Idaho Skies Transcript for June 1st, 2nd, and 3rd

PAUL
Welcome to Idaho Skies for June 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. We’re your hosts, Paul…

RACHEL
…and Rachel.

PAUL
Whoa, there’s a bright reddish-orange star just below the moon on the 3rd.

RACHEL
That’s Mars, the fourth rock from the sun.

PAUL
Mars is about half the diameter of Earth.

RACHEL
Sadly though, it has an atmosphere less than 1% as dense as ours.

PAUL
Which means it is nearly impossible for even single-celled organisms to live on its surface.

RACHEL
However, beneath the Martian surface is ice that might contain some liquid water.

PAUL
That means our best chances to find life on Mars is to either look for fossils of past life on the surface…

RACHEL
…or to drill into its surface and search for refuges of life.

PAUL
Did you know that astronomers Wilson and Penzias discovered strange radio interference back on June 1st 1965?

RACHEL
Try as they might, they couldn’t find the source of this noise in their radio or its antenna.

PAUL
Soon after, they realized that the radio noise was coming from space itself.

RACHEL
They had discovered the residual heat left over from the origin of the universe.

PAUL
Only in 1965, it had cooled to microwaves because of the expansion of the universe.

RACHEL
But 13.7 billion years ago, the universe was so hot that even atoms couldn’t exist.

PAUL
The emission of microwaves means the universe currently has a temperature of only 2.7 kelvins.

RACHEL
Or 2.7 degrees Celsius above absolute zero.

PAUL
Your old analog television set can see some of this cosmic background radiation.

RACHEL
It appears as some of the static a television displays when tuned to a blank channel.

PAUL
Finally, happy birthday Mt. Palomar!

RACHEL
The observatory celebrates its 80th birthday on June 3rd.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of June.

RACHEL
Be sure to follow us on Twitter @IdahoSkies for this week’s event reminders and sky maps.

For Idaho Skies this is Rachel…

PAUL
…and Paul.

RACHEL
Dark skies and bright stars.