Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
Science:Natural Sciences
Recently, Bergner and Seligman explained the behavior of the first interstellar object, ‘Oumuamua, as a rare form of a quite common object, a comet. They claim it "began as an icy planetesimal that was irradiated at low temperatures by cosmic rays during its interstellar journey, and experienced warming during its passage through the Solar System. This explanation is supported by a large body of experimental work."
But Avi Loeb disagrees: “In a new paper published recently in Nature -- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05687-w Acceleration of 1I/‘Oumuamua from radiolytically produced H2 in H2O ice -- Jennifer Bergner and Darryl Seligman suggest that the peculiar acceleration observed by the first known interstellar object `Oumuamua, can be explained if `Oumuamua was made of water ice which was partly dissociated into hydrogen by cosmic-rays along its interstellar journey. In the abstract of the paper, the authors admit that past models involving a pure hydrogen iceberg or a pure nitrogen iceberg do not work due to theoretical or observational inconsistencies. In fact, the hydrogen iceberg model was proposed in a previous 2020 paper by Darryl Seligman himself. A few months later, Avi wrote a paper with Thiem Hoang, showing that heating by interstellar starlight would destroy hydrogen icebergs too quickly and not allow them to reach the solar system from their likely formation sites of giant molecular clouds.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05687-w
Read Hoang and Loeb's response paper:
https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/Hoang_Loeb_23.pdf
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Is There Hope for Humanity? Marcelo Gleiser’s Case for Biocentrism [Ep. 422]
Why Do Physicists FIGHT Philosophers?
Eric Weinstein: Don't Call It A Conspiracy! [Ep. 421]
🎉 250K Subscribers Q&A Special! 🚀✨
Did This NEW Theory of Gravity Solve the Expanding Universe? Claudia de Rham [Ep. 419]
Brian Keating Discusses the Early Universe & Science Communication with Lawrence Krauss
Brian Keating On Black Holes, Wormholes and the Origin of Everything w/ James Altucher
Exploring the Intersection of Philosophy and Physics w/ Bernardo Kastrup [Ep. 416]
Brian Keating Discusses the Meaning of Life and Science With Eric Metaxas
Astrophysicist DEBUNKS Bart Sibrel’s Moon Landing Conspiracy Theory
Nick Bostrom: Will Artificial Intelligence Lead Us to a Utopian Future? [Ep. 414]
Brian Keating Discusses the Ultimate Issues of Life With Dennis Prager
Searching for Alien Earths with Lisa Kaltenegger [Ep. 411]
Exploring the Scientific Validity of the Multiverse Theory w/ Paul Halpern [Ep. 408]
Daniel Dennett: Do We Have Free Will? [Ep. 406]
Does Time Really Exist and How Can We Measure It w/ Chad Orzel (#406)
The Science and Wonder of Solar Eclipses: 4/8/24 (#405)
How Our Moon Shaped the Course of Human History and Humankind w/ Rebecca Boyle (#404)
Chris Hayward: Lerner and Gupta Are WRONG About the Big Bang (#403)
Why ChatGPT Can’t Tell Compelling Stories (Yet) w/ John Vervaeke and Shawn Coyne (#402)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Sasquatch Chronicles
The Confessionals
Radiolab
Sasquatch Odyssey
Science Friday