SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 148
* Another Delay for NASA's Artemis Moon Mission
NASA has announced a delay in the launch of its Artemis 2 manned Moon mission, now rescheduled for April 2026. Originally planned for September 2025, the delay is due to concerns about the Orion spacecraft's heat shield. This postponement also affects the timeline for Artemis 3, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface. NASA's focus is on ensuring the safety and reliability of the spacecraft's reentry systems, with adjustments planned for the Artemis 2 mission trajectory.
* Ancient Hot Water Activity on Mars Uncovered
A groundbreaking study has provided the oldest direct evidence of ancient hot water activity on Mars, suggesting a potentially habitable past. Researchers analysed zircon grains from the Martian meteorite NWA 7034, known as Black Buddy, revealing elemental evidence of water-rich fluids from 4.45 billion years ago. This discovery enhances our understanding of Mars' hydrothermal systems and their role in the planet's early habitability.
* Proba-3: Europe's Eclipse-Making Double Satellite
The European Space Agency's Proba-3 mission has successfully entered orbit, marking a new era in solar observation. Launched aboard an Indian PSLV rocket, the twin satellites will perform precise formation flying to create artificial solar eclipses, allowing for detailed study of the Sun's corona. This innovative mission aims to fill observational gaps and advance our understanding of solar dynamics and Space weather.
00:00 Another delay for the first manned moon mission in half a century
00:48 NASA postpone launch of Artemis 2 Man Moon mission until April 2026
04:08 New study finds oldest direct evidence of ancient hot water activity on Mars
06:43 Black Beauty contains some of the oldest materials known from Mars
14:16 You found evidence of what would call hydrothermal activity on Mars
15:41 We wanted to focus on trace elements in zircon
22:52 Was it internal heat release from Mars or was it impact driven
28:42 European Space Agency's probe of three spacecraft has successfully achieved orbit insertion
32:29 House panel says lab leak likely caused COVID 19 pandemic
34:46 Scientists have documented the collapse of the Conga Glensa Ice Shelf
37:04 Between 68 and 94% of people believe sensation is caused by being watched
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00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 this is spacetime series 27 episode 148
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 for broadcast on the 9th of December
00:00:05 --> 00:00:09 2024 coming up on SpaceTime another
00:00:09 --> 00:00:11 delay for the first man moon mission in
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 half a century the discovery of ancient
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 hot water on Mars pointing to a possible
00:00:17 --> 00:00:19 habitable past for the red planet and
00:00:20 --> 00:00:22 Europe's Eclipse making double satellite
00:00:22 --> 00:00:25 proba 3 successfully enters orbit all
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 that and more coming up on
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 SpaceTime welcome to SpaceTime with
00:00:31 --> 00:00:33 Stuart
00:00:33 --> 00:00:40 [Music]
00:00:47 --> 00:00:50 Gary NASA have delayed the planned
00:00:50 --> 00:00:52 launch of their emus 2 man moon mission
00:00:52 --> 00:00:54 until April
00:00:54 --> 00:00:56 2026 the flight which was sled for
00:00:56 --> 00:00:58 September next year has been put back 6
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 months because of ongoing concerns about
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 the ablative heat shield on the Orion
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 spacecraft the postponement means the
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 emus 3 mission which will see humans
00:01:07 --> 00:01:09 return to the lunar surface will now not
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 take place until at least mid
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 2027 That was supposed to launch in
00:01:15 --> 00:01:16 September
00:01:16 --> 00:01:19 20126 the 25-day long unmanned emus 1
00:01:19 --> 00:01:22 Mission sent an Oran spacecraft to lunar
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 orbit and back again to Earth and while
00:01:25 --> 00:01:26 everything appeared to go well during
00:01:26 --> 00:01:28 the flight postm Mission analysis
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 revealed that Orion's Heat Shield wore
00:01:30 --> 00:01:32 away more unevenly during the re-entry
00:01:32 --> 00:01:34 into Earth's atmosphere than what was
00:01:34 --> 00:01:36 originally predicted Naser administrator
00:01:36 --> 00:01:38 Bill Nelson says temperatures inside
00:01:38 --> 00:01:41 Aion remain near normal room temperature
00:01:41 --> 00:01:43 meaning crew would have been safe were
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46 they aboard but Engineers still want to
00:01:46 --> 00:01:47 determine exactly why the heat shield
00:01:47 --> 00:01:49 burned away in such an unpredicted
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 manner we know the uneven ablation was a
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 consequence of Orion skip re-entry
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 trajectory this involved the capsule
00:01:57 --> 00:01:58 deliberately bouncing along the top of
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 the atmosphere several times before
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 finally re-entering the maneuver was
00:02:03 --> 00:02:04 needed to dissipate the tremendous
00:02:04 --> 00:02:06 amount of energy associated with
00:02:06 --> 00:02:09 highspeed returns from the Moon NASA's
00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 Deputy Administrator Pam Milroy says
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 while the capsule was dipping in and out
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 of the atmosphere as part of the plan
00:02:15 --> 00:02:17 skip re-entry procedure gases generated
00:02:17 --> 00:02:19 inside the heat shorts ablative avot
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 outer layer were not able to vent and
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 dissipate as expected this allowed
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 pressure to build up and cracking to
00:02:26 --> 00:02:28 occur and that caused charred material
00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 to break off at several places of the
00:02:30 --> 00:02:33 outer layer Milroy says simulations
00:02:33 --> 00:02:35 suggest aion's heat shield will protect
00:02:35 --> 00:02:37 astronauts on the 10day emus 2 mission
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 negating the need to develop a new
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 version but Mission managers will alter
00:02:42 --> 00:02:43 the re-entry trajectory in order to
00:02:43 --> 00:02:45 minimize the issues uncovered during the
00:02:45 --> 00:02:49 atomus one return so for emus 2 that
00:02:49 --> 00:02:50 means Engineers will limit how long
00:02:51 --> 00:02:53 Orion spends in the temperature range in
00:02:53 --> 00:02:55 which emus one's heat shield phenoma
00:02:55 --> 00:02:58 occurred they'll do that by modifying
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 how far a Rion can fly between when it
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 enters Earth's atmosphere and when it
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 lands the revised trajectory means emus
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 2's Oran capsule will now come down in
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 the Pacific Ocean closer to San Diego
00:03:10 --> 00:03:12 than what was originally planned other
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 issues being looked at include the
00:03:14 --> 00:03:16 performance of Orion's battery and its
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 life support environmental control
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21 systems the admus 2 issues will Cascade
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 under the admus 3 timeline which will
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 likewise be delayed and there are
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 additional problems for emus 3 it needs
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 to wait at spacex's Starship Mega
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 Rockets ready for man flight NASA will
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 be using a modified version of Starship
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 called the hls to dock with a Rion in
00:03:38 --> 00:03:40 CIS lunar orbit and then carry two of
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 the emus 3 crew down to the lunar
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 surface they'll remain there for several
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 days before returning to CIS lunar orbit
00:03:48 --> 00:03:50 and then redocking with a rine for the
00:03:50 --> 00:03:52 return journey to Earth after that the
00:03:52 --> 00:03:55 hls version of Starship will be used to
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 regularly transport emus crew and
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 Equipment between the Gateway Space
00:03:59 --> 00:04:00 Station which is yet to be placed into
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 CIS lunar orbit and the lunar surface
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 needless to say as developments occur
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 we'll keep you informed this is
00:04:09 --> 00:04:12 spacetime still to come a new study has
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 uncovered what may well be the oldest
00:04:14 --> 00:04:16 direct evidence of ancient hot water
00:04:16 --> 00:04:18 activity on the red planet Mars and the
00:04:18 --> 00:04:20 European Space agency's proba 3
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 spacecraft has successfully achieved
00:04:22 --> 00:04:24 orbit insertion following its launch
00:04:24 --> 00:04:25 aboard an Indian space research
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 organization pslv rocket all that and
00:04:28 --> 00:04:35 more still to kind on
00:04:35 --> 00:04:46 [Music]
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 SpaceTime a new study has uncovered what
00:04:48 --> 00:04:51 may well be the oldest direct evidence
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 of ancient hot water activity on Mars
00:04:54 --> 00:04:55 the new findings reported in the journal
00:04:55 --> 00:04:58 science advances adds more evidence to
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 the hypothesis that the red Planet may
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 have been habitable sometime during its
00:05:02 --> 00:05:05 ancient past the research analyzed a
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 4.45 billion year old circon grain from
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 the famous Martian meteorite NWA 734
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 also known as Black Beauty one of the
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 study's authors Aaron kavosi from
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 curtain University says nanoscale
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 geochemistry was able to detect
00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 Elemental evidence for water-rich fluids
00:05:23 --> 00:05:25 he says that opens up new avenues for
00:05:25 --> 00:05:26 understanding ancient Martian
00:05:26 --> 00:05:28 hydrothermal systems associated with
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 magnetism as as well as the planet's
00:05:30 --> 00:05:33 past habitability cersi says
00:05:33 --> 00:05:35 hydrothermal systems were essential for
00:05:35 --> 00:05:37 the development of life on Earth and
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 these findings suggest Mars also had
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 water a key ingredient for habitable
00:05:41 --> 00:05:43 environments during the earliest history
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 of crust formation through nanoscale
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 Imaging and spectroscopy cian colleagues
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 identified element patterns in a unique
00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 ciron Crystal including iron aluminum
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 yum and sodium these elements were added
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 as the ziron formed 4.4 5 billion years
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 ago suggesting water was present during
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 early Martian magmatic activity an
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 earlier 2022 curtain study of the same
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 circon grain found that it had been
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 shocked by a meteor impact marking it as
00:06:13 --> 00:06:15 the first and only known shocked circon
00:06:15 --> 00:06:17 from Mars the new study took csian
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 colleagues a step further in
00:06:19 --> 00:06:21 understanding early Mars by way of
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 identifying telltale signs of water Rich
00:06:23 --> 00:06:25 fluids from when the grain formed
00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 thereby providing geochemical markers of
00:06:27 --> 00:06:30 water in the oldest known Martian crust
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 kavosi says the research shows that even
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 though the Martian crust endured massive
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 meteor impacts that caused major surface
00:06:37 --> 00:06:39 upheaval water was still present during
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 the early preeran period prior to about
00:06:42 --> 00:06:45 4.1 billion years ago Black Beauty
00:06:45 --> 00:06:47 continues to amaze scientists around the
00:06:47 --> 00:06:49 world it's a very unusual Martian
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 meteorite different from all the rest
00:06:52 --> 00:06:54 most Martian meteorites are fairly
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 normal ous rocks that you might find
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 also on earth like balts from Hawaii and
00:06:59 --> 00:07:02 other places like that black beauty is
00:07:02 --> 00:07:04 quite different because it contains some
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 of the oldest materials known from Mars
00:07:07 --> 00:07:10 many of the rock fragments in minerals
00:07:10 --> 00:07:13 in Black Beauty have ages that go back
00:07:13 --> 00:07:14 to about
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 4.45 billion years nearly 4 and a half
00:07:17 --> 00:07:20 billion years old which is vastly older
00:07:20 --> 00:07:22 than in any other Martian meteorite
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 that's available on Earth it's vast the
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 out of the most Earth examples of rock
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 to isn't it let's let's just underline
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 that it's older than anything ever found
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 that's a part of Earth quite amazing so
00:07:33 --> 00:07:36 it it's if you want to study the
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 earliest history of either Earth or Mars
00:07:39 --> 00:07:40 there's just very few there's very
00:07:40 --> 00:07:43 little materials available to do that
00:07:43 --> 00:07:45 and in the case of Mars Black Beauty has
00:07:45 --> 00:07:48 a lot on offer from that point in time
00:07:48 --> 00:07:51 some people have a funny distinction
00:07:51 --> 00:07:52 about whether it's the oldest Martian
00:07:52 --> 00:07:55 meteorite or not and there's a little
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 confusion there because the materials in
00:07:58 --> 00:08:00 Black Beauty are the oldest piece of
00:08:00 --> 00:08:03 Mars hands down with no second place in
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 the race but it's a a funny kind of a
00:08:05 --> 00:08:08 rock called a breta some people call it
00:08:08 --> 00:08:10 a reguli because it's basically broken
00:08:10 --> 00:08:13 up fragments of rocks and minerals that
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 were brought together after they formed
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 so it's not like a Bessel that formed at
00:08:18 --> 00:08:21 4.45 billion years ago like most other
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 Martian meteorites of course they're
00:08:23 --> 00:08:26 much younger and so it has much longer
00:08:26 --> 00:08:28 of a history on Mars where things happen
00:08:28 --> 00:08:31 to it it's not exactly clear when all of
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 this material came together as a
00:08:34 --> 00:08:37 coherent Rock because if you think of
00:08:37 --> 00:08:39 all of the broken up bits of rock that
00:08:39 --> 00:08:41 you might find out in the bush those are
00:08:41 --> 00:08:43 all kind of loose particles until they
00:08:43 --> 00:08:46 get buried and over time become a
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 coherent Rock black beauty is hard you
00:08:48 --> 00:08:51 have to use a saw to cut into it and so
00:08:51 --> 00:08:53 we know that all of these pieces and all
00:08:53 --> 00:08:55 of these parts ultimately got glued
00:08:55 --> 00:08:57 together what's amazing is some people
00:08:57 --> 00:09:01 think a giant meteorite impact may have
00:09:01 --> 00:09:03 accomplished that job perhaps a billion
00:09:03 --> 00:09:06 and a half years ago there's evidence
00:09:06 --> 00:09:08 that at that time which is much younger
00:09:08 --> 00:09:10 than what our study focused on but
00:09:10 --> 00:09:12 there's evidence that the meteorite and
00:09:12 --> 00:09:14 its components were all affected by a
00:09:14 --> 00:09:17 lower temperature fluid alteration event
00:09:17 --> 00:09:19 at that time but even a billion and a
00:09:19 --> 00:09:21 half years ago the meteorite still had a
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 long time to go because it was only
00:09:23 --> 00:09:26 blasted off the surface of Mars probably
00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 5 or 10 million years ago which is the
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 best for when it was ejected from Mars
00:09:31 --> 00:09:34 and fortunate enough to um have a
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 trajectory that crossed Earth where it
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 landed in the desert so it's not the
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 oldest meteorite on Mars that actually
00:09:41 --> 00:09:44 has a distinction from the famous
00:09:44 --> 00:09:46 alh84001
00:09:46 --> 00:09:48 rock which is a whole bunch of numbers
00:09:48 --> 00:09:52 most people won't recognize oh I do I oh
00:09:52 --> 00:09:54 I know that one it's the famous
00:09:54 --> 00:09:55 meteorite that when it was first
00:09:55 --> 00:09:57 announced had a claim that there might
00:09:57 --> 00:10:00 be some uh some evidence life in it back
00:10:00 --> 00:10:03 in the late '90s Hills in in Antarctica
00:10:03 --> 00:10:05 where this one was found correct the
00:10:05 --> 00:10:07 thing about that rock is it's a proper
00:10:07 --> 00:10:11 ous rock that formed at about 4 billion
00:10:11 --> 00:10:13 years ago and so uh it's the oldest sort
00:10:13 --> 00:10:16 of rock that formed during an event on
00:10:16 --> 00:10:18 Mars even though lots of things happened
00:10:18 --> 00:10:20 to it since then anyway so Black Beauty
00:10:20 --> 00:10:22 allows us to go back further in time
00:10:22 --> 00:10:24 which is why we studied it now one of
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 the uh interesting points about black
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 beauty is you were able to date it very
00:10:28 --> 00:10:31 precisely looking at ziron crystals that
00:10:31 --> 00:10:33 was uranium to lead that's right we've
00:10:33 --> 00:10:35 actually been studying this chip of
00:10:35 --> 00:10:38 Black Beauty for several years now we
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 published a paper in 2022 that I think
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 you and I had a a chat about yes we did
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 that was when we actually first
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 published the age data and some other
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 evidence that convinced us that the
00:10:51 --> 00:10:53 ziron in question had been affected by
00:10:53 --> 00:10:56 meteorite impact and so the the age
00:10:56 --> 00:10:58 dating we did at that time was involving
00:10:58 --> 00:11:01 uranium and Leed to determine when the
00:11:01 --> 00:11:03 isotopic clock of this Crystal started
00:11:03 --> 00:11:06 ticking and that gave us a number of
00:11:06 --> 00:11:09 4.45 billion years which clearly got our
00:11:09 --> 00:11:11 attention it was quite old we weren't
00:11:11 --> 00:11:14 the first to discover zircons that old
00:11:14 --> 00:11:17 in Black Beauty there's a population of
00:11:17 --> 00:11:20 zircons with similar ages they span
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 about a 50 milliony year time window
00:11:22 --> 00:11:24 from about
00:11:24 --> 00:11:27 4.48 billion down to about
00:11:27 --> 00:11:31 4.43 so the decimal points Define a
00:11:31 --> 00:11:33 period of time of about 50 million years
00:11:33 --> 00:11:36 when there was magnetism in the Martian
00:11:36 --> 00:11:39 crust and so that was known previously
00:11:39 --> 00:11:41 and our Zircon fell right within that
00:11:41 --> 00:11:45 time window the difference between what
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 uh we reported two years ago was we
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 found evidence that this ziron had been
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 affected by shock waves from an impact
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 in other words it was a shock ziron and
00:11:54 --> 00:11:57 that was an unusual find in Black Beauty
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 many other studies on black be Beauty
00:11:59 --> 00:12:02 have proposed that many of the rock
00:12:02 --> 00:12:04 fragments that are in it there's all
00:12:04 --> 00:12:06 kinds of different bits and Bobs of
00:12:06 --> 00:12:09 rocks and many people have shown that
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 these fragments a great majority of them
00:12:11 --> 00:12:16 are also of similar age about 4.45
00:12:16 --> 00:12:18 billion years plus or minus just a wee
00:12:18 --> 00:12:20 bit so they're old and beyond that
00:12:21 --> 00:12:24 people have proposed that The ous Rock
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 class themselves were made as a
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 consequence of melting from meteorite
00:12:29 --> 00:12:32 impact in other words when big space
00:12:32 --> 00:12:34 rocks were slamming into Mars nearly 4
00:12:35 --> 00:12:37 and A2 billion years ago they triggered
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 the melting that ultimately formed these
00:12:39 --> 00:12:42 Rock chips and The Rock chips of course
00:12:42 --> 00:12:44 must have been blasted apart by later
00:12:44 --> 00:12:47 impacts because here they are a small
00:12:47 --> 00:12:49 kind of centimeter size fragments that
00:12:49 --> 00:12:52 are all stuck and gummed together in
00:12:52 --> 00:12:55 this meteorite so it's a fascinating pop
00:12:55 --> 00:12:58 perie with evidence of early impact
00:12:58 --> 00:13:00 events the difference the ziron that we
00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 found is there's evidence within the
00:13:02 --> 00:13:04 crystal for a shock event and so that
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 was the first time that had been
00:13:06 --> 00:13:08 recognized in the mineral ziron
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 originating from Mars so that's what got
00:13:10 --> 00:13:12 us onto this grain and very excited
00:13:12 --> 00:13:14 about it two years ago this is around
00:13:14 --> 00:13:16 the same time within a couple of million
00:13:16 --> 00:13:19 years of when the earth was formed for
00:13:19 --> 00:13:21 the impact of the Proto Earth with a
00:13:21 --> 00:13:23 mars-sized planet and the result of that
00:13:23 --> 00:13:25 of course was the creation of our moon
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 the Earth's Moon as well this is really
00:13:27 --> 00:13:29 early in the evolution of our solar
00:13:29 --> 00:13:31 system in fact to get rocks that are
00:13:31 --> 00:13:33 much older than this you're looking at
00:13:33 --> 00:13:35 carbonaceous condres which originated in
00:13:35 --> 00:13:38 pre-solar grains before the solar system
00:13:38 --> 00:13:41 was formed that's right that's how these
00:13:41 --> 00:13:43 things are it's hard to go much further
00:13:43 --> 00:13:46 back than this because we're brushing up
00:13:46 --> 00:13:48 against the primordial time when planets
00:13:48 --> 00:13:51 came together and so if you're if you're
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53 talking about the age of a planet most
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56 you know meteorites and our solar system
00:13:56 --> 00:14:00 is approximately 4.56 billion years old
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02 and so we're talking about material that
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04 has survived these zircons and Black
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 Beauty from no more than a 100 million
00:14:07 --> 00:14:10 years after that and if 100 million
00:14:10 --> 00:14:11 years sounds like a lot of time
00:14:11 --> 00:14:14 geologically it's a blank of an eye so
00:14:14 --> 00:14:15 this is this is very close to the
00:14:15 --> 00:14:18 beginning yes and as you've continued to
00:14:18 --> 00:14:20 examine these zerons you found something
00:14:20 --> 00:14:22 else you found evidence of what would
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 call hydrothermal activity tell me about
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 that well this is the focus of our new
00:14:26 --> 00:14:29 study and again we have S and thought
00:14:29 --> 00:14:31 carefully about this ciron over a number
00:14:31 --> 00:14:34 of years and often times when you find
00:14:34 --> 00:14:36 something in science it's reproduced
00:14:36 --> 00:14:39 eventually by other people uh which is a
00:14:39 --> 00:14:41 good sign but uh our our discovery of
00:14:41 --> 00:14:43 the shock syon is fairly recent it's
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 only from two years ago in the meantime
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48 there have not been any additional ones
00:14:48 --> 00:14:50 reported and so we thought well let's go
00:14:50 --> 00:14:54 see what more secrets this grain might
00:14:54 --> 00:14:56 contain because it's unusual from my
00:14:56 --> 00:14:57 point of view it's the most special
00:14:58 --> 00:15:00 mineral from Mars because there's only
00:15:00 --> 00:15:02 one of them right now eventually people
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 will find more but for the moment it's a
00:15:04 --> 00:15:07 very unique ziron that records a history
00:15:07 --> 00:15:09 that's not recorded in any other ziron
00:15:09 --> 00:15:11 from that planet so we wanted to take
00:15:11 --> 00:15:13 another look at it it's helpful to put
00:15:13 --> 00:15:16 size in perspective here because these
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 zircons are tiny this one's about half
00:15:19 --> 00:15:21 the width of a human hair so it's small
00:15:21 --> 00:15:23 but that's okay we're quite good at
00:15:23 --> 00:15:25 working on and analyzing little things
00:15:25 --> 00:15:27 it's interesting though that many of the
00:15:27 --> 00:15:29 zircons we found in Black Beauty are
00:15:29 --> 00:15:31 even smaller so this wasn't the smallest
00:15:31 --> 00:15:33 one there many of them are are even
00:15:33 --> 00:15:36 little but because this grain was the
00:15:36 --> 00:15:39 size that it was it allowed us to go in
00:15:39 --> 00:15:41 and do some additional analyses now this
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43 time we wanted to focus on Trace
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 elements I mentioned uranium a moment
00:15:45 --> 00:15:48 ago that's a trace element too if we
00:15:48 --> 00:15:51 think about what ziron is made of it's a
00:15:51 --> 00:15:54 pretty simple mineral it really only has
00:15:54 --> 00:15:57 three elements oxygen and silicon and
00:15:57 --> 00:16:00 zirconium but the way these elements
00:16:00 --> 00:16:02 bond the way these atoms bond in ziron
00:16:02 --> 00:16:05 it leaves space for other elements to
00:16:05 --> 00:16:07 sneak in the back door but at a low
00:16:07 --> 00:16:10 abundance level hence we call them Trace
00:16:10 --> 00:16:11 elements of course one of them is
00:16:11 --> 00:16:14 uranium which is a really useful one
00:16:14 --> 00:16:16 because over time it decays to lead and
00:16:16 --> 00:16:18 it forms the basis for the isotopic
00:16:18 --> 00:16:21 clock that we use for dating and so
00:16:21 --> 00:16:22 that's a helpful one but uranium is not
00:16:22 --> 00:16:24 the only element that can sneak in the
00:16:24 --> 00:16:27 back door others do as well at low
00:16:27 --> 00:16:29 levels what we were surprised at that
00:16:29 --> 00:16:31 when we did the analysis was we were
00:16:31 --> 00:16:34 able to analyze the Surface by scanning
00:16:34 --> 00:16:37 over it with a fancy method called time
00:16:37 --> 00:16:39 of flight secondary ion Mass
00:16:39 --> 00:16:41 spectrometry they call it top Sims for
00:16:41 --> 00:16:44 short and what it did was it analyzed
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 the composition of what elements were at
00:16:46 --> 00:16:48 across the entire grain and It produced
00:16:48 --> 00:16:51 a map and the most fascinating thing was
00:16:51 --> 00:16:54 we found that the elements iron and
00:16:54 --> 00:16:58 aluminum and sodium showed layers that
00:16:58 --> 00:17:00 were regular in the Zircon much like you
00:17:00 --> 00:17:03 see when you slice open an onion and
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 they were growth zoning and meaning they
00:17:05 --> 00:17:08 appear to have a regular pattern that
00:17:08 --> 00:17:11 was defined by the growth of this
00:17:11 --> 00:17:14 mineral when it formed the problem is
00:17:14 --> 00:17:16 those elements iron and aluminum and
00:17:16 --> 00:17:19 sodium are not normally found in ziron
00:17:19 --> 00:17:21 and so that threw us off guard in fact
00:17:22 --> 00:17:23 it gets even worse because those
00:17:24 --> 00:17:26 elements are often the elements that
00:17:26 --> 00:17:29 when people detect them in zir it
00:17:29 --> 00:17:31 indicates that the ziron has kind of
00:17:31 --> 00:17:34 started to go rotten meaning the
00:17:34 --> 00:17:37 radiation in the crystal has produced
00:17:37 --> 00:17:39 local damage breaking the bonds and then
00:17:39 --> 00:17:42 water and fluids can enter the Crystal
00:17:42 --> 00:17:44 and deposit these elements long long
00:17:44 --> 00:17:47 time after the Zircon formed and so when
00:17:47 --> 00:17:49 we first saw this we scratched our heads
00:17:49 --> 00:17:51 a little and we said we better check to
00:17:51 --> 00:17:53 make sure that the ziron isn't damaged
00:17:53 --> 00:17:56 from radiation internal radiation so we
00:17:56 --> 00:17:58 applied another technique transmission
00:17:58 --> 00:18:01 electron on microscopy or just pem for
00:18:01 --> 00:18:03 short and it actually allowed us to take
00:18:03 --> 00:18:05 a look at the individual atoms in the
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08 Crystal and we found that they were
00:18:08 --> 00:18:09 beautifully ordered they were
00:18:09 --> 00:18:11 beautifully regular that there was no
00:18:11 --> 00:18:14 damage that we could detect and so at
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 the atomic scale this ciron was fully
00:18:17 --> 00:18:19 crystalline in other words those
00:18:19 --> 00:18:21 elements that we detected the iron the
00:18:21 --> 00:18:23 aluminum the sodium and whatnot they
00:18:23 --> 00:18:25 didn't come in later you can't get those
00:18:25 --> 00:18:27 elements into ziron after it
00:18:27 --> 00:18:29 crystallizes if it's a crystalline
00:18:29 --> 00:18:32 material ziron is very tough and robust
00:18:32 --> 00:18:34 and so uh it was an indication that wait
00:18:34 --> 00:18:37 a minute we have this nice pattern of
00:18:37 --> 00:18:38 growth and the ziron is fully
00:18:39 --> 00:18:41 crystalline what's going on here what
00:18:41 --> 00:18:43 kind of environment did this ziron grow
00:18:43 --> 00:18:46 in and to find the answer we had to look
00:18:46 --> 00:18:49 back to Earth well on Earth ciron is not
00:18:49 --> 00:18:51 a a rare mineral it's quite common it's
00:18:51 --> 00:18:53 studied heavily for uh dating rocks and
00:18:53 --> 00:18:55 other things in fact when you go to the
00:18:55 --> 00:18:58 beach and have sand between your toes
00:18:58 --> 00:18:59 many of those sand grains will be
00:19:00 --> 00:19:02 zircons because they survive errosion
00:19:02 --> 00:19:04 and transport down to the rivers and the
00:19:04 --> 00:19:07 ocean so Zircon has been analyzed a lot
00:19:07 --> 00:19:10 and Chace El in ziron have been analyzed
00:19:10 --> 00:19:11 a lot there's been thousands and
00:19:11 --> 00:19:13 thousands of studies and yet this
00:19:13 --> 00:19:16 feature for these elements is not common
00:19:16 --> 00:19:19 in fact the only place we were able to
00:19:19 --> 00:19:22 find an analogy on Earth is
00:19:22 --> 00:19:23 interestingly enough from South
00:19:23 --> 00:19:26 Australia at the um famous Olympic Dam
00:19:26 --> 00:19:30 or deposit where that's say a copper and
00:19:30 --> 00:19:33 uranium and and gold mine that formed uh
00:19:33 --> 00:19:36 about a billion and a half years ago and
00:19:36 --> 00:19:38 about five years ago a study was
00:19:38 --> 00:19:40 published in part with our collaborator
00:19:40 --> 00:19:42 at University of Adelaide that took a
00:19:42 --> 00:19:44 look at Elemental zoning in some of the
00:19:44 --> 00:19:48 zircons from the Olympic Dam deposit she
00:19:48 --> 00:19:51 found that the zircons at that site had
00:19:51 --> 00:19:54 the nice regular Elemental zoning of
00:19:54 --> 00:19:57 iron and aluminum and other elements the
00:19:57 --> 00:19:59 key observation here here is that those
00:19:59 --> 00:20:02 Granite formed during hydrothermal
00:20:02 --> 00:20:05 processes so the the zircons were
00:20:05 --> 00:20:07 forming and crystallizing in those
00:20:07 --> 00:20:09 granates when hydrothermal fluids were
00:20:09 --> 00:20:11 present and it was actually the the
00:20:11 --> 00:20:13 action of the hydrothermal fluids in
00:20:13 --> 00:20:16 Alteration that ultimately concentrated
00:20:16 --> 00:20:18 the or bodies but also delivered other
00:20:18 --> 00:20:20 elements that were available for
00:20:20 --> 00:20:22 incorporation into these zircons so when
00:20:22 --> 00:20:24 we made this observation that here's an
00:20:25 --> 00:20:27 environment on Earth where zircons that
00:20:27 --> 00:20:29 form under hydrothermal conditions have
00:20:29 --> 00:20:33 this unusual regular pattern of zoning
00:20:33 --> 00:20:35 in these elements that are not normally
00:20:35 --> 00:20:37 found in ziron with a hawk we have a
00:20:37 --> 00:20:40 lock we found a match and to be honest
00:20:40 --> 00:20:42 it's not that unusual of a process
00:20:42 --> 00:20:44 there's always some amount of fluid
00:20:44 --> 00:20:47 associated with ous rocks but in places
00:20:47 --> 00:20:49 like at the Olympic Dam deposit the
00:20:49 --> 00:20:51 intensity and the action of those fluids
00:20:51 --> 00:20:55 was sufficient to change the composition
00:20:55 --> 00:20:57 of the minerals and of course it created
00:20:57 --> 00:20:59 an or body during the same process too
00:20:59 --> 00:21:02 the idea here is that these magmas heat
00:21:02 --> 00:21:04 up Waters and fluids that are present
00:21:05 --> 00:21:07 and they kind of they get very hot and
00:21:07 --> 00:21:09 they literally move through the Rocks
00:21:09 --> 00:21:11 like a sponge and can carry all kinds of
00:21:11 --> 00:21:14 elements with them as they go swinging
00:21:14 --> 00:21:16 this Back To Mars This was a key
00:21:16 --> 00:21:19 observation because we know when the
00:21:19 --> 00:21:21 magnetism happened on Mars we get that
00:21:21 --> 00:21:23 from the uranium lead age of the ziron
00:21:23 --> 00:21:26 so this is a process that involved hot
00:21:27 --> 00:21:29 hydrothermal fluids and we know what was
00:21:29 --> 00:21:32 occurring at 4.45 billion years ago
00:21:32 --> 00:21:35 nearly 4 1.2 billion years ago and uh it
00:21:35 --> 00:21:37 pins fluids in the Martian crust at that
00:21:37 --> 00:21:40 time and uh we found that very exciting
00:21:40 --> 00:21:42 that matches up with other studies which
00:21:42 --> 00:21:44 suggest that the Martian magnetic field
00:21:44 --> 00:21:46 would have been important for retaining
00:21:46 --> 00:21:48 the planet's atmosphere once the core
00:21:48 --> 00:21:50 solidified and the magnetic field
00:21:50 --> 00:21:52 disappeared that's when the solar wind
00:21:52 --> 00:21:54 from the Sun and cosmic rays and things
00:21:54 --> 00:21:56 like that were able to erode the Martian
00:21:56 --> 00:21:58 atmosphere away and as the atmosphere
00:21:58 --> 00:22:00 eroded away the water evaporated as well
00:22:00 --> 00:22:02 there's all kinds of secondary
00:22:02 --> 00:22:05 implications and processes that fall out
00:22:05 --> 00:22:07 of of our observation yeah the
00:22:07 --> 00:22:09 timeline's Exquisite isn't it many of
00:22:09 --> 00:22:10 which you just mentioned there's a
00:22:10 --> 00:22:13 question here do the ziron observations
00:22:14 --> 00:22:16 of hydrothermal processes in a ziron can
00:22:16 --> 00:22:19 you say there was stable liquid water
00:22:19 --> 00:22:22 from that and the answer is no but
00:22:22 --> 00:22:24 they're probably was the idea here is
00:22:24 --> 00:22:27 that if there was fluids coursing
00:22:27 --> 00:22:29 through the Martian crust at this early
00:22:29 --> 00:22:32 time they ultimately would have escaped
00:22:32 --> 00:22:35 to the surface now whether they would
00:22:35 --> 00:22:38 have ponded at the surface in terms of
00:22:38 --> 00:22:41 making stable surface waters or escaped
00:22:41 --> 00:22:44 and contributed volatiles to the early
00:22:44 --> 00:22:47 Martian atmosphere all of those outcomes
00:22:47 --> 00:22:49 are very possible in fact probably they
00:22:49 --> 00:22:51 are probable more than possible because
00:22:51 --> 00:22:54 that's what fluids do we don't know what
00:22:54 --> 00:22:58 the exact trigger for the magmas was was
00:22:58 --> 00:23:02 it internal heat release from the
00:23:02 --> 00:23:05 interior of mars or was it impact driven
00:23:06 --> 00:23:08 because we have evidence quite a lot of
00:23:08 --> 00:23:10 evidence for impacts in this meteorite
00:23:10 --> 00:23:13 the ziron itself records an Evidence of
00:23:13 --> 00:23:15 impact that must have happened after the
00:23:16 --> 00:23:18 ziron formed because it felt the shock
00:23:18 --> 00:23:20 wave and then there's all these other
00:23:20 --> 00:23:23 bits of rock that are tributed to have
00:23:23 --> 00:23:26 formed as a consequence of impacts
00:23:26 --> 00:23:28 hitting and causing melting so there's
00:23:28 --> 00:23:30 lots of issues around what triggered the
00:23:30 --> 00:23:33 early magnetism there's also questions
00:23:33 --> 00:23:34 around what's the source of the
00:23:34 --> 00:23:36 volatiles or the H these hydrothermal
00:23:36 --> 00:23:40 fluids just from the interior of Mars
00:23:40 --> 00:23:42 volcanically outgassing they in
00:23:42 --> 00:23:44 magnetism like the one that made the
00:23:44 --> 00:23:46 ciron take it the impact site for the
00:23:46 --> 00:23:48 asteroid impact which caused black
00:23:48 --> 00:23:51 beauty isn't all that far from the thus
00:23:51 --> 00:23:53 rise and Olympus Mons and places like
00:23:53 --> 00:23:55 that that's right but there's also an
00:23:55 --> 00:23:58 alternative that some of the fluids that
00:23:58 --> 00:24:00 we may may be detecting were delivered
00:24:00 --> 00:24:03 by some of these large impactors and
00:24:03 --> 00:24:05 that they were impact driven
00:24:05 --> 00:24:07 hydrothermal systems in the Martian
00:24:07 --> 00:24:11 crust so there's a quite a few scenarios
00:24:11 --> 00:24:12 all
00:24:12 --> 00:24:15 interesting that these data provide some
00:24:15 --> 00:24:18 control points for there's even a a
00:24:18 --> 00:24:21 proposal that uh I find fascinating that
00:24:21 --> 00:24:24 was from a study published about 20
00:24:24 --> 00:24:27 years ago that examined the ratios of
00:24:27 --> 00:24:31 iodine in Xenon Isotopes between the
00:24:31 --> 00:24:33 Martian atmosphere that has been
00:24:33 --> 00:24:37 measured by space observation and Mars's
00:24:37 --> 00:24:39 mantle and of course that comes that's
00:24:39 --> 00:24:42 data from meteorite and the observations
00:24:42 --> 00:24:46 were a mismatch for many of the Mars
00:24:46 --> 00:24:48 mantle measurements as compared to the
00:24:48 --> 00:24:50 Mars atmosphere measurements and the
00:24:50 --> 00:24:53 explanation that was put forth for why
00:24:53 --> 00:24:56 these iodine Xenon ratios were different
00:24:56 --> 00:24:58 was because there are two elements that
00:24:58 --> 00:25:00 are a bit challenging to change to
00:25:00 --> 00:25:02 fractionate and change the ratio from
00:25:02 --> 00:25:05 one another and those authors put forth
00:25:05 --> 00:25:07 that the easiest way to do this is if a
00:25:07 --> 00:25:10 global ocean existed on Mars within a
00:25:10 --> 00:25:13 100 million years of it forming and so
00:25:13 --> 00:25:15 this would have put it conveniently at
00:25:15 --> 00:25:18 about 4.45 billion years in other words
00:25:18 --> 00:25:21 the same time as the magnetism that we
00:25:21 --> 00:25:24 are measuring in this meteor so our data
00:25:24 --> 00:25:27 don't provide evidence for an ocean on
00:25:27 --> 00:25:28 Mars at that time that's a bit of a
00:25:28 --> 00:25:30 stretch but it's interesting that it
00:25:30 --> 00:25:33 coincides with proposals for an early
00:25:33 --> 00:25:35 ocean because the way that the iodine
00:25:36 --> 00:25:38 and Xenon as released from the mantle
00:25:38 --> 00:25:39 would have passed through the water
00:25:39 --> 00:25:42 that's what would have changed the ratio
00:25:42 --> 00:25:44 that's why it's easiest explanation to
00:25:44 --> 00:25:46 consider but it's not from direct
00:25:46 --> 00:25:48 observation of anything having to do
00:25:48 --> 00:25:51 with water it's an ocean solves a
00:25:51 --> 00:25:53 geochemical problem for two elements
00:25:53 --> 00:25:55 that most people don't even spend much
00:25:55 --> 00:25:56 time thinking about but they're
00:25:56 --> 00:25:58 important to try to solve the Martian
00:25:58 --> 00:26:00 puzzle so it's very possible from some
00:26:00 --> 00:26:02 points of view that there may even have
00:26:02 --> 00:26:04 been quite a bit of surface water at the
00:26:04 --> 00:26:06 time that we're describing that would
00:26:06 --> 00:26:07 explain the Martian lowlands in the
00:26:07 --> 00:26:09 northern hemisphere well there's that
00:26:09 --> 00:26:11 too the other interesting point about
00:26:11 --> 00:26:13 all this of course is once you start
00:26:13 --> 00:26:15 talking about hydrothermal activity here
00:26:15 --> 00:26:17 on Earth of course we know that
00:26:17 --> 00:26:20 hydrothermal activity is associated with
00:26:20 --> 00:26:22 early life forms AA love hydrothermal
00:26:22 --> 00:26:24 vents places like that they are one of
00:26:24 --> 00:26:26 the earliest known life forms here on
00:26:26 --> 00:26:28 Earth there's fossilized chemical evence
00:26:28 --> 00:26:31 suggesting that some geological
00:26:31 --> 00:26:33 structures at places like the atakama
00:26:34 --> 00:26:36 high desert shows evidence that these
00:26:36 --> 00:26:38 may have led to the formation of the
00:26:38 --> 00:26:40 first microbial mats and possibly the
00:26:40 --> 00:26:42 first life forms on Earth it's
00:26:42 --> 00:26:46 impossible not to start connecting
00:26:46 --> 00:26:48 pieces that are on a chessboard into a
00:26:48 --> 00:26:51 framework as far as our work we can't
00:26:51 --> 00:26:53 cross a bridge and say we analyzed the
00:26:53 --> 00:26:56 ziron we found evidence of hydrothermal
00:26:56 --> 00:26:58 processes this means life so I'm
00:26:58 --> 00:27:01 cautious about that however what we can
00:27:01 --> 00:27:04 say definitively is if there was warm
00:27:04 --> 00:27:08 Waters in the crustal rocks of Mars then
00:27:08 --> 00:27:10 that would have provided a wonderful
00:27:10 --> 00:27:14 habitat or a habitable condition for any
00:27:14 --> 00:27:17 forms of early life and then the
00:27:17 --> 00:27:19 parallel thought is right let's turn our
00:27:19 --> 00:27:22 attention to Earth where scientists
00:27:22 --> 00:27:25 think fairly conservatively that there's
00:27:25 --> 00:27:28 not a lot of question about life back to
00:27:28 --> 00:27:30 oh let's say 3 and A2 billion years ago
00:27:30 --> 00:27:33 we have staty that are fairly complex
00:27:33 --> 00:27:35 forms that are preserved some people
00:27:35 --> 00:27:38 think the states go back to 3.7 billion
00:27:38 --> 00:27:40 years there's other chemical evidence
00:27:40 --> 00:27:43 for even older possible action of life
00:27:43 --> 00:27:45 so all of a sudden we're getting back
00:27:45 --> 00:27:48 into the realm of time on Earth where
00:27:48 --> 00:27:51 many people proposed that um if you had
00:27:51 --> 00:27:54 cool environments or surface waters
00:27:54 --> 00:27:56 Waters present at all really that that
00:27:56 --> 00:27:58 was the key ingredient that cre the
00:27:58 --> 00:28:00 opportunity to say hey well we have all
00:28:00 --> 00:28:03 the key ingredients here what's next
00:28:03 --> 00:28:05 that's Dr Aaron kavosi from curtain
00:28:05 --> 00:28:08 University and this is spacetime still
00:28:08 --> 00:28:11 to come the eclipse making double
00:28:11 --> 00:28:13 satellite proba 3 successfully reaches
00:28:13 --> 00:28:15 orbit and later in the science report
00:28:15 --> 00:28:18 more confirmation that the covid-19
00:28:18 --> 00:28:20 Corona virus which created a world
00:28:20 --> 00:28:23 pandemic originated in a Chinese lab in
00:28:23 --> 00:28:26 Wuhan all that and more still to come on
00:28:26 --> 00:28:31 SpaceTime
00:28:31 --> 00:28:39 [Music]
00:28:42 --> 00:28:44 the European Space agency's proba 3
00:28:44 --> 00:28:46 spacecraft has successfully achieved
00:28:46 --> 00:28:48 orbit insertion following their launch
00:28:48 --> 00:28:49 aboard an Indian space research
00:28:49 --> 00:28:53 organization pslv XL rocket the flight
00:28:53 --> 00:28:55 from the shatish toan Space Center in
00:28:55 --> 00:28:57 shiria on the Bay of Bengal Coast had
00:28:57 --> 00:28:59 been deled La by a day due to technical
00:28:59 --> 00:29:02 issues with the payload the twin proba 3
00:29:02 --> 00:29:04 platforms will perform precise formation
00:29:04 --> 00:29:07 flying down to a single millimeter in
00:29:07 --> 00:29:09 distance acting as a single spacecraft
00:29:09 --> 00:29:11 to study the sun's outer atmosphere
00:29:11 --> 00:29:14 Corona and its solar wind the constant
00:29:14 --> 00:29:16 stream of charged particles flowing out
00:29:16 --> 00:29:18 from the Sun the close formation flying
00:29:18 --> 00:29:20 will allow the probes to create an
00:29:20 --> 00:29:22 artificial solar eclipse in orbit
00:29:22 --> 00:29:24 thereby allowing prolonged views of the
00:29:24 --> 00:29:27 sun's ghostly Corona stacked together
00:29:27 --> 00:29:29 for the long lach the two satellites
00:29:29 --> 00:29:31 separated from their upper stage about
00:29:31 --> 00:29:33 18 minutes after liftoff the pair will
00:29:33 --> 00:29:35 remain attached together while initial
00:29:35 --> 00:29:37 commissioning takes place overseen by
00:29:37 --> 00:29:40 emission controllers in Belgium the
00:29:40 --> 00:29:41 spacecraft have been placed into a
00:29:41 --> 00:29:43 highly elliptical orbit which extends
00:29:43 --> 00:29:47 out more than 60 km from the Earth's
00:29:47 --> 00:29:49 surface reaching this orbit required the
00:29:49 --> 00:29:52 most powerful variant of the pslv XL
00:29:52 --> 00:29:54 four-stage launcher fitted with no less
00:29:54 --> 00:29:57 than six strap-on solid rocket boosters
00:29:57 --> 00:29:59 if prob 3's initial commissioning phase
00:29:59 --> 00:30:01 goes to plan then the spacecraft pair
00:30:01 --> 00:30:04 will be separated early in the New Year
00:30:04 --> 00:30:06 in order to begin their individual
00:30:06 --> 00:30:08 checkouts the operational phase of the
00:30:08 --> 00:30:10 mission including the first observations
00:30:10 --> 00:30:12 of the corona through active formation
00:30:12 --> 00:30:14 flying should begin in about 4 months
00:30:14 --> 00:30:16 time once the science phase of the
00:30:16 --> 00:30:19 mission Begins the proba 3 occulta
00:30:19 --> 00:30:20 spacecraft will cast a precisely
00:30:21 --> 00:30:22 controlled shadow on the chronograph
00:30:23 --> 00:30:25 spacecraft flying around 150 M away
00:30:25 --> 00:30:28 producing solar eclipses on demand for
00:30:28 --> 00:30:31 up to 6 hours at a time Isa proba 3
00:30:31 --> 00:30:33 mission scientist Joe Zender says
00:30:33 --> 00:30:35 there's simply no other way of achieving
00:30:35 --> 00:30:37 the observational parameters needed for
00:30:37 --> 00:30:38 the mission other than having the
00:30:38 --> 00:30:41 occulting disc fly on a separate but
00:30:41 --> 00:30:43 carefully controlled spacecraft any
00:30:43 --> 00:30:45 closer and unwanted stray light would be
00:30:45 --> 00:30:47 spilling over the edges of the disc
00:30:47 --> 00:30:49 limiting the vital close-up views of the
00:30:49 --> 00:30:52 sun surrounding Corona proba 3's
00:30:52 --> 00:30:54 principal investigator Andre zukar from
00:30:54 --> 00:30:56 the Royal Observatory of Belgium says
00:30:56 --> 00:30:58 that despite its faintness the solid
00:30:58 --> 00:30:59 Corona is an important element of our
00:30:59 --> 00:31:02 solar system being the source of space
00:31:02 --> 00:31:04 weather and the solar wind at the moment
00:31:04 --> 00:31:06 we can image the sun in extreme
00:31:06 --> 00:31:08 ultraviolet in order to see the solar
00:31:08 --> 00:31:10 disc and the low Corona while using
00:31:10 --> 00:31:12 Earth and space-based coronagraphs to
00:31:12 --> 00:31:15 monitor the high Corona but that leaves
00:31:15 --> 00:31:17 a significant observing Gap from about
00:31:17 --> 00:31:21 three down to 1.1 solar radi and that's
00:31:21 --> 00:31:24 the segment that proba 3 will study this
00:31:24 --> 00:31:26 will make it possible for example to
00:31:26 --> 00:31:28 follow the evolution of coloss fossil
00:31:28 --> 00:31:30 solar explosions called coronal mass
00:31:30 --> 00:31:32 ejections as they rise from the solar
00:31:32 --> 00:31:34 surface and are accelerated outwards at
00:31:34 --> 00:31:37 high speed by the solar wind E's
00:31:38 --> 00:31:40 director General ysf Ashen says probi
00:31:40 --> 00:31:43 3's cronal observations are taking place
00:31:43 --> 00:31:45 as part of a larger in orbit
00:31:45 --> 00:31:47 demonstration of precise formation
00:31:47 --> 00:31:49 flying he says the best way to prove
00:31:49 --> 00:31:51 this new European technology works as
00:31:51 --> 00:31:53 intended is to produce novel science
00:31:53 --> 00:31:56 data that nobody's ever seen before it's
00:31:56 --> 00:31:58 not practical with today's technology to
00:31:58 --> 00:32:01 fly a single 150 M long spacecraft into
00:32:01 --> 00:32:04 orbit but if Probot 3 can achieve the
00:32:05 --> 00:32:06 equivalent performance using two small
00:32:06 --> 00:32:08 spacecraft then this Mission will be
00:32:08 --> 00:32:12 opening up new ways of working in space
00:32:12 --> 00:32:15 this is spacetime
00:32:15 --> 00:32:29 [Music]
00:32:29 --> 00:32:30 and time now to take a brief look at
00:32:30 --> 00:32:32 some of the other stories making news in
00:32:32 --> 00:32:34 science this week with the science
00:32:34 --> 00:32:37 report the United States House oversight
00:32:37 --> 00:32:39 accountability committee's covid-19
00:32:39 --> 00:32:41 panel has confirmed that a lab related
00:32:41 --> 00:32:43 incident involving gain of function
00:32:43 --> 00:32:45 research at China's Wuhan Institute of
00:32:45 --> 00:32:48 Urology was the likely cause of the
00:32:48 --> 00:32:51 covid-19 pandemic the highly detailed
00:32:51 --> 00:32:54 520 page report followed 2 years of
00:32:54 --> 00:32:56 intense investigations and over a
00:32:56 --> 00:32:58 million pages of evidence
00:32:58 --> 00:33:00 it ridiculed suggestions that the virus
00:33:00 --> 00:33:02 emerged in nature and then somehow
00:33:02 --> 00:33:05 jumped from animals to humans the report
00:33:05 --> 00:33:07 concluded that the weight of evidence
00:33:07 --> 00:33:10 increasingly supported the lab League
00:33:10 --> 00:33:12 hypothesis the FBI's director
00:33:12 --> 00:33:14 Christopher Ray had previously said that
00:33:14 --> 00:33:16 the agency assessed that a leak from the
00:33:16 --> 00:33:18 lab in Wuhan caused the covid-19
00:33:18 --> 00:33:21 pandemic and similar conclusions were
00:33:21 --> 00:33:22 reached by the United States Department
00:33:22 --> 00:33:24 of energy the state department and the
00:33:24 --> 00:33:27 Director of National Intelligence the
00:33:27 --> 00:33:30 house report found that Wuhan is home to
00:33:30 --> 00:33:32 China's former SARS research laboratory
00:33:32 --> 00:33:34 which has a long history of conducting
00:33:34 --> 00:33:36 gain of function research under what
00:33:36 --> 00:33:38 most scientists would regard as
00:33:38 --> 00:33:41 inadequate biosafety precautions it also
00:33:41 --> 00:33:43 pointed out that the researchers at the
00:33:43 --> 00:33:45 Wuhan Institute of orology were infected
00:33:45 --> 00:33:48 with covid-19 in the fall of 2019 months
00:33:48 --> 00:33:50 before it was discovered in a wet Market
00:33:50 --> 00:33:53 in December of that year the report also
00:33:53 --> 00:33:55 slammed the New York nonprofit Eco
00:33:55 --> 00:33:57 Health Alliance for using United States
00:33:57 --> 00:33:59 taxpayer dollars to facilitate gain of
00:33:59 --> 00:34:02 function research at Wuhan and it
00:34:02 --> 00:34:04 slammed the Biden Administration for
00:34:04 --> 00:34:06 deliberately spreading covid-19
00:34:06 --> 00:34:08 misinformation by wrongly claiming the
00:34:08 --> 00:34:11 lab leak was just a conspiracy theory
00:34:11 --> 00:34:13 the report specifically singled out
00:34:13 --> 00:34:15 former white house chief medical advisor
00:34:15 --> 00:34:17 and National Institutes for health
00:34:17 --> 00:34:19 director Anthony fouchy for pushing back
00:34:19 --> 00:34:21 on the lab leak Theory and trying to
00:34:21 --> 00:34:23 discredit it the World Health
00:34:23 --> 00:34:26 Organization says over 7 million people
00:34:26 --> 00:34:28 have been killed by the co 19 Corona
00:34:28 --> 00:34:30 virus since it was first detected among
00:34:30 --> 00:34:33 workers at Wuhan Institute of orology
00:34:33 --> 00:34:34 back in September
00:34:34 --> 00:34:37 2019 however the Lancet medical journal
00:34:37 --> 00:34:39 estimates the true death toll is likely
00:34:39 --> 00:34:43 to be above 18 million with some 775
00:34:43 --> 00:34:46 million confirmed cases
00:34:46 --> 00:34:48 globally scientists have documented the
00:34:48 --> 00:34:50 collapse of the conag glenza eyof in
00:34:50 --> 00:34:52 East Antarctica in 20122 charting its
00:34:52 --> 00:34:54 slow collapse over a quarter of a
00:34:54 --> 00:34:57 century a report in the journal Nature
00:34:57 --> 00:34:59 Geo science identified four main stages
00:34:59 --> 00:35:01 in the ice sheets Retreat that started
00:35:02 --> 00:35:04 around 1997 when it first became
00:35:04 --> 00:35:06 separated from the nearby Shackleton ey
00:35:06 --> 00:35:09 shelf it then slowly got smaller and
00:35:09 --> 00:35:12 smaller over time losing about 10% of
00:35:12 --> 00:35:15 its area over the next decade in 2011 it
00:35:15 --> 00:35:17 broke away from the central point that
00:35:17 --> 00:35:20 was pinning it down and its ice loss
00:35:20 --> 00:35:22 then accelerated to 10 times the speed
00:35:22 --> 00:35:24 losing some 10% of its area in just one
00:35:24 --> 00:35:27 year the remaining parts of the ey shelf
00:35:27 --> 00:35:30 then integrated over just a few days in
00:35:30 --> 00:35:32 2022 the authors say these new
00:35:32 --> 00:35:34 observations shed light on the process
00:35:34 --> 00:35:36 involved in an eye sheets collapse
00:35:36 --> 00:35:38 especially the impacts of ocean and
00:35:38 --> 00:35:41 Atmospheric warming and extreme weather
00:35:41 --> 00:35:44 events well after 60 years of searching
00:35:44 --> 00:35:46 geneticists have finally identified the
00:35:46 --> 00:35:48 genes behind the marmalade coloration in
00:35:48 --> 00:35:51 some domestic house cats a report in the
00:35:51 --> 00:35:54 journal science says the orange color is
00:35:54 --> 00:35:56 likely the result of a missing segment
00:35:56 --> 00:35:58 of DNA in a non protein coating part of
00:35:58 --> 00:36:01 the cat's genome researchers discovered
00:36:01 --> 00:36:03 cat skin cells from which orange F
00:36:03 --> 00:36:06 Sprouts Express 13 times as much RNA
00:36:06 --> 00:36:09 from a Jin code arap 36 compared to skin
00:36:09 --> 00:36:11 cells from cats which don't have orange
00:36:11 --> 00:36:13 hair expecting to find the protein
00:36:13 --> 00:36:15 coding section of the overproductive
00:36:15 --> 00:36:17 gene had mutated the authors were
00:36:17 --> 00:36:19 surprised to find that the sequence
00:36:19 --> 00:36:21 preceding it had instead contained a
00:36:21 --> 00:36:23 deletion affecting the rest of the gene
00:36:23 --> 00:36:26 expression they found the same deletion
00:36:26 --> 00:36:28 was present in every every single orange
00:36:28 --> 00:36:30 cat they examined and they looked at a
00:36:30 --> 00:36:34 database of 188 cats which included 145
00:36:34 --> 00:36:36 orange cats six Calico tortois shell
00:36:36 --> 00:36:40 cats and 37 non- orange cats one finding
00:36:41 --> 00:36:43 didn't come as a surprise as long
00:36:43 --> 00:36:45 predicted the mutated Gene was located
00:36:45 --> 00:36:48 on the cat's X chromosome and that
00:36:48 --> 00:36:50 explains why the orange color appears so
00:36:50 --> 00:36:53 differently between the Sexes most
00:36:53 --> 00:36:55 orange cats are male While most female
00:36:55 --> 00:36:57 cats with some orange fur in them end up
00:36:57 --> 00:37:00 with patches of different colors so it
00:37:00 --> 00:37:03 all makes perfect
00:37:03 --> 00:37:05 sense do you ever get the feeling you're
00:37:05 --> 00:37:08 being watched well you're not alone
00:37:08 --> 00:37:11 turns out between 68 94% of people
00:37:11 --> 00:37:13 believe that this sensation is caused by
00:37:13 --> 00:37:15 their bodies somehow knowing that
00:37:15 --> 00:37:17 they're being looked at but Tim mum from
00:37:17 --> 00:37:20 a strand skeptic says in reality it's
00:37:20 --> 00:37:21 just a simple way of comforting
00:37:21 --> 00:37:23 ourselves that we have some sort of
00:37:23 --> 00:37:25 instinct that will protect us against
00:37:25 --> 00:37:27 being watched by people we'd rather
00:37:27 --> 00:37:29 weren't looking at us the entri is
00:37:29 --> 00:37:30 there's no scientific proof to it and
00:37:30 --> 00:37:32 certainly know that when you really
00:37:32 --> 00:37:33 experiment with it it doesn't work and
00:37:33 --> 00:37:35 there's various articles that come out
00:37:35 --> 00:37:36 talk about it we've had an article there
00:37:37 --> 00:37:38 a wonderful experiment that a teacher
00:37:38 --> 00:37:40 did in a school where he sat three or
00:37:40 --> 00:37:41 four kids out in the front of the class
00:37:41 --> 00:37:43 facing the wall so away from all the
00:37:43 --> 00:37:44 students each of them had a bucket on
00:37:44 --> 00:37:46 their head it was a pretty basic
00:37:46 --> 00:37:48 experiment low cost had a number on it I
00:37:49 --> 00:37:50 think my teachers wanted to do that with
00:37:50 --> 00:37:52 me on numerous occasions but anyway he
00:37:52 --> 00:37:53 got the rest of the kids in the class to
00:37:53 --> 00:37:55 sort of say pull a number out of a hat
00:37:55 --> 00:37:56 didn't tell them and said everyone stay
00:37:56 --> 00:37:58 with that number and then the people
00:37:58 --> 00:37:59 with the bucket put their hand up if
00:37:59 --> 00:38:01 they thought they're being scared at
00:38:01 --> 00:38:02 they found out they weren't one4 chance
00:38:02 --> 00:38:04 of being successful and they had pure
00:38:04 --> 00:38:06 one4 chance result so there was no
00:38:06 --> 00:38:08 indication that you can really be seen
00:38:08 --> 00:38:09 someone suggests that if you turned
00:38:09 --> 00:38:11 around because you think someone's
00:38:11 --> 00:38:12 looking at you will that movement might
00:38:12 --> 00:38:14 encourage someone to look at you why did
00:38:14 --> 00:38:16 that person spin around and very quickly
00:38:16 --> 00:38:17 they can turn their head towards you so
00:38:17 --> 00:38:19 when you finally finish you're twisting
00:38:19 --> 00:38:21 there they are looking at you and the
00:38:21 --> 00:38:22 person being looked at things why is he
00:38:22 --> 00:38:24 looking at me that's right the answer is
00:38:24 --> 00:38:26 no there is no evidence for it test the
00:38:26 --> 00:38:27 sh it doesn't work and even though lot
00:38:27 --> 00:38:29 of people believe it that it does this
00:38:29 --> 00:38:31 curious one story said between 68 and
00:38:31 --> 00:38:34 94% of people believe that it's caused
00:38:34 --> 00:38:35 by someone knowing that they're being
00:38:35 --> 00:38:39 watched and why 68 to 94 those numbers I
00:38:39 --> 00:38:40 got no idea where those numbers come
00:38:40 --> 00:38:42 from people can believe things that
00:38:42 --> 00:38:43 doesn't mean they're actually true
00:38:43 --> 00:38:45 surprisingly that's Tim mum from
00:38:45 --> 00:38:48 Australian Skeptics
00:38:48 --> 00:38:57 [Music]
00:39:02 --> 00:39:05 and that's the show for now SpaceTime is
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00:39:58 --> 00:40:01 Gary this has been another quality
00:40:01 --> 00:40:05 podcast production from bites.com