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The total solar eclipse is almost here! In this special episode of The LIUniverse, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu bring you both the basics and some more in-depth investigations of how eclipses work, how to see them, and what makes them so unique. This episode includes clips from Chuck’s recent public talk at the College of Staten Island to a packed house. So, if you hear some background chatter, it’s the audience getting as excited about the eclipse as we are.
Today’s joyfully cool cosmic thing is, of course, the eclipse itself! Dr. Liu discusses why total solar eclipses are so rare at any given spot on the planet, and how illustrations of eclipses can miss the mark. While a total eclipse will happen somewhere on Earth every year or two, each is only visible in a narrow band, so to see one you need to get lucky – or travel.
With a path over land stretching from Mazatlán, Mexico (where Dr. Liu saw a previous eclipse in 1991) through Newfoundland, Canada, there are already tens of millions of people in place to see this astronomical wonder this time around. Millions more will travel to join them. Since the Moon’s shadow races across the landscape at about 1,000 miles per hour, Chuck likens the visual effect to something out of Lord of the Rings.
Speaking of rings, the “diamond ring effect” and the “Baily’s beads” will become visible right before totality as the sun peeks through the Moon’s valleys. Chuck and Allen talk about how to protect your eyes so to enjoy these last rays of sun safely.
Dr. Liu shares how best to get yourself into the ~100 mile wide path of totality. One piece of advice: Don’t try to battle the traffic driving up on the morning of the 8th!
What if you can’t reach totality? Charles explains that 99% of the best parts of an eclipse happen in that last 1% of the eclipse where the Sun becomes completely covered. Don’t worry if you can’t make it to the path of totality – Charles and Allen share cool stuff you can watch for including a method for calculating the true size of the Moon (link below).
Dr. Liu also explains his idea about how to have the most fun with the eclipse, and why his favorite 2017 eclipse photo isn’t a masterpiece.
If you’re a fan of the LIUniverse, you know we love questions. At Dr. Liu’s recent public talk at the College of Staten Island, he fielded live questions from the audience which we’ve included here. The first is about a comet called 12P Pons-Brooks that you can spot in the direction of the sun during the eclipse, perhaps just on the edge of visibility with your unaided eye.
The next question is about how we are able to predict eclipses so far in advance. Allen explains how the Babylonians used Lunar eclipses (or “Blood Moons”) as the key to predict Solar eclipses. Allen also adds his own calculations about where else in the solar system you can see a total eclipse – it’s often said that the Earth is the only planet where total eclipses happen, but that might only be partially correct. Also, find out where you’d need to park a spaceship to create your own eclipse whenever you want!
Our last question ponders why the Sun throws out such large and bright flares and coronal streamers which become visible as fiery red and ghostly white spikes coming from the Sun during an eclipse. The answer explains how the Sun is like a pot of boiling water, with some fun science terms thrown in for flavor! Can you say “magnetohydrodynamics” three times fast? We conclude the discussion with a little more Solar physics: how we’ve recently sent a space probe into those very same coronal streamers, and how the Sun is nearing the peak of its 11 year cycle, offering some bonus chances to test out your eclipse glasses.
The LIUniverse wants to help you have the best, safest, and most informed experience for the celestial display of the decade. We hope you enjoy this episode. Please support us on Patreon.
How to measure the Moon’s size.
Smarter Every Day’s ISS video.
Credits for Images Used in Episode
– Baily’s beads, 2017 total solar eclipse – NASA/Aubrey Gemignani, Public Domain
– Diamond ring, 2017 total solar eclipse – NASA/Aubrey Gemignani, Public Domain
– The ISS in front of 2017 eclipse – NASA/Bill Ingalls, CC BY 2.0
– Comet 12P Pons-Brooks – Nielander, Public Domain
– A Total Lunar Eclipse in January 2019 – Giuseppe Donatiello, Public domain
– Phobos in front of the Sun (from Perseverance rover) – NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI, Public Domain
– Jupiter and Galilean Moons (photos combined) – NASA/JPL/DLR, Public Domain
– The bubbling surface of the Sun – NSO/NSF/AURA, CC BY 4.0
– Solar Flare seen from Skylab in 1973 – NASA, Skylab 4 crew, Public Domain
– Coronal streamers seen by Parker Solar Probe – NASA, Public Domain
– The giant sunspot in Feb. 2024 – NASA SOHO space probe, Public Domain
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #TotalSolarEclipse #GreatAmericanEclipse #eclipse #sunspot #coronalstreamer #solarflare #Sun #Comet12PPonsBrooks #Baily’sbeads #Diamondring #magnetohydrodynamics #Jupiter #GalileanMoons #Moon
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What is the science behind the science fiction in Three Body Problem? In our second episode of “ChuckGPT” Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome two members of our production team: Jon Barnes, our Editor, and Stacey Severn, our Social Media/Patreon Community Director, to delve into the questions and answers posed by the award-winning novel and new series on Netflix.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: the recent discovery of an exoplanet by high school students in Mountain View, California in collaboration with the SETI Institute.
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence and exoplanets that could bear life brings us to the topic of our second episode of ChuckGPT: Three Body Problem. Dr. Liu will be answering questions about the Hugo award-winning Chinese novel by Liu Cixin and new television series on Netflix.
Jon, it turns out, is a big fan of Three Body Problem and he has a bunch of questions about the scientific reality of the science fiction in the story, which Chuck and Allen are happy to answer. (NOTE: We tried to avoid any spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read the book or seen the first three episodes of the series yet, except for the last question, which comes with a mild SPOILER ALERT.)
Jon’s first question deals with the giant antenna on Radar Peak in the story. In the series, the antenna is turned on and a flock of birds flying by drop dead as they pass.
Chuck dives into the physics of both microwave radiation and radio waves, and why even our most powerful transmitters don’t emit enough energy to have that kind of impact. Allen describes the difference between ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation, further pushing the answer into the realm of science fiction, not science. Stacey asks about the relationship between magnetic fields and bird migration – Chuck explains that it is possible that magnetic transmissions could disorient the birds, but not kill them.
The next question is about whether suns can come in different colors like in the “Three Body” VR game in the story. The answer, according to Dr. Liu, is, yes – but primarily only because of their surface temperature, not their chemical makeup. Allen brings up the impact of the viewer’s atmosphere on their color perception of the star’s light.
Jon’s next questions is about lifeforms that can dehydrate themselves to survive unstable, life-threatening weather cycles and atmospheric conditions. Allen brings up the fact that tardigrades can do exactly that, allowing them even to survive in the vacuum of space. He also discusses some of the chaotic orbits we know about that could result in stable and unstable orbital periods.
Next up, Stacey asks one of Jon’s questions about whether snowflakes could be made of nitrogen and oxygen if the atmosphere is cold enough. The answer takes us from the nitrogen glaciers on Pluto to the methane rivers on Saturn’s moon Titan. And yes, depending on atmospheric pressure and temperature, there is a specific range where you could end up with nitrogen and oxygen snow.
For his last question (SPOILER ALERT), Jon asks about whether an advanced civilization could send out a message at the speed of light, and if so, could they use their sun as an amplifier to increase the strength of the signal. Allen and Chuck discuss how you might be able to use the sun for gravitational lensing, but that it would be more likely to drown out the signal than amplify it.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– The Electromagnetic spectrum. Higher energy is to the right. – Edited from NASA, Public Domain
– Janus and Epimetheus viewed by the Cassini probe – NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute, Public Domain
– Orbit of 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, an Earth quasi-satellite – NASA/JPL-Caltech, Public Domain
– A tardigrade – Peter von Bagh, Public Domain
– Pluto with its heart shaped Tombaugh Regio – NASA/JHU APL/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker, Public Domain
– The surface of Titan from the Huygens lander – ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona; processed by Andrey Pivovarov, Public Domain
– A galaxy acting as a gravitational lens – ESA/Hubble & NASA, Public Domain
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #ThreeBodyProblem #microwaveradiation #radiowaves #transmitter #electromagneticspectrum #ionizingradiation #nonionizingradiation #magneticfields #birds #aliens #SETI #searchforextraterrestrialintelligence #tardigrade #nitrogensnow #Pluto #Titan #Saturn #gravitationallens
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What does the study of archeology, the study of the human past, offer to the astronomers of today? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome archaeology expert Hannah Liu, MEd, to connect the past, the present, and the future of astronomy in an episode Allen has described as, “A Fistful of Lius.”
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, a recent scientific paper just published by archaeologist Federico Bernardini and astronomer Paolo Molaro which suggests that a 3,000-year-old stone tablet discovered near Trieste, Italy may be the oldest European star chart yet discovered.
Hannah, who is an expert in archaeology, takes us back to the hilltop area where the tablet was found, which had been occupied since the Iron Age, and was more than likely a farming area. She explains how early civilizations used the stars to keep track of planting and threshing seasons, which could support the theory that the tablet has an astronomical purpose.
Then, it’s time for our first question. Hannah teaches History at the Pingree School in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, which is where we got the questions we answer on today’s episode. Maeve asks, “Are we the only living things on earth who have a sense of how small we are in the universe?”
The Lius answer includes ancient Greeks, sea turtles who use stars for directions and moths that fly towards light thinking it’s the moon, and the beginnings of astronomy and astrology! Hannah explains how constellations and asterisms are cross-cultural, even though they have different names. In particular, The Pleiades is an example of star cluster relevant to cultures around the world.
Coming back to that 3000-year-old star chart, Hannah breaks down the 29 markings on the tablet, and how 28 of them are connectable to constellations that we know like Scorpius, Cassiopeia The Pleiades, and Orion. However, the 29th marking, near Orion’s Belt, still remains a mystery, and until we can pin it down, we can’t definitively claim it’s really a star chart.
Our next question comes from Abby, who asks, “Where do you think human involvement in space exploration is going?” Allen runs down the planned manned missions beyond low Earth orbit, where we haven’t gone since our last trip to the moon in 1972, along with the reasons we haven’t. We also hear how the stars were very important to ancient explorers like the Greeks and the Phoenicians, as well as the ancient Polynesian Wayfinders, who used the stars as their guides in their ongoing excursions around the world.
After brief sojourns into Star Trek and The Odyssey, we dive into ancient alien visitors, gods, and supernatural forces. Hannah points out the inherent Western biases in theories that “ancient aliens” were responsible for building the Pyramids and other impressive accomplishments that just happened to have been created in non-Western cultures of the past.
Charles explains that in the past, some people who used science and astronomy, like midwives and scientists, were accused of witchcraft and other equally disparaging and unfounded claims. This could create a divide between science and religion, but luckily, not an unbridgeable one – you’ll hear about Gerbert of Aurillac, a scientist who became Pope Sylvester II and brought the Abacus back to Europe, and how the Catholic Church itself established the Vatican Observatory which has made numerous discoveries over the years.
Finally, we get into the history and anthropology of museums, a subject about which Hannah will be teaching a course in the upcoming semester. What is the role of a museum? Is it science, education, or something else? Is it a place where we hold our treasures, or, increasingly, one where we recognize we hold other people’s treasures, some of which were once plundered and taken from those people against their desires? And yes, we do bring up situations like the Elgin Marbles and the British Museum’s refusal to return those artifacts to Greece... especially in light of the new U.S. law regarding repatriation of artifacts.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– 3,000-year-old stone tablet from Italy – Bernardini et al., CC BY-SA 4.0
– Trieste in Italy – F l a n k e r, Yiyi, and Allen Liu, Public Domain
– Sirius (bottom) in the night sky – Akira Fujii, Public Domain
– A thresher (Thanks Jon.) – SteveStrummer, Public Domain
– NASA’s SLS Rocket – NASA/Joel Kowsky, Public Domain
– SpaceX’s Starship rocket under construction – NASA, Public Domain
– Austronesian societies range – Obsidian Soul, CC BY 4.0
– Gerbert of Aurillac, Pope Sylvester II – Meister der Reichenauer Schule, Public Domain
– Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope in Arizona – Andromeda321, Public Domain
– Parthenon Marbles at the British Museum – Ejectgoose, Public Domain
– Map of Latin-descended languages in Europe – Servitje, Public Domain
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #starchart #astrology #astronomy #TheOdyssey #Scorpius #Cassiopeia #ThePleiades #Orion #OrionsBelt #GerbertofAurillac #PopeSylvesterII #CatholicChurch #VaticanObservatory #NASA #SLS #SpaceX #Starship #ElginMarbles #BritishMuseum #PolynesianWayfinders #Greeks #Phoenicians
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How can college students who would like to work in the space industry and at NASA get their foot in the door? And what is the purpose of the Lucy mission to the Trojan Asteroids? To get the answers to both of these questions, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Freya Holloway, a NASA L’SPACE Lab Tech at ASU.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: the latest, most accurate coloration of Neptune. It turns out, the rich, deep blue Neptune we’ve come to know and love was placed by scientists to increase contrast which are no longer necessary. And Neptune is now a much lighter tone of blue, more in line with the current, turquoise coloration of Uranus.
And with that, we turn to the Lucy mission to investigate the “Trojan Asteroids” which share Jupiter’s orbit around our sun. Lucy recently did a flyby of the asteroid Dinkinesh and its moon Selam, discovering that it actually not one asteroid but three distinct bodies. Freya Holloway is an ambassador for Lucy, and she explains the purpose of the flyby and brings us up to speed on where the mission is at. In December this year, Lucy will be making her second Earth gravity assist flyby to build up momentum to slingshot her towards Jupiter. And in April 2025, Lucy will encounter her second main belt asteroid, Donald Johanson. That asteroid is named for the paleontologist involved in the discovery of the Lucy fossil (the mission’s namesake) in Ethiopia in the 1970s, and who has actually been involved in the current Lucy mission.
Freya explains why the mission is aptly named. Trojan asteroids are fossils, astronomically speaking, and they may be able to teach us something about the birth and evolution of our solar system the same way that Lucy has taught us about early hominids and our own evolution.
You’ll learn all about this unique population of asteroids, which are far less familiar to most people than either the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune. One group precedes Jupiter in its orbit around the sun and the other orbits behind, and both groups are relatively pristine and date back to the origins of our solar system.
In this episode, we have a special set of questions for Freya that all come from students who attend Notre Dame Academy on Staten Island. First up, Isabella wants to know who Freya’s favorite scientist is, and also, does she have a favorite song to listen to while studying. Freya tells us about Dr. Eugene Parker, the heliophysicist who predicted the existence of the solar wind and after whom the Parker Solar Probe and the “The Parker Instability” is named. For the second part, Freya listens to David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” as a pick me up for long study sessions.
For the first time in the history of The LIUniverse, Charles then brings up a second joyfully cool cosmic thing: the recent meteor (a bolide) that broke up over Germany whose pieces have been collected, many by students! It turns out that Freya collects meteorites, although none which she found on her own. Her favorite is the lunar meteorite she keeps on display at home.
The next question from Notre Dame Academy comes from Caitlin Sweeney, who asks Freya, “What’s the coolest thing about labs in college?” Freya describes how, compared to high school, labs in college are her favorite part of college and are much more interactive.
Another Notre Dame Academy students asks, “What was the biggest challenge you overcame and how did you learn from it?” For Freya, that was finding her place in the academic and professional world. She tells the story of how in 2015, she was a single mom with two young children, one of whom was 8 and just diagnosed with leukemia who lost her job she loved in finance at the Columbus Ohio Zoo. She made the decision to show her children that no matter what life throws at us, we can still be who we want to be, and she enrolled in college and embarked on an entirely new direction.
As a student, Freya applied for and went through the NASA L’SPACE Program (Lucy Student Pipeline Accelerator and Competency Enabler), a workforce development program that consists of two academies. In one, the Mission Concept Academy, students work as a team to complete a mission task. In the other academy, students will work as a team to introduce new technology ideas to NASA. NASA chooses a winner each semester and gives them a $10,000 seed fund to develop the idea. After completing the Academies, Freya became an intern on the Lucy mission. She began as a Lucy ambassador, and then came back to serve as an outreach mentor and a student success advisor.
If you’re a student of at least 18 years of age and enrolled in a US college or university and you’d like to learn more about NASA’s L’SPACE Program, visit their website at lspace.asu.edu. You can follow them on Instagram @l_spaceprogram, where Freya helps manage the account, or at NASA L’SPACE Program on LinkedIn and Facebook.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– Neptune calibrated in true color – NASA w/ color by Ardenau4, Public domain
– Neptune in exaggerated color – NASA, Public Domain
– Uranus in true color – NASA w/ color by Ardenau4, Public domain
– The Lucy spacecraft – NASA, public domain
– Dinkinesh and its moon Selam – NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL, public domain
– The Lucy fossil – 120 on Wikimedia commons, CC BY 2.5
– Diagram of the main belt and Trojan asteroids – Mdf at English Wikipedia, Public Domain
– Dr. Eugene Parker in 2018 – NASA, public domain
– Model of the Parker Solar Probe – NASA, public domain
– A bolide in the sky – Thomas Grau, Public Domain
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #FreyaHolloway #Lucy #Neptune #Uranus #Dinkinesh #Selam #TrojanAsteroids #Jupiter #EugeneParker #ParkerSolarProbe #ParkertInstability #asteroid #bolide #meteorite #L'SPACE #NASA #NotreDameAcademy #MissionConceptAcademy
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Welcome to the Season 3 premiere of The LIUniverse, your happy half-hour dose of cosmic conversation and geeky banter with host Dr. Charles Liu! In this episode, Chuck and co-host Allen Liu welcome back Dr. Jimmy Negus, who was our guest on our very first episode, to talk about Solar Flares, “Deep Space Nine,” and more.
As some of you may remember, Jimmy was only a PhD candidate back then, with his research focused on active galactic nuclei, including black holes, quasars and more. Now that he’s got his doctorate, Jimmy has pivoted to studying solar physics, which is the perfect lead in to discuss the upcoming Great American Eclipse, the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 that has them – and the rest of America – buzzing with excitement.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s “Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing” – the discovery of a pulsar in a binary system with an unknown and mysterious object that seems to be somewhere between the mass of a neutron star and a black hole by astronomers using the radio telescopes in the MeerKAT array in the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO). Jimmy explains that the leading theory may be that it is a smaller mass black hole than we’ve yet observed that was created by the collision of two neutron stars. Special thanks to our friends at the All Things Unexplained podcast (@allthingsunexplained) for bringing today’s JCCT to our attention!
Our first question of the day – and the season! – comes from audience member Makalya, who asks, “What are the chances of having black holes consume each other, becoming giant black holes, and slowly start growing from there?”
Pretty high, it turns out. Dr. Negus explains how we use gravitational waves to deduce the frequency of black hole mergers in the universe. If we look across the entire observable universe, there are between 200,000-400,000 mergers EVERY YEAR! Of course, that includes all types of black holes. If we’re only looking Jimmy estimates only about 10% of that number are collisions of supermassive black holes. And we’ve got a little while before that happens to our supermassive black hole, which will someday collide with Andromeda’s – something on the order of 4 billion years or so.
Moving on, Jimmy tells us about his new gig at The University of Colorado, Boulder, where he stayed on as a research faculty member after getting his PhD. He’s now analyzing, calibrating and validating data from NOAA’s GOES-18 satellite (GOES is a suite of Geostationary, Environmental Operational Satellites, the longest running continuous stream of satellites, first launched in 1974.) In addition to its weather-sensing technology that points down at the Earth, the satellite carries X-ray and UV sensors that point towards the sun to track space weather.
Next up, we turn to the impending Solar Max period of our solar cycle, where the magnetic field of the sun completely flips every 11 years. Jimmy discusses the 2025 peak of the solar cycle, how solar emissions like X-Class Solar Flares can impact us. Charles points out that previous solar maxes have even taken down satellites, and Jimmy describes various ways we work to mitigate the damage from the next flare.
Speaking of which, for our next question Shana asks whether a solar flare can set her phone on fire. Jimmy explains why we’re not in danger here on Earth, thanks to technological advancements, but that a satellite disruption could disrupt service temporarily. He describes the Carrington Event of September 1859 during solar cycle 10, which was the most intense geomagnetic storm ever recorded, and actually caused some telegraph wires to burst into flame.
Finally, Chuck turns our focus to our obsession with science fiction. We revisit “The Expanse,” which Jimmy just finished watching, and while good, “certainly wasn’t a perfect show. It wasn’t “Deep Space Nine,” my favorite.” Chuck posits that Voyager was better, but the two wisely reserve judgment on the new Star Trek shows and sticking with the classics.
If you’d like to keep up with Dr. Jimmy Negus, you can visit his website at www.jimmynegus.com and @spacebound_negus on Instagram.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– Path of the April 8 2024 eclipse through the USA – NASA SVS/ Michala Garrison, Public domain
– Radio telescopes in the MeerKAT array – Square Kilometre Array Organisation (SKAO) / South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) CC BY 3.0
– Animation of a Pulsar – NASA SVS, Public domain
– GOES-18 before launch – NOAA Satellites, Public domain
– An X-class flare in 2012 – NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Public domain
– The Solar Dynamics Observatory before launch – NASA/Jim Grossmann
#theliuniverse #charlesliu #allenliu #sciencepodcast #astronomypodcast #jamesnegus #jimmynegus #universityofcolorado #astronomy #astrophysics #totalsolareclipse #greatamericaneclipse #quasar #blackhole #activegalacticnucleus #agn #theexpanse #deepspacenine #supermassiveblackholes #solarmax #xclasssolarflares #solarcycle #neutronstar #carringtonevent #NOAA #GOES18 #satellite #MeerKAT #southafricanradioastronomyobservatory #SARAO
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What happens to one sun of a binary pair if the other goes supernova? Can we mitigate the greenhouse effect? How big should a telescope be? For our Season 2 finale, we’re answering fan questions from YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. To bring those questions to life, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome two members of the LIUniverse social media team, “Vinyl Benjy” Schoenfeld, our TikTok manager, and Stacey Severn, our Social Media Director.
As always, though, we start off with the season’s final joyfully cool cosmic thing, the most recent image of Uranus by the James Webb Space Telescope. Taken using the JWST’s infrared imaging capabilities, rather than visible light, this incredibly beautiful photo of Uranus clearly shows its 7 spectacular rings and 14 moons.
Now, on to your questions! First, Stacey reads a question from YouTube fan Darker Void Scientist, who asks, “Wouldn’t some violently spinning galaxies produce strong magnetic fields that act as a barrier to some spectrum of traveling waves?”
To answer, Charles gets to discuss the Zeeman Effect and the Parker Instability. He explains that entire galaxies can’t spin fast enough, but that violent spinning does occur and produce magnetic fields closer to the supermassive black holes in the center of those galaxies.
Benjy reads our next question, from YouTube fan Mark Caesar 4443: “When stars go very near black holes and get sling-shotted around them, what would we see of them in terms of time dilation? Surely we would see them slow down as they approach the black hole, of course, that is assuming we can actually observe them.”
Chuck dives into what we would be able to perceive at all, from our perspective, and why we would see color shifts but not necessarily the impact of time dilation that the star itself would experience.
Allen tackles the next question, from Randy Starnes on Facebook, who wants to know whether we could take a rechargeable battery and use it to power a plasma rocket. Our co-host explains that while rechargeable batteries wouldn’t generate enough energy for a plasma engine, lithium-ion rechargeable batteries are used by Rocket Lab for the electric pumps on their reusable Electron rockets.
Stacey next asks another question from YouTube, from @sbkarajan: “How do NASA or anyone measure distance from the planet to the Sun? I heard for Earth they measure the distance to Mars or Venus transit using Keppler’s Third Law. Is it the only way?”
Chuck explains that when humanity was still stuck on Earth, that was the only way. But since we have more tactics at our disposal, from satellites to radar signals, to do far more accurate measurements, even at vast distances.
Next up, @frankwestphal8532 from YouTube: “What would happen to the other star in a supermassive star binary system if one of the stars ‘supernova-ed’ before the other?” It turns out that happens all of the time... and none of the outcomes tend to be good for the other star. But Frank’s not done, and his follow up question about the early universe, binary-system supernovae, and the creation of supermassive black holes is a bit of a chin-scratcher for Chuck!
Stacey’s next question comes via Instagram from our friends CJ Dearinger and Dr. Mounce on the “All Things – Unexplained” podcast: “When will astrophysics encounter/present undeniable proof of a new life form?” Predictions, obstacles, and discussion of alien cryptids ensue.
In another Instagram question, Ben Jordans asks, “How do you perceive the current efforts to mitigate the greenhouse effect? Are you of the opinion that we will succeed in mastering this problem, and if so, how?”
Chuck explains the greenhouse effect, on Earth as well as on Venus and Mars, and the difference between the effect itself and human involvement in it. He and Allen disagree as to how long it might take to redress the problem, while Stacey and Benjy jump in with their more pessimistic concerns about climate change, extreme weather, and the future.
Benjy gets the last question, from @emiliotorres2718 on YouTube: “How do we go about deciding how big we want a telescope to be? Is it simply the bigger the telescope we make, the farther we’ll be able to see into the universe?”
Chuck says the simple answer is yes, but the actual answer is more complicated. To hear it, you’ll have to watch or listen in to the final episode of Season 2 of The LIUniverse!
We hope you enjoy The LIUniverse, and, if so, please support us on Patreon. We’ll return for Season 3 in 2024.
Image Credits:
–Uranus and moons by JWST – NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Public Domain
–Time-lapse of stars near Milky Way’s central black hole – ESO/MPE, CC BY 4.0
–Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket – NASA Kennedy Space Center / Rocket Lab, Public Domain
–The Hobby–Eberly Telescope – Zereshk, CC BY 3.0
–3D model of Parker Solar Probe – NASA, Public Domain
–Chandra X-ray Observatory on the Space Shuttle – NASA, Public Domain
–Hubble photo of Saturn in UV light – NASA, Public Domain
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Welcome to Part 2 of our interview with father and daughter team Franklin Chang-Diaz, NASA astronaut and founder of the Ad Astra Rocket Company™, and Miranda Chang, Ad Astra’s Global Communications Director.
We pick up where we left off, with a focus on fathers working with their children! Host Charles Liu shares how much he loves doing The LIUniverse with his co-host and son Allen, while Franklin talks about how important Miranda is to the running of Ad Astra.
Then it’s on to our next question, from Ebony, who asks, “Do you believe that traveling to space can find ways to fix the problem with climate change?” Franklin begins by reminding us that we would not be aware of climate change if we were not exploring space. And then he describes how the life support system on spaceship Earth is in need of a great deal of maintenance and repair, how at some point there will be more humans than can survive on it, and how he worries that we will damage our environment to the point that our civilization won’t be healthy enough to explore space and then we will be doomed.
In Costa Rica, Ad Astra is working to transition the country to a green, hydrogen economy. Using solar and wind energy, they generate hydrogen from water, to power their fleet of hydrogen-powered vehicles and fuel cell electric buses. Miranda points out that Costa Rica’s electric grid is already nearly 100% renewable, making it a perfect based for doing test projects like these with the goal of reducing carbon.
Miranda discusses ways to make the economy of space more sustainable, too, and describes the fuel efficiency of the VX-200 VASIMIR engine (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket), their new high-power, electric in-space propulsion system that will have a thirteen-year lifespan.
Chuck asks Franklin how me made the transition from astronaut to environmentalist. Franklin explains how the Overview Effect impacted him, and how he came back from space with a tremendous awareness of our environmental problem. Charles brings up the differences between the Gaia Hypothesis and the Medea Hypothesis, which says the Earth may be out to get us and will be fine without us.
Somehow, the conversation leads to “The Inner Light” – one of the most beloved episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation, which had tremendous but differing impacts on Franklin and Charles. In the episode, a civilization ignores climate change to the point where it is too late for them to do anything except memorialize their lives and their fate. Miranda talks about the unifying impact of space exploration, and the necessary realization we must reach if we are to survive that we are one species all in this together.
Finally, we turn to VASIMIR. Chuck wants to know how it will change our lives, and Franklin likens it to the trucking business that sprung up after WWII because of the availability of diesel engines. As of right now, he explains that we don’t have an equivalent for space: “We still fly to space in cannonballs.” What we want, he says, is powered flight over longer periods of time, which VASIMIR makes possible, changing the entire economics of space and enabling humans and the private sector to engage in sustained activity in space.
Franklin explains how VASIMIR may someday reduce the time from the Moon to Mars from 8 months to 2 months or less and catalyze the next period of humanity’s expansion into our solar system. In fact, it turns out that the engine Andy Weir used in his book The Martian was based on VASIMIR!
To find out more about Ad Astra, visit their website, www.adastrarocket.com, or follow them on social media at @adastrarocket on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter, and @asastrarocketcompany on Facebook and LinkedIn.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– Apollo 17’s Blue Marble photo of the Earth – NASA, Public Domain
– Crew of STS-60, first launch with US and Russian spacefarers – NASA, Public Domain
– Aurora from the ISS – NASA, Public Domain
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #FranklinChangDiaz #MirandaChang #NASA #VASOMIR #AdAstra #ionpropulsion #rockets #SpaceShuttle #HydrogenPoweredVehicles #FuelCell #ElectricBuses #OverviewEffect #StarTrekTheNextGeneration #TheInnerLight #STS60 #Cosmonauts #Astronauts #climatechange
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When humanity heads out for the stars, what will be powering our spacecraft? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome father and daughter team Franklin Chang-Diaz, NASA astronaut and founder of the Ad Astra Rocket Company™, and Miranda Chang, Ad Astra’s Global Communications Director for Part 1 of this two-part episode. (We’ll be posting Part 2 next Saturday!)
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing. Lucy, the robotic NASA mission to the asteroid belt, just passed by its first asteroid Dinkinesh (which has been given the Ethiopian (Amharic) name for the human-ancestor fossil known as Lucy and means “You are marvelous”!). As it did so, it discovered Dinkinesh is actually a double asteroid, in that it has its own orbiting moon, Selam, but that’s not all: Selam is a contact binary, meaning it’s actually two distinct bodies touching each other but not connected.
Next, we turn from discovering asteroids to visiting them, and that’s where Franklin and Miranda come in. Franklin spent 25 years at NASA. He was one of the ninth group of astronauts, the class of 1980, and flew 7 missions in space, the most spaceflights anyone has taken to date. An astronautic jack-of-all-trades engineer, physicist and more who describes himself as a “glorified plumber/electrician”), Franklin flew on each of the Space Shuttles except the Challenger, visited the Soviet space station Mir, took 3 spacewalks and even helped build the International Space Station.
Miranda tells us about Ad Astra’s flagship program, the VX-200 VASIMIR engine (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket), a new type of high-power, electric in-space propulsion. They’re vastly more powerful (compare a hair dryer to a diesel engine) and more efficient than existing ion propulsion systems.
We jump right into audience questions with one from Mohammed, who asks, “Engineering is problem solving. What happens when you can’t solve the problem?” According to Franklin, “In space, you work the problem until you find a solution and you never stop...eventually, you have to find something.” Miranda adds, “The whole idea of engineers is that there is never “no solution”...The are always working to find a solution...every time I think we’re don, there is no solution for that, they have like three...” Franklin also takes on the NASA mantra, “Failure is not an option.” In his experiences, “Failure is how you learn.... giving up is not an option.”
You’ll also hear about Miranda’s role and how creative storytelling is a critical aspect of helping people understand the complex technical realities of space exploration and the advanced propulsion systems and orbital mechanics Ad Astra deals with.
Miranda explains how Franklin got into the science of propulsion, and how he had started working on the VASOMIR engine even before he joined NASA. He was an engineer who spent a lot of time in the physics laboratory, and he came from Costa Rica specifically to become an astronaut during the burgeoning interest in space exploration during the period of the Apollo program.
That’s it for Part 1. Please tune in next Saturday for the conclusion.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images and sounds Used in this Episode:
– NASA’s 1980 astronaut group, including Franklin – NASA, public domain
– Lucy spacecraft – NASA, public domain
– Lucy/Dink’inesh fossil – 120 on Wikimedia commons, CC BY 2.5
– Dinkinesh and its moon Selam – NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOAO, public domain
– Dinkinesh and Selam from the side – NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL, public domain
– Franklin on a spacewalk (EVA) – NASA, public domain
– Canadarm 2 on the ISS – NASA, public domain
– Ad Astra’s VX-200 VASIMR test engine – Ad Astra Rocket Company™, from online media gallery
– NEXT, a typical electric ion engine – NASA, public domain
– STS-111, Franklin’s last shuttle launch – NASA, public domain
– Swoosh.wav – Berglindsi on Freesound, CC BY 3.0
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #FranklinChangDiaz #MirandaChang #asteroid #Lucy #Dinkinesh #NASA #VASOMIR #AdAstra #ionpropulsion #rockets #ISS #InternationalSpaceStation #SpaceShuttle #Challenger
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How do we find black holes? And how can we tell whether it’s a small black hole “eating” really fast or a large black hole that’s eating very slowly? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome astrophysicist Dr. Vivienne Baldassare, a professor of astronomy and physics at Washington State University.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, the recently published composite photo of the X-ray Binary System in nearby starburst galaxy NGC_4214. Vivienne explains how X-ray Binaries, which are relatively rare, are created by a stellar mass black hole or a neutron star being fed by a star.
Chuck and Vivienne discuss the differences between using the new James Webb Space Telescope and “old tech” like the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and how she uses Chandra to find black holes. Professor Baldassare explains how she uses x-ray observations, optical spectroscopy, and variability data to find intermediate-mass black holes, which she is one of the first astronomers to find. You’ll hear about the differences between stellar mass black holes, supermassive black holes, and the intermediate-mass back holes that fit somewhere between.
Then it’s time for our first student question, from Lorenzo, who asks, “Are stars only found in galaxies, and if not, where else?” Vivienne explains that most stars are found in galaxies, but they can also be found in globular clusters. There are also hyper-velocity stars, which can be found in the halo of our galaxy on their way to escape our galaxy entirely.
A discussion of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which spends about 80% of its time outside the Van Allen belts, turns into a discussion about all the manmade objects orbiting the Earth, including Chandra, Hubble, satellites... and lots of space junk, too. We’ve currently got about 8,000 satellites orbiting Earth – a surprising amount of which are SpaceX Starlink satellites, with more “satellite constellations” planned by SpaceX and others. You’ll find out about the risk of chain-reaction debris collisions due to solar storms and other disruptive events, Kessler Syndrome, the environmental consequences of mostly-aluminum satellites burning up in our atmosphere, and the first fine every levied for space junk, against Dish Network.
For our next student question, Adrian wants to know how tiny black holes can swallow super giant stars? Vivienne explains how tidal disruption, when the gravity on one side of an object is greater than on the other side, can pull a star apart in months or even weeks!
Finally, Vivienne talks about being an ultra-marathon runner and a trail runner, hiking with her dog, and the importance of being able to go out to wild spaces in nature. Chuck gets here to share a favorite hiking memory – a 7-day, long distance solo hike around Mt. Blanc after presenting her work at a conference in France.
If you’d like to know more about Dr. Baldassare, you can follow her on Twitter @vbaldassare, Instagram @vbaldassare, or her website which includes her email for you to reach out to her and ask her more questions.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– NGC_4214 (X-ray binary circled) –NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, Public Doman
– Artist’s impression of an X-ray Binary – Dana Berry/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Public domain
– Launch of Hubble on shuttle flight STS-31 – NASA, Public Domain
– Illustration of the Chandra X-ray Observatory – NASA/CXC/NGST, Public Domain
– Our Milky Way’s central black hole – EHT Collaboration, CC BY 4.0
– Globular cluster NGC 1466 – ESA/NASA (Hubble), Public Domain
– Orbit of the Chandra X-ray Observatory – NASA, Public Domain
– Starlink trails on a CTIO telescope image – NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/CTIO/AURA/DELVE, CC BY 4.0
– Diagram of tides in Earth’s oceans – Orion 8 on Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
#TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #blackhole #globularclusters #hypervelocitystars #XrayBinary #starburstgalaxy #NGC4214 #stellarmassblackhole #neutronstar #MilkyWayGalaxy #HubbleSpaceTelescope #ChandraXrayObservatory #supermassiveblackholes #intermediatemassbackholes #VanAllenbelts #SpaceX #Starlink #satelliteconstellations #spacejunk #satellites #KesslerSyndrome #tidaldisruption
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In this episode of The LIUniverse, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Dr. Jeyhan Kartaltepe, an astronomer and professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, who studies galactic evolution, including galactic collisions and the growth of black holes, to explore final frontiers, both real and fictional.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, the first data drop from COSMOS-Web, a database of the deepest, coolest, largest field of deep space ever imaged by JWST, and the largest scientific project yet to be conducted by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Dr. Jeyhan Kartaltepe was co-leader of the effort and an integral part of the COSMOS team, which started with 50 people and has grown since then, and which started working on this project long before the JWST launched. Jeyhan also talks about the Redshift Wrangler project, a citizen science project that’s part of the COSMOS-Web and that anyone can contribute to.
We jump into our first student question, from Jonathan, who asks, “Why is there a black hole in the center of our galaxy, and how many galaxies are there in the universe?” Dr. Kartaltepe explains that we think there’s a supermassive black hole in the center of every galaxy, but where they come from is still a mystery. We understand where “regular” black holes come from, but these are still “head scratchers.” And as to how many galaxies there are, the current estimate is in the trillions, and that doesn’t even count the ones that are too far away even to see.
Next, Chuck takes the opportunity to ask Jeyhan about whether or not there really is a galactic barrier like the one shown in Star Trek V – The Final Frontier. And while we don’t actually know where our galaxy ends, Dr. Kartaltepe explains that there is no hard barrier around it. Jeyhan shares how as a child she watched Star Trek: The Original Series with her father, and has watched all of the subsequent series since, and that it helped shape her love of science and her social experience. And get this – Chuck shares that his wife is an even bigger Star Trek geek than he is, and his love of Trek helped him win her over!
Jeyhan, like Chuck, is on Team Star Trek vs. Team Star Wars, and the pair discuss what they like and don’t like about each, ending up in a three-way discussion with Allen about the morality of different races in Star Trek, and the similarities and differences between the Borg Collective and our concerns about Artificial Intelligence. Oh, and which Captain of the Enterprise does Jeyhan think is the best? You’ll have to watch/listen to the episode to find out.
Then it’s time for another student question, from Cynthia: “In a way, the brain has a bunch of similarities to the universe. Is there a connection between the two, logically or illogically?” According to Jeyhan, one of the biggest similarities is how little we know about each. Philosophical pondering about understanding complexity ensues.
Chuck has his own question for Jeyhan: How often do galaxies interact with each other? She says it’s fairly common: our Milky Way galaxy is already interacting with the small galaxies next to us, the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, and has interacted with other small galaxies in the past. And, as we all know, there’s a collision with Andromeda galaxy heading our way in billions of years, and Dr. Kartaltepe describes what might happen when it does.
Finally, we turn to the impending Great North American Eclipse, a total solar eclipse that will be passing directly over Rochester on April 8, 2024.
If you’d like to know more about Dr. Kartaltepe’s work, you can follower her on Twitter/X at @jeyhan, or follow COSMOS-Web at @cosmosastro. You can also find out more on the web at https://cosmos.astro.caltech.edu/.
You can find out more about the Redshift Wrangler citizen science project here on Zooniverse.org: https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/jeyhansk/redshift-wrangler.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– The first image data from COSMOS-Web– Kartaltepe/Casey/Franco/Larson, RIT/UT Austin/CANDIDE
– Spectrum of galaxy ARP 193 – Charles Liu
– Simulation of a dark matter halo around a galaxy – Cosmo0 on Wikipedia, Public DOmain
– An EEG recording of brain activity – Laurens R. Krol, Public Domain
– The Magellanic Clouds – ESO, CC BY 4.0
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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a science educator and work at a planetarium or science museum? Even better, to run one?
To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Elliot Severn, the Planetarium Director at Sacred Heart University’s Discovery Science Center and Planetarium, and Jenny Powers, the Director of the Springfield Science Museum.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing that has just come down to Earth: the samples of the asteroid Bennu that were collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission! As Charles explains, these samples could give us clues about the evolution of the earliest parts of our solar system. Elliot shows us a cosmic sample of his own: his wedding ring, made from the Gibeon meteorite and actually transported back to space temporarily on Blue Origin NS22. Elliot, who is a space photographer who has been to over 20 space mission launches, was actually at the launch of OSIRIS-REx on September 8, 2016!
And then it’s time to put our guest science educators to work with our student question, from Rachelle: “Why do zodiac signs have the same names as stars?” It’s easy to imagine yourself sitting in the dark in a planetarium, looking up at the stars on the ceiling as Planetarium Director Elliot talks about the constellations in the path of the Ecliptic, and all 13 constellations in the Zodiac. (Yes, there are 13 – but we’ll let Elliot explain why.) He also explains that constellations tend to have Latin names but some of the brightest stars have Arabic names.
Charles and Jenny talk about how we are all connected under the night sky. She explains how her museum is making astronomy more accessible to people by bringing different cultural perspectives into their exhibits. Jenny also describes how they are developing techniques to help people with low or no sight, who can’t simply go outside and look up, appreciate the stars through tactile exhibits and the use of sound.
Elliot, who is also an Astronomy Professor at SHU, describes getting his first telescope at 9 years old and learning how to use it with the help of the members of the Booth Park Astronomy Club in Stratford, Ct. He also talks about Sidewalk Astronomy, where you bring telescopes to public places to let people discover the wonders of the stars free of charge. Elliot shares about his friendship with amateur astronomer John Dobson, the inventor of the Dobsonian telescope who is credited with vastly increasing the numbers of amateur astronomers and popularizing Sidewalk Astronomy.
Jenny talks about her journey from education department and family engagement coordinator to museum director, and how her experiences with her astronomy mentor Richard Sanderson led her to fall in love with planetariums, their technology, and their histories. Jenny and Elliot get a little geeky talking about their various projectors and domes, from original, historically important equipment to modern, digital systems and virtual reality.
Of course, this being The LIUniverse, we end up in a discussion about Star Trek and Star Wars, with Charles encouraging Elliot and Jenny to explain which they prefer and why. (Tune in to hear Charles’ impression of Darth Vader.) Elliot champions Star Trek, and also runs us through why this is a golden age for Trek fans, with a plethora of new series to enjoy. Jenny, on the other hand, is on Team Star Wars, and uses the opportunity to point out that the “science” in Star Trek is often... not.
To find out more about Jenny’s work, visit springieldmuseums.org or catch up with the Museum on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.
For Elliot, visit SHUdiscovery.org, and check them out on social media, especially Facebook.
And of course, you can find either of them in real life by visiting their institutions.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– SHU Discovery Science Center and Planetarium – Elliot Severn, used with permission
– Springfield Science Museum – Daderot via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
– The OSIRIS-REx sample being recovered – NASA/Keegan Barber, Public Domain
– Illustration of the Ecliptic in Aquarius – Johann Elert Bode, Public Domain
– Galileo Galilei – Justus Sustermans
– Passage tomb in Knowth, Ireland, home to 5000-year-old Moon drawings – Jemartin03, CC BY 2.0
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How did our solar system get here? How did the Earth form? How commonly does that happen elsewhere, and how often do the conditions necessary for life come about?
To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Dr. Tom Rice, Astronomer-Educator and AAS staffer, who studies star and planet formations, how solar systems come together out of the “stuff that’s out there floating in our galaxy like gas and dust.”
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, the discovery of “baby” brown dwarf TWA 27B that we are watching grow thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope. Tom explains that a brown dwarf is not massive enough to ignite the hydrogen in their cores and turn into a star, but is 13 times more massive than gas giant planets like Jupiter. Allen asks Tom about temporal scales and “baby objects” – Tom defines objects as “young” that are still accreting mass, and tend to be in the range of 1-10 million years old. And as for calling brown dwarfs failed stars, well, you’ll just have to watch or listen for Tom’s opinion about that very controversial subject.
Then it’s time for a student question, from Alianna, who asks, “Can a star turn into a planet?” To answer, Tom uses a different distinction between stars, brown dwarfs, and planets: how they form. He explains the development from a region of gas and dust that gets dense and then collapses under its own weight, into a circumstellar disc accreting matter with an object at its center, growing either into a star, or, if it’s too low a mass to ignite, a brown dwarf. A planet forms in a different process, not in the center of the circumstellar disc (aka, the protoplanetary disc) but out of the “stuff” in the disc, at the same time the star is forming. So, Tom says, the answer to the question is “probably no.” Tom and Chuck then discusss a couple of hypothetical situations that could possibly reduce a star to the mass of the planet. They also compare the atmosphere composition of planets and stars. In the case of Jupiter, the composition is very similar to the sun, but the temperature is much cooler, so there are some molecules that form in its atmosphere that would remain in their atomic states in the Sun.
Then we enter the goldilocks zone to discuss what it takes to create a planet that can sustain life, like on Earth. Tom runs down the “must haves” for life, and then turns to the search for earthlike exoplanets using the Kepler and TESS space telescopes. You’ll learn about the transit method of exoplanet detection and what we can learn from it, including size and orbital frequency (which helps determine distance from the sun and therefore habitable temperatures).
Next we hear about Tom’s work on the staff of the American Astronomical Society. His focus: figuring out how channel the energy of society members to improve astronomy education at all levels. If you have a suggestion for Tom, you can find him on Twitter (X) @tomr_stargazer or email him at [email protected].
This being The LIUniverse, Chuck Tom and Allen end up the episode talking about video games, from Super Planet Crasher to Space Engine 2 and Universe Sandbox to the Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom which has a ton of physics stuff in it– yes, you read that right!
By the way, if Tom looks familiar to you, that might be because he was in our video Chuck recorded at the AAS meeting in Pasadena last year where he showed us his fluency with American Sign Language. Tom is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) and ASL and his signing identity is an important part of his heritage. He lives in Washington, DC, near Gallaudet University, the nation’s only entirely signing university, where Tom works with the Astronomy Club. He’s also working with The National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology on activities relating to the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 that will pass directly overhead.
If you want to see Tom sign a few astronomic terms including the one for “the planet we live on...the most important place we can know,” watch our video at https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ce4kc96gOT5/.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– TWA 27B (left) and its larger companion (right) – European Southern Observatory, CC BY 4.0
– Circumstellar Disc (artist’s concept) – ESO/L. Calçada, CC BY 4.0
– Illustration of the origin of a Type Ia supernova – NASA, Public Domain
– The Kepler and TESS space telescopes – NASA, Public Domain
– Transit detection of exoplanet WASP-96 b – NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and the Webb ERO Production Team, CC BY 4.0
– Gallaudet University’s Chapel Hall – Carol M. Highsmith, Public Domain
– The National Technical Institute for the Deaf, at RIT – Photog, CC BY 3.0
– Path of the April 8, 2024 Total Solar Eclipse – NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - Michala Garrison, Ernie Wright, Ian Jones, Laurence Schuler, Public Domain.
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Why does Wakanda have no suburbs, and should we destroy them if it did? Is it ethical to become a cyborg, like in the Justice League? Can venom – the toxins or the Marvel character – save your life? In this 2021 New York Comic Con edition of “The LIUniverse,” Astronomer Dr. Charles Liu hosts venom researcher Dr. Mandë Holford and environmental expert Kendra Pierre-Louis for our panel “The Science of Science Fiction.”
Speaking to a packed room (in a convention ‘plagued’ by empty panels and COVID-19 attendance limits) the panelists share their insights into the science within the Marvel and DC comics and movies as well as the rest of geekdom. In our three segments on nature, technology, and the multiverse, you’ll hear about superhumans and mutants from Spider-Man to the X-Men to Captain Planet. You’ll also learn some science, like how a version of string theory predicts a parallel universe where gravity would give us all superpowers.
One of our favorite parts of our panels is taking questions from the audience. This time, fans like you asked some great ones. How will gene editing change the world? Can we tell if an AI, such as the Vision, is really self aware? Does scientific advancement need military rivalries as in “For All Mankind,” a show that flips the space race on its head? What will be the biggest technological advancement of the next 100 years: perhaps miniature organs, or maybe social innovations, or something else entirely? Plus, find out what on Earth “life expectancy escape velocity” is, and what it could mean for the future of humanity.
You can expect to hear about some of your favorite comic superheroes on screen and off, like Black Panther, The Avengers, Wandavision, The Suicide Squad, Braniac, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Loki, The Fantastic Four, Lex Luthor, Ant-Man, and – lest we forget – The Incredible Hulk. Relive the experience (if you were lucky enough to be there) or find out what you missed! Geek out with us!
Chapters:
0:00 Nature and Our Relationship to It
16:34 Technology, Humans, and Superheroes
34:26 The Multiverse: Reality and Fiction
All characters and comic properties are the copyright of their respective owners.
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How realistic is the human augmentation depicted in comic, games and movies? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu welcomes the CEO/founder of Neurobionics Dr. MJ Antonini, experimental psychologist Liam McMahon, and our own social media maven and comic/gaming uber-geek Sarah Cotten to the stage for our first-ever appearance at the Boston Fan Expo for a discussion about the science of science fiction, and most particularly, BRAINS! (NOTE: This panel took place during the 2023 writers strike, so our panelists purposefully avoided naming characters our properties out of respect for the striking creators.)
The panel starts off with a discussion of the feasibility of the kind of human augmentation featured in the dystopian near-future game series Deus Ex. Dr. Antonini, whose company is all about human augmentation and wearable robotics, says that it’s not as far away from reality as you might think. Dr. McMahon talks about using magnetism to perceive what’s going on inside the human mind. Meanwhile, Sarah comes up with a reality TV show concept where people can see through the prosthetic eye of the show’s protagonist.
When Liam brings up the concept of memory augmentation, sharing and retrieval, Charles immediately reminds us all of Philip K. Dick’s “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” perhaps better known as the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie “Total Recall.”
You’ll hear about exoskeletons that can help paralyzed people walk and even kick a soccer ball, and research by David Sinclair at Harvard into slowing down the aging process or even reversing the aging of the human brain. Of course, as Sarah points out, living forever is different than being young forever, unless of course you’re an ageless vampire with a bulging bank account. The panel discusses the impact of immortality on resources, offspring, and the human psyche, which gives Chuck the opportunity to reference “The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov.
Of course, there’s no avoiding the subject of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet, and the morality and ethics of both, which naturally leads into a discussion of dystopian, post-apocalyptic fiction and games like “Fallout” and the seminal and influential 1984 anime fantasy film “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki.
The panel ends with a discussion of Alzheimer’s disease, brain augmentation and uploading, what makes personality, and the metaphysical thought experiment known as the Ship of Theseus.
Normally at conventions like this, we end with a vigorous Q&A session, and this event was no exception. But this time if you’d like to hear the Q&A and the rest of the panel content that didn’t make it into this video, you’ll have to check it out on Patreon.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please also support us on Patreon.
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How do planets form out of dust particles? And what does that have to do with fluid dynamics? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome astrophysicist Dr. Holly Capelo from the University of Bern in Switzerland.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, which takes us to the Observatory of Paris, where a group of scientists are delving into the formation of planetesimals. What are they, where do they come from, and when do they form? Holly dives right in to explain what we know about them, and what forces might prevent planetesimals from growing into planets. Along the way, she blows Chuck’s mind about planet formation and accretion disks.
Next, Dr. Capelo uses Alice in Wonderland to help describe her extensive experiments flying on Novespace’s Air Zero-G (the European equivalent of NASA’s “Vomit Comet”) flying in parabolas in order to better understand fluid dynamics, aerodynamic drag and the impact of freefall, microgravity and hypergravity on dust particles.
For our first question this episode, Allen asks Holly about what makes up interplanetary debris, now and in the past. You’ll learn all about ice lines, the impact of vacuum on water vapor and dust particles, minimum mass solar nebulas, density distributions and how much debris there actually is floating around our solar system.
You’ll also hear a little bit about Holly’s other experiences, as a dancer, and how grad school made it harder to stay in shape.
Our next question revolves around the possible atmospheres of the Moon, comets and planetesimals. Holly explains how we have evidence of transitory events, like outgassing. She also tells us about an upcoming “comet interceptor” mission to study comets that will place a satellite at a Lagrange point to wait for a comet to enter our solar system and then fly to meet it.
If you’d like to know more about Holly and her experiments, you can follow her on Twitter @hollycapelo.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
Accretion disks imaged by ALMA – European Southern Observatory, CC BY 4.0Phase diagram of water – Hokanomono & Cmglee on Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0Novespace’s Air Zero-G aircraft – Marc Lacoste, CC BY-SA 4.0Illustration of Rosetta at comet 67P – Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, CC-BY 3.0
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How do you go about building a planet? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome computational astrophysicist Dr. Aleksandra Kuznetsova, a NHFP Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at The American Museum of Natural History.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, the presence of both a mini-Neptune and an exo-Venus in the exoplanetary system GJ3929, each with very short orbits around their star. Aleksandra discusses planetary migration and how it’s possible to have as tightly packed solar systems as GJ3929.
For our first student question, Kevin asks, “How can you create an artificial magnetic field for a planet like Mars?” Aleksandra explains the importance of Earth’s geodynamo in creating our magnetic field, and how it results from our rotating core of molten conductive metal material. This being The LIUniverse, of course a discussion of the movie “The Core” ensues, along with deeper dives into the kinetic energy of Earth’s rotation what it might take to re-spin a planetary core.
And then we’re off and running with the subject that’s near and dear to Aleksandra, the simulation of planetary formation. You’ll hear about our attempts to observe the “embedded phase” of planetary system development and the challenges of observation prior to the JWST with terrestrial radio telescopes like ALMA and the ngVLA. It turns out that protoplanetary disks in the embedded phase are quite “messy!”
Our second question comes from one of our Patrons on Patreon, Cameron, who asks, “Carl Sagan said, “We are a way for the universe to know itself,” but is there a stigma that makes this knowledge unattractive to people? How do we inspire more people to learn more?”
Aleksandra brings up the idea of using language or art to inspire awe and wonder in people. For instance, the art of Wassily Kandinsky. It turns out, not only is Composition 8 by the artist Chuck’s favorite piece of non-representational art, but Aleksandra shares what a natural science nerd Kandinsky was and how intrigued he was by early microscopy images, as evidenced by his painting Capricious Forms.
Before the episode wraps, Aleksandra, Chuck, and Allen bond about how much they loved the movie, Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.
If you’d like to know more about Dr. Kuznetsova and her research, visit her website at https://www.astrokuznetsova.com/ or follow her on X (Twitter) @1auaway.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– Artist’s impression of a protoplanetary disk – ESO/L. Calçada, CC BY 4.0
– Illustration of Earth’s magnetic field – NASA, public domain
– Diagram of Earth’s geodynamo – Andrew Z. Colvin, CC BY-SA 4.0
– Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station in South Korea –핑크로즈, CC BY 2.0
– Radio telescopes in the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) – ESO/C. Pontoni, CC BY 4.0
– Radio telescopes in the ngVLA – CGP Grey, CC BY 2.0
– Composition 8 by Wassily Kandinsky – Wassily Kandinsky, 1923, Public Domain
– Capricious Forms by Wassily Kandinsky – Wassily Kandinsky, 1937, Public Domain
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Brown dwarfs are often called failed stars, but today’s guest on the LIUniverse, astrophysicist Dr. Johanna Vos, prefers to think of them as overachieving planets. Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu discuss with Johanna why brown dwarfs are so cool (pun intended!), and how their formation is something of a cosmic-scale anticlimax.
Beginning with today’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, a pair of brown dwarfs orbiting each other more than a hundred times farther than the Earth is from the Sun, we’ll go into how astronomers study these objects from here on Earth and from our observatories in space such as the brand new James Webb Space Telescope. Along the way, we’ll learn how the astronomical community decides which of the sky’s numerous exciting objects get seen with these cutting-edge facilities.
In fact, that leads right into our first student question for this episode, in which Nevan asks what object our guest thinks the JWST should look at first. While Johanna answers with one of her favorite objects, in typical Chuck fashion we end up on the ice planet Hoth*. We also have a question from Aryeh who asks for some advice for current students interested in astronomy. (As always, if you want your questions answered, support the LIUniverse on Patreon!)
Next, Johanna explores some of the differences between her own experience with the education system in Ireland and Scotland and what she sees from the students she mentors in New York. We also get to hear about Johanna’s experience dancing ballet. She shares which ballets are her favorites to view and to perform, and what dance – and art more generally – has in common with Astronomy.
To keep up with our guest’s exciting astronomical research, you can follow @Johannamvos on Twitter, and don’t forget to subscribe to us here on YouTube so you can catch every episode as soon as it comes out!
*For those of you who don’t know, Hoth first appears in the Empire Strikes Back, aka Star Wars Episode V.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
- A stellar nursery in the Orion Nebula – Credit: Hubble Space Telescope, NASA/ESA
- Planet-forming disk around the star HL Tauri – Credit: ALMA, CC-BY 4.0
- Wise 0855 moving through the sky – Credit: WISE/Spitzer, NASA/JPL-Caltech/Penn State University
- The New Technology Telescope in Chile – Credit: ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org), CC-BY 4.0
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Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu continue our exploration into the poetry of the stars with Part 2 of our episode featuring poet/astronomer/cosmologist Dr. Yun Wang and poet/author Midge Goldberg, editor of “Outer Space: 100 Poems.”
We pick up right where we left off in Part 1, with a discussion of standard candles and how Edwin Hubble used Cepheid Variable Stars to determine the distance to Andromeda – incorrectly, as Chuck explains.
We then find out that Yun is working on not one, but two upcoming space telescopes: The Euclid Space Telescope launching in July 2023 and the Roman Space Telescope, a Hubble-class space telescope named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first Chief of Astronomy, launching in 2027.
As with Part 1, The LIUniverse couldn’t possibly have two poets as guests on the show without a little poetry reading and analysis. Allen kicks it off by reading a Walt Whitman poem, “A Noiseless, Patient Spider.” Midge follows up with a reading excerpted from “My God, It’s Full of Stars” by Tracy K. Smith, one of the first poems she chose to put into “Outer Space: 100 Poems.” Yun reads both the original Chinese version and then the translation of a poem by Su Dongpo, the Song Dynasty poet who is the third of the greatest poets in Chinese history, followed by an English translation. (The group discussed the other two, Du Fu and Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty era in China, in Part 1 – just another reason to go and listen if you haven’t already, poetry fans!)
Chuck reads from a poem by Salvatore Quasimodo, the Nobel prize-winning Italian poet, after which he reminds us all about Commander Data’s unfortunate attempt at poetry about his cat Spot on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Allen begrudgingly reads the first couplet, and Midge describes what happens when AI writes a sonnet.
Finally, Charles ends the episode with a reading and discussion of “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” from Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” which Yun explains she doesn’t hate anymore, but still doesn’t love.
If you’d like to know more about Dr. Yun Wang and her many scientific and poetic publications, see her bio page at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech): https://web.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/wang/.
To learn more about Midge Goldberg, visit her website: https://www.midgegoldberg.com/ or follow her on Twitter at @MidgeGoldberg.
“Outer Space: 100 Poems” is published by Cambridge University Press: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/outer-space-100-poems/7D8D674BE0C7215CCC9FD0284044B819
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:
– Edwin Hubble in 1931 – John Hagemeyer, Public Domain
– Euclid Space Telescope (rendering) – European Space Agency, CC BY-SA 3.0
– Roman Space Telescope (rendering) – NASA (WFIRST Project and Dominic Benford), Public Domain
– Painting of Su Dongpo (posthumous) – Zhao Mengfu, 1301, Public Domain
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What is the universe made of? Will we ever have a complete list of all the particles that make up existence? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Dr. Lesya Horyn, PhD, a Fermilab researcher working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland.
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, which takes us to Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island, NY, where scientists have figured out how to make matter from energy. They smashed 2 photons together to produce a matter/anti-matter particle pair. It happens naturally in the universe, and we convert matter into energy all the time, but we’ve never before turned energy into matter using photons, which have no mass.
Next up, a quantum mechanics question from Lindsey in Massachusetts: “Do you believe that there is an elementary particle responsible for gravity?” Dr. Horyn explains how the standard model (the “periodic table” of subatomic particles) “makes a nice picture” but is “missing stuff” like dark matter and gravity, neither of which are in the standard model. One of these missing pieces is the graviton, a theorized elementary particle that would be responsible for gravitational force in the same way that the photon is responsible for the electromagnetic force, which Dr. Horyn and Charles both believe exists but has not yet been discovered. (Honorable mention: Our geek-in-chief Chuck mentions the Marvel Comics supervillain Graviton, who has the comic book superpower of gravity.)
Dr. Horyn explains her research at CERN, and how the LHC actually is used for experiments. You’ll learn more about the LHC, a 17-mile-circumfrence underground ring used to smash particles into each other at specific speeds, and the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector, which Lesya is using for her research now. You’ll also hear about the much larger A Toroidal LHC Apparatus (ATLAS), which she used previously for her primary research, both of which were used in the discovery of the Higgs boson ten years ago.
As Charles and Lesya take us down the particle physics rabbit hole, we end up talking about the Muon g-2 experiments eventually conducted by Fermilab. Find out why the gyromagnetic moment is important to particle physics – and yes, we go deep into the physics weeds in this episode! (Make sure to catch the story about moving a giant magnet from Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York by boat and truck to Fermilab in Illinois!)
Moving on, the crew tackles a question from Walter T. on Patreon, who asks, “Could the many worlds theory still be deterministic?” Charles explains the many worlds model, but because our existing experiments cannot distinguish between the many different models of quantum mechanics, Lesya defaults to the infamous Richard Feynman quote, “Anybody who claims to understand quantum mechanics is either crazy or lying.”
If you’d like to know more about Dr. Horyn, you can follow her on Twitter at @lesyaah. And be sure to follow @CERN, @ATLASexperiment, and @CMSexperiment to keep up with some of the developments we’ve discussed in this episode.
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
Credits for Images Used in this Episode:Brookhaven National Laboratory – Credit: Energy.gov, public domainParticles in the Standard Model – Credit: Cush via Wikimedia, public domainThe CMS detector – Credit: Evenkolder, CC-BY 2.0The g-2 experiment magnet in transit – Credit: Energy.gov, public domainMuonG-2 Predicted – Credit: Allen Liu, for the LIUniverseMuonG-2 Observed – Credit: Allen Liu, for the LIUniverse
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We often hear about the music of the spheres, but why not the poetry of the stars? In this episode Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome poet/astronomer/cosmologist Dr. Yun Wang and poet/author Midge Goldberg, editor of “Outer Space: 100 Poems” that includes Yun’s poem, “Space Journal: Serendipity.”
As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, a possible candidate relativistic tidal disruption event. Put another way, in a galaxy far, far away, a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy is possibly shredding a star, creating a brightening flare of radio emission. Naturally, given our guests, Chuck and company reflect on the idea of a black hole as a metaphor.
Moving on, Dr. Wang discusses her exploration of our universe and her eventual goal of modeling a billion galaxies in 3-D. She and Chuck briefly address whether universal expansion will continue forever, as some posit, and whether dark energy is truly a cosmological constant or not.
Then it’s poetry time! Midge recounts her journey to create “Outer Space: 100 Poems” and how she eventually connected with Yun, who not only contributed her own poem to the book but also translated a poem by Du Fu, who Chuck explains is one of the two greatest poets of the Tang Dynasty in China. The other is Li Bai, composer of “Night Thoughts,” the only poem Dr. Liu can recite by heart in Chinese, which he proceeds to do before also reciting the English translation he wrote.
Midge talks about choosing poems from around the world, drawn from ancient cultures up to modern day poetry about landing on the moon, and describes some of their age-old, shared themes.
For our student question, William asks, “How can poetry be used to communicate astronomy research?” Midge points to an eponymous poem about “Olber’s Paradox” she included in the book which taught her about the paradox. You’ll learn about the first scientifically reasonable answer to the paradox, which Midge points out, was written by none other than Edgar Allen Poe!
Yun explains how she almost unintentionally mingles her science and her poetry in her writing, after which she reads her poem, “Space Journal: Serendipity.” To answer William’s query, she dives into the actual science and astronomy research that is embodied in every word of her poem.
Does Chuck find an opportunity to talk about the holodecks in Star Trek, Schrodinger’s Cat, and other equally geeky subjects? You’ll have to listen to find out.
Come back in two weeks for the rest of Chuck’s interview with Dr. Yun Wang and poet/author Midge Goldberg.
If you’d like to know more about Dr. Yun Wang and her many scientific and poetic publications, see her bio page at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech): https://web.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/wang/.
To learn more about Midge Goldberg, visit her website: https://www.midgegoldberg.com/ or follow her on Twitter at @MidgeGoldberg.
“Outer Space: 100 Poems” is published by Cambridge University Press: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/outer-space-100-poems/7D8D674BE0C7215CCC9FD0284044B819
We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.
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