Cosmic Journey II: Voyage into the Abyss

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

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4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hitch a ride on the Chandra X-ray Observatory as it scours deep space for some of the most enigmatic and misunderstood objects in the universe: black holes. What are they good for? Absolutely something.

This is the second episode of a two-part journey celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's operation of the space telescope.

Join us this summer for a cosmic journey full of events and virtual resources from around the Smithsonian that will transport you from our closest star, the sun, to the far reaches of the universe.

Find the full schedule on our website or follow along on social media @Smithsonian.

Guests:

Kim Arcand, Visualization Scientist and Emerging Tech Lead for NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Daryl Haggard, professor of physics at McGill University in the Trottier Space Institute

Priyamvada Natarajan, astrophysicist and professor at Yale University

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there's side Dorables. This is part two of our Space Odyssey in search of black holes.
0:05.6	If you haven't heard part one, I highly recommend going back and listening to that one first.
0:10.4	It's a story of bitter rivalry among the scientists that helped us get this close to black holes. This is side door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.
0:30.0	I'm Lizzy Peabody. T-M. T-mines 15.
0:45.0	In the summer of 1999, NASA packed some very special cargo aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia
0:51.8	and prepared to blast it into space. It was a the space
0:53.4	it was a night launch.
0:55.4	I have a goal for engine start,
0:57.8	think of ground shaking, your sky lights up like the daytime kind of thing.
1:05.0	We have booster ignition and lift off of Columbia, reaching new heights for X-ray astronomy.
1:11.0	Kimberly Arcand of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory had a lot riding on this mission.
1:19.7	I remember being super nervous because it's just a lot to build this spacecraft the size of a school
1:25.8	bus and like packet in a rocket and then launch it up into space in this violent way and
1:32.0	then drop it off in that cold void and just hope
1:34.8	everything works perfect. The school bus-sized cargo was NASA's Chandra
1:41.5	X-ray Observatory, a space telescope.
1:45.0	After nearly three decades of planning and preparation on the ground,
1:49.0	Chandra was headed for space.
1:51.0	It goes a third of the way to the moon,
1:53.2	so there was no, there were no taksy-baxies, right?
1:56.5	There were no second chances.
1:58.7	There were, right, there were no missions that could be run that far. It had to work perfect. Seven hours
	...

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