Hi, it's Barb, Meeple PhD with the Cosmic
Game Connection.
That's where I take something in astronomy
or science and connect it to my game shelf.
Recently NASA's HaloSat completed its first
year of science operations.
This cube sat, a tiny pint size satellite
is working on one of the biggest questions
in astronomy.
If we look back at the oldest light in the
universe, the cosmic microwave background,
we can see what the universe is made of.
And what we find is that it's about 5% normal
matter, 25% dark matter and 70% dark energy.
I'm going to leave the dark matter and dark
energy for another video.
What we're talking about here is that 5% normal
matter.
This normal matter is what turned into the
stuff we see around us today, planets, stars,
galaxies, me, you.
And when we tally up all of that that we see
in the universe today, we find that we're
missing almost half of what should be there
based on what we see in that cosmic microwave
background.
That's kind of embarrassing.
So one of the places that that might be, that
mass, is in the hot halos of galaxies.
Now the Milky Way has a hot halo, we've seen
it, but what we don't know is how much mass
is in it and that's because we don't know
what shape it takes.
And this is where HaloSat comes in.
It's mapping that hot halo in our galaxy 100
square degrees at a time.
And its goal is to figure out if the shape
is more of a fried egg shape or maybe spherical.
And if we combine that with the density of
the gas, which we can get from spectroscopy,
we can figure out how much mass there is.
Now, is it going to be enough mass to solve
this missing mass problem?
I don't know.
We're going to have to wait and see when they're
done with their science operations and all
of that data crunching.
But I think it's remarkable that this tiny
satellite is taking on that problem.
When I thought about this tiny satellite working
on a universe sized problem, the game that
came to mind was Gingerbread House Gingerbread
House is a tile placement set collection game
where players take on the role of witches
who are tired of those pesky fairytale characters
nibbling away at their lovingly built gingerbread
houses.
The game is set up with each player getting
a player board, a staircase tile and a stack
of 15 domino like tiles.
The deck of character cards is shuffled and
a market of four of them placed out and the
bonus cards are also shuffled and a number
based on the number of players is chosen.
On their turn, players are usually going to
build, which means taking one of their tiles
and placing it in the three by three grid
that represents their gingerbread house.
The tile must lay flat.
It must fit entirely within that three by
three grid and if it's on anything but the
ground level, the two halves of the tile must
cover two other tiles.
After they've built, the player gets things
based on the symbols that they covered.
This could be one of the four different gingerbread
types, another staircase tile, or they could
swap out one of their gingerbreads for another
one from the supply, or they could grab one
of those characters and entice them to their
gate, keeping them from their competitors.
After they've taken their rewards for placing
their tiles, players have the option of capturing
one of the characters, that is if they have
the gingerbread necessary to grab them.
If they do, they put that character in the
dungeon and place an immediate wild tile as
a bonus into their house.
If on their turn they complete a level, the
player can claim a bonus card, up to three
total per game.
Now, if the player can't build on their turn,
they have to turn in one of their tiles and
get two staircases instead, but this is their
entire turn.
Play continues until everyone has played all
15 of their tiles and then the players count
up their points based on the characters that
they've grabbed, the bonus cards and any leftover
gingerbread.
The witch with the most points wins.
Now, I have to say when I first saw that this
game was played entirely in a three by three
grid, I was skeptical about how much game
there could be.
That skepticism was misplaced.
This game has a lot of great decisions.
Do you race to complete a level in order to
get the bonus card that you want?
Or maybe you want to go after the high point
characters no matter what it takes?
And how do you engineer those combinations
in order to maximize what you get on each
turn?
The fact that so much game was packed into
such a small play area is what made me think
of HaloSat, a satellite not much bigger than
this box that is working on one of the biggest
questions in astronomy.
So the next time you find yourself agonizing
over how best to place your tile in Gingerbread
House, take just a second to think about this
pint size satellite and marvel at how much
science can be packed in a such a small area.
Thanks for joining me.
If you have any questions, leave them in the
comments.
And if you're enjoying these, please subscribe
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is at MeeplePhD and you can follow my blog
for reviews and additional science at meeplephd.com.
A pint size satellite is solving one of the
bysteries, one of the bysteries of the nuniverse.
