The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu

What are lunar swirls? Which side of the moon has more craters? Should we go back to the moon, and if so, why?

To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Alice Liu (she/they) welcome Dr. JA Grier (ee-em-eir), Senior Scientist and Senior Education and Communication Specialist at The Planetary Science Institute.

As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: the publication of photos of a recently formed crater on the Moon, McGetchin Crater. According to Dr. Grier, new impact craters aren’t that rare, and certainly not on a geologic time scale. Ee describes how the moon is under constant bombardment by objects large and small.

For all its proximity to Earth, JA explains, there is much we don’t know about the moon. Chuck asks about some of the unsolved mysteries surrounding the moon, and Dr. Grier tells us about strange features on the lunar surface known as lunar swirls. Another mystery, one which JA wants to know more about, is why the bright rays around craters actually darken over time.

Next, we take a deep dive into crater formation on the moon. The impact is just the beginning, but it turns out the process is much more involved than that.

After our break, it’s time for our first audience question, from Natisha: “Why are there so many more craters on the dark side of the Moon than on the bright side?” First, Dr. Grier explains why “near side” and “far side” are better descriptions than “dark side” and “bright side,” and even that the far side is actually brighter colored due to the makeup of the surface. And when it comes to the number of craters, it’s pretty consistent on both sides.

Another surprise JA drops on us: areas of the lunar surface that look smooth are far from it, which had an impact on the Apollo lunar landings, including Apollo 11. The gang discusses the difficulties of landing on the moon, and on Mars, including the failure of the Mars Climate Orbiter mission, which crashed into the surface of Mars in September 1999. You’ll also hear about the challenges of methane rain for the future Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s moon Titan, how Martian dust impacted the solar panels on the Spirit rover, and the difficulty of communicating with missions on the far side of the Moon. As JA says, “Space is hard.”

For our next audience question, Joey asks, “Why should we spend so much money and time to go back to the Moon? Are there valuable natural resources there that we can mine?”

Dr. Grier talks about the importance of research, and how money spent on scientific exploration can have a direct impact on the science we need to improve our lives here on Earth. But when it comes to the idea of exploiting natural resources, whether on the Moon, Mars, or here at home, JA is a little less enthusiastic.

If you’d like to keep up with what Dr. JA Grier is doing, you can check out eir Staff Page on The Planetary Science Institute website here: https://www.psi.edu/staff/profile/ja-grier-2/

We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/theliuniverse.

Image Credits:

McGetchin Crater. – Credit: NASA/GSFC/Intuitive Machines

Image of the lunar swirl Reiner Gamma, cropped from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter WAC global mosaic. – Credit: NASA

Asymmetrical ray system of the lunar crater Proclus (Apollo 15 image). – Credit: NASA

Telescopic views of Copernicus Crater on the Moon. – Credit: NASA / Space Telescope Science Institute

Rima Hadley, a sinuous rille, or long depression, on the Moon. The Apollo 15 crew photographed and sampled outcrops of rock on the near and far sides of the rille. – Credit: NASA

NASA Apollo mission landings at six sites on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. – Credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

Artist concept of the Dragonfly mission on Saturn’s moon Titan. Dragonfly is scheduled to launch July 2028 and arrive in 2034. – Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's solar panels covered in dust in October 2007 on Mars. – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

Lunar Image used on Title Card – Credit: Gregory H. Revera

CHAPTERS

00:00 Swirls, Rays and Other Moon Oddities with Dr. JA Grier

01:03 Introducing Dr. JA Grier, Planetary Scientist

02:15 New Lunar Crater, McGetchin Crater - Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing

09:09 Lunar Mysteries: Lunar Swirls and Bright Rays Around Craters

12:43 In Space, No One Can Hear You Wooooo

15:57 Which Side of the Moon Has More Craters?

22:05 Space Is Hard

32:13 Why Should We Go Back to the Moon?

#LIUniverse #CharlesLiu #AliceLiu #AstronomyPodcast #JAGrier

What’s it like to watch a solar eclipse with your own eyes? What’s actually happening with a solar eclipse? And when can we catch the next 3 solar eclipses?

In this episode of Chuck GPT, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Alice Liu answer audience questions about solar eclipses with a little help from executive producer Leslie “Moonshine” Mullen and community director Stacey Severn.

Not surprisingly, the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing is the total solar eclipse on August 12, 2026. Lots of people trekked out to see the eclipse, including the entire Liu family, but thanks to pervasive cloud cover, you had to be in sunny Spain to see the event clearly.

Our first audience question comes from our Patreon Patron, Santiago – and it’s also our first ever video question! He asks, “If you could travel to any planet or moon in the Solar System to witness the actual best eclipse in the solar system, which one would it be, and why?”

Alice, who wrote about this on their blog, Signore Galilei, says that when it comes to planets, Earth has the best, hands down. No other planet has a round moon that’s the right size to create the perfect eclipse. On top of that, Leslie explains why we also live in the best time ever to see a solar eclipse.

Our next audience question comes from Brianna, who asks, “Are there any scientific mysteries still left about Solar Eclipses?” Leslie tells us about the controversial Allais effect, which purports anomalous behavior of pendulums or gravitometers during solar eclipses. Chuck reminds us how they’ve used total solar eclipses to measure other things in the universe, including confirming the curvature of spacetime in Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. And Alice brings up the “shadow bands” that occur before and after a total solar eclipse, the causes of which are still unresolved.

Our next question is from Brandon: “It seems like a lot of effort to travel thousands of miles to go see a total solar eclipse when it’s like two minutes long. Is it really worth it?” Our answer: a resounding YES! Stacey, Leslie, Alice and Chuck share their memories watching solar eclipses, and why there’s nothing quite like experiencing the moment of totality with your own senses.

The next question was asked by a person Chuck met in Iceland during this year’s total solar eclipse. Brooklyn, who is from Australia, asked him about where she could see the upcoming total solar eclipse that will be visible in Australia on July 22, 2028. Chuck goes her one better, and traces out the paths of the next three, in 2027, 2028, and 2030.

Our final question is from Dale, another of the people Chuck and Alice met in Iceland. “How do you bridge the gap between what you intellectually know about what’s happening with eclipses, and the overwhelming emotional awe that is felt when the shadow passes over us?”

We wouldn’t dream of summarizing Chuck’s awesome answer here (it includes his recitation, by heart, of Walt Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer”) – go watch or listen for yourself now.

If you’d like to check out Alice’s blog mentioned in the episode, you can find it here. 

We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.

 

Image Credits:

– Total solar eclipse, on Aug. 21, 2017, Madras, Oregon. – Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

– Callisto, Jupiter’s second largest moon. – Credit: NASA/JPL/DLR

– Jupiter and its four largest moons (seen as bright dots), by NASA's Juno spacecraft, June 29, 2016. – Credit: NASA

– Phobos, a moon of Mars, passing in front of the Sun, by NASA’s Perseverance rover on the Martian surface, April 2, 2022. – Credit: NASA

The shadow of the moon during a solar eclipse. – Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Maurice Allais. – Credit: Creative Commons

Solar eclipse paths over the US, 2017 and 2024. – Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

2027 total solar eclipse path, 2 August 2027. – Credit: ESA

2028 total solar eclipse path, July 22, 2028. – Credit: US National Solar Observatory/Open Street Map

2030 total solar eclipse path, Nov. 25, 2030. – Credit: Eclipse Prediction by Fred Espenak (NASA's GSFC)

 

CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome to Chuck GPT - Total Eclipse of the Sun

03:06 Total Solar Eclipse, August 12, 2026 - Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing

06:05 Which Planet Or Moon Has the Best Solar Eclipse?

12:07 Why This Is the Best Time in History To See a Solar Eclipse

13:06 Watch Phobos Transit the Sun Via NASA’s Perseverance Rover

14:28 Are There Still Any Scientific Mysteries About Solar Eclipses?

15:18 What’s the Difference Between Solar and Annular Eclipses?

17:05 Real Or Not - The Allais Effect, Pendulums, and Solar Eclipses

26:14 Is It Worth Traveling So Far To See a Total Solar Eclipse?

34:20 Where Can We See Total Solar Eclipses in 2027, 2028 and 2030?

41:15 Reflecting on the Moment of Totality in a Solar Eclipse

What can we learn from a beam of light? How much dark matter is there in our solar system? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Alice Liu welcome astrophysicist, inventor, educator, and CEO of The Astro Society, Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi, PhD in the first episode of our 6th season.

The Astro Society, aka The Astronomical Society of the Pacific, is the oldest astronomical professional society in the U.S., founded in 1889 after a total solar eclipse seen on the West Coast. They’re the organization behind the Night Sky Network, funded by NASA.

As always, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: a possible dark matter particle detection by the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility underground in South Dakota. Dr. Oluseyi explains the event itself, how particle astrophysics works, and why the jury is still out on whether it was an actual discovery of dark matter or not.

Our first audience question comes from John: “How much dark matter in the solar system is there?” According to Hakeem, it depends on which model you use: WIMP or MACHO. In a Weakly Interacting Massive Particle model, the mass of dark matter in the solar system would be about one millionth the mass of the Earth. When Chuck asks how something that small can have such an impact, Dr. Oluseyi references the enormity of the galaxy, and the fact that the dark matter halo surrounding it is 10 times bigger than that!

Our next question is from Kari, who asks, “What's the difference between bright energy and dark energy?” Hakeem explains that the “dark” in dark energy refers to our lack of knowledge, which is different than the use of dark in “dark matter” because it doesn’t interact with light. He’s more effusive about light and what it can tell us about anything that interacts with it.

Next, Dr. Oluseyi talks about his experiences building space telescopes, like the Multi-Spectral Solar Telescope Array (MSSTA) designed to observe the Sun in ultraviolet and soft x-rays. He also shares some very expensive mistakes made by grad students who went on to have successful careers.

After our break, Alice has another audience question. Stephanie asks, “If the Sun's just a ball of gas in space, why hasn't it just evaporated into space yet?” According to Hakeem, that is a brilliant question, and the answer is that it has been, from day one. He says the sun is leaking mass via the solar wind, although it’s not exactly the same process as evaporation. But the sun is so massive, that even this constant loss hasn’t made a dent in it’s size.

Moving on, Chuck asks Hakeem how he got into science. His surprising, heartwarming story of “Hope, Hustle, and Help” takes us from Mississippi and the 9th Ward in Houston in the Seventies to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and NASA. (CORRECTION: Hakeem Oluseyi says that in the episode, he "misspoke and said the 9th Ward of Houston. It was the 9th Ward of New Orleans! In Houston, I lived in the South Park neighborhood two years later and attended James D. Ryan Middle School in Houston's 3rd Ward.")

We end with Hakeem recounting the story of how he was asked to lead the investigation into whether NASA Administrator James E. Webb was involved with or culpable in the mistreatment of members of the NASA community. The findings: Webb was not only not culpable, but had actually acted to protect gay people and others in government service, as well as working against racism. 

If you’d like to know more about Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi, you can visit theastrosociety.org website, their YouTube channel, AstroBeatShow, or catch him on his NOVA podcast, “Particles of Thought,” and the “Does It Fly” podcast from Rodenberry Podcasts with Tamara Krinsky.

We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.

 

Image Credits:

The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment. – All Images Credit: Sanford Underground Research Facility.

The Multi-Spectral Solar Telescope Array (MSSTA). – Credit: NASA

MSSTA payload on Sounding rocket 36.049, White Sands Missile Range, May 1991. – Credit: NASA

Visualization of space weather in the solar system in 2015 as the New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto. – Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, the Space Weather Research Center (SWRC) and the Community-Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC), Enlil and Dusan Odstrcil (GMU)

James E. Webb. – Credit: NASA

NASA Administrator James Webb tours the new Plum Brook Reactor Facility in Dec. 1961 with Abe Silverstein, Director of the Lewis Research Center. – Credit: NASA

 

CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome to Season 6 of The LIUniverse

01:25 Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi Describes The Astro Society, Founded in 1889

03:46 Possible Dark Matter Detection - Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing

10:46 How Much Dark Matter Is There in the Solar System?

15:32 What's the Difference Between Bright Energy and Dark Energy?

18:12 What Matters Most When Building Solar Telescopes?

28:27 If the Sun Is a Ball of Gas, Why Hasn't It Evaporated?

31:36 Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi’s Journey of Hope, Hustle, and Help

35:52 The Investigation of NASA Administrator James Webb

What happens next when an astronomer, a mathematician, an educator, a physics student and a biomedical engineer stand upon the threshold of the Great Room of the perilous, Secret Fortress of Ag-Karrah? You get the conclusion to this summer’s bonus Actual Play episode of The LIUniverse starring Dr. Charles Liu, co-host Alice Liu, Hannah Liu, M.Ed., Isaac Liu, and Eleanor Adams.

For this episode of The LIUniverse, Chuck and co-host Alice Liu welcome back fan favorite guest and expert on ancient civilizations, author and educator Hannah Liu, M.Ed. (a.k.a. our “Classicist of Awesomeness”), and the show’s “Intern Extraordinaire” and TikTok channel manager, physics student Eleanor Adams. We’ve also got another guest, and it’s none other than “the hidden Liu sibling,” Isaac Liu, “Master of Science and Bricks,”who is pursuing his PhD in Biomedical Engineering starting this fall at Rochester Polytechnic Institute.

Normally in these descriptions we tell you what you’ll find in the episode. For the conclusion of this bonus episode, where Alice is gamemastering a live, tabletop role playing game called “Swords & Sorcery,” which is a little like “Dungeons & Dragons” but much simpler, we’re going to skip the sizzle and let you get straight to the steak.

The party of stalwart adventurers braving the perils of “The Secret Fortress of Ag-Karrah” is made up of:

Charles Liu as Larry the Lion-Livered, a Druid.

Isaac Liu as a Dwarven fighter named Brickothy Brickton

Hannah Liu as a Tortle magic user named Felix Frankfurter

Eleanor Adams as a Palladin of Athena named Annabeth

Now, as GM Alice Liu says by way of preamble, “You walk past the dead jellyfish you’ve defeated and enter the Great Room…”

Enjoy Part Two, the conclusion of The Secret Fortress of Ag-Karrah.

We hope you like this bonus episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/theliuniverse.

 

Credits for this Episode:

– “Swords & Sorcery” – Designed by James Lennox-Gordon / UnknownDungeon.itch.io / v1.1 2020 - CC BY SA 4.0. “Swords & Sorcery” is a hack of John Harper’s “Lasers & Feelings.” Find out more here: https://unknowndungeon.itch.io/swords-and-sorcery

What happens when an astronomer, a mathematician, an educator, a physics student and a biomedical engineer set off to explore the Secret Fortress of Ag-Karrah? You get Part One of this summer’s bonus Actual Play episode of The LIUniverse starring Dr. Charles Liu and company.

You read that right! For this actual play podcast episode of The LIUniverse, Chuck and co-host Alice Liu welcome back fan favorite guest and expert on ancient civilizations, author and educator Hannah Liu, M.Ed., and the show’s intern and TikTok channel manager, physics student Eleanor Adams. But for this special occasion – drumroll, please – we’ve also got another guest, and it’s none other than “the hidden Liu sibling,” Isaac Liu, who is pursuing his PhD in Biomedical Engineering starting this fall at Rochester Polytechnic Institute.

Normally in these descriptions we tell you what you’ll find in the episode. For this bonus episode, where Alice is gamemastering a live, tabletop role playing game called “Swords & Sorcery,” which is a little like “Dungeons & Dragons” but much simpler, we’re going to skip the sizzle and let you get straight to the steak.

We will, however, describe the party that is venturing into “The Secret Fortress of Ag-Karrah.”

Charles Liu is Larry the Lion-Livered, a Druid.

Isaac Liu is a Dwarven fighter named Brickothy Brickton

Hannah Liu is a Tortle magic user named Felix Frankfurter

Eleanor Adams is a Palladin of Athena named Annabeth

Now, as GM Alice Liu says by way of preamble, “There might be combat. There might be treasure. There might be secrets inside of this hidden fortress…”

Enjoy Part One of The Secret Fortress of Ag-Karrah – and be sure to come back for Part 2 in a couple of weeks. (And yes, of course there’s a Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing this episode, but we don’t want to ruin the surprise.)

We hope you like this bonus episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.

Credits for this Episode:

– “Swords & Sorcery” – Designed by James Lennox-Gordon / UnknownDungeon.itch.io / v1.1 2020 - CC BY SA 4.0. “Swords & Sorcery” is a hack of John Harper’s “Lasers & Feelings.” Find out more here.

 

#LIUniverse #CharlesLiu  #SwordsandSorcery #ActualPlayPodcast