The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu

• A Scintillating Cosmic Conversation with Robert Sparks

  Have you ever wondered how data from the telescopes that peer into our universe ends up in the hands of the astronomers who interpret it? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Robert Sparks, currently from the NSF’s NOIRLab, but previously Fermi Lab and the Sloan Sky Survey. The National Optical InfraRed Astronomy Research Lab is responsible for operating the National Science Foundation’s ground based, nighttime optical and near infrared astronomy for the United States. Robert describes their Community Science Data Center which ties all the data from all their telescopes together to make it available for astronomers around the world to use in their research. As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, a project coming out of NOIRLab called 88 Constellations. Robert, who spearheaded the project, explains how the final, incredibly detailed image combined classic constellations and new, modern additions and covered the entire sky. One of his favorite parts of the project? Learning about the constellations in the southern hemisphere that doesn’t get to see that often, like the Southern Cross. Chuck, Allen and Robert share some of their experiences stargazing down below, and yes, you know Chuck takes the opportunity to sing us a little Crosby, Stills and Nash! You’ll also hear which constellation is the smallest in the southern hemisphere, Crux (the Southern Cross) or Delphinus. Then it’s on to audience questions. Our first comes from Amirah, who asks, “Blue stars are hotter than red stars, so does that mean blue light bulbs are hotter than red light bulbs? Why would something's color matter about how hot something is?” The short answer: yes (pre-LED, that is!) Robert’s long answer involves black body radiation, the electromagnetic spectrum, and red giant carbon stars. Rob shares stories from a career that bridges astronomy and particle physics, including how he got his hands on some original scintillator material from particle detectors at Fermi Lab. (Check out The LIUniverse on Patreon for a scintillating deep dive into…well, scintillation!) The next audience question, from Bryan, is particularly relevant to the discussion: How do astronomy and physics work together? In many, ways, as Robert and Chuck explain. Allen shares the story of the discovery of the element Helium, which was first discovered in the Sun by astronomers, hence its name. You’ll also get to hear about Robert’s 38-year-long career in improv comedy – and get to watch him (and his cat) act out scenes prompted by Chuck. Finally, we’ve got one last audience question from Jerry, who says, “I live really far away from the city and I don't have a telescope. What's the best way for me to do astronomy research?” Robert, who grew up in Iowa, tells Jerry about citizen science astronomy projects he can get involved like those at The Zooniverse. You’ll hear about how, while working at a program there known as the Galaxy Zoo, a Dutch schoolteacher named Hanny Van Arkel discovered a weird light echo from a quasar that is now known as “Hanny’s Voorwep” (Hanny’s Object).   If you’d like to find out more about NOIRLab, the National Optical InfraRed Astronomy Research Lab, check out their website. To keep up with Robert Sparks, you can follow him @halfastro on Bluesky, Threads, Flikr, and Instagram. We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.   Credits for Images Used in this Episode: Mauna Kea observatories in Hawaii – Credit: Wikicommons/Alan L. Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) in Arizona. – Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Slovinský 3-D view of the largest structures in the Universe via data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. – Credit: NASA/University of Chicago and Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum 88 Constellation sky-scape video compiled using images from the best and darkest locations around the globe: Germany (Waldenburg), Spain (Tenerife, La Palma), Namibia and Chile. – Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/E. Slawik/M. Zamani The constellation Crux (Southern Cross) – Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani The constellation Delphinus – Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani Illustration of the spectrum of electromagnetic energy, highlighting the portions detected by NASA’s Hubble, Spitzer, and Webb space telescopes – Credit NASA Event captured by the Super Kamiokande detector – Credit: Tomasz Barszczak/Super-Kamiokande collaboration Visualization of two colliding galaxies that merge into a single elliptical galaxy over a period spanning two billion years – Credits: NCSA, NASA, B. Robertson, L. Hernquist Helium spectral lines which appear in the visible spectrum at about 400-700 nanometers. – Credit: Creative Commons/ McZusatz Hanny’s Voorwep, A Space Oddity – Credit: NASA, ESA, W. Keel (University of Alabama), and the Galaxy Zoo Team   #TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast  #NOIRLab #NSF #FermiLab #SloanDigitalSkySurvey #88Constellations #GalaxyZoo #TheZooniverse #blackbodyradiation #electromagneticspectrum #redgiants #carbonstars #particlephysics #scintillatormaterial #particledetectors #scintillation #HannysVoorwep

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• Comets, Eclipses and Auroras: The LIUniverse Looks Back at 2024

  What were the coolest science and sci-fi events in the LIUniverse in 2024, and what’s in store for us in 2025? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome three members of our production team: Leslie Mullen, our Executive Producer making her first on air appearance, Jon Barnes, our Editor, and Stacey Severn, our Social Media/Patreon Community Director, both of whom are familiar to longtime fans. But first, as always, we start with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: the latest development in the dispute that astrophysicists call the “Hubble Tension.” Over the past 20 years, the two different methods of measuring the Hubble Constant, which is used to calculate the rate of universal expansion, have led to two different conclusions. Leslie points out that the universe isn’t confused, we are, leading to a conversation about why accurate measurements matter in helping us expand our limited understanding. Then we begin our look back at the year in astronomy – or rather, our look up. Stacey takes us on a tour, from a Geminid meteor hitting the moon, to the spectacular aurora borealis visible in the Northeastern US, to Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, to, of course, the Great North American Eclipse. The team share their viewing experiences while Chuck explains the impact of solar max on both the eclipse and the auroras. Next, Jon Barnes is back to talk about “The Three-Body Problem” science fiction series on Netflix. He asks Chuck to explain what we really know about cosmic particles (aka cosmic rays), because, in the series, the aliens use sophons, a supercomputer combined with a photon, to communicate across long distances at or near the speed of light. You’ll also hear about the recent detection of a surprisingly large number of very high energy cosmic rays that are hitting us right now. Our fan question comes from Pshemo on Patreon and concerns an experiment to measure the dynamics of a local system relative to spacetime by using light as a way of gauging the background nature of the universe. And if you think that sounds pretty geeky, it’s nothing compared to the conversation between Allen, Chuck and Leslie that ensues, encompassing Einstein, the Michelson–Morley experiment, gravitational waves, LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, and LISA. There’s plenty more in this episode, including a discussion of the recent wave of drone sightings, their similarity to the past UFO sightings, and the likelihood that they are all explained by less exotic causes than aliens. Moving on to the coolest “identified flying objects” of 2024, Leslie tells us about the Europa Clipper, which launched in October. It will reach orbit around Jupiter in 6 years in order to search for alien life in the subsurface oceans of its icy moon Europa. Chuck reminds us all that NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will make its closest approach to our Sun on Christmas Eve 2024. Finally, it’s time for the team to share what they’re looking forward to in 2025. Jon is psyched for “Mickey 17,” a film by director Bong Joon-ho about a clone on a space colony. Allen is excited for Rocket Lab’s Venus Life Finder, the first private interplanetary space probe, which launches in January to search for organic compounds within Venus' atmosphere. Stacey is looking forward to Axiom Space’s fourth mission to the ISS in 2025, an international trip to conduct scientific experiments commanded again by Peggy Whitson. Leslie is most excited for the discovery nobody is expecting, whatever that may be. And what is Chuck looking forward to most in 2025? The long-awaited start of scientific operations at the Vera Rubin Observatory, which will take a full picture of the sky every 30 seconds for ten years and deliver an unprecedented level of data for astronomers to feast upon! We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.   Credits for Images Used in this Episode: Illustration of the Hubble constant – NASA/ESA/StSci, Public Domain Gianluca Lombardi Geminid meteor shower video podcast – ESO, Public Domain Northern Lights over the Northeastern US in 2024. – Elliot Severn, All Rights Reserved Northern Lights over the Northeastern US in 2024. – Allen Liu, All Rights Reserved Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS – Elliot Severn, All Rights Reserved Map showing total solar eclipse viewing in US in 2017 and 2024. – Ernest Wright/NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio, Public Domain Total solar eclipse, April 8, 2024. – Elliot Severn, All Rights Reserved How LIGO achieves steadiness – Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab, Public Domain Europa Clipper construction – NASA/JPL, Public Domain Artist rendering of Europa Clipper traveling to Jupiter – NASA/JPL, Public Domain Artist concept of the Casini spacecraft flying through the water/ice plumes of Enceladus – NASA/JPL, Public Domain Artist concept of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe flying close to the Sun. – NASA, Public Domain

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• Space Lasers, Solar Panels and Stochastic Parrots with Leah Voytovich

  How far can following your passions take you in science? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome the multi-faceted Leah Voytovich, a software development engineer for Project Kuiper who planned on going to med school but instead ended up working on space lasers for Amazon’s satellite internet constellation. As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: the use of deuterium levels in the search for exoplanets with advanced civilizations. That’s because signs of deuterium depletion can indicate that a planet has developed nuclear fission power.  After that, Leah tells us a little about Amazon’s Project Kuiper. She explains the wide variety of challenges to keeping the satellites, which are in low earth orbit, in communication with the ground. The project she’s working on now is using infrared space lasers to communicate more securely within the satellite constellation.  Chuck brings up the impact that these massive groups of satellites like Starlink are having on astronomy, from satellite streaks on dark sky surveys to image-destroying flares. Leah said there are people working on reducing Project Kuiper’s impacts across multiple areas of concern. For our first question. Yasmin asks, “Will our satellites all be controlled by AI someday? If so, when? And is this a good idea?”  Leah speculates that there may be some projects already using Machine Learning here on Earth, but that it will be further down the line before there’s AI actually present in satellites themselves. Leah doesn’t see a problem with the use of ML tools for science, as long as there are protections in place and that humans are still writing the software. After our break, Leah tells us about what she does outside her work – literally – from climbing Mount St. Helens in winter using an ice ax and crampons, to skiing, to running marathons – 3 so far! Then we’re back to AI, ML, and the differences between the two. Charles talks about how important AI has beome as a tool for astronomers and other scientists. Leah explains the “Chinese Room Argument” and why it’s a good analogy for machine learning, Allen shares the description of AI as a “stochastic parrot.”  Our next question comes from Jonathan, who asks, “With so many problems facing the world like poverty, war and the climate crisis here on Earth, why should we spend money and resources on space exploration and astronomy?” Leah talks about how Project Kuiper is intended to serve underserved communities by providing internet access to people who don’t already have it. That in turn increases global communication and connectivity and can then help address those other problems. And of course, to launch those satellites, we need rockets. She also explains how valuable internet access is to communities– something she knows a little about. She and Martin Leet co-founded Maji, a nonprofit in Uganda that uses solar power to make clean water easily accessible for refugee communities. Leah, a former EMT, explains how Maji also provides first aide medical training and agricultural training to the communities. The story of how Maji came to be is remarkable – we’ll leave it to Leah to share that with you in the episode. We end with Leah recounting what it was like to be in Mission Control for the launch of the first Project Kuiper satellites. She was the representative for her team in the Mission Control room, so she was the one who actually got to say “Go” for her service during the final pre-launch Go/No Go review.  If you’d like to know more about Maji, you can check out the nonprofit’s website here. We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon. Credits for Images Used in this Episode: Illustration of Kepler-138 exoplanets– NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI) Deuterium, aka hydrogen-2 (²H or D) – Center for Deuterium Depletion An axonometric view displays various Earth orbits, illustrating space debris and active satellites – WikiCommons/Pablo Carlos Budassi The history of the universe since the Big Bang – NASA Satellite streaks in an astronomical image – University of Washington/ Abhilash Biswas, Kilando Chambers, and Ashley Santos Space-based lasers – IEEE Spectrum Illustration of NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) communicating with the I.S.S. over laser links – NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Illustration of machine learning and artificial intelligence – Creative Commons / mikemacmarketing Computer simulation of dendrites of pyramidal neurons – Hermann Cuntz/ PLoS Computational Biology, Vol. 6(8) August 2010. Earth illuminated time-lapse video if ISS over Earth – NASA Martin Leet and Leah Voytovich – University of Pennsylvania The Maji water tank for the Olua I community – University of Pennsylvania/Martin Leet

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  45:36
• A Double Dose of Physics with Dr. Betty Jensen and Dr. Mary Lou West

  What was it like forging a career in physics as a woman in the 1970s? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome the “Dynamic Duo of Physics” – physicist Dr. Betty Jensen and astrophysicist Dr. Mary Lou West. As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, a potential new revelation about Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. It seems that the current spot may be only 190 years old rather than 400 years old, and that the first spot described by Cassini in the 1600s may have actually disappeared in the early 1700s. Mary Lou points out that the older spot may not even have been red and gives us a primer on the storms of Jupiter. Next, Betty talks about her love of math and science, her research in fusion energy, and how she forged her own path to becoming the physicist she always knew she would be. Both scientists talk about how “the two body problem” led each of them to stay in the New York area. Mary Lou talks about how she also studied math and physics, but how she ended up becoming an astrophysicist. Then it’s time for an audience question for Dr. Jensen and Dr. West: “What kinds of mentoring opportunities were available during your PhD years?” Betty says that while as the lone woman in her area she didn’t feel very supported, she did have some really good experiences with professors at Columbia University, including Nobel prize winner in physics Dr. Isadore Isaac Rabi. Mary Lou, who was also at Columbia, tells the story of how she had to do a second thesis after someone published on the subject she’d been working on. She also recounts the wild story of how she used a children’s chalkboard to save her PhD thesis defense after student protests disrupted it. Charles brings up the story of Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu, one of the most famous woman physics professors of the period and a member of the Manhattan Project, with whom Betty took a class. In a perhaps unsurprising turn of events, Dr. Wu and the other women on her team who conducted the “Wu Experiment” were ignored by the Nobel Prize committee in favor of the male scientists who predicted the results of her experiment. Throughout the episode, Betty and Mary Lou share some of their most interesting experiences, from riding in the back of a car with Edward Teller, the father of the H-Bomb, to the nearly catastrophic installation of a large telescope at the Harriman Observatory. Chuck talks with Betty and Mary Lou about what it was like to use computers in the punch card era. It turns out, both Betty’s dissertation and Mary Lou’s thesis were on punch cards! Finally, after the two scientists brag about their families, Chuck asks them for some parting words of advice for future scientists. But we wouldn’t dream of speaking for them, so please tune in to the episode for words of wisdom from these two inspirational physicists.   We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.   Credits for Images Used in this Episode: Great Red Spot seen by the Juno probe – Kevin Gill, CC BY 2.0 Cassini’s drawing of Jupiter’s “permanent spot” – Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Public Domain Great Red Spot in the 1880s – Thomas Gwyn Elger Magnetic plasma storms on the Sun – Courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, Public Domain Dr. Isadore Isaac Rabi – Nobel Foundation Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu at work – Smithsonian Institution, no known copyright restrictions Dr. Edward Teller – UC Davis, CC BY 2.0   #TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast #Physics #Astrophysics #BettyJensen #MaryLouWest #Jupiter #GreatRedSpot #MagneticPlasmaStorms #JovianStorms #SolarStorms #Cassini #NobelPrize #IsadoreIsaacRabi #ChienShiungWu #EdwardTeller #ManhattanProject #HarrimanObservatory #ColumbiaUniversity #TwoBodyProblem

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  39:21
• Into the Unknown with Dr. Kelsey Johnson Part 2

  Why should people care about fundamental questions of existence or try to understand the principles of our universe? Because we may be the only sentient beings in existence who can! At least, that’s what returning guest Dr. Kelsey Johnson, past president of the AAS and the ASP, and author of “Into the Unknown – The Quest to Understand the Mysteries of the Cosmos, tells Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu as our interview resumes. And then we’re off and running! Kelsey explains where her passion for astrophysics comes from, and why it’s our responsibility to explore the reality in which we live. You’ll hear about how really big our universe is and why we need to get comfortable with the unknown – with an assist from Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Letters To A Young Poet.” Our first question comes from Violetta, who asks, “What was the most interesting thing that got you into astrophysics?” Kelsey describes how, long before she knew anything about astronomy, she fell in love with Vega while staring at it from the middle of a giant potato field. She talks about what it’s like to discover something through a telescope that no one on Earth has ever seen before. Charles shares a memory about hunting for – and discovering – quasars around the Hubble Deep Field (North) when he was a post-doc using the MMT Telescope in Arizona. Kelsey talks about seeing the unbelievable night sky while visiting the site of the ALMA Observatory in the Atacama Desert in Chile. We end the episode with Chuck and Kelsey talking about how hard it can be for parents to get their kids to follow in their footsteps, at least when those footsteps lead to a telescope! If you’d like to know more about Kelsey, you can visit her website and follow her on Twitter (X) and Instagram at @ProfKelsey, We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon. Credits for Images Used in this Episode: The Hubble Deep Field (north) – NASA, Public Domain Inside the MMT observatory – Bill85704 on Flickr, CC BY 2.0 Two of ALMA’s radio antennae – Iztok Bončina/ESO, CC BY 4.0 Vega – Stephen Rahn, public domain (CC0) #TheLIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AllenLiu #SciencePodcast #AstronomyPodcast  #KelseyJohnson #AAS #ASP #IntotheUnknown #RainerMariaRilke #LettersToAYoungPoet #ALMAObservatory #AtacamaDesert #Vega #MMTObservatory #HubbleDeepField

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  28:41

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