Speaker 1: Hey you, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. We
Speaker 1: have another vault episode for you. This is going to
Speaker 1: be The Moons of Uruana's Part two, which originally published
Speaker 1: on five eleven, twenty twenty three. This is part two
Speaker 1: of three. Please enjoy. This is the uss Hamlet's Father's
Speaker 1: Ghost requesting entry into Uranian orbit and the Uranian satellite system.
Speaker 1: We have decelerated and seek clearance to Titanium.
Speaker 2: Greetings, USS Hamlet's Father's Ghost. This is Mustard Seed. Can
Speaker 2: you state the purpose of your visit?
Speaker 1: Roger that Mustard Seed. I have two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: Shakespeare enthusiast on board, just waking up for a tour
Speaker 1: of the Uranian Moons. Our visit to the Royal Automated
Speaker 1: Uranian Theater on Titanius should be registered in the log.
Speaker 2: All right, Roger that USSHFG. I can confirm your reservation
Speaker 2: now and docking credentials are good to go with your passengers,
Speaker 2: a pleasant and safe visit to the Uranian satellite system.
Speaker 2: The next Automated Thespianoid performance will be let's see Ooh
Speaker 2: Edward the third Well, better luck next time.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. The production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: Hey you welcome to Stuff to blow your mind. My
Speaker 1: name is Robert.
Speaker 2: Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with part
Speaker 2: two of our series on the planet Uranus and its moons. Now,
Speaker 2: in part one we focused mainly on the planet itself.
Speaker 2: This time we're going to start getting more into the moons.
Speaker 2: Maybe we'll do all of the moons this time. I
Speaker 2: think last time we promised it would happen. We'll see
Speaker 2: whether we can fit it all into one episode. But
Speaker 2: I had a few more core planet digressions burning a
Speaker 2: hole in my pocket that I wanted to mention before
Speaker 2: we fly off to the satellites. Are you okay with that, rob.
Speaker 1: Let's do it.
Speaker 2: So. First of all, I was wondering what's the density
Speaker 2: of Uranus, And it turns out that Uranus is the
Speaker 2: second least dense planet in the Solar System at one
Speaker 2: point twenty seven grams per cubic centimeter. The only planet
Speaker 2: less dense is actually Saturn, the second largest planet in
Speaker 2: the Solar System. You might wonder which planet is the densest, Baby,
Speaker 2: that's Earth. That's Earth. We are at five point five
Speaker 2: to one grams per cubic centimeter, so we are the
Speaker 2: density king. But one of the real things I wanted
Speaker 2: to return to was a question of materials, because in
Speaker 2: the last episode we mentioned, just giving sort of an
Speaker 2: overview of the basics of the planet, that most of
Speaker 2: the mass of Uranus is thought to be a hot,
Speaker 2: dense fluid of ices, probably surrounding a rocky core of
Speaker 2: some sort. And though it might be kind of strange
Speaker 2: to hear like hot dense fluid of ices, that almost
Speaker 2: kind of doesn't make sense based on our definition of ice.
Speaker 2: And it's true that a lot of this ice is
Speaker 2: going to be different than the kind of ice we know.
Speaker 2: So I was reading more about this in an article
Speaker 2: by a planetary atmospheric scientist named Amy Simon, who is
Speaker 2: a senior researcher at NASA Goddard, and this was written
Speaker 2: for the magazine of the Planetary Society. The article is
Speaker 2: called the Realm of the Ice Giants, and one of
Speaker 2: the questions Simon addresses in this article is why are
Speaker 2: the planets Uranus and Neptune called ice giants as opposed
Speaker 2: to regular gas giants. It's because compared to regular gas
Speaker 2: giants like Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus and neptune are composed
Speaker 2: of a higher proportion of ice forming molecules like water
Speaker 2: and methane, though much of that so called ice is
Speaker 2: in a phase unfamiliar to us. On the surface of Earth,
Speaker 2: Simon writes, quote, ice giants are mostly water, probably in
Speaker 2: the form of a super critical fluid. The visible clouds
Speaker 2: likely consist of ice crystals with different compositions. So regarding
Speaker 2: supercritical fluid, a supercritical fluid doesn't behave exactly like a liquid,
Speaker 2: gas or a solid. It's an emergent state of matter
Speaker 2: occurring at temperatures and pressures beyond what is known as
Speaker 2: the critical point for each substance. And Simon has a
Speaker 2: very good paragraph clarifying the planetary science use of the
Speaker 2: term ice, which could help clear up any confusion there.
Speaker 2: She says that on Earth we usually use the term
Speaker 2: ice to refer to just water H two O when
Speaker 2: it is frozen solid, but planetary astronomers use the word
Speaker 2: ice to refer to any condensable molecule in its solid form.
Speaker 2: She writes, quote, These tend to be highly reflective form clouds,
Speaker 2: and unlike minerals, can readily change between liquid, solid and
Speaker 2: gas states at relatively low temperatures, so we're mainly familiar
Speaker 2: with water ice on the surf of Earth, but throughout
Speaker 2: space there are lots of ices. There's methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide,
Speaker 2: and phosphene pH three, and these are all condensable molecules
Speaker 2: and could all freeze in the atmosphere of Uranus and
Speaker 2: Neptune also for that matter, and Simon writes that most
Speaker 2: of the clouds we see in the atmospheres of these
Speaker 2: ice giants are clouds of methane ice crystals or hydrogen
Speaker 2: sulfide ice, So there's probably weird supercritical fluids down below,
Speaker 2: and then an atmosphere above. The atmosphere in its gas
Speaker 2: contents is mostly hydrogen and helium, but that atmosphere is
Speaker 2: probably full of traces of different kinds of ice, including
Speaker 2: not just H two O, but things like ammonia and methane.
Speaker 2: And speaking of methane, as we mentioned last time, the
Speaker 2: blue color of both Neptune and Uranus appears to come
Speaker 2: from the presence of methane in their atmospheres, which absorbs
Speaker 2: the red wavelength of light from the sun and reflects
Speaker 2: only the blue spectrum. But the question is why is
Speaker 2: Urinus a paler shade of blue than Neptune. If you
Speaker 2: look at Neptune, it's often kind of a royal blue,
Speaker 2: whereas in true color, Urinus appears kind of a gray
Speaker 2: green blue. Simon writes that this is quote either because
Speaker 2: Urinus has more haze, so more kind of a cloudy
Speaker 2: outer shell, but she goes on, or because Neptune's atmosphere
Speaker 2: has another unidentified constituent that absorbs longer wavelength light even
Speaker 2: more strongly, and of course longer wavelength light would be
Speaker 2: more red shifted toward the red end of the visible spectrum. Okay,
Speaker 2: so that's ice, the atmosphere, the makeup of the planet.
Speaker 2: But there's one more thing you may have seen headlines
Speaker 2: about regarding Urinus in Neptune that if you have seen
Speaker 2: these headlines, I'm sure you're wondering about it, and that
Speaker 2: is the claim that some experts have argued that it
Speaker 2: likely rains diamonds on Urine Neptune, and from what I
Speaker 2: can tell, this is true. Now, this is obviously something
Speaker 2: we haven't been able to detect directly with probes or anything,
Speaker 2: so nobody can sense this happening. Instead, it's based on
Speaker 2: what we do know about the planets and argue and
Speaker 2: sort of extrapolating logically from those starting facts. So how
Speaker 2: does the logic go? Well, I was reading about this
Speaker 2: in an article for space dot com by the sunny
Speaker 2: Stonybrook astrophysicist Paul Im Sutter, and in this article, Sutter
Speaker 2: explains that we know from mathematical models that the inner
Speaker 2: mantles of ice giants probably have temperatures of about seven
Speaker 2: thousand kelvins or over sixty seven hundred celsius and pressure
Speaker 2: about six million times the atmospheric pressure on the surface
Speaker 2: of Earth. Meanwhile, higher up in the mantle, things are
Speaker 2: cooler about two thousand kelvins and only two hundred thousand
Speaker 2: times Earth's atmospheric pressure. And we know that water, ammonia,
Speaker 2: and methane are present within that mantle. So what happens
Speaker 2: to those substances in those conditions. Well, these conditions of
Speaker 2: temperature and pressure would tend to tear apart molecules of methane, methane,
Speaker 2: is ch four carbon, and hydrogen. And when those molecules
Speaker 2: get torn apart, we are left with free carbon. Free
Speaker 2: carbon tends to link together with other free carbon to
Speaker 2: form long chains of carbon what happens to long chains
Speaker 2: of pure carbon under high pressure that gets pressed into
Speaker 2: a diamond. These diamonds would tend to then drop down
Speaker 2: to lower in the mantle where high temperatures vaporize them,
Speaker 2: and then they float back up into the upper mantle,
Speaker 2: and then the cycle repeats, so you're left with diamond rain.
Speaker 2: Sounds like the name of a great alternate universe collaborative
Speaker 2: sci fi movie musical between Prince and David Bowie. Wish
Speaker 2: I could have seen it, but it does to be
Speaker 2: very likely a physical reality on Uranus and Neptune as well.
Speaker 1: So you're saying that all we have to do is
Speaker 1: jet out to Uranus, dip down into the atmosphere of Uranus,
Speaker 1: scoop up some diamonds, then get back to Earth and
Speaker 1: we're set for life.
Speaker 2: I've always said when I look up at the stars
Speaker 2: at night, what I see is profit. Okay, but one
Speaker 2: more digression before we get to the moons. Since part one,
Speaker 2: we actually got a really great bit of listener mail
Speaker 2: from Joe, not me, but a different Joe who listens
Speaker 2: to the show, who brought to our attention some really
Speaker 2: awesome photos of Uranus recently captured by the James web
Speaker 2: Space Telescope. Joe writes, quote, I've long awaited with tremulous
Speaker 2: anticipation the resumption of your ural journey to the heliopause,
Speaker 2: and was thrilled to see the recumbent sky king Uranus
Speaker 2: on my podcast feed. Your choice was timely, indeed, as
Speaker 2: the James Webb Space Telescope just last month least some
Speaker 2: spectacular visuals of Uranus. These images boast greater clarity than
Speaker 2: the Hubble's effort, especially of the planet's rings. I love
Speaker 2: living under a sky that will never run out of
Speaker 2: extraordinary things to look at and talk about, and I
Speaker 2: appreciate when you cast your gaze upward from time to time. Joe, Well,
Speaker 2: thank you, Joe. Because I had not seen these, I
Speaker 2: looked them up and this is fantastic. So I saw
Speaker 2: these within the context of a NASA press release from
Speaker 2: April sixth, twenty twenty three that Joe shared with us
Speaker 2: Rob I pasted these two photos here in the outline.
Speaker 2: One is just zoomed in on the planet from the
Speaker 2: more zoomed out second one. I would say, from my perspective,
Speaker 2: these images are gorgeous. They fill one with awe at
Speaker 2: the picture of this frosty, dark recess where the blue
Speaker 2: God lives. And this might sound a little bit weird,
Speaker 2: but I actually mean this in the best possible way. Somehow,
Speaker 2: in these images, Urinus looks more like an optical artifact
Speaker 2: than a physical object, as if the planet were like
Speaker 2: a glint or a lens flare. And to explain what
Speaker 2: I mean, so the planet is pictured on its side,
Speaker 2: because of course that's how it is. We're not seeing
Speaker 2: the rings laterally from the side, crossing over and behind
Speaker 2: the planet, like we do in most photos of Saturn. Instead,
Speaker 2: we're seeing the rings encircling the planet in an egg
Speaker 2: shape because we're looking roughly down toward the north pole,
Speaker 2: which faces sideways. And in this particular photo, though this
Speaker 2: is not exactly true color, the planet is pale blue
Speaker 2: with a white cap, and the rings sort of fade
Speaker 2: outward to inward, from a screaming fluorescent white to a
Speaker 2: dim blue gray as they sink toward the planet's atmosphere.
Speaker 2: And the sunlight seems blinding in these images because we
Speaker 2: actually see it gleaming off the edge of the planet.
Speaker 2: Which is even weirder because, as I said, the disk
Speaker 2: of Urinus facing us looks like a glint or a
Speaker 2: gleam itself, and in the more zoomed out of these
Speaker 2: two photos, we can see the blue dots of the
Speaker 2: larger moons surrounding it, also sending out these sort of
Speaker 2: shafts of reflected light in these hexagonal criss crosses out
Speaker 2: into space.
Speaker 1: Yeah, these images are gorgeous. It makes it look like.
Speaker 1: Urinus is a planet designed by Japanese illustrator Hajimi Soriyama, whose,
Speaker 1: of course I think he worked on the design for
Speaker 1: the original Sony Aibo robot, but also mostly known for
Speaker 1: robot pin up like really shiny, silvery robot pin up models.
Speaker 1: This artist is on my mind because the movie we're
Speaker 1: watching Friday in for Weird House Cinema, this artist is
Speaker 1: credited like deep down in the credits because there's a
Speaker 1: character in the movie that has some of this art
Speaker 1: up on his workstation. But this kind of but there's
Speaker 1: a certain from the female robot bodies in his art.
Speaker 1: There is this kind of like glimmering like silvery perfection
Speaker 1: to things, And that's what I kind of get from
Speaker 1: this image of Urinus. And if you're into planets, like
Speaker 1: I mean, put it on a calendar. It looks, it
Speaker 1: looks nice.
Speaker 2: It is beautiful, And I will say the blue in
Speaker 2: this photo, as I alluded to, is not exactly true
Speaker 2: color from the visible spectrum. I think it's approximate. So
Speaker 2: the image is from the webs near infrared camera, combining
Speaker 2: data from two filters. According to the press release, it
Speaker 2: was one point four and three point oh microns, and
Speaker 2: then the article explains these are coded out to blue
Speaker 2: and orange respectively. Now I mentioned the white cap that
Speaker 2: we see on Urinus in this photo. The article explains
Speaker 2: that this is known as the polar cap, and it
Speaker 2: seems to manifest when the pole of the planet goes
Speaker 2: into direct sunlight during its long polar summer, which again,
Speaker 2: as we talked about last time, lasts many years at
Speaker 2: a time, and then the cap seems to disappear in
Speaker 2: the fall when it starts to turn away from the sun.
Speaker 2: As far as I could find, we aren't sure exactly
Speaker 2: what causes this, or maybe if somebody knows, I just
Speaker 2: didn't dig that up. But so regarding the beautiful rings
Speaker 2: in the picture, Uranus has thirteen known rings, and you
Speaker 2: can see eleven of them in this photo, though some
Speaker 2: of them are so bright that they bleed together. In
Speaker 2: the image, there are nine major rings, and then there
Speaker 2: are two kind of faint dusty rings that were discovered
Speaker 2: during the approach and Voyager two in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 2: But speaking of those rings and moons, rings and moons
Speaker 2: sometimes have an interesting origin story, So I was wondering
Speaker 2: where do experts generally think they came from in the
Speaker 2: case of Uranus. Going back to that Planetary Society article
Speaker 2: by Amy Simon, Simon writes that the medium sized moons
Speaker 2: of Uranus probably formed in place at the same time
Speaker 2: or after whatever event it was that left Uranus tilted
Speaker 2: on its side. And as we talked about last time,
Speaker 2: it seems likely that Uranus was probably knocked on its
Speaker 2: side and left colder than all the other planets because
Speaker 2: of an impact with a large object, maybe like an
Speaker 2: Earth sized planet, billions of years ago. And so what
Speaker 2: we're left with is that the moon's orbit Urinus on
Speaker 2: its equatorial plane, So like the planet itself and like
Speaker 2: its rings, the moons are tilted at a roughly ninety
Speaker 2: degree angle to the rest of the Solar System. In general,
Speaker 2: the moons of Urinus are made of ice and rock,
Speaker 2: usually slightly more ice than rock, and they show some
Speaker 2: interesting surface features, like patterns of darkening on their surfaces
Speaker 2: that are caused by some unknown material. Spectral analysis reveals
Speaker 2: the presence of frozen carbon dioxide on a lot of
Speaker 2: the moons. Meanwhile, the origin of the rings, the consensus
Speaker 2: seems to be that they are created by the shattering
Speaker 2: into dust and fragments of formerly solid moons. And as
Speaker 2: we've seen with other planets, the sudden or gradual smash
Speaker 2: up of moons can happen a number of ways, by
Speaker 2: you know, lots of little collisions with meteoroids or other objects,
Speaker 2: or by tidal breakup due to gravity, in any case,
Speaker 2: turning former larger satellites into smaller satellites and rings of
Speaker 2: little fragments.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fascinating. How from our human perspective we look
Speaker 1: up at our moon, we consider the moons of other worlds,
Speaker 1: and there's a certain certain stability to them, you know.
Speaker 1: But if you look at any planets, moons or moon,
Speaker 1: generally you're looking at a more violent relationship over the
Speaker 1: vast history of a given planet. There's nothing peaceful about it.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, let's begin, at least begin to dip
Speaker 1: into the moons of Uranus. Like I said, we originally
Speaker 1: set out to do them all. Maybe we won't do
Speaker 1: them all. Maybe we'll get part way through the journey
Speaker 1: and we'll come back on Tuesday. Who knows, maybe we'll
Speaker 1: just we'll just get into we'll finish them up, and
Speaker 1: then we'll go right into Neptune. There are no rules.
Speaker 1: We can do what we want. So let's start with
Speaker 1: the inner moons of Uranus. Thirteen total known. All right,
Speaker 1: We're going to start with a pair of moons, Cordelia
Speaker 1: and Ophelia. These are named for the youngest daughter of
Speaker 1: King Lear and of course Hamlet's tragic beloved, respectively. The
Speaker 1: main significance of these moons is that both Cordelia and
Speaker 1: Ophelia are shepherd moons, as their gravity keeps Uranus's epsilon
Speaker 1: ring from dispersing.
Speaker 2: Now I thought this was interesting, so I was looking
Speaker 2: up how exactly it is that shepherd moons work. What
Speaker 2: does the shepherd moon do? These little small moons, how
Speaker 2: do they keep a ring? Essentially, they keep a ring
Speaker 2: in tight formation around the planet and clear these gaps
Speaker 2: between the rings. And it seems that essentially it works
Speaker 2: like this. So you've got a small moon and it's
Speaker 2: orbiting the planet, And imagine at first it's orbiting the
Speaker 2: planet along with a bunch of other small particles sort
Speaker 2: of within the lane of that small moon's orbit. Particles
Speaker 2: that are ahead of the small moon will be attracted
Speaker 2: by gravity to it, meaning if they're orbiting ahead of it,
Speaker 2: they will naturally want to slow down in their orbit,
Speaker 2: right because they're getting pulled toward this moon. But slowing
Speaker 2: down in their orbit actually causes them to lose energy
Speaker 2: and fall down closer to the planet that they're orbiting.
Speaker 2: So these like dust and particles and things in the
Speaker 2: ring actually end up sorting into lower orbit rings. And
Speaker 2: then meanwhile, things that are orbiting along the same lane
Speaker 2: as this moon that are behind it in its orbit
Speaker 2: are attracted to it and thus sped up. And as
Speaker 2: they get sped up during to chase after this moon
Speaker 2: by the force of gravity, that acceleration actually causes them
Speaker 2: to have greater energy and to ascend in their orbit
Speaker 2: and end up going into outer rings beyond that little moon.
Speaker 1: So again we have the Shepherd moons here. They were
Speaker 1: discovered by Voyager two in nineteen eighty six. Like the
Speaker 1: rest of Uranus's inner moons. They appear to be roughly
Speaker 1: equal split of water, ice and rock. They're small. Of
Speaker 1: note to Cordelia is the closest to the planet, and
Speaker 1: I guess we should also point out or come back
Speaker 1: to the fact that, yes, these are both Shakespearean references.
Speaker 1: There are going to be a lot of shakespeare references
Speaker 1: as we go through the moons of Uranus and these
Speaker 1: just the first two.
Speaker 2: It seems that a lot of the names of these satellites,
Speaker 2: for some reason were chosen either from the works of
Speaker 2: Shakespeare or from the works of Alexander Pope.
Speaker 1: Yeah, predominantly Shakespearean, but definitely there's some key Alexander Pope
Speaker 1: references as well. So as as we go through it,
Speaker 1: we're we'll probably talk a little bit about some of
Speaker 1: the namesakes here.
Speaker 2: Well, this was something I was wondering. I don't know
Speaker 2: about the origin exactly, like what people had in mind
Speaker 2: when they were naming these, but so I think, like,
Speaker 2: is there some significance to the innermost minor moon here
Speaker 2: being called Cordelia, Because Cordelia is a very poignant character.
Speaker 2: Cordelia is the youngest daughter of King Lear in the
Speaker 2: play King Lear. If you don't know the play or
Speaker 2: need refreshing the very beginning of it. The first scene
Speaker 2: is King Lear is this old king? He comes out.
Speaker 2: He decides that he will divide up his kingdom between
Speaker 2: his three daughters, Goneril, Reagan, and Cordelia, and he's gonna
Speaker 2: give the largest portion to the daughter that loves him most.
Speaker 2: So Goneril and Reagan give these speeches where they overwhelm
Speaker 2: their father with absurd insincere flattery about how much they
Speaker 2: love him. And then when it's Cordelia's time to speak,
Speaker 2: she finds that she cannot put into words. She cannot
Speaker 2: express her love for her father to herself. She says
Speaker 2: that she knows her love is richer than her tongue.
Speaker 2: And then when it's her time to speak, she says,
Speaker 2: unhappy that I am. I cannot heave my heart into
Speaker 2: my mouth. I love your majesty according to my bond,
Speaker 2: no more nor less, and I think he gives her
Speaker 2: a chance to amend her statement. She doesn't, really, and
Speaker 2: the so Leir gets furious at this decides to disinherit her.
Speaker 2: He gives nothing to Cordelia, splits his kingdom between the
Speaker 2: other two daughters, Goneril and Reagan who secretly think he
Speaker 2: is a fool, and they will go on to betray
Speaker 2: him once they come to power, And of course it's
Speaker 2: a tragedy, so things just get worse and worries. Basically
Speaker 2: everybody ends up dead. But you know, it's a very
Speaker 2: meaningful character and something I think, I don't know that
Speaker 2: that moment in the first scene is something that always
Speaker 2: got me, something I can really relate to, like the
Speaker 2: feeling of worrying that you don't express positive feelings because
Speaker 2: you're afraid that you can't phrase them in the sincerest way,
Speaker 2: like you don't know how to put them to words.
Speaker 2: So then you worry that like you're perceived as not
Speaker 2: wanting to say a positive thing at all. I don't
Speaker 2: know if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, I mean certainly with the example
Speaker 1: here from the play, absolutely.
Speaker 2: But she's the daughter that truly loved him. She just
Speaker 2: you know, didn't want to give a big, insincere speech. Anyway,
Speaker 2: It's a very meaningful character. So I'm wondering, is there
Speaker 2: some similarly at play here in the selection of the
Speaker 2: name for this moon? Maybe not so, Like it's a
Speaker 2: very small satellite, it's the closest to the planet of these.
Speaker 2: It is one of the shepherd moons that sort of
Speaker 2: guide guides the epsilon and keeps it tight in formation.
Speaker 2: By the end, I mean, she does show great discipline
Speaker 2: because she comes back with an army to try to
Speaker 2: to fight on her father's side against her cruel, duplicitous sisters.
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe not, I don't know if it fits,
Speaker 2: but I was wondering.
Speaker 1: No, I think it's natural to try and read some
Speaker 1: sort of sense into the naming. Though. Of course, as
Speaker 1: we'll discuss it, it's different people at different times coming
Speaker 1: up with these names. You know, some are maybe probably
Speaker 1: a little more up on the works of William Shakespeare
Speaker 1: than others. Sometimes there seems like something they could be getting,
Speaker 1: at other times not. And also some of these kind
Speaker 1: of slip by on a technicality, so they're kind of
Speaker 1: all over the place. All right, let's let's go into
Speaker 1: the next one. There's a Bianca named after Kate's sister
Speaker 1: in the Taming of the Shrew. This one does nothing
Speaker 1: really else that I think is significant about it, and
Speaker 1: it was also discovered by voyager two. All right, after that,
Speaker 1: we have Cresida. This is the title character from Troylus
Speaker 1: and Cressida. Again, nothing other else. It's really significant about
Speaker 1: this moon. It was also discovered by Voyger two. I
Speaker 1: know some of you are probably wondering when's Voyager six
Speaker 1: is going to show up in all this, But I
Speaker 1: guess Voyder six just shot right out there, right.
Speaker 2: I was unsure. But what you're referring to vgre here?
Speaker 1: Right? Yes, yeah, Voyger six doesn't actually exist except in
Speaker 1: the world of Star Trek. Okay, specifically Star Trek the
Speaker 1: motion picture, the most riveting of all of them, that
Speaker 1: is pinned by Alan Dean Foster.
Speaker 2: Oh wait, was he the one who wrote the novelization
Speaker 2: of Halloween three or something like that?
Speaker 1: He wrote the novelization of most films? Yes, all right.
Speaker 1: The next moon of note here is Desdemona. This one's
Speaker 1: named after the wife of Othello, no other real significance,
Speaker 1: once again discovered by Voyager two. All right, now we're
Speaker 1: moving on to another one. This is Juliet or Juliet
Speaker 1: right if you're depending on how you're what line from
Speaker 1: the play using sometimes you got to hit two syllables
Speaker 1: instead of three on that. This is of course named
Speaker 1: after the title character from Romeo and Juliet. Romeo, meanwhile,
Speaker 1: is nowhere to be found amid the moons of Uranus.
Speaker 1: It is kind of interesting that there's a part in
Speaker 1: Romeo and Juliet where Romeo is swearing his love up
Speaker 1: and down the universe and Juliet specifically asked him not
Speaker 1: to swear by the moon. She says, quote, oh, swear
Speaker 1: not by the moon, the inconstant moon that monthly changes
Speaker 1: in her circle orb less that thy love prove likewise.
Speaker 2: Variable changes in her circle orb What does that refer
Speaker 2: to the waxing and waning of the moon or maybe
Speaker 2: I'm not sure I know what that means.
Speaker 1: I mean I take it to mean, Yeah, it's like
Speaker 1: there are different faces of the moon, Like like if
Speaker 1: your love is like the moon, Romeo, then I don't
Speaker 1: you know, it's like what am I going to get today?
Speaker 1: I mean it seems like if it is like the moon,
Speaker 1: she could charted out and then she'd have a really
Speaker 1: good idea of what she's going to get, you know,
Speaker 1: phase by phase. But yeah, she's like, I need consistency.
Speaker 2: Right, your love should not wax and Wayne, we shouldn't
Speaker 2: have a new moon of your love. Yes, it's were
Speaker 2: Wolf night every night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, anyway, aside from these thoughts, Juliet, nothing else than
Speaker 1: literally significant, once again discovered by Voyger two. Then we
Speaker 1: have Portia. This one is named after the heroine from
Speaker 1: the Merchant of Venice. This one, I guess the main
Speaker 1: significance is that it orbits urin us in less than
Speaker 1: one earth day, and it was discovered by Voyger two.
Speaker 1: All right. Up, next we have Rosalind. Rosalind is one
Speaker 1: of the Duke's daughters in As You Like It. That's
Speaker 1: the namesake. Nothing else really significant to discuss here. This
Speaker 1: one was also discovered by Voyager two. All right. The
Speaker 1: next one is is Cupid. This one is a tough
Speaker 1: one to fit in, but okay. Cupid is, of course
Speaker 1: the Roman god.
Speaker 2: Of love, famously invented by William Shakespeare.
Speaker 1: Well, he is technically a character in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens.
Speaker 1: I'm not familiar with this play. I don't know anything
Speaker 1: about that one. This may be one of the more
Speaker 1: obscure ones. I don't remember studying this one in school.
Speaker 1: But the discovery of it is kind of interesting because
Speaker 1: it was discovered by m R Showalter in JJ Lisauer
Speaker 1: using the Hubble space telescope in two thousand and three.
Speaker 1: It was too small and too dark for Voyager two
Speaker 1: to spot. And I was thinking about this. It's tempting
Speaker 1: to try and spin this one out and think of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: here we have Cupid as this dark, near invisible shadow
Speaker 1: press presence, you know, reminding us of past discussions about
Speaker 1: how Cupid was sometimes said to shoot lead and arrows.
Speaker 1: So it's you know, he's not only dealing out love
Speaker 1: with his projectiles, but also some of the ramifications of
Speaker 1: love and maybe even the tragic ramifications of love. But again,
Speaker 1: this one, this one seems to sort of slip by
Speaker 1: on a on a technicality in terms of its naming.
Speaker 1: All Right, the next one is Belinda. And this is
Speaker 1: one where we have to just have to ask Shakespeare
Speaker 1: to move over, because this one is named after the
Speaker 1: character whose lock of hair is stolen in Alexander Pope's
Speaker 1: Rape of the Lock.
Speaker 2: Now, this is an unfortunately titled poem because it doesn't
Speaker 2: mean what it sounds like that the poem by Pope
Speaker 2: is an older definition of the word rape, which is basically,
Speaker 2: in this context it means like theft or snatching. So
Speaker 2: the poem is a mock heroic satire. It narrates like
Speaker 2: a social scandal in which a lord of some sort.
Speaker 2: I did read this in school, and I forget a
Speaker 2: lot of the details. But he like steals a lock
Speaker 2: of hair from a young woman. But it's written like
Speaker 2: in the style of the Iliad to be mocking of
Speaker 2: the like oh ho ho, this is actually insignificant. I
Speaker 2: think Pope's point is best summarized in one of its lines,
Speaker 2: where he says, what mighty contests rise from trivial things?
Speaker 2: Though I don't know thinking back on it now, there
Speaker 2: are obviously much worse crimes, but stealing somebody's hair is
Speaker 2: pretty weird.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Plus hair has magical connotations. They could be stealing
Speaker 1: it to work some sort of magic. Maybe that's explored
Speaker 1: in the poem. I don't know. I have a degree
Speaker 1: in English, and I somehow managed to never read this poem.
Speaker 1: I remember that, you know the course, I'm familiar with
Speaker 1: the author's name and his popularity and importance in English literature.
Speaker 1: But I remember this title would come up and I
Speaker 1: would think, Oh, that doesn't sound like something I want
Speaker 1: to read, not realizing that it's about hair theft.
Speaker 2: Alexander Pope everything I recall that he wrote is basically
Speaker 2: satirical in nature. I'm sure he must have written serious poems.
Speaker 2: But like, the other main thing I remember he wrote
Speaker 2: is something called the Dunciad, which is a sort of
Speaker 2: an epic poem about stupidity.
Speaker 1: Hmm.
Speaker 2: He was like, it seems like he was just really
Speaker 2: into not suffering fools. Though, I feel like, if that's
Speaker 2: your main vibe, you really open yourself up to to scrutiny,
Speaker 2: don't you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, well we'll come back to Pope's work
Speaker 1: in a bit, because there are more moons named after him.
Speaker 1: The next one is Perdita, and this is the daughter
Speaker 1: of Leontes and Hermione in William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tail.
Speaker 1: This one's discovery is actually pretty interesting because Voyger two
Speaker 1: is involved in its discovery, but it wasn't recognized till
Speaker 1: two thousand and three. Basically, University of Arizona's Eric Karkoshka
Speaker 1: discovered it by comparing Voyger two imagery with Hubble imagery
Speaker 1: and sort of working out its existence based on these
Speaker 1: two different streams. All right, up next we have Puck is,
Speaker 1: of course, named after the sprite from a midsummer Night's Dream.
Speaker 1: Stanley Tucci played him in the nineteen ninety nine film adaptation,
Speaker 1: which had a great cast. I do remember seeing this
Speaker 1: film when it came out, and I imagine I've seen multiple.
Speaker 1: It seems like Midsummer Night's Dream is just one of
Speaker 1: those plays that you're just going to fall into seeing it,
Speaker 1: even if you don't set out to watch Shakespeare in life.
Speaker 2: Puck's a great character, great mischief maker, the mischief maker
Speaker 2: who brings wisdom, whether on purpose or not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Tucci was perfect casting. Now significance Here is
Speaker 1: the smallest of the inner moons, with a diameter of
Speaker 1: about one hundred and fifty kilometers or about ninety miles,
Speaker 1: And it was guess what discovered by voyager two? All right,
Speaker 1: up next we have Mab. It's named after Queen Mab,
Speaker 1: queen of the fair folk and English folklore. She's mentioned
Speaker 1: in Romeo and Juliet So and just mentioned. So it
Speaker 1: just really really squeaks by on a tacticality. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is one of those situations where I feel like
Speaker 1: I want to shout a little bit and be like, look,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of names that are mentioned in Shakespeare,
Speaker 1: and there are plenty of characters. I don't know why
Speaker 1: Queen Mab seems like the ideal choice here.
Speaker 2: Is there an inner moon named Julius Caesar?
Speaker 1: No, but you know you could that would have been
Speaker 1: a good one. Caesar, right, But that's just off the
Speaker 1: top of my head. I'm not sure if there's some
Speaker 1: other well, you know, I should also point out when
Speaker 1: you start looking. And I didn't get into this in
Speaker 1: any of my note taking, really, but there are individual
Speaker 1: features on some moons that are likewise named after other things.
Speaker 1: So it could be a Caesar in there somewhere, you
Speaker 1: know what.
Speaker 2: Actually, I want to be fair, Even a lot of
Speaker 2: the Shakespeare characters that we think of as more original
Speaker 2: shakespeare characters are actually often from like adapted versions of
Speaker 2: pre existing tales. Like a lot of Shakespeare's plays were
Speaker 2: not wholly made up stories. They were based on something
Speaker 2: from history or from an older story or another play,
Speaker 2: or something right right, like who would have thought of it?
Speaker 2: You know? Hamlet is the guy from the Northman.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, if you were around today, he'd be uh,
Speaker 1: you know, he'd be in the MCU somewhere working on
Speaker 1: a project.
Speaker 2: Of it.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Mab is the moon here. This one was discovered
Speaker 1: in two thousand and three by show Alter and Lessauer
Speaker 1: using the Hubble space telescope.
Speaker 2: Interesting in fact, I came across while reading that article
Speaker 2: by the NASA Goddard researcher Amy Simon. She writes that
Speaker 2: mab quote maybe generating a tenuous blue toned ring like
Speaker 2: Enceladus does for Saturn's e ring, though the source currently
Speaker 2: remains a mystery.
Speaker 1: Well, you know that sounds kind of fitting for the
Speaker 1: Queen of the fairy Folk, So I do like that.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm looking at the clock, and do you know
Speaker 2: what the clock reads. It reads a promise broken because
Speaker 2: we said we were going to do all of the
Speaker 2: moons within part two, and I think we have failed
Speaker 2: because we're coming up against a time limit. We got
Speaker 2: to cap it here and we've got all of the
Speaker 2: major moons left to talk about. So I think that's
Speaker 2: going to have to be part three of our series
Speaker 2: on Urinus and its satellites.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hopefully we didn't mess anybody up there, but I
Speaker 1: think the journey will be better for breaking into three
Speaker 1: parts here, and there's going to be a lot of
Speaker 1: fun stuff to talk about, especially with the major moons
Speaker 1: of Uranus, and then getting also into just some of
Speaker 1: the additional Shakespearean references in the naming of these moons.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, if you would like to catch up
Speaker 1: on past episodes of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, including
Speaker 1: our past episodes dealing with the moons of Jupiter and
Speaker 1: Saturn and Mars and so forth, you'll find those in
Speaker 1: the Stuff to Blow your Mind podcast feed, which you'll
Speaker 1: find wherever you get your podcasts. We have core episodes
Speaker 1: of Stuff to Blow Your Mind airing there on Tuesdays
Speaker 1: and Thursdays. On Mondays, we open up the mail bag
Speaker 1: on our listener mail episodes. That's primarily where we read
Speaker 1: emails from people. Occasionally we'll read one in an episod,
Speaker 1: so as in today's episode, you know if it relates
Speaker 1: to the subject matter, but generally it's going to be
Speaker 1: in the Monday episodes. On Wednesdays, we do a short
Speaker 1: form artifact or monster fact episode. This week. Of course,
Speaker 1: it ties into our theme of Urinus, so go check
Speaker 1: that out if you haven't. And then on Fridays, we
Speaker 1: set aside most serious concerns to just talk about a
Speaker 1: weird film on Weird House Cinema. Our selection for this
Speaker 1: week does not have anything to do with the planet Uranus,
Speaker 1: but that it's still a.
Speaker 2: Lot of fun. Bye God. We'll find a way to
Speaker 2: tie it in by the time Friday comes around anyway.
Speaker 2: Huge thanks as always to our audio producer JJ Posway.
Speaker 2: If you would like to get in touch with us
Speaker 2: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest
Speaker 2: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,
Speaker 2: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: your Mind dot com.
Speaker 3: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
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