May 31, 2026 · 1 hr 4 min · 15 segments
In this episode of The Interplanetary Podcast, I'm joined by ay new co-host, singer-songwriter Leddra Chapman, as we tackle one of the most mind-bending ideas in all of science: special relativity…
Matthew RussellHost
Leddra ChapmanHost
I think we need to start with a very simple observation, right? And this is surprising, and I don't think people sort of treat this with the gravitas, with a bit of a pun there intended-
So imagine the sun vanished, right? It didn't explode, didn't dim, or turn into a black hole.
Um, what would happen is the, the Earth would carry on orbiting for another eight minutes.
So the moment the sun disappeared, we, we wouldn't know about it for eight minutes.
The moment we saw the light disappearing, the moment it went dark, yes, the Earth would stop, um, being pulled in by the sun's gravity.
So weirdly, actually, yeah, that's a really important bit, isn't it? The, the sun's gravity and the sun's light disappear to us at the same time, but it only happens eight minutes or so after it actually happens.
Would anyone know, though? Would any, an instrument would detect it, and would there be eight minutes of chaos? [laughs]
So no, no matter what happens, there's no way of communicating what has happened.
I think we need to start with a very simple observation, right? And this is surprising, and I don't think people sort of treat this with the gravitas, with a bit of a pun there intended-
So imagine the sun vanished, right? It didn't explode, didn't dim, or turn into a black hole.
Um, what would happen is the, the Earth would carry on orbiting for another eight minutes.
So the moment the sun disappeared, we, we wouldn't know about it for eight minutes.
The moment we saw the light disappearing, the moment it went dark, yes, the Earth would stop, um, being pulled in by the sun's gravity.
So weirdly, actually, yeah, that's a really important bit, isn't it? The, the sun's gravity and the sun's light disappear to us at the same time, but it only happens eight minutes or so after it actually happens.
Would anyone know, though? Would any, an instrument would detect it, and would there be eight minutes of chaos? [laughs]
So no, no matter what happens, there's no way of communicating what has happened.
Every episode on Radar is fully transcribed, speaker-labeled, and rich with metadata. Here is a taste of this one. Try Radar for free to see the rest.
3 of 6
Eight-Minute Solar Vanish Thought
Imagine the sun suddenly vanishes from existence.
Neutron Stars’ Mind-Blowing Mass
Two neutron stars collide; density gets unimaginable.
Steel Pole To The Moon
A steel pole to moon: instant? Nope.
+3 more clips · 4 min 16 sec of audio in all
7 of 17
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
All 6 clips — the highlight moments, each cut as its own audio, with a title and a speaker
All 15 segments — the transcript broken into labeled sections, every ad read marked
All 17 topics — jump to every other episode discussing the same subject
Every related episode — other shows Radar links to this one
No account is needed to search Radar.
