Cheap Astronomy - Dear CA #141: Sorting The Universe
Hosted by Steve Nerlich. A podcast of sorts… Cheap Astronomy gets organized! Dear Cheap Astronomy – How are asteroids organized? The large majority of asteroids in the solar system are in the asteroid belt between mars and Jupiter. There are maybe 1-2 million that are more than a kilometer in diameter and millions more that are smaller than that. Nonetheless there's a huge amount of space between mars and Jupiter so it's nothing like that bit in the Empire strikes back. If you stood one asteroid is unlikely you'd be able to see another one and the odds of successfully navigating it are about one to one. Dear Cheap Astronomy – Are primordial black holes dark matter candidates? Well yes, though they aren't only candidates around. To recap, a primordial black hole is a hypothetical object which originated in very primordial times – probably within the first second of the Universe. It is somewhat puzzling that when the Big Bang brought lots of mass-generating particles into existence within a very small volume and at an extremely high density, it didn't form a black hole then and there – which would have then been the end of the story. But not only did things with mass suddenly come to be, they were all flung outwards as well – though primarily moving within rapidly expanding spacetime rather than actually being flung. And so here we are. We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too! Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations. Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].