Podcast: Winter is Coming? I Hope Not

Posted on by onespaceman2000

If you missed this podcast three years ago, you will want to catch it now. I listened to it again and enjoyed it just as much as last time.

The Startalk podcast episode it titled “Nuclear Winter with Ann Druyan and Brian Toon” was first broadcast on August 9, 2022, but it was shared again this past July 4th.

Here is a summary of what you will hear:

Are advanced civilizations doomed to destroy themselves? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-host Chuck Nice explore the Cold War, The Drake Equation, and Carl Sagan’s work on the nuclear winter hypothesis with producer of Cosmos and Carl Sagan’s widow Ann Druyan and atmospheric scientist Brian Toon.

Learn about the Future of Life award (details here) and how scientists came up with the nuclear winter hypothesis. How close to annihilation were we? Ann tells us about working with Carl Sagan on Cosmos and his research on this world and others. Find out how Carl Sagan’s research on the climate of Venus inspired work on the runaway greenhouse effect in our own atmosphere. Are scientists always supposed to be dispassionate?

What are the long-term consequences of nuclear war? How did they discover nuclear winter? Find out about volcanic eruptions and how the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs helped spark the idea of a nuclear winter. What happened after the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? We learn about what smoke does to the atmosphere and what a post-nuclear world would look like. Why haven’t we seen any other advanced civilizations in the universe? Where are they? We talk about the Drake Equation, the fate of the Earth, and the current state of weapons of mass destruction. How much food would be needed to save up to survive a nuclear winter? Is there anywhere that would be safe?

What was the public’s reaction to nuclear winter? How did it impact geopolitics? Discover how Carl Sagan publicized the hypothesis to US and Russian politicians. Has the global amount of nuclear weapons gone down? We discuss the role of science communication and the concerning instability in the world today. Finally, are we safe?

I don’t want to repeat myself here, so you can read my comments in my earlier post.

Given the continued nasty war between Ukraine and Russia, as well as the recent bombing of nuclear sites in Iran, this episode is still sadly relevant. The discussion about the Reagan administration trying to block scientific inquiry also seems all too familiar today as the Trump administration guts our science programs, including NASA.

I just hope we are in a better place three years from now, both domestically and overseas.

Space Stories: New Bacterial Species at NASA, Geologic Life on Venus, and Water Found in Distant Solar System

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Venus captured by NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—SciTechDaily: “NASA Just Found New Signs of Life Inside Venus – Geologic Life, That Is“

Vast, circular features on the surface of Venus may be signs that the planet is still geologically active. That’s according to new research based on data collected over 30 years ago by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft. Unlike Earth, where giant plates of crust shift and recycle through a process called plate tectonics, Venus doesn’t have these moving plates. But its surface is still being reshaped—likely by molten rock rising from deep within the planet.

—USAToday: “NASA ‘Cleanrooms’ Found Crawling with 26 New Bacterial Species“

 A new study reports 26 new bacterial species were found growing inside cleanrooms associated with NASA space missions. Specifically, scientists looked in the cleanrooms used to prepare the Phoenix Mars lander for its launch in August 2007. In the study, scientists analyzed microorganisms growing in the NASA cleanrooms and discovered many of the new species had genes that made them resilient to decontamination and radiation.

—NASA: “Another First: NASA Webb Identifies Frozen Water in Young Star System“

Is frozen water scattered in systems around other stars? Astronomers have long expected it is, partially based on previous detections of its gaseous form, water vapor, and its presence in our own solar system. Now there is definitive evidence: Researchers confirmed the presence of crystalline water ice in a dusty debris disk that orbits a Sun-like star 155 light-years away using detailed data known as spectra from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. (The term water ice specifies its makeup, since many other frozen molecules are also observed in space, such as carbon dioxide ice, or “dry ice.”)

NASA Advisory Groups Share Concerns About Budget Cuts

Posted on by onespaceman2000

NASA Watch published a letter from representatives of the agency’s advisory groups, including:

The letter highlights the importance of science initiatives at NASA at a time when drastic budget cuts are being considered, and quotes Carl Sagan:

Cutting off fundamental, curiosity-driven science is like eating the seed corn. We may have a little more to eat next winter but what will we plant so we and our children will have enough to get through the winters to come?

It’s a much needed yet bold approach at this time when the White House is eliminating all opposition to its wild cuts and erratic attack on diversity. The White House is actively shutting down advisory committees through the federal government, including NASA.

We can only hope the public listens to the wiser voices from these advisory committees. Someday all of this will need to be rebuilt, including our space program, but for now we need to save as much as we can from random cuts from parties that do not seem to understand the important role of science in our economy and our future.

Space Quote: Soviet-Era Space Probe May Come Down Tonight

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Replica of the Soviet Union’sVernera 8 landing capsule launched towards Venus. (European Space Agency)

“As this is a lander that was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere, it is possible that it will survive reentry through the Earth atmosphere intact, and impact intact.”

-Statement by Marco Langbroek, an expert on Space Situational Awareness at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands, pertaining to the Venera 8 probe that was to be sent to Venus by the Soviets more than 50 years ago. However, the probe, renamed Kosmos 482, never left Earth orbit. Only now is it ready to return to the Earth’s surface tonight, though the exact location is unknown.

Update: Sunday morning at 2:24 am EST the lander broke up over the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta.

Space Stories: Solar Orbiter Encounters Venus, White Dwarf Exoplanets, and the End of Gaia

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Credit: ESA

Here are some recent stories of interest..

—European Space Agency: “Solar Orbiter Ready for Close Encounter with Venus’“

The European Space Agency (ESA) is ready to guide the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft through its closest encounter with Venus so far. Today’s flyby will be the first to significantly ‘tilt’ the spacecraft’s orbit and allow it to see the Sun’s polar regions, which cannot be seen from Earth. Studying the Sun’s poles will improve our understanding of solar activity, space weather, and the Sun-Earth connection.

—UC Irvine News: “UC Irvine Astronomers Gauge Livability of Exoplanets Orbiting White Dwarf Stars’“

Among the roughly 10 billion white dwarf stars in the Milky Way galaxy, a greater number than previously expected could provide a stellar environment hospitable to life-supporting exoplanets, according to astronomers at the University of California, Irvine. In a paper published recently in The Astrophysical Journal, a research team led by Aomawa Shields, UC Irvine associate professor of physics and astronomy, share the results of a study comparing the climates of exoplanets at two different stars. One is a hypothetical white dwarf that’s passed through much of its life cycle and is on a slow path to stellar death. The other subject is Kepler-62, a “main sequence” star at a similar phase in its evolution as our sun.

—Uppsala University: “Mission Accomplished for Space Telescope Gaia’“

The space telescope Gaia has created the largest three-dimensional map of the Milky Way ever. On January 15, 2025, Gaia shut down after 11 years in space. But the research on data Gaia collected will continue for many years to come. Gaia is a space telescope onboard a satellite that has orbited the sun for 11 years. With the help of astrometry, which is a technique to measure the positions, distances and movements of stars and other heavenly bodies, Gaia has been able to measure distances and luminosities for up to 2 billion stars, which is about 1% of all stars in the Milky Way.