NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Red Planet is putting on a show this July. It'll be closer to Earth than its been in 15 years and that means at night it'll appear bigger and brighter than average. In fact, you should be able to see it easily without a telescope!
In this episode we'll tell you how to spot Mars when its at its closest and you'll hear the planet itself answer your questions. Plus a mystery sound and, in our Moment of Um, we'll explain why lava moves slowly even though it's a liquid.
More on Mars’ close approach from NASA here.
Audio Transcript
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SIERRA: You are listening to Brains On where we're serious about being curious.
ISAAC: Brains On is supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
LESTER: Downtown is crowded tonight as legions of screaming fans gather in hopes of catching a glimpse of their favorite celebrity. We've got WKPBBCCRP's Karen Marmalade on the scene. Karen.
KAREN MARMALADE: As you can hear, Lester, it's fandemonium at the planetarium.
LESTER: News pun. Love it.
KAREN MARMALADE: People of all ages with cameras ready. They're living for this moment. The chance to see someone so famous they go by one name, and one name only.
LESTER: Like Morrissey?
KAREN MARMALADE: Bigger.
LESTER: Abono?
KAREN MARMALADE: Bigger.
LESTER: Madonna?
KAREN MARMALADE: Still bigger.
LESTER: Oprah.
KAREN MARMALADE: Lester, this celebrity is so big you actually see them with the naked eye from 35 million miles away. Oh, I think they've just arrived.
MARS: What's up, people? It's your boy Mars, the red planet. Or as my brothers call me, the rad planet. Awesome that's who you are, headaches for the support. Just make sure you tag me at all your pictures. Oh, and use hashtag Mars Close Approach. Also smash that subscribe button all by YouTube. Oh, and follow me on Twitter, plus somewhat Insta. Catch me on Yelp. Bad props to the cheese baggers at house Laguna.
KAREN MARMALADE: Lester, this could take a while. So why don't we cut to another story?
MARS: I delivered with--
LESTER: Sounds good. And now, this thing.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: You're listening to Brains On from American Public Media. I'm Molly Bloom, and with me today are brother and sister Sierra and Isaac Philhower from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Hi, guys.
BOTH: Hi.
MOLLY BLOOM: Do you have any favorite facts about Mars?
ISAAC: I like that there might have been life and then there might be life right now on Mars.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, that is very, very intriguing and exciting to think about. Well, today, we are talking Mars because this July, Mars and Earth are having what's called a close pass. That means the red planet will be much closer than usual.
ISAAC: Just 35.8 million miles away.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's nothing when you think about it though. Sometimes Mars and Earth are 250 million miles apart.
SIERRA: In fact, all this month it should be easy to spot Mars with just your eyes. It will be bigger and brighter than it's been since 2003.
MOLLY BLOOM: No wonder Mars is feeling like a star. It's shining bright like one. Isaac and Sierra, do you ever look up at the night sky?
SIERRA: Yeah, when we go camping, and sometimes we look at it.
MOLLY BLOOM: When you look up at the night sky with all the stars, what do you think about?
SIERRA: Is there life?
MOLLY BLOOM: It's a very good question. What do you think do you think there's life out there?
SIERRA: I think so. It's very possible.
ISAAC: I think if there's life forms far out there, the universe is like never ending. if You go far enough, you'll probably find living creatures.
MOLLY BLOOM: When you have those thoughts about aliens or how big the universe is, what kind of feelings does that make you have? What do you think about?
SIERRA: It makes me feel like just have nobody asked me another question for another five minutes.
MOLLY BLOOM: I totally know what you mean. I feel like I'm floating away and I have to think about what I had for lunch today to get back to Earth. Well, it is pretty cool to think that we can see another planet just by looking up, but where should we look?
ISAAC: And why is Mars closer sometimes and farther other times?
SIERRA: Here to help us with all this is Miona Short.
MOLLY BLOOM: Miona is an aspiring astrophysicist who recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Her research has included flaring stars, finding stellar nurseries, figuring out the mass of the Orion giant molecular cloud, as well as supermassive black hole classifications. Pretty cool stuff. Welcome, Miona.
MIONA SHORT: Thank you all for having me.
ISAAC: Well, what Mars look like? We'll look bigger and could we see mountains and other stuff on it?
MIONA SHORT: Upon its closest approach at the end of July, Mars will look like a reddish star. And in fact, it will be the third brightest object in our night sky after the moon and Venus. And this is super interesting because Jupiter, which is farther away than Mars but also the largest planet in our solar system, is usually the third brightest object in the night sky. But now Mars is coming in to claim that bronze away from our most visible gas giant as the third brightest object in the sky.
SIERRA: How can your average kid see Mars during this close pass?
MIONA SHORT: Well, Mars will be at its closest super late at night on July 31st. I'm talking like 3:50 AM. If you don't quite see yourself waking up that early, then most nights this season you can see Mars rising opposite the sunset. Our sun always rises in the East and always sets in the West. However, right now, Mars is rising in the West and setting in the East and a defiance of the sun.
Mars will look like a reddish star and it will be bright. You don't need a telescope but if you do have even a weaker telescope, you can actually see features. Mars has two polar caps, just like we do, made of ice, and so you will likely be able to see them. As well as features, physical features of the planet. Some of Mars has regions that are darker than others, and you would be able to see those as well.
SIERRA: Why does it change its distance from Earth?
MIONA SHORT: That's a function of the shape of its orbit as well as the different speeds in which Mars and Earth are essentially moving around the sun. The Earth's orbit is about twice as fast as Mars. Which means that it takes almost two Earth years for it to go around the sun.
ISAAC: Is Mars always the closest planet to Earth?
MIONA SHORT: That's a great question. And actually, no. Not too long ago, I casually mentioned that Venus is the second brightest object in the night sky after the moon. That's because Venus is almost twice the size of Mars and generally millions of miles closer to the Earth and Mars.
SIERRA: If there were intelligent life on Mars and they were looking up at the night sky, would Earth look closer during the close pass?
MIONA SHORT: That's a great question. They absolutely would. We would likely look like a blue star in their sky where they look like a red star in ours. I think everyone should look at it. I think everyone should spend at least five minutes just gazing and appreciating the majesty of Mars because it's rare for it to get this close. Especially twice as bright as Jupiter in the sky, that's incredible.
SIERRA: Thanks for being here.
MIONA SHORT: It's been a blast talking to you guys, really.
SIERRA: Yeah, I like talking to you too.
ISAAC: Thanks for being on the show.
MIONA SHORT: Bye, everybody.
MARS: Hey, guys. It's me, Mars. The planet. What's up? It's been a while since I posted a video, but I've got something big to share. Do you know how they say there's like no life on Mars and only Earth has people? Well, that always really bugged me because like I'm way cooler than Earth. Who wants to live there anyway? You got all that water and atmosphere. Anyway, what if earthlings are really from Mars?
What? I know it sounds bonkers, but hear me out. I was once like this warmer, wetter planet. What if life started here and then somehow hightailed it to Earth? I mean, why else would all you earthlings be eating bars and roasting marshmallows? And grown ups, they're always drinking bars titties? I mean, it seems like you're pretty bars-minded.
What about NASA? They're like, Oh, we're going to set some satellites and rovers to study Mars. But the real reason is probably because they're trying to find a way back home. Other clouds say, look, you're all Marshads and I welcome you to come back home and live all by face. See you soon Marshads. Oh, and be sure to check out my next video where I'll be answering your questions. Mars out.
Brains On.
MOLLY BLOOM: Here's something you won't see in the night sky or anywhere for that matter because you can't see it at all. It's a?
SIERRA: Mystery sound.
MOLLY BLOOM: Sierra and Isaac, are you ready?
SIERRA: Yes.
ISAAC: Yes.
MOLLY BLOOM: Here it is.
[CRACKING SOUND]
Do you guys have any guesses about what that might be?
SIERRA: Sounds like something that's moving. Like rolling over things. Maybe a car or like a bike.
MOLLY BLOOM: Isaac, what do you think?
ISAAC: It sounds like a rover on Mars.
MOLLY BLOOM: You guys are good. All right, we're going to get back to that in just a bit. But first, Mars shouldn't get all the glory.
SIERRA: Yeah, we share the solar system with a bunch of awesome planets. Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn.
MOLLY BLOOM: Uranus, and Neptune.
SIERRA: Throw in Earth and Mars and that's eight totally unique planets in our one super solar system.
MOLLY BLOOM: Talk about squad goals. To help you remember these epic eight orbs, we set our solar system to music.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SIERRA: Do you have a question about Mars or planet or anything? Send it to us. Go to brainson.org/contact.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's what Cooper did.
COOPER: My question is why does lava move so slowly even though it is hot? Isn't lava liquid? Why doesn't it move more like water?
MOLLY BLOOM: We'll answer that in our moment of at the end of the show.
SIERRA: We're working on two new episode, and we want you to weigh in.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's right. We're looking into what makes fun things fun and what makes gross things gross.
ISAAC: But what is fun and what is gross?
MOLLY BLOOM: We'd love to hear you try to explain fun and gross. How would you describe them to say a robot? Isaac, how would you describe the concept of fun?
ISAAC: Happy, excited.
MOLLY BLOOM: Sierra, how would you explain what gross is?
SIERRA: Gross is like something that people regularly don't like. They don't want to get nearer, they don't want to touch it, they don't want to smell it. It's just something that they hate.
MOLLY BLOOM: Very good answers. But we want your answers to listeners. Record yourself explaining fun and gross, and we may use it in an upcoming show.
SIERRA: Thanks.
MOLLY BLOOM: I'm Molly Bloom, and with me today is sibling duo Isaac and Sierra. Hi, guys.
SIERRA: Hi.
ISAAC: Hi.
MOLLY BLOOM: Are you guys ready to give that mystery sound one more try?
BOTH: Yes.
MOLLY BLOOM: You guys are in sync. I love it. Here it is again.
[CRANKING SOUND]
Any new guesses after hearing it a second time?
SIERRA: I think I'll stick with my guess a bit like being like a car rolling over. Something.
MOLLY BLOOM: Good guess. Isaac, what do you think?
ISAAC: I still think it's a rover.
MOLLY BLOOM: You guys are in agreement that it's something moving on wheel like things over a surface. All right. Here's the answer.
NATALIE: Hi, I'm Natalie and I'm 13.
KADEN: I'm Kaden and I'm 11.
JACK: Hi, I am Jack and I am eight years old.
BOTH: We live in Portland, Oregon.
NATALIE: And that was the sound of us rollerblading.
BOTH: Thanks for listening to our sound. Bye.
SIERRA: Oh.
ISAAC: Oh.
MOLLY BLOOM: Well, I would say guys were very close because you both had this idea of wheel type things moving over a surface. I'm impressed. Good listening skills. To wrap up our show-- oh, look at that.
SIERRA: What?
MOLLY BLOOM: We just got a notification. Mars just posted a new vlog.
SIERRA: Awesome. I sent Mars a question after listening to your last Mars episode.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, the episode about whether humans could ever live on Mars?
SIERRA: Yeah. Let's see if Mars responded.
ISAAC: Click that video, Molly.
MARS: Hey, guys. It's me, Mars. Check it. I'm a planet and a pretty red. Surface cold, pretty sure it's dead. Feed a horse, that horse is fed. These are words that I've set for my head. I'm just working on my solo album. It's got to be pretty lit. Marsniaks, thinks for all the questions. To help me out with them, I've got scientists Abigail Fraeman from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Oh, thanks so much for having me.
MARS: Abby worked with the Mars robot called Curiosity Rover. Fun fact. What it drives Abby, it kind of tickles. Anyway, let's start with an easy question. Why is Mars the coolest planet? Go.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: I mean, well, second coolest besides Earth.
MARS: I know, right? Wait, what? What are you talking about? Mars is way cooler than Earth.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Well, Mars is certainly a lot colder than Earth. The average surface temperatures on Mars are much, much lower than what we get on Earth. I mean, I'm going to be honest. I think Earth is pretty cool because it's where I live.
MARS: Since you're my guest, I bet a lot you'd be wrong about that. Anyway, let's answer some fab mail. Here's the first one we got from Reece in Minneapolis.
REECE: My question is, why is Mars red?
MARS: Yeah, this comes up a lot.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Yeah, so Mars is red because it has a mineral we call iron oxide throughout the planet and it basically is the same thing that we see when we have rust. It's a rusty planet.
MARS: Not because I'm sunburned?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Not because it's sunburned. No.
MARS: It's not because I'm embarrassed either?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: No. Not because it's embarrassed.
MARS: Some planets are just red.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Because that's the way it is.
MARS: Yeah, red's my power color. OK, next question.
SASHA: My name is Sasha from London. And my question is, can you boil an egg in space or scramble an egg on Mars or Jupiter or any non-Earth planet? Thank you.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Yeah, that's a really creative question.
MARS: Sounds like somebody wants to open a space restaurant.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: It might be hard to boil an egg if you were in space in your spacesuit with your frying pan, because there's no air in space. If you had any water, it would boil away right away really fast. You wouldn't have time to cook the egg.
MARS: Well, what about the scrambled eggs? Could you still bake eggs on me?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: I don't see why not. I think you would be able to cook something on Mars. I think Mars is very cold so you'd have to bring a really nice stove to heat everything up. We actually we do have an oven in the Curiosity Rover and we use it to cook rocks. We heat the rocks up in the oven to hundreds and hundreds of degrees, and we can measure the gases that come off of the rocks and look at what they're made of to help us better understand what molecules are inside of the rocks.
MARS: Baked rocks? That's pretty hard core. Abby, scientists see pretty obsessed with me. Why am I so intriguing?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Oh, that is an excellent question. Mars is really interesting because we think in the past it once was a lot like Earth, we think it was once a lot warmer, we think there was lakes and rivers on the surface. But today, it's a really cold, really dry place. It has almost no atmosphere, almost no air for you to breathe.
The question that we're really interested in understanding is, why is Mars such a different place today than it was in the past? And then second of all, we're interested in understanding if Mars didn't used to be like Earth, did we have life that ever arose on Mars?
MARS: Great answer. You forgot to mention it. I'm also really good at Sudoku puzzles. OK, up next. This guy.
NATHAN: My name is Nathan. I am from Toronto. My question is, what does Mars's ground look like?
MARS: I never really look at my own ground. What is it like?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: It's really rocky. We see a lot of big rocks. We see rocks that look like they came out of volcanoes, rocks like you might see in Hawaii. You also see a lot of dust, a lot of soil. Everything on the ground is very red because basically the entire planet has rusted.
MARS: And you know what they say? Rust don't bust. Who's with me? OK, fine. How about this one?
LEYLA: My name is Leyla from Durham, Maine. My question is, why is Mars so dusty?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: That's an excellent question and something all the scientists actually we still wonder about. Our best guess right now is that basically, the surface has been really dry for a really long time. You do have a little bit of an atmosphere that does blow the rocks around. We have big impacts from meteorites that come in and they smash into the ground and they break up the rocks.
And these small pieces are then broken into smaller sand grains and then those sand grains blow around in the atmosphere. And that blowing around of sand grains chips off really, really tiny pieces of the sand grains and that's what makes the dust. When you have this going on for billions and billions of years, like we do on Mars, it just makes the whole surface really dusty.
MARS: All I have is dust in the wind. Here's another one.
MICA: My name is Mica from Virginia. And my question is, Mars, do you have any other body parts or are you just a big red ball? Your earthling fan, Mica.
MARS: Well, you see, Mica, check. Here we go. I don't need no parts. I live large I'm a planet. If it's just my name, that's good shot it. We'll scan it. I look like a wall like a space pomegranate. Feel it all your heart's like a solar system bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Seriously, though, my solo album drops September 1st. Get the deets and score a copy when you fund my kickstarter. OK, up next.
MICHAEL: My name is Michael from Rancho Santa Margarita, California. My question is, how did Mars do this magnetic field?
MARS: What did I do with that? I mean, it used to be like right here and I don't know where I put it.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: That's an excellent question. Mars a long time ago we think had a magnetic field. This is basically a shield around the planet that protected it from harmful radiation from the sun and from space. What powered the magnetic field was convection inside of the core. Basically the core of Mars was warm enough that it was turning over and spinning and that spinning was what formed the magnetic field.
MARS: Like scientists think my core was so hot, it was sloshing around inside me. Would you have a belly full of melted ice cream or something?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Yeah, that's right.
MARS: Wow. And so when that stuff in my core was sloshing around, it generated a magnetic field around me?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Yes.
MARS: Wow. That's pretty cool. So what happened to it?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Mars is pretty small, and the core lost heat relatively quickly. So we think the magnetic field stopped being around the planet. Around the time that the core cooled off, it stopped convecting and stopped spinning. And then there was no more magnetic field.
MARS: Wow. Boy, can we just like re-activate my core with Pilates or something?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: No. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any reasonable way we know of that could restart the core. I know there's movies about that in Hollywood but in reality, I don't think we'd be able to restart the core and make a magnetic field for the planet.
MARS: Oh, man. Well, it's not like a magnetic field is important or anything, right?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Well, let me explain. Magnetic field is important because it protects us from radiation. So a lot of harmful things from space are shielded when you have a magnetic field. Mars doesn't have that anymore so there's a lot of intense radiation that reaches the surface.
MARS: Well, this is depressing. But with or without a magnetic field, I am going to live by best life. OK, one last question. This one is from Sierra. Wait, isn't she hosting Brains On right now? Anyway, she asks, Yo, Mars, can you solve this math problem? One car left to go to a place that is 5 miles away from his house. If he was driving at 50 miles per hour, how long would it take to get there?
Easy. 5 miles is one third of 50. If the car's going 15 miles an hour, it would take one third of an hour, which is 20 minutes. Mars just math. That's it for this video. Shout out to Abigail Fraeman. Abby, where could people follow you on social media?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: No, I don't have social media.
MARS: What?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: I do have a Twitter, but I never tweet.
MARS: Wow. You are weird. OK, well, follow me instead. Abby, thanks.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Awesome. Thank you so much for having me.
MARS: Keep up the good work.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Thanks. You too, man.
MARS: Obviously.
MOLLY BLOOM: Mars and Earth are neighbors. But thanks to their orbits, they aren't always the same distance from each other.
SIERRA: This July, the two planets will be closer than average.
ISAAC: You should be able to see Mars without a telescope.
SIERRA: We know Mars used to be warm and wet, but now it's cold and dry.
ISAAC: Scientists are studying the planet to find out how it changed.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this episode.
ISAAC: Brains On is produced by Molly Bloom, Sanden Totten, and Marc Sanchez.
MOLLY BLOOM: We had production help from Jackie Henry, Lauren Dee, and Emily Bright. Engineering help from Cameron Wiley and Veronica Rodriguez. And many thanks to Carrie and Corey Bill Hauer, Cara Hetland, Eric Wrangham, Laura Yuen, Jade Yang and Abby Samuels.
SIERRA: The show is made possible with help from the National Science Foundation.
MOLLY BLOOM: And we're powered by listeners like you.
SIERRA: Speaking of listener power, let's answer that question about lava from Cooper.
ISAAC: It's time for the moment of
COOPER: My question is why does lava move so slowly even though it is hot? Isn't lava liquid? Why does it move more like water?
KELLY MACGREGOR: A lava is definitely a liquid. When it cools enough, it becomes a solid rock. But hot lava flowing at the surface of the Earth is more than about 1,200 degrees Celsius. My name is Kelly MacGregor. I'm a professor in the Geology Department at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Lava flows much more slowly than water does in large part because it's a highly viscous material. Viscosity basically just means resistance to flow. The reason that lava is more viscous than say water is because all the molecules in lava like to stick together and they don't like to be pulled apart. And fluids that can hold hands and stay together better will actually flow more slowly.
For example, if you put a big blob of honey on a slanted desktop or cable top, it's going to flow much more slowly than a big blob of water. The lava would probably flow more slowly than the honey or the water because the molecules in the lava, the silica molecules want to stay really close to each other.
Even though it's very hot and even though it's also a fluid, it's going to flow more slowly because those molecules are trying to stick together. And that's what makes lava more viscous than honey or water.
MOLLY BLOOM: Time to get into the flow with the latest group of kids to join the Brains Honor Roll. These kings and queens of curiosity sent us questions, mystery sounds, drawings, and ideas. You can join them by heading to brainson.org/contact. And now the newest members of the Brains Honor Roll.
[LISTING HONOR ROLL]
That's it for this time.
BOTH: Thanks for listening.
MARS: Don't forget to write a review Brains On. Drop a five stars. Also you could tweet about it or you can review it on Rotten Tomatoes. Stream it on Spotify. Wait, chalk it on the sidewalk. No, no, post it on Tumblr. No, wait, send and invite. Listed in the free section of next door.
ISAAC: Brains On is supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
LESTER: Downtown is crowded tonight as legions of screaming fans gather in hopes of catching a glimpse of their favorite celebrity. We've got WKPBBCCRP's Karen Marmalade on the scene. Karen.
KAREN MARMALADE: As you can hear, Lester, it's fandemonium at the planetarium.
LESTER: News pun. Love it.
KAREN MARMALADE: People of all ages with cameras ready. They're living for this moment. The chance to see someone so famous they go by one name, and one name only.
LESTER: Like Morrissey?
KAREN MARMALADE: Bigger.
LESTER: Abono?
KAREN MARMALADE: Bigger.
LESTER: Madonna?
KAREN MARMALADE: Still bigger.
LESTER: Oprah.
KAREN MARMALADE: Lester, this celebrity is so big you actually see them with the naked eye from 35 million miles away. Oh, I think they've just arrived.
MARS: What's up, people? It's your boy Mars, the red planet. Or as my brothers call me, the rad planet. Awesome that's who you are, headaches for the support. Just make sure you tag me at all your pictures. Oh, and use hashtag Mars Close Approach. Also smash that subscribe button all by YouTube. Oh, and follow me on Twitter, plus somewhat Insta. Catch me on Yelp. Bad props to the cheese baggers at house Laguna.
KAREN MARMALADE: Lester, this could take a while. So why don't we cut to another story?
MARS: I delivered with--
LESTER: Sounds good. And now, this thing.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
MOLLY BLOOM: You're listening to Brains On from American Public Media. I'm Molly Bloom, and with me today are brother and sister Sierra and Isaac Philhower from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Hi, guys.
BOTH: Hi.
MOLLY BLOOM: Do you have any favorite facts about Mars?
ISAAC: I like that there might have been life and then there might be life right now on Mars.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, that is very, very intriguing and exciting to think about. Well, today, we are talking Mars because this July, Mars and Earth are having what's called a close pass. That means the red planet will be much closer than usual.
ISAAC: Just 35.8 million miles away.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's nothing when you think about it though. Sometimes Mars and Earth are 250 million miles apart.
SIERRA: In fact, all this month it should be easy to spot Mars with just your eyes. It will be bigger and brighter than it's been since 2003.
MOLLY BLOOM: No wonder Mars is feeling like a star. It's shining bright like one. Isaac and Sierra, do you ever look up at the night sky?
SIERRA: Yeah, when we go camping, and sometimes we look at it.
MOLLY BLOOM: When you look up at the night sky with all the stars, what do you think about?
SIERRA: Is there life?
MOLLY BLOOM: It's a very good question. What do you think do you think there's life out there?
SIERRA: I think so. It's very possible.
ISAAC: I think if there's life forms far out there, the universe is like never ending. if You go far enough, you'll probably find living creatures.
MOLLY BLOOM: When you have those thoughts about aliens or how big the universe is, what kind of feelings does that make you have? What do you think about?
SIERRA: It makes me feel like just have nobody asked me another question for another five minutes.
MOLLY BLOOM: I totally know what you mean. I feel like I'm floating away and I have to think about what I had for lunch today to get back to Earth. Well, it is pretty cool to think that we can see another planet just by looking up, but where should we look?
ISAAC: And why is Mars closer sometimes and farther other times?
SIERRA: Here to help us with all this is Miona Short.
MOLLY BLOOM: Miona is an aspiring astrophysicist who recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Her research has included flaring stars, finding stellar nurseries, figuring out the mass of the Orion giant molecular cloud, as well as supermassive black hole classifications. Pretty cool stuff. Welcome, Miona.
MIONA SHORT: Thank you all for having me.
ISAAC: Well, what Mars look like? We'll look bigger and could we see mountains and other stuff on it?
MIONA SHORT: Upon its closest approach at the end of July, Mars will look like a reddish star. And in fact, it will be the third brightest object in our night sky after the moon and Venus. And this is super interesting because Jupiter, which is farther away than Mars but also the largest planet in our solar system, is usually the third brightest object in the night sky. But now Mars is coming in to claim that bronze away from our most visible gas giant as the third brightest object in the sky.
SIERRA: How can your average kid see Mars during this close pass?
MIONA SHORT: Well, Mars will be at its closest super late at night on July 31st. I'm talking like 3:50 AM. If you don't quite see yourself waking up that early, then most nights this season you can see Mars rising opposite the sunset. Our sun always rises in the East and always sets in the West. However, right now, Mars is rising in the West and setting in the East and a defiance of the sun.
Mars will look like a reddish star and it will be bright. You don't need a telescope but if you do have even a weaker telescope, you can actually see features. Mars has two polar caps, just like we do, made of ice, and so you will likely be able to see them. As well as features, physical features of the planet. Some of Mars has regions that are darker than others, and you would be able to see those as well.
SIERRA: Why does it change its distance from Earth?
MIONA SHORT: That's a function of the shape of its orbit as well as the different speeds in which Mars and Earth are essentially moving around the sun. The Earth's orbit is about twice as fast as Mars. Which means that it takes almost two Earth years for it to go around the sun.
ISAAC: Is Mars always the closest planet to Earth?
MIONA SHORT: That's a great question. And actually, no. Not too long ago, I casually mentioned that Venus is the second brightest object in the night sky after the moon. That's because Venus is almost twice the size of Mars and generally millions of miles closer to the Earth and Mars.
SIERRA: If there were intelligent life on Mars and they were looking up at the night sky, would Earth look closer during the close pass?
MIONA SHORT: That's a great question. They absolutely would. We would likely look like a blue star in their sky where they look like a red star in ours. I think everyone should look at it. I think everyone should spend at least five minutes just gazing and appreciating the majesty of Mars because it's rare for it to get this close. Especially twice as bright as Jupiter in the sky, that's incredible.
SIERRA: Thanks for being here.
MIONA SHORT: It's been a blast talking to you guys, really.
SIERRA: Yeah, I like talking to you too.
ISAAC: Thanks for being on the show.
MIONA SHORT: Bye, everybody.
MARS: Hey, guys. It's me, Mars. The planet. What's up? It's been a while since I posted a video, but I've got something big to share. Do you know how they say there's like no life on Mars and only Earth has people? Well, that always really bugged me because like I'm way cooler than Earth. Who wants to live there anyway? You got all that water and atmosphere. Anyway, what if earthlings are really from Mars?
What? I know it sounds bonkers, but hear me out. I was once like this warmer, wetter planet. What if life started here and then somehow hightailed it to Earth? I mean, why else would all you earthlings be eating bars and roasting marshmallows? And grown ups, they're always drinking bars titties? I mean, it seems like you're pretty bars-minded.
What about NASA? They're like, Oh, we're going to set some satellites and rovers to study Mars. But the real reason is probably because they're trying to find a way back home. Other clouds say, look, you're all Marshads and I welcome you to come back home and live all by face. See you soon Marshads. Oh, and be sure to check out my next video where I'll be answering your questions. Mars out.
Brains On.
MOLLY BLOOM: Here's something you won't see in the night sky or anywhere for that matter because you can't see it at all. It's a?
SIERRA: Mystery sound.
MOLLY BLOOM: Sierra and Isaac, are you ready?
SIERRA: Yes.
ISAAC: Yes.
MOLLY BLOOM: Here it is.
[CRACKING SOUND]
Do you guys have any guesses about what that might be?
SIERRA: Sounds like something that's moving. Like rolling over things. Maybe a car or like a bike.
MOLLY BLOOM: Isaac, what do you think?
ISAAC: It sounds like a rover on Mars.
MOLLY BLOOM: You guys are good. All right, we're going to get back to that in just a bit. But first, Mars shouldn't get all the glory.
SIERRA: Yeah, we share the solar system with a bunch of awesome planets. Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn.
MOLLY BLOOM: Uranus, and Neptune.
SIERRA: Throw in Earth and Mars and that's eight totally unique planets in our one super solar system.
MOLLY BLOOM: Talk about squad goals. To help you remember these epic eight orbs, we set our solar system to music.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SIERRA: Do you have a question about Mars or planet or anything? Send it to us. Go to brainson.org/contact.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's what Cooper did.
COOPER: My question is why does lava move so slowly even though it is hot? Isn't lava liquid? Why doesn't it move more like water?
MOLLY BLOOM: We'll answer that in our moment of at the end of the show.
SIERRA: We're working on two new episode, and we want you to weigh in.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's right. We're looking into what makes fun things fun and what makes gross things gross.
ISAAC: But what is fun and what is gross?
MOLLY BLOOM: We'd love to hear you try to explain fun and gross. How would you describe them to say a robot? Isaac, how would you describe the concept of fun?
ISAAC: Happy, excited.
MOLLY BLOOM: Sierra, how would you explain what gross is?
SIERRA: Gross is like something that people regularly don't like. They don't want to get nearer, they don't want to touch it, they don't want to smell it. It's just something that they hate.
MOLLY BLOOM: Very good answers. But we want your answers to listeners. Record yourself explaining fun and gross, and we may use it in an upcoming show.
SIERRA: Thanks.
MOLLY BLOOM: I'm Molly Bloom, and with me today is sibling duo Isaac and Sierra. Hi, guys.
SIERRA: Hi.
ISAAC: Hi.
MOLLY BLOOM: Are you guys ready to give that mystery sound one more try?
BOTH: Yes.
MOLLY BLOOM: You guys are in sync. I love it. Here it is again.
[CRANKING SOUND]
Any new guesses after hearing it a second time?
SIERRA: I think I'll stick with my guess a bit like being like a car rolling over. Something.
MOLLY BLOOM: Good guess. Isaac, what do you think?
ISAAC: I still think it's a rover.
MOLLY BLOOM: You guys are in agreement that it's something moving on wheel like things over a surface. All right. Here's the answer.
NATALIE: Hi, I'm Natalie and I'm 13.
KADEN: I'm Kaden and I'm 11.
JACK: Hi, I am Jack and I am eight years old.
BOTH: We live in Portland, Oregon.
NATALIE: And that was the sound of us rollerblading.
BOTH: Thanks for listening to our sound. Bye.
SIERRA: Oh.
ISAAC: Oh.
MOLLY BLOOM: Well, I would say guys were very close because you both had this idea of wheel type things moving over a surface. I'm impressed. Good listening skills. To wrap up our show-- oh, look at that.
SIERRA: What?
MOLLY BLOOM: We just got a notification. Mars just posted a new vlog.
SIERRA: Awesome. I sent Mars a question after listening to your last Mars episode.
MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, the episode about whether humans could ever live on Mars?
SIERRA: Yeah. Let's see if Mars responded.
ISAAC: Click that video, Molly.
MARS: Hey, guys. It's me, Mars. Check it. I'm a planet and a pretty red. Surface cold, pretty sure it's dead. Feed a horse, that horse is fed. These are words that I've set for my head. I'm just working on my solo album. It's got to be pretty lit. Marsniaks, thinks for all the questions. To help me out with them, I've got scientists Abigail Fraeman from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Oh, thanks so much for having me.
MARS: Abby worked with the Mars robot called Curiosity Rover. Fun fact. What it drives Abby, it kind of tickles. Anyway, let's start with an easy question. Why is Mars the coolest planet? Go.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: I mean, well, second coolest besides Earth.
MARS: I know, right? Wait, what? What are you talking about? Mars is way cooler than Earth.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Well, Mars is certainly a lot colder than Earth. The average surface temperatures on Mars are much, much lower than what we get on Earth. I mean, I'm going to be honest. I think Earth is pretty cool because it's where I live.
MARS: Since you're my guest, I bet a lot you'd be wrong about that. Anyway, let's answer some fab mail. Here's the first one we got from Reece in Minneapolis.
REECE: My question is, why is Mars red?
MARS: Yeah, this comes up a lot.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Yeah, so Mars is red because it has a mineral we call iron oxide throughout the planet and it basically is the same thing that we see when we have rust. It's a rusty planet.
MARS: Not because I'm sunburned?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Not because it's sunburned. No.
MARS: It's not because I'm embarrassed either?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: No. Not because it's embarrassed.
MARS: Some planets are just red.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Because that's the way it is.
MARS: Yeah, red's my power color. OK, next question.
SASHA: My name is Sasha from London. And my question is, can you boil an egg in space or scramble an egg on Mars or Jupiter or any non-Earth planet? Thank you.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Yeah, that's a really creative question.
MARS: Sounds like somebody wants to open a space restaurant.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: It might be hard to boil an egg if you were in space in your spacesuit with your frying pan, because there's no air in space. If you had any water, it would boil away right away really fast. You wouldn't have time to cook the egg.
MARS: Well, what about the scrambled eggs? Could you still bake eggs on me?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: I don't see why not. I think you would be able to cook something on Mars. I think Mars is very cold so you'd have to bring a really nice stove to heat everything up. We actually we do have an oven in the Curiosity Rover and we use it to cook rocks. We heat the rocks up in the oven to hundreds and hundreds of degrees, and we can measure the gases that come off of the rocks and look at what they're made of to help us better understand what molecules are inside of the rocks.
MARS: Baked rocks? That's pretty hard core. Abby, scientists see pretty obsessed with me. Why am I so intriguing?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Oh, that is an excellent question. Mars is really interesting because we think in the past it once was a lot like Earth, we think it was once a lot warmer, we think there was lakes and rivers on the surface. But today, it's a really cold, really dry place. It has almost no atmosphere, almost no air for you to breathe.
The question that we're really interested in understanding is, why is Mars such a different place today than it was in the past? And then second of all, we're interested in understanding if Mars didn't used to be like Earth, did we have life that ever arose on Mars?
MARS: Great answer. You forgot to mention it. I'm also really good at Sudoku puzzles. OK, up next. This guy.
NATHAN: My name is Nathan. I am from Toronto. My question is, what does Mars's ground look like?
MARS: I never really look at my own ground. What is it like?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: It's really rocky. We see a lot of big rocks. We see rocks that look like they came out of volcanoes, rocks like you might see in Hawaii. You also see a lot of dust, a lot of soil. Everything on the ground is very red because basically the entire planet has rusted.
MARS: And you know what they say? Rust don't bust. Who's with me? OK, fine. How about this one?
LEYLA: My name is Leyla from Durham, Maine. My question is, why is Mars so dusty?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: That's an excellent question and something all the scientists actually we still wonder about. Our best guess right now is that basically, the surface has been really dry for a really long time. You do have a little bit of an atmosphere that does blow the rocks around. We have big impacts from meteorites that come in and they smash into the ground and they break up the rocks.
And these small pieces are then broken into smaller sand grains and then those sand grains blow around in the atmosphere. And that blowing around of sand grains chips off really, really tiny pieces of the sand grains and that's what makes the dust. When you have this going on for billions and billions of years, like we do on Mars, it just makes the whole surface really dusty.
MARS: All I have is dust in the wind. Here's another one.
MICA: My name is Mica from Virginia. And my question is, Mars, do you have any other body parts or are you just a big red ball? Your earthling fan, Mica.
MARS: Well, you see, Mica, check. Here we go. I don't need no parts. I live large I'm a planet. If it's just my name, that's good shot it. We'll scan it. I look like a wall like a space pomegranate. Feel it all your heart's like a solar system bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Seriously, though, my solo album drops September 1st. Get the deets and score a copy when you fund my kickstarter. OK, up next.
MICHAEL: My name is Michael from Rancho Santa Margarita, California. My question is, how did Mars do this magnetic field?
MARS: What did I do with that? I mean, it used to be like right here and I don't know where I put it.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: That's an excellent question. Mars a long time ago we think had a magnetic field. This is basically a shield around the planet that protected it from harmful radiation from the sun and from space. What powered the magnetic field was convection inside of the core. Basically the core of Mars was warm enough that it was turning over and spinning and that spinning was what formed the magnetic field.
MARS: Like scientists think my core was so hot, it was sloshing around inside me. Would you have a belly full of melted ice cream or something?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Yeah, that's right.
MARS: Wow. And so when that stuff in my core was sloshing around, it generated a magnetic field around me?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Yes.
MARS: Wow. That's pretty cool. So what happened to it?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Mars is pretty small, and the core lost heat relatively quickly. So we think the magnetic field stopped being around the planet. Around the time that the core cooled off, it stopped convecting and stopped spinning. And then there was no more magnetic field.
MARS: Wow. Boy, can we just like re-activate my core with Pilates or something?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: No. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any reasonable way we know of that could restart the core. I know there's movies about that in Hollywood but in reality, I don't think we'd be able to restart the core and make a magnetic field for the planet.
MARS: Oh, man. Well, it's not like a magnetic field is important or anything, right?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Well, let me explain. Magnetic field is important because it protects us from radiation. So a lot of harmful things from space are shielded when you have a magnetic field. Mars doesn't have that anymore so there's a lot of intense radiation that reaches the surface.
MARS: Well, this is depressing. But with or without a magnetic field, I am going to live by best life. OK, one last question. This one is from Sierra. Wait, isn't she hosting Brains On right now? Anyway, she asks, Yo, Mars, can you solve this math problem? One car left to go to a place that is 5 miles away from his house. If he was driving at 50 miles per hour, how long would it take to get there?
Easy. 5 miles is one third of 50. If the car's going 15 miles an hour, it would take one third of an hour, which is 20 minutes. Mars just math. That's it for this video. Shout out to Abigail Fraeman. Abby, where could people follow you on social media?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: No, I don't have social media.
MARS: What?
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: I do have a Twitter, but I never tweet.
MARS: Wow. You are weird. OK, well, follow me instead. Abby, thanks.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Awesome. Thank you so much for having me.
MARS: Keep up the good work.
ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: Thanks. You too, man.
MARS: Obviously.
MOLLY BLOOM: Mars and Earth are neighbors. But thanks to their orbits, they aren't always the same distance from each other.
SIERRA: This July, the two planets will be closer than average.
ISAAC: You should be able to see Mars without a telescope.
SIERRA: We know Mars used to be warm and wet, but now it's cold and dry.
ISAAC: Scientists are studying the planet to find out how it changed.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this episode.
ISAAC: Brains On is produced by Molly Bloom, Sanden Totten, and Marc Sanchez.
MOLLY BLOOM: We had production help from Jackie Henry, Lauren Dee, and Emily Bright. Engineering help from Cameron Wiley and Veronica Rodriguez. And many thanks to Carrie and Corey Bill Hauer, Cara Hetland, Eric Wrangham, Laura Yuen, Jade Yang and Abby Samuels.
SIERRA: The show is made possible with help from the National Science Foundation.
MOLLY BLOOM: And we're powered by listeners like you.
SIERRA: Speaking of listener power, let's answer that question about lava from Cooper.
ISAAC: It's time for the moment of
COOPER: My question is why does lava move so slowly even though it is hot? Isn't lava liquid? Why does it move more like water?
KELLY MACGREGOR: A lava is definitely a liquid. When it cools enough, it becomes a solid rock. But hot lava flowing at the surface of the Earth is more than about 1,200 degrees Celsius. My name is Kelly MacGregor. I'm a professor in the Geology Department at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Lava flows much more slowly than water does in large part because it's a highly viscous material. Viscosity basically just means resistance to flow. The reason that lava is more viscous than say water is because all the molecules in lava like to stick together and they don't like to be pulled apart. And fluids that can hold hands and stay together better will actually flow more slowly.
For example, if you put a big blob of honey on a slanted desktop or cable top, it's going to flow much more slowly than a big blob of water. The lava would probably flow more slowly than the honey or the water because the molecules in the lava, the silica molecules want to stay really close to each other.
Even though it's very hot and even though it's also a fluid, it's going to flow more slowly because those molecules are trying to stick together. And that's what makes lava more viscous than honey or water.
MOLLY BLOOM: Time to get into the flow with the latest group of kids to join the Brains Honor Roll. These kings and queens of curiosity sent us questions, mystery sounds, drawings, and ideas. You can join them by heading to brainson.org/contact. And now the newest members of the Brains Honor Roll.
[LISTING HONOR ROLL]
That's it for this time.
BOTH: Thanks for listening.
MARS: Don't forget to write a review Brains On. Drop a five stars. Also you could tweet about it or you can review it on Rotten Tomatoes. Stream it on Spotify. Wait, chalk it on the sidewalk. No, no, post it on Tumblr. No, wait, send and invite. Listed in the free section of next door.
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