WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.640 align:middle line:84% So when I went there, I was actually 00:00:01.640 --> 00:00:04.190 align:middle line:84% going to visit a new set of telescopes. 00:00:04.190 --> 00:00:07.730 align:middle line:84% They're called SPECULOOS-- Speculoos, like the cookie. 00:00:07.730 --> 00:00:13.610 align:middle line:84% And the same astronomers who did the TRAPPIST 00:00:13.610 --> 00:00:21.440 align:middle line:84% telescopes that discovered the planets orbiting a dwarf star 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:22.070 align:middle line:90% that-- 00:00:22.070 --> 00:00:23.612 align:middle line:84% the right amount of distance for life 00:00:23.612 --> 00:00:26.120 align:middle line:84% to perhaps exist, right, just close enough to their star 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:28.370 align:middle line:90% that water could exist. 00:00:28.370 --> 00:00:30.360 align:middle line:90% So they had made this discovery. 00:00:30.360 --> 00:00:32.018 align:middle line:84% They had found it because of eclipses, 00:00:32.018 --> 00:00:33.060 align:middle line:90% which is sort of amazing. 00:00:33.060 --> 00:00:34.200 align:middle line:84% And I was very fascinated by them. 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:34.992 align:middle line:90% So I wrote to them. 00:00:34.992 --> 00:00:36.650 align:middle line:84% And anyway, I got myself invited down 00:00:36.650 --> 00:00:40.010 align:middle line:84% to the new telescopes, SPECULOOS. 00:00:40.010 --> 00:00:43.670 align:middle line:84% And the four telescopes that are part of the SPECULOOS group 00:00:43.670 --> 00:00:47.150 align:middle line:84% are all named for Jupiter's moons. 00:00:47.150 --> 00:00:52.880 align:middle line:84% SPECULOOS itself is the search for habitable planets eclipsing 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:56.480 align:middle line:90% ultracool stars or SPECULOOS. 00:00:56.480 --> 00:01:00.690 align:middle line:84% The telescopes at Cerro Paranal near Antofagasta, 00:01:00.690 --> 00:01:02.880 align:middle line:84% each telescope is named after a moon of Jupiter-- 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:05.300 align:middle line:84% Callisto, Europa, Ganymede, and Io. 00:01:05.300 --> 00:01:08.400 align:middle line:84% And Speculoos are also these Belgian cookies. 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:09.780 align:middle line:90% They have a hint of cinnamon. 00:01:09.780 --> 00:01:10.830 align:middle line:90% No data. 00:01:10.830 --> 00:01:11.990 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:11.990 --> 00:01:14.750 align:middle line:84% The team that runs the telescopes 00:01:14.750 --> 00:01:16.290 align:middle line:90% is from the University of Liege. 00:01:16.290 --> 00:01:18.690 align:middle line:84% And I have poems for each of the telescopes, 00:01:18.690 --> 00:01:22.820 align:middle line:84% but I'm going to read the first one, Callisto. 00:01:22.820 --> 00:01:25.520 align:middle line:84% Callisto was one of those virgin huntresses 00:01:25.520 --> 00:01:27.860 align:middle line:90% sworn to celibate retreat. 00:01:27.860 --> 00:01:31.880 align:middle line:84% For her, Jove disguised himself as a virgin 00:01:31.880 --> 00:01:36.320 align:middle line:84% huntress too, voluptuous and armed. 00:01:36.320 --> 00:01:39.200 align:middle line:90% Then he took her by surprise. 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:42.860 align:middle line:84% Callisto, the most heavily cratered object 00:01:42.860 --> 00:01:46.850 align:middle line:84% in the solar system, so says NASA. 00:01:46.850 --> 00:01:51.540 align:middle line:84% In the story, the trouble is Jove's wife, wrathy Juno, 00:01:51.540 --> 00:01:55.730 align:middle line:84% who uglies Callisto into a bear, all clumsy slobber, claws 00:01:55.730 --> 00:01:56.550 align:middle line:90% and grunts. 00:01:56.550 --> 00:01:59.940 align:middle line:84% And then, to save her from a huntsman's coming arrow, 00:01:59.940 --> 00:02:04.380 align:middle line:84% Jove must hurl her into the sky, not merely moon. 00:02:04.380 --> 00:02:08.940 align:middle line:84% She's also Ursa Major and an asteroid-- 00:02:08.940 --> 00:02:13.560 align:middle line:84% 204 Kallisto with a K. In fact, tomorrow, 00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:17.660 align:middle line:84% according to inthesky.org, I'll see that asteroid from my own 00:02:17.660 --> 00:02:18.960 align:middle line:90% celibate retreat-- 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:24.090 align:middle line:84% the patio-- before it's lost to dawn twilight around 5:43, 00:02:24.090 --> 00:02:27.800 align:middle line:84% 37 degrees above your southern horizon. 00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:30.420 align:middle line:84% I didn't have to tell them where I am. 00:02:30.420 --> 00:02:32.520 align:middle line:90% The web is like the gods. 00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:35.450 align:middle line:84% They see me sitting here-- latitude, north, 33 00:02:35.450 --> 00:02:36.290 align:middle line:90% degrees, et cetera. 00:02:36.290 --> 00:02:38.810 align:middle line:84% And longitude, west, 111 degrees, et cetera. 00:02:38.810 --> 00:02:44.480 align:middle line:84% And even altitude, so an Olympian 415 meters. 00:02:44.480 --> 00:02:46.920 align:middle line:84% I would not let her be a human being, 00:02:46.920 --> 00:02:49.800 align:middle line:90% Juno says, in fury at herself. 00:02:49.800 --> 00:02:50.910 align:middle line:90% What is she now? 00:02:50.910 --> 00:02:53.510 align:middle line:90% A goddess, Juno says. 00:02:53.510 --> 00:02:56.820 align:middle line:84% Yeah, with three dominions, as moon, 00:02:56.820 --> 00:03:00.210 align:middle line:84% as dipper bear, and asteroid to boot. 00:03:00.210 --> 00:03:03.100 align:middle line:84% Then too, Callisto is encryption tech 00:03:03.100 --> 00:03:06.970 align:middle line:84% for victims of sexual assault, hosting an incident list 00:03:06.970 --> 00:03:11.110 align:middle line:84% where women report what happened then also match with others 00:03:11.110 --> 00:03:13.340 align:middle line:90% harmed by the same perpetrator. 00:03:13.340 --> 00:03:20.260 align:middle line:84% All the moons and more deny Alcmena, Cassiopeia, Leda. 00:03:20.260 --> 00:03:22.250 align:middle line:90% And she is a video game-- 00:03:22.250 --> 00:03:26.600 align:middle line:84% Callisto Protocol-- and bars in Arkansas and Texas-- 00:03:26.600 --> 00:03:29.560 align:middle line:84% classic cocktails-- a publisher of books 00:03:29.560 --> 00:03:32.350 align:middle line:84% on the history of graphic design, an herbicide 00:03:32.350 --> 00:03:36.290 align:middle line:84% controlling broad leaf weeds in fields of corn, okra, sorghum, 00:03:36.290 --> 00:03:37.370 align:middle line:90% sugarcane. 00:03:37.370 --> 00:03:42.130 align:middle line:84% The net ensnares and it unsettles. 00:03:42.130 --> 00:03:45.170 align:middle line:84% I say that as if it had a mind and were decisive. 00:03:45.170 --> 00:03:47.360 align:middle line:84% Though I know the way it dissipates 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:51.730 align:middle line:84% intent, like ones and zeros, like the girl Jove was just 00:03:51.730 --> 00:03:53.560 align:middle line:84% long enough to get Callisto's mother's 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:56.680 align:middle line:84% maiden name, her favorite color, and first pet, 00:03:56.680 --> 00:03:59.910 align:middle line:84% you know, to put her at her ease. 00:03:59.910 --> 00:04:02.000 align:middle line:90%