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The Curious Cosmos with Derrick Pitts (A So Curious Bonus Episode)

In a special bonus episode of So Curious, Bey and Kirsten are joined by Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer and Director of the Fels Planetarium at the Franklin Institute!

The three discuss how Derrick came to be in the field of astronomy, what being in space would actually be like, how sci-fi shapes our understanding of outer space, and so much more.

Be sure to check out Derrick’s new podcast, The Curious Cosmos, for more amazing space talk! New episodes will be released every Tuesday throughout the fall.

Transcript
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Hey, what's up?

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I'm The Bul Bey.

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And I'm Kirsten Michelle-Cills.

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We are your hosts, and this is The So

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Curious Podcast, presented by The Franklin Institute.

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As you know, Bey and I are not exactly astronomers.

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Hey! We're close.

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I can see why you might think that. Yeah.

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But we actually know someone who knows even more than us about astronomy.

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And who is it? It's Derrick Pitts!

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It's Derrick Pitts!

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Derrick Pitts is the Chief Astronomer and

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Director of the Franklin Institute's Fels Planetarium.

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Yeah.

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And Derrick Pitts has a new podcast coming out soon, from The Franklin

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Institute, and Kirsten and I are going to do what we do best, which is...

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Ask a bunch of questions, even if they're completely uneducated!

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Hey, Derrick Pitts! Hey, Bey.

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Hey, Kirsten. Hey, Derrick!

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Thank you for allowing us to bother you with a bunch of these questions.

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Of course.

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And thanks for letting me come on So Curious to talk about space, and tell

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people about my new podcast, The Curious Cosmos!

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I can't tell you how excited I am for folks to listen to all these great

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conversations I was able to have with these really cool people,

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and new episodes will be dropping every Tuesday throughout the fall.

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So listen up!

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Derrick, I got to know, how did you get into all of this?

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Like, what's your story?

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Well, I was abducted by aliens when I was very young.

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Oh, I knew it! That'll do it, yeah...

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Uh-huh. I only wish that was that story!

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That couldn't have been easy!

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No, my story is an interesting one.

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As a young Black kid in North Philadelphia growing up in the neighborhood, to me,

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I was not interested in the same stuff as everybody else.

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I was like the weird kid on the block.

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I know all about being a weird kid. I was going to say-

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Yeah, right. Do you get it?

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-weird kids end up with podcasts, apparently.

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And here we are! Right.

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Exactly.

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What really got me started in astronomy is it's really two parts.

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One part is I have an insatiable curiosity about science.

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I just have got to know. I have to know.

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I have to know. I just have to know.

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Oh, you were also one of those why kids. Why? Why?

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Right. I was one of those why kids.

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And unfortunately, there weren't many people around me who could provide

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answers, so I had to work at getting the answers myself.

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So that meant I read a lot.

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If I go to the supermarket with my mom, you know, back in those days at the

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checkout counter, they had these picture book encyclopedia things.

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And while she's checking out, I'd be reading the book.

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Oh, my gosh. Now, we wouldn't buy the book because the

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book was five bucks or something like that, which was expensive back then!

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But I'd read the book.

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So that's the first part, the insatiable

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curiosity about the world around me, about everything in it.

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But then I also had this particular bug for space.

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Why space?

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I cannot tell you, but I just got this thing about space.

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So I've always been interested.

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And at that time, I was growing up at a

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time when we were really getting started with space exploration.

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This is the first people being launched

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into space and the beginning of the lunar programs and things like that.

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And what I did was I consumed every bit of information I could find

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about rockets and astronauts and space flight and navigation and all that

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stuff. And I mean, like, every bit of arcane information that could be found

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! So, I'm the weird kid on the block who knows about the radio signals that carry

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all of the information about the condition of the spacecraft as it's flying, okay?

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Like everything. Woah.

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What's the speed? What are the pressures?

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What's the consumption of the fuel?

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What's the that?

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I'm the kid that's really into that stuff, okay?

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So, of course, I wanted to be an astronaut, right?

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Because that's the obvious goal at the end of all this study about space

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is astronaut, because that's what I see immediately.

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But what about the astronomy part?

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Well, the astronomy part is something completely different because astronomy is

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more about physics and about exploring the universe using very special tools.

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And astronomers are never prominently shown anywhere as a career goal.

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But I discovered a route to find astronomers.

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And the route I found to discover astronomers was this magazine that used to

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be around, still around today called Scientific American.

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And back in the day, Scientific American

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was really deep stuff, and it was very hard to read.

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When I was about 10 years old, I stumbled across a copy of this magazine.

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I think in the family doctor's waiting room office or something like that, right?

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And I start reading this magazine and I

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come across an article about an astronromer who's using radio telescopes

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to identify the most distant objects in the universe.

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And I am hooked.

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Your 10-year-old brain was like, what?!?

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Blown, Ka-boom!

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Yeah, I was going to say. Oh, my gosh.

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So I started reading about this stuff.

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Then I started thinking about this from my neighborhood.

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I lived on an east-west running street in North Philadelphia.

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T-ed into it was a north-south street.

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Well, what I realized was that I could use the streets as a sundial, because I could

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notice how sun and shade changes the illumination in such a way that I can

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actually measure the amount of time passing.

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But here's the connection.

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It wasn't about the time itself, but it

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was about the motion of either the earth or the sun.

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One of these two things is moving, because during the day, this part of the street is

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illuminated and then this part of the street is in shadow.

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Then that changes during the course of the day.

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What age were you when you were doing this?

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I was like 10, 11, somewhere in there. Wow, yeah, yeah.

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And what I'm starting to do is I'm working

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out the celestial mechanics of how this can happen.

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So I'm thinking, either the sun is moving or the earth is moving.

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Whoa, wait a minute, because that's the only way this could happen.

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Then I'm thinking, wait, the sun doesn't move.

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The sun is at the center of the solar system and the earth goes around it.

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Whoa, I'm seeing the rotation of the earth

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during the course of the day as the lighting changes and the sun stays

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still! And I realize at the age of 10 that the sun does not rise.

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The sun never rises.

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It's the earth rotating underneath the sky that changes this stuff!

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Are you saying this out loud or just

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keeping it to yourself? Like, who are you sharing this with?

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No, I'm just keeping it to myself because when I mention this to any adults, they're

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like, "How could you know that?" Or, "Where did you get that from?" Or I'd ask

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a question like, "Is this what's really happening?" They'd go like, "I don't know.

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Here, go read a book!" But what it really involved was me observing the sky and

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realizing these motions of the sun, the moon, the planets, the stars,

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and then reading what I could to link all this stuff together.

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And I'm doing this without a telescope in North Philadelphia.

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The only other people I can really talk to about this is, I have a couple of friends

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in school who were kind of into astronomy, and they could follow along.

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But I was way off on a tangent about

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trying to understand how radio telescopes work, and how spectroscopes work, and how

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all these other instruments work that'll tell the story about how our universe is

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so big and so expansive that the universe is expanding at this rate of

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speed, and galaxies change their color according to this, all this stuff.

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How did you get to The Franklin Institute?

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Oh! Talk about chance of chance of chances!

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Ooooohh! It really was.

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It was such a fluke, such a tremendous fluke.

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I was a student at St.

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Lawrence University in Northern New York, came home one summer looking for a job.

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So I applied to a bunch of places.

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Tastykake's, someplace where my mother

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used to work, The Franklin Institute, a bunch of other places, right?

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I heard back from the Franklin Institute and they said, "Oh, yeah, we have some

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positions open." So, I'm going to reveal my true age.

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This was the spring of 1976, and Franklin Institute was hiring additional

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people because the Franklin was going to be open until 10 o'clock every night!

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Whaaat? Because of the huge crowds of people that

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were going to be in Philadelphia for the Bicentennial!

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Millions of people, and Franklin Institute anticipated that many of those millions

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would be coming out to the parkway and visit The Franklin Institute.

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We need to be open until 10 o'clock.

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So I got hired on as a summer job thing, right?

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Nobody came.

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Well, a few people came, but I was on the 2 to 10 shift.

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I worked from two in the afternoon until

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10 o'clock at night, just like a ghost town.

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Nobody stayed that late.

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People stayed until 5:00, maybe 6:00, and then that was it.

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Then me and the rest of the crew that were

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on board from six until 10 had the run of the place all night long!

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Wow. It was great.

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It was great.

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So that's how I started.

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I started as a summer worker.

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And then, just before I graduated from St.

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Lawrence, I was offered a full-time job at Franklin Institute.

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I was like, "Wow, I'm going to get paid right out of college?

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This is great!

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Fabulous!" So I took the job.

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Yeah, what a place to be in!

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I mean, science. Exactly.

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And I thought, "You know what?

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I'm going to hang out here for a couple of years.

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I'll go to grad school and go off and do something else." But every year, Franklin

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Institute offered me a new challenging thing to do, and more money.

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So I stayed, and it kept getting more and more interesting.

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So every new thing I did was way more exciting than the thing before.

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And it started to open up these really exciting doors for me.

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So this is how I really get started working with NASA.

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This is how I get started working with big observatories.

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This is how I get started working in the IMAX film industry.

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This is how I get started working in planetariums.

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This is how I get started doing all these

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other crazy things that I now have this really unique opportunity to do.

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So it's like, I'm going to ride this way because this is just too fantastic!

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Amazing. So, I meet all these wonderful people,

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these highly influential people in astronomy!

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I meet all these astronauts.

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I'm working with NASA for this and that and all - and it never ends.

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It's like that Science American magazine came to life and now you're like, talking

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to these people and having these conversations.

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You know, Bey, you are exactly right about that.

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Because I got to meet some of my astronomy hero-type people as a result of this.

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And these big observatories and stuff like that.

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Fortunately, I can now go to some of these observatories and just knock on the door

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and say, "Hey, I'm Derrick Pitts from this and this and this.

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" And they're like, "Oh, yeah, come on in!" That thing, you know? And I've been

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invited to shuttle launches and landings, and I've flown stuff in space, and just

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crazy stuff that I dreamt about stuff like this.

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When I was a kid, I had a picture on my wall of the Andromeda Galaxy, and I

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thought, "If I could ever just meet somebody from a place like this, man, that

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would just be like be all and end all." I have a picture of me standing on the

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catwalk of one of the biggest telescopes in the world at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, the

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finest observatory in the world. I can't - it's hard for me to even articulate what

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that means to somebody like me who could only imagine this when I was a kid.

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And now, I have access to places like this, and I can call people on the phone

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and talk to them and stuff like that. And they'll take my call!

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It's the craziest thing in the world.

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I think that all the time, about people

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who had obsessions from a young age, myself included, Bey included.

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It's like if somebody told you at age 10

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that this would be your future, you would never be able to-

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Never believe it. -to fathom it.

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Yeah.

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And now you are this person, and you are other people's astronomy heroes.

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And you know, that's the reason why I do as much as I do in the

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public sphere, is because there's a kid out there who is me back then, and that

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kid needs to know that their dream can come true.

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Derrick Pitts, the astronomy hero!

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Yeah, seriously.

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This is like so - yeah!

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I love that light bulb moment of looking at the street corner and understanding the

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rotation of the planet and the sun and the shadow.

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I think that moment, I wish I could experience like, "Oh, what!"

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You know what it did?

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It completely altered my perception of the universe.

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I've had three instances

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when my perception of the universe suddenly was completely changed.

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Oh, well you got to share the other two.

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Just like, boom.

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Okay, so I'll tell them to you quickly.

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Walking home from school in eighth grade,

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I was thinking about the expansion of the universe.

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As one does.

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Yeah, I hope it was a long walk, because that's a lot to talk about!

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Yeah, it was a lot to think about!

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But I remember specifically where I was when I was thinking about the expansion of

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the universe, and what it made me think of was this very basic thing.

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Okay, so the universe is expanding.

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Okay, what's it expanding into?

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Is it expanding into another volume?

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Well, what is that other volume?

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How do we define boundaries between volumes?

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How do we do that? Is there a wall to this universe?

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If there's a wall to this universe, that

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means that there's an inside and an outside.

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Well, what's the outside?

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And how far on does this go?

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How many other outsides are there?

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Are there more universes? Wait a minute.

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Hold on.

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This is completely messing with my whole concept of the universe because, wait a

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minute, isn't the God that I learned about in church part of this universe?

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Wait a minute. Does that God belong to, like a union of

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gods that all have their individual universes?

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Union of gods! Yeah.

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So wait, what's going on here?

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Oh man, who's lobbying for these unions, man?

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So now I'm looking at the universe in a totally different way.

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I'm thinking of it as a contained thing.

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No matter how big it is, no matter how fast the expansion is, there's that.

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Okay, then here's the other one.

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I went to a lecture at Drexel University.

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Oh, this must be now 15 years ago.

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And the presenter, Michael Turner, is a mathematician and astrophysicist

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who was working on this concept of dark matter and dark energy.

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And in 45 minutes, Michael Turner went through the progression of the evidence

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and the theory about dark matter and dark energy.

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Basically, what he came down to was, the

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universe is made of dark matter and dark energy.

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All that together makes up 96% of the universe.

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4% of the universe is just the normal matter that we're used to seeing, right?

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The tables, the people, the planets, the stars.

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That's only 4%.

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So the universe is 96% of something else we don't know about.

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We don't even understand what it is.

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Yet we are this little 4% that's left over.

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So we're not driving the universe.

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We're not the main product of the universe.

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We're just this little stuff left over

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from some other process that we don't understand.

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And you went home and how did you sleep?

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I'm telling you, no. How DO you sleep?

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It's way worse than that, because when I

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walked into that lecture, I had one perception of the universe.

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When I walked out and stood on the street,

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my view of the universe was completely different.

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It's no longer - most of the stuff of the

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universe is the material stuff, and then there's this energy in between.

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No, no, we are virtually nothing of the

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universe, and the rest is this stuff that we don't understand.

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So it indicates that it's a process that we don't know anything about.

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We are not the main characters.

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We are not the main characters here!

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We are extras at best.

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Right, at best. Yeah.

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And that also makes us really unique here,

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because the other thing that ties into this, and this is the other question I get

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all the time in this business, are we the only life that's around?

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Is there any other life in the universe? Dramatic pause.

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Right. The big, heavy questions.

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Yeah...

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Okay, are we the only other life in the universe?

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Okay, so if we're this detritus that's

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left over from all this other stuff that's gone on that we really don't understand,

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if we are alone, it's a really miraculous thing because we create art,

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we create music, we build buildings, we create sculpture, we have all these other

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activities that are specifically human activities.

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And if that's not going on anywhere else

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in the universe, that really makes us very special, on the other hand, too. Right?

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Yeah, we make podcasts. We make podcasts!

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We make podcasts. Exactly.

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We make this gorgeous art like this.

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So Derrick Pitts, let me ask, aside from speaking to

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people and exploring the humanity of space observation and learnings and different

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things like that, do you still have that ambition to go to space?

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I do. I still have that ambition to go to space.

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Yeah, I really do.

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Do you see it happening?

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Well, yes, it's getting more and more

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possible all the time! You know, because access to space for everyday people

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is really beginning to open up these possibilities.

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I know a few people who have been offering opportunities to travel in space, but I'm

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really choosy about which flight I might like to travel on.

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So for example, I'm very much aware of the risk of space flight.

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It's serious.

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It's not to be played with.

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It's not trivial.

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And so, my thinking about this is that, if I have an opportunity, I'd like to go on a

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spacecraft that has been rather well tested.

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So, I'm not about being the first one.

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I'm about being on the third one or the fourth one.

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That's kind of how I do with smartphones.

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Like, don't give me the first one. Let me...

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Right. Work out the kinks, but not with me.

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Exactly. Yes, work out the kinks, but not with me.

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What's the first thing you're going to be looking for once you're up there?

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Wow. Are there windows?

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Is that a dumb question? Oh, my Lord, there better be a window!

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Well, I mean, there's got to be like the windshield.

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On the space shuttle, which was a number of years ago now, I think they had six

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windows that were big enough that you could see out of.

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That was just fine.

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But International Space Station has this really cool thing called The Cupola.

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The Cupola is a whole module that is nothing but windows.

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So you can look down and see the planet in a 360 degree view.

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That's really fantastic. Oh, my gosh.

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And if you look at some of the more modern capsules that are being designed for human

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space travel, the windows are now really big.

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Like in one of the spacecraft, the windows are 6 feet tall and about 3 feet wide.

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So you get a gorgeous view of space.

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So what am I looking for?

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I'm looking for two things.

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I want to look back at our planet and see what our planet looks like from space.

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I also want to look out and see what stars look like.

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Now, I know that sounds really basic, but think about it.

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You're off the surface of the Earth seeing these things.

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It's a totally different perspective.

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And it sort of introduces you to the idea that we are, this planet, is a spacecraft

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traveling through space that has a really thin skin that protects everything on it.

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Yet, we have the capability to look out

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and think about how it all works and what our place is in it.

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So, that's what I want to do if I get a

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chance to go out there, is to think about that stuff.

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But wait, I'm like a self-professed geek here about this kind of stuff.

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Would you go?

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Oh, great question.

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You know, I think not for me.

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I think not for me.

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I'm still kind of like, let me go travel to Italy, Korea.

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I just want to travel on the Earth's surface first?

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Sure!

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Kirsten, would you go?

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Without hesitation, I would.

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It would be really scary, but I don't know.

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I think it would be obviously the coolest experience ever, right?

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I'd never want to go back, probably.

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Derrick, to your point, I think there is something about seeing Earth with the

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human eye and not a lens, and not a device and all of that.

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I've traveled a little bit.

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Every time I travel, I'm always amazed at how big the planet is.

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I'm like, "Wow, Earth is really big!"Yes!

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I like to think I've gone all over the

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place, but there's so much of it I haven't seen.

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I can only imagine being, well, being shot in the space and looking

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back at the Earth, and just really taking in the scale of it.

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Yeah, well, wrap your brain around this.

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You would orbit the Earth once every 90 minutes.

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The whole Earth. The whole planet once every 90 minutes.

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And so you see 16 sunrises and sunsets in a 24-hour period.

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That's ridiculous. How many miles per hour is that?

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I was going to say, and yet Southwest

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Airlines can't get me to LA within six hours.

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Can't get together, come on. Really?

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Yeah. What?

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Give me a break. Is there an actual speed?

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Right.

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So the way the science and the mathematics and all that stuff work out is you're

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flying around the planet at about 17,000 miles an hour.

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You don't feel this.

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You don't feel this because you have no

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relative way to judge how fast you're going, right?

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So you don't really feel it.

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But that's what's happening. That's a badass.

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It is. Yeah, I mean, that's a lot to chew on.

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But the first question,

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I'm still processing that information, but I have many questions as well.

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What's the relationship to gravity at that point?

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Like, are you still being pulled, or are you being pushed?

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Yeah, this is one of the most fun concepts

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of all because it's exactly like that, Bey.

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It's like, "well, wait, what are we doing with gravity?

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Are we still in it?" Yeah, gravity is holding you there.

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The reason why you don't fly off into space at 17,500 miles an hour is because

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gravity is pulling you back down toward the Earth.

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So there's a balance now between the speed

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you're going forward, and how hard gravity is pulling you down.

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So with that balance, you have a curve around the planet all the time.

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If you went faster, you would change that relationship a little bit.

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But if you change it too much... Pshhhhew!

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Flying off in the space!

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Off you go, right?

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Okay, but here's what it's like for you.

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If you're inside a spacecraft, essentially

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what's happening is the spacecraft is falling around the planet.

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Just falling, but you have just enough

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forward velocity to keep you from going down very far.

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So you're always falling around at the same height.

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What's so interesting is as you keep

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saying the word falling, my body is like, oh!

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I don't want to do that!

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And when you're in that spacecraft, does the body feel like it's falling?

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No, it doesn't because you have no

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relative standard to judge against, so you don't feel anything.

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But here's the kicker.

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Your brain is a lot smarter than the rest

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of your body is, because as you look out and around you,

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your inner ear mechanism understands that you don't have an orientation anymore.

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So this is the beauty of gravity.

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We are on this planet, we have these

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little tiny stones on our inner ear that feel the gravity pull toward our feet.

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As long as they're down there, you're cool.

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As soon as you begin to turn your head

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around in a way that makes those things move around in your inner ear, then your

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brain says, "This is not cool at all, and I am going to barf all over the place."

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We're not cool, bro! We are not cool, right!

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And until your brain gets used to that, it's like the worst thing in the world.

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It's like being seasick.

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Derrick Pitts, you want to go to space?

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Sure! And here's what happens, Bey.

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After, like, two days, you don't have this problem anymore.

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And don't let anybody fool you, but almost

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every astronaut has this space sickness issue happening.

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They go through such test - not testing, but like, practicing and vigorous stuff.

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So, is that helpful with them?

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Or is it something that you can't practice

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the level of seasickness or space sickness?

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Nope, doesn't help at all!

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Doesn't help at all, okay.

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what they do is, yeah, they do training , and the training exposes them to it.

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The people that are most familiar with this are the astronauts that were pilots

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originally, because as high-performance pilots, they've experienced this

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kind of thing before, so their body already has some training.

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But if you're just a little scientist

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going to space to test your little science stuff in space,

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you're in big trouble because you've had a little bit of this experience.

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Now, there are medications that help with this and all this other stuff,

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but what they really depend on is - let's fly you around in a plane a whole lot, get

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you experience to this, let you know what it's going to be like, and then we'll give

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you some meds for the first two days so that you don't feel as bad.

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And don't have a big breakfast.

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And do not do not have a big breakfast!

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I am so curious - Ahhhh! We said the name!

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Thank you guys, thank you!

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We're here all night!

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- About this entire topic, because

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when I think of space, I have a million thoughts that go through my head.

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But I think the biggest one is just how

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enormous it is and how much we still don't know.

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The idea of being somebody in this field

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who goes into something that enormous is like, "Oh, my gosh!" I can't think about

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it for too long, or my brain starts to melt.

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I love to think about that particular question like this: we have no idea!

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We have no idea how big it is.

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But here's what I mean by that.

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Humans have no experience with the scale of the universe.

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So we have a bunch of words that we always

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throw out - billions and all this kind of stuff.

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But we have no idea what that really

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means, because we just have no experience with anything like that.

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So, it's fun to get out there in a realm

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where you have no references at all, and muck around and flop around and talk

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about this in relation to that and other things.

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And I kind of like that because it invites anybody to be in the space.

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That was another pun! There we go.

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See? Right? Did you like the set-up for that?

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Yeah, it was great. Wait, so could we ask?

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I mean, this is a random question, but I know oftentimes our information comes from

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media, movies, magazines, TV shows, podcast like this one.

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You got it.

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And I can only imagine somewhere in the 90s you were fielding all kinds of

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questions about X-Files or Star Trek and so on and so forth.

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I was just so curious...

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About that relationship as far as, is that

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a good thing that we get our information from these scientifical, fiction spaces?

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How accurate is that?

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I just saw a movie where they're talking about quantum things.

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Oh, yeah. I'm like, is this even...

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Sure.

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Mean, obviously, it's fiction, but is there any truth in there?

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You know, this has always been a question

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in this field of science versus science fiction.

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And that question is, which leads?

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Is it the science that informs the art or is it the art that informs the science?

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And would you rather people just stay away from all the wacky stuff?

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Oh, no! No, not at all!

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The wacky stuff is great, because it promotes using your imagination, right?

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And your imagination gets you to think

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about possibilities of things that don't exist right now, or maybe we need to have.

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So at some point, there's going to be a way to travel around the universe

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that is going to involve multiples of some speed standard, right?

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It's going to be the hardest thing in the universe to resist calling it warp speed.

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But something like that is going to show up and it's going to be really difficult

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not to fall back on Star Trek and say warp speed.

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These realities of space exploration and

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astronomical research have been born out of somebody's fantasy of something.

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And, like, Mars is the perfect example.

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Nobody knew anything about canals on Mars

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before the Italian astronomer, Schiaparelli, saw these features on the

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surface when he's looking through his telescope in the late 1800s, right?

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So, when he saw this, that word was reinterpreted to be actual canals of water

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that were then seen as being navigable waterways for commerce between big cities.

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Boom, big cities on Mars are now in vision.

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Well, if there's cities, then there must be inhabitants, right?

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Oh, yeah, the Martians. That's who's there.

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Oh, yeah, we love Mars. We love Mars.

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And everybody loves Mars. Why?

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Because now everybody has this wide range of ideas about who the inhabitants are.

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Now, are you saying the word canal came out of, I guess, a person observing and

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making up a word, and now that word exists in actual factual

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scientific conversations and measurements and understanding.

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Actually, it is that specific meaning of

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canals, features that are seen on Mars that resemble waterways.

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The word existed before, "canale" in Italian.

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But what happened was at the end of the 18th century, going into the 19th century,

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here we had the Industrial Revolution about to explode in Europe.

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And as this is beginning to happen, this

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whole idea of commerce and transportation and shipping - on canals - is a big idea!

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So now everybody goes, "Oh, wait a minute.

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That must be what's happening on Mars

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because it's happening here on this planet.

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So the inhabitants, they must be doing the

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same thing!" So now it has this connotation that it's connected to that.

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So they take one definition of the word, push it aside, but apply the concept to

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this whole thing about the inhabitants of Mars.

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And now we can go everywhere from Ray

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Bradbury's idea of Martian inhabitants as being these ghost-like,

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tall, slender, easy to move around creatures that are very gentle.

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Big heads...

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No no no, we're getting to the big heads when we get to the movie-

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Attack from Martians? Mars Attacks!

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Mars Attacks, I was close! Right, exactly.

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So now you have this whole scale of Martians with everything in between.

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That's because people now use their imagination to dream up what they're like.

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Now we're at Edgar Rice Burroughs,

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who has this other idea of what Martians are like.

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And then if you see any of the Martian movies from the 1960s, there are all these

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different kinds of expressions of what Martians can look like.

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I think it's really important that you

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have this imagination about the universe just running wild.

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Now, it really helps to have a filter, let's say!

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Or a balance, right?

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Don't just get your scientific information from fiction.

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Right. Do you have a movie or a TV show?

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Something in the media that you feel like

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is the best representation of space travel, astronomy?

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There are three that I really like.

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One of them is completely ridiculous, and the other two are really interesting.

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The two that are really interesting that I like are Gravity.

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I was going to ask about Gravity! There's that one.

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Then there's the other one with

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Matthew McConaughey, I'm going to forget the name...

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Interstellar. Interstellar, right. And then the

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ridiculous one for me is The Fifth Element.

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I really love The Fifth Element, because it's completely crazy.

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It's just ridiculously out there.

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But with some really interesting concepts like the space hotel thing?

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Yeah, that's actually going to be for real at some point, right?

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We already have people going to, what is it, the edge of Earth?

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Is that what people are doing right now?

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You know, the Space X thing? Sure, yeah.

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People that are flying into space just as

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like a glorified carnival ride kind of thing.

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Yeah, that's starting to happen and we're

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going to see that begin to expand in the next decade or so.

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Alright, Derrick Pitts, thank you so much

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for answering some of the questions that we have, because we have tons more.

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But we're going to stop ourselves because

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there's just a whole program that you are leading and we'll have tons of

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conversations and interesting things to tell us.

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Just give us a nice little clean wrap up

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of what the program is and what should we expect.

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Sure. Once again, the podcast is called The

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Curious Cosmos, and new episodes will air every Tuesday throughout the fall.

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So, we just talked about these really

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heavy topics in astronomy, and I'm really fortunate to be part of this great group

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of people around the planet who get to dig into stuff like this all the time.

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And they are astronomers and they are astronomy educators, they're astronauts.

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They are authors.

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They are researchers.

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And what we're going to talk about with them is how do they come into this?

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And what do they get out of it?

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And what is it about what they do that

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helps to make astronomy and space exploration a more human endeavor?

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All the time we talk about just the superlative stuff - the biggest, the

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fastest, the tallest, all those kinds of things.

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But it really helps us to have a much

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better idea about how humans are connected to this.

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And that's what we're going to do when we

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talk to these friends of mine that I get to play with all the time.

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I love that. I can't wait to hear.

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Amazing. Absolutely, yeah.

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