Back to Earth 3 Stargazing Live

Hello and welcome back to Jodrell for Back to Earth, an extra half-

hour of stargazing and chatting. There is still time for you to

throw us a question to via e-mail - [email protected]. We have

Professor Brian Cox, Dr Caroline Smith, Tim O'Brien, Dr Richard

Greenwood from the Open University and Dr Chris Lintott. We will come

to you very quickly. We will hand out drinks. Pass that on. There's

some whisky tonight. The distillery have sent - this is whisky as it

looks when it comes out initially. Some of this has been sent on to

the ISS to see how terpenes in whisky mature in space! LAUGHTER

For all those zero gravity whisky distilleries we are planning on

building some time! Age? The one we are drinking was nothing to do with

space, really! LAUGHTER It is a tenuous thing. It has "space" on

the bottle. Really, it is more of a celebration. Congratulations to you.

We will need whisky if we are going to go to Mars. It is 500 days there

and back. It's just what you need in a confined space(!) As we are

discovering tonight! LAUGHTER haven't slept because we have been

processing these results. We have found amazing things on Mars.

Trying to understand these explosions tells us about the

evolution of Mars' atmosphere. It tells us about the changes that

happen each season. This is important stuff if we want to

understand how Mars works as a planet. Could you speculate about

the discovery? The weird terrain? Yes. Those must be cracks, those

dark areas. That must be stuff coming up from underneath. It is

easy to do science when you know nothing! Stuff coming up to form

cracks. Why is it regular? Why do they move? If they move, it must

happen suddenly. There is no channels. On other images, we see

the same patterns appear again and again. This is a very sudden change.

Somewhere else I wouldn't recommend for a spring break. There is no

geological parallel you could draw? We played a trick, a blinder on

people. We sent you to the least Earth-like place on Mars. We want

to understand Mars so you go to where the weird stuff is happening.

In science you look for the unusual. There is a geological parallel.

Richard and I were talking about it. They do look like December kaigs --

dessication cracks. It sort of looks a bit like that. Why that

would necessarily move around. see those in the North Pole of Mars.

When Phoenix landed, that is what we saw. It is the boring bit of

Mars. Phoenix told us it was interesting. These are different

from that. They are not - they don't persist in the way that you

would expect. The white dots? think they are ice. How large are

those blocks? That whole image is two rugby fields. They are quite

big. Depending on the actual surface, what the surface is made

of. What rocks it is, how fine those rocks are. You could get very

coarse dessication cracks like that. You need a liquid phase, don't you?

Yes. This is a spring image. So it is the point where that is turning

back into gas. The way to check - we have some new images on the site

and we have focused on these areas. We will see if they change. This is

genuine semi-blind speculation occurring live(!) We call it

science! You need to get somebody in the laboratory to get the

conditions. Can we go back to the jets? They come out very fast. The

faster they come out, the longer they get. I hope we have got the

record-breaker we can show you. This goes out to 250, 300 metres

and it comes out faster than Usain Bolt! Didn't we something like that

on one of Neptune's moons? Yes. That's been suggested that is the

same sort of mechanism. We have another one. You wanted a message

from the Martians. We have got one. They love you! LAUGHTER This was

found by Rob and Ellie Jones. is fantastic! This is the wind

blowing material? The wind shifts and you get this change in

direction. It is a message for Dara! It is great. They can still

take part in this? That's right. We put new images up. We need more

people to explore Mars. We have a million questions about how Mars.

How has Mars retained any of its atmosphere? Is it on the way to

losing it all? Very slowly. It is still losing materials. There are

spacecraft measuring the loss of Mars' atmosphere. It's held on to

what it's got because it's got gravity. What do you think Mars'

atmosphere smells like? It is fairly thin, so very little. What

is the composition? It is mostly CO2. There's nitrogen in there.

That's one of the ways that we know that Martian meteorites are from

Mars because within the Martian meteorites there is this atmosphere

which is rich in CO2, nitrogen, things like that. We can measure

the isotopic composition of that. How many Martian meteorites do we

have? About 100. When I say 100, there are some in the pipeline that

are being classified. Compared with the 60 from Vesta, we have five

witnessed falls. How come we have got more Vesta than Mars?

didn't watch the show! We have covered this topic. Maybe you want

to move on! There is a subtle story behind that. It is to do with the

solar radiation? They are drifting into the three to one resonance.

Are they being pushed? Yes. There is a plan were we to see an

asteroid heading towards us, we would paint it white or black in

order to use the Sun... You might push it into a situation where it

hits the Earth. You have to be certain you know... Or hit a

certain part of the Earth! You can have the Americans painting it

white and the Chinese painting it black! LAUGHTER You have to know

what you are doing. A lot of asteroid questions. Can objects

orbit around meteors? Yes, they can. In fact, there's - as we observe

asteroids with radio telescopes and observational telescopes, we are

finding that binary asteroids are more common than singular asteroids.

How large would they have to be? You are talking sort of... Relative

to planets? You are talking objects a few hundred metres in diameter.

As we heard in the main programme, a few hundred metres wide doesn't

sound very wide, but if that hit Earth, we would be in big trouble.

Would it be possible for a big enough comet or asteroid to pull

Earth out of its orbit? No. They are never that big. The Earth's far

bigger... It would destroy life. That is all right then(!) Size

always wins. In the past, the formation of the Moon is that we

got hit by a planet-sized object. That is one of the most remarkable

things in science. Papers came out recently, but the picture it paints

is of an horrendous one. The atmosphere was up to 6,000 degrees

Kelvin. That is the heat of the Sun! I do want to get you to do

something for me, which is to go to the photographs we have received.

There's lots more on the website. Please go and check those out.

Chris, you have three? I liked these three. This one is M81 Bode's

Galaxy. We have the Veil Nebula. It's taken by Rob Preston in July

2012. This is often called the Witch's Broom. My favourite - this

is from Richard Taylor. We have the beautiful astronomical little

startrail there. And a mystic stone circle! Which constituency are you

appealing to? They are all watching! We traditionally

antagonise these people. We don't mean to! I got a tweet saying why

didn't you say anything about astrology being a complete drivel?

We are not going to say anything! say half of them - I know people

mistake the word s astronomy and astrology. Say the word out loud

and it is all in the word. Astronomy, nom, nom, Brian Cox is

delicious! LAUGHTER We have discussed meteorites... Carry on!

That's for Buzz Lightyear, my friend! Meteorites can tell us the

story of our universe. Dr Caroline Smith has brought in some of the

rocks from our universe. What do we have here? We shouldn't touch them.

I will pull them over here, if that is all right, camera people? We

have four meteorites here from the collection. You can see Brian and I

have put our gloves on. That is not for any weird sexual interest later

on! LAUGHTER It is important to clear that up. This is because

these are all actively research specimens by scientists at the

museum. What we want to do is try and minimise any contamination that

we might add to the meteorites by handling them. I have whisky on

that one! Put a new one on. I think in no particular order, this is one

in no particular order, this is one here, this is the Murchison

meteorite. It fell in Australia in September of 1969. This is a very

important specimen because it is full of organic molecules. Full of

all the chemical building blocks you need for life to start.

Including things like amino-acids. So I know on Tuesday you were

talking about this. One of the theories which is a popular theory

is that meteorites like this seeded the early Earth with all the

chemical building blocks that you need for life. How would they have

formed? You need stable conditions. You need temperature gradient. You

probably need water? Exactly. This meteorite, very early in its life.

This is one that dates back to the first stages of the Solar System

forming. This meteorite is full of clay minerals. These are minerals

that have interacted with water. So we know that there was water on the

parent body of this meteorite. Yes, complex chemistry was going on.

Liquid water? Exactly. It's dry now. It would have been - one of the

suggestions is that meteorites similar to this, not the same type,

may be from comets. This may be part of a comet? Possibly. We think

there's pros and cons for that They originated outside the solar

system. There is an active debate. Maybe they formed in the cold out

parts of the solar system. You need carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, close

together, cold, presumably. We see this chemistry. On Tuesday you

showed us there was water in the Orion nebula. If we looked at

different wavelength we would have seen hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, and

we see complicated molecules. Alcohol! Organic chemistry, you

think of it as being very, very special, but it is found all over

the place. Theatre reaches of the solar system and in interstellar

space. Choose one more. This is another super special one. My

microphone has fallen off! This is one of our stars of the museum. A

meteorite that fell in Egypt in 1911 and it is one of a handful, 60

meteorite from Mars. This is a piece of the planet Mars. There's a

story that a dog got killed by this, but it's apocryphal. A piece of

Mars. If you could scrape off the rusted surface of Mars, you would

get this beautiful green/grey rock. This is similar to Roxy would find

on her. Similar to volcanic rocks, like you would find on the Western

Islands of Scotland. Like the places you get whisky from! We

spoke about water and water on Mars, there's a story that a lot of

people don't know. Gnats -- NASA announced regularly that they have

found water on Mars. In the 1970s a scientist studying this meteorite

was the first person to conclusively show that water had

existed on Mars in the past. changed the rock. Exactly. There

are clay minerals in this rock for a show it has to have interacted

with water at some point. Thank you. A question now. It is a relevant

Greetings, master, I am a K9. Tonight, as you say, which is the

Please furnish me with the correct answer. Who is the odd one out?

didn't listen! It was brilliant on Tuesday. World of sport with Dickie

Davies. A do you want an answer? Was one of them hit by a meteorite?

Yes. Anyone know the odd one out? The lady on the left. Why? She has

not been hit by a meteorite. What was she hit by? I don't know.

find out. This is the answer. All three of these humans have been hit

by objects falling from space. Mrs Hodges and the boy from Uganda were

both struck by meteorites, but Rhys Williams is the only known -- Miss

Williams is the only known human to be hit by man-made space debris.

Now I must return. Farewell. Keep return to his cupboard! How often a

people hit by a meteorite? For Ozil the only two people we know what. -

- there's a car. There might be others. If they dropped down dead

in a quiet area, nobody would know. It increases the value of the car.

If your car is hit by a meteorite, it increases the value. Please

donated to the Natural History Museum! We can put it on public

display. At a man came up to me in Oxford and handed me these,

cufflinks made from meteorite. Lee? That was what he said. He said

the beans were magic and I gave him the money. We have received any

number of serious and semi-serious suggestions for what that image was

you were looking for a reason for. Will says, a rock maze created by

Martians for thanksgiving. Tomato it -- tomato soup spilled on a

picture. My head under a microscope! A Marshin brain. Kilos

of people have said it is a Marshin brain. A Martian skate park! And

shadows of sand dunes. Is there wind on Mars? Yes, but no shadows.

Cobalt and chloride crystallising in funnels. Good for him. Salt

plains like in Bolivia, but bigger. Would they be tectonic plate?

It is one of the reasons it is different from the earth. It

doesn't have moving plates. Rocky debris on top of a glacier? We know

there's ice underneath so that is a good description. But how. More

detail in your tweet! Only 140 characters! I have to buy a point.

-- a pint. Everyone. Everyone on Twitter! What are we going to do?

Other questions about asteroids. Some strike and make creators --

craters, but we don't see any debris. There was a chap who tried

drilling a crater in the 1930s, but the idea he was under the ground,

he found nothing. When they get a certain size, the atmosphere does

not stop them so they plough in and explode. The desert plains around

Arizona were covered Int shrapnel from a meteorite. They play

themselves to pieces. Tim, it is not only these massive things

coming from space, it's a much smaller things are coming.

thought we would scare people. We said meteorites don't often hit

people, but what are hitting us all the time of particles from outer

space. Very small particles, sub- atomic particles. The interesting

bits of the universe. Yeah! We've got a machine built by some

colleagues and students from the University of Manchester physics

department. If we switch it on, it should detect a... These are heavy

a electrons. 200 times heavier than an electronic and they are created

when the cosmic ray particles hit the top of the atmosphere at moving

at almost the speed of light and it creates a cascade of the secondary

particles and radiation floods down through was all the time. Thousands

of these things to pass through every square metre of the Earth

surface every minute. We have detectors 100 metres below ground.

They are massive. You can align all the bits. Even 100 metres down, we

use those, they come straight through in a straight line. If your

measurement shows it has done that, you know that bit of the Tetra is

misaligned. They are very, very useful. There used to be a research

area. Now we use them to a line detectors. The highest energy ones,

we have no idea where they come from. The highest energy one of the

measured was a single proton, probably from outside the Galaxy,

that came in and it had the energy of a professional tennis serve. One

proton. Can you imagine how one lucky you would be to get hit by

that? -- how unlucky. These are ultra-high energy. They would

normally decay and other particles within a few microseconds and they

would never reached the ground. Because they are travelling at such

high speed, especially relativity and time dilation, time slows for

them and they lived for longer. and a stick. 2013 promises to be a

bumpy year for stargazers. Mark has some of the biggest events to look

out for. Come in as soon to a Scaini you.

The first date for your diary is fair pre- 15th. That is the day the

45 metre wide asteroid 2012 DA14 will visit and, approximately

35,000 miles from our surface. -- and come. 28th April, the

spectacular ring of Saturn will be in opposition. That means it is at

its closest point to the air. It will reach its highest point at

midnight. One month later on April -- made 28th, Venus and Jupiter has

turned to put on a brilliant show. The two brightest planets we can

see will be in conjunction, lining up in the sky. Look up in August

and you could see up to 90 meteors in an hour. It is the annual

prescient -- Perseid meteor shower. Last but by no means least, what

some are calling the comet of the century. At the end of the year,

Comet ISON could be dazzling and possibly brighter than the full

moon in daylight. But this one might still turn out to be a damp

squib. Why would it be so spectacular?

is on its first visit to the inner solar system and it is bright now.

We can't predict comets, they are like cats, they have tails and they

are unpredictable. Fingers crossed. We don't know how .. Does that mean

we are in danger of it breaking up? Do it is probably too big because

it is so bright already and it is close to last. Because it is on its

first week in, it has no track record and anything can happen.

don't know if it has enough material that might create a tale.

There are some spectacular -- spectacular fizzled, it's from the

past. We had many questions. One young man said he was not able to

sleep last night because he was worrying about this question. His

name is Jamie from Hampshire. How you? Kenya hear asked? You were

worried about one question. Ask our panel. Well, it could there be any

other universes other than our own and if so could they be outside the

laws of physics? Yes, I think is the answer. It is possible, as you

go beyond our visible horizon, there could be many other universes.

It is possible there could be other universes and the laws of physics

could be local to how a Barbour. But within our bubble, with

individual horizon, the laws of physics identical in this universe.

But yes. But don't lose any sleep over it! There could well be. It is

becoming a much more accepted model in cosmology that there are other

universes. You could say the laws of physics in this universe

appeared beautifully set up. What is the reason why? The reason could

be that there are many universes and many different laws of physics

and we live in the one where the laws of physics... If the universe

is infinite, could there be a region of a universe there would

have different laws of physics? think so. We are finding it hard to

Test that idea. Yes, it could be, but how can we tested? A fantastic

question, Jamie. I hope we have given you an answer that allows you

to rest worry-free! Thank you. thought the most accurate was

somebody saying it could be the Martian equivalent of the glacier.

I will buy two points. We should say thank you to Jodrell Bank

because every year wonderful hospitality and I am going to drink

to Jodrell Bank! We have to thank so many of our panel. Go to the