Nic: 

This is a special holiday episode of the Meridian. Your hosts for this episode are me and Rebecca and our producer Anna, of course.  We are coming to you on the 21st of September 2021. 

 Rebecca: 

Which is happens to be the winter solstice. 

 Nic: 

It's actually the summer solstice. 

 Rebecca: 

Or the winter? 

Nic: 

Summer. 

 Rebecca: 

It's fairly cold outside, Nic. 

 Nic: 

Yeah, but you know like it's warm in Australia so you know. 

 Rebecca: 

OK yeah, it's a somewhere summer or winter solstice 

 Nic: 

Yes, from Lund Observatory crossing our local Meridian in this very special mid winter or summer episode you get to hear Madeline, Daniel, Alvaro, Johan, Bibi, Rebecca and myself and our producer Anna all trying to be edutaining for you. 

 Rebecca: 

Edutaining?  Of course I'm not a native English speaker as you are, but is that even a word? 

 Nic: 

Yes it is. It's like an “over-the-top" way of being entertaining and educational so you can actually look it up in the Oxford Dictionary. It was inserted in 2008. 

Rebecca: 

Right, sure, OK, so you mean that we're supposed to be like entertaining and educating?  

Nic: 

Yeah 

Rebecca: 

Sure, that's the idea of this pod, right?  OK, it seems like a very good way to wrap up the year, and it's been quite a year. 

Nic: 

It has been, yea. 

Rebecca: 

Yeah, so I've tried to summarize it a bit, but you know, it's a lot of stuff happening in astronomy.  It's a fast moving field. 

Nic: 

Yeah. So 197 exoplanets were discovered in this year. 

Rebecca: 

Year, that's quite a lot, right? 

Nic: 

Yeah, it's sort of really a lot, you know. 

 Rebecca: 

It's really a lot. Yeah, I guess.  Has the exoplanet field, sort of; moved away from being like....  'cause previously you could publish single planets, right? When we discovered a new planet, but you don't really do that now.  

Nic: 

No, normally now clusters of planets you'll get.  So we have the TESS survey.  So a lot of people will actually do follow-up to prove that the planets have been detected in those exist.  Every time I'm scanning for papers, it's usually like “We have discovered 3 new ultra-hot Jupiters” or “Three terrestrials” and so on. 

Well, you can detect an exoplanet with a camera now. A strong powerful enough camera will detect an EXO planet.  So you know it's becoming quite easy so that one specific discovery isn't so great. 

Rebecca: 

Yeah, so 'cause you told me we talked about this a bit yesterday:  That actually Gaia will perhaps give us a lot of more planets. 

Nic: 

Yeah, so that's a little while off yet for a few more years. But basically you can detect planets by seeing how the star wobbles so well a planet will pull on its star as it moves through the Galaxy, and Gaia can detect this pull.  

So in a few years we'll probably see.... I think they're predicting a few thousands of planets are going to come from that discovery alone. 

 Rebecca: 

That's cool, so that we'll actually add, like, uh, substantial, fractional planners. 

 Nic: 

Yeah, it might even double the amount that we know, so yeah, yeah. 

 However, there's some sad news, and some seriously stupid news in my opinion, because you applied to become an ESA astronaut. Well, what happened? 

 Rebecca: 

I don't know, you know, I got sent this email by the end of November or saying like “Yeah, you know, we've gone through with other candidates.  We're sorry.” and it seemed like following people on Twitter, a lot of people just got this like mass send out  with “Nah, we’re r sorry”.   So like - their loss. 

 Nic: 

Yeah, yeah, I think ESA should be the ones that are actually sorry they missed out on the best candidate for some reason. So you know... 

 Rebecca: 

Thank you Nic.  But you know, it was fun to apply and I wasn't rejected in the first round so that's something. 

 Nic: 

Yeah, but you know.  You shouldn't have been rejected in any round, but you know that's right. It just means we get to do more podcasting together I guess. 

 Rebecca: 

That's fine. 

We also had the perseverance Rover that managed to land on Mars and actually landing on Mars is quite an achievement. Like 50% of missions don't actually manage to land because there isn't a lot of atmosphere on Mars.  It's sort of hard to do like parachutes.  There isn't really a good way to land on Mars, and 50% of them don’t manage, so that was nice and it will look for microbiology.  Microbiological signatures by drilling. 

 Nic: 

Do you think it will find? 

 Rebecca: 

I always hope it will find stuff, but I tend to be a bit sceptical. 

 Nic: 

Yeah,  I think it's always good to err on the side of caution with these kinds of things.  I do think life exists in the Universe.  I don't think it's ...  but I don’t know.  We've searched so hard on Mars that like there might be chance that it's just not.  But it's great, it's there and we'll have a better answer when it gets those results. 

Uhm, so I guess another thing was the volcano on La Palma. Yeah so for those people who don't know where La Palma is, it's in the Canary Islands, which is off the coast of Africa. It's part of Spain. 

But why is it famous? 

 Rebecca: 

Well, it has a lot of telescopes. 

 Nic: 

Exactly. It has a lot of telescopes. 

 Rebecca: 

Clear skies in the world -  Together with the Atacama Desert and Hawaii. 

 Nic: 

Yeah, well when there's no like volcanic ash in there. 

 Speaker 6 

Ah OK, right? 

 Nic: 

Yeah, yeah blocking your observations which is a spoiler for the next season's episodes, but I won't get to too much details. 

 Rebecca: 

No, but the telescopes have survived, right? It's not super close to the actual volcano. 

 Nic: 

No, no, they're pretty well far away. 

 Rebecca: 

They're not sort of tumbling down in molten lava, right? 

 Nic: 

No, no, thank goodness, but they could have gotten damaged. That's the one thing. So you know, if you get ash on your telescope , there's actually a chance that you could scratch the mirrors of those telescopes and these mirrors need to be really really polished. 

So that was a really big problem when we were there and a lot of telescopes would wouldn't even open out of the fear that they were going to damage their instruments. 

 Rebecca: 

But you know, you can't tell everything that happened on La Palma. 

Nic: 

No I can't, sorry. 

 Rebecca: 

That's fine, and I guess this is not super astronomy related, but I've said it before in this part, but I'm super happy that the Nobel Prize actually got rewarded to like climate and weather studies, because I feel like that's a big step in at least, you know, recognizing globally that this is an actual issue. 

 Nic: 

Yeah, I think so too and I think that.... well, climate change is a really, really complicated process, and so I think the idea is that, you know, these scientists have come a long way and we know a lot more about what's happening. 

And  we still have a lot further to go to really convince the public out there that what they are doing is really important. 'cause it's probably one of the biggest problems of our generation. 

 Rebecca: 

I guess.  Well, we shouldn't fill up the entire episode with this. You and I talking about 2021. 

Nic: 

But it's so fun, Rebecca. 

 Rebecca: 

Yeah, I guess.  But we could introduce the astronomy games. 

 Nic: 

Yeah, for the first time we recorded a podcast in front of a live studio audience, it was an event for the University Astronomy Club ALVA, which we held last week. 

So I gathered a team. You gathered a team.  And Anna made up some questions for us and it was lots of fun - I think. 

 Rebecca: 

I hope it's lots of fun for people to listen to.  But as you hinted on, we will do another thing for this episode, right? 

 Nic: 

Yeah, so season two is not due to air for another few months. So until then, you'll just have to be content with this Christmas episode.  But like I did say, we have already started recording and part of it was me going on an adventure. 

 Rebecca: 

Yeah, so don't miss the teaser in the end. After we've done the astronomy games. 

  

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The intro scene includes background music and 24 high school students saying astronomical words like “Space missions”,  "Solar wind", "The big dipper", "Galactic dynamics", "Gravitational waves", "Exoplanets", "Black holes", "Betelgeuse", "Dark energy", "Near earth asteroids", "Jupiter", "Ground based telescopes" and more.  Slowly it fades to everyone saying “The Meridian”.    

------------------------------------------ 

 

Anna: 

Welcome to the Lund Observatory Astronomy Games - where two teams of PhD students go up against one another in a game of wit and cunning and all that.   

 
Today we are recording in Lundmarkssalen here at Lund Observatory, and as you may hear we are recording in front of a live studio audience.  How is everyone doing today? 

< Applause from the audience > 

 
The rules are simple. I will take turns asking questions to the two teams.  To make things slightly easier for them these will be multiple choice questions.  So guessing is allowed.  Each question is worth one point and the team with the most points at the end of the game wins. 

 
Now, there is a twist.  If one of the teams would like to answer a question that has been asked to the opposing team - they have the option to ring the bell and steal the question.   

< Bell rings > 

Thank you for demonstrating, Rebecca. 

I must warn you that stealing questions is not easy.  It is not enough to just ring the bell.  To successfully steal the right to answer a particular question the team must complete a challenge - usually in the form of an extra question but really the challenge may be anything.   

 
If the question-thiefing team successfully completes the challenge - they then get to try to answer the question. If this team does not successfully complete the challenge or if they give the wrong answer then the right to answer the original question returns to the original team.  Wow. 

And to make things even more complicated I have decided to include one additional rule.  If the teams ever decide they need help answering a particular question - then they can ask the audience to for help.   

In the audience today we have members of the university astronomy club, ALVA, thank you for coming.  I am sure many of you will know all the answers today but I urge you not to help the teams unless they ask for help. 

 
Final twist:  If a question is answered with the help of the audience, then the audience gets 25% of the point, because that seems only fair. 

To keep track of the score we have Þóra Kristín Karlsdóttir, president of ALVA.  My name is Anna, I am the director of the Lund University Planetarium, the producer of the podcast the Meridian and your host here today. 

 
On my left I have Rebecca and her team. Rebecca, could you please introduce your team. 

 

Rebecca: 

Thank you, Anna.  Yes, my team consists of fine PhD students here at the department, so it's me myself of course, host the Meridian, but I also have Daniel and Madeline who can introduce themselves. 

Daniel: 

Yes, I'm Daniel, I'm old.  I am comparatively old. I am nearing the end of my PhD and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and I work on galactic dynamics and my supervisor is one of the previous guests of the podcast; Paul McMillan. 

Anna: 

And then we have Madeleine. 

 Madeleine: 

Yes, I'm Madeleine, and I'm also a senior PhD students at Lund Observatory. I'm also, starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I am working with atomic spectroscopy, so I am doing mainly laboratory work. 

 Rebecca: 

Very nice, you see. I have a very diverse team here which I think is great. 

Anna: 

And on my right I have Nic and his team.  Tell us about the team you have gathered today. 

 Nic: 

Ehm, I just found them off the street.  This Alvaro, he's thinking about donating his hair. 

 Alvaro: 

That's not going well. 

 Nic: 

So how come it’s not going well? 

 Alvaro: 

It's harder than it seems like. Yeah, you have these like long lists of prerequisites. 

Madeleine: 

I’ll buy it. 

 Alvaro: 

Yeah, like length, you have to properly take care of it. No products, no chemicals.  

Nic: 

It sounds hard, man, yeah.  I'm sorry to hear that. 

 Alvaro: 

I also have to pay for their hair cut, which is something I did not want to do in the first place. 

 Nic: 

Yeah, and this is Johann. And he's been to Japan at least once. 

 Johan: 

Yes, that's true. 

 Nic: 

How was that? 

 Johan: 

And that was really good fun. 

 Nic: 

Yeah, so I selected my team based on their wide diversity of skills so you know, I think we're ready for this contest. 

Anna: 

Excellent.  We are almost ready, but before we can start the game, we need to determine which team gets the first question.  And to determine this I have added an extra question that I am sure none of you has any chance to get exactly right.  But whichever team gets the closest answer gets to start the game.  Are you ready? 

 
Here we go. So guess as close as you can: 

What is the time averaged distance between the centre of the Earth and the centre of the Moon, measured in kilometres.   As in … not measured in like “one lunar distance”. 

 Nic: 

Damn it. 

< The teams discuss their answers > 

Anna: 
Rebecca, do you have an answer for me? 

Rebecca: 

A 100 000 kilometers. 

Anna 

Thousand 100,000 kilometres.  And?  

 Nic: 

We're going to go with 300,000, yeah? 

Anna: 

OK, so in this case Nic is closer to the actual answer.   So, while the semimajor axis of the lunar orbit is 384,402 kilometres,  the time average distance between the Earth and the Moon centre is 385,000 kilometres.  But in either case... 

Nic: 

I knew that time in Japan would pay off. 

Anna: 

Excellent, so you're going to get the first question, which is about telescopes.  

How many hexagonal mirrors make up the primary mirror in the design of the JWST and the ELT respectively: 18 and 798, 22 and 379 or 24 and 814? 

So, really, it's easy because you only need to know one of them.  

Rebecca: 

Ah, OK, I can’t steal the question then. 

Nic: 

We're going with Johans answer. 

Johan: 

18 and 798. 

Anna: 

That is correct.  One point to Nick and his team. 

Anna: 

The next question is about geography.  

Which is closest to Lund Observatory, the ESRANGE Space Centre, the ESO headquarters or the Royal Observatory, Greenwich? 

< Rebeccas team discusses their answers > 

Rebecca: 

Let’s say ESO headquarters.  Kiruna is far to far away. 

 Anna: 

And so for those in the audience who don't know the ESRANGE Space Centre , we should probably tell people that that is in Sweden. 

Rebecca: 

Yes. 

Anna: 

And yet you are going with an answer that is outside of Sweden, all the way across Denmark and into Germany, and you're going with the ESO headquarters. 

Rebecca: 

Yes. 

Anna: 

Excellent choice, because that is the right answer. 

The next question is about supernovas. 

Anna: 

Which exploded first? 

< Bell rings > 

 Anna: 

OK, Rebecca has chosen to try to steal this question so she gets a challenge. 

So the challenge is:   Name 3 astronomically related things called Atlas. 

Rebecca: 

There is there is a star in Pleiades. There is a moon in Saturn Moons. There there is also a commet named Atlas. 

 Anna: 

This is very true. It's also referred to as C 2019 Y 4. 

 Nic: 

Atlas? Like an actual Atlas?  Would that have worked? 

Anna: 

Good question, I was hoping that wouldn't come up. 

OK, so the question is:  Which exploded first Nova Stella, the Crab Nebula or 1987A? 

Now I don't like trick questions. So I'm going to be upfront with you, and this is about when they explode  

Rebecca: 

Yeah, oh! 

 Anna: 

Not when we discovered them.  When they exploded.  Because light takes time to travel from the explosion to our telescopes. 

Rebecca: 

Oh, shoot.  So we need to know the distance to them too. 

This makes stuff trickier, because I studied history of astronomy and that makes it a bit more simpler. But now I actually need to know astronomy too. 

Daniel: 

So, I don't know much about these.  I remember about Crab Nebula and whatever that I think that was Tycho? 

Rebecca: 

No, Nova Stella is Tycho. And that's the 1500s. But the Crab Nebula is like, roughly 1000 years ago. 

It was discovered by like Chinese astronomers. 

Daniel: 

Yea, but I would reason this way it's from the names 1987A sounds like it's the newest one and the  further ahead in time we go the further away we see things, usually.  Our detectors improve and we can see things further away in fainter things. So based on that I would suggest we go for 1987A. 

Rebecca: 

I really like that reasoning, sure, let's say that the 1987A exploded first.  

Anna: 

Well done because both the Crab Nebula Nova stellar within our own Galaxy whereas 1987A is in one of the Magellanic clouds. 

So next question then goes to Nic and his team. 

Rebecca: 

No, to our team, we stole their question. 

Anna: 

Exactly.  So they get a question again because you got to answer. 

Johan: 

You don’t get double quesitons 

Anna: 

So if you want all the questions you're going to have to do all the challenges. You never get an actual question if you keep stealing.  That's your punishment. 

OK, so Nick and his team get a question and this is about exoplanets. 

Which exoplanet is closest to us out of these three:  KELT-9b,  51 Pegasi b or WASP-12b. 

 Rebecca: 

Nick, one could argue that your sort of PhD thesis hangs on this. 

 Anna: 

I'm betting your supervisor will not be happy if you get this wrong. 

 Alvaro: 

It's good that he's not in the room. 

 Anna: 

There's also the option of asking the audience if you think the audience knows about this. 

Or I mean, the audience can also advise, but you don't have to actually adhere to their advice. 

You can do this. 

Nic: 
 
Where is Bibi when you need her. 

< Nics team discusses their answer > 

Nic: 

We're going to go with WASP-12b. 

 Anna: 

WASP-12b is incorrect. It is 267 parsecs away while Johan was right with 51 Peg b which is only 15 parsecs away. 

Oh, so the next question goes to Rebecca and her team and this is about motion. 

Which has the highest radial velocity: the Andromeda Galaxy, Barnard Star, or Voyager 1. 

Rebecca: 

So Barnard star has the highest proper motion, right? But it's probably not highest radial velocity. 

< Rebeccas team discusses their answer > 

Rebecca:  

Do we want to ask the audience otherwise? 

Daniel: 

Yeah, yeah, I think, yea 

 Anna: 

So what did the audience think? Which has the highest radial velocity? 

Eric: 

I don’t know know but I would guess Andromeda. 

Ross: 

The Andromeda galaxy has a negative radial velocity. 

Anna: 

Yes,  

Yes, but this is an absolue value. 

Rebecca: 

OK, I think with the help of the audience, we answer with Andromeda. 

Anna: 

Which is correct. 

The Andromeda galaxy has a radial voelody of 300 kilometres per second coming towards us, Barnard star is at 110 kilometres per second and Voyager one is at a measly 17 kilometres per second. 

OK, Nick and his team. Are you ready? So this is about stars. 

How do you identify a Thorne-Zytkow object?

 

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