the fact that there is something
called a geo corona. Now, if you're any kind of
a space buff at all, which I imagine you are
you're listening to this podcast, you know that there's a
corona around the Sun. It's the thing you see during
(13:49):
a total eclipse. It's that glowing cloud of high temperature
gas around the outside of the Sun that it actuallymits
a lot of X rays because it's at a high temperature. Okay,
that's the solar corona. But the Earth has a corona
as well, and people might not know more much about that.
It's actually the very last outer part of the atmosphere
(14:12):
of the Earth. It's called the exosphere. And the exosphere
extends anywhere from about three hundred miles out to about
one hundred and twenty thousand miles, so it's really big,
but it's also very very thin layer of gas. But
this really thin outer envelope of the very last vestiges
(14:34):
of verse atmosphere can be caused to glow in the
ultraviolet part of the spectrum by incoming radiation from the Sun,
and that is what's known as the geo corona. It's
the glowing exosphere being lit up by the Sun's radiation. Okay,
so this was only discovered in the space age. Doctor
(14:56):
George R. Carruthers, the namesake for this last mission aboard
yesterday's launch was somebody who designed one of the first
cameras to ever go to the Moon and look back
at the Earth and study this very thing we're talking about,
the geo corona in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum.
(15:16):
Doctor George R. Carruthers camera flew on Apollo sixteen and
is therefore still on the surface of the Moon actually,
but it took some very important early data helping us
understand that the Earth's exosphere will light up in the
ultraviolet when it gets hit by solar radiation. So there
(15:37):
you go. The third mission called the Carruthers Geo Corona Observatory,
named after George R. Carruthers, one of the early visionary
scientists at NASA.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
So it was a big launch yesterday, is what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
You know, it was a three for one. And by
the way, the American taxpayer, let us remember, there are
two reasons why this launch was both cheaper and more
efficient and your standard scientific launches that we've gotten used
to over the past fifty years of the space age
sixty years. Here's why. Because A, they were using a
(16:10):
rocket that's reusable. In fact, this was its second trip
to space, so already it's cheaper because you're reusing the rockets.
And b we've learned how to stack three different spacecraft
inside the cargo fairing of one rocket and blast them
all off together. So not only is it cheaper per
pound because you're reusing the space vehicle, the launch vehicle,
(16:33):
it's also cheaper because it's three missions for the price
of one. Friends, So there you go, making space better
even for the hardworking American taxpayer.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Coming up, after a quick break, we'll talk about NASA's
viper mission.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
We'll do that next.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Viper Mission has come back to life thanks to the
folks at Blue Origin to agree.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
NASA had basically canceled this mission because they were saying, ah,
we can't really afford to take it. But they then
Jeff called, right, Jeff got, Jeff got on the phone.
I said, hey, how about I help you take that
that mission to the Moon. So this is Jeff Bezos
from Blue Origin. He's been collaborating with NASA to revive
(17:41):
the VIPER Polar Explore. Basically, it's a it's a rover
for driving around at the Moon's south pole and I
identifying various volatile compounds that may or may not be
on the surface down there at the lunar south pole.
We're pretty sure it is, but we're going to go
study more detail. That mission, again had been proposed by NASA,
(18:02):
had actually been built, but then NASA ran out of
money for it, so they canceled it. And Jeff said, well, listen,
if all you need is a ride to the Moon,
because you already have it built, let me take it
up for you. And so I don't know if it's
exactly word for word having that conversation.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
He may have just said, hey, I've got money.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, I mean, and little argument that he has money,
probably more than anyway, So it does in fact have money.
The VIPER mission, which stands for Volatile's Investigation Polar Exploration
Rover welas there's just no verbs in there at all,
investigating I guess there is a verb volatiles investigating polar
(18:46):
exploration rover. Anyway, the VIPER mission, which is going to
go to the to the moon south pole and look
for signs of water so that astronauts when they go
colonize that because of the Artemis program, which we just
talked about before the break, can identify water resources that
are in place already on the Moon and perhaps take
(19:08):
advantage of some of those. That's why it's important NASA
has just approved this new launch relationship with Blue Origin
because they're trying to get ready to send astronauts back
to the Moon, and so there's some commercial lunar preparation
taking place and being funded by NASA, and somehow in
(19:30):
the midst of all that, they worked it out for
Blue Origin to actually take VIPER to the Moon. So
this is from NASA's acting administrator, Sean Duffy said this quote.
NASA is leading the world and exploring more of the
Moon than ever before, and this delivery is just one
of many ways we're leveraging US industry to support a
(19:51):
long term American presence on the lunar surface. Sean Duffy
went on to say, our rover will explore the extreme
environment of the lunar South Pole, traveling to small, permanently
shadowed regions to help inform future landing sites for our
astronauts and better understand the Moon's environment, important insights for
(20:13):
sustaining humans over long missions as America leads our future
in space. Unquote Sean Duffy, NASA administrator. There you go, friends,
So it's looking like Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin stepping
up to have an otherwise canceled mission actually find its
way to the Moon and do some very important work
(20:33):
for the future artemist missions.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
All right, so that's something that's been revived. Let's shift
over to a couple of stories about stars eating things
and ending them for starters, a Pluto like world filled
with ice. My question about and then Hubble actually is
what saw this but a star munching on this Pluto
like object? Any chance that I don't know, the silver
(20:57):
Surfer had just visited this place before it is eaten?
Or like, how does that work exactly?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
I mean, it does sound like something out of the
maybe the Marvel cinematic universe. I don't know, something like that.
I don't know. Yeah, could be. I mean, I mean
anytime you have some giant object just munching planets. Could
could be Star Wars, could be Star Trek actually original series, right,
that could be.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Could be a number of machine It could be a
number of things. I just immediately went to Galactus.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
But you know, but yeah, that's maybe the most recent
and you know, most appropriate reference. Yeah, so Hubble Space
Telescope did look out at a different star system. It's
a star system that's about two hundred and sixty light
years away from the Earth, and it gathered data of
a star snacking on a different star. Now, this is
(21:50):
a burnout start. It's a star. It's a star remnant, right,
it's a white dwarf. It's a white dwarf star that
used to be the core of a star, something similar
to the Sun. But now that star has died out
and it's just the white dwarf remnant itself. It munched
a Pluto, and I think it had already munched part
of the pluto. It just finished off the Pluto. So
(22:11):
it munched a Pluto fragment. And here's the weird thing.
After it did that, it burped. So after this white dwarf,
you know, let off a giant burp of the gases
left over from this Pluto like object. Scientists looked at it.
That's weird in itself. And these are scientists from the
University of Warwick in the UK, and they studied white
(22:33):
dwarf burps, apparently white dwarfs in general. But okay, but
if they burp, it's even better because what they found
was a giant injection of volatile carbon compounds, including carbon
including sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen compounds, and possibly that indicated the
(22:53):
presence of water in the burp led off by a
white dwarf after it ate this plue Udo like object,
which means this weird exo Pluto like object might have
had as much as sixty four percent water ice. So
they got they got a good look at the chemistry
(23:14):
of a dying world as it was being being eaten
by a dead star using the Hubble space telescope. That's
a that's a four bank pool shot right there, buddy.
That's that's a really fantastic achievement in sciences, in science
by these scientists in the UK. So Sneehalada Sahu, who
(23:37):
is one of the investigators on the project from the
University of Warwick said this, we were surprised. We did
not expect to find water or other icy content going
on with a quote. This is because the comets and
Kuiper Belt like objects are thrown out of their planetary
systems early as their stars evolve into white dwarfs. But
(24:00):
we are detecting this very volatile, rich material unquote. All right,
let me see if I can kind of unpack that
for everybody. We have in our own solar system a
belt of material that's far, far beyond the orbit of
Pluto and Neptune, way on the outside of our solar system.
It's called the Kuiper Belt. It's thought to be the
source of some very long period comets. But those long
(24:23):
period comets are very rare visitors to the inner part
of the Solar system. And what the scientist is trying
to explain is around this other star, in this other
solar system, it appears that like a fairly large object
like nearly the size of Pluto, somehow got into the
inner part of the Solar system close enough for one
(24:46):
of its parent stars to have devoured it, even after
that parent star had died out and turned into a
white dwarf, which means all of those volatile materials were
in the inner part of the solar system, not way
out on the edge, which is just interesting, right, because
if you get volatile materials in the inner part of
(25:06):
the solar system, that might mean you have all of
the building blocks necessary for life laying right in the
Goldilocks zone or the just right temperature zone for a
planet to harbor life around another star. So that's one
of the things that makes this very very interesting. So
(25:26):
again back to the study. Given the white dwarf's intense
gravitational pull, scientists believe it drew in the Pluto like
planet tesimal or small planet from its own version of
the Kuyper Belt and tore it apart. Right, So, somehow, gravitationally,
this Pluto like object was pulled in from the outer
colder reaches of its own solar system into the inner
(25:49):
parts and then devoured by this dying star, giving us
a really good look into the chemistry of this alien
solar system.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Let's talk about another situation, because we've talked about the
the Cannibal the Cannibal Star, and now it looks like
we got some new information about this or this is
a revisited story, right.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Well, so yeah, I mean we've known about this object
for a while, but we're finding out some new information
about it, and so it looks like this is happening.
So this is another edition of a star eating something.
This time it's eating its friend. This is a star
that's eating another star. And yes, this star already reached
(26:31):
the end of its lifetime and turned into a white dwarf,
just the way we described the previous story. But it's
in a binary star system. That means it's other star,
it's twin star that it's orbiting around. It's still a star,
but the white dwarf, the dead corpse of the first star,
is eating the material off the second star, and it
(26:52):
has little bright bursts of radiation that tell us, hey,
there's two stars in the system and one feeding on
the other. And every time the white dwarf draws enough
material off the companion star, it flares up into a
bright what we call a nova explosion, which is a kinder,
(27:13):
gentler version of a bigger supernova explosion. Anyway, so once
the white dwarf eats enough of that material, it's going
to it's going to pass a very important threshold, and
the threshold is called the Chandra Sakhar limit, and the
Chandra Sakar limit is where when enough material has been
(27:33):
dumped onto a white white dwarf star, the white dwarf
star can no longer support itself and it explodes in
what's called a type one a supernova explosion. Okay, so
what we're finding with an instrument called the very Large
telescope is that this double star called Vata vs Gta,
(27:56):
that's telling us what constellation is. In a constellation called
SID in the southern hemisphere, VISAJT is a binary star
system about ten thousand light years from the Earth, and
the white dwarf is feeding off its companion. It's drawing
ever nearer to that Shanda Sakhar limit where it's going
to explode in a supernova explosion. And if it does,
(28:18):
it's close enough to the Earth that it might actually
be visible in broad daylight. This could be a naked eye,
broad daylight visible supernova explosion that could happen just any
time now. Now. Unfortunately, when astronomers say that, you know
it's within the next you know, a few thousand years,
(28:40):
but it could be tomorrow, right. So the interesting thing
is we're finding out that this thing is far enough
advanced that it could be soon or geologically soon, which
might mean we're not here but still geologically soon in
the history of the Earth, all right. Pasi Hakala from
the University of Turku, a team member from the European
Southern Observatory that's been studying this, says this quote. The
(29:04):
white dwarf cannot consume all the mass being transferred from
its hot star twin, so it creates its bright cosmic ring.
The speed at which this doom stellar system is lurching wildly,
likely due to the extreme brightness, is a frantic sign
of its imminent violent end. So we know it's going
(29:25):
to happen. Astronomers have been watching this very same star
for about one hundred and twenty three years, noticing that
it was acting strangely, so we've already known about it.
Now with modern technology like the very large telescope, we
know this is a type one a supernova about ready
to go. Stay tuned. That's all I can tell you.
(29:46):
Don't miss another episode of Made of Stars, because this
thing could go. And will be the first to tell you, well,
we'll try.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
We'll be one of the first definitely one of the first.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Will be one of the first the next ten thousand
years to tell you this thing is going to happen.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
More made of stars right after this, all right, let's
(30:27):
talk about Music under the Dome coming up, and then
we have another thing that we can, I guess now
announce officially that we're really excited about. I'm especially excited
about it. I think you are too. But let's start
with Music under the Dome.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, Music under the Dome is a concert series that
happens here at Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center,
and it is where the Schwob School of Music faculty
and students right here from our own university come into
our planetarium and perform under the stars. Friends. But it's
not just stars, it's actual league custom design graphics by
(31:02):
various visual artists. And the first one that's going to
happen on the first Tuesday in October, which is actually
October the seventh, is going to be all the artwork
is going to be designed by Lance Tankersley, the planetarium
director of the Omosphere Theater here at CSU's co Cola
Space Science Center. So we're super excited about that. The
(31:23):
concert series. I will tell you friends, it's selling out rapidly.
There are just a few season tickets left. I believe
that most of the door sales for the two concerts
this fall are already gone, which means there's only a
couple of ways you can see it. Either jumping and
buy one of those season passes and get all the
concert series and come back and see us, or you
(31:45):
can come the night of the concert. We do reserve
a handful of seats for sale on the night of
the show, but those are on a first comfort serve basis.
And we love everybody's enthusiasm for the concert series. Thank
you for all those folks who have bought tickets already
and hope to see you on October seventh for the
first Music under the Dome concert for this academic year
(32:05):
here at Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Now, yeah, and we got something other event and something
else that's a first, Yes, for.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
An absolute first, something that's never happened for Wes. This
is really your this is your podcast. I'm just, you know,
a comedy relief that comes in and joins you. Why
don't you make this really important announcement about the event
coming up here at CSU's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
So November first, which happens to be the night of
an Astronomy Night taking place at Columbus State University's Space
Science Center, And maybe you're listening to this you were
planning to be at Astronomy Night anyway. If not, we're
going to give you something to do before Astronomy Night
and you can stick around and participate in that. So
(32:49):
we have decided on November the first, we are going
to do our first ever Made of Stars Live. We'll
do the podcast there at the co Cola Space Science Center,
and we invite you to come and join us for
the show we'll be doing it. I mean, we're going
(33:09):
to have some topics planned out, but I assume we'll
probably be happy to answer some questions. I've got one
friend who is already planning to be there and has
already said I've got a question, and I'm like, you
can save that now. They told me what the question was.
I said, we do like to know a little bit
ahead of time, so we're not getting too many curve balls,
but we're excited about the opportunity to sit there in
(33:29):
front of an audience, first time that we will have
ever done that. I anticipate, unless it all goes horribly wrong,
it will not be the last time that we do it.
I just think it's going to be a lot of
fun and I'm really excited about the chance for us
to do that there at the co Co Cola Space
Science Center. And like I said, then you just stick
around and you can participate in Astronomy Night that'll be
(33:51):
going on right afterwards, so you'll get two events in
one and I'm just excited about it November first, and
I have had a number of people that I've told
about it go all right, So what do we got
to do for tickets?
Speaker 2 (34:05):
It's like, well, this.
Speaker 4 (34:09):
First one, I don't know that we're going to have tickets,
but we'll see. We'll see what the interest level is.
If we can pack the place out, we might have
to start thinking about tickets in the future, even if
it's just a reserved spot for people that want to
be there. But for now, yeah, we just need you
to come and show up on November first. That's where
we're at at this point. But we're in the early
planning stages of it. But Shawn and I are really
(34:31):
excited about the opportunity to do it.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Yeah. So this is actually an event that is sponsored
by Columbus State University's Department of Earth and Space Sciences,
where we have degree programs in astrophysics and planetary geology
as well as regular geology, environmental science, and science education.
So this is my home academic department here at Columbus
State University. Doctor Troy Keller is the chair of the
(34:55):
department has invited us as part of their speaker series
for the apartment to come in and do this event.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
So if we triggered this whole and if we stink,
take it up with Troy, that's all I got to see.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
It's all Troy's fault. But you know, if you're if
you're a regular listener to the podcast, you pretty much
know what you're gonna get. That's right. It's gonna be this,
except with Wes and I actually physically sitting in person,
that's right, and doing what we do here. And you know,
you know, at first it scared me to have a
live audience. Then I thought, well, that's not going to
be any different than what I'm not going to say,
(35:30):
anything different than how I would say it now. I'm
just gonna go ahead and present just the way I
do on this podcast. It's not like we do multiple
takes and you know, start over. We don't. We just
kind of we just wait.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
Now in this case, though, you get me in front
of a live audience, I'm the wild car.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I can't promise I'm gonna have a situation right for
all those people who might actually come to this event.
You know Wes, you listen to him regularly on this
and many other podcasts. You know what you're in for.
So I would say, just buckle up, come down to
the show on November first. We're going to have fun,
that I promise. And I have a pretty big theater,
(36:09):
you know here at the Space Science Center, there's there's
a goodly number of seats. We're going to try to
add some extra capacity to the planetarium for this particular
event that night. So yeah, I think we'll I think
we'll be able to get everybody in. But we're still
thinking through whether or not we have to reserve a
ticket or not, so trying. We're trying to get some feedback.
If you know you're coming, email Wes, you know, find
(36:32):
us online there, send us a message direct message them
on Facebook whatever.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
Either way, either way you can reach me.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Just reach out to Wes and say hey, I'm coming.
And if that number gets to be more than a thousand,
then we know we really have something. So then we
might have to announce a change of venue, but other
than that, we're good to go.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
Have to move it to the River Center or something,
but we're looking forward to that. So to learn more
about upcoming events, go to the website CCSSC dot org
for the Coca Cola Space Science Center. Sean and I
thank you for listening, and we will do this again
next week.
Speaker 6 (37:05):
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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, madies. 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. I'm Wes Carol, joined
by my good friend doctor Sean, cruising from Columbus State
University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Hay Sean, good morning, Wes. Good to be here today.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
All right, it's official. I mean we knew, but it's
even more official now than it's ever been before.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
We're going back to the Moon. Yeah, I mean we were.
We knew we were going back to you.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
And I went to Kennedy to see the rocket and.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
We got that rocket pull up. We were pretty sure.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
It seemed like they pulled it out of that giant
cigar container that was docked there, and they pulled the
thing out. It took forever to come out. I was
I did some interviews with some astronauts and some engineers
while they were pulling it out, and when I came back,
it still wasn't all the way out, but at that
point they rolled it into the VA B and we thought,
(01:47):
this seems like it's a good thing, that we're probably
going to go back to the moon. And we taught
you and I both interviewed several of the engineers and
project managers that have been working on it, and all
of that certainly indicated that we were going back to
the moon. And now I guess we've gotten another big
announcement that, yes, in fact, is happening next year.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
We are going back to the moon. So listen, friends,
all all of the interviews that Wes talked about are
in the database of Native Stars podcasts, and you are
more than welcome to go back and listen to those
spectacular interviews with all variety of program managers and very
important people involved with the Artemis program. That's happened just
(02:30):
a little bit more than a year ago anyway. So
what's happening right now is this As of yesterday, which
is Wednesday, the twenty fourth, NASA officials have given an
update on the Artemis two program, And what they're saying
is they are announcing that yes, we are going, and
they've moved the data to as early as potentially February
(02:52):
the fifth. Now here's the reason that this is like
a new story, right. So, yes, we've been talking a
lot about Artemis two. It's going to be the first
mission to fly people around the backside of the Moon,
including the first woman and first Canadian. But here's the
big thing is they've moved that up substantially, so this
would be less than six months from now if they
(03:15):
can hit all their target dates, and they actually have
laid out a plan to achieve all those target dates.
Lakeisha Hawkins, the Artemis two mission manager at NASA's Kennedy
Space Center, has set in a news conference, we together
have a front row seat to history. We're returning to
the Moon after over fifty years, which is true, right,
(03:38):
So it's been since nineteen seventy two that we've had
anybody fly around the backside of the Moon. That was
during the Apollo seventeen mission. So this time we're going
to be setting some folks who who are brand new
to space travel. But some of them are not even
from this country, right, So that's kind of a new feature.
(03:59):
One of them is will be the first woman to
fly around the backside of the Moon. That's a new feature,
and this is leading the way for a lot of
science to be done, but also the colonization of the
surface of the Moon. If you remember, the one of
the Artemis catchphrases is we're going back to the Moon
for good. And yes that's a double entendre. It means
(04:21):
to stay permanently. It also means for the betterment of humanity, right,
So these are both really great things and great objectives.
So anyway, check there's a story on IFL Science, one
of our favorite sites. There's lots of stories out there
about returning to Artemis returning to the Moon within less
than six months. Check that out. Brand new from NASA.
(04:43):
Check out IFL science because they have the best website
name they do.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Of all the websites that we reference, that is definitely
one of them. So this is something cool also that
you can do that involves this particular mission, is that
the folks at NASA are giving you the opportunity to
send your name around the backside of the Moon with
these astronauts. And here's the kicker it's free. Like when
(05:11):
do you hear about something cool? Like usually it's like, hey,
we're gonna name a star after you for just you know,
one hundred and seventy five dollars or whatever, and you go,
all right, is this official? Well no, but in this case,
they will send your name in a database. It'll be
like on an SD card, I think, is what they're saying.
So they're gonna make this database of all of these
(05:33):
names and then they're gonna put it on the SD card.
It's gonna fly around the moon, it's gonna come back
to Earth, and your name will have been part of history.
So that's kind of cool. And I know you can
probably think, well, it's just my name on an SD card. Yeah,
but if you don't submit your name on the SD card,
guess what, your name's not gonna fly around the moon.
That's all I'm saying. And it's free, that's the other
(05:54):
part of it. And it takes. And I've already submitted
my name. I've submitted the names of my family. My
dog is in there. You know, you can do. Made
of Stars is flying around the moon officially, I got mine.
They'll give you a little boarding pass. You'll get a
little QR code. I guess you're gonna be able to
track stuff. I don't know, But the point is they're
trying to get excitement from citizens to say, hey, I
(06:18):
want to be a part of this, and it's a
way to be a part of it, and it's free.
You just go to NASA dot gov. As of the
release of the show this week here in late September.
It's on the front page. You just got to scroll
down a little bit, but there it is one click,
or you can on their X page. I guess they've
also posted a link and it just it'll take you
two minutes and you get a cool little boarding pass
(06:41):
and you just put you submit your name and it's
not asking you for a bunch of stuff. It doesn't
want to know your email address. It just wants your
name and a pin number. That's all it wants. And
then with the pin number, maybe there'll be some other
stuff you can do later. But again, it's free, so
you can be a part of this for free.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And you know, if we're if we're really thinking that
inspiration is a very important part of inspiring the next
generation of scientists and engineers to actually major in those fields.
Later on, which we do every day here at Coca
Cola Space Science Center, and that's what we try to do.
We try we try to provide the inspiration that leads
to the education, that leads to that future career workforce,
(07:20):
which is so important for America. Do this with your kids,
or do this with your grandkids, or do this with
a dog. I mean that's what I did, yeah, or
that you know, even that inspire your dog to be
an engineer? No, anyway, I mean, who knows who the
first dog on the moon is going to be. We
don't know. That dog may already be out.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
There somewhere just waiting for a chance to go. We
just watched dogs.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Could be a listener to this podcast. We don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
We just rewatched Superman. Uh, you know, and crypto is
all the rage right now, so you know, you never know.
But it's a pretty cool way to connect with people
doing it and it's easy, and it takes very little
of your time and it's free. So yes, you're exactly right.
Do it with your kids, give them an opportunity. And
I think classrooms should be doing this. I think every
(08:09):
opportunity for people to take advantage of a cool connection
to something that's going to be happening so and happening
sooner than we thought.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, yeah, you know, maybe even before the super Bowl.
Who knows.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
That would be amazing, that would be wild. All right,
let's let's talk about something that happened yesterday. Because we
had this this launch yesterday, you just in time sent
me a link to it so I could track the launch. Again,
I appreciate that. I always love when I get a
text from you it's like this right now, which I
(08:42):
get right now, and I was able to check that
out yesterday morning.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So it's a it's a really cool mission that involves
some space weather probe. So these are spacecraft that I
would call them a satellite, but they're not really orbiting
the Earth. They're orbiting the Sun with the Earth, which
I guess maybe there are still satellites of the Sun.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, I guess I don't know anyway, so let's just
call them space probes. So there are three new spacecraft
that have been deployed to help us better understand phenomenon
associated with the Sun and its effect on the Earth.
And they are first of all, the main mission, the
IMAT mission. This is called the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe.
(09:26):
So what they're looking at is effects of the Sun
and its activity on the Solar System in general, and
particularly watching for space weather impacts on satellite and communication
systems around the Earth, how the Sun may be affecting
power grids, and just enabling a better preparedness for some
deep understanding of how space weather and solar storms affect
(09:50):
the Earth. Right. So that's the number one mission, the
IMAP mission. That's a NASA mission. The second mission, and
again this is three for the price of one. So
the second mission is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
a mission called the Space Weather follow On Lagrange one
(10:11):
rolls off the tongue Space Weather follow On Lagrange one.
I intentionally put a little gap in there because it's
the SWAFFO mission SWFO DASH L one. And here's the thing.
The mission could just be called the Space Weather follow On,
which is a spacecraft that is going to be deploying
(10:35):
a set of instruments to look at the corona and
the thermal plasma which is around the Sun itself. It's
instruments coronal mass ejection. So it's kind of an early
warning system for space Weather. It's looking at the effects
of magnetic fields, both the Sun's magnetic field and its
(10:56):
impact on the Earth's magnetic field. So it's doing a
lot of different things. The space Weather mission. It's being
deployed to Lagrange point one, So Lagarannge point one is
actually a location. In fact, all three of these space
probes are going to this location. Lagrange point one is
a balance point in the mutual gravitational field of the
(11:18):
Sun and the Earth. And because the Sun's gravity and
the Earth's gravity would be pulling on that spacecraft with
the same amount of force, then the spacecraft just stays
balanced right there and orbits around the Sun with the Earth. Now,
that's almost easy to imagine if it's like right in
(11:41):
Earth's same orbit, because Kepler's laws would tell you that
anything at that orbital range would orbit at that speed.
But this thing is actually closer to the Sun than
the Earth, so you might think by if you know
anything about Kepler's laws, you might say, well, should be
going faster like Venus does, or like mercury does. It
goes around the Sun faster than the Earth. Right, they
(12:01):
have shorter orbital periods than the Earth does because they're closer.
So this spacecraft indeed would be closer to the Sun,
but it doesn't have a shorter orbital period because it's
locked in by Earth's gravitational force as well as the Sun's.
It's at that weird balance point of lagrange one, so
it just hangs right between the Earth and the Sun,
(12:23):
which is absolutely perfect for a spaceship that you want
to be an early warning system for solar storms, because
all of the charged particles and waves of material ejected
during a solar flare are going to arrive at that
spacecraft about half an hour before they arrive at the Earth.
(12:44):
So in other words, we can radio up to the
astronauts aboard the International Space Station or other spacecraft that
might be up there and say, hey, there has been
a solar storm. We just had a detection that that
material is traveling in and it's about a half hour away,
so you have about thirty minutes to be able to
hunker down and protect yourself from this oncoming coronal mass ejection.
(13:05):
So that's one of the many purposes of space weather
follow on mission or the SWAFFO dash L one mission
SAFFO at lagrange one, So that's two of the missions. Now,
the third one is called the Carruthers Geo Corona Observatory.
Let's break that down. It's named after doctor George R. Carruthers,
(13:27):
who is one of the early visionary scientists and inventors, educator,
engineer who helped discover the fact that there is something
called a geo corona. Now, if you're any kind of
a space buff at all, which I imagine you are
you're listening to this podcast, you know that there's a
corona around the Sun. It's the thing you see during
(13:49):
a total eclipse. It's that glowing cloud of high temperature
gas around the outside of the Sun that it actuallymits
a lot of X rays because it's at a high temperature. Okay,
that's the solar corona. But the Earth has a corona
as well, and people might not know more much about that.
It's actually the very last outer part of the atmosphere
(14:12):
of the Earth. It's called the exosphere. And the exosphere
extends anywhere from about three hundred miles out to about
one hundred and twenty thousand miles, so it's really big,
but it's also very very thin layer of gas. But
this really thin outer envelope of the very last vestiges
(14:34):
of verse atmosphere can be caused to glow in the
ultraviolet part of the spectrum by incoming radiation from the Sun,
and that is what's known as the geo corona. It's
the glowing exosphere being lit up by the Sun's radiation. Okay,
so this was only discovered in the space age. Doctor
(14:56):
George R. Carruthers, the namesake for this last mission aboard
yesterday's launch was somebody who designed one of the first
cameras to ever go to the Moon and look back
at the Earth and study this very thing we're talking about,
the geo corona in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum.
(15:16):
Doctor George R. Carruthers camera flew on Apollo sixteen and
is therefore still on the surface of the Moon actually,
but it took some very important early data helping us
understand that the Earth's exosphere will light up in the
ultraviolet when it gets hit by solar radiation. So there
(15:37):
you go. The third mission called the Carruthers Geo Corona Observatory,
named after George R. Carruthers, one of the early visionary
scientists at NASA.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
So it was a big launch yesterday, is what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
You know, it was a three for one. And by
the way, the American taxpayer, let us remember, there are
two reasons why this launch was both cheaper and more
efficient and your standard scientific launches that we've gotten used
to over the past fifty years of the space age
sixty years. Here's why. Because A, they were using a
(16:10):
rocket that's reusable. In fact, this was its second trip
to space, so already it's cheaper because you're reusing the rockets.
And b we've learned how to stack three different spacecraft
inside the cargo fairing of one rocket and blast them
all off together. So not only is it cheaper per
pound because you're reusing the space vehicle, the launch vehicle,
(16:33):
it's also cheaper because it's three missions for the price
of one. Friends, So there you go, making space better
even for the hardworking American taxpayer.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Coming up, after a quick break, we'll talk about NASA's
viper mission.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
We'll do that next.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Viper Mission has come back to life thanks to the
folks at Blue Origin to agree.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
NASA had basically canceled this mission because they were saying, ah,
we can't really afford to take it. But they then
Jeff called, right, Jeff got, Jeff got on the phone.
I said, hey, how about I help you take that
that mission to the Moon. So this is Jeff Bezos
from Blue Origin. He's been collaborating with NASA to revive
(17:41):
the VIPER Polar Explore. Basically, it's a it's a rover
for driving around at the Moon's south pole and I
identifying various volatile compounds that may or may not be
on the surface down there at the lunar south pole.
We're pretty sure it is, but we're going to go
study more detail. That mission, again had been proposed by NASA,
(18:02):
had actually been built, but then NASA ran out of
money for it, so they canceled it. And Jeff said, well, listen,
if all you need is a ride to the Moon,
because you already have it built, let me take it
up for you. And so I don't know if it's
exactly word for word having that conversation.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
He may have just said, hey, I've got money.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, I mean, and little argument that he has money,
probably more than anyway, So it does in fact have money.
The VIPER mission, which stands for Volatile's Investigation Polar Exploration
Rover welas there's just no verbs in there at all,
investigating I guess there is a verb volatiles investigating polar
(18:46):
exploration rover. Anyway, the VIPER mission, which is going to
go to the to the moon south pole and look
for signs of water so that astronauts when they go
colonize that because of the Artemis program, which we just
talked about before the break, can identify water resources that
are in place already on the Moon and perhaps take
(19:08):
advantage of some of those. That's why it's important NASA
has just approved this new launch relationship with Blue Origin
because they're trying to get ready to send astronauts back
to the Moon, and so there's some commercial lunar preparation
taking place and being funded by NASA, and somehow in
(19:30):
the midst of all that, they worked it out for
Blue Origin to actually take VIPER to the Moon. So
this is from NASA's acting administrator, Sean Duffy said this quote.
NASA is leading the world and exploring more of the
Moon than ever before, and this delivery is just one
of many ways we're leveraging US industry to support a
(19:51):
long term American presence on the lunar surface. Sean Duffy
went on to say, our rover will explore the extreme
environment of the lunar South Pole, traveling to small, permanently
shadowed regions to help inform future landing sites for our
astronauts and better understand the Moon's environment, important insights for
(20:13):
sustaining humans over long missions as America leads our future
in space. Unquote Sean Duffy, NASA administrator. There you go, friends,
So it's looking like Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin stepping
up to have an otherwise canceled mission actually find its
way to the Moon and do some very important work
(20:33):
for the future artemist missions.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
All right, so that's something that's been revived. Let's shift
over to a couple of stories about stars eating things
and ending them for starters, a Pluto like world filled
with ice. My question about and then Hubble actually is
what saw this but a star munching on this Pluto
like object? Any chance that I don't know, the silver
(20:57):
Surfer had just visited this place before it is eaten?
Or like, how does that work exactly?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
I mean, it does sound like something out of the
maybe the Marvel cinematic universe. I don't know, something like that.
I don't know. Yeah, could be. I mean, I mean
anytime you have some giant object just munching planets. Could
could be Star Wars, could be Star Trek actually original series, right,
that could be.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Could be a number of machine It could be a
number of things. I just immediately went to Galactus.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
But you know, but yeah, that's maybe the most recent
and you know, most appropriate reference. Yeah, so Hubble Space
Telescope did look out at a different star system. It's
a star system that's about two hundred and sixty light
years away from the Earth, and it gathered data of
a star snacking on a different star. Now, this is
(21:50):
a burnout start. It's a star. It's a star remnant, right,
it's a white dwarf. It's a white dwarf star that
used to be the core of a star, something similar
to the Sun. But now that star has died out
and it's just the white dwarf remnant itself. It munched
a Pluto, and I think it had already munched part
of the pluto. It just finished off the Pluto. So
(22:11):
it munched a Pluto fragment. And here's the weird thing.
After it did that, it burped. So after this white dwarf,
you know, let off a giant burp of the gases
left over from this Pluto like object. Scientists looked at it.
That's weird in itself. And these are scientists from the
University of Warwick in the UK, and they studied white
(22:33):
dwarf burps, apparently white dwarfs in general. But okay, but
if they burp, it's even better because what they found
was a giant injection of volatile carbon compounds, including carbon
including sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen compounds, and possibly that indicated the
(22:53):
presence of water in the burp led off by a
white dwarf after it ate this plue Udo like object,
which means this weird exo Pluto like object might have
had as much as sixty four percent water ice. So
they got they got a good look at the chemistry
(23:14):
of a dying world as it was being being eaten
by a dead star using the Hubble space telescope. That's
a that's a four bank pool shot right there, buddy.
That's that's a really fantastic achievement in sciences, in science
by these scientists in the UK. So Sneehalada Sahu, who
(23:37):
is one of the investigators on the project from the
University of Warwick said this, we were surprised. We did
not expect to find water or other icy content going
on with a quote. This is because the comets and
Kuiper Belt like objects are thrown out of their planetary
systems early as their stars evolve into white dwarfs. But
(24:00):
we are detecting this very volatile, rich material unquote. All right,
let me see if I can kind of unpack that
for everybody. We have in our own solar system a
belt of material that's far, far beyond the orbit of
Pluto and Neptune, way on the outside of our solar system.
It's called the Kuiper Belt. It's thought to be the
source of some very long period comets. But those long
(24:23):
period comets are very rare visitors to the inner part
of the Solar system. And what the scientist is trying
to explain is around this other star, in this other
solar system, it appears that like a fairly large object
like nearly the size of Pluto, somehow got into the
inner part of the Solar system close enough for one
(24:46):
of its parent stars to have devoured it, even after
that parent star had died out and turned into a
white dwarf, which means all of those volatile materials were
in the inner part of the solar system, not way
out on the edge, which is just interesting, right, because
if you get volatile materials in the inner part of
(25:06):
the solar system, that might mean you have all of
the building blocks necessary for life laying right in the
Goldilocks zone or the just right temperature zone for a
planet to harbor life around another star. So that's one
of the things that makes this very very interesting. So
(25:26):
again back to the study. Given the white dwarf's intense
gravitational pull, scientists believe it drew in the Pluto like
planet tesimal or small planet from its own version of
the Kuyper Belt and tore it apart. Right, So, somehow, gravitationally,
this Pluto like object was pulled in from the outer
colder reaches of its own solar system into the inner
(25:49):
parts and then devoured by this dying star, giving us
a really good look into the chemistry of this alien
solar system.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Let's talk about another situation, because we've talked about the
the Cannibal the Cannibal Star, and now it looks like
we got some new information about this or this is
a revisited story, right.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Well, so yeah, I mean we've known about this object
for a while, but we're finding out some new information
about it, and so it looks like this is happening.
So this is another edition of a star eating something.
This time it's eating its friend. This is a star
that's eating another star. And yes, this star already reached
(26:31):
the end of its lifetime and turned into a white dwarf,
just the way we described the previous story. But it's
in a binary star system. That means it's other star,
it's twin star that it's orbiting around. It's still a star,
but the white dwarf, the dead corpse of the first star,
is eating the material off the second star, and it
(26:52):
has little bright bursts of radiation that tell us, hey,
there's two stars in the system and one feeding on
the other. And every time the white dwarf draws enough
material off the companion star, it flares up into a
bright what we call a nova explosion, which is a kinder,
(27:13):
gentler version of a bigger supernova explosion. Anyway, so once
the white dwarf eats enough of that material, it's going
to it's going to pass a very important threshold, and
the threshold is called the Chandra Sakhar limit, and the
Chandra Sakar limit is where when enough material has been
(27:33):
dumped onto a white white dwarf star, the white dwarf
star can no longer support itself and it explodes in
what's called a type one a supernova explosion. Okay, so
what we're finding with an instrument called the very Large
telescope is that this double star called Vata vs Gta,
(27:56):
that's telling us what constellation is. In a constellation called
SID in the southern hemisphere, VISAJT is a binary star
system about ten thousand light years from the Earth, and
the white dwarf is feeding off its companion. It's drawing
ever nearer to that Shanda Sakhar limit where it's going
to explode in a supernova explosion. And if it does,
(28:18):
it's close enough to the Earth that it might actually
be visible in broad daylight. This could be a naked eye,
broad daylight visible supernova explosion that could happen just any
time now. Now. Unfortunately, when astronomers say that, you know
it's within the next you know, a few thousand years,
(28:40):
but it could be tomorrow, right. So the interesting thing
is we're finding out that this thing is far enough
advanced that it could be soon or geologically soon, which
might mean we're not here but still geologically soon in
the history of the Earth, all right. Pasi Hakala from
the University of Turku, a team member from the European
Southern Observatory that's been studying this, says this quote. The
(29:04):
white dwarf cannot consume all the mass being transferred from
its hot star twin, so it creates its bright cosmic ring.
The speed at which this doom stellar system is lurching wildly,
likely due to the extreme brightness, is a frantic sign
of its imminent violent end. So we know it's going
(29:25):
to happen. Astronomers have been watching this very same star
for about one hundred and twenty three years, noticing that
it was acting strangely, so we've already known about it.
Now with modern technology like the very large telescope, we
know this is a type one a supernova about ready
to go. Stay tuned. That's all I can tell you.
(29:46):
Don't miss another episode of Made of Stars, because this
thing could go. And will be the first to tell you, well,
we'll try.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
We'll be one of the first definitely one of the first.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Will be one of the first the next ten thousand
years to tell you this thing is going to happen.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
More made of stars right after this, all right, let's
(30:27):
talk about Music under the Dome coming up, and then
we have another thing that we can, I guess now
announce officially that we're really excited about. I'm especially excited
about it. I think you are too. But let's start
with Music under the Dome.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, Music under the Dome is a concert series that
happens here at Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center,
and it is where the Schwob School of Music faculty
and students right here from our own university come into
our planetarium and perform under the stars. Friends. But it's
not just stars, it's actual league custom design graphics by
(31:02):
various visual artists. And the first one that's going to
happen on the first Tuesday in October, which is actually
October the seventh, is going to be all the artwork
is going to be designed by Lance Tankersley, the planetarium
director of the Omosphere Theater here at CSU's co Cola
Space Science Center. So we're super excited about that. The
(31:23):
concert series. I will tell you friends, it's selling out rapidly.
There are just a few season tickets left. I believe
that most of the door sales for the two concerts
this fall are already gone, which means there's only a
couple of ways you can see it. Either jumping and
buy one of those season passes and get all the
concert series and come back and see us, or you
(31:45):
can come the night of the concert. We do reserve
a handful of seats for sale on the night of
the show, but those are on a first comfort serve basis.
And we love everybody's enthusiasm for the concert series. Thank
you for all those folks who have bought tickets already
and hope to see you on October seventh for the
first Music under the Dome concert for this academic year
(32:05):
here at Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Now, yeah, and we got something other event and something
else that's a first, Yes, for.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
An absolute first, something that's never happened for Wes. This
is really your this is your podcast. I'm just, you know,
a comedy relief that comes in and joins you. Why
don't you make this really important announcement about the event
coming up here at CSU's Coca Cola Space Science Center.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
So November first, which happens to be the night of
an Astronomy Night taking place at Columbus State University's Space
Science Center, And maybe you're listening to this you were
planning to be at Astronomy Night anyway. If not, we're
going to give you something to do before Astronomy Night
and you can stick around and participate in that. So
(32:49):
we have decided on November the first, we are going
to do our first ever Made of Stars Live. We'll
do the podcast there at the co Cola Space Science Center,
and we invite you to come and join us for
the show we'll be doing it. I mean, we're going
(33:09):
to have some topics planned out, but I assume we'll
probably be happy to answer some questions. I've got one
friend who is already planning to be there and has
already said I've got a question, and I'm like, you
can save that now. They told me what the question was.
I said, we do like to know a little bit
ahead of time, so we're not getting too many curve balls,
but we're excited about the opportunity to sit there in
(33:29):
front of an audience, first time that we will have
ever done that. I anticipate, unless it all goes horribly wrong,
it will not be the last time that we do it.
I just think it's going to be a lot of
fun and I'm really excited about the chance for us
to do that there at the co Co Cola Space
Science Center. And like I said, then you just stick
around and you can participate in Astronomy Night that'll be
(33:51):
going on right afterwards, so you'll get two events in
one and I'm just excited about it November first, and
I have had a number of people that I've told
about it go all right, So what do we got
to do for tickets?
Speaker 2 (34:05):
It's like, well, this.
Speaker 4 (34:09):
First one, I don't know that we're going to have tickets,
but we'll see. We'll see what the interest level is.
If we can pack the place out, we might have
to start thinking about tickets in the future, even if
it's just a reserved spot for people that want to
be there. But for now, yeah, we just need you
to come and show up on November first. That's where
we're at at this point. But we're in the early
planning stages of it. But Shawn and I are really
(34:31):
excited about the opportunity to do it.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Yeah. So this is actually an event that is sponsored
by Columbus State University's Department of Earth and Space Sciences,
where we have degree programs in astrophysics and planetary geology
as well as regular geology, environmental science, and science education.
So this is my home academic department here at Columbus
State University. Doctor Troy Keller is the chair of the
(34:55):
department has invited us as part of their speaker series
for the apartment to come in and do this event.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
So if we triggered this whole and if we stink,
take it up with Troy, that's all I got to see.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
It's all Troy's fault. But you know, if you're if
you're a regular listener to the podcast, you pretty much
know what you're gonna get. That's right. It's gonna be this,
except with Wes and I actually physically sitting in person,
that's right, and doing what we do here. And you know,
you know, at first it scared me to have a
live audience. Then I thought, well, that's not going to
be any different than what I'm not going to say,
(35:30):
anything different than how I would say it now. I'm
just gonna go ahead and present just the way I
do on this podcast. It's not like we do multiple
takes and you know, start over. We don't. We just
kind of we just wait.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
Now in this case, though, you get me in front
of a live audience, I'm the wild car.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I can't promise I'm gonna have a situation right for
all those people who might actually come to this event.
You know Wes, you listen to him regularly on this
and many other podcasts. You know what you're in for.
So I would say, just buckle up, come down to
the show on November first. We're going to have fun,
that I promise. And I have a pretty big theater,
(36:09):
you know here at the Space Science Center, there's there's
a goodly number of seats. We're going to try to
add some extra capacity to the planetarium for this particular
event that night. So yeah, I think we'll I think
we'll be able to get everybody in. But we're still
thinking through whether or not we have to reserve a
ticket or not, so trying. We're trying to get some feedback.
If you know you're coming, email Wes, you know, find
(36:32):
us online there, send us a message direct message them
on Facebook whatever.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
Either way, either way you can reach me.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Just reach out to Wes and say hey, I'm coming.
And if that number gets to be more than a thousand,
then we know we really have something. So then we
might have to announce a change of venue, but other
than that, we're good to go.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
Have to move it to the River Center or something,
but we're looking forward to that. So to learn more
about upcoming events, go to the website CCSSC dot org
for the Coca Cola Space Science Center. Sean and I
thank you for listening, and we will do this again
next week.
Speaker 6 (37:05):
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