Water detected on a distant exoplanet.

0:00 Speaker 1 What is today is Steve Kates, otherwise known as Doctor Sky, and he’s with us every Sunday to let us know what the heck is going on out there somewhere out there. Steve. Good to have you on a Sunday morning. It expands our mind a little bit to dream and to wonder.

0:19 So where should we start.

0:22 Speaker 2 Well, good morning John to you and the listeners. Always exciting things. I have a little update here from the James Web Telescope and boy, John, that has really given us so much information about the universe. You know, in ten years we probably couldn’t imagine that we’d have so much technology here with this massive telescope. But here’s what

0:39 we think is happening right now. One of the latest revelations I should call it, maybe not a discovery, the James Web telescope. John just recently imaged the star that now they believe there’s a planetary object we call them exo planets around a particular star. Now that’s not great news or earth shaking news or space shaking news, because

0:59 we know there’s so much the exoplanets out there. But here we go. The James Web Telescope has the first time in history it has directly imaged an exoplanet. In other words, it’s actually seen the object. Because previous to this, the only way the astronomers could ever figure out if there was something around the star is they’d have to

1:17 watch it if it transited in front, and they never really saw it. They just saw a light dip and they gave an estimate of what the size would be through math. Well, this little object they’ve labeled GJ four eighty six B, it’s around that star and it’s twenty six light years away from us. But it’s weird, John,

1:33 It’s around a red dwarf star. And now astronomers are thinking that if there are habitable planets out there, they may not necessarily be around stars like our sun, but these dying stars. And we find out that this little object probably is in the habitable zone. What did they detect.

1:49 They detected water vapor. But the astronomers are having a little bit of confusion. They don’t know if that water vapor is around the star or if it’s directly around the planet. Now, if it’s around the planet, well there we go the first evidence really of maybe a planetary object that might harbor I didn’t say life, but has water.

2:09 So that’s interesting because the chaser of telescope is so powerful. This is the first time they’ve actually imaged the planet around another star system without doing the theoretical stuff. Isn’t that incredible?

2:21 Speaker 1 That is incredible. I mean, there’s so many things out there that I hope we can live long enough to find out what the heck is really going on.

2:32 Speaker 2 Yes, absolutely, And it’s just so mind boggling because remember twenty six light years away. That means that what they saw happened in nineteen ninety seven when we were all busy in our lives doing other things a long time ago.

2:45 But what’s interesting about this is that little object, the planet that they talk about, this is GJ four eighty six B. It orbits around this star like we go around once in three hundred and sixty five days around the Sun. We know that this goes around that star in one point five days. And they’re saying that it’s

3:01 tidally locked, so in other words, its face stays the same to that star. But it’s their temperature they say is around eight hundred degrees fahahite. So for anybody out there that puts one in one together, you would say, wait a minute, how does water survive than eight hundred degrees because boiling points are like two twelve fahrenheit. But

3:20 it’s the first time we’ve had any indication of water vapor around the star. But I’m so keen on this James Web telescope, right, John, I mean, it’s got this amazing twenty one foot series of mirrors, and it’s really in what a year and a half, two years maybe coming up done so much great science. I think we’ve

3:39 only begun to to scratch the surface. And that’s incredible.

3:43 Speaker 1 Now. I mean, we talk about Mars, we talk about the Moon, I mean Venus, and Mercury is so close to the Sun it must be eight hundred degrees there.

3:55 Speaker 2 It sure is. And here’s another strange factoid about Mercury being the smallest planet than the Cellars system. The Ganymede Moon of Jupiter is larger than Mercury. But John, on one side the temperatures can drop way below zero, and on the other side it’s bubbling hot. So the point is we’ve never seen water on Mercury.

4:13 Speaker 1 Maybe that planet that we talked about is the same thing. Maybe the other side of that planet is the same as Mercury.

4:20 Speaker 2 There you go, it could very well mimic those features, because, like I said, since it’s locked on, it’s like if you take your hand, put it in front of your face and don’t turn it and just move it around your head. One side’s overly hot, the other side may be who knows, semi habitable. But that’s what’s so great

4:35 about this. But what’s also interesting, John, is this other conundrum, these great mysteries that we talk about. We talk about a subject in physics called absolute zero. What the heck is that We’ve talked about it a long time ago.

4:47 It’s the lowest temperature that you can have in the universe, where all molecular and atomic motion stops. What is it four hundred and fifty nine point seven degrees below zero fahrenheit. Now here’s this nebula they found called the boomerang nebula, looks like a shape of a boomerang or a bow tie.

5:05 It’s five thousand light years away. So the astronomers, with their ways of measuring things, you know, through the spectroscope and all these other fancy math formulas, they find out that this is the coldest place in the universe. What’s the temperature minus four fifty eight low zero fahrenheit, which is like one degree away from the all time low temperature.

5:25 So that’s incredible because scientists are saying that if we can get to absolute zero or get to the lower temperatures, this is going to change the subject slightly, but it’s going to help us in the world of what we call quantum computing, because when you get down to those super low temperatures, conductivity and things move in a different direction.

5:45 So maybe the concept of trying to get to absolute zero is something technologically that in the future you’ll have computers that can outpace the wildest imagination that you and I could have. Totally mind boggling, it is, Steve any update on.

6:05 Speaker 1 Those the one on the Moon that was supposed to be landing and they lost it.

6:11 Speaker 2 They did that, Sarkudo are no further contact with it. What a sad thing. Because we talked about it, I think last week, and I also mentioned that with Frank Morono on the Other Side of Midnight, which funny, John we say on that hour and Frank agrees that we changed the name of the show just temporarily to the

6:27 Infinite Side of Midnight, But we talked about it there too. But no update. It’s sad because it was going to be one of the first privatized craft to land on the Moon. So many more things are happening in space right now, but here’s another space one that’s in the news and people don’t talk about. Remember back in nineteen

6:45 seventy seven, we launched two Voyager spacecraft one Voyager one and Voyager two. Well, NASA and the Space Scientists are giving a little more money to fund it for about three more years. But people need to know this. The Voyager one spacecraft is actually the farthest man made object out in space. How far is it? Fourteen billion miles away?

7:06 So if you and I John, we’re going to the tracking center where they have all the you know, the commission control, and we told the spacecraft to do something. It takes twenty two hours plus and some minutes just for that spacecraft to receive a signal, like if we wanted to say, turn camera one on, close camera two

7:24 or send us back something. That’s so amazing because humankind has sent this out and we all know that one of the Star Trek movies, I forget the name of the movie entirely, but we found out that one of the Voyager spacecraft went out into space and it was known as Vegre. And what did it do. It actually

7:40 became like an entity of intelligence onto its own. That’s the sci fi side. But that’s amazing, John, that something like that is still operating. And that’s way out there beyond our wildest dream. And it’s only it’s not light years away, that’s fourteen billion miles away, and it’s actually left the gravity field of the on you know, the

8:00 solar wind comes out of the Sun like a garden hose, and it crossed the area where the Sun’s energy doesn’t push out any farther. So that is the deep dark cosmos. So amazing, so incredible. And we always ended off John with things that people can see in the sky. This is a beautiful weekend, and on this Sunday evening, if

8:19 you still look to the east after sunset, you’ll see the remnants of the beautiful full flower moon, just a magnificent moon in the sky. And you’ll also know that we’re going through a little meteor shower right now. The Moon’s light will wipe out most of it, but some lucky people will see them. It’s called the eight Querid

8:34 meteor shower. And these debris partic goles, John, all come from the famous comet called Halley’s comet. So if you look into the southeast before dawn, say four am to sunrise or maybe three am, you may get to see a few of those so called shooting stars. But remember Mankind’s comet throughout history has always been Halley’s Comet, and

8:53 it hasn’t been around here since nineteen eighty six, before that, nineteen ten. And we’re looking for a journey of us, you know, to see it again in here twenty sixty one. But if you can’t wait that long, try that in the sky. And we got some great interviews, John.

9:06 Speaker 1 I hope we make twenty sixty one, me and you, Steve.

9:10 Speaker 2 I hope so, and we have some great Finally, we have some great interviews coming up on the Doctor Sky Experience at WABC Radio dot com. And one of them, John is very interesting. I’m proud of this. Had an interview years ago with doctor Kip Thorne out of California Institute of Technology. He’s a co Nobel Prize winner on

9:26 something called gravitational waves, which is the warping of space time. He’s a real amazing man. I’ve met him. But if people go there you’ll find what a plethora of interviews on all these subjects that we talk about. And thanking you for letting me open up people’s minds on Sundays as we talk about these great topics.

9:44 Speaker 1 Doctor Steve Kates, thank you so much. And doctor Sky, you’re a normal You’re not a doctor Steve Kates, but you’re a doctor Scott. Thank you so much, and God bless you, and thank you for enlightening us and expanding our mind.

9:59 Speaker 2 Well, thank you, John for the the opportunity and the happy Sunday to your listeners. Happy Sunday,