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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name

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Speaker 2: is Robert Lamb.

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Speaker 3: And I'm Joe McCormick. And today we're back with the

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Speaker 3: third part in our series on the planet Mercury. In

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Speaker 3: the previous episodes, we talked about the extremes of Mercury.

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Speaker 3: It's the smallest planet, the innermost planet. and the one

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Speaker 3: with the fastest orbit. Not the hottest planet, but the

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Speaker 3: planet with the greatest extremes in temperature between day and night,

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Speaker 3: with the lead-meltingly hot day, kind of becomes a frying

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Speaker 3: pan under the sun, and then a deep freeze during

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Speaker 3: the night. We talked about how Mercury is arguably the

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Speaker 3: hardest planet in the solar system to get to from Earth,

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Speaker 3: despite the fact that it's relatively close, and that difficulty

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Speaker 3: comes from the fact that As you travel from Earth

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Speaker 3: down into the lower orbits of Venus and Mercury, your

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Speaker 3: spacecraft picks up incredible speed because of the sun's gravity.

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Speaker 3: So you have to find a way to shed that

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Speaker 3: excess orbital energy if you actually want to go into

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Speaker 3: orbit around Mercury or potentially do a soft landing on

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Speaker 3: the planet, the latter of which has still never been done.

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Speaker 3: As we talked about last time, NASA's Messenger probe had

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Speaker 3: to do a complicated series of breaking maneuvers using gravity

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Speaker 3: assists from Earth, Venus, and Mercury itself to get into

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Speaker 3: orbit around the planet in 2011. And it is still

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Speaker 3: the only mission so far to do so, though ESA

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Speaker 3: and JAXA have a mission called BepiColombo that is currently

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Speaker 3: on the way to Mercury right now using a similar

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Speaker 3: strategy of a combination of different breaking maneuvers and planetary assists.

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Speaker 3: That one is scheduled to arrive in November of this year,

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Speaker 3: so we're just Just a little bit ahead of the arrival.

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Speaker 3: And if there's any new science coming in when that

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Speaker 3: mission arrives, we may have to revisit Mercury again. So

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Speaker 3: in the first episode, we talked about the mythological namesake

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Speaker 3: of Mercury, the Roman god of messengers, travel, trade and commerce, thievery,

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Speaker 3: many other jobs. Somehow I think gymnastics and wrestling ended

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Speaker 3: up in there. And we talked about the surprising fact

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Speaker 3: that under just the right imaging conditions, the planet Mercury

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Speaker 3: actually has a tail, much like a comet. In the

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Speaker 3: last episode, we talked about science fiction that has imagined

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Speaker 3: beings living on Mercury, everything from Asimov and Vonnegut to

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Speaker 3: Clark Ashton Smith. And we talked about a paper that

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Speaker 3: explored the possibility that Mercury may have briefly long ago

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Speaker 3: actually had conditions that might allow habitability, might allow for life,

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Speaker 3: though scientists today think that the possibility for life as

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Speaker 3: we know it on Mercury is somewhere between extremely low

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Speaker 3: and zero. And that's for obvious reasons. Basically, no atmosphere,

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Speaker 3: no liquid water, and the temperature fluctuations are insane. We

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Speaker 3: also talked in the last episode about a giant impact

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Speaker 3: basin on the surface of Mercury called the Caloris Basin,

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Speaker 3: the hot bowl. A very interesting surface feature lives inside

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Speaker 3: that basin known as Pantheon Fosse, previously known as the spider,

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Speaker 3: which looks like a giant star-shaped pattern of radial claw marks.

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Speaker 3: I didn't say this in the episode, but I was

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Speaker 3: thinking about it since then. And it looks kind of

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Speaker 3: like Freddy Krueger tried to draw an asterisk. You know,

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Speaker 3: he's got the parallel.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: And so we talked about a paper exploring different hypotheses

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Speaker 3: for the formation of the Pantheon Fosse, where the authors

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Speaker 3: ended up arguing that it was most likely caused by

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Speaker 3: stretching of the ground from some kind of doming that

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Speaker 3: happened under the surface, like sort of like blowing up

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Speaker 3: an area of the planet's crust like the skin of

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Speaker 3: a balloon. And we are back today to talk about

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Speaker 3: Mercury some more.

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Speaker 2: All right. Well, what do we have next? I understand

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Speaker 2: you have something. Something else related to the surface, reading

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Speaker 2: the surface of Mercury.

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Speaker 3: Right. I want to talk about some pretty nasty looking hollows,

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Speaker 3: but I'll get there in a roundabout way. So if

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Speaker 3: you look at Mercury, one of the first things you

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Speaker 3: might notice about it is that it is totally covered

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Speaker 3: in craters. It is much more heavily cratered than the

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Speaker 3: other rocky planets like Earth, Venus and Mars. The high

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Speaker 3: density of craters is similar to what you see on

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Speaker 3: the surface of Earth's moon or maybe on the moons

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Speaker 3: of Jupiter. Well, I mean, certain of the moons of Jupiter,

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Speaker 3: you know, the surface of Io, of course, the innermost

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Speaker 3: moon of Jupiter does not look like this because it gets,

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Speaker 3: you know, repaved by its geological activity. But it looks

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Speaker 3: like those outer moons of Jupiter like Ganymede and Callisto.

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Speaker 3: There are several reasons Mercury looks so banged up like

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Speaker 3: this compared to the other inner planets. First of all,

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Speaker 3: Mercury has no significant atmosphere, as we've talked about in

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Speaker 3: the previous episodes. A lot of people might not realize this,

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Speaker 3: but most objects from space that hit Earth never actually

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Speaker 3: hit Earth. Instead, they hit the atmosphere and then something

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Speaker 3: happens to them before they get to the ground. They

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Speaker 3: often burn up, disintegrate, break apart into small pieces or vaporize,

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Speaker 3: all of this happening in the air before they reach

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Speaker 3: the ground. Different objects have different probabilities of making it

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Speaker 3: through the atmosphere, like large rocky or metallic asteroids are

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Speaker 3: the most likely to hit the ground with big pieces

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Speaker 3: still intact. Smaller rocks tend to burn up and break apart.

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Speaker 3: Smaller comets or cometary fragments often vaporize. According to NASA,

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Speaker 3: on average, less than 5% of an incoming meteoroid actually

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Speaker 3: makes it to the ground. This is within the normal

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Speaker 3: size range, things that are smaller than a football field.

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Speaker 3: On Mercury, much like on the Earth's moon, there is

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Speaker 3: no such atmospheric padding. So an object on a collision

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Speaker 3: course with Mercury will hit. It will hit at high velocity.

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Speaker 3: And ironically, the impact of what are called micrometeoroids, little meteoroids,

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Speaker 3: is one of the main ways that the extremely thin

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Speaker 3: exosphere of Mercury, Mercury's faint suggestion of an atmosphere, it's

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Speaker 3: one of the ways that that is continuously regenerated. So

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Speaker 3: you have multiple factors like solar radiation and the solar

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Speaker 3: wind charged particles from the sun. And, you know, heating

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Speaker 3: and micrometeoroid impacts all working together to knock volatile atoms

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Speaker 3: free from the rocky surface of the planet. And then

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Speaker 3: they float up free above the surface, become part of

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Speaker 3: the exosphere, which, again, is nowhere near thick enough to

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Speaker 3: provide any breaking on incoming objects. As a side note,

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Speaker 3: I don't think we really got into this the other

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Speaker 3: day when we were talking about the difficulty of getting

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Speaker 3: probes into orbit around Mercury. But this lack of an

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Speaker 3: atmosphere is another reason it would be extremely hard to

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Speaker 3: achieve a soft landing on Mercury if we were ever

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Speaker 3: going to try to put a lander or rover down

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Speaker 3: on the surface. So this is in addition to how

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Speaker 3: hard it is just to get into orbit around Mercury

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Speaker 3: in the first place. Of course, objects in orbit around

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Speaker 3: planets are going really fast and they need to slow

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Speaker 3: down to land safely on a planet. When you descend

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Speaker 3: down toward the Earth from orbit around Earth, aerodynamic drag

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Speaker 3: from the atmosphere does a lot of work to slow

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Speaker 3: you down automatically. It's sort of a free braking system. Now, obviously,

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Speaker 3: it's not the only thing you need. You will have

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Speaker 3: other methods to get yourself safely to the ground because

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Speaker 3: even just like falling through the atmosphere, you will hit hard.

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Speaker 3: But it does a lot of the slowing you down,

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Speaker 3: just like the drag created by the atmosphere. No such

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Speaker 3: luck on Mercury. To get a soft landing, you need

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Speaker 3: to basically provide all of your own braking, which I

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Speaker 3: think would mostly be, if you were trying to put

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Speaker 3: a lander down, it would probably be propellant-based, retro rockets,

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Speaker 3: like we use when we're coming down on the surface

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Speaker 3: of Mars.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess working in your favor

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Speaker 2: would be less gravity, like a shallower gravity well with Mercury.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, no atmosphere is going to really be an

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Speaker 2: obstacle here as well.

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Speaker 3: Right. So you have less acceleration due to gravity, but

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Speaker 3: you're starting at such a high speed anyway when you're

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Speaker 3: in orbit. That doesn't matter as much. What you really

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Speaker 3: need to do is slow down your speed of moving

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Speaker 3: through space.

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Speaker 2: But it's like backing into a parking space, though. Once

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Speaker 2: you've done all that work, it is a little easier

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Speaker 2: to leave.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So that's one reason Mercury is so covered in

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Speaker 3: craters when you look at it. It doesn't have the

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Speaker 3: atmosphere to protect it like Earth does or like Venus does.

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Speaker 3: Another reason Mercury is so covered in craters is that

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Speaker 3: Mercury does not have major ongoing geologic resurfacing like Earth does.

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Speaker 3: On Earth, there are lots of processes that erase the

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Speaker 3: old texture of the surface. and spit out freshly paved landscapes.

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Speaker 3: These processes include plate tectonics, volcanic eruptions, and erosion caused

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Speaker 3: by water and wind. Billions of years ago, Mercury did

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Speaker 3: have large-scale resurfacing processes like lava flows, volcanic lava flows

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Speaker 3: at the surface, because you can even remember we talked

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Speaker 3: about an example of this in the last episode with

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Speaker 3: the evidence that the Caloris Basin, that huge impact crater,

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Speaker 3: on Mercury, was once flooded with molten lava after it

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Speaker 3: was formed. But Mercury doesn't have that anymore. It no

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Speaker 3: longer has major geologic resurfacing. So for the past few

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Speaker 3: billion years, mostly any crater that has been made has

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Speaker 3: been preserved, except for those that have been erased by

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Speaker 3: other craters. However, I want to put a caveat there.

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Speaker 3: From all this, you might assume that Mercury is, quote,

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Speaker 3: geologically dead, the way some people sometimes describe things like

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Speaker 3: Mars or Earth's moon. When people call a planet geologically dead,

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Speaker 3: they usually mean that the planet has cooled enough That

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Speaker 3: there are no longer major changes driven by heat or

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Speaker 3: other forces from the inside. And technically today, I think

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Speaker 3: planetary scientists would quibble about calling Mars or the moon

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Speaker 3: geologically dead because both of those bodies show signs of

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Speaker 3: some geological activity like quakes. You know, there are Mars

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Speaker 3: quakes and moon quakes and both have some younger surface features,

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Speaker 3: but they are both at least very low in geological

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Speaker 3: activity compared to Earth. So contrary to what you might assume,

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Speaker 3: Mercury is not geologically dead. It is still geologically active.

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Speaker 3: And we know this, especially from data gathered by the

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Speaker 3: MESSENGER probe, but it's active in a different way than

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Speaker 3: Earth is. So Mercury does not have plate tectonics, doesn't

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Speaker 3: have plates moving around like Earth does, and it no

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Speaker 3: longer seems to have volcanic eruptions, at least that we've

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Speaker 3: been able to detect. Instead, it has thermal contraction and

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Speaker 3: that is what it sounds like mercury is in fact

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Speaker 3: shrinking the planet is shrinking so as the interior of

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Speaker 3: mercury cools over the history you know the planet's geological

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Speaker 3: history the planet has been shrinking and as far as

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Speaker 3: we know is still shrinking and this results in visible

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Speaker 3: faults that you can see at the surface manifesting as

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Speaker 3: these kind of step-like cliffs or scarps I was looking

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Speaker 3: up exactly how much Mercury has shrunk. I found a

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Speaker 3: paper published in 2025 in AGU Advances by authors Stephan

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Speaker 3: Loveless and Christian Klimchak. And they estimated that Mercury's radius

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Speaker 3: has shrunk by at least three kilometers over the over

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Speaker 3: the geologic history of the planet. So not shrinking at

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Speaker 3: like an alarming rate. You're not going to see it

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Speaker 3: disappear in your lifetime. But as the planet continues to cool,

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Speaker 3: it is expected that it will continue to shrink. And

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Speaker 3: the signs of that will be visible in the rocky

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Speaker 3: crust getting a little bit more wrinkly. However, this all

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Speaker 3: brings me to the main thing I wanted to talk

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Speaker 3: about here, which are Mercury's hollows. I was reading about

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Speaker 3: these in an October 2023 NASA science article called Mercury's

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Speaker 3: Strange Hollows. This article had a little bit of a

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Speaker 3: Halloween flavoring. I appreciate the effort. They were trying to

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Speaker 3: link it to, you know, like Washington Irving in The

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Speaker 3: Legend of Sleepy Hollow. So the article talks about how

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Speaker 3: craters from space impacts are not the only depression marks

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Speaker 3: on Mercury's surface. Images like the ones returned by the

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Speaker 3: messenger probe show lots of places where the planet has

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Speaker 3: these patterns of depressions that the researchers call hollows. Rob,

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Speaker 3: I've got some pictures for you to look at in

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Speaker 3: the outline here. Folks at home, you can Google Mercury

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Speaker 3: hollows to see examples of this for yourself. I would

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Speaker 3: say from a distance. They're pits in the surface that

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Speaker 3: look sort of organic and diseased, like rotting meat or

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Speaker 3: like infected skin. Warning, I think these could possibly be a,

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Speaker 3: you know, tryptophobia trigger. People, if you don't like lotus pods,

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Speaker 3: you might not like looking at the mercury hollows. Some

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Speaker 3: of them also look like the mark left behind when

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Speaker 3: a xenomorph bleeds on the floor. Do you see that, Rob?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. Definitely in these images that have a bit

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Speaker 2: more color applied to them, for sure. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Acid burn pattern uh there is a caustic irregular swarming

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Speaker 3: eaten away look so like something dissolved by acid or

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Speaker 3: or sort of uh you know eaten away by disease

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Speaker 3: uh and i've got some more images you can look

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Speaker 3: at here some hollows seen eating along the rim of

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Speaker 3: the poe crater which is named after edgar allen poe

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Speaker 3: you can see the blue area and the the white

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Speaker 3: here so according to this article uh These hollows are

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Speaker 3: found not just in one place. They're at a variety

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Speaker 3: of latitudes all over the planet. And they range greatly

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Speaker 3: in size from about 60 feet to about a mile across.

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Speaker 3: So that's about 18 to 1600 meters. And the ones

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Speaker 3: that we've documented are up to 80 feet or 24

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Speaker 3: meters deep. Multiple sources I was reading claimed that these

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Speaker 3: hollows are thought to be unique in our solar systems.

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Speaker 3: There are not really any other features like them in

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Speaker 3: rock on any known planet, moon, or rocky body. The

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Speaker 3: researchers here will later make a comparison to some patterns

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Speaker 3: you can see in ice on Mars, but not in rock.

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Speaker 3: So the question would be, what causes these pits? The

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Speaker 3: article cites a planetary geologist named David Blewett of the

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Speaker 3: Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins. And he points out

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Speaker 3: that while on another planet, you might wonder if these

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Speaker 3: hollows are caused by erosion forces like wind or rain.

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Speaker 3: Of course, Mercury has nothing that can really cause erosion

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Speaker 3: like that. There's no significant atmosphere, no liquid water. So

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Speaker 3: you can rule that out. And then he just says

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Speaker 3: almost ominously, other forces must be at work. Must be

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Speaker 3: something we haven't seen.

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Speaker 2: Sinister forces.

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Speaker 3: So what does cause them, uh, There are some clues,

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Speaker 3: clues especially from data and images gathered by the messenger mission.

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Speaker 3: So the hollows are irregularly shaped and they're often surrounded

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Speaker 3: by what is called here bright material. So in a

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Speaker 3: lot of photos, Rob, if you want to scroll back

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Speaker 3: up and look at these images. The pits, the kind

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Speaker 3: of diseased, eaten away areas, often look like they are glowing.

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Speaker 3: They're surrounded on all sides by brighter material than the

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Speaker 3: rest of the surface. So it looks like an acid

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Speaker 3: burn with a halo, kind of a holy burn. The

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Speaker 3: hollows also appear to be some of the youngest features

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Speaker 3: on the planet's surface, younger than the impact craters where

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Speaker 3: they live. You can see that because of their texture

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Speaker 3: imposed on top of these older impact zones. Another clue

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Speaker 3: is that they are often found on or near the

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Speaker 3: central mountains or mounds that are in the inside of

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Speaker 3: an impact crater. And the article says, quote, these so-called

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Speaker 3: peak rings are thought to be made of material forced

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Speaker 3: up from the depths by an impact that formed the crater.

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Speaker 3: So you get this area where like long ago something

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Speaker 3: hit the planet and then it forces up this, you know,

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Speaker 3: uplifting of the soil, maybe bring stuff up from underground

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Speaker 3: into And then you get these pits all around it.

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Speaker 3: That's where the hollows form. The article summarizes the comments

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Speaker 3: of another researcher named Carolyn Ernst of Johns Hopkins APL.

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Speaker 3: And she says, when a large object hits Mercury, of course,

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Speaker 3: it does form a crater, but that's not the only thing.

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Speaker 3: It often sort of excavates material. So it will hit

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Speaker 3: and then throw up stuff from deep underground, stuff that

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Speaker 3: was once buried and covered underground. and now it is

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Speaker 3: exposed by the impact. So material that was maybe stable

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Speaker 3: when it was buried underground can become unstable when exposed

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Speaker 3: to the forces at the surface, like the sun. Extreme heat,

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Speaker 3: solar radiation, solar wind, all these forces imposed by the sun,

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Speaker 3: the dreadful sword of the sun, can reach down and

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Speaker 3: cause hollows by acting upon these churned-up deposits of material

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Speaker 3: that were previously protected underground. And then the article quotes

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Speaker 3: the researcher David Blewett again, saying, quote, certain minerals, for example,

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Speaker 3: those that contain sulfur and other volatiles, would be easily

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Speaker 3: vaporized by the onslaught of heat, solar wind, and micrometeoroids

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Speaker 3: that Mercury experiences on a daily basis. Perhaps sulfur is vaporizing,

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Speaker 3: leaving just the other minerals, and therefore weakening the rock

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Speaker 3: and making it spongier. Then the rock would crumble and

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Speaker 3: erode more readily, forming these depressions. So in a metaphorical way,

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Speaker 3: I think if this explanation is correct, it is a

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Speaker 3: little bit like the planet has diseased flesh caused by

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Speaker 3: an injury. So it's like an injury gouges and then

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Speaker 3: you have an infection there and it eats away the skin.

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Speaker 3: So the crater, you know, the impact acts like a

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Speaker 3: plow turning over the surface and It exposes material that

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Speaker 3: reacts unevenly to the sun. Some of that material is

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Speaker 3: evaporated and blasted into the exosphere, maybe eventually blasted out

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Speaker 3: into space in the tail of the planet. And it

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Speaker 3: leaves behind a weak, spongy landscape of rock, which crumbles

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Speaker 3: and collapses maybe when there's another micrometeoroid impact, and you

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Speaker 3: get these hollows. The article also mentions somewhat similar looking depressions,

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Speaker 3: not in rock, but in the carbon dioxide ice at

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Speaker 3: the south pole of Mars. This is dry ice that

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Speaker 3: has a kind of Swiss cheese look. I looked up

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Speaker 3: an image and put it in the outline so you

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Speaker 3: could see that here too, Rob. A similar kind of

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Speaker 3: diseased look in the ice. But again, to see this

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Speaker 3: on a rocky surface is pretty much unique. There are

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Speaker 3: not really any analogies that we know about within the

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Speaker 3: solar system. Hmm.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I was looking at this image of the South

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Speaker 2: Pole ice on Mars, and I don't think I'd seen

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Speaker 2: this image before, but I'm not sure I would have

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Speaker 2: recognized it out of context as even being related to

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Speaker 2: the Martian surface. It looks like a crafting sink that

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Speaker 2: has like a partial layer of dried paint on the

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Speaker 2: bottom of it. That's the sense I get from it.

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Speaker 2: Not so much the landscape of another planet.

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Speaker 3: Well, You know, I liked thinking about these hollows as, okay,

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Speaker 3: so you're writing science fiction that's going to have people

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Speaker 3: walking around on Mercury. I liked these as a new

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Speaker 3: hazard you could add into the list, a kind of

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Speaker 3: unstable ground, right? You know, you might have an area

337
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Speaker 3: where the rock has become kind of spongy and brittle

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Speaker 3: and pumice-like because of the uneven evaporation of all of

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Speaker 3: these volatiles within it. And you may create a new

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Speaker 3: diseased patch, create a new pit by walking over it

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Speaker 3: and collapsing it. It's like a natural pitfall trap.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we need more hazards on Mercury. This Mercury RPG

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Speaker 2: you're envisioning here, I'd love to see the hazard table

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Speaker 2: that you roll on. All of them end in certain death.

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Speaker 3: One more thing I just want to mention quickly before

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Speaker 3: we move on. This is not really related to the Hollows,

347
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Speaker 3: but just because it was also mentioned in this article

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Speaker 3: and I thought it was interesting. There's another... feature you

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Speaker 3: get on the surface of mercury that's a weird relic

350
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Speaker 3: of its geological history the fact that it used to

351
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Speaker 3: be more volcanically active and doesn't appear to be anymore

352
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Speaker 3: you get these phenomenon known as ghost craters where you

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Speaker 3: can have one crater that looks like a normal crater

354
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Speaker 3: like you might see on the moon you know it's

355
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Speaker 3: a big circular pit it's got a ring around the

356
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Speaker 3: outside maybe a mound in the middle and then nearby

357
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Speaker 3: you just have the faintest suggestion of a circle and

358
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Speaker 3: but it's not really a pit like a normal crater is.

359
00:22:01,070 --> 00:22:05,550
Speaker 3: So these appear to be places where there was once

360
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Speaker 3: a regular impact crater like the others, but it was

361
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Speaker 3: filled in by volcanic lava billions of years ago, leaving

362
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Speaker 3: only the outline of a crater behind, surrounded by younger

363
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Speaker 3: craters that remain craters. But here you've just got the

364
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Speaker 3: ghost of a crater. Wow.

365
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Speaker 2: Fascinating. I love this. And, you know, I love that

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Speaker 2: at some point, Science writers just decided that Mercury is

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Speaker 2: going to be the Halloween planet with ghost craters and

368
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Speaker 2: Edgar Allan Poe crater and the hollows. Yeah, well, why not?

369
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Speaker 2: So one of the planets has to step up and

370
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Speaker 2: do it. Why not Mercury?

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Speaker 3: It's got whimsical stuff, too. I think there's the Dr.

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Speaker 3: Seuss crater.

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Speaker 2: Now, I want to take us back a little bit.

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Speaker 2: I want to talk about the origins of Mercury and

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Speaker 2: some of our theories regarding its formation, as well as

376
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Speaker 2: the ultimate doom of Mercury. Both of these are, depending

377
00:23:13,260 --> 00:23:17,690
Speaker 2: on which origin story you go with, begins in violence

378
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Speaker 2: and ends in violence. So, yeah, I don't think we

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Speaker 2: really discussed the formation of Mercury, at least not in

380
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Speaker 2: any amount of depth already, but One of the main

381
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Speaker 2: theories is that it formed, like many other cosmic bodies,

382
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Speaker 2: via the accretion of gas and dust pulled together by gravity,

383
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Speaker 2: all of it eventually snowballing into a planet. Obviously, this

384
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Speaker 2: is going to be the case to some degree, no

385
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Speaker 2: matter what. This is just how cosmic bodies form. We've

386
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Speaker 2: talked about this before in the show. And this would

387
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Speaker 2: have happened an estimated 4.5 billion years ago. Mercury, of course,

388
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Speaker 2: as we've touched on, has an unusually large metal-to-silicate ratio

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Speaker 2: compared to Venus or Earth and Mars. And so if

390
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Speaker 2: we're going with this formation theory, we ask the question, well,

391
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Speaker 2: what happened to the lighter elements? Well, then the answer

392
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Speaker 2: is that they're blown back by the ferocity of the

393
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Speaker 2: sun's furnace. It's just all blasted out and away from it,

394
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Speaker 2: same as why it doesn't have an atmosphere. But then

395
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Speaker 2: there's another theory, and that is that Mercury, as we

396
00:24:18,490 --> 00:24:22,900
Speaker 2: know it, which is like 60% to 70% iron, with

397
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:26,470
Speaker 2: the planet's iron core taking up something like 60% to 85%

398
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Speaker 2: of its volume, as we've discussed, like so much iron.

399
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Speaker 2: One idea is that this is what's left of an

400
00:24:34,910 --> 00:24:40,419
Speaker 2: impact event that occurred when a massive protoplanet smashed into

401
00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:44,919
Speaker 2: the planet Mercury. And basically, this would mean that the

402
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:49,409
Speaker 2: Mercury we know today is essentially the T800 planet, skeleton

403
00:24:50,030 --> 00:24:52,150
Speaker 2: that got, you know, that got all the flesh blasted

404
00:24:52,210 --> 00:24:56,389
Speaker 2: off of it in the Terminator. So I found this

405
00:24:56,450 --> 00:24:59,510
Speaker 2: interesting to think about. One of the more recent models

406
00:24:59,630 --> 00:25:02,230
Speaker 2: for this was outlined at Mark Thompson's A New Theory

407
00:25:02,290 --> 00:25:05,409
Speaker 2: Explains the Surprising Origin of the Planet Mercury, published in

408
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Speaker 2: Universe Today last year, covering a paper from the National

409
00:25:09,390 --> 00:25:12,490
Speaker 2: Observatory in Brazil. So this is one of those things where,

410
00:25:12,510 --> 00:25:16,300
Speaker 2: you know, scientists will We'll put together different models, trying

411
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:19,060
Speaker 2: to figure out exactly how this would work from a

412
00:25:19,100 --> 00:25:23,899
Speaker 2: physics standpoint. But yeah, on one hand, either the planet

413
00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:27,200
Speaker 2: forms and it gets all this extra lighter stuff blasted

414
00:25:27,310 --> 00:25:30,350
Speaker 2: off of it, or there is an impact event that

415
00:25:30,369 --> 00:25:33,109
Speaker 2: just knocks all that stuff off of it and leaves

416
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Speaker 2: essentially like an iron core with very little additional material

417
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Speaker 2: on top of it.

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Speaker 3: Interesting. Interesting.

419
00:25:40,460 --> 00:25:43,959
Speaker 2: So, you know, one way or another, potentially violent past

420
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:47,220
Speaker 2: for the planet. And then there's going to be a

421
00:25:47,260 --> 00:25:50,680
Speaker 2: violent end. There's really no way around this. So this

422
00:25:50,740 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 2: is likely a fact that many of you have heard before,

423
00:25:53,740 --> 00:25:56,560
Speaker 2: and you've probably heard it many times. And it concerns,

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00:25:57,040 --> 00:25:59,960
Speaker 2: it actually concerns the long-term destiny of the planet Earth,

425
00:26:00,369 --> 00:26:03,070
Speaker 2: but also the planet Mercury. The idea is that Mercury

426
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Speaker 2: will eventually be consumed by the very sun it orbits.

427
00:26:07,130 --> 00:26:10,230
Speaker 2: already it's kind of a toxic relationship, right? The sun

428
00:26:10,290 --> 00:26:13,119
Speaker 2: is pretty harsh on Mercury, at least from our human

429
00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:16,359
Speaker 2: perspective on these things, and it's just going to get

430
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:19,859
Speaker 2: more violent. As covered in multiple explainers, you'll find some

431
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:21,659
Speaker 2: great explainers out there. I was looking at a couple,

432
00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:26,320
Speaker 2: one on astronomy.com, at least one hosted on NASA, in

433
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:30,210
Speaker 2: roughly 5 billion years' time, so very far in the future.

434
00:26:31,510 --> 00:26:34,109
Speaker 2: Our sun will burn up its core hydrogen fuel and

435
00:26:34,130 --> 00:26:37,050
Speaker 2: start burning helium, And in doing so, it's going to

436
00:26:37,090 --> 00:26:40,700
Speaker 2: transform into a red giant. The atmosphere of the sun

437
00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:44,220
Speaker 2: is going to expand outwards to somewhere around the current

438
00:26:44,260 --> 00:26:47,840
Speaker 2: boundary mark of one astronomical unit. That, of course, is

439
00:26:47,900 --> 00:26:51,419
Speaker 2: bad news for us because an astronomical unit or AU is,

440
00:26:51,460 --> 00:26:56,230
Speaker 2: of course, the distance between our current sun and the Earth.

441
00:26:56,930 --> 00:27:01,230
Speaker 2: So if the sun grows that huge, it is going

442
00:27:01,290 --> 00:27:04,369
Speaker 2: to potentially come into contact or at least get way

443
00:27:04,430 --> 00:27:06,790
Speaker 2: closer to the Earth than we would like at all.

444
00:27:07,290 --> 00:27:09,290
Speaker 3: So kind of coin flip as to whether the Earth

445
00:27:09,330 --> 00:27:10,970
Speaker 3: will be inside the sun or not?

446
00:27:11,490 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, that seems to, that's kind of like another one

447
00:27:13,980 --> 00:27:16,659
Speaker 2: of these areas where scientists will kind of like crunch

448
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:20,540
Speaker 2: the math and throw out different projections. I was reading

449
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:25,980
Speaker 2: a NASA multi-page article titled Life and Death of a

450
00:27:26,020 --> 00:27:30,210
Speaker 2: Planetary System. And in it, they quote one Dimitri Varis

451
00:27:30,250 --> 00:27:33,699
Speaker 2: of the University of Warwick. And He says, okay, Mercury

452
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,020
Speaker 2: and Venus absolutely are going to be swallowed up. Like,

453
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:38,480
Speaker 2: that's not in question at all. If our sun goes,

454
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:42,030
Speaker 2: those two are gone. A little more detail on what

455
00:27:42,770 --> 00:27:47,970
Speaker 2: going would consist of. But Varus says, okay, Mars is

456
00:27:48,450 --> 00:27:50,910
Speaker 2: not going to be touched by this. But for Earth,

457
00:27:50,970 --> 00:27:54,179
Speaker 2: it's a little bit less clear. Of course, even if

458
00:27:54,220 --> 00:27:57,780
Speaker 2: the atmosphere of the sun doesn't physically overtake our planet, obviously,

459
00:27:58,140 --> 00:28:03,280
Speaker 2: The radiation blast alone would just render our planet completely uninhabitable. Yeah. Thus,

460
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:06,720
Speaker 2: you know, it really doesn't matter at that point. Like

461
00:28:07,020 --> 00:28:09,400
Speaker 2: it's uninhabitable Earth after that point.

462
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:10,020
Speaker 1: Yeah.

463
00:28:10,060 --> 00:28:12,640
Speaker 3: Yeah. So it's not like, oh, if we don't get

464
00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:14,700
Speaker 3: swallowed by the sun, then Earth will be fine at

465
00:28:14,740 --> 00:28:15,800
Speaker 3: that point. Right.

466
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:19,959
Speaker 2: Right. So, you know, as you've heard many times before,

467
00:28:19,980 --> 00:28:23,619
Speaker 2: I'm sure listeners at this point, you've read it, you've

468
00:28:23,900 --> 00:28:26,950
Speaker 2: heard it in your far future science fictions. You've heard

469
00:28:26,990 --> 00:28:30,540
Speaker 2: it from various futurists. But there's essentially a 5 billion

470
00:28:30,580 --> 00:28:35,379
Speaker 2: year ticking time bomb on our planet. True long-term survival

471
00:28:35,500 --> 00:28:38,420
Speaker 2: of humans and or just life itself on Earth, life

472
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:42,780
Speaker 2: as we know it, for it to live on, we

473
00:28:42,860 --> 00:28:45,310
Speaker 2: would have to somehow seed a new place with it.

474
00:28:45,340 --> 00:28:48,220
Speaker 2: We would, or in some of our more fantastic visions,

475
00:28:48,260 --> 00:28:51,560
Speaker 2: like move the planet somewhere else, something would have to

476
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:56,220
Speaker 2: happen because after this extensive amount of time, yeah, Earth

477
00:28:56,240 --> 00:29:00,080
Speaker 2: would be toast. Of course, five billion years is a

478
00:29:00,180 --> 00:29:03,860
Speaker 2: very long time, longer than the Earth has existed at all.

479
00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:07,550
Speaker 2: And there's room for any number of extinction events between

480
00:29:07,620 --> 00:29:11,250
Speaker 2: now and then of our own making cosmic in nature

481
00:29:11,390 --> 00:29:14,090
Speaker 2: or just, you know, complete outside context events as well

482
00:29:14,130 --> 00:29:18,690
Speaker 2: that we just can't even speculate on. So it's nothing

483
00:29:18,710 --> 00:29:21,170
Speaker 2: to lose sleep over. But it is one of those

484
00:29:21,210 --> 00:29:24,260
Speaker 2: things that is as humans, as dreamers, we can't help

485
00:29:24,300 --> 00:29:26,900
Speaker 2: but But think about it and say, well, what could

486
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:31,770
Speaker 2: we do? How could we possibly prevent that ultimate end

487
00:29:31,790 --> 00:29:32,330
Speaker 2: of the story?

488
00:29:33,090 --> 00:29:36,490
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's really compelling. It's compelling as a

489
00:29:36,530 --> 00:29:41,220
Speaker 3: thought because of its physical inevitability. like this is definitely

490
00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:43,880
Speaker 3: coming at some point it may be very very very

491
00:29:43,940 --> 00:29:46,360
Speaker 3: far in the future uh but i think if we're

492
00:29:46,380 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 3: being realistic about statistics and like you know where are

493
00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:53,820
Speaker 3: we most likely to encounter an extinction level event for

494
00:29:53,860 --> 00:29:56,350
Speaker 3: human beings i I don't think this is the first

495
00:29:56,380 --> 00:29:58,190
Speaker 3: thing to worry about. I think there are things going

496
00:29:58,210 --> 00:30:04,970
Speaker 3: to happen a lot sooner that are serious, you know, biological, technological, cultural,

497
00:30:05,510 --> 00:30:10,350
Speaker 3: climate-related problems that will probably be serious problems for humans

498
00:30:10,490 --> 00:30:13,730
Speaker 3: way before we reach like astronomical problems.

499
00:30:13,850 --> 00:30:17,190
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it's the kind of problem that

500
00:30:18,830 --> 00:30:21,979
Speaker 2: our current state of technology would not be able to solve.

501
00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:25,000
Speaker 2: This is one we really would have to lean on

502
00:30:25,690 --> 00:30:29,850
Speaker 2: on far future generations who conceivably have a much higher

503
00:30:29,910 --> 00:30:34,620
Speaker 2: state of technological achievement and could potentially do things like

504
00:30:35,020 --> 00:30:37,190
Speaker 2: move to other worlds or even in the more extremes

505
00:30:37,210 --> 00:30:40,920
Speaker 2: like move worlds. You know, godlike powers, really, from our

506
00:30:41,140 --> 00:30:45,140
Speaker 2: vantage point on the technological ladder. Now, as far as

507
00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:48,500
Speaker 2: Mercury goes, again, Mercury in this scenario, there's no question,

508
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:50,540
Speaker 2: it gets swallowed up. But as far as how this

509
00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:53,080
Speaker 2: would actually go down for Mercury, there is still a

510
00:30:53,180 --> 00:30:55,950
Speaker 2: fair amount of discussion, like what would this look like? Um,

511
00:30:56,470 --> 00:31:00,740
Speaker 2: the surface would probably boil. Um, it would likely continue

512
00:31:00,780 --> 00:31:04,240
Speaker 2: to orbit the sun, but within the expanded atmosphere of

513
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:06,560
Speaker 2: the sun, like it wouldn't just be swallowed up and

514
00:31:06,660 --> 00:31:09,100
Speaker 2: then gone like that, but it would be like, sort

515
00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:12,970
Speaker 2: of like pulled in, uh, it's melting, it's burning. Eventually

516
00:31:13,150 --> 00:31:15,530
Speaker 2: as it, as it moves towards the sun's core, it's like,

517
00:31:15,750 --> 00:31:18,650
Speaker 2: it's fractured, it's vaporized. So in a sense, it's like,

518
00:31:18,690 --> 00:31:22,230
Speaker 2: there is this digestion of mercury by the sun, if

519
00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:27,490
Speaker 2: you want to, apply a biological model to it. Either way,

520
00:31:28,110 --> 00:31:30,390
Speaker 2: it's toast. Mercury, as we know it, becomes nothing. It

521
00:31:30,450 --> 00:31:32,990
Speaker 2: just becomes part of the sun at that point.

522
00:31:33,490 --> 00:31:34,890
Speaker 3: I shouldn't have bought property there.

523
00:31:34,910 --> 00:31:38,470
Speaker 2: I know, I know. But, you know, five billion years out.

524
00:31:38,770 --> 00:31:40,300
Speaker 3: That guy told me it was just going up.

525
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:45,280
Speaker 2: Unless, yeah, I guess if you're talking about moving planets,

526
00:31:45,300 --> 00:31:57,970
Speaker 2: so maybe you move Mercury too. Not sure. Music Now,

527
00:31:58,350 --> 00:32:01,170
Speaker 2: when it comes to the potential human applications for the

528
00:32:01,210 --> 00:32:05,630
Speaker 2: planet Mercury, again, we've touched on all of the risks

529
00:32:05,810 --> 00:32:08,040
Speaker 2: involved with this place and how harsh and extreme it is.

530
00:32:08,450 --> 00:32:12,200
Speaker 2: So we might wonder, well, what use would it be?

531
00:32:12,220 --> 00:32:14,820
Speaker 2: If it's so hostile, it's so hard to get to,

532
00:32:15,300 --> 00:32:18,020
Speaker 2: why bother with Mercury? Is there anything worth having there?

533
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:23,380
Speaker 2: And that, of course, involves the basic, you know, human

534
00:32:24,540 --> 00:32:27,440
Speaker 2: exploitation drive to sort of look at these planets as

535
00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:30,800
Speaker 2: things that can and should be harvested. You know, what

536
00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:34,110
Speaker 2: good is it to us? What riches can we create

537
00:32:34,180 --> 00:32:37,810
Speaker 2: out of its surface? That sort of thing. And, you know,

538
00:32:37,830 --> 00:32:40,130
Speaker 2: you can, again, so that's the kind of thing you

539
00:32:40,170 --> 00:32:43,590
Speaker 2: can certainly criticize in and of itself. But when you

540
00:32:43,610 --> 00:32:46,190
Speaker 2: get into answering this question, of course, there are the metals.

541
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:50,410
Speaker 2: But Is it the best place to potentially harvest metals

542
00:32:51,370 --> 00:32:55,190
Speaker 2: within our solar system? I think most experts on this

543
00:32:55,350 --> 00:33:00,450
Speaker 2: would argue no. Near-Earth metallic asteroids, or even our own moon,

544
00:33:00,510 --> 00:33:04,900
Speaker 2: are going to offer far more accessible options without these

545
00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:07,960
Speaker 2: various risks that we've already discussed.

546
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:11,260
Speaker 3: I mean, we've already talked about the extreme planning and

547
00:33:11,340 --> 00:33:15,040
Speaker 3: energy requirements just to get a probe to Mercury, and

548
00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:18,300
Speaker 3: that's one that doesn't have to come back. Trying to

549
00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:22,460
Speaker 3: imagine delivering payloads from Mercury to Earth, and it seems

550
00:33:22,500 --> 00:33:24,200
Speaker 3: like it'd be hard to make the math work out

551
00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:26,740
Speaker 3: right on that. Make it really profitable.

552
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:29,820
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's ultimately the big question with any of these

553
00:33:29,940 --> 00:33:33,620
Speaker 2: kind of megaproject considerations. It's like, at what point does

554
00:33:33,660 --> 00:33:36,000
Speaker 2: it actually make economic sense for you to do this?

555
00:33:36,040 --> 00:33:38,880
Speaker 2: It's one thing to ask, could we do it? But yeah,

556
00:33:38,940 --> 00:33:41,920
Speaker 2: what is the motivation? And what is it that would

557
00:33:41,940 --> 00:33:45,830
Speaker 2: make the math work out? If you're going to potentially

558
00:33:45,870 --> 00:33:49,490
Speaker 2: mine metals, on the surface of Mercury, why do you

559
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:51,420
Speaker 2: need to do it there? What's going to happen there?

560
00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:54,280
Speaker 2: Is there some sort of answer? And in some cases,

561
00:33:54,340 --> 00:33:56,420
Speaker 2: there might be, according to some of these arguments we'll

562
00:33:56,440 --> 00:34:00,700
Speaker 2: get into. But on top of just the iron and

563
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:03,450
Speaker 2: the metal that is to be found on Mercury, there

564
00:34:03,510 --> 00:34:06,410
Speaker 2: is the proximity to the sun, which certainly opens the

565
00:34:06,430 --> 00:34:10,750
Speaker 2: door for considerations of solar harvesting. So some of the

566
00:34:10,790 --> 00:34:12,910
Speaker 2: models you look at, you look at what people, will

567
00:34:12,930 --> 00:34:14,910
Speaker 2: be people saying, well, we could, you know, you could

568
00:34:14,930 --> 00:34:18,840
Speaker 2: build like solar farms on Mercury. And then harness the

569
00:34:18,890 --> 00:34:23,910
Speaker 2: energy there and in one form or another, like, supply

570
00:34:23,930 --> 00:34:28,569
Speaker 2: that energy back to Earth. And, of course, with any world, too,

571
00:34:28,750 --> 00:34:30,549
Speaker 2: we don't want to gloss over the fact that just

572
00:34:30,610 --> 00:34:34,900
Speaker 2: studying the planet would be, you know, vitally important. But

573
00:34:34,920 --> 00:34:36,920
Speaker 2: I guess we're more getting into these sort of, like,

574
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:39,739
Speaker 2: what's in it for me, actually? Like, what can I

575
00:34:39,820 --> 00:34:42,310
Speaker 2: build out of it, right? Um, now one of the

576
00:34:42,350 --> 00:34:44,640
Speaker 2: more interesting ideas I ran across though, and this is,

577
00:34:44,780 --> 00:34:47,140
Speaker 2: this is the whole reason I was interested in even

578
00:34:47,180 --> 00:34:50,520
Speaker 2: looking at this question was that what if Mercury could

579
00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:54,239
Speaker 2: serve as a kind of travel hub? And some of

580
00:34:54,300 --> 00:34:56,660
Speaker 2: the ways that this could work, uh, come back to

581
00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:59,690
Speaker 2: all of that solar energy potential that we just touched on.

582
00:34:59,710 --> 00:35:02,609
Speaker 2: And we've also been discussing in terms of the thing

583
00:35:02,630 --> 00:35:06,500
Speaker 2: that is blasting the planet, um, And we also have

584
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:10,219
Speaker 2: to factor in the planet's low escape velocity. Again, like

585
00:35:10,260 --> 00:35:14,719
Speaker 2: a much shallower gravity well. Obviously, you'd have to deal

586
00:35:14,739 --> 00:35:17,930
Speaker 2: with all the other dangers we've highlighted as well. But still,

587
00:35:17,950 --> 00:35:20,810
Speaker 2: there's a lot of solar energy, and it is a

588
00:35:20,890 --> 00:35:25,609
Speaker 2: planet that would theoretically be easier to escape from, just

589
00:35:25,650 --> 00:35:30,040
Speaker 2: in terms of taking off and entering Mercury's orbit. So

590
00:35:30,060 --> 00:35:32,930
Speaker 2: there's this idea that Mercury could serve as kind of a,

591
00:35:33,780 --> 00:35:38,220
Speaker 2: a hub for solar sail propulsion technology. So solar sails,

592
00:35:38,340 --> 00:35:40,060
Speaker 2: as we've discussed before, they work pretty much like the

593
00:35:40,100 --> 00:35:42,520
Speaker 2: sail of a ship, only instead of the wind pressing

594
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:45,700
Speaker 2: on the sail, it's the photon particles of light transferring

595
00:35:45,739 --> 00:35:50,379
Speaker 2: their momentum to the sail. And of course, where are

596
00:35:50,420 --> 00:35:53,160
Speaker 2: these photons coming from? They're coming from our sun. So

597
00:35:53,200 --> 00:35:55,930
Speaker 2: the closer you are to the sun, the more a

598
00:35:56,090 --> 00:36:00,489
Speaker 2: solar sailing vessel can take advantage of those photons. And

599
00:36:00,670 --> 00:36:05,540
Speaker 2: as with sailing... by the wind on our own oceans,

600
00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:08,520
Speaker 2: you can go in either direction. You know, you can

601
00:36:08,580 --> 00:36:12,259
Speaker 2: sail into the wind, or in this case, sail into

602
00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:15,700
Speaker 2: the photons, I guess. Basically, a solar sail vessel approaching

603
00:36:15,780 --> 00:36:19,580
Speaker 2: the sun or Mercury would benefit from this proximity, which

604
00:36:19,620 --> 00:36:24,360
Speaker 2: is why you have some designs for Mercury-bound spacecraft that

605
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:27,819
Speaker 2: have been designed but not executed with solar sail technology

606
00:36:27,860 --> 00:36:30,259
Speaker 2: in mind. The main one I was reading about is

607
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:35,210
Speaker 2: the proposed NASA Mercury Scout which would reach Mercury, according

608
00:36:35,230 --> 00:36:37,470
Speaker 2: to their designs, on solar sails alone.

609
00:36:38,070 --> 00:36:38,590
Speaker 3: Interesting.

610
00:36:39,430 --> 00:36:43,690
Speaker 2: So, yeah, assuming you could build such craft on Mercury somehow,

611
00:36:43,770 --> 00:36:46,410
Speaker 2: perhaps via some sort of autonomous system that you've set up,

612
00:36:47,700 --> 00:36:51,260
Speaker 2: perhaps building them out of the metal and the various

613
00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:55,719
Speaker 2: resources that Mercury provides, you could then take advantage of

614
00:36:55,739 --> 00:36:59,490
Speaker 2: the planet's shallower gravity well, eject them into space, perhaps

615
00:36:59,510 --> 00:37:03,290
Speaker 2: via some sort of electromagnetic catapult. That seems to be

616
00:37:03,330 --> 00:37:06,350
Speaker 2: a favorite. And then they'd be in a prime location

617
00:37:06,390 --> 00:37:12,110
Speaker 2: to benefit from the radiation of the sun for propulsion.

618
00:37:13,120 --> 00:37:17,000
Speaker 2: High acceleration at first, less so as the craft would

619
00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:20,800
Speaker 2: travel away from the sun, but without any real slowdown

620
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:23,879
Speaker 2: or resistance. This is one of the things that's often

621
00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:27,580
Speaker 2: highlighted about solar sail technology, is that It allows a

622
00:37:27,620 --> 00:37:31,819
Speaker 2: kind of continual acceleration. Thus, you would be able to

623
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:36,340
Speaker 2: send something out from a hypothetical Mercury solar sail hub

624
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:37,880
Speaker 2: out to the outer planets.

625
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:41,380
Speaker 3: Right. So unlike sailing on the water where the drag

626
00:37:41,400 --> 00:37:43,219
Speaker 3: from the water and the drag from the air will

627
00:37:43,260 --> 00:37:46,920
Speaker 3: slow you down over time if you don't continually apply pressure,

628
00:37:46,980 --> 00:37:49,580
Speaker 3: when you're sailing in space, you can just keep, it's

629
00:37:49,620 --> 00:37:52,680
Speaker 3: basically all additive. You can just keep adding up acceleration.

630
00:37:52,700 --> 00:37:52,779
Speaker 1: Yeah.

631
00:37:54,469 --> 00:37:58,290
Speaker 2: Now, another thing you'll see when you see discussion, when

632
00:37:58,310 --> 00:38:00,890
Speaker 2: you read about discussions of solar sail technology, and sometimes

633
00:38:00,930 --> 00:38:03,750
Speaker 2: we see this in our sci-fi as well. In a

634
00:38:03,770 --> 00:38:06,630
Speaker 2: weird way, it's actually depicted in the Tron movies. But

635
00:38:06,650 --> 00:38:10,230
Speaker 2: there's the idea that you could have a solar sail

636
00:38:10,290 --> 00:38:16,050
Speaker 2: vessel that is propelled not merely by photons from the sun,

637
00:38:16,390 --> 00:38:19,029
Speaker 2: but also some sort of like an emitted beam of

638
00:38:19,190 --> 00:38:23,090
Speaker 2: like laser energy. Yeah, yeah. And so this model is

639
00:38:23,170 --> 00:38:27,149
Speaker 2: also sometimes discussed with Mercury in mind, coming back to

640
00:38:27,230 --> 00:38:31,230
Speaker 2: the idea of using Mercury's high energy location to harvest

641
00:38:31,250 --> 00:38:33,450
Speaker 2: solar energy. And then what if you were able to

642
00:38:33,570 --> 00:38:36,410
Speaker 2: use that to then create this kind of like laser

643
00:38:36,489 --> 00:38:39,350
Speaker 2: highway that you could shoot these vessels out on?

644
00:38:39,950 --> 00:38:43,690
Speaker 3: Okay, I see. So maybe on Mercury, you've got vast

645
00:38:43,770 --> 00:38:47,210
Speaker 3: fields of solar panels or something. You're harvesting a huge

646
00:38:47,250 --> 00:38:50,920
Speaker 3: amount of solar energy. Have a big reactor that turns

647
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:53,180
Speaker 3: all that into a laser, and then you use the

648
00:38:53,239 --> 00:38:56,759
Speaker 3: pulses of laser to push things out into space in

649
00:38:56,780 --> 00:38:59,200
Speaker 3: the direction you want them to go, and that's your propulsion.

650
00:38:59,260 --> 00:39:02,020
Speaker 3: It's driven by some facility on the planet.

651
00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. And so we see this at least visually

652
00:39:05,219 --> 00:39:08,529
Speaker 2: represented in the Tron movies, certainly the first one. I

653
00:39:08,550 --> 00:39:11,009
Speaker 2: think maybe they include it as like an Easter egg

654
00:39:11,030 --> 00:39:12,770
Speaker 2: in the second one, and I can't speak to the third.

655
00:39:12,790 --> 00:39:13,290
Speaker 3: Hmm.

656
00:39:14,380 --> 00:39:18,839
Speaker 2: But again, we have to ask questions like, why would

657
00:39:18,890 --> 00:39:22,370
Speaker 2: we do this? Is it really necessary? Is it worth

658
00:39:22,430 --> 00:39:24,509
Speaker 2: the investment that it would take to set up all

659
00:39:24,530 --> 00:39:26,210
Speaker 2: of this? There's a lot of what-ifs, like what if

660
00:39:26,230 --> 00:39:30,640
Speaker 2: we built a solar sail manufacturing base for robots? on

661
00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:32,380
Speaker 2: the surface of Mercury and so forth.

662
00:39:33,060 --> 00:39:35,000
Speaker 3: I think of all these kinds of things as stuff

663
00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:38,500
Speaker 3: that could one day make sense if we got a

664
00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:40,120
Speaker 3: lot of other problems figured out.

665
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:42,660
Speaker 2: Yeah, we should just put it on the menu. We

666
00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:45,010
Speaker 2: don't know if anybody's going to order this, but we

667
00:39:45,030 --> 00:39:49,990
Speaker 2: need to have it listed just in case. Now, Another

668
00:39:50,070 --> 00:39:54,670
Speaker 2: interesting argument concerning Mercury is, of course, should we destroy

669
00:39:54,710 --> 00:39:58,229
Speaker 2: it and make a Dyson sphere out of it? Yes.

670
00:39:58,489 --> 00:40:02,100
Speaker 3: Yes. I vote yes. Don't need any more details.

671
00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:06,799
Speaker 2: This is like kind of the ultimate consideration of like, well,

672
00:40:06,820 --> 00:40:08,560
Speaker 2: let's just put it on the menu anyway, even though

673
00:40:09,020 --> 00:40:11,600
Speaker 2: why would we need this and so forth? And a

674
00:40:11,739 --> 00:40:14,010
Speaker 2: lot of this dates back to, of course, the Dyson

675
00:40:14,030 --> 00:40:16,440
Speaker 2: sphere is named for Freeman Dyson, who in the 1960s,

676
00:40:17,700 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 2: At one point, like in discussing Dyson spheres and Dyson

677
00:40:21,620 --> 00:40:24,600
Speaker 2: swarms and so forth, these ideas that you could, we've

678
00:40:24,620 --> 00:40:26,239
Speaker 2: discussed this on the show before, the idea that you

679
00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:32,259
Speaker 2: could put solar collectors around a star and in doing so,

680
00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:35,480
Speaker 2: like capture the energy potential of that star to power

681
00:40:35,500 --> 00:40:39,600
Speaker 2: your technology. And of course, Dyson is originally presenting this

682
00:40:39,719 --> 00:40:42,120
Speaker 2: not as a, hey, we should do this sort of thing,

683
00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:44,279
Speaker 2: but more of, if we're going to look for signs

684
00:40:44,340 --> 00:40:48,940
Speaker 2: of technologically advanced civilizations elsewhere, in our universe, what sort

685
00:40:48,980 --> 00:40:52,029
Speaker 2: of signs could we look for? What sort of dimming

686
00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:56,669
Speaker 2: of particular stars might signal the existence of some sort

687
00:40:56,690 --> 00:40:58,610
Speaker 2: of a megastructure like this? Right.

688
00:40:58,630 --> 00:41:00,930
Speaker 3: So what if we look out there and instead of

689
00:41:00,989 --> 00:41:02,930
Speaker 3: seeing a star, we just see a lot of heat

690
00:41:02,989 --> 00:41:06,569
Speaker 3: exhaust coming out of a relatively dark place? That might

691
00:41:06,650 --> 00:41:10,049
Speaker 3: suggest that a star is being surrounded and harvested in

692
00:41:10,110 --> 00:41:12,980
Speaker 3: some way, and we're only seeing the waste coming off

693
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:14,060
Speaker 3: of that superstructure.

694
00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:18,610
Speaker 2: Yeah. So at one point, Dyson says, well, look at Mercury.

695
00:41:18,650 --> 00:41:21,049
Speaker 2: Mercury is exactly the sort of planet where you could

696
00:41:21,150 --> 00:41:25,430
Speaker 2: construct these solar collectors from materials on Mercury and deploy them.

697
00:41:26,290 --> 00:41:28,850
Speaker 2: And there have been more extreme takes on this in

698
00:41:28,890 --> 00:41:33,270
Speaker 2: recent decades. I was reading, I believe, Canadian futurist George

699
00:41:33,310 --> 00:41:36,880
Speaker 2: Dvorsky was arguing this in 2012. There's a lot of

700
00:41:36,950 --> 00:41:40,280
Speaker 2: activity around this in 2012. And there were some ideas

701
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:43,460
Speaker 2: from Oxford physicist Stuart Armstrong along these lines as well,

702
00:41:43,860 --> 00:41:50,110
Speaker 2: where you wouldn't just make, let's say, a reasonable Dyson

703
00:41:50,130 --> 00:41:54,609
Speaker 2: swarm out of Mercury materials. You would build them out

704
00:41:54,660 --> 00:41:59,040
Speaker 2: of Mercury. You would basically destroy Mercury and make as

705
00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:03,080
Speaker 2: much of a Dyson swarm, almost a Dyson sphere, as

706
00:42:03,180 --> 00:42:06,819
Speaker 2: is physically possible, out of the remains of Mercury. So

707
00:42:06,860 --> 00:42:10,310
Speaker 2: destroy the planet, just absolutely Death Star the planet, And

708
00:42:10,350 --> 00:42:14,930
Speaker 2: then create solar harvesters out of that to power life

709
00:42:15,030 --> 00:42:17,240
Speaker 2: on Earth and, you know, I guess by this point,

710
00:42:17,610 --> 00:42:23,260
Speaker 2: other worlds as well. So, yeah, is it a good idea?

711
00:42:23,860 --> 00:42:26,200
Speaker 2: I mean, nobody's saying we should do this tomorrow. Obviously,

712
00:42:26,260 --> 00:42:30,299
Speaker 2: it's well beyond our capabilities. But at that time, 2012,

713
00:42:30,300 --> 00:42:34,860
Speaker 2: there was an article, at least this was on Forbes,

714
00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:39,069
Speaker 2: from Alex Knapp with Phil Plait. And they took this

715
00:42:39,140 --> 00:42:42,600
Speaker 2: idea to task, arguing that, look, from an energy standpoint alone,

716
00:42:43,140 --> 00:42:47,020
Speaker 2: just not practical. You'd have to put so much energy

717
00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:51,779
Speaker 2: into the destruction of Mercury. You wouldn't be able to

718
00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:54,500
Speaker 2: make back your money on this. You wouldn't be able

719
00:42:54,540 --> 00:42:58,020
Speaker 2: to recoup the loss, according to their math, for something

720
00:42:58,040 --> 00:43:01,969
Speaker 2: like 174 years. And the amount of energy that it

721
00:43:02,010 --> 00:43:05,930
Speaker 2: would take, again, is just well beyond anything we could

722
00:43:05,950 --> 00:43:11,540
Speaker 2: generate today. And then imagine what 174 years worth of

723
00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:16,080
Speaker 2: harvesting a large portion of the energy of our sun

724
00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:19,580
Speaker 2: would consist of like this. Just it's enormous. And how

725
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:22,320
Speaker 2: would we even get that kind of like energy capital

726
00:43:22,739 --> 00:43:24,480
Speaker 2: to pull off the project to begin with?

727
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:28,540
Speaker 3: Yeah, we would kind of have to you would have

728
00:43:28,580 --> 00:43:30,720
Speaker 3: to be from a superhuman starting place.

729
00:43:30,930 --> 00:43:33,190
Speaker 2: Yeah, we would have to be gifted this project from

730
00:43:33,270 --> 00:43:35,430
Speaker 2: some sort of alien civilization where they show up and

731
00:43:35,450 --> 00:43:38,550
Speaker 2: they're like, hey. Have you thought about destroying your innermost

732
00:43:38,590 --> 00:43:40,009
Speaker 2: planet and building something.

733
00:43:39,730 --> 00:43:40,040
Speaker 3: Out of it?

734
00:43:40,630 --> 00:43:44,930
Speaker 2: We'll pick up the bill for it if you're cool

735
00:43:44,950 --> 00:43:49,480
Speaker 2: with this. So, again, a lot of 2012 traffic on this.

736
00:43:49,540 --> 00:43:52,640
Speaker 2: I was reading another article in Popular Science from Rebecca

737
00:43:52,680 --> 00:43:57,219
Speaker 2: Boyle about it. And this author pointed out that we

738
00:43:57,239 --> 00:44:01,299
Speaker 2: face similar conundrums with transitions to sustainable energy. You know,

739
00:44:02,030 --> 00:44:04,529
Speaker 2: we want to burn less oil. But then we may

740
00:44:04,550 --> 00:44:06,450
Speaker 2: have to burn a little bit more oil to build

741
00:44:06,469 --> 00:44:09,720
Speaker 2: the technologies and infrastructures that ultimately free us from oil.

742
00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:14,520
Speaker 2: But still, that being said, the mercury Dyson sphere gambit

743
00:44:14,540 --> 00:44:17,000
Speaker 2: just doesn't work out on paper when we start crunching

744
00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:17,540
Speaker 2: the numbers.

745
00:44:18,580 --> 00:44:21,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, I see the comparison, but it's worth being clear

746
00:44:21,420 --> 00:44:23,920
Speaker 3: that the Dyson swarm build out is a much crazier

747
00:44:23,980 --> 00:44:27,040
Speaker 3: relative proposition than like, yes, it is true that you

748
00:44:27,060 --> 00:44:29,720
Speaker 3: have to like spend to make. And that's true with

749
00:44:29,930 --> 00:44:33,910
Speaker 3: renewable energy as well. But that's a very doable project.

750
00:44:35,010 --> 00:44:39,110
Speaker 3: With commitment, that is realistic. Much bigger question about the

751
00:44:39,150 --> 00:44:39,850
Speaker 3: Mercury thing.

752
00:44:40,130 --> 00:44:54,420
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Now, another interesting question is, of course, if

753
00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:59,290
Speaker 2: this were to happen, if future, far future generations said, yeah,

754
00:44:59,310 --> 00:45:02,230
Speaker 2: we're doing it, we're destroying Mercury, We're making a Dyson

755
00:45:02,250 --> 00:45:04,390
Speaker 2: swarm out of it, and we're going to use that

756
00:45:04,430 --> 00:45:07,430
Speaker 2: to power the Earth. First of all, what does that

757
00:45:07,750 --> 00:45:11,550
Speaker 2: mean to destroy a planet, destroy the innermost planet of

758
00:45:11,610 --> 00:45:15,340
Speaker 2: our solar system? Because to a large degree, it seems

759
00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:20,140
Speaker 2: entirely egotistical and short-sighted to think that would have no

760
00:45:20,200 --> 00:45:23,560
Speaker 2: effect on the rest of the solar system and on Earth.

761
00:45:24,460 --> 00:45:26,160
Speaker 2: And certainly, I think there are arguments to be made.

762
00:45:26,510 --> 00:45:28,850
Speaker 2: you know, concerning the shrapnel from such an event, depending

763
00:45:28,890 --> 00:45:31,330
Speaker 2: on like how you cracked the planet and so forth.

764
00:45:32,250 --> 00:45:34,230
Speaker 2: But I was reading a little bit more about this,

765
00:45:34,310 --> 00:45:36,110
Speaker 2: and this was a Medium article that I thought was

766
00:45:36,150 --> 00:45:39,770
Speaker 2: rather good by one Omar V. Farrow titled, What Happens

767
00:45:39,830 --> 00:45:44,069
Speaker 2: If We Dismantle Mercury? And the author argues that, you know,

768
00:45:44,090 --> 00:45:46,870
Speaker 2: there wouldn't be much in the way of immediate consequences

769
00:45:46,930 --> 00:45:50,989
Speaker 2: for other planets. You know, it wouldn't really be a

770
00:45:51,010 --> 00:45:54,890
Speaker 2: blip in terms of like impacting, you know, the orbit

771
00:45:54,930 --> 00:46:01,570
Speaker 2: of Earth or you know, environmental or climate-based scenarios on Earth.

772
00:46:02,210 --> 00:46:07,149
Speaker 2: But there would be perhaps much longer term ramifications that

773
00:46:07,310 --> 00:46:10,430
Speaker 2: it would, quote, slightly rearrange the resonant structure of the

774
00:46:10,450 --> 00:46:15,049
Speaker 2: inner solar system, which could induce enhanced orbital chaos over

775
00:46:15,090 --> 00:46:18,109
Speaker 2: the course of, say, a billion years or so. So

776
00:46:18,180 --> 00:46:21,820
Speaker 2: Farrow says, quote, no instant apocalypse, just a slow increase

777
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:25,820
Speaker 2: in orbital drama. But the other question, of course, is

778
00:46:25,860 --> 00:46:28,219
Speaker 2: what does it mean for the Earth, right? If you're

779
00:46:28,620 --> 00:46:33,000
Speaker 2: going to maybe not encase the sun completely in some

780
00:46:33,020 --> 00:46:35,860
Speaker 2: sort of a solid Dyson sphere like out of Star Trek,

781
00:46:36,219 --> 00:46:39,180
Speaker 2: which I think many people point out would certainly have

782
00:46:39,219 --> 00:46:43,779
Speaker 2: design limitations and might not be possible at all. But

783
00:46:43,820 --> 00:46:48,100
Speaker 2: if you were to swarm the sun with these solar harvesters,

784
00:46:49,060 --> 00:46:51,620
Speaker 2: you're going to potentially engage, you're going to engage in

785
00:46:51,660 --> 00:46:56,120
Speaker 2: the very sort of dimming, and cooling that certainly this

786
00:46:56,200 --> 00:46:59,560
Speaker 2: is a very dimming that like Dyson was originally talking about,

787
00:46:59,600 --> 00:47:00,970
Speaker 2: you know, this is the kind of thing that would,

788
00:47:01,780 --> 00:47:04,910
Speaker 2: that he's saying would be visible, would be observable one

789
00:47:04,930 --> 00:47:09,469
Speaker 2: way or the other to us, like across vast astronomical distances.

790
00:47:10,050 --> 00:47:12,650
Speaker 2: And so if you, if you swarmed our sun with

791
00:47:12,690 --> 00:47:17,359
Speaker 2: these solar collectors, less sunlight would reach our planet. And the,

792
00:47:17,500 --> 00:47:21,700
Speaker 2: the ramifications of that would be apocalyptic in the short term.

793
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:24,669
Speaker 2: You were talking, you know, rapid cooling of the planet

794
00:47:25,489 --> 00:47:28,310
Speaker 2: and all manner of things. So, you know, it's hard

795
00:47:28,350 --> 00:47:30,649
Speaker 2: to you'd have to do so much additional sci fi

796
00:47:30,690 --> 00:47:32,529
Speaker 2: legwork to say, well, why are we doing why does

797
00:47:32,570 --> 00:47:34,640
Speaker 2: it make sense for us to get all of this

798
00:47:34,739 --> 00:47:37,680
Speaker 2: energy if we're dooming our own world in the process?

799
00:47:38,100 --> 00:47:41,580
Speaker 2: Not that that sort of problem has stopped before, but

800
00:47:41,980 --> 00:47:44,040
Speaker 2: but I don't know. It's still fun to think about

801
00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:44,859
Speaker 2: these ideas, I guess.

802
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:47,500
Speaker 3: I'm going to do a compromise. I say we should

803
00:47:47,580 --> 00:47:49,880
Speaker 3: put this on the back burner for two billion years

804
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:52,299
Speaker 3: and then we come back to it and see if

805
00:47:52,360 --> 00:47:53,950
Speaker 3: it makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.

806
00:47:54,820 --> 00:47:56,969
Speaker 2: I guess, I mean, one of the when we were

807
00:47:56,989 --> 00:47:59,489
Speaker 2: talking about these sorts of swarms, I mean, it does

808
00:47:59,530 --> 00:48:02,730
Speaker 2: factor into these sort of these very apocalyptic scenarios of like,

809
00:48:02,810 --> 00:48:05,910
Speaker 2: what if there was an alien civilization that came to

810
00:48:05,969 --> 00:48:10,049
Speaker 2: our solar system, you know, physically or via machines and

811
00:48:10,090 --> 00:48:13,040
Speaker 2: was like, hey, nice sun you've got there. we're going

812
00:48:13,060 --> 00:48:15,279
Speaker 2: to swarm it. Maybe we'll crack your inner planet to

813
00:48:15,320 --> 00:48:17,620
Speaker 2: make the swarm. And we're going to go ahead and

814
00:48:17,640 --> 00:48:20,759
Speaker 2: harvest that energy because we don't care about how much

815
00:48:20,820 --> 00:48:23,600
Speaker 2: sunlight is hitting the earth. We just want the energy

816
00:48:23,620 --> 00:48:25,739
Speaker 2: that's produced by your sun, just as we care about

817
00:48:25,780 --> 00:48:30,640
Speaker 2: the energy produced by various other suns out there. Collect

818
00:48:30,700 --> 00:48:33,719
Speaker 2: it all, put it onto a giant battery, and then

819
00:48:33,739 --> 00:48:37,580
Speaker 2: you ship that battery out to the home world. Perfect.

820
00:48:38,020 --> 00:48:40,180
Speaker 2: So anyway, again, all of that is very much getting

821
00:48:40,219 --> 00:48:43,989
Speaker 2: into a very... What can Mercury do for me? Well,

822
00:48:44,010 --> 00:48:47,050
Speaker 2: how can we consume Mercury's sort of viewpoint? But again,

823
00:48:47,070 --> 00:48:50,850
Speaker 2: a lot of like the reasons to actually send any

824
00:48:50,870 --> 00:48:53,660
Speaker 2: kind of spacecraft to Mercury, certainly at this stage in

825
00:48:53,700 --> 00:48:56,100
Speaker 2: our knowledge of our own solar system, is just to

826
00:48:56,140 --> 00:48:58,580
Speaker 2: learn more about it. There's just so many more mysteries

827
00:48:58,660 --> 00:49:00,859
Speaker 2: about the planet that need solving. There's so much more

828
00:49:00,900 --> 00:49:03,060
Speaker 2: data to be learned, so much to learn about our

829
00:49:03,100 --> 00:49:06,580
Speaker 2: own sun as well, potentially via some sort of at

830
00:49:06,660 --> 00:49:10,080
Speaker 2: least probe-based occupation of Mercury.

831
00:49:10,080 --> 00:49:12,969
Speaker 3: Is anybody talking about eating it?

832
00:49:12,969 --> 00:49:16,150
Speaker 2: Is it edible? I don't believe it is edible.

833
00:49:16,150 --> 00:49:16,870
Speaker 3: Is that one of those out there?

834
00:49:16,950 --> 00:49:19,549
Speaker 2: I mean, it's rich in iron, but there are better

835
00:49:19,590 --> 00:49:21,600
Speaker 2: ways to get your daily iron than by consuming mercury.

836
00:49:21,620 --> 00:49:26,060
Speaker 3: What if we ate mercury? Yeah. How about, you know,

837
00:49:26,400 --> 00:49:28,300
Speaker 3: I have a hard time finding a parking space a

838
00:49:28,360 --> 00:49:30,820
Speaker 3: lot of times. What if we turn it into extra parking,

839
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:33,180
Speaker 3: take some of that pressure off of our cities?

840
00:49:33,239 --> 00:49:34,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

841
00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:36,340
Speaker 3: Some overflow lots on mercury.

842
00:49:36,930 --> 00:49:39,910
Speaker 2: Again, coming back to like how we treat Mercury and sci-fi,

843
00:49:39,930 --> 00:49:42,670
Speaker 2: I think it's telling that more of our recent science

844
00:49:42,690 --> 00:49:45,029
Speaker 2: fiction visions, even if you end up putting a lot

845
00:49:45,070 --> 00:49:47,969
Speaker 2: of people on Mercury for one reason or another, like

846
00:49:48,030 --> 00:49:50,339
Speaker 2: it basically turns out like, Oh yeah, they're just, they're

847
00:49:50,420 --> 00:49:53,200
Speaker 2: mining stuff. Like that's all they're doing maybe, or maybe

848
00:49:53,239 --> 00:49:57,020
Speaker 2: a research station, but we, you know, nobody's like even

849
00:49:57,060 --> 00:50:00,259
Speaker 2: in sci-fi giving much attention to the idea of, of

850
00:50:00,340 --> 00:50:03,689
Speaker 2: turning it into anything else of, of use to us. Uh,

851
00:50:03,730 --> 00:50:06,660
Speaker 2: but I think the, like the, the, um, The solar

852
00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:09,590
Speaker 2: sail transport hub is perhaps one of the more enticing

853
00:50:09,670 --> 00:50:10,430
Speaker 2: ideas I've heard.

854
00:50:11,510 --> 00:50:16,130
Speaker 3: Every time we do one of these series about space,

855
00:50:16,410 --> 00:50:20,629
Speaker 3: about other planets or moons, I notice that it just

856
00:50:20,750 --> 00:50:25,390
Speaker 3: makes me feel very emotionally attached to Earth. You know,

857
00:50:25,430 --> 00:50:29,379
Speaker 3: you can appreciate what's cool and fascinating and beautiful even

858
00:50:29,430 --> 00:50:32,680
Speaker 3: or creepy about other planets like they can really arrest

859
00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:35,790
Speaker 3: the attention for a short time. Often by the end

860
00:50:35,830 --> 00:50:38,310
Speaker 3: of that time, I really just want to go outside

861
00:50:38,350 --> 00:50:40,009
Speaker 3: and walk in the grass and see a tree.

862
00:50:40,030 --> 00:50:42,299
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, when you get into discussing just how

863
00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:44,980
Speaker 2: inhospitable these other worlds in our own solar system are,

864
00:50:46,020 --> 00:50:51,020
Speaker 2: you know, it just drives home how special our Earth is. Where, again,

865
00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:53,330
Speaker 2: like even on our Earth, there are parts of it

866
00:50:53,390 --> 00:50:57,629
Speaker 2: where we cannot live without a great deal of technological help.

867
00:50:57,989 --> 00:51:00,170
Speaker 2: You know, like we can't live at the poles without

868
00:51:01,050 --> 00:51:03,890
Speaker 2: a great deal of help and a lot of technological support.

869
00:51:04,520 --> 00:51:07,660
Speaker 2: But even those parts of our world are far more

870
00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:10,900
Speaker 2: hospitable to, say, the surface of Mars or the surface

871
00:51:10,920 --> 00:51:13,160
Speaker 2: of the moon or certainly the surface of Mercury.

872
00:51:13,960 --> 00:51:15,359
Speaker 3: We've got a really good thing going here.

873
00:51:16,280 --> 00:51:19,010
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's not screw it up anymore, right?

874
00:51:19,130 --> 00:51:21,430
Speaker 3: Are we doing another episode on Mercury or not? Do

875
00:51:21,450 --> 00:51:22,950
Speaker 3: we not know yet? Should we leave that open?

876
00:51:22,989 --> 00:51:24,670
Speaker 2: I think we're going to leave it open because we

877
00:51:24,710 --> 00:51:27,490
Speaker 2: haven't completely decided. I think there are some more potential

878
00:51:28,469 --> 00:51:31,549
Speaker 2: topics to discuss. We'll just have to figure that out

879
00:51:31,650 --> 00:51:32,950
Speaker 2: after we finish recording here.

880
00:51:33,469 --> 00:51:36,590
Speaker 3: Okay. So, folks, next time's going to be a surprise.

881
00:51:36,650 --> 00:51:38,350
Speaker 3: Either more Mercury or something else.

882
00:51:38,730 --> 00:51:41,110
Speaker 2: Yeah. But either way, you know, write in with your

883
00:51:41,130 --> 00:51:44,520
Speaker 2: thoughts about this episode. Write in about any topic related

884
00:51:44,560 --> 00:51:48,000
Speaker 2: to Mercury we didn't cover. That includes, you know, the

885
00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:52,420
Speaker 2: hard science of the matter or sci-fi visions related to Mercury,

886
00:51:52,540 --> 00:51:56,360
Speaker 2: references in the media. We'd love to hear any of it.

887
00:51:56,820 --> 00:51:58,710
Speaker 2: We'll just remind you that Stuff to Blow Your Mind

888
00:51:58,750 --> 00:52:01,110
Speaker 2: is primarily a science and culture podcast with core episodes

889
00:52:01,150 --> 00:52:04,160
Speaker 2: on Tuesdays and Thursdays, short form on Wednesdays. And on Fridays,

890
00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:06,140
Speaker 2: we set aside most serious concerns to just talk about

891
00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:09,540
Speaker 2: a weird film on Weird House Cinema. However you get

892
00:52:09,560 --> 00:52:11,700
Speaker 2: the show, we just ask that you rate, review, and

893
00:52:11,719 --> 00:52:15,960
Speaker 2: subscribe on all those podcast outlets. And then if you

894
00:52:16,040 --> 00:52:18,480
Speaker 2: are watching on Netflix, which you can do, we have

895
00:52:18,520 --> 00:52:21,779
Speaker 2: the audio-video version on Netflix, give us a couple of

896
00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:24,650
Speaker 2: thumbs up. Ask to be reminded about new episodes. That

897
00:52:24,690 --> 00:52:25,210
Speaker 2: helps us out.

898
00:52:25,989 --> 00:52:29,550
Speaker 3: Huge thanks, as always, to our excellent audio producer, J.J. Poswave.

899
00:52:30,060 --> 00:52:31,360
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

900
00:52:31,400 --> 00:52:33,800
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

901
00:52:33,840 --> 00:52:35,780
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

902
00:52:36,180 --> 00:52:39,879
Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at StuffedBlowYourMind.com.

903
00:52:40,800 --> 00:52:50,710
Speaker 1: Stuffed Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. For

904
00:52:50,750 --> 00:52:54,529
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts

905
00:52:54,610 --> 00:52:56,350
Speaker 1: are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

906
00:53:03,110 --> 00:53:03,469
Speaker 2: Thank you.