Mars Oceans Unveiled, Spinning Asteroids & Crew Evacuations

It's uh, making everybody dizzy. And the evacuation of the International Space Station uh, due to ill health. We'll see if we can get uh, some news on that because that's actually happening as Fred and I are uh, recording today. That's all coming up on this edition of Space Nuts. 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.

through the system. It's got all sorts of filters but um, some things you can't stop. Professor Fred Watson: Um. Now Fred, I did want to actually mention a couple of things before we start on our topics because uh, I meant to do this last week for our first show back of the year just to highlight some of the things that are coming up in 2026 that we can look forward to and that you and I will probably talk about. The Artemis 2 launch is slated. Uh, whether or not it'll be delayed

again remains to be seen. But um, that will see a crew doing a lap around the moon, uh, and that'll be the first time humans have been back uh, in orbit around the moon since the 70s which uh, is exciting and probably too long but um, that'll be good. Um, this one I know will excite you. The Grace Roman Space Telescope is going to be launched. That one um, is going to um, opened so many doors for us I suspect, um, the PLATO mission, uh, which will be searching

for rocky planets. It'll uh, be doing a lot more than that. But that's one of the things that it's being set out to do. Uh, China is to launch its own space telescope as well, um, in the hunt for dark matter and dark energy. And there's another mission that's going to be studying uh, the moon and Mars. Well, several missions, not just one. Um, more Chinese and Japanese missions involved there. And I think this is one you and I have talked

about before. The Smile mission, uh, which will be studying Earth's magnetic field and how the sun interacts with our uh, atmosphere, uh, is um, due to be launched this year as well. I'm sure there's a lot more going on than that, but there's some of the highlights of 2026 so uh, we'll have a lot to talk about. Professor Fred Watson: Fred, could I add a couple more as well? Oh, go for it.

Professor Fred Watson: Um, we've just uh, heard that the Pandora spacecraft has entered orbit, uh, which I think is a spacecraft, uh, again looking um, looking at exoplanets to try and sort of tell us a bit more about how their atmospheres might reveal stuff. Um, China has just filed for 200,000 satellites constellation with the International Telecommunications Union which is. Yeah, yeah, well it's not the biggest yet. The biggest was back in 2020 when the Rwandan government filed for over

300,000. Um, uh, since then they've launched one cubesat, I think. So, um, that looked like a filing that getting your foot in the door. Uh, and just turning to nature. We've got some interesting events coming up. Uh, March 3rd, total eclipse of the Moon visible certainly from our hemisphere in Australia, not sure about North America and Europe. Um, there's uh, towards the end of the year and this will happen twice, uh, which is great cause you can see it on different sides of

the Earth. I think it's October, sometime in October and sometime in November there will be an occultation of the planet Jupiter by the Moon. That means the moon will pass in front of Jupiter and certainly for us in November here in Australia it will be during the daytime. So get your binoculars out during the daytime, check out the moon and watch for Jupiter disappearing. Oh, that'll be good. Yeah, that'd be a good one for a backyard telescope, wouldn't it?

Professor Fred Watson: Absolutely perfect, yes. Awesome. Um, I had my 6 year old granddaughter here uh, the other day and uh, the moon was, was out in the east and um, it was still daytime but it was pretty prominent. So I grabbed the telescope and gave her a look and uh, I tried to explain to her what craters were and she struggled with the concept. But she eventually I think figured it out. But uh, yeah, took a couple of photos of her looking

through the telescope. She was very excited which she sent to me. Professor Fred Watson: It was uh, lovely to see them, Andrew. Yeah, yeah, lovely, lovely shots. A youngster looking through a telescop with granddad in the background is great. Yeah, yeah. Uh, she's got blonde hair and blue eyes and her brothers and sisters are all brown haired and brown eyed. So. Okay, she, she seems to have picked up Judy's side of the family genes because Judy's blondie,

blonde with blue eyes. But um, she's the only one in the, in the family that's, that's gone that, that way. It happens though, doesn't it? It's just the way it is. Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. That's DNA. Um, okay Fred, uh, let's get stuck into it because uh, we're heading off to Mars and we're doing this because of a study that's just been published. Uh, in fact in the last week, uh, or two about uh, observations of Mars that suggest

that its oceans were once vast. Now we always knew there was probably surface water but we didn't really know whether they were, you know, pockets or separate oceans or what. But now they're thinking the oceans might have been enormous. Professor Fred Watson: Uh, yes, that's right. And I mean, you know, we revisit this story probably on average

once every month or two. Uh, the last time we covered this, and I wrote it up actually in um, an Australian Geographic article, um, not that I did the research, but this is other people's research and that was pointing in the same direction. Andrew. It was um, a group that looked at the way um, rivers, ancient rivers on Mars, uh, meandered, uh, because you can learn something from the meandering about the size of the body of water that they're emptying into. And they came to the same

conclusion. The river meanders tell you that there was a large body of water at the end of it at the mouth of these rivers, uh, rather than just a few puddles or a few lakes and things of that sort. Uh, and this new piece uh, of work, um, whilst it's a different, uh, you know, it's got a different emphasis, comes up with exactly the same answer. Uh, and it's scientists uh, who have looked uh, at the, I remember rightly there in

uh, in Switzerland. Yeah, University of Bern, uh, it's scientists who've looked at the region around Valles, uh, Marineris, you know, that great huge chasm in the, uh, in the surface of Mars. Near Mars's equator. Uh, something that makes the Grand Canyon look like a bit of a scratch on the, on the surface of the Earth. Yeah. Is it right that the Grand Canyon would fit into one of its tributaries or something? Professor Fred Watson: That's right. I think that's correct, yeah.

Amazing. Professor Fred Watson: Um, so they've been looking in that region and certainly on the northern side and the northern flanks there are valleys that um, sort of open out onto the plains of Mars. Because that uh, Valles Marineris is kind of right at the start of the highland areas of the southern hemisphere of Mars. Mars has got this dichotomy. The northern hemisphere is flat and low, southern hemisphere 3km higher on average, full of craters, mountains

and all around rest of it. Uh, so um, uh, um, what they've done is they've looked at regions, uh, where, you know, where there's this transition from the mountainous highlands of the south to the lowlands of the north. And they've looked very carefully at uh, data from uh, several orbiting spacecraft, um, I guess Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is one and some of the other ones, um, actually even um, uh, um, ESO's

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. So, uh, Mars Express, another ESA, sorry, not ESO, ESA, uh, European Space Agency, Another um, uh, uh, orbiting spacecraft. They've taken the data from these, looked at the height, the topography and looked at the geomorphology. Let me get it right. Geomorphological, um, um, features that they can find.

What have they spotted? They've spotted, ah, a whole succession of ancient river deltas, um, this is to say regions where a river mouth opened into what they're calling now an ocean, uh, and deposited um, its sediments. The sediments out of the river fall down to the floor, uh, of the ocean and build up basically a rock form, uh, which is preserved today. It's a kind of fossilized river delta.

There's something similar going on, uh, as you and I have spoken about many times at Jezero Crater, which is why, um, perseverance is there, because there's a river delta there. But I think these are on a much larger scale. And um, the great thing is that when you look at them, they sort of define a shoreline, um, because these are all occurring at the same topographical height in Mars's geography. And so they

basically uh, define a shoreline. And that shoreline tells you that um, there would have been a lot of water in Mars's northern hemisphere for the water level to reach the height that we find those deltas at. Uh, so really? Yeah, really nice piece of Work, uh, done with characteristic Swiss precision, I think. Uh, that's been widely reported. Um, there's several articles, uh, on the science news feeds, um, which basically support this idea. Very nice piece of research indeed.

And they think it was as big as the Arctic Ocean on Earth, just by comparison. And how big as the Arctic Ocean? It's 14 million square kilometers or five and a half million square miles big, uh, in size. So that's a lot of water on Mars and uh, a lot of it's still there, Fred. Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, that's right. We um, know from particularly, uh, the Phoenix mission that just scraped the surface in the Martian Arctic and sure enough there was permafrost

underneath. So a lot of it's still there. There's still water locked up in the two ice caps of Mars. Um, but probably not. Well, I don't know. It's actually really interesting. I do remember reading quite some time ago that if you thawed out even just the Antarctic ice cap of Mars, you'd cover the whole planet to a depth of several meters.

Um, now whether that still holds good with what we've discovered since then, that was quite an old, I think that was probably 20 years, 15 years ago, so that that comment was made. It would be interesting to know how we evaluate that now. But I think it's still true, uh, that a lot of that water is still there. Ah, yeah, it is, uh, a fascinating story. Professor Fred Watson: Water means life. Well, yes, yes, we've said that many times. And you just don't know, do you?

Professor Fred Watson: You don't. Yeah. Although the, uh, the mission to retrieve those um, cylinders that contain potential evidence of that. Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. Has been scotched. So it's just going to sit in abeyance for um, an indefinite period. Professor Fred Watson: So, yeah, I think, um, so this is news that, um, the Senate have um, basically agreed with the White House in saying that um, the Mars Sample Return Mission, uh, should be canceled. Uh,

and so that will probably go through. It's not been voted on yet, I don't think. Um, and so that means, yes, we've got these canisters on Mars, uh, carefully dropped by perseverance, uh, but with a joint European Space Agency NASA mission to retrieve them, uh, which, whose cost has blown out. Uh, we've talked about this before, uh, and not perhaps surprising that it's now had a line drawn under it. Now that's bad news because we really would like to get hold

of these samples. There's one in particular that may contain actually fossilized microbes. Uh, you know, um, so it's um, there's uh, every keenness to do that. Um, um, and I think it will. There'll certainly be a revisiting of this idea. Esa, I think, is still going ahead with their half of the bargain. Which was, I think, to build the orbiter which would actually bring the samples back to Mars. NASA's part was gathering them up on the surface and sending them up to orbit

around Mars. Uh, so, you know, uh, it's bad news. There's a bright side to it though, in that the money that's being saved will probably go to some of the other missions that are being planned. Name your favorite planet. You might get some good news out of this. I know your favorite and probably mine too, is Mars. Uh, but, um, anyway, we'll see what happens. I wouldn't write, uh, the Mars sample return off altogether in my flights of

fantasy. Last night, while my, uh, respiratory tract infection was making me cough all night, I was thinking maybe the Chinese could bring them back because I think they're planning a sample return mission as well. So maybe we do a deal there. Which would be fabulous international cooperation. It would. It would indeed. Of course, we could always start the conspiracy and say, what does NASA and the US Government know that they're not telling us? Hence no return. Yeah, yeah.

Professor Fred Watson: Be careful what you, what you say, Andrew. No, look, I'm just kidding around, but, uh, it's just money, isn't it? That's, that's the thing. Professor Fred Watson: It's all about money. That's right. It's not about finding something with legs that you don't want anybody to know about. Yes, that's been done in a lot of science fiction films. Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, it has. And um. Yes, all right. Great story about

the oceans of Mars though. If you'd like to check it out, it's on the Phys p h y s.org website. Or you can read the paper that's been published in the journal NPJ Space Exploration. This is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson. Roger, in your labs right here. Also Space Nuts to our next story, Fred. And this is, uh, a really good one for a couple of

reasons. It's something we haven't seen before, but it also involves the, uh, Rubin Observatory, which, um, has already, uh, done things that, uh, other observatories have not been able to do and promises to do so much more. This is the fastest spinning asteroid yet discovered. And a couple of headlines I've read suggested why hasn't it thrown itself to pieces because of the speed at which it's rotating and the rate is rather high when you look at what the average asteroid does.

Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, so it is a record breaker. It's the fastest spinning asteroid for its size. Uh, because I think smaller things can spin faster than this. It's uh, 710 meters long, nearly three quarters of a kilometer. Uh, so it's not a small asteroid at all. This is quite a large one. Uh, and it spins at the rate of one rotation every one minute 53 seconds. So that is one heck of a spin. So that's its day length, Andrew. If you were standing on it,

your day will be 1 minute 53 seconds. Seconds night and day, not 24 hours. Um, but uh, you're absolutely right. I think it's interesting for two reasons. One is exactly as you've said. It underlines, uh, just how powerful the Rubin Observatory is going to be. The observations of this object were made during the sort of commissioning period for the telescope's instruments, which was earlier

last year, April and May 2025. Uh, and um, that you know, that um, as you probably remember, I think they released uh, uh, information saying they got. They discovered more than a thousand asteroids in 10 hours of observing, which is pretty fantastic. Uh, the telescope's capabilities will allow it to survey the entire southern sky every three nights, uh, with an eight meter class telescope. That is an astonishing achievement and we. Must find something incredible.

Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, we will. Yeah, there's going to be all kinds of things that come out of the woodwork. Uh, it's what we call, um, uh, sort of time sensitive astronomy or transient astronomy. You're looking for things that either move or change in the sky and it's going to be so good at finding them. And um. Yeah. So the real observing, uh, campaign, the Large Synoptic Survey, uh, will start uh, sometime this year, uh, sort of when

they're ready to hit the go button. Uh, but I think everybody at the Rubin is pretty happy with the way things are going. Um, and just to sort of highlight that, you know, it's a telescope with this kind of capability to make many observations over a short period of time of the same area of sky. That has allowed uh, the scientists to discover the very rapid rotation of this asteroid. Because what you have to produce, uh, to look at the way an asteroid rotates is what's called a light curve. You

look at the way its brightness changes. Uh, because most asteroids, asteroids are quite asymmetric. They're either shaped like a potato or a dumbbell. Very, uh, few are anything remotely spherical. Um, uh, this particular one is I think Quite elongated. And so as it rotates, uh, different sides of it catch the sunlight and you get a variation in the light

that we see from it. Uh, and so that uh, has allowed, because it's, you know, it's only 1 minute 53 seconds for one complete revolution that has allowed the scientists to determine that fact, um, to the asteroid itself. You're right, it's interesting. It rejoices in the name of 2025 MN45, a classic asteroid name. Um, and it's in the main asteroid belt. That's a good place for it to be between uh, Jupiter and Mars, where most of the asteroids are. Uh, but um, its rotation is what highlights um,

the unusual nature of it. Because as you and I have spoken about before, many asteroids are uh, basically what we call rubble piles. They're just piles of debris which stick together loosely under their own, uh, gravity. Um, little uh, Dimorphos and Didymos, the two, uh, objects that NASA did the DART test on a few years ago, they are probably rubber piles. They've got the characteristic rubber pile shape, which is like two cones, um, uh, back to

back. Uh, if it was a rubber pile, it would have flown apart gazillions of years ago, uh, with that short period of rotation, 1 minute 53 seconds. So, um, uh, and when you look at the size of it and uh, interpret what the rotation means, it tells you it's probably made of absolutely solid rock. This is something that is um, going to be hard to pull apart, to

rotate. For it to be that big rotate at that speed, it's got to be solid rock, um, um, making it uh, you know, in some ways even more interesting because we think the rubber piles are perhaps the more common uh, asteroids that we see. Do we, do we have any idea what would make it different, why it would be different? Is it a piece of a destroyed planet Theia?

Professor Fred Watson: Well, yeah, could be, uh, might be part of Theia, the one that created the moon, uh, after, after it collided with the ah, Earth. It's more likely you're right. It's probably, um, you know, maybe part of the outer mantle of what would have been a protoplanet. In the early solar system, these things were the building blocks of planets. They collided and sometimes they blasted each other apart, sometimes they stuck together to form what we see

in the solar system today. Um, and I, uh, think some of the collisions that would have happened in the early solar system, uh, may well have set an object like this spinning very rapidly. In fact, it might have initially been spinning even more rapidly. Than it is now. Because we're looking at probably several billion years ago. When whatever happened to it happened. So, uh, an object of some interest. And, um, one that I'm sure will be studied, uh, in

greater detail. We might want to know things like, um, the infrared signature of its surface. Which gives you an idea of what the surface is like, how rough it is, whether it's a. Whether it's a smooth surface. What materials are likely to be, uh, found on its surface. That can all come from spectroscopy and also the science of polarimetry, which is what you look at to know whether something's highly reflective.

Or rather rough and diffuse. So, yeah, m. I think there's lots to learn about, uh, 2025 MN45. Indeed. So it's in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Um, people probably imagine that to be just a wall of roc. How do we get through it? But it's quite sparse, isn't it? Professor Fred Watson: It is, yeah. Yeah. Uh, it's sparse enough that, um, uh, several spacecraft have actually gone through it unscathed. Um, so, yes, it's.

Well, I've never heard of a spacecraft actually running into anything out there. Not that there have been that many that have gone through, but. Professor Fred Watson: That's right. But, you know, as, um. Uh. Was it Douglas Adams. Space is big. Yes. Yes. Professor Fred Watson: You might think it's a long way down to the chemist at the corner of the street. But that's nothing compared with space. I think that was what he said.

Yes, indeed. Uh, so if you would like to learn more about what the Vera C. Rubin Observatory has discovered, you can do that@the universitytoday.com website. Or you can read the paper in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Which was, uh, only published on January 7th. So they're getting down to business early this year, aren't they? Professor Fred Watson: This is space nuts. Sorry. I was going to say, um, we always get a really good, um, crop of news stories at this time

of year. Because it's right at the beginning of January that the American Astronomical Society has its annual meeting. And, um, so there's always some great stories. So, you know, that's why it was, uh. You know, it was published last week. I'm sure that's actually. It's actually very clever because as someone who worked in the media for 40 years. And had, um, to work a lot of Christmases and New Years, you quite often find you're struggling for stories because

everything's shut down. So you're not getting the information that you normally get. So to actually be in a position to do stories like this at this time of year is um. Yeah, it's well positioned, as we would say. M. Uh, you can read all about it, of course. And uh, we uh, will certainly be keeping a very close eye on what the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is going to be doing um, from now on because it's uh, it's, it's, it's all up and running and uh,

already doing some remarkable things. This is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and Fred Watson. Space Nuts. Now Fred, uh, by the time people hear us talking about this story, things will have uh, changed a bit. But as we speak, uh, we understand that the Crew Dragon spacecraft is docking at the International Space Station to do the first ever crew evacuation. Now, after 25 years, I'm surprised this is the first time this has happened. But uh, there's been a medical

issue. They won't elaborate on who or what, uh, but it's gotta be serious if somebody's um, if they're bringing the whole crew back. It's uh, a crew of four. There's seven on board at the moment. But they're bringing four back, correct? Professor Fred Watson: That's right. So, uh, there is a crew of three uh, now. So as we speak, um, I think they've probably undocked the crew Dragon spacecraft from the International Space Station. I think that happened an hour ago. And um, they

will then re. Enter and bring the crew back in a pretty routine fashion, uh, landing in a few hours from now. Um, so you're right, it's Crew 11, uh, the SpaceX, um, what's called the SpaceX Crew 11 because they're the ones that go up and down in the crew Dragon, uh, rather than the Soyuts, which is the space vehicle that will bring the other uh, the remaining three astronauts down when their time comes to an end. Uh,

you're right. It's a medical evacuation that Crew, Crew 11 consists of, um, if I remember rightly, two NASA, uh, uh, astronauts, one Russian cosmonaut and uh, a Japanese uh, astronaut as well. Uh, so they're coming home, uh, they're coming home something like a month early. And we are told as exactly as you've said that this is because of a medical issue which apparently is not uh, an emergency. It's not urgent, but it's thought to be something that is going to be

much better dealt with on Earth. Uh, we don't know which of the astronauts has the issue. Um, I saw a picture of them posed just before they evacuated the spacecraft, uh, um, last night and they all looked fairly cheerful, uh, but um, so you know, uh, you can't really read from people's faces how they're feeling. Um, which is just as well because I feel pretty crook at the moment. So that's uh, because of my uh, uh, upper respiratory tract infection. Sorry to keep

harping on about it. Anyway, going back to the more important story, Andrew. Well it's a good thing you're not. In the International Space Station feeling like that. Professor Fred Watson: Well, that's right, I, you'd have the same thing too. Uh, so, yeah, so, um, interesting. Uh, but your comment's well made. You know the fact that it's the first time in the 25 year history of the ISS, of the ISS being permanently occupied,

um, the first time this has happened. And I think it was Jared Isaacman, the newly appointed NASA administrator, the boss of NASA, who made the comment. It might be somebody else but it is one of the high ups in NASA made the comment that when they planned the ISS and they were working towards it, they expected that there would be something like this happening every three years. So they've done pretty well to get through 2015, five years without um, needing to bring people home because of a

medical issue. Yeah. While you've been talking Fred, I've just been looking online to see where things are up to and I've found a um, they did a live stream of the crew uh, Dragon docking at the International Space Station through uh, I think it's NASA's YouTube Music channel and you can, you can actually log on and, and watch what happens and see the whole process. It's quite incredible what we can do now isn't it with um, live coverage from space as ah, things

unfold. It's uh, a far cry from those times back in the 60s and 70s when we were looking at those really fuzzy black and white pictures off the moon. Professor Fred Watson: Which was miraculous in its day. Oh it was in itself, yes. Yes. Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. Actually I am watching Crew Dragon detach as we speak. Professor Fred Watson: Yes, that's right. So that happened probably 30 minutes ago, give or take our time. Yeah, um, it's, it's like a slow motion ballet

isn't it? When they uh, things in spacecraft. Professor Fred Watson: Ah, yeah, well you don't want to bang into anything. Yeah. Anyway, I hope all is well with the uh, individual involved. I'm uh, I'm not sure we'll ever find out what exactly the issue is. That's, that's subject to privacy from what I understand. But the fact that they've been able to go up there, get them, bring them back and deal with the problem is extraordinary because go back to the 70s when

Skylab was in orbit. If someone got sick or injured in that situation, I don't know if we would have been able to do much in a hurry. Professor Fred Watson: Um, yeah, maybe not. I mean, there would have been contingency plans in place.

It's, um. I think some of the things that might have brought somebody home from Skylab might be things that could have been fixed on the International Space Station because there is quite a, you know, a fair, Fair amount of medical expertise up there and some of the kit. But you don't want people taking appendices out and things like that in space. No, not really. You just have to wipe down the walls afterwards, and that's not fun. Although I should, um, counter it by saying

we did recently have a situation where. Where a crew got stuck on the International Space Station for very unusual reasons due to, uh, incompatible spacesuits because of a failure in the Boeing Starliner. So, you know, that wasn't a quick rescue, that one, but it didn't involve illness or injury, so it wasn't as urgent. But, uh, sometimes it. It can be a slow process, but, um. Uh, yeah, but NASA's been very quick to point out that this has got nothing to do with an operational

issue. It's, um. It's a personal issue. Nothing to do with an injury or accident on board. They want to make that pretty clear. Um, so, uh, yeah, we wish them well. They're on their way back as we speak. And by the time you hear this podcast, they will have returned, no doubt. Um, that's it, Fred. Gosh, we got through that in a mighty hurry, didn't we? Professor Fred Watson: Um, yes, I think we. We gave it due, due recognition. We've been talking for well over an hour, Andrew. Oh, have we?

Doesn't feel like it, but no. Um. Professor Fred Watson: 38 minutes. I'm sorry. I'm misreading my clock. You're right. That's okay. Professor Fred Watson: Well, we got through that in a hurry. You're probably reading a Mars clock because we talked about it. It's going a bit faster. Um, now if you were to follow, uh, up those stories, I've told you where to go and look for them.

But you, uh, can also read the show notes on our website, spacenutspodcast.more space nuts IO and while you're there, uh, you might like to, um, check out all the. All the tabs and, uh, links on our. On our website, the, uh, Astronomy Daily feed. You can subscribe for your daily dose of astronomy and space Science news. Uh, don't forget reviews. We really do appreciate your reviews. The more reviews, the more we get noticed. And the more we get noticed, the more people

listen. And then, you know, we can buy ourselves an ice cream at the end of the day. Um, you can also send questions or comments in through the AMA link and so on and so forth. And don't forget to visit the Space Nuts shop. Uh, that's one thing that Huw, um, did some years ago and it's been very popular. All the, uh, Space Nuts memorabilia, if you, if you want to get hold of it. I've got, I've got my Space Nuts cup here somewhere. Professor Fred Watson: Here it is. Look. Look at this.

There it is. Professor Fred Watson: I never got, I never got one of those. I, I'd buy. It's good. That's good. Professor Fred Watson: I'm too stingy. Got shirts. We've got hoodies, we've got, uh, all sorts of bits and bobs at the Space Nuts Shop, uh, at our website. Thank, uh, you, Fred. We'll leave it there. We'll catch you on the next episode. Professor Fred Watson: Look forward to it, Andrew. See you soon. Professor Fred Watson, astronomer at large.

And thanks to Huw in the studio, who couldn't be with us today, had to be evacuated after attempting, uh, a Michael Jackson moonwalk. Not good at his age. Professor Fred Watson: No. And from me, Andrew Dunkley, thanks for your company. We'll catch you on the next episode of Space Nuts. Professor Fred Watson: Bye.