1 00:00:00,060 --> 00:00:06,660 We're gonna step away from the Earth for a little bit and talk about in my view 2 00:00:06,660 --> 00:00:10,349 and some view the most important object in the solar system besides the one we 3 00:00:10,349 --> 00:00:18,300 live on but the one at the center of it the Sun. The thing that powers it all, so 4 00:00:18,300 --> 00:00:27,020 let's start off with the Sun we see every day is not too exciting I mean we 5 00:00:27,020 --> 00:00:31,560 know that we're not supposed to look at it. It's really really bright but even if 6 00:00:31,560 --> 00:00:36,540 you look at it with a telescope and look at it in invisible light unless there's 7 00:00:36,540 --> 00:00:40,640 a Sun SPOT too loud too loud okay can you turn down just a little bit 8 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:48,960 unless you look at it outside of the atmosphere it's really just a big yellow 9 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:55,559 ball maybe with a sunspot or two across it but if I step out in a space and look 10 00:00:55,559 --> 00:01:00,870 at the Sun with a telescope that sees wavelengths that I can't see with my own 11 00:01:00,870 --> 00:01:11,070 eye this is what I see. This is the Sun and extreme ultraviolet seen from the 12 00:01:11,070 --> 00:01:16,049 Solar Dynamics Observatory and you can see it's so much more dynamic we have a 13 00:01:16,049 --> 00:01:22,500 huge explosion here this is billions of tons of solar material blasting away 14 00:01:22,500 --> 00:01:26,090 from the earth that millions of miles an hour called a coronal mass ejection 15 00:01:26,090 --> 00:01:32,189 filling the entire solar system we have a flash of light, light through the 16 00:01:32,189 --> 00:01:36,810 entire electromagnetic spectrum from radio all the way to gamma rays with 17 00:01:36,810 --> 00:01:41,970 enough power, enough energy to power the world for a hundred thousand years 18 00:01:41,970 --> 00:01:48,540 that's called a solar flare and both of those huge eruptions create massive 19 00:01:48,540 --> 00:01:53,640 shockwaves that accelerate particles at near the speed of light and all of this 20 00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:59,399 stuff fills the solar system and interacts with everything in it with 21 00:01:59,399 --> 00:02:04,189 planets with their atmospheres with their magnetic fields if they have them 22 00:02:04,189 --> 00:02:11,009 with asteroids and comets but also with the things and the people that we put 23 00:02:11,009 --> 00:02:17,430 into space with our spacecraft, with our astronauts and so we want to be 24 00:02:17,430 --> 00:02:23,819 able to understand this, maybe even predict it and have something similar to 25 00:02:23,819 --> 00:02:29,099 terrestrial whether. We actually call it space weather but we want to be able to 26 00:02:29,099 --> 00:02:35,519 protect our assets and protect the people as we send them back to the moon 27 00:02:35,519 --> 00:02:43,860 and beyond to Mars and because we have a new initiative now a new program Artemis 28 00:02:43,860 --> 00:02:51,629 to go back to the moon to send the next man and the first woman to step foot on 29 00:02:51,629 --> 00:02:59,329 the lunar surface we have a unique opportunity. We can now do unique science 30 00:02:59,329 --> 00:03:06,180 from the moon in particular unique science to understand this beast sitting 31 00:03:06,180 --> 00:03:09,239 at the inner in the beginning of us in this in the center of our solar system 32 00:03:09,239 --> 00:03:15,299 and understand better the influence that it has on us and protect those people 33 00:03:15,299 --> 00:03:18,060 that were sending to the moon and to Mars 34 00:03:18,060 --> 00:03:25,290 so next slide please, this is actually a really nice observation so here is the 35 00:03:25,290 --> 00:03:29,849 same spacecraft a different wavelength but extreme ultraviolet but look you see 36 00:03:29,849 --> 00:03:35,840 this object move in front of it okay that's the moon, that's the moon 37 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:42,180 basically eclipsing the Sun we're seeing this from space and in fact we can use 38 00:03:42,180 --> 00:03:47,400 this opportunity to learn things about the moon itself these images are so 39 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:53,340 detailed that when you see that shadow come past what you're actually seeing is 40 00:03:53,340 --> 00:03:58,260 if you look at the bottom it's not smooth right here there are little bumps 41 00:03:58,260 --> 00:04:03,449 on it you're actually seeing the moons of your see... sorry you're seeing the 42 00:04:03,449 --> 00:04:10,290 mountains of the moon when you look at this edge. So using a solar telescope 43 00:04:10,290 --> 00:04:14,190 we're actually learning something about the moon but we can turn this around 44 00:04:14,190 --> 00:04:20,209 because the moon gives us a unique perspective, next slide please 45 00:04:20,269 --> 00:04:25,409 we have some, we have a unique opportunity because sitting on the 46 00:04:25,409 --> 00:04:30,360 surface of the Moon we have no atmosphere, okay 47 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:35,410 giving us the ability to observe these wavelengths of light that we can't see 48 00:04:35,410 --> 00:04:40,690 from the ground on the earth because they're stopped by our atmosphere those 49 00:04:40,690 --> 00:04:47,289 extreme ultraviolet or gamma rays or x-rays and also the moon does not have a 50 00:04:47,289 --> 00:04:54,430 magnetic field because not only do we see the light coming from the Sun all of 51 00:04:54,430 --> 00:04:58,240 those particles when they get to the Earth are affected by the magnetic field 52 00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:03,729 of the Earth they actually create a very interesting complicated environment for 53 00:05:03,729 --> 00:05:08,080 example creating the Van Allen radiation belts which we have to deal with as we 54 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:15,520 fly through them away from the Earth so sitting on this object orbiting the 55 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:22,770 earth we have a unique platform for us to observe the Sun and to observe the 56 00:05:22,770 --> 00:05:31,599 environment around the Sun. We can look at those huge blobs of material coronal 57 00:05:31,599 --> 00:05:37,110 mass ejections leaving the Sun. We can study the particles as they're reaching 58 00:05:37,110 --> 00:05:43,919 the Earth as they pass by the Moon, so if we go to the next slide please 59 00:05:44,610 --> 00:05:48,699 so what you're looking at here is the same explosion that I showed you at the 60 00:05:48,699 --> 00:05:55,479 very beginning and we're gonna back away from that, so you can see what happens 61 00:05:55,479 --> 00:06:02,889 when that object, those particles leave the Sun we have this background of 62 00:06:02,889 --> 00:06:06,940 particles called the solar wind that's always flowing away from the Sun and 63 00:06:06,940 --> 00:06:13,300 then on top of that you have this bigger cluster of particles that coronal mass 64 00:06:13,300 --> 00:06:20,759 ejection traveling from the Sun through the solar system and eventually 65 00:06:20,759 --> 00:06:29,530 interacting with objects in the solar system, here we see it passing Venus and 66 00:06:29,530 --> 00:06:33,970 you'll notice the particles are actually impinging the atmosphere of Venus 67 00:06:33,970 --> 00:06:39,460 directly because Venus doesn't have a magnetic field 68 00:06:39,460 --> 00:06:45,069 so they're moving straight impacting the atmosphere creating a unique environment 69 00:06:45,069 --> 00:06:52,690 and as they continue on and eventually reach the Earth now you see the 70 00:06:52,690 --> 00:06:57,099 particles are actually moving around it okay because the Earth's magnetic field 71 00:06:57,099 --> 00:07:04,530 is acting as a sort of force field protecting to somewhat the Earth 72 00:07:04,530 --> 00:07:10,240 creating a very interesting and complicated environment so when we sit 73 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:15,490 on the Moon we don't have those aspects we don't have the atmosphere we don't 74 00:07:15,490 --> 00:07:20,050 have the magnetic fields but there are a couple of things that are unique about 75 00:07:20,050 --> 00:07:24,550 that environment, let's go to the next slide, let's actually skip ahead I want 76 00:07:24,550 --> 00:07:31,380 to pass this one and just skip to this so that magnetic field of the Earth and 77 00:07:31,380 --> 00:07:36,759 we're in this case the Sun is in this direction as it's coming as all those 78 00:07:36,759 --> 00:07:40,810 particles are coming past us they're stretching the magnetic field of the 79 00:07:40,810 --> 00:07:45,310 Earth creating this sort of elongated almost tadpole like structure we call 80 00:07:45,310 --> 00:07:52,750 this the magnetosphere, there are particles around it particles building 81 00:07:52,750 --> 00:07:57,070 up along the back part this is an incredibly complicated environment that 82 00:07:57,070 --> 00:08:04,419 our spacecraft and the ISS is traveling through but also in order to understand 83 00:08:04,419 --> 00:08:09,849 this we have a unique perspective with the Moon because in fact the Moon as 84 00:08:09,849 --> 00:08:15,449 it's orbiting the Earth it's actually passing in and out of this structure 85 00:08:15,449 --> 00:08:22,449 during the new moon when the Sun is over there and the Moon is directly on the 86 00:08:22,449 --> 00:08:27,430 other side of the Earth it's actually sitting right in here so for about six 87 00:08:27,430 --> 00:08:33,360 days the Moon orbits through the magnetosphere and allows us to sample 88 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:37,990 what's happening in this unique environment and as the Moon moves around 89 00:08:37,990 --> 00:08:43,990 it we sample different parts of this whole structure we see different 90 00:08:43,990 --> 00:08:50,140 characteristics different environments and eventually for a full moon it's 91 00:08:50,140 --> 00:08:53,260 sitting over on this side almost completely out 92 00:08:53,260 --> 00:08:59,770 what we call the magnetosphere so we have this observing platform this 93 00:08:59,770 --> 00:09:06,040 natural observing platform that's moving around the magnetosphere allowing us to 94 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:12,520 sample this hazardous complicated space that we have to travel through to 95 00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:18,880 measure the particles to measure the electric and magnetic fields to measure 96 00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:26,050 the plasma created in this whole structure and at the same time we're 97 00:09:26,050 --> 00:09:32,470 able to get a unique view of what's happening coming from the Sun as we are 98 00:09:32,470 --> 00:09:39,220 orbiting moving with the Moon as it's orbiting the Earth because again we have 99 00:09:39,220 --> 00:09:45,790 no atmosphere so now we can have very large powerful telescopes that we don't 100 00:09:45,790 --> 00:09:51,550 have to put into a spacecraft we can actually have on the body itself to 101 00:09:51,550 --> 00:09:58,450 allow us to study all that's happening from the Sun in multiple wavelengths of 102 00:09:58,450 --> 00:10:04,960 light measuring different types of particles different types of electric 103 00:10:04,960 --> 00:10:10,960 and magnetic fields structures to ultimately understand this kind of this 104 00:10:10,960 --> 00:10:16,330 very complicated environment that we have to travel through and that we have 105 00:10:16,330 --> 00:10:24,850 to ultimately live in as we bring people to the Moon and someday on to Mars so 106 00:10:24,850 --> 00:10:31,870 the Moon is providing something for us that is unique and exciting to allow us 107 00:10:31,870 --> 00:10:38,590 to understand the environment created by the Sun and as we understand that not 108 00:10:38,590 --> 00:10:43,810 only do we get a better handle on how to deal with it how to live with it how to 109 00:10:43,810 --> 00:10:49,330 travel through it but what we learn about our own Sun ultimately tells us 110 00:10:49,330 --> 00:10:55,090 about other stars other solar systems and the planets and bodies that are 111 00:10:55,090 --> 00:11:01,120 interacting with them so we're looking forward to 2024 and beyond as we start 112 00:11:01,120 --> 00:11:09,220 to explore this new unique environment to study our star and ultimately put 113 00:11:09,220 --> 00:11:14,950 other kinds of telescopes other kinds of instruments to study other stars other 114 00:11:14,950 --> 00:11:22,860 aspects of not just our solar system but the universe so thank you very much