0:00

Welcome along, Explorer! It's that time of the

0:02

week where we get a bit bored of

0:04

life down here on planet Earth, so we

0:06

search across the solar system in a brand

0:08

new Fun Kids Science Weekly. My

0:13

name is Dan. This week we will get

0:15

brainy about bugs. You can find out why

0:17

moths love the light. Most

0:20

of the insects that are attracted to light

0:22

or end up at light, they're flying. And

0:25

so what about flying is really difficult and what

0:27

might they use light to do? It turns

0:30

out that we think insects

0:32

are using light to work out which way

0:34

is up. And

0:37

in our quest to discover the smartest science

0:39

around, we are headed into space to take

0:42

a look at astrobiology. We

0:44

study how life originated on Earth and

0:46

whether or not it might exist on

0:49

other planets in the universe. We get

0:51

to be in the lab doing really

0:53

interesting experiments, trying to recreate some of

0:55

the structures of life and see if

0:57

they would have survived on the very

0:59

early Earth. And

1:02

you can hear how a zoo is trying to save

1:04

97 very endangered

1:06

creatures. They're doing brilliant work. Find out

1:08

more in a brand new Fun Kids

1:11

Science Weekly. Let's

1:17

start with your science in the news. China

1:19

says its lunar probe has successfully taken off

1:22

from the far side of the moon to

1:24

begin its journey back to Earth. It's carrying

1:26

the first samples ever collected from the region.

1:29

It touched down on the moon a

1:31

couple of Sundays ago near a giant

1:33

crater on the south pole. And then

1:35

about a day later, it lifted back

1:37

off. The Chinese National Space Administration described

1:39

the mission's landing and liftoff as an

1:41

unprecedented feat in human lunar exploration. It's

1:44

quite amazing how humans got to

1:46

the moon years and years and years ago, they

1:48

weren't really fussed about doing it again. But recently

1:50

we've become focused on what we can do. And

1:53

it's going to be amazing to see

1:55

how different countries work with each other to

1:57

make the most of what's up there. Also

2:00

scientists studying a fossil of a flying

2:02

reptile that was excavated from a gravel

2:04

pit have found it had huge wings.

2:06

The pterosaur was dug out from the

2:08

floor of a quarry near Abingdon on

2:10

Thames in Oxfordshire back in

2:12

June 2022 and scans of

2:15

its wing bones by some universities

2:17

have revealed they were absolutely huge

2:19

for a Jurassic pterosaur. Normally creatures

2:21

like this from then had wingspans

2:23

of about two meters. This one

2:25

was almost four meters long. It

2:27

was enormous and we can't figure

2:29

out why just yet. That's what

2:31

I love about dinosaurs. We're still

2:33

learning loads about creatures that are

2:35

millions of years old, figuring their

2:37

history and how it might shape

2:39

our future. And our final story

2:41

this week, the Bristol Zoological Society

2:43

has pledged to save 97 species

2:46

on the brink of extinction

2:49

and is also supporting conservation

2:51

projects across the world to

2:53

champion six very unique

2:55

creatures too. Let's find out more.

2:57

Brian Zimmerman is from the Bristol

2:59

Zoological Society. Brian, thank

3:01

you for being there. Where did this idea to save

3:03

97 species come

3:05

from? Yes, so the idea is

3:08

that the Bristol Zoological Society is

3:10

working really hard on conservation of

3:12

many species both internationally in our

3:14

field projects but also in our

3:16

zoo. And we've been sort

3:18

of refining our species plan and really

3:20

focusing on those animals that are most

3:22

in need of conservation. So the 97

3:25

species that we've pledged

3:27

support for are those that are

3:29

animals that we're working with in

3:31

our zoo and also working with

3:33

around the world in conservation. So

3:36

tell us about the the six flagship

3:38

species that you're championing to save. Sure,

3:41

we've chosen six species as flagships. So

3:43

those are the ones that we really,

3:45

really want to shout about. And we've

3:47

chosen them for several different reasons. One,

3:49

we wanted to pick animals that are

3:51

across a whole range of different taxonomic

3:54

areas. So we have a fish, we

3:56

have an invertebrate, we have a bird,

3:58

we have mammals and amphibians,

4:00

reptiles. And we also

4:02

wanted to pick species of animals that we're

4:04

working with at different locations around the world.

4:07

So both in the UK, but

4:09

also internationally in places like Greece,

4:12

Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania, the Philippines, Madagascar,

4:14

we're working with species in the

4:16

wild. So we've chosen them to

4:19

reflect those locations that we're working.

4:22

And we also tried to pick

4:24

flagship species that maybe people knew

4:26

less about. So everybody's heard of

4:28

giraffes and gorillas, but our six

4:30

flagship species are probably lesser known.

4:33

So we really wanted to kind of raise

4:35

the alert for them and make sure that

4:37

people knew they existed and that they need

4:40

conservation attention. What are some of those six

4:42

species? From the fish side of things, we've

4:44

got the corfu kuth carp or killifish, which

4:46

is only found in a very small few

4:48

locations in Greece. We've got

4:50

the ancaraphoskeleton frog, which is a

4:52

critically endangered frog found only in

4:55

a small area in Madagascar. We

4:57

have the critically endangered Negros bleeding heart

5:00

dove, which is just found in Philippines

5:02

on two islands there, which we've been working

5:04

since 2014. And

5:07

then we've got the turquoise dwarf gecko,

5:09

which is critically endangered and only found

5:11

in two small areas in Tanzania. It's

5:13

very small lizard, bright blue in color,

5:16

the males are highly threatened. And

5:18

then we have the critically endangered blue eyed

5:20

black lemurs. And we've got those at our

5:22

zoo at Bristol Zoo Project. We've

5:25

got a pair of them and they're found

5:27

in a location in Northwest Madagascar that we're

5:29

also working to try and increase the amount

5:31

of forest cover that the lemurs

5:33

need for survival. What do you

5:35

mean by working with different conservation

5:37

projects around the world? What do

5:40

you do as zoological experts

5:42

to save a species? Well, we very

5:44

much work in partnerships. So it's really

5:46

important that we've got good, strong partners

5:48

on the ground in the locations that

5:50

we're working with. And we really capitalize

5:52

on that. We've got experts in each

5:54

of the countries that are from those

5:56

places. And together we decide

5:59

with a... conservation management plan, what

6:01

work is needed. It could

6:03

be habitat restoration. I mentioned about

6:05

planting trees in Madagascar. It

6:07

could be just monitoring the populations and

6:10

finding out exactly what's happening, what is

6:12

causing them to decline. Sometimes

6:15

we do community awareness raising campaigns. So

6:17

we just launched a big campaign in

6:19

the Philippines focused on the species that

6:21

are there that are threatened and trying

6:23

to get the communities to really become

6:25

aware of what the threats are and

6:27

work hard to try and reverse that

6:29

and make sure that the species recover. Now,

6:32

there are 97 species that you've chosen

6:35

here to try and save. And

6:37

it seems like quite a random number. Why not go

6:39

for the full 100? How do you

6:41

decide what species are worth

6:43

saving and others? Well, maybe not so much.

6:46

So 97 is the number that we

6:49

landed on because we reviewed many, many

6:51

species. Some of them were kept in

6:53

the zoo previously, but they

6:55

were least concerned. And we really, really

6:58

wanted to refine our species plan and

7:00

focus on those that we felt, first

7:03

of all, we could support for conservation, but also

7:05

that we had expertise in. So we knew something

7:07

about them and we were working with them, whether

7:10

that was in the zoo or in the field.

7:12

And as we reviewed a very long

7:15

list of hundreds and hundreds of species,

7:17

we had a sort of matrix where

7:19

we asked ourselves lots of questions about

7:21

the threat status of the animal

7:23

and also the work we were doing. And that's how

7:25

we ended up with 97. You know,

7:27

it could have been 96, it could have been

7:29

100, but we wanted to be realistic and we

7:31

wanted to be as accurate as we possibly

7:34

could. And so 97 was the number that

7:36

we ended up with. And last

7:38

question, what makes this project

7:40

a success? How do you know that

7:42

you've saved the species? Right. This

7:45

is part of the reverse the

7:47

red challenge that the International Union

7:49

for the Conservation of Nature and

7:51

WASA, the World Association of Zoos

7:53

and Aquariums, has worked collaboratively on.

7:56

And the idea is, is the red list, which species

7:58

that are threatened are on. and

8:00

we want to reverse them. So if something's

8:02

critically endangered, we want to try and save

8:04

them and reverse that trend so that they're

8:06

no longer critically endangered. That's our ultimate aim

8:08

is to make sure that the species survive

8:11

in the wild. Well it's been a real

8:13

treat to chat to you Brian Zimmerman from

8:15

the Bristol Zoological Society. Thank you so much

8:17

for joining us. Thanks Dan, have a good

8:19

day. Thank you so much to you Brian

8:21

Zimmerman for coming on and brilliant work from

8:23

the zoo trying to save 97 species

8:26

who are on the brink

8:28

of extinction. Let's get

8:30

some of your questions on then shall we?

8:32

Remember if you've ever got anything sciencey that

8:34

you want answered, if you're not sure what's

8:37

really going on, why things are the way

8:39

they are, make sure you let me

8:41

know. If I can't sort it,

8:43

well I'll call up a genius that

8:45

I know and we'll get them to

8:47

explain it all for you. Best way

8:49

is as a voice note on the

8:52

Free Fun Kids app or at funkidslive.com.

8:54

This is from Etienne who's in Scotland

8:56

who wants to know what are the

8:58

rarest eye colours. Well the most common

9:00

eye colour Etienne is brown, not a

9:02

big surprise. It's thought that one

9:04

of the rarest might be green. A

9:06

survey a few years ago found that just 9% of

9:09

people have green eyes, 27% of

9:12

people, so just over a quarter of everyone

9:14

have blue eyes, that's me. 18% have hazel,

9:16

45% almost half have brown eyes. So green

9:22

is the rarest of the common colours.

9:24

The rarest still is the condition of

9:27

albinism. It's an inherited

9:29

condition which means someone has much less

9:31

melanin in their body. Melanin is a

9:33

chemical, it's a pigment that gives hair,

9:35

skin and eyes colour. And

9:38

without that melanin, it doesn't just

9:40

change your eye colour but it can cause vision

9:42

problems because melanin is involved in

9:44

how your retina is made. The retina is

9:46

an important layer of cells in your eye

9:48

that understands what you're seeing and it sends

9:50

signal to the brain. And without the melanin,

9:53

your retina finds it hard to work and

9:55

it affects your eye colour. So someone with

9:57

albinism might have light red or pink. eyes

10:00

and about one in 20,000 people

10:03

have that condition so I

10:05

guess we could say light red or pink eyes

10:07

are the rarest eye colors at the end thank

10:09

you so much for the question and

10:11

our second question this week comes in

10:13

from Natalie thank you Natalie why are

10:16

moths attracted to light? They

10:18

are I've never seen it in the

10:20

flesh Natalie but I know on telly

10:22

in movies moths are always heading toward

10:24

the light does this happen let's find

10:26

out more Sam Fabian is from Imperial

10:28

College London and joins us Sam

10:31

thank you so much for joining us so is this

10:33

true are moths attracted to light? Well it's

10:36

a really really really good question and it's

10:38

something that lots and lots of people all

10:40

over the world have been noticing and they've

10:42

been noticing it for a really long time

10:44

we can actually find records from

10:46

the Roman Empire of people writing down

10:48

that hey if you leave out these oil lamps

10:50

at night you'll get these moths coming to them

10:52

and those specific moths that they're talking about are

10:54

the ones that would go and attack their beehives

10:56

but instead are drawn into this light so

10:59

we've known about it forever and so that's

11:01

what we've been looking into trying to work

11:03

out why these insects are trapped

11:05

around light and we were

11:08

thinking about things that insects need to

11:10

do that light could fuse them about

11:13

and most of the insects that

11:15

are attracted to light or end up at light

11:17

they're flying and we tend to

11:19

really specifically find flying insects arriving at

11:21

light at night so

11:24

what about flying is really difficult and what

11:26

might they use light to do but it

11:29

turns out that we think insects

11:31

are using light to work out which way

11:33

is up now to you and

11:35

me it's very obvious which way is up we can

11:38

feel it we can feel the ground we can feel

11:40

the objects around us we can feel our weight and

11:42

that tells us where up is you don't really need

11:44

to think about it but if you're

11:46

a very small insect and you're kind

11:48

of bombing around all over the place in the

11:50

air you're going to be operated by breezes you

11:52

need to know really fast because otherwise

11:55

you're going to crash into the ground you need to keep

11:57

an idea of which way is up but

11:59

they can just the sky. The sky is always

12:01

bright in the ground, in nature. The

12:03

sky is always bright. Even at night, if you

12:05

go out at night, the sky is still brighter

12:07

than the ground. So we

12:10

think insects have been using that to work out which way is up.

12:12

The millions and millions of years, hundreds and millions of

12:14

years, and then all of a sudden

12:17

we've invented street lights. That

12:19

breaks this general rule that brightness comes

12:22

from above and suddenly brightness can be

12:24

beneath them because they're flying over a

12:26

street light. They get

12:28

very confused and they'll turn themselves upside down and

12:30

crash down out of the air. And

12:33

so it's about working out which way is up. And

12:35

the family insects don't instantly know

12:37

which way is up just by feeling it. They have

12:39

to look for it and we're confusing them with the

12:41

lights. How do we confirm that

12:43

this is the case? How

12:46

do experts test this? Is

12:48

it a gruesome case of kind of cutting a

12:50

moth open and seeing what's in their brain? Surely

12:52

they're too small to do that. So how are

12:54

we testing it, Sam? The way in which I've

12:56

been doing it is you can take a

12:59

moth and you can attach tiny little markers

13:01

on its back. And these are these, you

13:03

can just glue them onto the outside. It

13:05

doesn't hurt the moth. They're very, very small.

13:07

They're very, very light. It's a bit like

13:09

if you've seen people in cinema or in

13:11

video games wearing dots all over themselves so

13:13

that people who are doing CGI can track

13:15

them. It's the same idea. And we can

13:17

see not only where the moth is in

13:19

space using these markers, but we can also

13:21

tell how it's oriented. So that is how

13:23

it's tilted. If it's tilted over to one

13:25

side and leaning over, then we'll

13:28

be able to see that using these markers even while

13:30

it's flying at high speed and in the dark. And

13:33

using this, what we saw is that all

13:36

insects, not just moths, but also dragonflies and

13:38

lots and lots of other different insects, they're

13:40

all tilting their backs towards the light. Well,

13:42

it seems like a really strange thing

13:44

to do. Why would you tilt your back towards the

13:47

light? But that makes perfect sense. If

13:49

you're confusing the light, wait up. Because normally if

13:51

you think about a moth flying around,

13:53

it kind of wants to keep its back pointed up

13:55

towards the sky. That's just how a moth flies, how

13:57

airplanes fly as well. The back of the airplane flies.

14:00

has to point upwards. And so

14:02

when we see this, when we can measure

14:04

this and we see that the moth and

14:06

the other insects are tilting their backs towards

14:08

the light, that really shows us that this

14:10

common idea that they're confused as to which

14:12

way is up might be true. Is there

14:14

any hope for them? The invention of streetlights

14:17

is only a hundred or so

14:19

years old. Now

14:22

evolution takes place over a long,

14:24

long, long time. It's not like

14:26

moths can really easily learn

14:29

this and then maybe pass it

14:31

on to future generations of moths. So maybe it's

14:33

not even something that would be covered by evolution

14:35

because why would it be? So is there any

14:37

hope for the moth or will they always be

14:39

attracted to light? Recent studies have

14:41

been showing that it's possible that over the

14:43

evolutionary time of 100 years, which is very

14:46

short, 100 years to a species,

14:48

very, very short, that some

14:50

populations seem to be adapting to light and

14:52

they don't seem to be as confused. And

14:54

that might be in changes in their flight.

14:56

We don't really know how they're adapting, but

14:58

that certainly is possible. Other things might happen

15:01

in that we could actually change the light

15:03

pollution that we put around. We could change

15:05

the lights around us to help insects and

15:07

other wildlife. And so a really

15:09

important bit is that not all different colors

15:12

of light have the same attractive properties. If

15:14

you want to attract insects, because you're really

15:16

interested in insects, you use ultraviolet, which we

15:18

can't see, but that's kind of what will give

15:20

you a sunburn if you're out under the

15:22

sun. You can use that kind of light or you can

15:24

use blue light and that'll bring in lots and lots of

15:27

insects. But if you use kind

15:29

of more orange or red light,

15:31

that's kind of other end of

15:33

light, that's much less damaging to

15:35

own to lots of different kinds

15:37

of wildlife. But at the minute, we're

15:39

seeing a lot of changes towards blue and

15:41

we need to convince people that it's worth

15:43

actually moving away from blue and back towards

15:46

the orange streetlights that you used to be

15:48

around. Well there you go, Natalie. That is

15:50

why moths are attracted to light. Sam Fabian

15:52

from Imperial College, thank you so much for

15:54

joining us. Thank you, it's been a pleasure.

15:56

Thank you so much to Samuel Fabian for

15:59

explaining. all about why moths are attracted to

16:01

life. That's made you think about a question

16:03

that you want sorted, you want a genius

16:05

to explain it to you. Make sure you

16:07

let me know as a voice note on

16:09

the Free Fun Kids app or at funkidslive.com.

16:12

And let's get cracking with this week's Dangerous Dan then.

16:15

Shh. Every

16:19

episode we search some of the stranger

16:21

parts around space, we find out the

16:23

most weird, the most unique and often

16:25

the most deadly things that are around.

16:28

And this week we're heading to the tropical parts of

16:30

the world, we're getting quite close to the ground. Across

16:33

Central and South America, Africa and Asia,

16:36

plodding across the earth, you might find

16:38

the army ant. They're normally

16:40

just a few millimeters long, but the

16:42

soldier ants are bigger with mandibles, these

16:44

claws on their big heads, and

16:46

they are used to defend their colonies. Now

16:49

they're normally dark red or black. They're

16:51

known for their wandering life, making large

16:53

groups that move to find new food

16:56

all the time. They've got a really

16:58

unique strategy of getting it to. It's

17:00

called raiding. Millions of ants

17:03

will move into shape. They're

17:06

smart, they get into this band out arrow

17:08

formation. And here's where they get dangerous. They

17:11

block the route for any small creature. Insects,

17:13

spiders, even bigger small animals. They block

17:15

the path, they fan out around it, and

17:18

they're so organized they get to work.

17:20

They jump on it, thousands, millions of

17:22

these tiny ants, completely overwhelming their prey.

17:25

And then they take a bite. And often

17:27

they eat the whole thing there and then. So

17:30

it's brutal in the wild. But

17:32

it has its uses to humans. For

17:35

many years all across the planet, people have

17:37

used army ants when they have been injured,

17:39

when they've had a cut, as

17:42

stitches. They would pick

17:44

up the army ant. They would press

17:46

it into the skin, around the cut, where

17:48

it would bite its mandibles down, its jaws

17:50

across the wound, one on either side. Then

17:53

they would twist the body, which would pop

17:55

away from the head that was still locked

17:57

into the skin. Over

17:59

time. time, with its jaws on

18:02

either side of the cut. The

18:04

mandibles of the ant's head would

18:06

squeeze it together and would

18:08

heal in the end. Isn't

18:10

it amazing how we've used nature from all

18:12

over the world to help us in so

18:14

many different ways, especially when it's this mean

18:17

looking brutal beast, the army

18:19

ant which goes straight onto our dangerous

18:21

dantist. This

18:25

week in our battle of the sciences

18:27

as we try to discover what is

18:29

the best science ever it

18:31

takes us to the very

18:33

origin of life itself. We're

18:36

trying to answer the biggest questions. This

18:38

is where experts prove why their field

18:40

should come first. And we're doing it

18:42

all this week headed to Dublin City

18:44

University with Sean Jordan to tell us

18:46

all about astrobiology. Sean, thank you for

18:48

being there. You have three seconds to

18:50

give us one minute to start and

18:52

tell us why astrobiology is the best

18:54

in 3, 2, 1, GO! Okay,

18:59

so I think astrobiology is the

19:01

best field in science because we

19:03

study how life originated on Earth and

19:05

whether or not it might exist on

19:07

other planets in the universe. So

19:10

not only do we get to be in

19:12

the lab doing really interesting experiments, trying

19:14

to recreate some of the structures of life

19:16

and see if they would have survived on

19:18

the very early Earth, but we

19:21

also think about what instruments we could use to

19:23

look for life on other planets in our solar

19:25

system. Not only that, but

19:27

we get to go to really interesting places

19:29

on Earth, such as into deserts

19:32

or to Antarctica or the

19:34

Arctic, searching for signs

19:36

of life in ancient rocks or

19:38

in ice cores and seeing

19:40

if we can figure out how we can

19:42

apply all of these tools to looking at

19:45

different environments on other planets in

19:48

our solar system. So from Earth

19:50

to the stars and back. There you

19:52

go. You've beaten the minute by about two

19:54

seconds, Sean, and there are so many questions

19:56

that come from that. I think yours might

19:59

be on the face of it. it, like the

20:01

most exciting science I've ever heard of. But

20:03

maybe that's where the problem is, right? Like

20:06

your job is looking and trying

20:08

to answer the biggest questions. Where do we

20:10

come from? What else is out there? But

20:13

also, how disappointing is

20:15

it, Sean, for you that you know

20:17

you probably will never find the answer?

20:19

Yeah, that's definitely something that we have

20:21

to be comfortable with. So we'll never

20:23

truly understand for sure where life started.

20:25

But we'll have a good idea, I

20:27

think, of how it happened and how

20:30

it could happen in other places. What's

20:32

our best guess at the moment? Well,

20:34

it depends on who you ask. But

20:36

I would say that probably the most

20:38

likely place that life started on Earth

20:40

was deep in the oceans in what

20:42

we call alkaline hydrothermal vents. So

20:45

these are big chimney structures at the bottom of

20:47

the ocean. And we think that they

20:49

had all the right ingredients for cells to emerge.

20:52

Your job is all in

20:54

astrobiology. So we've kind of covered

20:56

the biology bit. We've covered a lot of it down

20:58

here on Earth. But just tell

21:00

us about the astro part of that, if

21:03

you can. What are you looking at across

21:05

the universe? What's taking you to space? A

21:07

good example, I think, is Mars. So we

21:10

have a fairly, fairly good indication now that

21:12

at the beginning of life on Earth, around

21:14

4 billion years ago, Mars

21:16

was also habitable. So there

21:18

was probably big bodies of water and

21:21

an atmosphere so much more similar to

21:23

Earth, actually. So we think that there

21:25

may have been life on Mars 4

21:27

billion years ago. So when we

21:30

bring samples back from Mars, what we'll be

21:32

looking for are basically the exact same structures

21:34

that we see in places like Western Australia.

21:37

And what you've just said there, that's

21:39

what really amazes me. Because us as

21:42

humans, we've really only had the technology

21:44

to look if there's life across the

21:46

universe for like a hundred years or

21:48

so. It's such a tiny sliver of

21:51

time in the whole age of the

21:53

universe. So Sean, I guess

21:56

how likely is it that there has been...

22:00

intelligent life that's been out there in the universe

22:02

but it might have been

22:04

a billion years ago when we just wouldn't

22:06

have known it was there. I don't know

22:09

about intelligent life that's an interesting question but

22:11

what I will say is that I think

22:13

it's probably pretty likely that there either was

22:16

microbial life on somewhere like Mars for

22:18

example or that there could be

22:20

still microbial life in our solar system maybe

22:22

on Mars or maybe in some of the

22:25

icy moons that we see around places like

22:27

Jupiter. And my last question is something I

22:29

ask every scientist I chat to I think

22:31

with you there might be a bit more

22:33

to it because you're looking at

22:35

so much the origin of life here and

22:38

what's happening on other planets too but if

22:40

I throw you forward Sean 20 30 40

22:42

50 years by the time that you

22:45

call it a day and you give

22:47

up your job what's the one question

22:49

that you want answered what's

22:52

the one thing that you'd like

22:54

to discover? The first thing that comes to mind

22:56

is I think

22:58

it would just be the greatest discovery in

23:00

in our lifetime and perhaps in all

23:02

of our history if we were to

23:04

find a sign of life

23:07

on another planet and that doesn't have to

23:09

be life that's living there right now but

23:11

even that life once existed on another planet

23:14

to know that Earth is

23:16

not the only habitable planet or planet

23:18

that once had life I

23:20

think that would be just amazing

23:22

it would change everyone's world I hope.

23:24

And very quickly you say

23:26

look for a sign that life might have

23:29

existed what is that sign likely to be

23:31

what are the footprints maybe even

23:33

footprints that there could have been

23:35

life somewhere? Yeah well footprints would

23:37

definitely help but also just if

23:39

we found something like we see

23:41

on Earth so maybe microfossils so

23:43

if we had fossilized microbial organisms

23:46

trapped within a rock and we were

23:48

able to be sure using advanced methodology

23:50

that this was once a living organism

23:52

that would be a pretty robust sign.

23:55

Well it's one of the most exciting sciences

23:58

that we've looked at in this journey need

24:00

to find the very best of them all. Sean Jordan,

24:02

thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thank

24:04

you very much to Sean Jordan for coming on the

24:06

show. What do you think, astrobiology? Is it the

24:08

best science? It's absolutely one

24:11

of the most mind blowing ones we've

24:13

heard about, isn't it? We'll get another

24:15

one of those next week in our

24:17

battle of the sciences. But

24:19

right now it's inspired us to look up

24:21

more about space. So we're going to get

24:23

a lesson up at Deep Space High. It's

24:26

our podcast series from the smartest school

24:28

in the solar system. This is from

24:30

their universe handbook, where we

24:32

are joining Professor Polsar and the class

24:35

to discover how different types of telescopes

24:37

work so we can see planets so

24:39

many light years away. Deep Space High,

24:42

the universe handbook with the science and

24:44

technology facilities came in. This

25:04

term's assignment is to write your very

25:06

own universe handbook. You want to

25:08

cram it full of all the basic things you

25:11

need to know about space exploration. Yeah, the nuts

25:13

and bolts of it all. So let's crack on.

25:18

Talking of nuts and bolts, Electra, do you

25:20

think this term you might just remember to

25:22

tighten your screws to stop various robot limbs

25:24

from impeding my progress across the room? Sorry,

25:28

sir. Let's start at the beginning. What's

25:31

the first thing you need to do

25:33

when you're planning a journey into space?

25:35

Make sure you've inflated your lunar lylos.

25:38

I thought the holiday matter calmed you locked

25:40

down. Fat chance. The first thing

25:42

you need to do is work out where you're

25:44

going. Have a good look at what's out there.

25:47

So how do we observe space?

25:51

We use a telescope. Telescopes aren't the

25:53

only way to observe space, you know,

25:55

Alex? Telescopes are, however, a

25:57

great place to start much better than.

26:00

Just using our eyes. Sorry,

26:02

I. I've forgotten you've only got

26:05

the one bloke. Very nice it is too. So,

26:07

telescopes. How do they work? The

26:10

standard optical telescope works by

26:12

reflecting or refracting large quantities

26:14

of light from the visible

26:17

part of the electromagnetic spectrum

26:19

to a focal point observable through

26:22

an eyepiece. Or basically, it

26:24

scoops up a load of light and

26:26

squeezes it down to a small point

26:28

on your eye where the image

26:30

appears a lot bigger than it's parcel.

26:33

That's what I said! You're both

26:36

right, but optical telescopes only work

26:38

for the visible universe. Stuff our

26:40

eyes, or I, sorry bloke, can

26:42

see. Well that's when you need

26:45

a radio telescope, or an infrared

26:47

telescope, or even an

26:50

X-ray telescope. Cool!

26:52

Are they like X-ray specks? Can

26:54

they see through walls? Behave,

26:57

Alex. Stats is right. Those

26:59

sorts of telescopes can pick up waves

27:02

our eyes can't see to give us

27:04

even more information about the universe, including

27:06

images. And infrared telescopes are

27:08

particularly handy because they also give

27:10

us information about the temperature of

27:13

a planet. Have a look

27:15

at this projection of an infrared image. You'd

27:26

be right, this planet has been covered in

27:28

ice for billions of years. What

27:31

about this one? Well,

27:36

it's red and orange as well.

27:38

Is it a hot planet? You're

27:40

right, the red-coloured image shows that the temperatures

27:43

on this planet are much higher. Much

27:45

more my style. Get the sunglasses on,

27:47

crack open the sun cream. And

27:49

then you burst into flames on this particular planet.

27:52

Still a bit hotter than you're used to, Alex.

27:54

A toast to 3,000 degrees. Tell

28:00

us what's out there and how hot or cold they

28:02

are. But if we're going to visit, we'll

28:04

need to know how far we have to go. How

28:07

do we measure distance in space? Erm,

28:10

is that math? It'd have to be a

28:12

blabbering big one. No, there are many ways

28:14

to measure distance in space, but the most

28:16

common method is called parallax. Parallax?

28:20

Isn't that the horrible galactic lurgy

28:22

that everyone in school got

28:24

last year? No stats, although it

28:26

does sound a bit like a nasty disease. Parallax

28:29

is better shown than explained. If

28:31

you hold your thumb in front of your face and

28:34

look at it first with your right and then

28:36

with your left eye, can you tell me what

28:38

happens? Weird, it

28:40

looks like my thumb moves. Bingo!

28:44

It seems to move in relation to the background.

28:46

How much it moves depends on how far

28:49

away from your face it is. The distance

28:51

to a star or planet can be measured

28:53

by tracking its movement relative to other stars

28:55

or planets further away. You

28:57

have to take measurements from two places in our orbit

28:59

to work it out. And the

29:01

distance is given in light years. If

29:04

it's a distance, why is

29:06

it measured in years? Slippy

29:08

miles! And what's light got

29:11

to do with it anyway? The light

29:13

year is used in astronomy because the universe

29:15

is huge. The nearest star

29:17

to your solar system, Alex, is Alpha

29:19

Centauri, 24 trillion miles. And

29:23

because the numbers are so big, scientists came up

29:25

with a simpler unit. A light

29:28

year is the distance that light travels in

29:30

space in one year. It's

29:32

around 6 trillion miles, give or take a

29:34

bit. So Alpha Centauri is

29:36

four light years away. Much

29:39

simpler. That's the bell. Next

29:42

time, we'll be having a think about how

29:44

we prepare ourselves for deep space exploration. Deep

29:49

Space High, the universe handbook with

29:51

the science and technology's best. Deep

29:54

facilities council. Just

29:58

a little lesson up at Deep Space High. And

30:01

if you love space and I imagine

30:03

you do because you listen to this

30:05

show Well, make sure you listen to

30:07

the brand new radio station, which is

30:09

all about the galaxy The fun kids

30:12

space station is a radio station dedicated

30:14

entirely to space It's packed with

30:16

space facts and safe stories and so many special guests

30:18

who have toured around the universe You will love it.

30:20

You will learn so much You can

30:23

listen in on a smart speaker and

30:25

it's on the free fun kids app for you

30:27

So if you don't already have that it's one of the easiest ways

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now from a tablet or your smartphone's app

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turn up the fun kid space station And

30:43

that is it for this week's episode

30:45

of the fun kids science weekly We'll

30:47

be back same time at same place

30:49

next week with loads more adventures across

30:51

the universe You've

30:53

heard from deep space high today You've got loads

30:56

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31:00

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