Thank-you to everyone who is enjoying Popcorn Science! We've recently passed 250 plays over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. @planetneish.bsky.social and I are looking forward to our next milestone.
Next time we'll be talking about an Expansive series that you suggested! Keep those ideas flowing
I grew beautiful corn one year and the squirrels would take a singular bite the day before it was ready to pick. It was heartbreaking and I haven’t planted it since.
We’re planning to do Pluribus in an upcoming episode, so keep an eye out for that!
Sad to see less X-Files content on my feed, but I also love Severance and will be listening along to the new iteration!
By the way, I have to credit you guys in part for inspiring me to start my own podcast. It’s a look at science in sci-fi, my own serious obsession. ☺️https://www.popcornscience.ca
In this week’s episode of Popcorn Science, John and I are joined by physiologist Dr. Ann Revill to discuss the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. Hop on the Mr. DNA ride as we discuss ancient mosquitoes, cloning, and a very sexy Jeff Goldblum. Life, uh, finds a way! @arcticsaxifrage.bsky.social
Congratulations!
Those balloons on top of Orion look a bit like maple leafs. They’re clearly celebrating the first Canadian to go to the Moon. 🇨🇦🍁🎈
I imagine the astronauts are the nauseous ones now. That capsule is rocking and rolling. Four green astronauts indeed! 🤢
That was a surprisingly emotional roller coaster. Went from nausea to choking up when they reestablished comms. Only brought my daughter down to watch the splashdown after the parachutes had successfully deployed. So glad everyone is safe.
I’m picturing all of us putting heart hands over the crater. She is very much missed! 🫶
Additionally, this paper suggest the new orientation would either be "left in its initial orientation, or one that was rotated 180° about its spin axis." So not 90°.
A appropriately angled massive impact could speed up or slow down the Moon's rotation, and then it would eventually come back to synchronous rotation with the Earth. But this impact would have to be huge, and thus, would likely wipe Orientale off the map.
The Elder.
I once heard my colleague Jim Head speculate on how human history would have evolved if Orientale was pointed directly at Earth. It would look like a giant eye ball. Can you imagine what that would look like? Now we know.
There just aren’t that many bright craters on the limb of the Moon. Especially given how far away they were. Something smaller (<10 km) would be harder to see.
There are a ton of unnamed craters on the Moon. Just most aren‘t big, bright, and fresh.
Ah, I missed that. Hopefully it’s not the same crater.
Generally, though, it’s still the first name of a scientist or astronaut. I once tried to name a crater after Grace Hopper. Hopper was already taken (it’s a crater on Mercury), so they suggested Grace instead. I pivoted and it’s now named Tharp (after Marie Tharp).
The crater may already have a name. What they described sounds a lot like Pierazzo crater.
How long ago was this? Deep Impact threw a copper ball at a comet in 2005. DART was more recent - just a few years ago. They sent a spacecraft to collide with an asteroid.
We also chucked something at the Moon in 2009 (LCROSS). All of these missions were very exciting!
I’m wondering if the crater Reid Wiseman wanted to dedicate to his late wife is in fact Pierazzo crater, also named for a woman who left us too soon due to cancer. It is a bright spot that straddles the near and far sides. ❤️
Tycho just sprayed its ejecta all over the Moon! Such a litter bug.
@arcticsaxifrage.bsky.social
On this week’s episode of Popcorn Science, we travel back to 1997’s “The Fifth Element”. In this bright and vibrant vision of the future, we discuss what makes a “perfect being”, the vocal range of aliens, and why NYC in the 23rd century looks so much like the 90s.
Lately I have been asking my collleagues questions about things they are experts in. Instead of answering my question, they say, “Well, I asked ChatGPT and it told me this.” But I didn’t want to ask ChatGPT - I wanted to ask you! It’s very frustrating.
My graduate students and I were featured in this CBC article about the Artemis II launch! One of the astronauts is from a small community just outside of London, so there was a lot of local interest in the launch. 🚀
A picture with three small paper rockets on the left, and two boxes of Moonbits on the right. (Moonbits are just Timbits in a space themed box.)
Fun fact - Tim Hortons had special “Moonbits” today that they were only selling in London. Take that, Kitchener.
I mean, at least I don’t live in Kitchener… 😉
I'm know everyone's excited about The Moon today, but I wanted to alert you to a new article I co-authored on another moon. In this review, we discuss potential terrestrial analogues for Saturn's moon Titan. Despite it being an icy world, it looks surprisingly Earth-like!
An old globe of the Moon, showing craters on the right and “Terra incognito” on the left.
It’s just wild to me that we didn’t know what the far side of the Moon looked like until the 50s. Here’s a globe from that era that lives in our university library. They used the far side as a legend, since they did have any images to use.
