1 00:00:02,990 --> 00:00:13,500 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, 2 00:00:13,540 --> 00:00:15,460 Speaker 1: welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name is 3 00:00:15,500 --> 00:00:15,940 Speaker 1: Robert Lamb. 4 00:00:16,710 --> 00:00:19,290 Speaker 2: And I'm Joe McCormick. And today we're back with part 5 00:00:19,350 --> 00:00:23,729 Speaker 2: two in our series on the planet Mercury. Mercury is, 6 00:00:23,790 --> 00:00:26,560 Speaker 2: of course, the innermost planet in our solar system, also 7 00:00:26,620 --> 00:00:30,440 Speaker 2: the smallest and the fastest moving, hence its association with 8 00:00:30,540 --> 00:00:35,300 Speaker 2: a wing-footed messenger. In the previous episode, we talked about 9 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:39,730 Speaker 2: some basic physical aspects of Mercury, its density, its moonlessness, 10 00:00:39,810 --> 00:00:44,870 Speaker 2: its extremely thin exosphere, the extremes of heat and cold 11 00:00:44,930 --> 00:00:47,730 Speaker 2: across its day and night. And we also talked about 12 00:00:47,790 --> 00:00:52,430 Speaker 2: the rather surprising fact that under certain imaging conditions, Mercury 13 00:00:52,450 --> 00:00:55,160 Speaker 2: has a tail like a comet. Bet you hadn't heard that. 14 00:00:56,340 --> 00:00:59,500 Speaker 2: After that, we talked at length about the god Mercury 15 00:00:59,580 --> 00:01:04,680 Speaker 2: from Roman mythology and his many jobs. Fleet-footed messenger, patron 16 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:08,270 Speaker 2: of trade and commerce, thievery. You can throw some greasy 17 00:01:08,330 --> 00:01:09,170 Speaker 2: wrestling in there. 18 00:01:09,190 --> 00:01:11,150 Speaker 1: Shining wrestling, wasn't it? 19 00:01:11,230 --> 00:01:16,300 Speaker 2: Gleaming, yeah. The he of gleaming wrestling. And we got 20 00:01:16,380 --> 00:01:20,240 Speaker 2: into some of the thematic associations between Mercury and, of course, 21 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:24,520 Speaker 2: the Greek Hermes, a very similar god covering some similar territory, 22 00:01:25,180 --> 00:01:28,750 Speaker 2: and the planet itself. We're back today to talk about more. 23 00:01:29,310 --> 00:01:31,589 Speaker 1: That's right. And by the time we're done with this series, 24 00:01:31,630 --> 00:01:34,670 Speaker 1: I think you should know whether or not you want 25 00:01:34,730 --> 00:01:38,610 Speaker 1: to go there. I think you'll have your mind made up. 26 00:01:38,670 --> 00:01:42,229 Speaker 1: So before we jump into what I think is a 27 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:45,319 Speaker 1: really cool angle about the surface of Mercury— I thought 28 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:48,780 Speaker 1: it might be helpful to provide just a short overview 29 00:01:48,900 --> 00:01:52,560 Speaker 1: of our exploration of Mercury in the modern era with 30 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:55,250 Speaker 1: a focus on the probes and also a look at 31 00:01:55,530 --> 00:01:57,690 Speaker 1: why it is difficult to get to Mercury. 32 00:01:58,930 --> 00:02:02,670 Speaker 2: Absolutely. This is something people might not appreciate, but traveling 33 00:02:02,730 --> 00:02:05,640 Speaker 2: to Mercury is not easy, and not just in the 34 00:02:05,660 --> 00:02:08,780 Speaker 2: sense that traveling anywhere in space is not easy. Of course, 35 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:12,500 Speaker 2: it takes a lot of planning and technology and science 36 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:15,120 Speaker 2: and math to get anywhere in the solar system and 37 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:18,760 Speaker 2: line up your trajectories right and actually achieve, you know, 38 00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:22,540 Speaker 2: orbit around another body in the solar system. But getting 39 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:27,780 Speaker 2: to Mercury is especially hard, even though Mercury is relatively 40 00:02:27,940 --> 00:02:30,670 Speaker 2: close to Earth. And when I say getting there is 41 00:02:30,710 --> 00:02:34,169 Speaker 2: especially hard, I mean, if you're talking about actually entering 42 00:02:34,410 --> 00:02:36,890 Speaker 2: orbit or landing on the planet. So if you're talking 43 00:02:36,950 --> 00:02:40,440 Speaker 2: about like going to Mercury and staying there. That is 44 00:02:40,500 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 2: especially hard. It's arguably the hardest planet in our solar 45 00:02:45,620 --> 00:02:48,359 Speaker 2: system to get to. Now, why would that be, even 46 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:52,290 Speaker 2: though it's relatively close to us? The answer is, once again, 47 00:02:52,410 --> 00:02:56,550 Speaker 2: the Sun. Mercury lies within the reach of that dreadful 48 00:02:56,630 --> 00:03:00,810 Speaker 2: sword of the Sun, gravitationally speaking. And so as a 49 00:03:01,010 --> 00:03:05,080 Speaker 2: spacecraft travels closer to the Sun to reach the orbit 50 00:03:05,100 --> 00:03:08,610 Speaker 2: of Mercury, it it is accelerated by the sun's gravity. 51 00:03:08,650 --> 00:03:12,540 Speaker 2: And it also begins with the orbital energy of its 52 00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:15,620 Speaker 2: origin point of earth, you know, earth traveling around in 53 00:03:15,660 --> 00:03:20,120 Speaker 2: this higher orbit around the sun. So a craft traveling 54 00:03:20,139 --> 00:03:23,340 Speaker 2: to sort of match speed with Mercury to intersect with 55 00:03:23,419 --> 00:03:26,120 Speaker 2: it and go into orbit around it needs to find 56 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:29,690 Speaker 2: a way to shed a lot of orbital energy on 57 00:03:29,750 --> 00:03:33,169 Speaker 2: the way. And that's not easy to do. Yeah. Yeah. 58 00:03:33,650 --> 00:03:35,720 Speaker 1: Now, I know from our notes here, Joe, that you're 59 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:38,530 Speaker 1: about to refer to some content that has to do 60 00:03:38,630 --> 00:03:44,530 Speaker 1: with the Beppe Colombo mission. This is a current mission 61 00:03:44,570 --> 00:03:47,450 Speaker 1: to Mercury, a joint mission between the European Space Agency 62 00:03:47,930 --> 00:03:51,950 Speaker 1: and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, consisting of, I believe, 63 00:03:51,990 --> 00:03:56,820 Speaker 1: two different orbiters, launched in 2018. It's set to arrive 64 00:03:56,860 --> 00:04:00,680 Speaker 1: this November, 2026, after, I believe, an eight-year journey and 65 00:04:00,820 --> 00:04:05,470 Speaker 1: nine planetary gravity assists. And after orbital insertion, it's going 66 00:04:05,490 --> 00:04:08,400 Speaker 1: to study the planet's magnetic sphere, among other things. 67 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:12,480 Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to mention BepiColombo because their web 68 00:04:12,540 --> 00:04:15,540 Speaker 2: presence has a very good mission explainer article called Why 69 00:04:15,580 --> 00:04:18,420 Speaker 2: Does It Take So Long to Get to Mercury? So 70 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:22,080 Speaker 2: to quote from this, talking a bit about the physics involved, quote, 71 00:04:22,500 --> 00:04:26,159 Speaker 2: the laws of physics dictate that the spacecraft's total orbital 72 00:04:26,260 --> 00:04:29,100 Speaker 2: energy will stay the same unless we find a way 73 00:04:29,140 --> 00:04:32,930 Speaker 2: to shed some. Reducing the part of orbital energy related 74 00:04:32,990 --> 00:04:36,850 Speaker 2: to the distance from the sun automatically increases the part 75 00:04:36,930 --> 00:04:41,210 Speaker 2: related to speed by the same amount. Consequently, as the 76 00:04:41,250 --> 00:04:45,190 Speaker 2: spacecraft gets closer to the sun, it begins to speed 77 00:04:45,390 --> 00:04:49,600 Speaker 2: up like a car driving downhill. So, yeah, you've got 78 00:04:49,620 --> 00:04:53,880 Speaker 2: this problem. As a spacecraft leaves Earth, it comes from Earth, 79 00:04:53,940 --> 00:04:57,480 Speaker 2: so it inherits Earth's orbital energy going around in this 80 00:04:57,520 --> 00:05:01,099 Speaker 2: higher orbit. And then if it wants to go into 81 00:05:01,140 --> 00:05:04,240 Speaker 2: a lower orbit around the sun, it will be accelerated 82 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:06,420 Speaker 2: as it does so. So if you just make a 83 00:05:06,520 --> 00:05:09,230 Speaker 2: beeline straight for Mercury, by the time you get there, 84 00:05:09,310 --> 00:05:13,690 Speaker 2: your spacecraft will be going way, way too fast to 85 00:05:13,730 --> 00:05:18,250 Speaker 2: be captured by Mercury's gravity and enter orbit. So spacecraft 86 00:05:18,270 --> 00:05:21,020 Speaker 2: that want to get to Mercury and stay there, get 87 00:05:21,060 --> 00:05:23,870 Speaker 2: there at a more manageable speed, have to find some 88 00:05:23,950 --> 00:05:28,730 Speaker 2: way to perform massive braking maneuvers to counteract the incredible 89 00:05:28,770 --> 00:05:32,270 Speaker 2: acceleration that occurs on the way to Mercury's orbit. So 90 00:05:32,290 --> 00:05:35,450 Speaker 2: they have to slow down a lot. Now, you might 91 00:05:35,490 --> 00:05:37,850 Speaker 2: think this would be easy. Just fire the retro rockets, right? 92 00:05:38,570 --> 00:05:42,630 Speaker 2: Just put the retro rockets firing now. But unfortunately, the 93 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:46,620 Speaker 2: amount of chemical rocket fuel that would be required to 94 00:05:46,810 --> 00:05:50,860 Speaker 2: slow down enough to gently enter orbit around Mercury is 95 00:05:51,490 --> 00:05:55,930 Speaker 2: would probably be prohibitive. It would be hard to leave 96 00:05:56,110 --> 00:05:58,609 Speaker 2: Earth with the amount of fuel, the weight in the 97 00:05:58,670 --> 00:06:02,770 Speaker 2: fuel that you would need to retro-rocket that much. So 98 00:06:02,910 --> 00:06:07,290 Speaker 2: missions that actually want to inter-orbit around Mercury, or hypothetically 99 00:06:07,310 --> 00:06:12,090 Speaker 2: in the future, land safely, missions like MESSENGER and BepiColombo, 100 00:06:12,150 --> 00:06:14,560 Speaker 2: which we'll talk more about in a minute, they typically 101 00:06:14,620 --> 00:06:18,960 Speaker 2: have to perform a complicated series of gravity maneuvers, gravity 102 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:22,130 Speaker 2: assists from planets. So they have to go around the 103 00:06:22,190 --> 00:06:26,690 Speaker 2: Sun multiple times over the course of many years using 104 00:06:26,750 --> 00:06:31,510 Speaker 2: planets like Earth, Venus, and Mercury itself to iteratively step 105 00:06:31,630 --> 00:06:35,680 Speaker 2: down their velocity multiple times until they are finally going 106 00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:39,419 Speaker 2: slow enough to slide into orbit around Mercury. But Mariner 107 00:06:39,420 --> 00:06:41,440 Speaker 2: 10 didn't have to do this because it didn't go 108 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:44,000 Speaker 2: into orbit around the planet. It stayed in orbit around 109 00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:47,610 Speaker 2: the Sun, just imaging Mercury during rapid flybys. 110 00:06:48,260 --> 00:06:52,040 Speaker 1: Yeah, the Mariner 10 flybys would have been 74 and 75, 111 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:56,050 Speaker 1: NASA mission. This was the first spacecraft to, I guess 112 00:06:56,060 --> 00:06:58,809 Speaker 1: you could say, visit Mercury, with, again, the caveat that 113 00:06:59,210 --> 00:07:02,369 Speaker 1: it's kind of staying next door. And then this mission 114 00:07:02,450 --> 00:07:06,890 Speaker 1: mapped some 45% of the planet's surface and made some 115 00:07:06,970 --> 00:07:10,850 Speaker 1: key discoveries about its magnetic field. Prior to that, I 116 00:07:10,890 --> 00:07:13,680 Speaker 1: should mention that we did have some pre-probe breakthroughs in 117 00:07:13,690 --> 00:07:17,050 Speaker 1: sort of the modern observational era. The transit of Mercury 118 00:07:17,090 --> 00:07:21,170 Speaker 1: was first observed by telescope in 1631. And Earth-based radar 119 00:07:21,210 --> 00:07:24,530 Speaker 1: was used in 1965 to map the planet's rotation. 120 00:07:25,030 --> 00:07:28,500 Speaker 2: And there have been modern discoveries about Mercury made from 121 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:30,680 Speaker 2: Earth-based imaging as well, right? Yeah, yeah. 122 00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:36,300 Speaker 1: Like another one is 1991. Another Earth-based radar breakthrough came 123 00:07:36,340 --> 00:07:39,810 Speaker 1: in the form of revealing that there was highly reflective 124 00:07:39,990 --> 00:07:43,650 Speaker 1: areas to be found inside shadowed craters on Mercury. They 125 00:07:43,690 --> 00:07:47,380 Speaker 1: provided strong evidence of water ice. And then we get 126 00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:51,180 Speaker 1: to the era of MESSENGER. So we have a couple 127 00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:54,160 Speaker 1: of phases of this. So first of all, MESSENGER launches 128 00:07:54,180 --> 00:07:59,420 Speaker 1: August 3rd, 2004, and it ends up conducting three flybys 129 00:07:59,460 --> 00:08:04,470 Speaker 1: of Mercury between 2008 and 2009 before it finally achieves 130 00:08:04,590 --> 00:08:07,290 Speaker 1: orbital insertion. This would have been, and then the orbital 131 00:08:07,350 --> 00:08:12,410 Speaker 1: mission is 2011 through 2015. Once inserted in orbit, MESSENGER 132 00:08:12,470 --> 00:08:16,350 Speaker 1: completes the imaging of the planet's surface that Mariner 10 started. 133 00:08:16,830 --> 00:08:20,150 Speaker 1: It also confirms the presence of water ice, as well 134 00:08:20,230 --> 00:08:24,520 Speaker 1: as the planet's iron core nature, along with other revelations. 135 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:27,460 Speaker 1: We'll probably get into some of these as we proceed. 136 00:08:28,060 --> 00:08:30,739 Speaker 1: Researchers end up squeezing as much as possible. 137 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:31,020 Speaker 2: Out of the orbiter. 138 00:08:31,300 --> 00:08:33,560 Speaker 1: The full story of the orbiter is pretty amazing. When 139 00:08:33,580 --> 00:08:37,460 Speaker 1: you hear about people, you know, leagues upon leagues away, 140 00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:41,030 Speaker 1: you know, cosmic distances away, And they're still making minor 141 00:08:41,050 --> 00:08:44,050 Speaker 1: adjustments to how these things are functioning and what resources 142 00:08:44,070 --> 00:08:46,190 Speaker 1: they're using up. They squeeze all they can get out 143 00:08:46,230 --> 00:08:48,719 Speaker 1: of this before crashing the orbiter into the surface of 144 00:08:48,740 --> 00:08:50,410 Speaker 1: the planet, April 30th, 2015. 145 00:08:50,410 --> 00:08:56,600 Speaker 2: And the messenger probe got a lot more juice than 146 00:08:56,660 --> 00:09:00,540 Speaker 2: was originally bargained for. Like, uh, I think, I don't 147 00:09:00,559 --> 00:09:02,839 Speaker 2: remember the term of the original mission. I think it 148 00:09:02,860 --> 00:09:05,119 Speaker 2: was like a year or something, you know, expecting to 149 00:09:05,140 --> 00:09:06,880 Speaker 2: get a year of observations out of it. And it 150 00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:10,010 Speaker 2: was many years actually. So so it turned out to 151 00:09:10,030 --> 00:09:11,770 Speaker 2: be very successful. Yeah. 152 00:09:11,830 --> 00:09:15,830 Speaker 1: Anytime I hear these stories about people on Earth squeezing 153 00:09:15,870 --> 00:09:17,750 Speaker 1: more out of these probes, I mean, it almost makes 154 00:09:17,770 --> 00:09:19,750 Speaker 1: you want to ask, like, is there an elf aboard? 155 00:09:19,950 --> 00:09:22,230 Speaker 1: Is there some sort of like a little guy that 156 00:09:22,270 --> 00:09:25,270 Speaker 1: they're communicating with to get like because they're amazing that 157 00:09:25,320 --> 00:09:29,300 Speaker 1: they're able to do such amazing things, you know, despite 158 00:09:29,340 --> 00:09:32,599 Speaker 1: the distance and despite like the the aging nature of 159 00:09:32,640 --> 00:09:33,559 Speaker 1: a lot of this technology? 160 00:09:34,110 --> 00:09:38,150 Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. Sometimes you wonder, do they have inverse gremlins? Yeah. 161 00:09:38,650 --> 00:09:40,929 Speaker 2: Though other stories kind of make you think that the 162 00:09:40,970 --> 00:09:42,230 Speaker 2: bad gremlins are at work. 163 00:09:42,450 --> 00:09:42,910 Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah. 164 00:09:43,470 --> 00:09:47,010 Speaker 2: Another interesting thing regarding the dreadful sword of the sun, 165 00:09:47,429 --> 00:09:50,710 Speaker 2: last time we were talking about the extreme thermal environment 166 00:09:50,750 --> 00:09:56,690 Speaker 2: of Mercury, which is, when we talk about the burning 167 00:09:56,770 --> 00:09:59,670 Speaker 2: heat of Mercury, it is true that the surface of 168 00:09:59,750 --> 00:10:03,030 Speaker 2: Mercury is burning but it's weird to imagine because it 169 00:10:03,100 --> 00:10:05,530 Speaker 2: is not a kind of heat that we are used 170 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:08,300 Speaker 2: to on earth all the heat that we're used to 171 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:13,360 Speaker 2: experiencing is heat within a fluid medium like heat within 172 00:10:13,380 --> 00:10:16,199 Speaker 2: a liquid or gas medium like hot air or hot 173 00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:21,309 Speaker 2: water uh so of course, Mercury is without a significant atmosphere. 174 00:10:21,330 --> 00:10:24,530 Speaker 2: So there's nothing, you know, there's no hot air to 175 00:10:24,570 --> 00:10:27,870 Speaker 2: touch your skin. Instead, the sources of heat on the 176 00:10:27,910 --> 00:10:31,740 Speaker 2: surface of Mercury are direct radiation from the sun above, 177 00:10:31,920 --> 00:10:36,699 Speaker 2: which is extreme, and also radiation back from the hot ground. 178 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:39,140 Speaker 2: And of course, I guess, conduction from the hot ground, 179 00:10:39,179 --> 00:10:41,260 Speaker 2: if you're touching it, the surface of the planet is 180 00:10:41,300 --> 00:10:45,840 Speaker 2: a frying pan. So this comes actually back into the 181 00:10:45,860 --> 00:10:50,920 Speaker 2: design of the The probe had to have, for one thing, 182 00:10:50,990 --> 00:10:54,370 Speaker 2: a ceramic cloth sunshade to protect it directly from the 183 00:10:54,390 --> 00:10:56,650 Speaker 2: sun's rays. So the sun-facing side of it has this 184 00:10:58,730 --> 00:11:04,090 Speaker 2: shade that's protecting its instruments. But also, the spacecraft had 185 00:11:04,150 --> 00:11:07,710 Speaker 2: to protect itself from radiation coming off of the rocky 186 00:11:07,770 --> 00:11:11,250 Speaker 2: surface of the planet itself. And it did this with 187 00:11:11,490 --> 00:11:16,580 Speaker 2: a clever tactic, which was a highly elliptical orbit. So 188 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:21,160 Speaker 2: instead of orbiting in like a near circle, MESSENGER went 189 00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:24,880 Speaker 2: around Mercury in a very long oval shape so that 190 00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:28,060 Speaker 2: it could get close and study the planet in one 191 00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:30,670 Speaker 2: part of its orbit. But then another big part of 192 00:11:30,710 --> 00:11:34,310 Speaker 2: its orbit would be getting way farther away and getting 193 00:11:34,410 --> 00:11:37,610 Speaker 2: distance from the pan so it could cool off. Oh, wow. 194 00:11:38,150 --> 00:11:39,790 Speaker 2: I think that was not the only reason. Like, I 195 00:11:39,809 --> 00:11:42,250 Speaker 2: think it was also just convenient for how it was 196 00:11:42,330 --> 00:11:44,880 Speaker 2: orbitally inserted that it would have this long elliptical orbit. 197 00:11:45,220 --> 00:11:48,260 Speaker 2: But that was useful because it would allow this cooling 198 00:11:48,340 --> 00:11:50,950 Speaker 2: off period, getting away from the heat element. 199 00:11:52,030 --> 00:11:55,170 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy all the different tactics that have to 200 00:11:55,210 --> 00:11:57,850 Speaker 1: be employed. I mean, really, to get a craft or 201 00:11:57,870 --> 00:12:02,080 Speaker 1: a probe anywhere. But Mercury brings with it special problems. 202 00:12:02,130 --> 00:12:04,200 Speaker 2: It would say. Yeah. 203 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:07,960 Speaker 1: So these are the missions that have actually flown. There 204 00:12:07,980 --> 00:12:13,350 Speaker 1: have been various proposed missions over time. Landers have also 205 00:12:13,390 --> 00:12:16,930 Speaker 1: been proposed by both NASA and the Russian Space Agency. 206 00:12:17,790 --> 00:12:20,860 Speaker 1: The NASA proposed lander is, I think, unnamed. It's just 207 00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:24,080 Speaker 1: kind of out there as an idea. And then Mercury 208 00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:29,000 Speaker 1: P is the mission that is proposed within the Russian 209 00:12:29,020 --> 00:12:32,020 Speaker 1: Space Agency. And I think that one's been delayed a bit, 210 00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:35,880 Speaker 1: but is, I think, more imminent based on current planning. 211 00:12:36,420 --> 00:12:39,360 Speaker 1: But nothing has come to fruition in these projects, if 212 00:12:39,420 --> 00:12:43,290 Speaker 1: realized at all. are at least years away, if not, 213 00:12:43,309 --> 00:12:47,630 Speaker 1: in some cases, decades away from actually happening. And, you know, 214 00:12:47,650 --> 00:12:51,640 Speaker 1: the lander challenge is a tantalizing one, not only because 215 00:12:51,660 --> 00:12:54,839 Speaker 1: of the additional scientific data to potentially be obtained via 216 00:12:54,900 --> 00:12:57,620 Speaker 1: direct contact with the surface of the planet, but it's 217 00:12:57,679 --> 00:13:00,380 Speaker 1: also the only one of the rocky inner planets that 218 00:13:00,420 --> 00:13:03,880 Speaker 1: we haven't put a lander on. Not counting Earth, of course. 219 00:13:03,900 --> 00:13:06,709 Speaker 1: You know, we're already here. We don't have to. It 220 00:13:06,730 --> 00:13:08,870 Speaker 1: would be ridiculous to send up a lander and then 221 00:13:08,929 --> 00:13:09,970 Speaker 1: land it right back on the Earth. 222 00:13:10,490 --> 00:13:13,449 Speaker 2: But we have actually landed on Venus. That's the thing 223 00:13:13,470 --> 00:13:17,790 Speaker 2: you can forget sometimes. We haven't put a rover on Venus. Right. 224 00:13:18,570 --> 00:13:21,990 Speaker 2: And we haven't put anything on Venus that's survived very long. 225 00:13:22,710 --> 00:13:24,790 Speaker 2: But yeah, we have put landers down on Venus and 226 00:13:24,809 --> 00:13:27,550 Speaker 2: they've sent back some very eerie, haunting looking pictures of 227 00:13:27,630 --> 00:13:31,410 Speaker 2: just ground and rocks and a creepy horizon. Yeah. 228 00:13:31,790 --> 00:13:44,020 Speaker 1: Yeah. So given all of this, it should also come 229 00:13:44,059 --> 00:13:46,660 Speaker 1: as no surprise that the idea of manned missions to 230 00:13:46,700 --> 00:13:49,800 Speaker 1: Mercury have largely been the stuff of science fiction. And 231 00:13:49,820 --> 00:13:51,980 Speaker 1: I'll be coming back to that science fiction later on 232 00:13:52,040 --> 00:13:55,720 Speaker 1: in our discussion of Mercury. There's at least one, however 233 00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:59,280 Speaker 1: frequently cited NASA paper from the 60s that mentions the 234 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:03,300 Speaker 1: possibility of manned travel. But this is not a paper, 235 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:06,250 Speaker 1: I was looking at it earlier today, and it's not 236 00:14:06,260 --> 00:14:10,610 Speaker 1: a paper concerned with the biological nuts and bolts of this. Um, and, uh, 237 00:14:10,630 --> 00:14:13,250 Speaker 1: you know, the title of the paper is minimal energy 238 00:14:13,270 --> 00:14:17,220 Speaker 1: ballistic trajectories for manned and unmanned missions. So, um, it's, 239 00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:19,739 Speaker 1: it very much sticks to that title. It's concerned with, uh, 240 00:14:20,140 --> 00:14:22,640 Speaker 1: with sort of the, the math and the energy economy 241 00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:25,760 Speaker 1: of getting things to and from, uh, Mercury. It's not, 242 00:14:26,060 --> 00:14:28,260 Speaker 1: not really about like all the other problems that you 243 00:14:28,300 --> 00:14:29,580 Speaker 1: would have to figure out if you were going to 244 00:14:29,620 --> 00:14:30,820 Speaker 1: actually bring people there. 245 00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:31,520 Speaker 2: Yeah. 246 00:14:31,780 --> 00:14:34,380 Speaker 1: So it basically, it's a difficult to reach world and 247 00:14:34,400 --> 00:14:38,590 Speaker 1: a very hostile one, um, Far more effort has gone 248 00:14:38,970 --> 00:14:42,730 Speaker 1: into considering possible manned missions to, of course, Mars and 249 00:14:42,930 --> 00:14:46,350 Speaker 1: even Venus, as we've discussed before. Again, you'd have to 250 00:14:46,650 --> 00:14:50,650 Speaker 1: take into account extreme velocity, the heat, the radiation, and 251 00:14:50,740 --> 00:14:53,640 Speaker 1: for what. You know, it's ultimately a much better job 252 00:14:53,680 --> 00:14:56,160 Speaker 1: for a probe, and we're still figuring out the best 253 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:58,820 Speaker 1: way to get a probe. I mean, we're still figuring 254 00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:00,780 Speaker 1: out the best way to get a lander there. We 255 00:15:00,820 --> 00:15:02,280 Speaker 1: know how to get a probe, and, you know, we've 256 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:06,180 Speaker 1: only sent a few of those to Mercury. But if 257 00:15:06,230 --> 00:15:09,650 Speaker 1: we were to land on the innermost planet, what might 258 00:15:09,690 --> 00:15:12,610 Speaker 1: we check out? You have a pretty fascinating example of, 259 00:15:12,850 --> 00:15:14,150 Speaker 1: you know, I don't know if it's like top of 260 00:15:14,190 --> 00:15:18,770 Speaker 1: the list for any kind of like surface exploration, but 261 00:15:18,830 --> 00:15:20,650 Speaker 1: I was pretty taken aback by the images. 262 00:15:20,930 --> 00:15:23,290 Speaker 2: Well, yeah, the images from above are amazing. It's one 263 00:15:23,310 --> 00:15:24,950 Speaker 2: of those things where I don't know if it would 264 00:15:25,010 --> 00:15:28,260 Speaker 2: look as amazing on the ground as it does from above. 265 00:15:28,340 --> 00:15:29,880 Speaker 2: From the ground, it might just be a bunch of, 266 00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:34,260 Speaker 2: you know, weird deep valleys and ditches. But I'll explain. 267 00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:38,479 Speaker 2: So I actually got interested in talking about Mercury in 268 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:42,990 Speaker 2: the first place because of a bizarre looking surface feature 269 00:15:43,090 --> 00:15:45,970 Speaker 2: that I came across a picture of. It's actually not 270 00:15:45,990 --> 00:15:48,970 Speaker 2: just one feature, sort of multiple features combined into one. 271 00:15:49,550 --> 00:15:51,110 Speaker 2: If you'd like to look it up yourself while we're 272 00:15:51,130 --> 00:15:53,120 Speaker 2: talking about it, you can do an image search for 273 00:15:53,180 --> 00:15:55,960 Speaker 2: the spider of Mercury, or you can look up the 274 00:15:56,060 --> 00:15:59,680 Speaker 2: term Pantheon Fossi. So this would be spelled like the 275 00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:04,670 Speaker 2: word Pantheon and then F-O-S-S-A-E. For those who can't look 276 00:16:04,690 --> 00:16:06,630 Speaker 2: it up, I'm going to describe it. And then, Rob, 277 00:16:06,670 --> 00:16:08,369 Speaker 2: I'm going to start us kind of zoomed out and 278 00:16:08,410 --> 00:16:10,580 Speaker 2: then walk us down closer and closer. You can look 279 00:16:10,620 --> 00:16:13,420 Speaker 2: at the images I have in the outline. So imagine 280 00:16:13,500 --> 00:16:16,920 Speaker 2: you are looking down from orbit at the gray-brown surface 281 00:16:16,940 --> 00:16:21,960 Speaker 2: of Mercury. And in one of Mercury's hemispheres, there is 282 00:16:22,020 --> 00:16:27,260 Speaker 2: an enormous, roughly circular depression. This is known as the 283 00:16:27,340 --> 00:16:31,830 Speaker 2: Caloris Basin, the hot bowl. The Caloris Basin is a 284 00:16:31,990 --> 00:16:35,250 Speaker 2: huge impact crater, one of the biggest in the solar system. 285 00:16:35,310 --> 00:16:37,960 Speaker 2: Not the biggest, but one of the biggest. It is 286 00:16:38,010 --> 00:16:41,740 Speaker 2: more than 1,500 kilometers in diameter. It's something like the 287 00:16:41,780 --> 00:16:45,000 Speaker 2: distance from New York to North Florida. Yikes. And a 288 00:16:45,100 --> 00:16:48,560 Speaker 2: lot of the basin's interior, if you look at it, 289 00:16:48,860 --> 00:16:53,040 Speaker 2: it's relatively smooth compared to the rest of the planet's surface, 290 00:16:53,620 --> 00:16:57,370 Speaker 2: in part because it seems the basin was flooded with 291 00:16:57,450 --> 00:17:00,790 Speaker 2: volcanic lava before. after it formed, and this kind of 292 00:17:00,870 --> 00:17:04,690 Speaker 2: paved over some pre-existing texture. But you can also see 293 00:17:04,830 --> 00:17:08,190 Speaker 2: smaller craters within the bigger crater, which have been made 294 00:17:08,310 --> 00:17:12,820 Speaker 2: since the lava flood. However, if you look near the 295 00:17:12,859 --> 00:17:15,160 Speaker 2: middle of the hot bowl, not in exactly the middle, 296 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:17,840 Speaker 2: but kind of near the middle of it, there is 297 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:23,379 Speaker 2: a really weird and amazing looking texture that a giant 298 00:17:23,660 --> 00:17:29,540 Speaker 2: network of converging lines. These are troughs or big ditches 299 00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:33,699 Speaker 2: or valleys in the planet's surface, which extend out in 300 00:17:33,859 --> 00:17:39,330 Speaker 2: every direction from a central point. So imagine like an asterisk, 301 00:17:39,430 --> 00:17:42,810 Speaker 2: but with many more lines running parallel. It's not just 302 00:17:42,970 --> 00:17:45,550 Speaker 2: one middle and then lines radiating straight from the middle. 303 00:17:45,630 --> 00:17:50,030 Speaker 2: It's got a sort of series of parallel lines going 304 00:17:50,109 --> 00:17:51,990 Speaker 2: out from this generally middle area. 305 00:17:52,480 --> 00:17:56,340 Speaker 1: Yeah, kind of like spokes on a wheel, right? Or 306 00:17:56,420 --> 00:17:59,139 Speaker 1: some sort of like a crazy Art Deco Christmas star. 307 00:17:59,580 --> 00:18:04,030 Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. So you imagine many shallow canyons running out 308 00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:08,270 Speaker 2: parallel from a central area, like wrinkles converging or like 309 00:18:08,310 --> 00:18:13,250 Speaker 2: a spider's web. And then almost but not exactly at 310 00:18:13,310 --> 00:18:16,350 Speaker 2: the center of this converging network of troughs, there is 311 00:18:16,490 --> 00:18:19,179 Speaker 2: another crater about, this is a little more than 40 312 00:18:19,180 --> 00:18:23,510 Speaker 2: kilometers wide in reality, with a mountainous peak rising at 313 00:18:23,570 --> 00:18:29,370 Speaker 2: its center. So it's just a very cool-looking feature. This 314 00:18:29,410 --> 00:18:32,429 Speaker 2: was captured for the first time by the Mercury Dual 315 00:18:32,570 --> 00:18:35,950 Speaker 2: Imaging System of the MESSENGER mission during a flyby in 316 00:18:36,030 --> 00:18:40,770 Speaker 2: January 2008. And the science team initially named the network 317 00:18:40,790 --> 00:18:45,390 Speaker 2: of troughs The Spider, but later it got an official name. 318 00:18:45,430 --> 00:18:48,080 Speaker 2: You can argue about whether this is an upgrade or 319 00:18:48,119 --> 00:18:50,540 Speaker 2: a downgrade in terms of a name. It was later 320 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:54,810 Speaker 2: named the Pantheon Fossi. So the word Fossi comes from 321 00:18:54,869 --> 00:18:57,270 Speaker 2: the Latin word for trench. It means like a ditch 322 00:18:57,330 --> 00:19:01,490 Speaker 2: or a trench. And the Pantheon part comes from its 323 00:19:01,730 --> 00:19:06,850 Speaker 2: visual similarity to the dome of the Pantheon in Rome. 324 00:19:07,490 --> 00:19:10,490 Speaker 2: I didn't know this, but if you actually look down 325 00:19:10,540 --> 00:19:13,980 Speaker 2: from above, get a drone up in the air or something, 326 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:16,139 Speaker 2: and you look down at the dome of the Pantheon 327 00:19:17,050 --> 00:19:19,610 Speaker 2: There is, of course, a circular opening in the center. 328 00:19:19,770 --> 00:19:22,090 Speaker 2: You can see that from inside, but then you can 329 00:19:22,130 --> 00:19:25,650 Speaker 2: see from above that there are troughs that radiate outward 330 00:19:25,800 --> 00:19:29,420 Speaker 2: from the aperture in the middle of the dome. And Rob, 331 00:19:29,460 --> 00:19:32,639 Speaker 2: I've put pictures side by side of the Pantheon Fosse 332 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:37,820 Speaker 2: with the crater and then the roof of the Pantheon 333 00:19:37,859 --> 00:19:39,939 Speaker 2: in Rome. Yeah, I'd say I see it. I see 334 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:40,760 Speaker 2: what they're going for there. 335 00:19:40,980 --> 00:19:41,830 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 336 00:19:42,609 --> 00:19:47,470 Speaker 2: Though, of course, the crater is a little bit off-center. Yeah. So, accordingly, 337 00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:49,860 Speaker 2: the crater at the middle of the feature is now 338 00:19:49,940 --> 00:19:54,700 Speaker 2: called the Apollodorus Crater, named after the architect Apollodorus of Damascus, 339 00:19:54,780 --> 00:19:58,500 Speaker 2: who was traditionally credited with designing the temple, with designing 340 00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:03,580 Speaker 2: the pantheon. I don't know how historically true that is considered, but, 341 00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:07,860 Speaker 2: you know, somebody given credit in sort of in tradition. Now, 342 00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:11,820 Speaker 2: a really interesting question is, What makes a land look 343 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:15,520 Speaker 2: like that? How did we get this massive star of 344 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:19,620 Speaker 2: trenches converging on a central point within this giant basin? 345 00:20:20,340 --> 00:20:24,389 Speaker 2: And why is there a younger crater near the hub 346 00:20:24,450 --> 00:20:30,510 Speaker 2: of the wheel? Initially, apparently scientists did wonder, does the crater, 347 00:20:30,590 --> 00:20:34,140 Speaker 2: does the Apollodorus crater have something to do with this 348 00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:37,780 Speaker 2: star of trenches, or is it just a coincidence? Is it, 349 00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:40,390 Speaker 2: you know, just a lucky impact that happened to hit 350 00:20:40,470 --> 00:20:42,250 Speaker 2: near the middle of this weird formation? 351 00:20:42,550 --> 00:20:45,290 Speaker 1: It can be kind of frustrating to look at because 352 00:20:45,330 --> 00:20:47,649 Speaker 1: you want to move it to the center of the 353 00:20:47,690 --> 00:20:49,690 Speaker 1: spider web. You just want to nudge it a little bit. 354 00:20:50,150 --> 00:20:52,100 Speaker 2: Totally. You want to scooch it a little bit over. 355 00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:52,340 Speaker 1: Yeah. 356 00:20:53,710 --> 00:20:57,910 Speaker 2: But now it's just off center. It seems that later observations, 357 00:20:58,050 --> 00:21:02,080 Speaker 2: I think, have ruled out the involvement of the Apollodorus impact. 358 00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:06,199 Speaker 2: So it probably was just a coincidence. As far as 359 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:10,980 Speaker 2: I can tell, the question of the cause of the 360 00:21:11,020 --> 00:21:14,740 Speaker 2: formation is maybe not entirely settled, though I did find 361 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:19,480 Speaker 2: one paper making a judgment about which explanation was the 362 00:21:19,500 --> 00:21:21,359 Speaker 2: best one. So I'm going to talk about that paper. 363 00:21:22,210 --> 00:21:24,630 Speaker 2: I can't tell how much active work is still going 364 00:21:24,730 --> 00:21:27,310 Speaker 2: on to address this question. Most of the papers exploring 365 00:21:27,369 --> 00:21:30,619 Speaker 2: it are from within a few years after the discovery 366 00:21:30,660 --> 00:21:34,080 Speaker 2: of the Pantheon Fosse from like 2008 to 2010. Seems 367 00:21:34,119 --> 00:21:37,580 Speaker 2: like that's when this was a big deal. So generally 368 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:41,060 Speaker 2: it seems that these troughs or grobbins, to use the 369 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:46,399 Speaker 2: scientific term, are some kind of extensional faults. Extensional faults 370 00:21:46,500 --> 00:21:50,350 Speaker 2: are places where there has been stretching of the planet's 371 00:21:50,510 --> 00:21:55,250 Speaker 2: crust and causing areas of the surface to collapse down 372 00:21:55,410 --> 00:22:00,290 Speaker 2: along fault lines and form long ditches or valleys or depressions. 373 00:22:00,910 --> 00:22:03,650 Speaker 2: For a very large analogy on Earth, you can think 374 00:22:03,890 --> 00:22:06,470 Speaker 2: of the East African rift. If you've seen pictures of 375 00:22:06,530 --> 00:22:09,109 Speaker 2: these valleys, of course, that's a more complex kind of 376 00:22:10,090 --> 00:22:14,050 Speaker 2: system of valleys and things. But a similar principle is 377 00:22:14,130 --> 00:22:17,340 Speaker 2: at work. Valleys caused by sinking of the top surface 378 00:22:17,410 --> 00:22:20,679 Speaker 2: along the fault where the tectonic plates are pulling apart. 379 00:22:21,650 --> 00:22:24,629 Speaker 2: So when you read extensional stress in these sources, you 380 00:22:24,650 --> 00:22:28,210 Speaker 2: can just shorthand it by thinking stretching, stretching of the surface, 381 00:22:28,650 --> 00:22:32,429 Speaker 2: causing things to drop down at the faults. So I 382 00:22:32,470 --> 00:22:37,280 Speaker 2: found a paper from 2010 evaluating several of the main 383 00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:41,240 Speaker 2: hypotheses about the origin of the radial graubens. It's called 384 00:22:41,260 --> 00:22:46,310 Speaker 2: Evaluation of the Origin Hypotheses of Pantheon Fossey, Central Caloris 385 00:22:46,350 --> 00:22:51,070 Speaker 2: Basin Mercury. This is by Christian Klimchak. Richard Schultz and 386 00:22:51,130 --> 00:22:55,980 Speaker 2: Amanda Naum published in the journal Icarus in 2010. They 387 00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:58,980 Speaker 2: look at three main ideas about what could have caused this. 388 00:22:59,580 --> 00:23:03,490 Speaker 2: One is, quote, an origin associated with the Apollodorus impact 389 00:23:03,570 --> 00:23:07,350 Speaker 2: into a previously domed Caloris Basin floor. They end up 390 00:23:07,390 --> 00:23:09,610 Speaker 2: pretty much ruling that out. They say, no, we don't 391 00:23:09,650 --> 00:23:12,980 Speaker 2: think it's the impact that formed the Apollodorus crater. It's 392 00:23:13,060 --> 00:23:14,020 Speaker 2: just a coincidence. 393 00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:14,280 Speaker 1: Hmm. 394 00:23:15,300 --> 00:23:19,300 Speaker 2: They also explore the idea of, quote, graben formation as 395 00:23:19,420 --> 00:23:24,300 Speaker 2: surface expressions of dike intrusions. I was trying to understand this. 396 00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:27,619 Speaker 2: This was geologically technical, but basically I think this is 397 00:23:27,660 --> 00:23:33,070 Speaker 2: referring to magmatic dikes, which are formed when magma flows 398 00:23:33,250 --> 00:23:36,469 Speaker 2: into vertically oriented cracks in the rock and they kind 399 00:23:36,530 --> 00:23:40,270 Speaker 2: of cut across rock layers. So was that involved in 400 00:23:40,350 --> 00:23:45,340 Speaker 2: creating these expressions at the surface above? And then the 401 00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:50,740 Speaker 2: third idea they look at is, quote, basin interior uplift alone. 402 00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:54,699 Speaker 2: This is what you might also call the doming hypothesis. 403 00:23:54,780 --> 00:23:56,879 Speaker 2: And the idea would be that a region on the 404 00:23:56,940 --> 00:24:01,260 Speaker 2: inside of the basin was somehow lifted up and created 405 00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:04,109 Speaker 2: a sort of dome, you know, raised dome in the 406 00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:07,600 Speaker 2: floor of the basin itself. which caused stretching on the 407 00:24:07,650 --> 00:24:10,619 Speaker 2: ground on top of the doming area. And you can 408 00:24:10,700 --> 00:24:12,100 Speaker 2: think of that kind of like when you blow up 409 00:24:12,140 --> 00:24:15,560 Speaker 2: a balloon, you know, you're creating this expansion of a 410 00:24:15,619 --> 00:24:18,990 Speaker 2: curved area and that stretches the balloon itself. So it 411 00:24:19,150 --> 00:24:21,970 Speaker 2: would be stretching the surface in the same way on 412 00:24:22,030 --> 00:24:26,110 Speaker 2: top of the dome here. So the authors analyzed these 413 00:24:26,150 --> 00:24:29,699 Speaker 2: different mechanisms. They looked at imagery from, I think, the 414 00:24:29,740 --> 00:24:34,580 Speaker 2: Messenger missions, they, or the messenger mission, they compared this 415 00:24:34,619 --> 00:24:38,100 Speaker 2: to other radial graben structures on Earth and Venus. They 416 00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:41,800 Speaker 2: did some mechanical simulations. And in the end, they conclude, 417 00:24:42,460 --> 00:24:46,010 Speaker 2: they basically rule out the Apollodorus impact. They say, no, 418 00:24:46,050 --> 00:24:49,170 Speaker 2: that doesn't explain it. And then of the other two explanations, 419 00:24:49,270 --> 00:24:52,590 Speaker 2: they say that the doming alone was the better predictor 420 00:24:52,630 --> 00:24:55,230 Speaker 2: of the pattern seen in the graben. So they think 421 00:24:55,270 --> 00:24:58,180 Speaker 2: it was that Something caused the floor of the crater 422 00:24:58,300 --> 00:25:02,220 Speaker 2: to uplift, to stretch up and form a domed area. 423 00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:06,149 Speaker 2: And this caused stretching in the surface, which ends up 424 00:25:06,210 --> 00:25:11,810 Speaker 2: manifesting as this radial wheel-shaped pattern of kind of spiderweb lines. 425 00:25:13,210 --> 00:25:16,730 Speaker 2: It is kind of crazy, though, just because apparently there 426 00:25:16,970 --> 00:25:22,850 Speaker 2: are other radial lines. graben formations on Earth and on Venus. So, 427 00:25:23,030 --> 00:25:25,030 Speaker 2: you know, they do exist elsewhere, but I feel like 428 00:25:25,050 --> 00:25:27,109 Speaker 2: this is the only time I've ever seen something that 429 00:25:27,170 --> 00:25:28,330 Speaker 2: actually looked like this. 430 00:25:29,130 --> 00:25:31,270 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. And it is, again, you have to look 431 00:25:31,310 --> 00:25:33,010 Speaker 1: up images of this. It's quite impressive. 432 00:25:33,670 --> 00:25:35,830 Speaker 2: So that's the Pantheon Fosse. You can keep calling it 433 00:25:35,850 --> 00:25:37,699 Speaker 2: the spider if you want. I think that's not the 434 00:25:37,740 --> 00:25:40,220 Speaker 2: official name, but I bet it'll still answer to spider. 435 00:25:51,890 --> 00:25:54,790 Speaker 1: All right. I want to go to an area that 436 00:25:54,810 --> 00:25:59,390 Speaker 1: I think has probably crossed everyone's mind already, and that 437 00:25:59,490 --> 00:26:03,320 Speaker 1: is the question of life on Mercury. Could there be 438 00:26:03,380 --> 00:26:08,460 Speaker 1: life on Mercury? We've discussed this question regarding various other 439 00:26:08,619 --> 00:26:13,060 Speaker 1: planets and moons in our solar system, but you look 440 00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:15,570 Speaker 1: at the main information about it, certainly going off the 441 00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:20,720 Speaker 1: the publicly available NASA information about Mercury. And this place 442 00:26:20,780 --> 00:26:23,159 Speaker 1: is just too hostile for life as we know it. 443 00:26:23,220 --> 00:26:27,139 Speaker 1: And that just seems to be a largely agreed upon reality. 444 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:31,669 Speaker 1: You know, much like, you know, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. 445 00:26:31,690 --> 00:26:34,909 Speaker 1: But even with those worlds, there are sometimes interesting ideas, 446 00:26:34,970 --> 00:26:38,470 Speaker 1: as we've discussed, regarding what might theoretically live within at 447 00:26:38,510 --> 00:26:42,070 Speaker 1: least the upper portions of the atmosphere. Mercury, of course, 448 00:26:42,630 --> 00:26:46,260 Speaker 1: does not have an atmosphere. It's certainly not a traditional atmosphere, 449 00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:49,700 Speaker 1: and therefore we can't even really entertain notions like that here. 450 00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:52,840 Speaker 2: Yeah. So as we talked about in the last episode, 451 00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:58,460 Speaker 2: explorations of the idea of life on Mercury, all the 452 00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:00,920 Speaker 2: ones I've seen are not like, this is a good 453 00:27:01,030 --> 00:27:04,230 Speaker 2: place to look for life. Instead, they're like, what if? 454 00:27:04,470 --> 00:27:07,350 Speaker 2: You know, what could work potentially, or what could have 455 00:27:07,410 --> 00:27:09,720 Speaker 2: worked at some point in the past? There's They're looking 456 00:27:09,780 --> 00:27:13,840 Speaker 2: for interesting ways to play with exceptions to the general 457 00:27:14,740 --> 00:27:17,960 Speaker 2: terrain and sort of hostility of the environment there. 458 00:27:18,420 --> 00:27:22,719 Speaker 1: Yeah, about the most optimistic, you know, straight up scientific 459 00:27:23,100 --> 00:27:25,040 Speaker 1: thing that I've read about life on Mercury or the 460 00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:28,380 Speaker 1: potential for life on Mercury comes from the chaotic terrains 461 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:32,139 Speaker 1: of Mercury reveal a history of planetary volatile retention and 462 00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:35,240 Speaker 1: loss in the innermost solar system by Rodriguez et al. 463 00:27:35,310 --> 00:27:38,510 Speaker 1: published 2020 in Scientific Reports. I'm just going to read 464 00:27:38,550 --> 00:27:41,970 Speaker 1: the quote from it here that gets into this aspect 465 00:27:42,050 --> 00:27:45,420 Speaker 1: of it. It goes as follows, quote, our results indicate 466 00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:48,940 Speaker 1: that the early crust of Mercury could have contained mixtures 467 00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:54,040 Speaker 1: of hydrated phases, organics, and ices, which have been driven away, dehydrated, 468 00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:59,470 Speaker 1: or chemically altered by magmatic and solar heating, except for 469 00:27:59,570 --> 00:28:03,050 Speaker 1: in permanent shadows of polar craters. This going back, we 470 00:28:03,070 --> 00:28:06,290 Speaker 1: mentioned about water ice being discovered in some of these craters, 471 00:28:06,910 --> 00:28:10,359 Speaker 1: the bottoms of which are sometimes just in internal darkness or, 472 00:28:10,380 --> 00:28:11,399 Speaker 1: you know, greatly shielded. 473 00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:12,720 Speaker 2: Right. 474 00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:19,840 Speaker 1: Metastable and potentially habitable conditions might have developed episodically or 475 00:28:19,940 --> 00:28:24,920 Speaker 1: transiently within these crustal materials, thus extending the habitable zone 476 00:28:25,340 --> 00:28:28,980 Speaker 1: as far inward towards the sun as Mercury and in 477 00:28:29,070 --> 00:28:31,250 Speaker 1: similar places in other solar systems. 478 00:28:31,810 --> 00:28:32,050 Speaker 2: Okay. 479 00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:34,560 Speaker 1: So this is not, to be clear, this is not 480 00:28:34,660 --> 00:28:38,500 Speaker 1: arguing that life ever existed on Mercury, but rather that 481 00:28:38,900 --> 00:28:43,280 Speaker 1: the planet's ancient subsurface might have briefly possessed the right 482 00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:48,740 Speaker 1: conditions to support prebiotic chemistry or simple, you know, microscopic life, 483 00:28:48,780 --> 00:28:53,660 Speaker 1: that sort of thing. So a theoretically possible lost habitable 484 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:55,040 Speaker 1: zone on Mercury. 485 00:28:55,750 --> 00:28:56,250 Speaker 2: Interesting. 486 00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:58,520 Speaker 1: OK. But it's presented here, you know, as much as 487 00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:01,900 Speaker 1: something to take with us in considering exoplanets as anything else. 488 00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:04,700 Speaker 1: It's just again, they're not saying we think there was 489 00:29:04,760 --> 00:29:07,120 Speaker 1: life on Mercury or there is life on Mercury. Far 490 00:29:07,180 --> 00:29:10,490 Speaker 1: from it. They're just saying, technically speaking, the conditions might 491 00:29:10,530 --> 00:29:13,190 Speaker 1: have briefly been right for something to have started cooking 492 00:29:13,250 --> 00:29:14,830 Speaker 1: before it got cooked. 493 00:29:15,330 --> 00:29:15,510 Speaker 2: Yeah. 494 00:29:15,710 --> 00:29:16,110 Speaker 1: Yeah. 495 00:29:16,210 --> 00:29:20,110 Speaker 2: If we look at certain extreme possibilities, habitable zones could 496 00:29:20,150 --> 00:29:21,800 Speaker 2: be wider than we usually think. 497 00:29:22,260 --> 00:29:22,380 Speaker 1: Yeah. 498 00:29:22,660 --> 00:29:26,470 Speaker 2: Yeah. Given certain conditions. you're saying there's a chance. 499 00:29:26,590 --> 00:29:30,200 Speaker 1: Yeah. And so at this point, I do want to 500 00:29:30,220 --> 00:29:33,920 Speaker 1: turn back to science fiction. And I guess broadly, when 501 00:29:33,940 --> 00:29:38,170 Speaker 1: you're looking at science fiction about Mercury, be it concerning 502 00:29:38,210 --> 00:29:41,370 Speaker 1: the possibility of alien life or humans going there and 503 00:29:41,410 --> 00:29:44,110 Speaker 1: having any kind of presence on Mercury, you do kind 504 00:29:44,130 --> 00:29:46,010 Speaker 1: of see this division, and it kind of lines up 505 00:29:46,070 --> 00:29:51,560 Speaker 1: with our exploratory history and the history of our understanding 506 00:29:51,580 --> 00:29:53,650 Speaker 1: of Mercury. But you go back into sort of like 507 00:29:53,670 --> 00:29:57,400 Speaker 1: the pulp fiction, weird fiction, golden age of science fiction era, 508 00:29:57,940 --> 00:30:01,060 Speaker 1: and you're going to find a lot more ideas concerning 509 00:30:01,140 --> 00:30:04,640 Speaker 1: creatures that live there and people going there and working 510 00:30:04,700 --> 00:30:08,280 Speaker 1: or staying there, you know, long term. Whereas once you 511 00:30:08,300 --> 00:30:11,840 Speaker 1: get close, you know, more recent decades, certainly, you're going 512 00:30:11,860 --> 00:30:14,180 Speaker 1: to see more and more of this idea of Mercury 513 00:30:14,260 --> 00:30:21,030 Speaker 1: either being lifeless, it being maybe sparsely inhabited, and what 514 00:30:21,330 --> 00:30:23,390 Speaker 1: are the inhabitants are, it's, you know, you're going to 515 00:30:23,410 --> 00:30:25,870 Speaker 1: have some sort of like a grim mining colony kind 516 00:30:25,910 --> 00:30:28,310 Speaker 1: of environment. It's not going to be presented as as 517 00:30:28,350 --> 00:30:30,250 Speaker 1: a happy place, it's going to be like a very 518 00:30:30,690 --> 00:30:34,280 Speaker 1: extreme and desperate place in most of these science fiction visions. 519 00:30:34,780 --> 00:30:39,140 Speaker 2: It's the spice mines of Kessel, but transported into our realm. 520 00:30:39,180 --> 00:30:42,580 Speaker 1: Yeah. The kind of place that, you know, one Riddick 521 00:30:42,740 --> 00:30:44,200 Speaker 1: might have run around on, I guess. 522 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:45,640 Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. Yeah. 523 00:30:47,020 --> 00:30:48,600 Speaker 1: So I want to roll through a few of these 524 00:30:48,620 --> 00:30:50,380 Speaker 1: because they are interesting. It's interesting to sort of like 525 00:30:50,420 --> 00:30:54,870 Speaker 1: place them within this timeline. So the first, this one's 526 00:30:54,910 --> 00:30:57,890 Speaker 1: definitely going to be an earlier, you know, weird fiction example. 527 00:30:58,330 --> 00:31:01,190 Speaker 1: And this is just a brief mention in The Shadow 528 00:31:01,230 --> 00:31:02,410 Speaker 1: Out of Time from H.P. 529 00:31:02,450 --> 00:31:03,090 Speaker 2: Lovecraft. 530 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,740 Speaker 1: I'm going to read a quote here. This is a 531 00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:08,440 Speaker 1: story that's been a long time since I read this one. 532 00:31:08,860 --> 00:31:11,260 Speaker 1: As best I can recall, this is one that mostly 533 00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:16,900 Speaker 1: deals with a bunch of crazy cosmic horror ideas about 534 00:31:17,650 --> 00:31:22,230 Speaker 1: other species and inhuman species that have lived before man 535 00:31:22,250 --> 00:31:25,650 Speaker 1: and will live long after, that sort of thing. So 536 00:31:25,690 --> 00:31:28,160 Speaker 1: here's a quote. After man, there would be the mighty 537 00:31:28,220 --> 00:31:31,620 Speaker 1: beetle civilization, the bodies of whose members the cream of 538 00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:34,830 Speaker 1: the great race would seize when the monstrous doom overtook 539 00:31:34,890 --> 00:31:39,010 Speaker 1: the elder world. Later, as the Earth's span closed, the 540 00:31:39,050 --> 00:31:43,270 Speaker 1: transferred minds would again migrate through time and space to 541 00:31:43,350 --> 00:31:47,220 Speaker 1: another stopping place in the bodies of the bulbous vegetable 542 00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:50,860 Speaker 1: entities of Mercury. But there would be races after them, 543 00:31:51,140 --> 00:31:54,540 Speaker 1: clinging pathetically to the cold planet and burrowing to its 544 00:31:54,600 --> 00:32:00,600 Speaker 1: horror-filled core before the utter end. Cute. So, you know, yeah, 545 00:32:00,620 --> 00:32:02,880 Speaker 1: lots of cosmic horror in there. But then in the middle, 546 00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:06,420 Speaker 1: bulbous vegetables on Mercury. So I don't think we ever 547 00:32:06,460 --> 00:32:09,740 Speaker 1: get any other idea, but you can, you know, again, 548 00:32:09,790 --> 00:32:14,010 Speaker 1: this would definitely be, I think, a much, you know, 549 00:32:14,050 --> 00:32:16,610 Speaker 1: earlier idea of like, okay, you have vegetables on Mercury. 550 00:32:17,110 --> 00:32:17,990 Speaker 1: Surely it's possible. 551 00:32:18,550 --> 00:32:23,950 Speaker 2: Wait, could this possibly have inspired the Roger Corman movie, the... 552 00:32:25,230 --> 00:32:27,130 Speaker 2: What's it called? It Conquered the World. I just had 553 00:32:27,150 --> 00:32:29,090 Speaker 2: to look at the poster of It Conquered the World 554 00:32:29,150 --> 00:32:31,990 Speaker 2: on my wall to remember what the movie is called. 555 00:32:32,150 --> 00:32:33,490 Speaker 2: Bulbous vegetable creatures. 556 00:32:33,550 --> 00:32:35,570 Speaker 1: Were they from Mercury or were they Venusians? 557 00:32:35,610 --> 00:32:39,170 Speaker 2: I think Venus, I think. But I do think they 558 00:32:39,190 --> 00:32:42,650 Speaker 2: came from interplanet at least. But it's a bulbous vegetable 559 00:32:42,670 --> 00:32:45,930 Speaker 2: that attacks Earth from one of the interplanets. So, I 560 00:32:45,950 --> 00:32:50,340 Speaker 2: don't know. Could have been inspired by this story. It's 561 00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:51,060 Speaker 2: an artichoke. 562 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:56,740 Speaker 1: Possibly, possibly. Let's see, if you turn to Kurt Vonnegut's 563 00:32:57,060 --> 00:33:00,480 Speaker 1: The Sirens of Titan, there are the harmoniums. These are 564 00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:03,170 Speaker 1: kite-like organisms that are said to live in the lightless 565 00:33:03,230 --> 00:33:08,070 Speaker 1: caves of Mercury. Limited in their intelligence and their sensibility, 566 00:33:08,170 --> 00:33:10,730 Speaker 1: but still, I think they're able to say two different 567 00:33:10,770 --> 00:33:14,860 Speaker 1: things to humans. And they're presented very much in Vonnegut's 568 00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:19,800 Speaker 1: style here. But I guess Vonnegut, to be clear, his work, 569 00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:23,840 Speaker 1: even his later work, sometimes kept a foot in the 570 00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:27,460 Speaker 1: golden era of science fiction, sort of pursuing different literary ends, 571 00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:31,080 Speaker 1: but still engaging with some of those concepts. Let's see, 572 00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:34,260 Speaker 1: if you look to the work of Isaac Asimov, one 573 00:33:34,300 --> 00:33:37,180 Speaker 1: of his earlier, often referred to as his juvenile novels, 574 00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:39,740 Speaker 1: you have Lucky Star and The Big Son of Mercury. 575 00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:43,540 Speaker 1: And that one concerns just straight up energy beings living, 576 00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:49,520 Speaker 1: non-corporeal energy beings made of force fields and light. This, 577 00:33:49,580 --> 00:33:52,470 Speaker 1: of course, is a, is a pretty classic concept in 578 00:33:52,510 --> 00:33:55,030 Speaker 1: sci-fi by this point used all the time in Star Trek. 579 00:33:55,350 --> 00:33:57,630 Speaker 1: And it's especially helpful if you're trying to position some 580 00:33:57,650 --> 00:34:00,550 Speaker 1: sort of life form somewhere where life as we know 581 00:34:00,590 --> 00:34:03,450 Speaker 1: it cannot thrive. Well, then you just put life as 582 00:34:03,490 --> 00:34:05,560 Speaker 1: we don't know it, some sort of energy thing. 583 00:34:05,660 --> 00:34:07,620 Speaker 2: Sure. Yeah. Um, let's see. 584 00:34:07,660 --> 00:34:10,200 Speaker 1: Oh, this one is, this one's fun. Um, I've ended 585 00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:13,080 Speaker 1: up turning to Clark Ashton Smith. I figured surely Clark 586 00:34:13,140 --> 00:34:15,460 Speaker 1: Ashton Smith did something on Mercury. This is not a 587 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:17,779 Speaker 1: story I think I'd ever read, but there's one, um, 588 00:34:18,690 --> 00:34:22,790 Speaker 1: that concerns two different species living on Mercury, some lizards 589 00:34:23,190 --> 00:34:27,390 Speaker 1: and also some subsurface immortals. This is from the story 590 00:34:27,430 --> 00:34:30,910 Speaker 1: The Immortals of Mercury. And it basically involves a human 591 00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:34,319 Speaker 1: explorer on the planet getting separated from his team. He 592 00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:39,900 Speaker 1: gets taken by surface-dwelling reptilians, quote, the huge, ugly, salamander-like 593 00:34:39,980 --> 00:34:42,700 Speaker 1: reptiles who seem to roam at will from the Twilight 594 00:34:42,739 --> 00:34:45,980 Speaker 1: Zone to the scalding deserts beneath an eternal sky, an 595 00:34:46,080 --> 00:34:49,069 Speaker 1: eternal day, rather. And then they end up taking him 596 00:34:49,130 --> 00:34:54,220 Speaker 1: to a subterranean race of immortals that live underneath Mercury. 597 00:34:54,239 --> 00:34:58,080 Speaker 1: And they're described as, quote, white naked immortals whose serpentine 598 00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:02,080 Speaker 1: locks flow behind them on the air. And also described 599 00:35:02,180 --> 00:35:06,120 Speaker 1: as an alien extra human race equipped, it would seem, 600 00:35:06,180 --> 00:35:09,660 Speaker 1: with scientific knowledge and power to which humanity had not 601 00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:10,350 Speaker 1: yet attained. 602 00:35:10,989 --> 00:35:11,790 Speaker 2: But they are naked. 603 00:35:12,190 --> 00:35:14,210 Speaker 1: Well, they are. They don't need clothes anymore. They've got the. 604 00:35:14,860 --> 00:35:20,219 Speaker 1: They've got extra human intelligence and technology. Which, this one, 605 00:35:20,540 --> 00:35:22,660 Speaker 1: I like this example because Clark Ashton Smith seems to 606 00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:24,600 Speaker 1: be sort of playing in both directions. Like, go ahead 607 00:35:24,640 --> 00:35:27,529 Speaker 1: and have reptiles running around on the surface. But then, 608 00:35:27,969 --> 00:35:30,710 Speaker 1: in order to imagine life here, you have to imagine something, 609 00:35:31,170 --> 00:35:34,210 Speaker 1: you know, far more advanced than we are. Something that 610 00:35:34,250 --> 00:35:37,870 Speaker 1: would be able to have some sort of, like, high 611 00:35:37,890 --> 00:35:41,590 Speaker 1: technology civilization still thriving beneath the surface of such a world. 612 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:44,640 Speaker 2: Hmm. You know, I just thought of this, but do 613 00:35:44,660 --> 00:35:47,500 Speaker 2: stories like this ever deal with the fact that creatures 614 00:35:47,620 --> 00:35:50,520 Speaker 2: that evolved on a world with less gravity than us 615 00:35:50,540 --> 00:35:52,620 Speaker 2: would probably be way weaker than us and we could 616 00:35:52,660 --> 00:35:56,580 Speaker 2: beat them up? Not necessarily, Adam, but you'd think so. 617 00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:01,740 Speaker 1: Well, you know, it does remind me of the Expanse novels. 618 00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:06,910 Speaker 1: You have the people that live, I forget their faction 619 00:36:06,950 --> 00:36:07,810 Speaker 1: name off the top of my head. 620 00:36:08,250 --> 00:36:08,890 Speaker 2: The Belters? 621 00:36:08,930 --> 00:36:09,830 Speaker 1: The Belters, yeah. 622 00:36:09,850 --> 00:36:12,710 Speaker 2: The Belters. In the books. 623 00:36:12,969 --> 00:36:14,750 Speaker 1: And then I think very early on in the series, 624 00:36:14,810 --> 00:36:17,730 Speaker 1: it's more explored that they, um, you know, they have different, 625 00:36:17,830 --> 00:36:21,110 Speaker 1: different physiology at this point because they are, they're living 626 00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:24,200 Speaker 1: in a, in a, you know, low gravity, zero gravity environment. 627 00:36:24,260 --> 00:36:26,140 Speaker 1: And therefore, uh, you know, we're just going to be 628 00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:29,480 Speaker 1: crushed if they come down onto a world with gravity. 629 00:36:30,060 --> 00:36:31,340 Speaker 1: So sometimes it's explored. 630 00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:34,630 Speaker 2: But it's like gravity torture if they're brought to earth. Yeah. 631 00:36:34,750 --> 00:36:37,310 Speaker 1: Yeah. Just being brought to earth is this torment, that 632 00:36:37,350 --> 00:36:40,350 Speaker 1: sort of thing. So, you know, like everything in science fiction, 633 00:36:40,700 --> 00:36:42,580 Speaker 1: Sometimes when it doesn't get in the way of the plot, 634 00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:44,840 Speaker 1: it can be explored. 635 00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:49,919 Speaker 2: Though I guess interesting that the immortals in the Clark 636 00:36:49,980 --> 00:36:53,180 Speaker 2: Ashton Smith thing, it also mentions their locks flowing behind 637 00:36:53,239 --> 00:36:55,399 Speaker 2: them in the air. I guess he is imagining there's 638 00:36:55,540 --> 00:36:59,300 Speaker 2: air there, but that this was like their hair doesn't fall. 639 00:36:59,390 --> 00:37:02,130 Speaker 2: It kind of floats behind them. Is that a gravity 640 00:37:02,210 --> 00:37:04,310 Speaker 2: related thing or it's more kind of magic? 641 00:37:04,930 --> 00:37:08,290 Speaker 1: I mean, it may just be language based because I 642 00:37:08,330 --> 00:37:10,190 Speaker 1: think a lot of Clark Ashton Smith stuff, it's like, 643 00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:14,140 Speaker 1: It's as much about the picture that he's painting with words. 644 00:37:14,219 --> 00:37:17,719 Speaker 1: So if it's more beautiful to describe them, their hair 645 00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:21,080 Speaker 1: is floating, then that's where he's going to put the attention. 646 00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:25,980 Speaker 1: But speaking of The Expanse, The Expanse being a great, 647 00:37:26,100 --> 00:37:28,759 Speaker 1: more recent series that deals with a more or less 648 00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:32,000 Speaker 1: realistic look at what life beyond Earth might consist of, 649 00:37:33,930 --> 00:37:37,450 Speaker 1: even it, I think, only gives passing reference to Mercury. 650 00:37:37,570 --> 00:37:41,170 Speaker 1: It's a world in which humans have spread to Mars 651 00:37:41,710 --> 00:37:45,270 Speaker 1: and to various other locations of the solar system and 652 00:37:45,290 --> 00:37:48,290 Speaker 1: then ultimately beyond our solar system. But I think there's 653 00:37:48,330 --> 00:37:51,529 Speaker 1: just like slight mention of Mercury where there may or 654 00:37:51,550 --> 00:37:54,350 Speaker 1: may not be some sort of a manned or unmanned 655 00:37:54,450 --> 00:37:59,270 Speaker 1: scientific presence, probably orbital. And I think none of the 656 00:37:59,310 --> 00:38:04,350 Speaker 1: series action really takes place there. However, you look at 657 00:38:04,750 --> 00:38:08,799 Speaker 1: other like sci-fi visions of what human life could be 658 00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:11,840 Speaker 1: like on Mercury. And there's some, we also see this division, 659 00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:14,140 Speaker 1: the sort of the golden age of sci-fi when people 660 00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:16,060 Speaker 1: are like, yeah, we could be there walking around on 661 00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:18,719 Speaker 1: the surface. And then more recently, it's more like the 662 00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:22,340 Speaker 1: expanse where it's like, well, probably not. Mars, yes. Mercury, 663 00:38:23,260 --> 00:38:25,980 Speaker 1: probably a pass. So I have a few examples of 664 00:38:26,020 --> 00:38:29,090 Speaker 1: this to mention as well. Let's see. In the work 665 00:38:29,610 --> 00:38:34,350 Speaker 1: of Arthur C. Clarke from Rendezvous with Rama, actually, this 666 00:38:34,410 --> 00:38:38,989 Speaker 1: has human colonists on Mercury rather. known as the Hermians, 667 00:38:39,190 --> 00:38:42,430 Speaker 1: so leading into the Hermes side of things. And they 668 00:38:42,469 --> 00:38:44,910 Speaker 1: end up playing a major role in the plot, I'm 669 00:38:44,930 --> 00:38:47,330 Speaker 1: to understand. I have a copy of it, but I 670 00:38:47,370 --> 00:38:51,720 Speaker 1: never have read it. But they come into the book, 671 00:38:51,739 --> 00:38:55,540 Speaker 1: I think, late as a major plot element. And let's see, 672 00:38:55,620 --> 00:39:00,140 Speaker 1: we have, there are other sci-fi stories of note that 673 00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:03,520 Speaker 1: I'm going to mention here. Let's see, Clifford D. Simmock's 674 00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:07,529 Speaker 1: 1932 short story, Mutiny on Mercury, has humans living in 675 00:39:07,770 --> 00:39:11,390 Speaker 1: domed cities along a twilight strip between night and day 676 00:39:11,410 --> 00:39:16,400 Speaker 1: on the planet. Though this will probably cause some alarms 677 00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:17,960 Speaker 1: to go off in your head, yes, this one would 678 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:21,540 Speaker 1: rely on a now outdated understanding of the planet's movements 679 00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:22,319 Speaker 1: and rotations. 680 00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:25,570 Speaker 2: So this would imply that the planet was tidally locked 681 00:39:25,610 --> 00:39:28,250 Speaker 2: with the sun, right? So it would have a perpetual 682 00:39:28,330 --> 00:39:29,850 Speaker 2: sort of terminator twilight zone. 683 00:39:30,140 --> 00:39:30,450 Speaker 1: Yeah. 684 00:39:31,390 --> 00:39:31,640 Speaker 2: Yeah. 685 00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:34,739 Speaker 1: And a tidally locked world, as we discussed on the show, 686 00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:36,640 Speaker 1: I think long ago, there are some other great sci-fi 687 00:39:36,660 --> 00:39:40,600 Speaker 1: visions of what that might consist of. But yeah, this 688 00:39:40,660 --> 00:39:43,820 Speaker 1: one would definitely involve a tidally locked world. 689 00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:47,020 Speaker 2: To be clear, Mercury is not. It does have a 690 00:39:47,180 --> 00:39:50,420 Speaker 2: rotating day and night, though its day-night cycle... And its 691 00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:53,239 Speaker 2: relationship to its orbit around the sun is very strange 692 00:39:53,300 --> 00:39:56,360 Speaker 2: from our point of view in that its solar day 693 00:39:56,880 --> 00:40:00,000 Speaker 2: is longer than its year. Not though its solar day 694 00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:02,140 Speaker 2: is also different than the amount of time it takes 695 00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:04,870 Speaker 2: the planet to rotate. So the time it takes to 696 00:40:04,910 --> 00:40:08,270 Speaker 2: go from like noon to noon on Mercury is longer 697 00:40:08,330 --> 00:40:10,210 Speaker 2: than it takes for the planet to go around the sun. 698 00:40:11,130 --> 00:40:16,290 Speaker 1: Right, right. So now here's coming back to Isaac Asimov's 699 00:40:16,370 --> 00:40:19,069 Speaker 1: Lucky Star and the Big Sun of Mercury. This one 700 00:40:19,140 --> 00:40:22,140 Speaker 1: seems to entail an idea that tracks more with our 701 00:40:22,460 --> 00:40:26,980 Speaker 1: current understanding of Mercury. And this one involves basically like 702 00:40:27,080 --> 00:40:30,680 Speaker 1: cities or habitats on something like train tracks that sort 703 00:40:30,700 --> 00:40:33,640 Speaker 1: of continually move to stay out of the heat blast 704 00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:37,440 Speaker 1: on Mercury to stay out of the daylight. Interesting. That one, 705 00:40:37,460 --> 00:40:39,760 Speaker 1: of course, raises all sorts of technical questions. But still, 706 00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,470 Speaker 1: it's kind of like, OK, this is something we can 707 00:40:43,170 --> 00:40:44,169 Speaker 1: kind of imagine, right? 708 00:40:44,190 --> 00:40:46,790 Speaker 2: I guess you really don't want that to break down. Yeah. 709 00:40:47,700 --> 00:40:49,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know how you work on it if 710 00:40:49,300 --> 00:40:52,470 Speaker 1: you have a breakdown during the heat, but I don't know. 711 00:40:52,530 --> 00:40:55,790 Speaker 1: It's an interesting concept. Other sci-fi visions have, of course, 712 00:40:55,830 --> 00:40:58,069 Speaker 1: gone the Clark Ashton Smith way and said, well, they 713 00:40:58,110 --> 00:41:01,800 Speaker 1: just live underground. They'll be safe underground. Let's see, I 714 00:41:01,820 --> 00:41:06,020 Speaker 1: already mentioned the Expanse books. Yeah, I would say, yeah, 715 00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:08,759 Speaker 1: once more, in general, inhabited visions of Mercury tend to 716 00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:11,540 Speaker 1: be more from the golden age of sci-fi and the 717 00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:14,570 Speaker 1: pulps and Sci-fi for more recent decades is going to 718 00:41:14,590 --> 00:41:16,620 Speaker 1: be more in line with our current understanding and it's 719 00:41:16,660 --> 00:41:19,360 Speaker 1: going to see it as a hellish industrial mining world. 720 00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:19,980 Speaker 2: Yeah. 721 00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:22,240 Speaker 1: Now, coming back to what we said earlier about water, 722 00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:25,400 Speaker 1: ice and craters and some of these deep craters on Mercury, 723 00:41:25,940 --> 00:41:29,380 Speaker 1: there are craters near the poles that never receive sunlight 724 00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:32,900 Speaker 1: all the way to the bottom. And it's apparently stable there. 725 00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:36,260 Speaker 1: Night to day, it's going to be darkness, eternal darkness, 726 00:41:36,300 --> 00:41:40,130 Speaker 1: if you will. And some futurists have looked to these 727 00:41:40,210 --> 00:41:41,969 Speaker 1: as possible places, like, OK, if you had to have 728 00:41:41,989 --> 00:41:46,629 Speaker 1: human colonies on Mercury for some reason, this might be 729 00:41:46,670 --> 00:41:49,719 Speaker 1: the kind of place where you could situate them. And 730 00:41:49,739 --> 00:41:52,520 Speaker 1: then in line with some of our, you know, futurist 731 00:41:52,780 --> 00:41:57,080 Speaker 1: ideas about what could happen on, say, the moon, Earth's moon, 732 00:41:57,120 --> 00:42:00,860 Speaker 1: like where could you situate things? And sometimes craters offer, 733 00:42:01,239 --> 00:42:05,210 Speaker 1: you know, strong possibilities because either they're sheltered, sheltered from 734 00:42:05,330 --> 00:42:07,089 Speaker 1: one threat or the other. 735 00:42:07,860 --> 00:42:11,839 Speaker 2: At least they're more stable, like there's less variability. Yeah. 736 00:42:13,200 --> 00:42:17,420 Speaker 1: Others have looked to subterranean spaces such as lava tubes 737 00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:20,000 Speaker 1: or even the model from the Lucky Star novel with 738 00:42:20,100 --> 00:42:22,600 Speaker 1: some sort of mobile operation that's going to move to 739 00:42:22,660 --> 00:42:26,049 Speaker 1: stay on the dark side of the planet. Though I 740 00:42:26,110 --> 00:42:28,930 Speaker 1: was not able to find any like hard consideration of 741 00:42:28,989 --> 00:42:31,589 Speaker 1: what that might consist of, you know, even in terms 742 00:42:31,630 --> 00:42:33,190 Speaker 1: of like, well, how fast would it have to move? 743 00:42:33,270 --> 00:42:34,950 Speaker 1: How far would it have to move? What kind of terrain? 744 00:42:34,969 --> 00:42:37,189 Speaker 1: How many, you know, how much? How many train tracks 745 00:42:37,210 --> 00:42:39,430 Speaker 1: are we having to lay down? Are we going to 746 00:42:39,469 --> 00:42:42,960 Speaker 1: have to transport to Mercury or build out of Mercury 747 00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:48,700 Speaker 1: in order to make this happen? So none of these options, again, 748 00:42:48,880 --> 00:42:51,779 Speaker 1: highly hypothetical and futurist in their nature. None of them 749 00:42:51,820 --> 00:42:55,540 Speaker 1: make all the other challenges of Mercury disappear. But they arguably, 750 00:42:55,580 --> 00:42:57,620 Speaker 1: I guess, could be sort of the starting place for 751 00:42:57,700 --> 00:43:01,509 Speaker 1: other measures and other considerations that would be necessary to 752 00:43:01,590 --> 00:43:05,350 Speaker 1: shield the occupants of these colonies from these other threats 753 00:43:05,469 --> 00:43:06,410 Speaker 1: of the innermost planet. 754 00:43:07,489 --> 00:43:08,589 Speaker 2: So you're saying we should go? 755 00:43:08,610 --> 00:43:13,700 Speaker 1: I mean, we're, you know, as human beings, we can't 756 00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:17,299 Speaker 1: help but imagine going to these places. We feel that 757 00:43:17,780 --> 00:43:22,460 Speaker 1: weird sense of manifest destiny, I guess, right? Where, you know, 758 00:43:22,660 --> 00:43:28,430 Speaker 1: even today, we can't help but imagine life there. You know, 759 00:43:28,510 --> 00:43:30,190 Speaker 1: one way or the other, either something we find or, 760 00:43:30,230 --> 00:43:33,290 Speaker 1: of course, something we bring and establish. But again, yeah, 761 00:43:33,510 --> 00:43:38,049 Speaker 1: I don't... There are There are a couple of tantalizing 762 00:43:38,190 --> 00:43:41,230 Speaker 1: ideas as to why we might feel compelled to go 763 00:43:41,270 --> 00:43:43,850 Speaker 1: to Mercury. And I think I'm going to come back 764 00:43:43,870 --> 00:43:47,410 Speaker 1: to at least one of those in our next episode 765 00:43:48,310 --> 00:43:52,680 Speaker 1: on the innermost planet. But otherwise, yeah, people are not 766 00:43:52,700 --> 00:43:54,920 Speaker 1: really lining up to make this. Certainly this is not 767 00:43:54,940 --> 00:43:57,220 Speaker 1: going to be a first on the list of places 768 00:43:57,260 --> 00:43:59,780 Speaker 1: we want to establish a human presence in our solar 769 00:43:59,820 --> 00:44:00,620 Speaker 1: system beyond Earth. 770 00:44:01,330 --> 00:44:04,750 Speaker 2: The memory vacation place from total recall is not selling 771 00:44:04,790 --> 00:44:05,670 Speaker 2: a mercury package. 772 00:44:07,239 --> 00:44:09,800 Speaker 1: I mean, we can very little demand. We can dream, 773 00:44:09,860 --> 00:44:13,740 Speaker 1: I guess I did. I briefly looked into Warhammer 40,000 774 00:44:13,739 --> 00:44:16,480 Speaker 1: fiction because of course, Warhammer 40,000, you got the magic 775 00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:20,710 Speaker 1: and the sci-fi nothing's really out of reach for that 776 00:44:20,770 --> 00:44:23,230 Speaker 1: kind of a, of a sci-fi world. So I'm like, 777 00:44:23,250 --> 00:44:25,350 Speaker 1: they got to have stuff happening on mercury. And sure enough, there's, 778 00:44:25,790 --> 00:44:28,880 Speaker 1: there's both plenty and nothing happening on mercury. Like, It 779 00:44:29,050 --> 00:44:30,839 Speaker 1: seems like there's a lot of action there, but it's 780 00:44:30,900 --> 00:44:34,919 Speaker 1: also not the center of any sort of activity. So 781 00:44:35,580 --> 00:44:38,759 Speaker 1: I don't know. With that example, or with really any 782 00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:41,680 Speaker 1: of these other sci-fi ideas we've discussed, I would love 783 00:44:41,700 --> 00:44:43,009 Speaker 1: to hear from folks out there. I know we have 784 00:44:43,030 --> 00:44:45,730 Speaker 1: a lot of sci-fi readers and viewers. There may be 785 00:44:45,770 --> 00:44:49,490 Speaker 1: some other really compelling examples of the concepts we mentioned, 786 00:44:49,830 --> 00:44:53,049 Speaker 1: or perhaps something entirely different, some entirely different vision of 787 00:44:53,130 --> 00:44:57,120 Speaker 1: what life on Mercury could be like, given our current understanding. 788 00:44:57,630 --> 00:45:00,930 Speaker 1: or just something like really weird and pulpy from yesteryear, 789 00:45:01,690 --> 00:45:04,250 Speaker 1: or some other like sort of crazy futurist idea of 790 00:45:04,510 --> 00:45:07,129 Speaker 1: how we could make it work. I'd love to hear those. 791 00:45:07,210 --> 00:45:08,299 Speaker 1: Love it if you sent those in. 792 00:45:08,739 --> 00:45:10,279 Speaker 2: Okay, does that do it for part two? 793 00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:13,900 Speaker 1: I think it does. But we're going to be back 794 00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:16,279 Speaker 1: with at least one more Mercury episode. We have a 795 00:45:16,340 --> 00:45:18,840 Speaker 1: few more angles we want to zero in on and 796 00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:22,759 Speaker 1: get even more into the nitty gritty. So there's much 797 00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:25,529 Speaker 1: more to discover here. In the meantime, we'd just like 798 00:45:25,550 --> 00:45:27,750 Speaker 1: to remind everybody that Stuff to Blow Your Mind is 799 00:45:27,810 --> 00:45:30,210 Speaker 1: primarily a science and culture podcast with core episodes on 800 00:45:30,230 --> 00:45:33,410 Speaker 1: Tuesdays and Thursdays, a short forum episode on Wednesdays, and 801 00:45:33,450 --> 00:45:35,650 Speaker 1: on Fridays we set aside most serious concerns to just 802 00:45:35,670 --> 00:45:38,490 Speaker 1: talk about a weird film on Weird House Cinema. 803 00:45:39,450 --> 00:45:43,150 Speaker 2: Huge thanks, as always, to our excellent audio producer, J.J. Posway. 804 00:45:43,550 --> 00:45:44,890 Speaker 2: If you would like to get in touch with us 805 00:45:44,950 --> 00:45:48,090 Speaker 2: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest 806 00:45:48,130 --> 00:45:50,110 Speaker 2: a topic for the future, or just to say hello, 807 00:45:50,170 --> 00:45:53,070 Speaker 2: you can email us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com. 808 00:46:01,239 --> 00:46:03,660 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. 809 00:46:04,060 --> 00:46:07,390 Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple 810 00:46:07,410 --> 00:46:09,770 Speaker 2: Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.