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[TomT]

Radio show for 4th Tuesday of January 2016

00:00--starting with some pre-show clips with the Baron.

4:00--TomW explains his current Westmont physics laboratory classes he is teaching.  JerryW has to explain again that he was mostly involved with SBRC applied research with the his last project there on the Japanese weather satellite to 2005.  Baron always interested in geosynchronous orbits and space elevators.  New planet Nine brought up sounds like "Plan Nine from Outer Space" the movie by Ed Wood where aliens land wearing capes bringing up zombies to stop humans from destroying the universe.

12:50--Morning planet line up discussed, the Richard Dupree calls in asking about "Henderson points", and is corrected by ChuckM who points out that the gravity balance points between Earth and the Sun are called Lagrangian points.  BruceM calls in to explain the points further. JerryW brings up the James Webb telescope will be placed at L2 far away from the Earth's large infrared signal.  Baron asks why Planet Nine has not been found, and Chuck points out that it is very faint and up against billions of background stars.  Bruce adds that it is a doubly tough problem due to the faint light of the sun and JW points out it may be as far at 1000AU away.  CM & TW mention the planet was found by watching orbits of other Kuiper area objects.  Baron hopes we can figure this out before he succumbs to depression.

28:20--Morning planets again, Bruce points out if Earth a tennis ball, Sun is 25' sphere, 1/2 mile away and Pluto a 1/2" sphere, 20-1/4 miles away; and space is spacious, Chuck says asteroid belt is not like dodging rocks as shown by Hollywood.  Bruce says Lagrange points  have asteroids caught, with the Greeks at L4, Trojans at L5, and ? at L3 which on the opposite side of the Sun.  Baron asks if asteroids are between the Earth and Sun and Jerry mentions Near Earth Objects.  Chuck mentions Centaurs as another type of object between asteroids and comets.  Jerry says only 50% of stuff have been found.   TomW explains that his laboratory classes can use computer simulation or he likes making sure students understand the basic tools of multimeters and oscilloscopes.  Jerry tries to explain why the electron does not fall into the proton and probability functions of quantum mechanics, except for crashing together in the Large Hadron Collider.  [I think I saw that the proton and electron could touch each other if at Absolute Zero.]

37:54--Baron has TimC on the line, and Tim asks what is the connection between the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud?  How far out will can planets be detected?  Baron wonders if we will ever spot the Planet Nine.  Chuck says that Neptune was found by calculating its orbit by noting changes in Uranus' orbit.  Jerry mentions that even larger telescopes are being made.  Chuck explains that the Kuiper Belt is more disk like whereas the Oort Cloud is  theorized to be a spherical cloud around the solar system.  Tim wonders if more Lagrange points are out further in the solar system and Jerry says they are out to the limits of gravitational attraction of the Sun, but complications if other objects around.  Tim is concerned if the Andromeda Galaxy will mess with us, but Chuck says we will have to wait for a few billion years to find out.

Attached is the audio file minus the commercials and news for your entertainment and it is much better than reading my notes!  Enjoy!