No Space Telescopes, Alien Space Junk, Humans Evolving in Space | Q&A 173

[@zapfanzapfan]

Wow, that filter wheel was a beauty, I had not seen that before. Thanks Chad!

[@CyberiusT]

Orbit is almost exactly what Douglas Adams defined as flying - throwing yourself at the ground and missing. In this case, because the planet isn't where you aimed at any more by the time you get there.

[@frasercain]

Yup, it's exactly the same as in the Hitchhiker's Guide.

[@lyledal]

I am extremely excited about the Venus Life Finder mission!

[@mr.onethirtyeight5088]

Here we are in 2023. LE'SGOOOO!!!!

[@robertkooiman27]

Hi Frazer, Love the shows! I have two questions: 1. If water or ice is used to protect against cosmic radiation will the water or ice still be usable for consumption afterwards? 2. If we would meet an alien that is millions of years ahead in technology and you can ask 2 questions, what would you ask? The mystery of dark matter? What should we do to survive and thrive as a species?

[@laszlomeszaros247]

Hi Fraser! What causes relativistic (astrophysical) jets? Why do they escape at the axis of rotation?

[@jamesrapp9778]

Cheers for the video mate 😎 👌

[@I.amthatrealJuan]

I wasn't expecting my question to be answered. Thanks, Fraser!

[@axelkowald4458]

Hi Frazer, do you think that floating regolith (caused by humans or meteorites) would be a problem for moon based telescopes?

[@akers189]

How much of a difference would it be if we put the ELT telescope on the moon compared to Earth? Would the ELT be able to see details of Neptune compared to the latest one from the Hubble? Thanks, Jason

[@jasonsinn9237]

Hey Fraser, we hear a lot about the different events that radically changed the Earth like the Great Oxidation, the Pleistocene era, etc. but what about the other planets and moons in our solar system? Did any of them have major events that we know of that completely changed them too? Were any of them radically different in the past compared to what we see today?

[@DailyDoseofSpace.]

Hey Fraser, is the future of humanity going to be working and living in space or staying on earth? I would think that we have to go to space since there is an abundance of resources and energy to be harnessed, as well as the fact that living in space would eliminate a lot of problems on earth.

[@maninthehills7134]

This is probably an impossible question for now, but an interesting thought experiment: -If 2 black holes were traveling through space at relativistic speeds in different directions and they graze past one another, such that their event horizons overlap, would their combined momentum force their event horizons apart again? -Further, what would happen to any human that was precisely at their L1 points when they passed each other? What would they see?

[@charleslivingston2256]

Well, their L1 point is between them, so that wouldn't be a safe place to view it. The Lagrange points are defined for two objects orbiting each other, so the aren't even defined for a grazing passby case. However, substitute a safe viewing position and it is still a valid question. I don't see any reason why event horizons overlapping poses any problem. Anything inside the event horizon cannot escape to free space, but if the two "normal" event horizons overlapped, that would not be the event horizons at that time. It seems like there would be a saddle between them where the gravitational potential would be flat and light could escape along the line perpendicular to them. Whether it is possible to stay outside the event horizons may or may not be true, but it seems like it would be possible. This is from someone without the ability to solve the general relativity equations and trusting his intuition - in an area where trusting one's intuition is error prone.

[@AliHSyed]

Hello Fraser, could gravitational waves trigger Earthquakes?

[@richardvirgen-slane6820]

Hey Frazer, The Fermi paradox assumes that the selection for intelligent life is universal. I’d argue that there may be very little natural selection for intelligent life in our universe. Life that can survive radiation, freeze/thaw cycles, and desiccation are probably ubiquitous. Considering the age and diversity of our biosphere, we only recently started our space programs. To date the first species on earth, to do so.

[@LordPhobos6502]

28:50 - being green DEFINITELY makes you better able to travel in space. Same as red and/or flame decals make cars go faster. Sources: Futurama & Kerbal Space Program.

[@THIS---GUY]

Fraser, are we at all able to see any objects near the edge of the observable universe and infer any information from the gravitational effects from mass beyond the observable threshold? For example, If a mass like the great attractor was just outside of the observable universe, or recently disappeared from the observable universe, could we analyze any effects it has on mass inside of the observable universe? Would those effects on other mass disappear when the object travels behind the threshold?

[@HebaruSan]

If the next space telescopes were launched in (big) pieces and assembled in orbit, they could be any size we like. We already have automated rendezvous and docking systems for the ISS, so putting together pieces of a 20+m mirror and equally huge sunshade should not be that much of a stretch. Once it's all put together, you can even do a full system check in orbit and use drones to fix problems before sending it to L2 (or wherever it needs to go). The only thing that couldn't be done in LEO is extreme passive cooling, but even with that you could still block the sun and only have to worry about light and heat from the earth.

[@danniles5256]

Great job,Fraser. Ty.

[@carissa8283i]

Thanks for your space videos, no more space videos for me for a while. I gotta get my life together on earth. Not sure why I spend so much of my life learning about space.

[@runningray]

Woah! I just saw myself in your video. woot!

[@frasercain]

You did it!

[@karissabraun618]

Hey Fraser! What prevents the JWST from breaking?

[@mbj__]

Question: The Oort Cloud, is it an evenly distributed sphere of Commets around the solar system or is it more concentrated and disc shaped around the planetary horizontal plane?

[@va2601]

Great!

[@frasercain]

Thanks!

[@soaringstars314]

Hey frazer, what is stopping and object from orbiting a black hole inside the event horizon assuming the black hole has nothing orbiting around it? I get that nothing can go faster than the speed of light but wouldn't time inside be different accommodating for the speed due to relativity?

[@prashanthraj3416]

What happens when we keep on using gravity assist on a planet and slow it down ? Will it crash into sun or escape the solar system?

[@MrT------5743]

I do not think it is possible to make things that would be massive enough to cause a significant change in a planet's orbit.

[@Midg-td3ty]

My question is: Can we make any reliable conclusions on the density/size of the atmosphere of an exoplanet with JWST. To clarify more if a bigger Mars Venus Earth would be around an exoplanet in the line of sight of JWST could we tell Planet A has 90 Atmospheres pressure Planet B has 1 Atmosphere and Planet C 0.01 Atmospheres ?

[@parkey5]

Fraserrrrrrrrrr ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Have you seen the film Clara? What are your thoughts? Apart from the communicating through entangled particles bit 🤦🏻‍♂️ I love that JWST gets a mention 😃 We'd love to know what you'd rather there film.

[@frasercain]

Not yet, I'll check it out.

[@AvyScottandFlower]

Was there a show this past Monday?

[@frasercain]

No, it's a holiday in both the US and Canada, so I took it off.

[@AvyScottandFlower]

@@frasercain Ah ok, thanks! 👋

[@zapfanzapfan]

@@frasercain Ah, that explains it, National Sticky Bun Day 🙂

[@jeffmofo5013]

The expanding universe alters(Stretches) light that is emitted from other celestial bodies. There's so much there. I don't know what to specifically ask about. Just expand on that. Maybe a guest can speak specifically to this. One thought is do the telescopes observing this light do some kind of compression to get it back to it's natural state? As far as I understand it, they just observe it as is and communicate what that means. But they have to translate it some how. A light source a million miles away will have a different signature indicating water verse a light source a billion miles away (my numbers may be small). They have to be taking that into account, some how. Somebody mentioned it in passing and it's been plaguing me.

[@robertweidner2480]

I would actually think that if it detected Oxygen in the atmosphere, that would be a very good sign of photosynthesis from plants.

[@hello-ji7qj]

I don't agree with Fraser on this one. Oxygen is highly reactive and won't stick around for long because it will react with rocks and minerals. For example, the banded iron formations.

[@DrunkNamedJohn]

But it isn't the only way. He isn't saying that it wouldn't be a biosignature necessarily, just that to jump to the automatic conclusion that it is a biosignature isn't the best course of action.

[@hello-ji7qj]

@@DrunkNamedJohn Still waiting for someone to give an example of abiogenic diatomic oxygen. (More than trace quantities)

[@frasercain]

The problem is that space telescopes can only detect the presence of chemicals, not the quantities. So you'd know there's oxygen, but not how much by volume.

[@idodekkers9165]

Hey Fraser White holes??? was the big bang a white hole? if there ever existed a white hole will it wash all the universe with light, or is it the same as black holes - limited in size/matter?

[@elementus2857]

Have you heard about Spacebit's Asagumo rover that will explore the Moon's lava tubes? Do you think it has a chance of launching this year and would a spider like rover could be the future of space rovers?

[@soaringstars314]

Hey frazer, if space x reaches their goal of being low budget, wouldn't the consequence be that the government will lower the budget for space exploration as whenever finance is being talked about, they always talk about how they can go on a budget rather than the other way?

[@FinGeek4now]

Fraser.. speaking of the big bang and what you believe and how you would feel.. how would you feel if the scientific consensus was that we were nothing but a dream within SCP-2442?

[@ceramicfish4934]

Fraser question Thx for your pod cast. If the Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago how do we even know it happen then? I get the Big Bang Echo theory but how do we know for sure the background noise isn't just 13.8 billion years of radiation from everthing still bouncing around the universe? TIA

[@rich81090]

Hi Frazer what’s your thoughts on Earendel the star Hubble has detected which is believed to be the furthest star ever seen?

[@gatecrasher0380]

Flying? Hes not flying! Hes falling...with style.

[@unvergebeneid]

But Einstein's whole deal was that being in freefall is the exact same thing as not experiencing gravity at all. Like, there is no experiment that could ever be done that can tell one scenario from the other. Therefore it makes no sense to distinguish them. It's called the equivalence principle.

[@dougirvin2413]

Hey Frazer, love your show! Is it possible that the Fly's Eye detector 1991 OMG particle was really a Primordial Black Hole?

[@robertvanvorst7294]

Where is q&a 175?

[@Midg-td3ty]

My other question might be a bit confusing and unclear so I try to formulate it again here: Can in theory the focal point of a gravitational lense that focuses light from earth be reflected back at us through the supermassive blackhole?

[@frasercain]

Again, in theory, sure. In practice. No.

[@xb2856]

嘿 Fraser， 我也是一个对空间很感兴趣，学中文的人。我想知道如果dark matter除了重力它什么都不相互作用，为什么所有的dark matter不直接去星系的中心被黑洞吃了？我也想知道你学中文学了多久？ 可以给我们讲讲你学中文的经历哈哈？谢谢你的视频，加油！

[@rolandrobledo5952]

Can the "great attractor" stop the everything from moving away from each other due to the universe expanding?

[@NoNameAtAll2]

are baloon telescopes (telescope on baloon) possible? this episode was about not having space telescopes, so I thought getting aerostat ones might help mitigate that

[@zapfanzapfan]

Yes, telescopes on balloons are an intermediate. A lot cheaper but even at 40 km there is still some atmosphere above you. One is supposed to launch from New Zealand this spring with a 50 cm mirror telescope. There is also SOFIA, the Boeing 747 with a Hubble sized telescope in the back flying at 12 km or so.

[@frasercain]

Yes, there have been many balloon-based observatories.

[@Chumfin]

Is it possible there could be dark matter in earths gravity well

[@kirkmeffan3557]

The spiral arms of galaxies remind me of phantom traffic jams you get òn motorways

[@va2601]

Whats ur opinion on sir Roger Penrose`s theory about the begging of the universe ( conformal cyclic cosmology ) ?

[@frasercain]

Hah, I have no opinion. I'm just a journalist, not a theoretical cosmologist.

[@MyLittleMagneton]

In my opinion, asking what happened before the big bang is an invalid question; the word "before" presupposes that there was time before time existed.

[@CarFreeSegnitz]

I try to explain to people that to ask what was BEFORE the Big Bang is like asking what is north of the north pole.

[@cjnthn]

the big bang is a theory everyone just accepted as true. we can't see enough to say it's real. It's one of life's "everyone knows".

[@idodekkers9165]

Hey again Fraser will mining mercury completely to build lets say a Dyson sphere change the locations of other planets? will building a Dyson sphere do that if it's big enough?

[@MrT------5743]

I think on an earlier video he had said to build a Dyson sphere, you would need pretty much all the rocky planets, moons, asteroids and comets etc in the solar system. I think that moving that mass around would affect the remaining 4 gas/ice giants planets slightly.

[@nathanlee6654]

Do you think the Lunar Gateway is a waste of money?

[@MrT------5743]

If i were to guess what Frasier would say, I would think he is all for more space exploration of all types.

[@johnholleran]

We've studied and logged bodies in the asteroid belt, but we know very little about most of them. How sure can we be that some of the asteroids we have logged are not alien spacecraft?

[@frasercain]

We've only looked at a tiny fraction of them, so we have no idea.

[@AliHSyed]

Could JWST show us Oumuamua?

[@geneticjen9312]

Maybe nitpicking but I don't think all helium was formed in the first minutes of the universe. Most helium maybe. Like ALMOST all. But stars can create helium from hydrogen with fusion

[@bigbrownsound]

Not streaming on KZbin live on Mondays anymore? I have my alarm set for 7pm central time on Mondays. I guess I missed the live stream somehow?

[@frasercain]

It was a holiday.

[@scottdorfler2551]

Frazer, Whenever someone asks where alien devices are located the correct answer is always in Uranus!!! 😳👽😖

[@sgtmarty9682]

It looks like the JWST can only aim on a tangent to its orbit, so how will it aim at anything? It doesn't look like it has an ability to point its dish anywhere but that tangent to its orbit. Please help me understand this. Thanks.

[@sgtmarty9682]

Okay, I found a Scott Manley vid that explains what I needed to know. It's here if anyone else finds it helpful: kzbin.info/www/bejne/maHCaHSAqMqMj8U

[@mattuk56]

Hi Fraser. are there any stars which could be used to make a picture of Eminems head? a bit like Ursa Major?

[@dustman96]

Being green could allow you to make energy from light like plants, drastically reducing your nutritional requirements.

[@MrT------5743]

Actually you would not want to be green. Plants being green reflect green light and actually is worse for photosynthesis than if they were black.

[@ronaldwhite1730]

Thank - you . ( 2023 / Feb / 19 )

[@theunknownunknowns256]

Vertebrates adapted to land, given the difference between sea and land it seems plausible evolution will allow adaptation to micro gravity.

[@MrT------5743]

That change took millions of years. So in a few million years, would we still be human?

[@bamcr1218]

Why don’t we just call it all light? For instance, Instead of gamma radiation, say gamma light. Xlight(or “the unknown light”) replaces X-Ray and so on and so forth…

[@deanranged3762]

Hi Fraiser What if gamma ray bursts are just belligerent civilizations destroying each others solar systems?

[@Nk36745]

You never say where to submit questions... just to write it down. Where's the best place to submit them?

[@frasercain]

You just did it!

[@microschandran]

Hi Fraser, does the CMB provide evidence that dark matter existed at 380,000 years after the birth of the universe?

[@charleslivingston2256]

They can do simulations with different ratios of matter to dark matter and the CMB looks different. To get the simulated CMB to match what we see, we need a ratio similar to what we calculate from galaxy rotation rates.

[@zoltonthemagnificent88]

Can you explain the astronomical axis of evil?

[@zoltonthemagnificent88]

Why is the bottom of the JWST depicted as pink? Does it have a practical purpose?

[@Midg-td3ty]

The mirror question made me think is it possible that the super massive black hole in the center of the milky way can act as a gravity lense but bends the light so much that we can see earth in the past. Basically focusing a massive area into a single point that gets reflected back because it bends the light 180 degrees.

[@MrT------5743]

I think the same problem exists that he talked about. Planets do not give off that much light so there would be virtually 0 photons that come off a planet, bends around a blackhole and come back to be seen.

[@Midg-td3ty]

@@MrT------5743 Well the gravitational lense is focusing the light it just needs to be perfectly aligned. But not sure this would work while simultaneously bending the focused light 180 degrees.This is how we discovered an exoplanet in the andromeda galaxy. So maybe it could work ?

[@MrT------5743]

@@Midg-td3ty But no matter how much you can focus the light, it is still large distances where light is being scattered. Just to the black hole in the Milky Way and back is around 52,000 light years. Also I am not sure they used gravitational lensing to see an exoplanet in Andromeda. There is no supermassive blackhole in-between us and Andromeda. We can't even directly image a planet around the nearest star (Proxima Centauri) and that is only 4 light years away.

[@Midg-td3ty]

@@MrT------5743Just google extragalactic planet and see for yourself. Also they didnt use a supermassive blackhole they used something else. Check out the proposed telescope array in the gravitational focus of the sun. ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20180002197/downloads/20180002197.pdf This way you can direct image exoplanets and theoretically even resolve things like continents on the surface of that planet. My question is could there be a spot that reflects directly back at us due to the light being bent so much. Also they found an extragalactic planet 4 Billion Lightyears away. Sadly the constellation of the lense between earth and the exoplanet only exists for a short time and never comes back. I just want to know if its theoretically possible that the gravitational focus through the black hole could be aligned in such a way that we could use the black hole as a mirror.

[@MrT------5743]

@@Midg-td3ty So I did google 'extragalactic planet' and read the wiki for that result and it says no planets have been found outside of the Milky Way. The farthest planet that was found is 27,000 light years away and Andromeda is 2,537,000 light years away. Edit:The planet you are trying to say has been confirmed has not been confirmed and is only suspected: The lensing pattern fits a star with a smaller companion, PA-99-N2, weighing just around 6.34 times the mass of Jupiter. This suspected planet is the first announced in the Andromeda Galaxy. Here is the excerpt from Wiki: Due to the huge distances to such worlds, they would be very hard to detect directly. However, indirect evidence suggests that such planets exist.[4][5][6] Nonetheless, the most distant known planets are SWEEPS-11 and SWEEPS-04, located in Sagittarius, approximately 27,710 light-years from the Sun, while the Milky Way is between 100,000 and 180,000 light years in diameter. This means that even galactic planets located farther than that distance have not been detected.

[@cixcell7735]

Hey Fraser, just watched the end of For All Mankind again and it made me wonder just how disgusting would an unprotected corpse be on the lunar surface? All water that could boil off, would. after the skin and eyes? completely ruptured. I guess we would wind up resembling jerky? Its the lunar surface so you know the accident has to occur someday.

[@isaacplaysbass8568]

Can anyone else see a rock elephant in the lower quarter of the video at 7m:15s ? An awesome pareidolia moment :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZ-cmauopM9ja5Y Thank you Fraser and the team for the Q&A episode!

[@blueredbrick]

When is the 10_year survey due ? And what are you hoping for?

[@brick6347]

In 10 years

[@frasercain]

The latest one just came out, so about 10 years from now. I'd like a follow on telescope to Hubble.

[@kadourimdou43]

How much more massive than Earth could a planet be, before technologically intelligent alien life became impossible.

[@mattuk56]

Has 2pacs music ever been beamed towards exoplanets with potential life? Also will there ever be a probe that leaves our solar system on route towards exoplanets with potential life with a gold record with one of Tupac Shakurs albums on the record?

[@Disasterina]

Fraser! What percentage of the stars visible with the naked eye in the night sky are white dwarves?

[@frasercain]

None. You need a telescope to see them.

[@JuliusUnique]

isn't it as simple as: the longer the wavelength the better it arrives at earth-telescopes because less scattering?

[@charleslivingston2256]

Not if its energy matches an electron transition of a molecule in the atmosphere. It is likely to be absorbed. When re-emmitted, it could be in any direction.

[@CraneArmy]

What does "scientific consesus" have to do with science? In every context I hear "scientific consensus" it seems to intend to indicate some political/ethical conclusion that exists disconnected from science and has nothing to do with empirical study or understanding reality.

[@thatguy7595]

Anyone want to ask about Lagrange points?

[@deisisase]

Wow, I thought the spiral arms were made of dark matter and a lot of stuff just collected around that dark matter.

[@MrT------5743]

There is no such thing as 0 gravity. Weightlessness is not feeling any gravity.

[@kturob]

What do you think is going to be the next biggest Discovery in space.

[@ashutoshashutosh2865]

Why we want to become INTERplanetary?

[@tomhools1605]

who will be first to bring fresh rocks from Mars? NASA, ESA, China, SpaceX or someone else?

[@jimashby43]

Mmm, much bigger space telescopes...yeah

[@AvyScottandFlower]

Whenever I hear ''Breakthrough Foundation'' (The Breakthrough Initiatives) I think of Stephen Hawking, and how he'll *NEVER* be able to see any results come into fruition It makes me truly sad, for some reason (I wasn't even a huge SH fan, back in the day, due to all the MSM overhyping of him)

[@wrongtimeweeder1076]

Hello awesome dude! Damn, your videos are good! Umm... any chance you could make the text of the questions on-screen any bigger? I'm getting old, and so is my eyesight. (thumbs up this comment if you'd like to see the questions in bigger text) :D

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

If planet-9 are a black hole, perhaps light from earth are trapped in the planets gravity and we can see how earth was in the past, how many millions or billions of years can we see back in time?

[@MrT------5743]

If light from earth goes into a blackhole, then we will never ever see that light.

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

@@MrT------5743 - but it can be trapped in the gravity and go around the hole for eternity

[@MrT------5743]

@@doncarlodivargas5497 Eternity or 10 minutes, if you can never see it what does it matter? Also blackholes will eventually evaporate due to Hawking Radiation so it won't go on for eternity.

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

@@MrT------5743 - if we can use galaxies as gravity lenses and reconstruct a picture of what is behind a galaxy we must also be able to recognise earth from light in orbit around a black hole

[@WilhelmDrake]

Why would a society send out Von Nneumann probes everywhere? What would be the purpose?

[@frasercain]

To explore the Milky Way. Would you like to see pictures of extrasolar planets? Maybe see video from the surface of another world? To know which stars have civilizations? That's why.

[@enocharyee5026]

couldn't we be bio AI?

[@dustman96]

Why isn't there more helium in our solar system, where does all the helium tend to congregate in the universe?

[@zapfanzapfan]

There is lots of helium in the solar system, just not on Earth because our gravity is too small to hold on to it. The Sun and the giant planets have lots of it.

[@dustman96]

@@zapfanzapfan Thanks for the input, will do research on the composition of the other planets.

[@Phil_AKA_ThundyUK]

Noticed you've gone missing - hope that you are ok?

[@Jaggerbush]

Max Tegmark gives the following distance that calculates when you would see an exact copy of yourself kzbin.info/www/bejne/a5DUdIB4qdqLgcU He gives no scope of how to imagine how far this is for those of us bad at math and scope. Is there anyway to help imagine this? Also- would this just be a copy of you or an identical you who speaks English and has a podcast show? I would imagine it’s more than the right number of particles that are configured to reproduce an exact copy of yourself than to capture you and you speaking the English language without as much as changing the word GREEN for CAR.

[@7heHorror]

"Not funded by government" sounds made up. 🤣🤣 Great explanations.

[@gigelchiazna_censored]

what logic makes to belive in aliens since we do not see any sign? isn't that kinda religion?

[@bryanguzik]

Milky Way "has seen some things". You just want to yell "quit feeling sorry for yourself "! But no one wants to cause a setback for a guy taking tens of million of years to work through his crap.