1 00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:12,039 Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, do you like seeing big science experiments appear 2 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:14,880 Speaker 1: in movies? You know? I love it because it's true 3 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:18,400 Speaker 1: to life and accurate. No, actually, it's the opposite. Usually 4 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:21,759 Speaker 1: it's all like slick and fancy. They got retinal scanners 5 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:25,400 Speaker 1: and heads up displays. It's nothing like the messy desks 6 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:28,600 Speaker 1: and dirty coffee cups of reality. So it's not realistic. 7 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:31,320 Speaker 1: Doesn't that bother? You know? It inspires me. It shows 8 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:33,800 Speaker 1: me how cool my workplace could be. You know, A 9 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:37,120 Speaker 1: fancy version of the control room at CERN was in 10 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:39,760 Speaker 1: Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, and when I saw that, 11 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:42,280 Speaker 1: I thought, oh, let's make that real. It sounds like 12 00:00:42,280 --> 00:00:45,360 Speaker 1: physicists need Hollywood to come in and inspire you to 13 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:48,360 Speaker 1: clean up your dirty cups. Somebody's got to do it. 14 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 1: I am orhandmade cartoonists and the creator of PhD comics. Hi, 15 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:10,800 Speaker 1: I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist, and I actually am 16 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:14,800 Speaker 1: able to watch science in movies without criticizing it too much. 17 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:18,760 Speaker 1: Do you have to actively force yourself not to be 18 00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:21,679 Speaker 1: a grumpy physicist when you watch movies? No? Not usually, 19 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:24,559 Speaker 1: although if they mentioned the Higgs boson, then I'll admit 20 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:27,920 Speaker 1: my ears are perked up and my critical brain is 21 00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:31,600 Speaker 1: turned on. That must be Whye, movies never mentioned the 22 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:34,119 Speaker 1: Higgs boson. Actually, I feel like movies throw the Higgs 23 00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:36,480 Speaker 1: boson in all the time when they just totally don't 24 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:38,360 Speaker 1: need it. I want to see what's on your Netflix 25 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:40,920 Speaker 1: cue then talks about the Higgs boson all the time. 26 00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 1: Probably I'm more sensitive to the Higgs boson than most viewers. 27 00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 1: Welcome to our podcast. Daniel and Jorge Explained the Universe, 28 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:50,800 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio, in which we mostly 29 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:53,600 Speaker 1: talk about the real universe, the one that's out there 30 00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:56,400 Speaker 1: that we all want to understand, the one that has 31 00:01:56,440 --> 00:02:00,080 Speaker 1: neutrawn stars and black holes and active galactic nuclear and 32 00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:03,520 Speaker 1: all sorts of other crazy stuff that we are desperate 33 00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:06,240 Speaker 1: to wrap our minds around. We desperately want to understand, 34 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:08,639 Speaker 1: we want to take them apart, and mostly we want 35 00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:11,560 Speaker 1: to explain them to you. Yeah, because there is a 36 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:13,960 Speaker 1: lot in the universe for us to wrap our heads around, 37 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:17,840 Speaker 1: in our civilizational reach. Because it's a big universe, and 38 00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:20,040 Speaker 1: there's a lot that we still have to discover and 39 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:23,560 Speaker 1: to learn about and to make movies about, and we 40 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:25,440 Speaker 1: are doing our best to figure it out. We have 41 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:28,160 Speaker 1: all sorts of different kinds of devices that we use 42 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:30,960 Speaker 1: to listen to the sky. We can hear X rays, 43 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:33,920 Speaker 1: we can hear gravitational waves, we can hear new trinos, 44 00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:36,359 Speaker 1: we can hear radio waves. We do everything we can 45 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:38,880 Speaker 1: to get it's much information from the skuys we can 46 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:42,280 Speaker 1: to reveal those secrets of the universe. Yeah, because our 47 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:44,440 Speaker 1: search for the truth and the inner workings of the 48 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 1: universe is sort of like a movie. It's a drama, 49 00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:49,120 Speaker 1: you know, with the first and second act and maybe 50 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:51,200 Speaker 1: a big twist at the end. Which act are we 51 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:53,359 Speaker 1: in right now? According to you, we're in the first act, 52 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:56,160 Speaker 1: still trying to figure out what the characters want. I 53 00:02:56,160 --> 00:02:58,000 Speaker 1: feel like we might be in the trailer. You know. 54 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:00,840 Speaker 1: This is like in a world where scientists have no 55 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:04,320 Speaker 1: idea what's going on. Physicists have trailers. Do you have 56 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:06,959 Speaker 1: to make one for each experiment. I recently did see 57 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,040 Speaker 1: somebody put out a paper and they used I movie 58 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:11,360 Speaker 1: to make a very dramatic trailer for it, and I thought, 59 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:13,800 Speaker 1: that's a pretty good idea. It really did make me 60 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:16,200 Speaker 1: want to read the paper. Really did it have the voice? 61 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:19,240 Speaker 1: He did? It had the voice? Paper published to be 62 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:26,519 Speaker 1: published in a journal coming soon to a library near you. No, 63 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:28,840 Speaker 1: I do feel like it is a story. We are 64 00:03:28,919 --> 00:03:32,280 Speaker 1: unraveling the biggest mystery in the universe, which is the 65 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:35,280 Speaker 1: whole universe. The amazing thing is that the universe seems 66 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:38,440 Speaker 1: to have a story, one that we can understand. As 67 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:40,480 Speaker 1: we chip away at it and reveal a little bits 68 00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: of it, it seems to sort of click together into 69 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,920 Speaker 1: an understanding that works for our minds, which is, to me, 70 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:48,920 Speaker 1: one of the biggest questions in philosophy, like why is 71 00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:51,800 Speaker 1: the universe even understandable? Why is it possible for the 72 00:03:51,880 --> 00:03:56,040 Speaker 1: human mind to wrap itself around this incredible, potentially infinite 73 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:59,120 Speaker 1: variety of stuff in the universe. Yeah, And so physicists 74 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:01,360 Speaker 1: are heard at work and scientists are hard at work 75 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:04,440 Speaker 1: and figuring out all those answers. And at the same time, 76 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:08,640 Speaker 1: there are artists and filmmakers and writers creating movies and 77 00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:13,600 Speaker 1: fiction and stories that portrayed that universe, maybe sometimes in 78 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:17,120 Speaker 1: interesting and fantastical ways. Yeah, and sometimes you see real 79 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:20,480 Speaker 1: science experiments making a cameo in the movies, which is 80 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:23,480 Speaker 1: always fun, but maybe even more fun is seeing the future, 81 00:04:23,839 --> 00:04:27,200 Speaker 1: is seeing like what artists and creative people imagine science 82 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:29,800 Speaker 1: could be doing for us deep deep in the future. 83 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 1: We're just the role of science in life in a 84 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:35,120 Speaker 1: thousand years or in two thousand years, what it could 85 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:37,920 Speaker 1: be doing for us and to us potentially usually to 86 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:42,080 Speaker 1: us or you know, what we taste like sometimes So 87 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:45,240 Speaker 1: on the podcast, I've sometimes gently criticized a few movies 88 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:47,200 Speaker 1: that I like to kick around because the science in 89 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:50,320 Speaker 1: them was a little wonky Interesstdellar, for example. But we 90 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:52,240 Speaker 1: had a listener who wrote it and asked us which 91 00:04:52,279 --> 00:04:55,640 Speaker 1: films and TV shows we actually do like. So Grant 92 00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:58,760 Speaker 1: and Gender from Scotland wanted to know what we'd like 93 00:04:58,839 --> 00:05:01,560 Speaker 1: to read and enjoy and are we able to switch 94 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:05,719 Speaker 1: off the academic part of our brain to just enjoy things. So, Jorge, 95 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: what do you like to watch? And are you able 96 00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:10,480 Speaker 1: to turn off the engineer inside you and just enjoy it? 97 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:13,440 Speaker 1: Oh that's a tough one. Um No, I'm not able 98 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:17,279 Speaker 1: to turn off my engineer inside of me. Anytime I 99 00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:19,000 Speaker 1: see a movie, I'm like, wait a minute, how did 100 00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:21,599 Speaker 1: they make that work? Or where did they get the 101 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:24,760 Speaker 1: you know, power to wait ratio to accomplish that kind 102 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:28,040 Speaker 1: of flying. But generally, in terms of science, I guess 103 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:30,120 Speaker 1: I can't turn my head off. You know, sometimes it's 104 00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:32,440 Speaker 1: so ridiculous that you kind of have to. Like I 105 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:36,880 Speaker 1: just watched that movie con Versus Godzilla. Totally realistic science 106 00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:42,400 Speaker 1: in every aspect of each character and special effect, especially 107 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:45,880 Speaker 1: the gravity in version, very realistic, totally center of the 108 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:48,719 Speaker 1: Earth right. Put some sort of sun in there. I 109 00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:51,679 Speaker 1: don't know, it wasn't quite clear, but you know, flying 110 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:54,280 Speaker 1: King Kong, who doesn't want to see that with an 111 00:05:54,279 --> 00:05:56,359 Speaker 1: axe that glows. That was a lot of fun. I 112 00:05:56,400 --> 00:05:58,679 Speaker 1: also enjoyed that movie, and I was able to turn 113 00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:00,920 Speaker 1: off my science brain and just sit back and say, 114 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:03,960 Speaker 1: show me the monsters fighting for me. I really enjoy 115 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:06,000 Speaker 1: a movie or a TV show where I don't have 116 00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:08,320 Speaker 1: to turn off my science brain, but where the science 117 00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:10,599 Speaker 1: is part of the plot, like where they have a 118 00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:14,120 Speaker 1: scientific mystery and they are trying to unravel it, or 119 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:16,640 Speaker 1: they're like limited by science in the way that they 120 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:19,400 Speaker 1: can solve a problem. To me, a great example is 121 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:22,839 Speaker 1: The Expanse. The Expanses, this TV show that takes place 122 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:24,400 Speaker 1: in the future, and it's all over the inner and 123 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:27,560 Speaker 1: outer Solar System, and they have lots of real physical constraints, 124 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:29,960 Speaker 1: like you can't just get from here to there really quickly, 125 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:34,200 Speaker 1: or you can't send a message from Earth to Jupiter instantaneously, 126 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:36,520 Speaker 1: and that really plays a role in their lives and 127 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:39,440 Speaker 1: influences the choices they make in a cool strategic way. 128 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:42,120 Speaker 1: So I really enjoy seeing the science play a role 129 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:44,880 Speaker 1: in that show. I hear it's really scientifically acrian when 130 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:47,880 Speaker 1: they throw people off of the airlocks, which apparently happens 131 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:51,120 Speaker 1: more often than they kill characters in Game of Thrones. 132 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:54,760 Speaker 1: That's right, it's basically the space Game of Thrones. Well, 133 00:06:54,800 --> 00:06:58,440 Speaker 1: there are there space dragons, there are aliens, there are monsters, 134 00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaker 1: but there aren't actually space dragons. No, you should write 135 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:03,279 Speaker 1: that one though. There you go. I'll sit in my 136 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:06,000 Speaker 1: CV and promise that you'll get the wait to strength 137 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:08,760 Speaker 1: ratio correct for your space dragons. You bet, I will 138 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:12,560 Speaker 1: accurately engineered space dragons. So those are the kinds of 139 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:14,440 Speaker 1: movies that you like, the ones that are kind of 140 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:16,920 Speaker 1: make scigens realistic or they make it part of the plot. 141 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:18,440 Speaker 1: Is that kind of what you mean? Yeah, And you know, 142 00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:20,520 Speaker 1: I don't have to only watch something that has science, 143 00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:22,560 Speaker 1: and I like movies also with science doesn't play a 144 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:25,239 Speaker 1: big rule in the show etcetera. I saw Wolf Walker's 145 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:28,960 Speaker 1: Last Week with my family, which is beautifully illustrated animated 146 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:31,600 Speaker 1: movie where they draw each frame by hand. Really is 147 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:34,040 Speaker 1: no science in it at all, but you know, gorgeous 148 00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:37,040 Speaker 1: and well told and wonderful characters. So yeah, my family 149 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:38,880 Speaker 1: likes a lot of stuff cool. Well. One of my 150 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:43,080 Speaker 1: favorite science movies is Contact, or maybe my only science 151 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:47,080 Speaker 1: movie is Contact with Jodie Foster. That's a great one. Yeah. Yeah, 152 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:49,840 Speaker 1: it's based on a book written by Carl Sagan and 153 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:52,840 Speaker 1: directed by Robert Szabeikis. It's a good movie overall, and 154 00:07:52,880 --> 00:07:56,760 Speaker 1: it's got aliens and maybe even realistic engineering problems. Super 155 00:07:56,760 --> 00:08:00,360 Speaker 1: realistic I think in terms of kind of like what 156 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:04,040 Speaker 1: it takes to build something and with an international collaboration, 157 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:06,960 Speaker 1: and uh, I thought that was all pretty well done. 158 00:08:07,040 --> 00:08:09,560 Speaker 1: And what it's like to read specs written by aliens 159 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:13,600 Speaker 1: right and solve puzzles like embedded by aliens? Right? Are 160 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:16,080 Speaker 1: these in meters? Are these in inches? What even units? 161 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:18,000 Speaker 1: Are these? Do we make this thing a thousand times 162 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:20,640 Speaker 1: too big? I always thought that was an interesting question 163 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:22,880 Speaker 1: about those specs. Yeah, it's kind of interesting that Carl 164 00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:25,440 Speaker 1: Sagan wrote that. I mean, it's fiction. So he was 165 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:29,000 Speaker 1: an astronomer, but he wrote that piece of fiction, and 166 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:30,920 Speaker 1: and he's sort of tried to put in as much 167 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:33,320 Speaker 1: science as possible, but does sort of get a little 168 00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:35,839 Speaker 1: bit fantastical at the end, Right, yeah, it totally does. 169 00:08:35,920 --> 00:08:38,880 Speaker 1: It starts out very well rooted in the science, how 170 00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:41,560 Speaker 1: you would hear a message from aliens, how you might decodeed, 171 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:43,880 Speaker 1: how you might decide it was from aliens. But then 172 00:08:43,880 --> 00:08:46,520 Speaker 1: of course he felt free to imagine what those aliens 173 00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:49,640 Speaker 1: might be like and their intergalactic transport system and all 174 00:08:49,679 --> 00:08:51,960 Speaker 1: that stuff. It's a great movie. I really encourage everybody 175 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:53,960 Speaker 1: to go ahead and see it. And so one of 176 00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:57,240 Speaker 1: the stars of that movie is Matthew McConaughey, who was 177 00:08:57,280 --> 00:08:59,480 Speaker 1: also an Interstellar. By the way, Daniel, he and I 178 00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:04,320 Speaker 1: are friends. Good, alright, you have him come on the podcast. Alright, alright, alright, 179 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:08,320 Speaker 1: you can wax poetically with random strings of words. But 180 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:10,599 Speaker 1: another one of the stars of that movie is a 181 00:09:10,679 --> 00:09:13,280 Speaker 1: science experiment. So at one point in the movie, Jodie 182 00:09:13,280 --> 00:09:17,280 Speaker 1: Foster is in Puerto Rico and she basically hangs out 183 00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:20,640 Speaker 1: near the Arecibo Observatory. That's right, this is a huge 184 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:24,319 Speaker 1: radio telescope in Puerto Rico that in the movie they 185 00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:27,439 Speaker 1: used to hear the message from aliens and in real 186 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:30,280 Speaker 1: life is a real thing that does real science and 187 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:33,840 Speaker 1: has four decades. Yeah, it's a very big dish and 188 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:36,000 Speaker 1: it has been around for a long time, but it 189 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:40,600 Speaker 1: is no longer around. Something happened to it, unfortunately, and 190 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:43,000 Speaker 1: it is no longer doing science. That's right. The era 191 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:46,440 Speaker 1: of Arecibo is now over, unfortunately. So we thought it'd 192 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:49,920 Speaker 1: be cool to dig into this amazing instrument and a 193 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:52,439 Speaker 1: little bit into the history and also what happened to it, 194 00:09:53,040 --> 00:09:54,839 Speaker 1: So to be on the podcast, we'll be asking the 195 00:09:54,920 --> 00:10:03,680 Speaker 1: question what do we learn from the Arecibo telescope. Yeah, 196 00:10:03,679 --> 00:10:07,360 Speaker 1: this dish really played a huge role in radio telescopes 197 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:10,400 Speaker 1: and also just sort of like the cultural understanding of astronomy. 198 00:10:10,440 --> 00:10:12,840 Speaker 1: It was like, it's such a big thing. I feel 199 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:14,280 Speaker 1: like it must have played a role in lots of 200 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:17,720 Speaker 1: people's lives, and since it recently was destroyer, fell apart, 201 00:10:17,800 --> 00:10:19,160 Speaker 1: it felt like the right time to do sort of 202 00:10:19,160 --> 00:10:21,720 Speaker 1: like a tribute episode to talk about everything we've learned. 203 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:23,920 Speaker 1: And it's a pretty but maybe one of the most 204 00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:28,040 Speaker 1: famous astronomical instruments or radio telescopes in the world. It 205 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:30,240 Speaker 1: was in that movie Contact. I've seen it in other 206 00:10:30,280 --> 00:10:32,600 Speaker 1: movies and it had a big role in the movie 207 00:10:32,679 --> 00:10:35,280 Speaker 1: Golden Eye, one of the James Bond movie. Yeah, except 208 00:10:35,320 --> 00:10:37,280 Speaker 1: they weren't really doing science with it. They were just 209 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:39,560 Speaker 1: sort of like running around and chasing each other and 210 00:10:39,559 --> 00:10:42,560 Speaker 1: shooting each other kapin kaping pretty goofy actually, But yes, 211 00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:44,800 Speaker 1: it was in there, sort of like a backdrop. It 212 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:46,720 Speaker 1: was like a part of the set because it is 213 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:49,760 Speaker 1: a pretty spectacular thing until we'll get into some of 214 00:10:49,800 --> 00:10:52,640 Speaker 1: the specs of it and where it is and how 215 00:10:52,679 --> 00:10:54,959 Speaker 1: they builded. But first we were wondering how many people 216 00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:58,320 Speaker 1: out there had heard of this radio telescope and what 217 00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:00,880 Speaker 1: they thought of it, and specifically what they thought it 218 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:05,600 Speaker 1: has taught us about the universe and aliens. So, as usual, 219 00:11:05,679 --> 00:11:07,880 Speaker 1: Daniel went out there into the wilds of the Internet 220 00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:12,199 Speaker 1: and ask people what do we learn from the RCIBO telescope? 221 00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:14,640 Speaker 1: Thanks to everybody who volunteered, And if you would like 222 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:17,160 Speaker 1: to participate and speculate on a topic you don't know 223 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:20,040 Speaker 1: anything about, or maybe you do, please write to me 224 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:23,120 Speaker 1: two questions at Daniel and Jorge dot com. Here's what 225 00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:25,200 Speaker 1: they had to say, I've not actually heard of that, 226 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:29,760 Speaker 1: so as a complete guest, was it the c If 227 00:11:29,800 --> 00:11:32,840 Speaker 1: the ABO radio telescope is in Spain, then we have 228 00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:37,240 Speaker 1: learned to lisp. Otherwise I have no clue. I don't know. 229 00:11:37,280 --> 00:11:38,840 Speaker 1: I know where telescope it is. I now it's the 230 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:43,880 Speaker 1: one in Porto Rico, that's that's broken, but I have 231 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:47,600 Speaker 1: no idea what it is famous for. Actually, m I 232 00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:51,880 Speaker 1: haven't really heard about it. But since it's a radio telescope, 233 00:11:52,160 --> 00:11:59,559 Speaker 1: maybe some signals from Pulitzer's or something like that is 234 00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:03,640 Speaker 1: what they assume. I'm not really sure about it. I'm 235 00:12:03,679 --> 00:12:06,760 Speaker 1: not sure. I think I think at some point we 236 00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:10,480 Speaker 1: detected a fake response to the Arecibo message that was 237 00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:17,160 Speaker 1: broadcasted into space, but ring guards to what actual scientific 238 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:21,240 Speaker 1: scientific discoveries we made, I have no idea. I don't 239 00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:24,240 Speaker 1: know any one thing we we learned using the Arecibo 240 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:27,199 Speaker 1: radio telescope. But I mean radio telescopes look at things 241 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:30,840 Speaker 1: really really far away, so I guess we learned something 242 00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:34,480 Speaker 1: about something that's really really far away. I think the 243 00:12:34,559 --> 00:12:39,720 Speaker 1: Arecibo radio telescope was used initially to investigate the cosmic 244 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:45,079 Speaker 1: microwave background, but eventually was used for the set investigations. 245 00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:49,000 Speaker 1: I haven't heard about any major breakthrough downe with a recibo, 246 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:51,199 Speaker 1: but I know it was used a little in monitor 247 00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:55,559 Speaker 1: near a small objects like space debates and small miteos 248 00:12:55,679 --> 00:12:59,320 Speaker 1: and commets, and so I'm not even really sure what, Like, 249 00:12:59,360 --> 00:13:01,560 Speaker 1: I've never heard of that telescope, but you know, it 250 00:13:01,559 --> 00:13:05,120 Speaker 1: says radio and it's telescope, so I'm assuming it's probably 251 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:11,559 Speaker 1: something to do with astronomy. Maybe someone was like taking 252 00:13:11,559 --> 00:13:14,679 Speaker 1: a look at like radiation from stars or something, and 253 00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:20,400 Speaker 1: then we found something cool to do with stars. Quite possibly, 254 00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:24,760 Speaker 1: I don't know. All right, it sounds like people knew 255 00:13:24,800 --> 00:13:27,920 Speaker 1: about it, but they didn't know exactly what it had 256 00:13:27,960 --> 00:13:31,000 Speaker 1: done for us. Yeah, exactly. So out there it's famous. 257 00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:34,040 Speaker 1: The name means something to people, but not already really 258 00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:36,640 Speaker 1: knows like what we've learned and what the actual science 259 00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:39,800 Speaker 1: that arisbo can do. Yeah, and so let's get into that. 260 00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:42,280 Speaker 1: But first let's talk about the dish itself. So it's 261 00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:44,320 Speaker 1: it's a big dish, Like that's why they put it 262 00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:47,199 Speaker 1: in movies because it's so impressive. It's like, how how 263 00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:50,640 Speaker 1: wide is this dish? It's a thousand feet wide, So 264 00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:53,120 Speaker 1: it's a really big thing. And remember that this is 265 00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:56,720 Speaker 1: the kind of telescope that collects a huge amount of 266 00:13:56,880 --> 00:14:00,200 Speaker 1: light and then focuses it on a receiver. So it's 267 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:02,559 Speaker 1: sort of like a satellite dishue might have in your 268 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:06,000 Speaker 1: backyard or on your roof, except it's much much bigger, 269 00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:09,200 Speaker 1: so they can collect much much more energy and focus 270 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:11,760 Speaker 1: at all on a central place and gather that information 271 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:14,360 Speaker 1: into a signal for the astronomers. It's just a little 272 00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:16,280 Speaker 1: bit bigger than the one people have in the roofs, 273 00:14:16,960 --> 00:14:21,840 Speaker 1: you know, just a thousand feet that's like three soccer fields, right, Yeah, 274 00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:24,360 Speaker 1: it's a thousand feet wide, and the whole thing weighed 275 00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:28,880 Speaker 1: nine hundred tons, so it's really this massive piece of equipment. 276 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:31,160 Speaker 1: And it's in the middle of Puerto Rica, right, And 277 00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:32,640 Speaker 1: they had to put it out in the middle of nowhere, 278 00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:34,880 Speaker 1: right to avoid noise, So it's like out there in 279 00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:38,080 Speaker 1: the middle of the jungle basically. Yeah, it's out there 280 00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:40,960 Speaker 1: in Puerto Rico. And they had to find the spot, 281 00:14:40,960 --> 00:14:43,480 Speaker 1: as you say, that was sort of quiet, right, It 282 00:14:43,520 --> 00:14:46,840 Speaker 1: wasn't surrounded by microwaves and WiFi and cell phones. But 283 00:14:46,880 --> 00:14:48,320 Speaker 1: they had to find a spot that was sort of 284 00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:51,280 Speaker 1: near a town and in Puerto Rico. They have these 285 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:54,960 Speaker 1: funny rock formations that are almost sort of like natural dishes. 286 00:14:55,080 --> 00:14:57,000 Speaker 1: And so they picked like a bunch of different holes 287 00:14:57,040 --> 00:14:58,600 Speaker 1: in the ground, and they found one that was sort 288 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:00,560 Speaker 1: of close to a city and and sort of far 289 00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:02,840 Speaker 1: away from everything else, and they just like picked one 290 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:05,280 Speaker 1: and built it there. Yeah, and so they basically just 291 00:15:05,360 --> 00:15:08,920 Speaker 1: kind of corrent the ground with a giant dish, right, 292 00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:12,040 Speaker 1: And so I always wonder, like, how does that move? Like, 293 00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:15,120 Speaker 1: if you want to point your telescope somewhere in particular, 294 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:17,320 Speaker 1: how do you move such a giant dish. You don't 295 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:19,640 Speaker 1: move the dish at all. The dish is fixed right 296 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:22,640 Speaker 1: as you say, it's huge. It can't move, it's attached 297 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:24,960 Speaker 1: to the ground. But what you can move is a 298 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:28,360 Speaker 1: little receiver. So to have this platform that actually is 299 00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:31,240 Speaker 1: that's the thing that weighs nine tons and suspended by 300 00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:35,360 Speaker 1: cables above the dish. And so if the platform moves, 301 00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:38,560 Speaker 1: then you're sampling a different focus point. So the dish 302 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:40,880 Speaker 1: itself is not a parabola. Parabola has like a single 303 00:15:40,920 --> 00:15:44,160 Speaker 1: focus point. It's a sphere, and a sphere has lots 304 00:15:44,160 --> 00:15:47,000 Speaker 1: of focus points. So if you move where you're gathering 305 00:15:47,360 --> 00:15:51,120 Speaker 1: the light from then you're basically focusing on a different direction. 306 00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:53,280 Speaker 1: So you move this thing around and you can look 307 00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:54,720 Speaker 1: in this part in the sky or that part in 308 00:15:54,760 --> 00:15:56,960 Speaker 1: the sky. Yeah, because I guess the way these dish 309 00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:59,560 Speaker 1: antenna work is that you have this giant sort of 310 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:02,360 Speaker 1: circule or you know, sort of spherical dish, and that 311 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:05,760 Speaker 1: gets light from space and then that reflects it back 312 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:07,760 Speaker 1: to a single point where you sort of gather it 313 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:10,200 Speaker 1: and collect it. And if it's a parabolog shape, then 314 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:12,960 Speaker 1: all parallel light comes in and focuses at the same point, 315 00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:15,200 Speaker 1: and that's how a lot of telescopes work. But then 316 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:17,280 Speaker 1: to point it in different directions, you have to turn 317 00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:19,520 Speaker 1: the parabola. But this one is a sphere, so it 318 00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:22,080 Speaker 1: doesn't focus all the light at the same point. It 319 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:24,680 Speaker 1: focuses all the light from one direction at one point 320 00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:27,320 Speaker 1: and all the life from another direction at a different point. 321 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:29,760 Speaker 1: And then you can move the platform, the thing that 322 00:16:29,800 --> 00:16:32,440 Speaker 1: actually gathers that light, to decide which light you want 323 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:34,840 Speaker 1: to gather today. So you don't move the dish underneath, 324 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:38,160 Speaker 1: you just move this platform above it that's collecting the light. Yeah, 325 00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:40,240 Speaker 1: it's like in a crane, and then it moves around, 326 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:42,960 Speaker 1: but I guess it still has sort of a limited range, right, 327 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:45,680 Speaker 1: Like you can't point it sideways or you know, do 328 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:48,240 Speaker 1: a full three sixty. You sort of have a limited range. 329 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:50,400 Speaker 1: You have a limited range, and you can't look for example, 330 00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:53,720 Speaker 1: through the Earth or you know, backwards. But the Earth 331 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:55,840 Speaker 1: sweeps around, right, and the Earth moves around the Sun 332 00:16:55,880 --> 00:16:58,200 Speaker 1: and it rotates, and so using that you can get 333 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:01,040 Speaker 1: a pretty good sample of the sky because the Earth 334 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:03,120 Speaker 1: itself is turning. It's sort of like the eye in 335 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:05,399 Speaker 1: the Death Start. You know, you have to wait for 336 00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:07,560 Speaker 1: the Death Start to turn around before they can fire 337 00:17:07,600 --> 00:17:09,720 Speaker 1: on the rebel base. Yeah, and you know, like the 338 00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:12,800 Speaker 1: Eye and the Deaths are. It actually was also motivated 339 00:17:12,840 --> 00:17:18,000 Speaker 1: by military contract. Really, it wasn't science. Originally, it was 340 00:17:18,080 --> 00:17:20,119 Speaker 1: not science. No, it was sold to the U. S. 341 00:17:20,200 --> 00:17:23,119 Speaker 1: Government in order to detect I C b ms in 342 00:17:23,119 --> 00:17:25,760 Speaker 1: the upper atmosphere in the height of the Cold War. 343 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:28,440 Speaker 1: They built this thing in the sixties, back when everybody 344 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:31,680 Speaker 1: was worried about the Soviets nuking US, and we're trying 345 00:17:31,680 --> 00:17:34,280 Speaker 1: to figure out like I would get early warnings of 346 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:37,640 Speaker 1: missiles coming in. So they pitched this to the government 347 00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:39,760 Speaker 1: as like this would be a great way to get 348 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:43,919 Speaker 1: early warning signals from intercontinental ballistic missiles coming at US. 349 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:48,040 Speaker 1: No way, Really, it has its origins in war wow, 350 00:17:48,359 --> 00:17:50,480 Speaker 1: or I guess prevention of war or you know, early 351 00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:52,760 Speaker 1: warning of war. Yeah. Well, you know, a lot of 352 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:56,120 Speaker 1: physics is motivated by defense technology. You know, I grew 353 00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:58,359 Speaker 1: up in Los Almos, New Mexico, so I'm steeped in 354 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:01,200 Speaker 1: this sort of like moral quagmire myself. But a lot 355 00:18:01,240 --> 00:18:02,879 Speaker 1: of times to get something fun and you have to 356 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:05,800 Speaker 1: convince the government that it's important. And sometimes the government 357 00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:08,439 Speaker 1: thinks that defense and military is more important than like 358 00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:11,639 Speaker 1: radio astronomy and unraveling the secrets of the universe. And 359 00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:14,119 Speaker 1: did it also have sort of like construction delays, And 360 00:18:14,359 --> 00:18:16,359 Speaker 1: did Dark Vader have to come in and shape people 361 00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:19,000 Speaker 1: up to get him going? Those grad students disappointed him 362 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:21,719 Speaker 1: for the last time. No, it was built pretty well 363 00:18:21,760 --> 00:18:23,960 Speaker 1: and pretty efficiently, and it's become sort of a point 364 00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:26,840 Speaker 1: of pride for Puerto Rico. And at the time it 365 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:31,000 Speaker 1: was the largest single aperture telescope in the entire world. 366 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:33,600 Speaker 1: The biggest one that existed before that one was only 367 00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:36,320 Speaker 1: two fifty ft wide in Manchester. So this thing just 368 00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:39,320 Speaker 1: like dwarfed everything else when they built it. All right, Well, 369 00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:41,480 Speaker 1: let's get into a little bit more of how they 370 00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:44,240 Speaker 1: builded and why they built it in Puerto Rico, and 371 00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:46,320 Speaker 1: then let's get into the science of it and what 372 00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:50,160 Speaker 1: actually happened to the Risibo telescope. But first let's take 373 00:18:50,200 --> 00:19:06,120 Speaker 1: a quick break alight. We're talking about the r Cebo 374 00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:11,040 Speaker 1: telescope in Puerto Rico at the time, the largest astronomy 375 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:14,359 Speaker 1: telescope in the world, the largest single aperture telescope. You 376 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:17,280 Speaker 1: can make a sort of a larger effective telescope by 377 00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:20,840 Speaker 1: stitching together a bunch of small telescopes and then using 378 00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:23,800 Speaker 1: them together to make like an effectively larger telescope, but 379 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:26,600 Speaker 1: a single aperture telescope, but it's collecting a coherent source 380 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:28,720 Speaker 1: of light. This is the largest one in the world 381 00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:32,520 Speaker 1: at the time I see. Is it still or at 382 00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:34,160 Speaker 1: the time that it was still up, was it's still 383 00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:36,879 Speaker 1: the biggest one? Are there bigger ones now elsewhere? There 384 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:40,040 Speaker 1: actually is now a larger telescope. The current number one 385 00:19:40,040 --> 00:19:43,040 Speaker 1: in the world is a five hundred meter telescope, so 386 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:46,159 Speaker 1: that's about fifteen hundred feet. That's in China. And so 387 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:49,360 Speaker 1: this was built during the Cold War and to detect 388 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:52,280 Speaker 1: nuclear weapons in the atmosphere. And I guess why did 389 00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:54,320 Speaker 1: they build it in Puerto Rico. Well, they wanted it 390 00:19:54,359 --> 00:19:56,600 Speaker 1: to be in the tropics so they could see like 391 00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:59,480 Speaker 1: a larger portion of the sky because, as you say, 392 00:19:59,520 --> 00:20:01,359 Speaker 1: you can't hear it, and so you want this thing 393 00:20:01,359 --> 00:20:03,520 Speaker 1: to be sort of like swinging around and see more 394 00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:05,560 Speaker 1: of the sky if you're like at the North Pole 395 00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:08,240 Speaker 1: always pointing up and you're basically not taking advantage of 396 00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:10,840 Speaker 1: the Earth turning. And they also wanted to study the 397 00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:12,600 Speaker 1: solar system, and so if you're in the tropics and 398 00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:14,600 Speaker 1: you're sweeping around, you can basically get a view of 399 00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:17,000 Speaker 1: the whole solar system at some point. And you know, 400 00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:19,879 Speaker 1: Hawaii and the Philippines were a little too far away. 401 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:23,760 Speaker 1: And there was also one enterprising Puerto Rican grat student 402 00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:27,200 Speaker 1: at Cornell who advocated to put it in Puerto Rico 403 00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:29,400 Speaker 1: because he thought that would be good for Puerto Rico 404 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:32,640 Speaker 1: and Puerto Ricans and science, and so he basically made 405 00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:35,360 Speaker 1: that happen. Wait what really a grad student? Yeah, there 406 00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:38,159 Speaker 1: was an engineer at Cornell, William Gordon, who headed up 407 00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:40,560 Speaker 1: the project. But there was a Puerto Rico grad student 408 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:43,320 Speaker 1: at Cornell who talked to him and influenced him and 409 00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:45,120 Speaker 1: told him all about Puerto Rico and why it would 410 00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:46,800 Speaker 1: be a great place to build this thing and made 411 00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:48,840 Speaker 1: it happen. He's like, think of all that you can 412 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:51,920 Speaker 1: eat when you're there, and all this the sucks of 413 00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:54,920 Speaker 1: dancing you can do at night. It'll be awesome, it'll 414 00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:56,560 Speaker 1: be a good party. Yeah. Well, you know, the United 415 00:20:56,560 --> 00:20:59,560 Speaker 1: States doesn't control that much territory in the Tropics, and 416 00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:01,800 Speaker 1: Hawaii in Philippines, again, we're too far away, and so 417 00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:03,800 Speaker 1: it sort of seemed like a good choice. Cool. So 418 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:06,000 Speaker 1: they sort of found like at the right valley, like 419 00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:07,840 Speaker 1: they had to find like a valley with the right 420 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:11,040 Speaker 1: curvature kind of on it or didn't matter. Yeah, they did. 421 00:21:11,200 --> 00:21:13,280 Speaker 1: And they looked at aerial photographs of Puerto Rico and 422 00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:15,560 Speaker 1: they found like a dozen possibilities of holes in the 423 00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:18,040 Speaker 1: ground that roughly had the dimensions they needed so they 424 00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:21,040 Speaker 1: wouldn't have to construct a free standing dish. And they 425 00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:23,080 Speaker 1: just found one that was close enough to a town 426 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:25,040 Speaker 1: or a city and reduced it to a few And 427 00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:27,280 Speaker 1: then this guy, William Gordon, he just went down there 428 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:28,960 Speaker 1: and looked at them and said, all right, we're building 429 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:31,600 Speaker 1: it here. He planted his engineering flag there. Yeah, it 430 00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:32,960 Speaker 1: was back in the day when there was sort of 431 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:35,160 Speaker 1: like less red tape. You know, during the Cold War, 432 00:21:35,480 --> 00:21:38,240 Speaker 1: the government just wanted to get things done. It wasn't 433 00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:41,199 Speaker 1: so much about like bidding and contracts and review. They 434 00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:42,480 Speaker 1: were just like, here's a pile of money, go and 435 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:44,919 Speaker 1: build a thing. And it didn't mean the decisions were 436 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:46,520 Speaker 1: always the best, but you know, they were made more 437 00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:48,840 Speaker 1: quickly sometimes. All right, So they found this valley and 438 00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:51,639 Speaker 1: then they built the telescope, and I guess what is 439 00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:53,880 Speaker 1: the telescope made out of? Like, how do you make 440 00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:56,520 Speaker 1: a telescope, Like you build the structure, and what is 441 00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:58,679 Speaker 1: the structure made out of? A great question, because what 442 00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:01,760 Speaker 1: it's looking for is light, but not visible light. If 443 00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:03,960 Speaker 1: you build a telescope and visible light, then you need 444 00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:07,240 Speaker 1: like mirrors and lenses, things that can manipulate visible light. 445 00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:10,040 Speaker 1: But here we're looking for radio waves, which is just 446 00:22:10,119 --> 00:22:13,360 Speaker 1: another kind of light. But you need to build your telescope, 447 00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:15,399 Speaker 1: your lenses, and your mirrors out of things that can 448 00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:18,200 Speaker 1: manipulate radio waves. Well, in this case, we just needed 449 00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:19,919 Speaker 1: to be reflecting because it just has to hit the 450 00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:22,919 Speaker 1: dish and bounce off and go to the central platform. 451 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:25,040 Speaker 1: And so for that you just need some kind of metal. 452 00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:27,119 Speaker 1: And so they started out when they first built it, 453 00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:29,359 Speaker 1: it's just like a big wire mesh. But then later 454 00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:33,080 Speaker 1: they replaced it with these perforated aluminum panels. So there's 455 00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:36,560 Speaker 1: thirty nine thousand of these panels, each of which is 456 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:39,760 Speaker 1: like two by one meters that cover this dish. And 457 00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:41,600 Speaker 1: they don't have to be complete, right, you can have 458 00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:44,480 Speaker 1: holes in it. As long as those holes are smaller 459 00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:47,160 Speaker 1: than the wavelength of the light that you're trying to reflect, 460 00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:49,720 Speaker 1: it still works. So the radio waves come in and 461 00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:52,159 Speaker 1: then they hit the metal, the aluminum, and then they 462 00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:54,600 Speaker 1: bounce back. And then they bounce back because any kind 463 00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:58,399 Speaker 1: of conductor does not like to have electromagnetic waves go 464 00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:02,720 Speaker 1: through it. The electrons inside the conductor respond to electromagnetic 465 00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:06,760 Speaker 1: waves and basically repel it. They create the opposite electromagnetic 466 00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:10,639 Speaker 1: field inside themselves to basically reverse it. And so that's why, 467 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:14,280 Speaker 1: for example, silver is a good reflector of visible light also, 468 00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:18,080 Speaker 1: but all sorts of metals and conductors are good reflectors 469 00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:20,800 Speaker 1: of radio waves. That's why, for example, you can't get 470 00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:23,600 Speaker 1: a cell phone signal in an elevator because it's a 471 00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:26,560 Speaker 1: box made out of metal that repels and reflects all 472 00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:29,679 Speaker 1: electromagnetic waves. It's a Faraday cage. Just gave me some 473 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:33,320 Speaker 1: claustrophobia there, although I don't think I've been in an 474 00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:35,600 Speaker 1: elevator for over a year to be honest. Well, if 475 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:37,359 Speaker 1: you're one of those people who puts your cell phone 476 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:40,200 Speaker 1: in a little wire bag so that the government can't 477 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:42,760 Speaker 1: snoop on you, or your wife or your husband can't 478 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,640 Speaker 1: tell where you are, it's the same principle, right, Any 479 00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:48,840 Speaker 1: sort of metal surface or conducting service will not let 480 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:51,960 Speaker 1: electromagnetic radiation through it, will reflect it. And so here 481 00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:54,959 Speaker 1: we're using that same principle to focus those radio waves 482 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:57,680 Speaker 1: into a single point where we can coather them together. Right, 483 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:01,000 Speaker 1: if you're one of those people, not you, not at all. 484 00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:03,680 Speaker 1: I will neither confirm nor deny. I think they actually 485 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:08,320 Speaker 1: tracked me through my molars. You have bionic molars or something? 486 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:11,280 Speaker 1: Five G? I got five G through my molars. Oh nice, 487 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:13,199 Speaker 1: You know that was an option? You think you have 488 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:15,120 Speaker 1: to check that box? I know, and now I pay 489 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:18,520 Speaker 1: every single month every time you chew your fitbit tracks. 490 00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:21,080 Speaker 1: You're you're chewing too. That's an email thing. I'm eating 491 00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:24,720 Speaker 1: too much, or at least chewing too much. She tries smoothies. 492 00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:27,080 Speaker 1: But anyways, so they're perforated panels, and I guess that's 493 00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:29,480 Speaker 1: good because it's a giant bowl in the tropics, so 494 00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:31,840 Speaker 1: when it rains, it doesn't get filled up with water. 495 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:35,000 Speaker 1: It's basically a huge astronomy calendar, right, like if you 496 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:37,159 Speaker 1: have a massive bowl of noodles, you could use air 497 00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:39,680 Speaker 1: c boat is sort of like stream that will be 498 00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:42,480 Speaker 1: the next King Kong versus going to the movie. But 499 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:44,760 Speaker 1: we gotta feed King Kong noodles? What do we do? 500 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:47,760 Speaker 1: Let's good to Puerto Rico. Maybe King Kong makes lunch 501 00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:50,800 Speaker 1: for Godzilla and he's looking for a calendar, and that's 502 00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:53,960 Speaker 1: the only one you can find. It's not cong versus Godzilla. 503 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,879 Speaker 1: Is Cang cooks for Godzilla? Or Godzilla is a conspiracy 504 00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:01,120 Speaker 1: theorist and doesn't want the government to listen to his thoughts, 505 00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:03,720 Speaker 1: so he uses the dish to sort of protect his brain, 506 00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:06,119 Speaker 1: like a calander. He picks it up and puts it 507 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:08,840 Speaker 1: on his head. Yeah, like a tinfoil hat sort of. Well, 508 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:10,640 Speaker 1: he is being tracked by the government, so I can 509 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:13,840 Speaker 1: totally see that it's good advice. Godzilla, listen to me. 510 00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:16,119 Speaker 1: All right, well, let's talk about some of the signs 511 00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:19,359 Speaker 1: now that the telescope has done over the years. And 512 00:25:19,359 --> 00:25:21,879 Speaker 1: it does radio astronomy, he said, that's like a wavelength 513 00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:24,040 Speaker 1: of light. Is it like a higher wavelength or a 514 00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:28,040 Speaker 1: lower wavelength. It's very very long wavelength, so low frequency 515 00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:31,240 Speaker 1: light radio waves are below the frequency that we can 516 00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:34,240 Speaker 1: see with our eyes. They're very very long frequencies, and 517 00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:36,639 Speaker 1: it's sort of a niche field in astronomy. Most of 518 00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:41,040 Speaker 1: astronomy is like visible light or maybe infrared or X ray, 519 00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:43,560 Speaker 1: and radio astronomy has for a long time been like 520 00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:45,840 Speaker 1: a bit of a backwater, you know. It was invented 521 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:49,359 Speaker 1: sort of accidentally in the thirties by somebody listening for 522 00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:52,720 Speaker 1: radio interference because they were trying to pass telephone calls 523 00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:55,239 Speaker 1: across the Atlantic. And then for a while, like the 524 00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:57,680 Speaker 1: only radio telescope in the world was one built by 525 00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:00,800 Speaker 1: a random guy, a volunteer who's is excited about it 526 00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:03,880 Speaker 1: and built a huge radio edition his backyard, and so 527 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:07,640 Speaker 1: as of nineteen sixty, like radio astronomy was really a 528 00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,240 Speaker 1: fringe field, which is why I probably couldn't get millions 529 00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:13,200 Speaker 1: of dollars from the government to build a huge radio telescope, 530 00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:16,280 Speaker 1: but they did. And radio astronomy is fascinating and it 531 00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:18,399 Speaker 1: can tell us different things about what's out there in 532 00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:21,520 Speaker 1: the universe than visible lights, because different things emit in 533 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,200 Speaker 1: the radio than they do in the visible light. Yeah, 534 00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:26,320 Speaker 1: I guess you know. When like a star explodes or 535 00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:29,080 Speaker 1: a star shines, or something happens in space, it happens 536 00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:31,320 Speaker 1: in all frequencies of light, not just the kind that 537 00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:34,520 Speaker 1: we can see exactly. But the temperature of those things 538 00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:38,160 Speaker 1: also determines what frequency they emit at. Hotter things tend 539 00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:40,919 Speaker 1: to emit at higher frequencies and lower wavelengths, so like 540 00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:45,040 Speaker 1: X rays, for example, come from accretion disks near black holes, 541 00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,600 Speaker 1: whereas infrared light comes from like planets and clouds of 542 00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:51,359 Speaker 1: dust that are cold and don't actually glow in the 543 00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:54,399 Speaker 1: visible light. And so radio waves are even longer, so 544 00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:56,800 Speaker 1: they tell us about like cold or more distant things. 545 00:26:56,920 --> 00:26:59,520 Speaker 1: They also weirdly tell us about black holes, because black 546 00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:02,159 Speaker 1: holes emit like all over the place, and that's actually 547 00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:04,000 Speaker 1: how we discover that there was a black hole the 548 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:06,640 Speaker 1: center of our galaxy. Is that the first radio astronomy. 549 00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:09,040 Speaker 1: We ever did was we heard a huge radio signal 550 00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:10,840 Speaker 1: from the sky that turned out to be from the 551 00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:13,359 Speaker 1: center of the galaxy. And now we know that's coming 552 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:15,760 Speaker 1: from a black hole. So the sky in the radio 553 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,080 Speaker 1: looks different from the sky in the visible And I 554 00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:21,720 Speaker 1: think radio waves also travel further, right, because they're longer, 555 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:24,040 Speaker 1: they don't get sort of deviated by little tiny bits 556 00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:26,440 Speaker 1: in space. Yes, because their wave things are so long, 557 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:30,280 Speaker 1: they're not as deflected by huge clouds of gas and dust. So, 558 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:31,720 Speaker 1: as you say, we can use them to sort of 559 00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:34,760 Speaker 1: like see deeper into the center of the galaxy for 560 00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:36,719 Speaker 1: that reason, and we can also sort of look at 561 00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:41,120 Speaker 1: our own planet and study things like climate and the atmosphere. Right. Yeah, 562 00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:43,680 Speaker 1: we can tell like the composition of the upper atmosphere 563 00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:46,639 Speaker 1: by bouncing signals off of it and all sorts of stuff. 564 00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:48,560 Speaker 1: We used it to also like study like the Van 565 00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:51,399 Speaker 1: Allen radiation belts, remember we talked about that once. Just 566 00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:53,879 Speaker 1: by sending signals up into those belts and seeing like 567 00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:56,440 Speaker 1: how they bounce back, we can tell what's there. Yeah, 568 00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:58,360 Speaker 1: And it can tell you about the atmosphere and other 569 00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:01,119 Speaker 1: planets too. Yeah. Absolutely, we've used it to like map 570 00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:04,159 Speaker 1: Venus and Mercury because air CBO was super awesome and 571 00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:07,080 Speaker 1: unique in another way because it's not only able to 572 00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:10,520 Speaker 1: receive messages, but he can send messages. So we can 573 00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:14,000 Speaker 1: like shoot radio waves out at Mercury and see how 574 00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:16,640 Speaker 1: they bounce back, or shoot them at Venus and see 575 00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:19,080 Speaker 1: how they bounce back, and I can tell us something 576 00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:21,960 Speaker 1: about like the surface of those planets and the atmosphere 577 00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:27,600 Speaker 1: of those planets. Wait, what we've been shooting radiation at 578 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:31,760 Speaker 1: other planets? We have using the rctelscope. Yes, we have, 579 00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:33,879 Speaker 1: well you know, it's just radio waves. So like we 580 00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:36,679 Speaker 1: broadcast a lot of stuff in the radio. Our civilization 581 00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:39,920 Speaker 1: is very very noisy in radio, but using rac but 582 00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:43,360 Speaker 1: we have specifically sent messages out into space, sometimes to 583 00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:46,040 Speaker 1: probe other planets. Also sometimes just to say hello to 584 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:52,040 Speaker 1: the aliens, like who they're or you up new phone? 585 00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:56,240 Speaker 1: Who did? We send a message in four to M 586 00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:59,120 Speaker 1: thirty one, which a cluster about twenty five thousand light 587 00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:01,800 Speaker 1: years away, and it describes sort of life on Earth 588 00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:03,880 Speaker 1: and how it works and what we look like and 589 00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:06,120 Speaker 1: where we are. And that was the message and we 590 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:08,800 Speaker 1: just hope maybe somebody got it and doesn't come and 591 00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:13,560 Speaker 1: kill it. Yeah, here's hoping. But thirty one, what was there? Well, 592 00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:15,800 Speaker 1: we don't know if anything is there, but we got 593 00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:18,760 Speaker 1: a signal from that direction in the sky a few 594 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:21,480 Speaker 1: years before. It's called the Wow signal. It was this 595 00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:25,160 Speaker 1: weird blip of energy that came in and nobody understood 596 00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:26,880 Speaker 1: what it was about or what it meant, and it 597 00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:29,360 Speaker 1: was never repeated, so it's a sort of weird event 598 00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,720 Speaker 1: that we've never really understood. It's a powerful signal that 599 00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:35,480 Speaker 1: sort of looks exactly like what you might expect to 600 00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:37,720 Speaker 1: see if aliens send us a message, but we don't 601 00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:39,800 Speaker 1: know if there's any information in there. It was very 602 00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:43,080 Speaker 1: short and it was never repeated, so we never really understood. 603 00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:45,200 Speaker 1: So we just thought, hey, let's just shoot a message 604 00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:47,200 Speaker 1: back in the space in the direction that that message 605 00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:50,080 Speaker 1: came from and see what happens. We used the OURCIBL 606 00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:52,280 Speaker 1: telescope to send that message. We did. We used air 607 00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:55,960 Speaker 1: CBO exactly, so it's sort of like our interplanetary telephone. 608 00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:00,720 Speaker 1: And we've also used the telescope to look for other planets, 609 00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:03,360 Speaker 1: right exo planets. Yes. In fact, one of the very 610 00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:08,000 Speaker 1: first discoveries of an exo planet was made by Aricibo. 611 00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:10,600 Speaker 1: Now these days, we're discovering extra planets all the time 612 00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:14,080 Speaker 1: using this method called the transit method, where basically a 613 00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:17,600 Speaker 1: planet like eclipses the star of the other Solar system 614 00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:20,440 Speaker 1: and dips its light a tiny amount, and we can 615 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:22,720 Speaker 1: use that to detect that that planet is there. For 616 00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:25,920 Speaker 1: the first discovery of an extra planet comes from Aricibo 617 00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:29,160 Speaker 1: because it was listening to a pulsar. A pulsar, remember, 618 00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:32,080 Speaker 1: is a neutron star, so like after a star has burned, 619 00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:34,640 Speaker 1: it collapses down to a really dense little object. And 620 00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:37,560 Speaker 1: if it's also spinning really fast and shooting beams out 621 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:40,160 Speaker 1: of its poles, then they call that a pulsar because 622 00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:42,800 Speaker 1: as it spins, it sweeps out a message across the 623 00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:45,200 Speaker 1: sky and we see these pulses. So it's a really 624 00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:49,040 Speaker 1: dense planet emitting these pulses sometimes in the radio and 625 00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:51,600 Speaker 1: so ari Sebo can listen to these pulses. And there 626 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:54,160 Speaker 1: was this one pulse that had a planet around it, 627 00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:56,520 Speaker 1: and as that planet went around, it tugged on the 628 00:30:56,560 --> 00:30:59,520 Speaker 1: pulsar and change the frequency of the signals it was 629 00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:02,400 Speaker 1: sending those pulses, and air Sebo could pick that up. 630 00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:04,360 Speaker 1: And this is the first clue we had that there 631 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:10,360 Speaker 1: actually were planets around other stars. This is wow, that's huge, right, Yeah, 632 00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:13,240 Speaker 1: that was a big deal. This telescope detected the first 633 00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:16,840 Speaker 1: ever planet outside of our Solar system. That's a luge, 634 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:20,280 Speaker 1: you know, accomplishment in milestone for humanity. Absolutely, it was 635 00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:23,120 Speaker 1: really exciting. And now because we have better telescopes and 636 00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:25,920 Speaker 1: we studied that same system in gory detail, we now 637 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:28,840 Speaker 1: know that there are actually three planets around that pulsar, 638 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:32,000 Speaker 1: and they're all really closely packed into this crazy pulsar. 639 00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:34,400 Speaker 1: One of them is really tiny, it's like two percent 640 00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:36,600 Speaker 1: of the mass of the Earth. But two other planets 641 00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:39,320 Speaker 1: around this pulsar are four times the mass of the Earth. 642 00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:42,120 Speaker 1: But they're all like within half the radius of the 643 00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:44,560 Speaker 1: Earth's orbit. So it's a pretty crazy system. And yeah, 644 00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:46,840 Speaker 1: aero Sebol gets the gold medal for being the first 645 00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:50,440 Speaker 1: discovery of an exoplanet. Wow, it's pretty cool. Were they 646 00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:52,440 Speaker 1: looking for that on purpose or they just happened to 647 00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:56,080 Speaker 1: notice this weird pulsar kind of wiggling strangely, that's a 648 00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:58,280 Speaker 1: great question. I'm not sure, but you know, I'm sure 649 00:31:58,320 --> 00:32:01,600 Speaker 1: that they saw this pulsar they saw doing weird things 650 00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:04,520 Speaker 1: and somebody had a broad idea thinking, whatever, we could 651 00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:07,720 Speaker 1: use this to detect a planet around that pulsar, And 652 00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:09,960 Speaker 1: that's the method we use all the time now because 653 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:13,760 Speaker 1: it's very powerful. We can see sometimes planets around pulsars 654 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:18,240 Speaker 1: in other galaxies using this message. Because pulsars are so 655 00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:20,800 Speaker 1: regular and so precise that we can see very small 656 00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:24,040 Speaker 1: deviations in their pulses when a planet moves around them. Well, 657 00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:26,680 Speaker 1: it's amazing. All right, let's get into a little bit 658 00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:29,400 Speaker 1: more of what cool science a Recibo has done, and 659 00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:31,920 Speaker 1: also what happened to it and why it went down 660 00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:34,720 Speaker 1: some years ago. But first let's take another quick break. 661 00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:51,160 Speaker 1: All right, we're talking about the RCIBO telescope in Puerto Rico. 662 00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:54,400 Speaker 1: To shout out to Puerto Ricans. Have you been to 663 00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:56,680 Speaker 1: Puerto Rico? I have not, no, but I've known a 664 00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:58,960 Speaker 1: lot of Puerto Ricans. But yeah, it's a pretty cool 665 00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:01,160 Speaker 1: dish in Puerto Rico, and it's huge, and it's been 666 00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:03,120 Speaker 1: doing signs for a long time, and right before it 667 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:05,960 Speaker 1: went down, it was helping us study big threats to 668 00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:08,760 Speaker 1: the Earth too, Right, yes, absolutely. Air Sebo is sort 669 00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:10,960 Speaker 1: of like a giant radar dish, so it can tell 670 00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:14,000 Speaker 1: us about asteroids or meteors or comets that are coming 671 00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:16,800 Speaker 1: near the Earth. And so it got its funding in 672 00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:20,440 Speaker 1: its last days by looking for near Earth objects and 673 00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:22,600 Speaker 1: trying to understand are they going to hit the Earth? 674 00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,600 Speaker 1: How big are they, how shiny are they? This kind 675 00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:27,920 Speaker 1: of stuff. Yeah, that's a big deal because if we 676 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,160 Speaker 1: don't see an asteroid coming, it could be coming right 677 00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:32,160 Speaker 1: out of us. Yeah, we think we know where most 678 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:34,560 Speaker 1: of those are, but there could always be surprises and 679 00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:37,200 Speaker 1: nonlinear effects when like two asteroids getting near each other 680 00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:39,800 Speaker 1: and perturb each other. So it's very important. They were 681 00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:42,840 Speaker 1: constantly scanning the skies and we don't have that many 682 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:45,560 Speaker 1: devices that can do this, and air Sebo was very helpful, 683 00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:48,160 Speaker 1: and so we could like bounce radio waves off an 684 00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:51,400 Speaker 1: asteroid and tell you, like exactly how fast it's spinning 685 00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:54,280 Speaker 1: or exactly how big it was, And so this is 686 00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:56,440 Speaker 1: really powerful and this is one of my favorite parts 687 00:33:56,440 --> 00:34:00,560 Speaker 1: that actually helped us study biology and plants to Yeah, 688 00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:03,960 Speaker 1: you know, biologists are very creative folks. And they discovered 689 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:07,760 Speaker 1: that this created sort of an accidental experiment because they 690 00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:10,920 Speaker 1: were interested in weather. Plans could grow in the shade 691 00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:14,080 Speaker 1: in Puerto Rico and here's a huge dish under which 692 00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:17,080 Speaker 1: they could actually crawl and study. Like the dish itself 693 00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:19,680 Speaker 1: isn't just laying flat on the ground. There are supports 694 00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:22,120 Speaker 1: so you can get underneath there and ask questions about 695 00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:25,040 Speaker 1: like you know, canned plants grow under a dish where 696 00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:27,200 Speaker 1: water can drip through but not a lot of light 697 00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:29,200 Speaker 1: gets it. It's pretty cool. Yeah, so sort of like 698 00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:32,440 Speaker 1: change the micro ecology of that one little hole in 699 00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:35,080 Speaker 1: the ground. And also nobody could tell what those plants 700 00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:39,920 Speaker 1: were thinking because they were shielded by from radio waves, 701 00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:43,080 Speaker 1: that's right. But most importantly, air Cebo was really important 702 00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:45,880 Speaker 1: in data that was used to make a discovery that 703 00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:50,000 Speaker 1: won a Nobel Prize. Oh no, kidding, what was it discovered? Well, again, 704 00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:52,640 Speaker 1: it was a study of pulsars because air Cibo was 705 00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:54,600 Speaker 1: really good at seeing these things. And there was a 706 00:34:54,600 --> 00:34:57,319 Speaker 1: grad student there who was studying these pulsars and he 707 00:34:57,400 --> 00:35:00,160 Speaker 1: accidentally found a system that had two pulse s are 708 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:03,240 Speaker 1: so two of them orbiting around each other. And actually 709 00:35:03,280 --> 00:35:05,919 Speaker 1: saw him presented his research ones and he talked about 710 00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:07,840 Speaker 1: the day that he found this thing and he almost 711 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:10,319 Speaker 1: very nearly through this thing in the trash because it 712 00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:12,239 Speaker 1: looked weird. To him, But then he decided to dig 713 00:35:12,239 --> 00:35:14,319 Speaker 1: into a little bit, and it turns out it was 714 00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,920 Speaker 1: in fact two pulsars, which is really interesting and important 715 00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:21,520 Speaker 1: because it lets you measure something about general relativity. If 716 00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:24,920 Speaker 1: two pulsars are orbiting each other, then they're slowly falling 717 00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:27,480 Speaker 1: in towards each other, the way like two black holes 718 00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:30,200 Speaker 1: stirred each other in or two neutron stars. And these 719 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:33,560 Speaker 1: days we know that those things emit gravitational waves because 720 00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:36,560 Speaker 1: we've seen the gravitational waves. But back then in the seventies, 721 00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:40,759 Speaker 1: we couldn't see gravitational waves. But to see binary pulsars 722 00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:43,959 Speaker 1: slowly moving towards each other was suggestive of the fact 723 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,799 Speaker 1: that they were emitting gravitational waves. So they made a 724 00:35:46,840 --> 00:35:50,359 Speaker 1: really precise measurement of these binary pulsars showing that they 725 00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:53,960 Speaker 1: were moving towards each other exactly as general relativity predicted, 726 00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:58,359 Speaker 1: and that one the Nobel Prize. No kidding, like, back 727 00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:01,319 Speaker 1: before we could even possibly even detect gravitational ways, we 728 00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:04,000 Speaker 1: could prove that they existed. This was sort of indirect 729 00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:06,200 Speaker 1: evidence that they existed because the energy had to be 730 00:36:06,239 --> 00:36:08,880 Speaker 1: going somewhere. This showed that these two things were falling 731 00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:11,560 Speaker 1: in towards each other and were likely emitting energy. They 732 00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:14,360 Speaker 1: didn't detect the gravitational ways themselves, but it had to 733 00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:17,600 Speaker 1: be going somewhere. So this was like really nice, solid 734 00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:21,160 Speaker 1: but indirect proof of gravitational waves. And I saw actually 735 00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:23,160 Speaker 1: talked by this guy. He was a grad student. He 736 00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:25,600 Speaker 1: made this discovery and sort of nobody paid attention for 737 00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:28,560 Speaker 1: a while, and he actually didn't get a faculty position anywhere. 738 00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:31,240 Speaker 1: He was working like in computing in the physics department, 739 00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:34,120 Speaker 1: and then boom, out of the blue, Nobel Prize and 740 00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:36,600 Speaker 1: Princeton calls him up and they were like, so would 741 00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:39,719 Speaker 1: you like one office or two offices? So you know, 742 00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:41,840 Speaker 1: it sort of like a big change in fate for 743 00:36:41,880 --> 00:36:44,239 Speaker 1: this one grad student to win the Nobel Prize based 744 00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:47,239 Speaker 1: on his pH d thesis years later, Right, yeah, big change. 745 00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:49,680 Speaker 1: He could have been a rich telecom executive by now, 746 00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:54,560 Speaker 1: but now he's stuck in some office. Yeah. I don't 747 00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:56,600 Speaker 1: think we need to feel any sympathy for it, all right, Well, 748 00:36:56,719 --> 00:36:59,400 Speaker 1: it sounds like the receival telescope in Puerto Rico. It 749 00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:02,880 Speaker 1: has had a pretty illustrious scientific career. It's like that 750 00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:07,120 Speaker 1: the firs binary pulse are discovered ice poles and mercury 751 00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:10,480 Speaker 1: and other planets, and detected the first ever planet outside 752 00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:13,319 Speaker 1: of our Solar System. And it's done all these amazing things, 753 00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:16,160 Speaker 1: but it's no longer in service right in fact, it 754 00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:19,120 Speaker 1: is not. And one problem is that it's sort of 755 00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:21,600 Speaker 1: old and it's been around for a long long time, 756 00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:25,520 Speaker 1: and NSF has this sort of strategy to like make 757 00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:28,120 Speaker 1: room for new, big projects. What they do often is 758 00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:31,240 Speaker 1: sort of cut old projects, even if those old projects 759 00:37:31,239 --> 00:37:33,800 Speaker 1: are still producing good science and everybody loves them and 760 00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:36,640 Speaker 1: they're doing good things and they're even like promoting diversity 761 00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:39,320 Speaker 1: and science. Still they're sort of like not as exciting 762 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:42,480 Speaker 1: as a new shining project. And so in the two thousands, 763 00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:45,920 Speaker 1: NSF started to make budget cuts for Puerto Rico, delaying 764 00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:48,520 Speaker 1: maintenance and support and this kind of stuff to make 765 00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:51,320 Speaker 1: room for all their exciting new projects. So that started 766 00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:53,680 Speaker 1: kind of in the two thousands, right in the two thousands, 767 00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:55,520 Speaker 1: and then they really have to like stitch the money 768 00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:57,960 Speaker 1: together that keeps the place running. And that's when they 769 00:37:57,960 --> 00:38:00,759 Speaker 1: started to do these asteroid studies, which Congress said was 770 00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:02,640 Speaker 1: really important. So now to give him a few million 771 00:38:02,680 --> 00:38:04,839 Speaker 1: bucks a year to keep ARISI, we're running if they 772 00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:07,640 Speaker 1: could like monitor for asteroids, but it was always sort 773 00:38:07,640 --> 00:38:09,719 Speaker 1: of like you know, on a shoe string. And at 774 00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:11,200 Speaker 1: the end there they were like relying on a lot 775 00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:13,560 Speaker 1: of clever engineers because they didn't have a lot of money, 776 00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:15,440 Speaker 1: and so every time something broke they had to like 777 00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:18,440 Speaker 1: sort of rig something up mcgever style. They couldn't just 778 00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:23,400 Speaker 1: like go buy something little duct tape, yeah, little superglue yeah. 779 00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:25,080 Speaker 1: And when you get to that phase of an experiment, 780 00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:27,840 Speaker 1: you sort of know that, like any big blow, it 781 00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:29,840 Speaker 1: might be the death of your experiment because you just 782 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:32,000 Speaker 1: can't recover from it. And so it started to lose 783 00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:35,040 Speaker 1: funding and started to not get maintained as well, which 784 00:38:35,080 --> 00:38:38,000 Speaker 1: I guess needed not as useful. Then at the same time, right, yeah, 785 00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:40,160 Speaker 1: people were still doing great science with it. They were 786 00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:42,080 Speaker 1: able to keep this thing going and it was still 787 00:38:42,160 --> 00:38:45,319 Speaker 1: collecting data. Like the dish itself was still in great shape. Really, 788 00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:48,200 Speaker 1: the issue is this platform, right, this platform is a 789 00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:53,719 Speaker 1: huge nine ton steerable thing hovering over the dish supported 790 00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:57,440 Speaker 1: by cables, and that's a little precarious, and the instruments 791 00:38:57,440 --> 00:38:59,480 Speaker 1: on it also need to be kept up and running. 792 00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:01,600 Speaker 1: You need to be able to position it precisely and 793 00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:03,879 Speaker 1: move it back and forth. And so that was really 794 00:39:03,880 --> 00:39:07,120 Speaker 1: sort of the weakness the Achilles heel of aritebo. Yeah, 795 00:39:07,239 --> 00:39:10,319 Speaker 1: and then something happened, unfortunately, and then something happened. You know, 796 00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:13,960 Speaker 1: everybody was really worried during Hurricane Maria, of course for 797 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:16,960 Speaker 1: all the Puerto Ricans, but also for this dish, because 798 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:20,279 Speaker 1: like a huge hurricane seems like bad news when you've 799 00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:23,880 Speaker 1: suspended a nine hundred ton object on cables above your dish, 800 00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:26,880 Speaker 1: but it actually survived, like it passed through herricame Aria 801 00:39:27,040 --> 00:39:29,319 Speaker 1: no problem. So that was like a huge sort of 802 00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:33,160 Speaker 1: astronomical global sigh of relief. But a couple of years 803 00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:35,840 Speaker 1: later and there was this long series of earthquakes in 804 00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:39,759 Speaker 1: Puerto Rico, and those really damaged the supporting structures that 805 00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:42,719 Speaker 1: held up those cables, and then one day things just 806 00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:45,120 Speaker 1: kind of snapped. Things just kind of snapped. Exactly in 807 00:39:45,160 --> 00:39:49,160 Speaker 1: August of twenty twenty, one of those cables failed because 808 00:39:49,160 --> 00:39:51,080 Speaker 1: you know, the cables are getting old, and as the 809 00:39:51,080 --> 00:39:53,640 Speaker 1: tower sort of leaning the wrong direction, the stresses get 810 00:39:53,640 --> 00:39:56,759 Speaker 1: greater and greater, and so the first cable snapped and 811 00:39:56,800 --> 00:39:59,360 Speaker 1: it left this like hundred foot gash in the dish 812 00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:02,120 Speaker 1: and could still work. You know, the dish works by 813 00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:05,160 Speaker 1: reflecting the light to the center. Doesn't really matter if 814 00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:06,880 Speaker 1: you have like one scratch and it. It's sort of 815 00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:09,040 Speaker 1: like if you're looking through a telescope. Somebody can put 816 00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:10,960 Speaker 1: their hands sort of in front of the telescope and 817 00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:13,359 Speaker 1: you might not even notice because you're gathering light from 818 00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:16,200 Speaker 1: lots of different directions. So even though this one cable 819 00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:19,719 Speaker 1: failed in in August, they thought, well, this isn't the 820 00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:22,080 Speaker 1: death knell. And the NFF actually said all right, you 821 00:40:22,120 --> 00:40:24,480 Speaker 1: guys can fix it. Here's some money to fix it. 822 00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:27,560 Speaker 1: So people thought, oh, yeah, areco was gonna survive. Yeah, 823 00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:29,560 Speaker 1: and so they fixed it. But then what happened, Well, 824 00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:31,880 Speaker 1: they were planning to fix it and they were working 825 00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:34,920 Speaker 1: on like organizing those repairs, and then in November of 826 00:40:34,960 --> 00:40:38,600 Speaker 1: that year, a second cable broke and they thought, all right, well, 827 00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:41,359 Speaker 1: this is it. We can't repair two cables. And so 828 00:40:41,440 --> 00:40:46,359 Speaker 1: then it was November the NFF decided Air Cbo, thank 829 00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:49,200 Speaker 1: you for all your contributions to science. We're done. They 830 00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:52,360 Speaker 1: didn't think it was worth repairing anymore. Yeah, that was 831 00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:54,440 Speaker 1: sort of goodbye to air ce Bo. And then just 832 00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:57,520 Speaker 1: a couple of weeks later, these two remaining cables that 833 00:40:57,600 --> 00:41:00,640 Speaker 1: were holding up this whole platform by themselves, they snapped 834 00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:04,000 Speaker 1: and the whole platform fell into the dish, just like 835 00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:06,640 Speaker 1: in Golden Eye, Just like in Golden Eye, and it 836 00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:09,319 Speaker 1: shadowed the dish. And there's video of this, like because 837 00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:12,200 Speaker 1: they have obviously cameras monitoring it, and so you can 838 00:41:12,239 --> 00:41:15,040 Speaker 1: go online you can see this video. But I know 839 00:41:15,080 --> 00:41:17,600 Speaker 1: that a lot of air Cebo scientists feel very emotional 840 00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:20,600 Speaker 1: about that dish. You know, it's like generations span, Like 841 00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:22,359 Speaker 1: you could have done your pH d there and then 842 00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:25,439 Speaker 1: have your PhD students get their degrees on that dish. 843 00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:27,440 Speaker 1: And people love that place, and so I know that 844 00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:29,840 Speaker 1: a lot of folks who worked there refused to watch 845 00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:32,080 Speaker 1: that video. It's like triggering for them. It's like a 846 00:41:32,160 --> 00:41:34,960 Speaker 1: giant platform that just fell on the dish and through 847 00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,960 Speaker 1: the dish kind of right, It's pretty catastrophic. Yeah, you'd 848 00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:40,480 Speaker 1: have to rebuild the whole thing from scratch. The dishes destroyed, 849 00:41:40,520 --> 00:41:43,600 Speaker 1: the platform is destroyed, cables are destroyed, like everything is 850 00:41:43,640 --> 00:41:46,160 Speaker 1: just toast. It's it's just a huge mess. Just add 851 00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:48,280 Speaker 1: that to the long list of terrible things that happened 852 00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:52,160 Speaker 1: in exactly We're glad you're behind us, all right, but 853 00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:54,560 Speaker 1: it has an amazing legacy behind it, and you know, 854 00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:58,759 Speaker 1: thousands of papers and Masters thesis and PhD thesis and 855 00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:01,600 Speaker 1: amazing discovery and so we are hats off to you. 856 00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:03,880 Speaker 1: I receive what telescope. Absolutely thank you for all your 857 00:42:03,880 --> 00:42:07,080 Speaker 1: contributions and for teaching us so much about the universe. 858 00:42:07,560 --> 00:42:10,440 Speaker 1: And it's not the end for radio astronomy, maybe not 859 00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:12,720 Speaker 1: even the end for radio astronomy in the United States. 860 00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:15,000 Speaker 1: People are out there proposing sort of like the next 861 00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:19,279 Speaker 1: generation ARISBO, a bigger, better telescope that would be even 862 00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:21,840 Speaker 1: larger dish and could teach us even more because it 863 00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:24,719 Speaker 1: could capture signals that come from even further away and 864 00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:27,319 Speaker 1: so they're even fainter when they get here. Yeah, they're 865 00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:31,040 Speaker 1: proposing a bigger dishes, right, like half a billion dollar dishes, Yes, 866 00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:33,799 Speaker 1: half a billion dollar dishes. And who knows, you know, 867 00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:35,640 Speaker 1: if we can spend billions of dollars on this, and 868 00:42:35,800 --> 00:42:38,359 Speaker 1: maybe we can also spend billions of dollars looking at 869 00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:40,879 Speaker 1: the sky and listening for messages. Just film the next 870 00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:44,160 Speaker 1: Avengers movie on your experiment, and that will pay for itself. 871 00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:46,759 Speaker 1: Probably that's true. What would you rather have one more 872 00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:52,799 Speaker 1: Avengers movie or a huge radio telescope? Don't answer, that 873 00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:55,400 Speaker 1: depends what if you can get like King Kong in 874 00:42:55,440 --> 00:43:00,680 Speaker 1: there too versus the Adventures. Yeah, if that would fund it, 875 00:43:00,719 --> 00:43:02,480 Speaker 1: that's what they should do. They should write a script 876 00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:06,600 Speaker 1: that requires the construction of a huge scientific device just 877 00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:09,120 Speaker 1: as a prop for the movie, and then afterwards they 878 00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:11,839 Speaker 1: could actually use it. Yeah, get Dan Brown to write 879 00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:16,560 Speaker 1: dad feature the Avengers, King Kong and Godzilla, and make 880 00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:19,480 Speaker 1: sure it has Matthew McConaughey on it, and you're all set. 881 00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:23,160 Speaker 1: This is our new plan for funding science, for saving science. 882 00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:25,960 Speaker 1: All right, Well, thank you to all the scientists I 883 00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:28,560 Speaker 1: worked on Arasibo and who made that happen. We really 884 00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:31,839 Speaker 1: appreciate it and we hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks 885 00:43:31,880 --> 00:43:42,760 Speaker 1: for joining us, See you next time. Thanks for listening, 886 00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:45,520 Speaker 1: and remember that Daniel and Jorge explained. The Universe is 887 00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:48,960 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast for 888 00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:52,839 Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 889 00:43:52,960 --> 00:44:00,880 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. No