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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on

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Speaker 1: iHeart Radio and welcome back to Coast to Coast George

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Speaker 1: nor you with doctor Jim Bell. Jim, as you look

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Speaker 1: at the cosmos and you've seen all these incredible pictures,

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Speaker 1: how did it all start? Do you ever keep yourself

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Speaker 1: trying to figure that one out? All the time? Man?

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Speaker 1: All the time? It's you know, we have lots of information,

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Speaker 1: and we can do use radioactive age dating in the

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Speaker 1: laboratory to learn how old our solar system is four

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Speaker 1: and a half billion years. We can use the expansion

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Speaker 1: of the universe observed by the Hubble space telescope and

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Speaker 1: other facilities to learn how how old are observable universes?

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Speaker 1: Thirteen point six billion years ago or so. It all

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Speaker 1: emerged from the so called Big Bang? But where did

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Speaker 1: it come from? Why are we here? Boy? Are These

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Speaker 1: aren't really scientific questions. These are philosophical about us, and

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Speaker 1: we all struggle with him, all of us. And I'm

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Speaker 1: fascinated by the big question of what was right before

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Speaker 1: that thirteen point eight billion years? What was there? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: great question. I'm not a cosmologist, so I'm not the

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Speaker 1: guy to even attempt that, Jim, I can't even get

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Speaker 1: a cosmologist to tell me the answer. Well, part of

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Speaker 1: the problem is when you create space and time, it's

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Speaker 1: hard to ask what was before because you've created time

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Speaker 1: as we know it. Right, So it's right. It's a boy.

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Speaker 1: It makes my head spin, it is. It's one of

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Speaker 1: a kind. My mom always used to tell me that

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Speaker 1: it always was, always will be. I'm beginning to wonder

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Speaker 1: she might be right. That's a very wise answer. Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: What do you think of the new artemist's launch that

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Speaker 1: we had last week. I'm very exciting, very exciting to

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Speaker 1: see NASA succeed finally with its big rocket on the

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Speaker 1: first try. Of course, you know, a long way to

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Speaker 1: go for getting people on it and get back to

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Speaker 1: the Moon and all that. But this is, you know,

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Speaker 1: this is all of us pooling our resources as Americans,

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Speaker 1: a very tiny fraction of our tax dollar going towards

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Speaker 1: exploration and science and national prestige and global leadership in

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Speaker 1: human exploration. So obviously it was a lot of nail biting.

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Speaker 1: It's a lot riding on that rocket, and it'll be

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Speaker 1: even more riding on that rocket once people fly on

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Speaker 1: the next several flights. But I'm I'm awfully proud of

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Speaker 1: of NASA and everybody, all the contractors, the thousands and

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Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of people that help make that happen

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Speaker 1: and that are trying to move exploration and science forward

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Speaker 1: for our nation and for the world. We got to

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Speaker 1: the Moon with fifty plus year technology. You would think

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Speaker 1: it would be easier to get to now, but it

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Speaker 1: really isn't, is it. Well, there's nothing easy about rockets.

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Speaker 1: There's nothing easy about going out into space. It's a

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Speaker 1: harsh environment. Uh you know, there's there's just there's just

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Speaker 1: nothing easy about it. And if it was easy, everyone

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Speaker 1: would be doing it all the time, right. Uh. And

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Speaker 1: so you know, it takes takes the best minds in

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Speaker 1: the world to figure out how to do this. It

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Speaker 1: takes pooling our resources as a nation, It takes the

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Speaker 1: support of our elected representatives and leaders to do this,

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Speaker 1: and it takes all of us, um, you know, cheering

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Speaker 1: for each other and for our country to do these

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Speaker 1: kind of things. So uh, yeah, it's it's a hard

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Speaker 1: thing to do. Um and uh And it's so it's

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Speaker 1: it's so impressive and so exhilarating when it works. We

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Speaker 1: were friends with the late Edgar Mitchell, Apollo fourteen astronaut,

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Speaker 1: who told us some incredible things. A staunch believer in

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Speaker 1: extraterrestrial life. Where's where do you stand there, Joe, Well,

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Speaker 1: I look at it in two ways, right, there's uh,

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Speaker 1: there's life of any kind, right, and you know, we

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Speaker 1: know that the conditions on our own planet led to

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Speaker 1: the emergence of life. We think there are half a

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Speaker 1: dozen other places in our Solar system alone where those

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Speaker 1: conditions may also have led to life in the past,

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Speaker 1: or perhaps even life today in underground in aquifers or

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Speaker 1: deep under the ice, in various places. So that's partly

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Speaker 1: why we're looking for it. But likely the life in

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Speaker 1: our own solar system is probably very much if it's

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Speaker 1: out there, it's probably very much like what early life

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Speaker 1: was like on the Earth. Simple, single cell maybe multicellular colonies,

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Speaker 1: but relatively simple. And in that respect, I'm a big

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Speaker 1: optimist that there's probably simple life all over the galaxy,

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Speaker 1: all over the universe, because the conditions are duplicated in

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Speaker 1: so many other places. Tens of millions of earthlike planets

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Speaker 1: in our galaxy alone, So that's but that's simple life

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Speaker 1: like life started on the Earth separate question about intelligent life, right,

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Speaker 1: and it obviously on our on our planet a lot

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Speaker 1: of time that simple life evolved into the complex life

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Speaker 1: forms that we represent, a very small fraction of life

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Speaker 1: on our planet, but but able to build radio telescopes

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Speaker 1: and communicate and travel to the planets and the stars eventually.

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Speaker 1: And you know, is that is that common in the

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Speaker 1: galaxy In the university, I worry, George, that the distances

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Speaker 1: are so vast and you know, damn Einstein's speed of

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Speaker 1: light makes it so hard to communicate over vast distances.

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Speaker 1: That there may be other intelligent civilizations out there, or

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Speaker 1: they may have been a long time ago, but we're

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Speaker 1: just so far away that we can't communicate. But you know,

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Speaker 1: it's it's speculation at this point. Um, you know, it'd

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Speaker 1: be it'd be great to have, you know, some some

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Speaker 1: evidence of radio signals from another civilization, or some evidence

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Speaker 1: of the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet showing the kinds

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Speaker 1: of molecules that can only be created by intelligent civilization, etc. Etc.

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Speaker 1: And you know, we're fortunate and that we're looking for

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Speaker 1: those things, and it'll be one of the most grand

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Speaker 1: and amazing discoveries in the history of discoveries if we

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Speaker 1: actually find that evidence in And what do you think

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Speaker 1: of the picture of the face on Mars ands? I

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Speaker 1: don't know, um, I think it was it was a

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Speaker 1: really interesting picture from the from the nineteen seventies that

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Speaker 1: that got a lot of people excited, a lot of

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Speaker 1: geologists excited about the geologic structures there, and a lot

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Speaker 1: of folks in the public excited about, you know, seeing

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Speaker 1: what looked like face. Yeah. A subsequent images at higher resolution,

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Speaker 1: with better cameras and better technology have shown it's it's not,

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Speaker 1: but it's still it's a super interesting geologic structure. And

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Speaker 1: Mars has got all kinds of we talked about this earlier,

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Speaker 1: all kinds of weird shapes and structures formed from the

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Speaker 1: ancient geology of that planet. It is truly remarkable, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: How long has that the Hubble been? We're doing its

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Speaker 1: thing now. It's thirty I want to say thirty two

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Speaker 1: years now. My previous book a couple of years ago,

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Speaker 1: called Hubble Legacy, was in a celebration of the thirtieth

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Speaker 1: anniversary of the Hubble space telescope. What a spectacular, spectacular

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Speaker 1: thing that We've done having that up there for so long,

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Speaker 1: rewriting the astronomy books and the science textbooks for our

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Speaker 1: kids and teachers, making amazing discoveries and still going and

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Speaker 1: still going. And now you know, overlapping with an even

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Speaker 1: bigger and more powerful telescope that James Webb that's going

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Speaker 1: to do incredible things. What do you think it might

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Speaker 1: see the first light of the universe? You know, I

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Speaker 1: think it's it's designed to search for the first stars

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Speaker 1: and the first galla sees. I don't know if he'll

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Speaker 1: be able to see that far back. It's you know,

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Speaker 1: that's pushing the limits. But that's where the technology is

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Speaker 1: taking us back to those very very early days. I've

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Speaker 1: already discovered or shown evidence of, you know, possibly the

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Speaker 1: earliest galaxies that formed, maybe in the very very early universe.

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Speaker 1: I think what you start out with is right. It's

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Speaker 1: going to make some incredible discoveries. It's early days figure

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Speaker 1: out how to use that telescope and its instruments out

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Speaker 1: there in space since it's launch last Christmas. But just

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Speaker 1: like Hubbles started out slow out of the gates and

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Speaker 1: has revolutionized astronomy in thirty years, so as web Web

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Speaker 1: is testined to do the same thing. Are the first

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Speaker 1: stars that started the universe even around anymore? You know,

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Speaker 1: it's a great question. There are some kinds of stars

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Speaker 1: that are very very low mass, that have lifetimes that

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Speaker 1: could be as long as the h of the universe.

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm not a stellar astronomer, so I don't I

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Speaker 1: can't give you the names of any that have been

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Speaker 1: shown to be that old, but theoretically there could be some.

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Speaker 1: They'd be very dim, they'd be very hard to see,

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Speaker 1: whereas the brightest stars, the giants, the blue giants, and

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Speaker 1: the bright whitish stars, those live fast and die young,

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Speaker 1: and those are the ones that are easy to see,

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Speaker 1: but they don't last very long. So it's a great question.

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Speaker 1: And uh, and I personally wish I knew I knew

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Speaker 1: more about the answer. Are there other countries, GYM that

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Speaker 1: are coming along real well in their space programs too?

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Speaker 1: You know what, there's something like, I want to say,

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Speaker 1: seventy more than seventy five space agencies around the world now, George,

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Speaker 1: I think it's not just NASA and the Europeans and

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Speaker 1: the Russians and the Chinese and the Japanese. It's all

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Speaker 1: kinds of the Polish Space Agent, the Rwandan Space Agency,

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Speaker 1: the Paraguay Space Agency. You know, countries that want want

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Speaker 1: to be part of the future, that want to be

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Speaker 1: uh you know, develop their science and technology and engineering

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Speaker 1: and math, and there's the quality of their students and

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Speaker 1: employees and the technical know how their industries. Those countries

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Speaker 1: who want to be part of the future realize its

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Speaker 1: space is part of the future, and so they're forming

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Speaker 1: space agencies to help, you know, gel their industries and

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Speaker 1: inspire their citizens to do great things in space. And

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Speaker 1: like we have. When you look at these incredible pictures

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Speaker 1: in your book The Art of the cosmosy stop and

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Speaker 1: wonder why do we have wars? Why do we have

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Speaker 1: battles when there's so much wonderment out there that as

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Speaker 1: a world we could just enjoy it. Yeah. You know,

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Speaker 1: one of my one of my heroes I never got

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Speaker 1: to meet, guy named Gene Roddenberry, came up with the

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Speaker 1: whole Star Trek series and that whole you know universe

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Speaker 1: of where we had solved all these problems on the Earth.

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Speaker 1: We'd solved hunger and homelessness, and you know, we weren't

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Speaker 1: even using money anymore. In Roddenberry's Star Trek universe, and

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Speaker 1: you know, we'd learned how to work together and racism

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Speaker 1: was a thing of the past. Boy, it'd be great

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Speaker 1: to head there. We're not there right as a long

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Speaker 1: ways to go. Still there, we got a long ways

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Speaker 1: to go, but boy, it's a it's a great thing

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Speaker 1: to strive for. Phone lines are open. We're going to

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Speaker 1: take calls next hour with doctor Jim Bell as we

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Speaker 1: talk about the art of the cosmos. Incredible things. Jump

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Speaker 1: on board. Ask him a science question or picture about

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Speaker 1: photography as well. The moon was another one of those

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Speaker 1: great telescope views as a kid, because you could barely

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Speaker 1: see the craters with a naked eye, but when you

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Speaker 1: put your telescope on a full moon, it's magnificent, oh man,

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Speaker 1: And you can see those mountains and you could reach

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Speaker 1: out and touch it. Absolutely, Boy, it was. It sounds

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Speaker 1: like we both had the same experience as kids with

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Speaker 1: the telescope. Jarget, Yeah, boar'd you grow up? I grew

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Speaker 1: up in in the great state of Rhode Island, out

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Speaker 1: in what was the western sticks of the state. Was

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Speaker 1: pretty dark skies, cold winter nights out in the front

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Speaker 1: yard with some of my buddies from I did the

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Speaker 1: same thing in Detroit. Yeah yeah, and those were cold

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Speaker 1: nights too, but they were best time, best viewing when

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Speaker 1: it was cold, right, Yeah. Absolutely. I had a three

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Speaker 1: inch refractor and you'd look at it through the little

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Speaker 1: tiny telescope to center it up, and then you'd look

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Speaker 1: through the top of the lens right through it and

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Speaker 1: it was something else. Yeah, absolutely fun times. And then

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Speaker 1: I put it on street lights and everything else. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's a great it's with the holidays come out. What

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Speaker 1: a great gift for for a kid, Oh my god,

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Speaker 1: with the books a little bit interested in science or

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Speaker 1: space or astronomy or just curious. I mean telescope. There's

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Speaker 1: lots of great telescopes that don't cost too much these days,

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Speaker 1: for really good quality. I'd give the kid the book first,

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Speaker 1: and then right after he's done looking at it, going

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Speaker 1: what else do I get? There? You're getting the telescope.

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Speaker 1: There you go, you got it. That's fantastic. Anyways, we're

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Speaker 1: going to take calls pretty soon here. Of all the

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Speaker 1: things you have done in your career of space photography,

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Speaker 1: what for you has been that moment of awe. Well,

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Speaker 1: that's a great question. You know there was a time

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Speaker 1: for a few years around two thousand and four to

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Speaker 1: two thousand and six, two thousand and seven or so,

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Speaker 1: a little longer than that, actually, when NASA and the

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Speaker 1: team that I led, we were operating two rovers on

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Speaker 1: the surface of Mars, Spirit and Opportunity at the same time,

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Speaker 1: each of them outfitted with spectacular cameras and other scientific

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Speaker 1: instruments on opposite sides of the planet. And so the

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Speaker 1: sun would rise on one rover and it would go

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Speaker 1: do its thing, and sun would set and it would

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Speaker 1: send us back its images. And while the sun set

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Speaker 1: on that one, the sun rises on the other one

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Speaker 1: and it would go do it, get the images back,

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Speaker 1: And none of us were ever sleeping for years, and

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Speaker 1: we were just living in this this Martian candy store,

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Speaker 1: getting these amazing pictures and other measurements, and driving across

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Speaker 1: the landscape and learning about ancient water on Mars and

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Speaker 1: how it used to be habitable for life as we

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Speaker 1: know it. And it was a heady, amazing time. And

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Speaker 1: we took tens of thousand, hundreds of thousands of pictures

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Speaker 1: with those rovers and shared them with the public. Listen

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Speaker 1: to more coast to coast am every weeknight at one

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Speaker 1: am Eastern and go to Coast to coast am dot

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Speaker 1: com for more