Starship Price Revolution, Space VS Mass Media, Galaxy Collisions | Q&A 213

Could black holes collapse directly in the early Universe? How do two galaxies become one after they collide? How would you communicate time units to aliens? How much will Starship change the prices of space launches? All this and more in this week's Q&A!

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00:00 Start
00:50 [Tatooine] How do direct collapse black holes work?
06:20 [Coruscant] How can two galaxies form one?
08:34 [Hoth] How to communicate time units to aliens?
11:07 [Naboo] What Astronomy research areas don't get to the news?
16:15 [Kamino] How do I come up with questions for interviews?
21:42 [Bespin] How can we claim exoplanets non-habitable?
25:19 [Mustafar] Does humanity have a chance at all?
27:56 [Alderaan] How much cheaper will space travel be after Starship?
31:35 [Dagobah] Why do science communicators not emphasize the impossibility of faster-than-light travel?
35:34 [Yavin] Best places for stargazing?
37:32 [Mandalore] How do we know black holes are spinning?

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[thedenial]

[Kamino] I appreciate how you know your audience and can have the guest to skip the basics and get to the core of the subject at hand, the interviews are also my favourite part of your work.

[dustman]

A number of years ago I was camping in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, I woke up and stepped out of my tent to relieve my bladder and looked up and was stunned by what I saw. The milky way was so clearly defined, there were hundreds if not thousands of times more stars visible, everything looked so vivid and real. A whole different experience from being in a place with pollution and light. I must have stood there marveling for 7 or 8 minutes before remembering to zip up my fly. I live in Arizona and have been out in the middle of nowhere to observe meteor showers and such, but nothing compared to that experience.

[marcozwamborn]

A big THANKS to all the patreons who make this great channel possible. So nice to get so much good info without the hassle of having to skip adverts. Thank you Fraser for setting it up this way.

[anthemptedits]

Kamino.

The interviews are absolutely my favorite thing you put out. Every single one fascinated me in some way. I eat them up.

[MasonPayne]

I discovered your channel a short time ago. I’ve enjoyed your interviews for exactly the reason you described. I can see the scientists get more relaxed as they realize they don’t have to dumb down their answers. It makes for a much better learning experience for those of us who just can’t get enough. Thank you!

[VardaMusic]

“You fire the wave motion gun”. YAY STAR BLAZERS...or Space Ship Yamato, depending on what you watched. I still get the theme song stuck in my head sometimes :D

[invictus]

I listened to this episode on the background doing my things and it feels so positive optimistic and soothing, thank you!

[carlamerritt]

You like interviewing the best? It shows, your incredible at it. Your natural informed curiosity shines through and makes the interview that much more informative and deep.

[vdiitd]

11:33, true. Most people talk about science fiction as if it is going to be reality very soon, like dyson spheres, interstellar travel, time travel etc. But, I am more excited about the actual technologies that are going to help a lot of researchers, like you mentioned.

[klaussfreire]

Interviews are the best. Binge-worthy all of them. They would also be my favorite if I got to ask "questions I don't know the answer to" to the experts. Who wouldn't love that? As a listener, I love how they go into the weeds on the edge of science. The more in-depth they go the better.

[prozacgod]

I never understood the confusion on the existence of super-massive black holes until you said one line at ~5:34 "How did they get so massive so quickly"

And then it dawned on me, the confusion is related to time, duh! I get it now, there just hasn't been enough time for enough mass to gather in one place in the classical way.

[jamesgeckle]

Fraser! I remain a huge fan of your life choices and I enjoy all your journalism.

And I still regret that I can only afford to support you at what I call the Patreon, "blew up on the tarmac" level.

Keep up the good work.

PS I live on the East Coast of the US but you'd think it's the land of the midnight sun. :(

[Flowmystic]

From an observer, I would agree with you that your interviews are most entertaining and a delight. Really neat to see a meta-expert asks questions and further the conversation like you do.

[bpitotbrett]

Interviewing: you DO have a method. It’s just not formal or stilted. Your explanation of journalistic interview is exactly what all journalistic interviews should be. Spot on explanation. I enjoy your content always. Thanks for Space Bites!

[markmcdougal]

Naboo - great answer, too. A follow-on question to this is: the data all these surveys generate is vast and far reaching. Much more than our scientists could possibly process. What is the current state of AI software that can be applied to all this data? And are there efforts to make AI entities available so I could say: "Okay, look through this instrument's data set, and bring me anything that looks unnatural about this set of stars, that could indicate that intelligent being might have constructed an apparatus around it?" Or, " Calculate the nature of perturbations in gravity waves that would result from a spaceship traveling at faster than light speeds, and sift through LIGO's data and find any examples of such perturbations."

[laurachapple]

Mandalore - I never thought about that, but once I did I was like, "hey, that's right!"

[ReinReads]

12:55 what a wonderful synopsis of the fundamental shift that is coming to astronomy. Thank you.

[nickhowitt]

Hooray for consilience in astrometric methodology! You're right Fraser, never thought about it before, but the ability to scan more, and in different ways creates new ways of interpreting the universe that is more than the sum of their parts.

[ozumsoz]

I find your “ways of working” very awesome! Thank you for the great content dude. It’s really appreciated.

[davecgriffith]

Haven't finished listening yet, but for sure Kamino this week. The behind the scenes glimpse was super interesting!