The Search for Dark Matter and the Mysteries Hidden Beneath Antarctica

0:00 Speaker 1 Labor Day weekend. What’s going on with us today is Dr. Skye and otherwise known as Steve Cates, my good friend, and keeps us informed. And he has another show on Friday night to Saturday morning, 12 midnight to 2 a.m.

0:18 Saturday morning and 12 midnight to 2 a.m. Sunday morning. Steve Cates, tell us what the heck is going on this week.

0:27 Speaker 2 Good morning, John. Lots of things happening closer to home. Last week, the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope. That’s an amazing telescope. And it was also in honor of a woman who was one of NASA’s very first astronomers.

0:41 She’s otherwise known as the mother of Hubble. And this telescope, John, which launched into space, is what we call an infrared telescope. It’ll go way out like a distance from the Earth, like the James Webb Telescope. And it’s just an incredible piece of equipment. The total cost of this mission for all of its duration and launch is about $ 4. 3 billion.

1:03 But what it’s looking to do is trying to answer the questions of what’s dark matter, dark energy in the universe. And it’s expanding our minds all the time in honor of the very first chief of astronomy, Nancy Grace Roman.

1:16 So get set for some exciting research. coming from that telescope. How about that, John? Pretty good.

1:22 Speaker 1 That’s pretty good, pretty good. I mean, I’m looking forward. Tell us what new things people will see or what they expect to see through this telescope.

1:32 Speaker 2 John, they’re going to be looking deeper to the creation of the universe. We thought 13.7 billion years ago, the creation, as we know, of the Big Bang. So now, with even James Webb, we’ve pushed all the way back in time to when the universe was maybe half a million years old. Now, that’s incredible. So we’re going to learn

1:50 so much more about how galaxies were formed. And it’s also searching for exoplanets, John. That’s planetary systems that many may not know that already exist around different star systems. And what if my positivity and yours, with the plethora of number of stars out there, who’s to say that we’re the only life form in the universe? Right, John?

2:10 That’s amazing. So we’ll find out more from the Nancy Grace Roman Fellowship.

2:14 Speaker 1 Well, Dr. Sky, you know I listen a lot to ancient aliens and all of that. And supposedly the Egyptians or the other ancient civilizations of planet Earth were pointing to certain help from outer space, certain stars. Will we be able to analyze these stars?

2:40 Speaker 2 John, they’re going to dig deeper. We don’t know. We still haven’t found a planetary system that mimics the Earth in the way we know it. But, John, humbling? Who’s to say that life needs to look like us, right?

2:51 So we’ll keep the door open. But we have other great topics to talk about. How about this one briefly, and then we’ll get on to the mystery of the week. IBM’s quantum computer, John, solves a mathematical problem in 15 minutes that would have taken who knows how long, an infinite number of hours, maybe years. These new computers called

3:10 quantum computers, instead of what we now know using bits and bytes in our computers, they’re sophisticated. But when you get into quantum computing, John, they use a phenomenon called qubits. And what’s that? These are particles, at least from quantum physics, that can be in two places at the same time.

3:29 And that subject is called quantum entanglement or superposition. So without a lengthy discussion, we’re finding out that the advent of quantum computing, John, It’s going to simply revolutionize everything as far as computers in the future.

3:44 Speaker 1 Steve Cates, the ordinary human being out there doesn’t know what the word quantum computing means. Absolutely. So why don’t we explain it to him a little bit more, explain.

3:55 Speaker 2 It to them. Absolutely. Be happy to. Okay. So quantum, John, it uses the element. It’s kind of an interesting thing. Here’s the simplest way I can explain it. Going into quantum physics, that’s like digging deeper and deeper into the atom. In other words, it’s like dissecting things way down, well below the atomic level. And the mystery of this whole thing is now we’re using simple zeros

4:18 and ones in computers. But these qubits are actually these particles in space that now we know can be in two positions at the same time. So you get double, and I’m being simple here, double the effort of what our simple zero and one computers can do. This can do millions of times faster, these calculations, all done in

4:38 the world of quantum physics, John. It’s a very, very technical subject. But the main point is, look at the speed of which we’re getting unheard of in the world of computing. Just amazing. And now we save the best for last, John, the mystery of the week. Let’s talk about what are some of the great mysteries of Antarctica.

4:57 And this is a fascinating subject. What about underground lakes? Today, scientists have detected, John, 400 lakes under the ice. We’re talking about a mile deep of ice. How about deep salt lakes? There’s a salt lake on the surface of Antarctica, 10 times saltier than the ocean, another 200 feet below the ice. And here’s one that’s really bizarre. Have we

5:20 ever seen a geyser or a waterfall coming out of a glacier which is blood red in color? Why is it blood red? It contains so much of the internal elements of the earth, like iron, which when it hits the atmosphere, imagine seeing a blood-red, large, big waterfall coming out of a mountain glacier. And then, John, sea creatures.

5:41 Think about this. Sea creatures that you can actually see through. In other words, they’re transparent. And what keeps them alive is some sort of an antifreeze, like we would have, let’s say, so things don’t freeze. These are strange creatures that we’ve never been able to identify. How about preserved rainforests?

5:58 below this particular surface of ice, and a giant hole called Polonia. What’s that? In the frozen ocean area, there’s these regions that don’t solidify. One of them is the size of Ireland, meaning that the mysteries of Antarctica go on and on and on, John. The fifth continent of the Earth, still very much unexplored. We know maybe more

6:21 about Mars than we know about Antarctica.

6:24 Speaker 1 That, and there’s a lot more about Antarctica that we don’t know, and we’re going to find out someday, and I think we should keep digging.

6:34 Speaker 2 Absolutely, John. And for the sky watchers out there, don’t forget, autumn, just a couple of weeks away. But, John, we have a beautiful harvest moon, which will occur on the 26th of September, and the harvest moon, a beautiful romantic moon, always the moon closest to the beginning of fall, the autumnal equinox. So September looks like a very good month, John.

6:55 Thank you for having me, and a happy Sunday to you and the audience.

6:58 Speaker 1 Thank you so much.