Hi all,

I'm taking a page from the Bad Astronomer and will be trying a live video chat tomorrow (Wednesday) at 22:00 UTC. I hope that time will allow participation from both Europe and the Americas. If you have the time, please drop in to the chat room and write a note or ask a question, to prevent me from having to talk to myself!
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/emily-lakdawalla

--Emily

Emily, what sort of questions would you like? Any specific subjects you'd prefer?

I'll try to check in, but the only hour I have free is 3:00 pm and it appears you are on at 22:00 UTC....

I think 2200 UTC is 3pm PDT, Dan!

I can't be there; gotta work, and interactive sites are blocked from there. Rats. Have fun, and good luck, Emily.

nprev, I think that was a "joke" from Dan

What kinds of questions? Well, the stuff I'm most comfortable with (and hence am most likely to answer) are questions in planetary science, more specifically the science of the solid surfaces and interiors of bodies in our solar system; I can speak only in broad terms about other planetary science topics (exoplanets, atmospheres, etc). I can talk about Society projects, at least as far as I'm aware of them, and about current events on spacecraft missions, and on how space missions work. You can ask my opinion on policy questions if that interests you.

This should be fun. Back when I was a school teacher I despaired of coming up with a lesson plan for five full days a week. I cheated by declaring Fridays to be "question day" and just let the kids ask me whatever sciencey question they wished. It was quite enjoyable. Fifth graders (10 year olds) are terribly concerned about whether the Sun is going to blow up and annihilate the Earth. I had fun alternately scaring and reassuring them about what'll happen when the Sun grows old.

--Emily

(Yeah, I know...but every Laurel needs a Hardy!)

Amazing that you would point that out. When I was in the 5th grade long, long ago (1972) there was an episode of Night Gallery (Rod Serling's later and less successful version of the Twilight Zone) with a kid who had a demonstrable ability to predict the short-term future, after a few public demonstrations he goes on TV and predicts the end to all conflict on Earth and global happiness, but after the cameras are turned off he tells those around him that in fact the sun is about to go super nova. That terrified me for months. I used to lie awake at night worrying about it.

I loved Night Gallery, but never saw that one...probably a good thing, never slept worth a damn anyhow at that age!

Used to worry about the fate of the Sun myself a bit as a kid, until the wonders of adolescence changed my brain chemistry & I finally internalized the fact that I wasn't gonna be around to see it... ...(just gotta love that whole existential sentient self-aware being thing sometimes, don't you?)

I remember that episode quite well. The kid could only predict things he understood and knew were possible, and it just so happened he had just finished reading up on basic astronomy...

Actually, a few years later, some friends of mine and I decided that the following rewritten lyric was emblematic of that particular episode:

The sun'll blow up
Tomorrow!
Bet your bottom dollar that
Tomorrow,
We'll be toast...



-the other Doug

Good luck. You will do well, Emily. I'll try to participate in spite of my poor internet connection.

(Chorus)

To-morrow!
To-morrow!
Your butt's fried
To-morrow!

It's only
eight lightminutes
aa-wayyy!!!!

Lou popped in. No pressure then

Emily's doing a great job!

Good job Emily.

That was FANTASTIC Emily, great job! You handled the trolls really well, and were charming throughout. Thanks for answering 3 of my questions, too! Looking forward to the next one already

Well, Emily's 'cast was well worth bailing out of work early for (which I had to do for another reason, but fortunately had the time to participate!) EXCELLENT job, Emily, big congrats!

Thanks, guys. I feel like it went pretty well too -- but boy was I sweating by the time it was over! Thanks for the great questions.

--Emily

Emily,

The Ustream archive isn't working for me.

The problem could be at my end (I'm running Mac OS X ver. 10.4.11, which is a little long in the tooth), but I was able to make another clip play, and I noticed that yours says "Off air."

Never mind. I had neglected to click on the small image "where it says 'elakdawalla's video clips,'" just as the instructions said. Seems to be working fine.

I'm sorry I didn't get to participate and ask any questions. Thanks for saving it so we could watch it later. I thought you did a fantastic job. Phil may have inspired you but your live video was far more captivating than his (I know, it's not a competition).

You certainly could be the next 'Sagan'.

Hopefully the next one will be on a Friday in the afternoon so I can watch live.

Eric

I suppose this would be a good place to ask people what the best time of day would be for me to do these. I'm constrained by when my babysitter is available to between 8:30 and 4:30, Mondays through Thursdays, PDT (GMT-7).

--Emily

Emily,
Is there a way to add the chat log to the archive?

FWIW - I wouldn't want it to move any later - fine where it is though

Doug

I'm not sure. I can post it to the blog and link to it. If I do, I'll need to do a little editing first. Or, if someone wants to volunteer to edit out the spammers, you can do so with the attached....

--Emily

Click to view attachment

Well, since you ask... An hour earlier would be super for weekdays, for weekends the current time (22:00 UTC) is no sweat. This is, of course, based on reasonable CET times.

Yeah, I'd second that for weekends as well for US types. Not too feasible for weekdays, since most of us are at work (and some of us can't access sites with active content from work due to @#$& overzealous IT security policies...)

Sounds like a great idea but I missed the first one as I was on Mount Graham in Arizona visiting the Large Binocular Telescope and thus a bit cut off from the rest of the world
Looking forward to the next one and indeed weekends would be the best for both US & EU UMSF-members & onlookers

Sigh...I'd like to offer weekends but as I said I only have babysitting Monday through Thursday; weekends are family time. Once mini-me is old enough not to need me every five seconds perhaps I can do a weekend, but until then it'll only be on rare occasions (like this coming Sunday )

Those of you in the same time zone as me who also work will probably be out of luck, but you can always submit questions ahead of time and watch the archived video later. Unfortunately, the Ustream archived video doesn't seem to be working today -- I've sent in a request for help, and it seems I'm not the only user having the problem.

I'm considering doing another one before Sunday, possibly Thursday -- stay tuned.

--Emily