SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 111 27 new Trans Neptunian Objects discovered in the outer solar system The first ever joint observation of Trans Neptunian objects by NASA’s Hubble and Webb space telescopes has discovered 27 new worlds in the dark outer reaches of the solar system. A decagon discovered at Saturn's south pole New observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have revealed a giant, evolving, 10-sided decagon atmospheric structure encircling Saturn's south pole. LINK’s failed rescue mission scopes its target but can’t save it The LINK spacecraft which was meant to rescue NASA's doomed Swift Gamma Ray space Telescope (https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nasa-swift-telescope-falling-earth.html) has now reached to within 15 kilometres of Swift and has even managed to take some images of the stricken observatory. The Science Report The latest data on HIV and sexually transmitted diseases in Australia paints a mixed picture. Climate change forcing a decline in global sea weed forests. Asian elephants shown to resist impulsive behaviour in favour of rational problem solving. The artificial-intelligence chatbot Claude cracks Fermat’s last theorem. Alex on Tech the phone duo.
Our Guests This Week Dr Fred Jourdan from Curtin University ESA BepiColombo Project Scientist Johannes Benkhoff DLR Planetary Scientist Jorn Helbert Our regular guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics 🌏 Get Our Exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ www.bitesz.com/nordvpn (http://www.bitesz.com/nordvpn) . The discounts and bonuses are incredible! And it’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! ✌ If you’d like to support the podcast and gain access to bonus content by becoming a SpaceTime crew member, you can do just that through The Big Bang editions on Patreon, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Details on the Support page on our website https://www.bitesz.com/show/spacetime/support/ (https://www.bitesz.com/show/spacetime/support/)
Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/35288689?utm_source=youtube
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 This is Spaceime Series 29, episode 111
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 for broadcast on the 16th of September
00:00:05 --> 00:00:07 2026.
00:00:07 --> 00:00:10 Coming up on Spaceime, 27 new trans
00:00:10 --> 00:00:12 neptunian objects discovered in the
00:00:12 --> 00:00:14 outer regions of our solar system, a
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 decagong discovered at Saturn's south
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 pole, and the Link spacecraft catches up
00:00:20 --> 00:00:23 to the target it was unable to save. All
00:00:23 --> 00:00:27 that and more coming up on Spaceime.
00:00:27 --> 00:00:47 Welcome to Spaceime with Stuart Garry.
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 The first ever joint observation of
00:00:49 --> 00:00:51 trans neptunian objects by NASA's Hubble
00:00:51 --> 00:00:53 and Web Space Telescopes has discovered
00:00:53 --> 00:00:56 27 new worlds in the dark outer reaches
00:00:56 --> 00:00:57 of our solar system.
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 The findings reported in the
00:00:59 --> 00:01:01 astronomical journal represent the
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 deepest search for trans neptunian
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 objects ever undertaken and included
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 some of the smallest and faintest
00:01:07 --> 00:01:08 celestial bodies ever seen, including
00:01:08 --> 00:01:12 one object just 5 km wide. It's the
00:01:12 --> 00:01:14 first time astronomers have combined the
00:01:14 --> 00:01:16 power of Hubble and web to search for
00:01:16 --> 00:01:19 these far-flung solar system bodies.
00:01:19 --> 00:01:21 Hubble looked invisible light and web
00:01:22 --> 00:01:24 searched infrared wavelengths.
00:01:24 --> 00:01:26 Surprisingly, the authors found fewer
00:01:26 --> 00:01:28 small trans neptunian objects than
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 expected, and the colors of these bodies
00:01:30 --> 00:01:32 follow the same relationships as those
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 of their larger family members. Trans
00:01:35 --> 00:01:37 Neptunian objects are typically small,
00:01:37 --> 00:01:39 faint, icy worlds orbiting the sun
00:01:39 --> 00:01:42 around and beyond the orbit of Neptune.
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 Most are more than 100 million times
00:01:44 --> 00:01:46 dimmer than objects visible to the
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 unaded eye.
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 As part of the study, the authors
00:01:50 --> 00:01:52 analyzed the color, composition, and
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 size distribution of the 27 newly
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 discovered tiny, dim trans neptunian
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 objects. This class of small bodies
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 offers the best view yet of the early
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 stage of planetary building. A time more
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 than 4.6 6 billion years ago when a
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 protolanetary disc of dust and pebbles
00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 in orbit around the sun coalesed into
00:02:11 --> 00:02:14 city-sized planet decimals. The solid
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 building blocks that clump and accrete
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 together to eventually form planets.
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 Beyond Neptune, this second stage has
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 never happened, leaving behind a frozen
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 population of planet decimals. The
00:02:26 --> 00:02:28 authors measure the objects colors,
00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 which are sort of like fingerprints of
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 surface composition, as well as their
00:02:32 --> 00:02:33 sizes and the determination of their
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 orbits. They studied two different types
00:02:36 --> 00:02:40 of trans neptunian objects. The first
00:02:40 --> 00:02:41 known as dynamically cold trans
00:02:41 --> 00:02:43 neptunian objects are on their original
00:02:44 --> 00:02:45 relatively circular orbits around the
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 sun in the plane of the solar system,
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 what we call the ecliptic. The second
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 type, dynamically hot trans neptunian
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 objects formed between the current
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 locations of Uranus and Neptune, but
00:02:56 --> 00:02:57 were then pushed outwards to their
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 current locations when the gas giants
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 migrated to their current orbits early
00:03:01 --> 00:03:03 in the solar systems history. And today
00:03:03 --> 00:03:06 these reside in highly elliptical orbits
00:03:06 --> 00:03:07 which move in and out of the plane of
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 our solar system.
00:03:10 --> 00:03:12 Before these observations, astronomers
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 thought that small trans neptunian
00:03:14 --> 00:03:15 objects from both hot and cold
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 populations would have undergone many
00:03:17 --> 00:03:19 collisions changing their surface
00:03:19 --> 00:03:21 compositions compared to larger trans
00:03:21 --> 00:03:24 neptunian objects. But that's not what
00:03:24 --> 00:03:27 their observations showed. Instead, the
00:03:27 --> 00:03:28 smaller bodies look just like their
00:03:28 --> 00:03:31 larger counterparts. Now this implies
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 that collisions are not changing the
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 surfaces of these bodies significantly.
00:03:35 --> 00:03:36 Perhaps because there are fewer
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 collisions than expected or possibly
00:03:38 --> 00:03:41 because trans neptunian objects somehow
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 retain their primordial pre-colision
00:03:43 --> 00:03:45 compositions. The authors are still
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 trying to unravel this mystery. And one
00:03:48 --> 00:03:50 of those authors, Anastasia Morgan from
00:03:50 --> 00:03:52 Northern Arizona University says it was
00:03:52 --> 00:03:54 fascinating to see that these smaller
00:03:54 --> 00:03:56 objects are somehow remembering and
00:03:56 --> 00:03:57 preserving the history of how they were
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 formed. She says these dynamically hot
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 trans neptunian objects retained a
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 signature of where they were born, even
00:04:05 --> 00:04:06 though they've been orbitly scrambled
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 since then. Both hot and cold
00:04:09 --> 00:04:11 populations seem to keep the same colors
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13 as when they were formed, with little
00:04:13 --> 00:04:14 change since the birth of the solar
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 system. The web data also allowed
00:04:17 --> 00:04:18 researchers to measure the number of
00:04:18 --> 00:04:21 objects of each size. They found that
00:04:21 --> 00:04:24 the overall size distribution for birth
00:04:24 --> 00:04:26 populations was surprisingly similar
00:04:26 --> 00:04:27 despite forming in different regions of
00:04:27 --> 00:04:30 the early solar system. Morgan says the
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 process seems to be insensitive to disc
00:04:33 --> 00:04:34 conditions, producing similar
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 planetessimal sizes whether the disc is
00:04:36 --> 00:04:39 hot or cold and dense or fluffy. She
00:04:39 --> 00:04:41 also found there were far fewer of these
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 small bodies than expected based on some
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 well understood and accepted planetary
00:04:46 --> 00:04:49 formation models. This report from NASA
00:04:49 --> 00:04:52 TV. The outer solar system is home to
00:04:52 --> 00:04:55 some of the oldest objects in existence.
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57 These tiny frozen worlds have spent
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 billions of years orbiting in darkness,
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 largely untouched since the planets
00:05:02 --> 00:05:05 first formed. Now, by combining the
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07 power of NASA's Hubble and James Web
00:05:07 --> 00:05:09 Space Telescopes, scientists are
00:05:09 --> 00:05:12 uncovering new clues about the earliest
00:05:12 --> 00:05:14 days of our solar system. By studying
00:05:14 --> 00:05:17 these frozen worlds called trans
00:05:17 --> 00:05:20 neptunian objects or TNOs,
00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 TNOs's orbit the sun beyond Neptune,
00:05:23 --> 00:05:25 they are surviving relics from the solar
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 systems formation more than 4 1/2
00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 billion years ago. As dust, rock, and
00:05:31 --> 00:05:33 ice collided, they gradually grew into
00:05:33 --> 00:05:37 larger bodies known as planetessimals.
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 Closer to the sun, this process produced
00:05:39 --> 00:05:42 the planets. But far beyond Neptune,
00:05:42 --> 00:05:45 countless small icy bodies remained. To
00:05:45 --> 00:05:47 study them, astronomers combined
00:05:48 --> 00:05:50 Hubble's observations in visible light
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 with Web's observations in infrared,
00:05:52 --> 00:05:54 providing a more complete picture of
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 their sizes, orbits, and surface
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 compositions.
00:05:59 --> 00:06:01 With 27 previously unknown objects
00:06:01 --> 00:06:03 discovered, including some of the
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 smallest directly observed, the survey
00:06:05 --> 00:06:08 became the deepest search for trans
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 neptunian objects ever conducted.
00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 Scientists expected these tiny worlds to
00:06:13 --> 00:06:16 look very different from larger TNOs.
00:06:16 --> 00:06:18 Over billions of years, collisions
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 should have broken many apart and
00:06:20 --> 00:06:23 altered their surfaces. Instead, the
00:06:23 --> 00:06:25 smallest objects closely resemble their
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 much larger neighbors. Their colors,
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 which provide information about their
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 surface composition, follow the same
00:06:32 --> 00:06:35 pattern seen among larger TNOs. That
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 suggests these tiny worlds have
00:06:37 --> 00:06:39 preserved much of their original surface
00:06:39 --> 00:06:41 composition for billions of years, and
00:06:41 --> 00:06:43 that collisions may have been less
00:06:43 --> 00:06:45 destructive or less common than
00:06:45 --> 00:06:49 expected. Researchers also found fewer
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 very small TNOs than some models
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 predict, providing another clue about
00:06:53 --> 00:06:55 how the earliest building blocks of
00:06:55 --> 00:06:58 planets formed. Together, Hubble and Web
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 are giving scientists a new look at some
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 of our solar systems oldest survivors,
00:07:03 --> 00:07:06 helping them uncover how the planets,
00:07:06 --> 00:07:16 including Earth, first began to form.
00:07:16 --> 00:07:19 This is spaceime still to come. A
00:07:19 --> 00:07:21 decagong discovered at Saturn's south
00:07:21 --> 00:07:24 pole and the link spacecraft which was
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 meant to rescue NASA's doom swift
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 gammaray space telescope has now reached
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 its target but is unable to save it. All
00:07:31 --> 00:07:43 that and more coming up on Spaceime.
00:07:43 --> 00:07:45 New observations by NASA's Hubble Space
00:07:45 --> 00:07:47 Telescope have revealed a giant evolving
00:07:47 --> 00:07:50 10-sided decagong atmospheric structure
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 encircling Saturn's south pole. The
00:07:53 --> 00:07:54 discovery reported in the journal
00:07:54 --> 00:07:57 Science Advances marks the first time a
00:07:57 --> 00:07:59 large regularsided jetream pattern has
00:07:59 --> 00:08:01 been observed in the planet's southern
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 hemisphere.
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 Generally speaking, the feature appears
00:08:05 --> 00:08:06 remarkably similar to Saturn's famous
00:08:06 --> 00:08:09 north pole hexagon, but it's also
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 distinctly different from its six-sided
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 counterpart, suggesting scientists may
00:08:13 --> 00:08:14 be witnessing a new atmospheric
00:08:14 --> 00:08:16 phenomenon developing on the iconic
00:08:16 --> 00:08:18 ringed world.
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 The observations were taken as part of
00:08:20 --> 00:08:22 OPEL, Hubble's outer planet atmosphere's
00:08:22 --> 00:08:25 legacy program, which has been imaging
00:08:25 --> 00:08:26 the planets annually for more than a
00:08:26 --> 00:08:29 decade. By piecing together several
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 years of Hubble observations, the
00:08:31 --> 00:08:32 authors found subtle hints of the
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 structure beginning to emerge around
00:08:34 --> 00:08:37 2023, long before it became a clearly
00:08:37 --> 00:08:39 defined pattern. One of the studies
00:08:39 --> 00:08:41 authors, Amy Simon from NASA's Godard
00:08:41 --> 00:08:43 Space Flight Center in Green Belt,
00:08:43 --> 00:08:44 Maryland, says no one's ever seen
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 anything quite like this in Saturn's
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 southern hemisphere before. The northern
00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 hexagon's been there every time
00:08:50 --> 00:08:52 scientists looked at it over more than
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 40 years. But according to Simon, the
00:08:54 --> 00:08:57 southern features very different, and it
00:08:57 --> 00:08:59 appears to be strengthening, giving
00:08:59 --> 00:09:01 scientists a rare opportunity to watch
00:09:01 --> 00:09:03 as this giant atmospheric pattern
00:09:03 --> 00:09:05 evolves and develops.
00:09:05 --> 00:09:07 The discovery was made possible because
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 of Saturn's changing axial tilt,
00:09:10 --> 00:09:11 consequently its seasons, which are
00:09:11 --> 00:09:13 gradually bringing the planet's south
00:09:13 --> 00:09:16 pole back into view from Earth. That's
00:09:16 --> 00:09:17 where astronomers who collectively
00:09:17 --> 00:09:19 analyze images of Saturn from
00:09:19 --> 00:09:21 groundbased observatories first
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 identified the feature. They first
00:09:23 --> 00:09:25 noticed a subtle undulating band along
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 the South Pole in groundbased telescope
00:09:27 --> 00:09:30 observations in 2024.
00:09:30 --> 00:09:31 Additional groundbased imagery taken
00:09:32 --> 00:09:34 last year hinted more strongly at this
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 decagon structure and that's when the
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 Hubble archive of observations came into
00:09:38 --> 00:09:40 play.
00:09:40 --> 00:09:42 Given Saturn's symmetry in its north
00:09:42 --> 00:09:44 pole jetream system, astronomers have
00:09:44 --> 00:09:45 been searching for a counterpart to
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 Saturn's northern hexagon at the south
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 pole in Hubble images since 1990. and
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 which orbited Saturn between 2004 and
00:09:55 --> 00:09:57 2017 showed no inkling of any sort of
00:09:57 --> 00:10:00 longived formation there. But it was a
00:10:00 --> 00:10:01 review of the Hubble data which
00:10:02 --> 00:10:04 confirmed the features presence in 2023,
00:10:04 --> 00:10:08 the earliest recording of its existence.
00:10:08 --> 00:10:10 So what are we talking about here? Well,
00:10:10 --> 00:10:12 the wave sits within one of Saturn's
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 powerful jet streams and extends through
00:10:14 --> 00:10:15 multiple layers of the planet's
00:10:15 --> 00:10:17 atmosphere, indicating it's not just a
00:10:17 --> 00:10:19 cloud level feature, but a vertically
00:10:19 --> 00:10:22 extended atmospheric structure. Now, the
00:10:22 --> 00:10:24 Decagong's apparent position shifts
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 slightly because Hubble captures images
00:10:26 --> 00:10:28 in different wavelengths, and those
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 different wavelengths are probing
00:10:30 --> 00:10:31 different altitudes in Saturn's
00:10:31 --> 00:10:33 atmosphere.
00:10:33 --> 00:10:35 According to Simon, the most intriguing
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 part is that this seems to have only
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 occurred recently. So the question is
00:10:39 --> 00:10:42 why has it suddenly appeared? The
00:10:42 --> 00:10:44 authors say further study using both
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 Hubble and NASA's web space telescopes
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 as well as new analyses of computer
00:10:48 --> 00:10:50 models will need to be undertaken to
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 better understand how this decagong
00:10:52 --> 00:10:54 formed, how long it may last, and how it
00:10:54 --> 00:10:56 compares with the long lived hexagon in
00:10:56 --> 00:10:58 the north.
00:10:58 --> 00:11:00 Hubble's long operational lifespan has
00:11:00 --> 00:11:02 allowed astronomers to track changes
00:11:02 --> 00:11:04 over time throughout the solar systems
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 planets as well as other astronomical
00:11:06 --> 00:11:09 objects. Rather than providing just a
00:11:09 --> 00:11:11 single snapshot, the Opal program allows
00:11:11 --> 00:11:14 astronomers to follow seasonal changes,
00:11:14 --> 00:11:16 track short-lived storms, and identify
00:11:16 --> 00:11:18 other atmospheric features that evolve
00:11:18 --> 00:11:23 slowly over time. This is spaceime.
00:11:23 --> 00:11:25 Still to come, Link's failed rescue
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 mission scopes its target, but can't
00:11:27 --> 00:11:29 save it. And later in the science
00:11:29 --> 00:11:31 report, the artificial intelligence
00:11:31 --> 00:11:34 chatbot Claude cracks ferment theorem.
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 All that and more still to come on
00:11:36 --> 00:11:53 Spaceime.
00:11:53 --> 00:11:55 The Link spacecraft, which was meant to
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 rescue NASA's doomed Swift Gammaray
00:11:57 --> 00:12:00 Space Telescope, has now reached within
00:12:00 --> 00:12:02 15 kilometers of Swift and has even
00:12:02 --> 00:12:03 managed to snap some images of the
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 stricken observatory. The rescue attempt
00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 to save Swift was abandoned two weeks
00:12:08 --> 00:12:10 ago following systems failures aboard
00:12:10 --> 00:12:12 Link, which sent the vehicle into an
00:12:12 --> 00:12:15 uncontrolled wild multiaxial spin.
00:12:15 --> 00:12:17 Link's operators, Catalyst Space
00:12:17 --> 00:12:19 Technologies, were able to restore some
00:12:19 --> 00:12:21 limited attitude control over the
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 three-armed robotic salvage vehicle, but
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 by then fuel reserves were too low to
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 proceed with a rescue attempt.
00:12:28 --> 00:12:30 Nevertheless, Catalyst was able to use
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 its sensors gathered data on the doomed
00:12:32 --> 00:12:35 telescope for NASA. Now making the best
00:12:35 --> 00:12:37 out of a bad deal, the company's using
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 the failed mission as a practice run for
00:12:39 --> 00:12:43 future satellite servicing operations.
00:12:43 --> 00:12:46 Launched in 2004, Swift was designed as
00:12:46 --> 00:12:48 an orbital early warning system, giving
00:12:48 --> 00:12:50 astronomers a heads up for short period
00:12:50 --> 00:12:53 events like gammaray bursts, the biggest
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 explosions in the universe since the big
00:12:55 --> 00:12:57 bang, thereby allowing them the time
00:12:57 --> 00:12:59 they need to swing their telescopes
00:12:59 --> 00:13:02 towards the unprecedented blasts.
00:13:02 --> 00:13:04 But Swift was only ever designed to last
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 a few years. And so it wasn't equipped
00:13:06 --> 00:13:08 with boosters to allow it to maintain
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 its orbital altitude against the effects
00:13:10 --> 00:13:13 of atmospheric drag. And as the latest
00:13:13 --> 00:13:15 solar storm hit the Earth, causing the
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17 planet's atmosphere to expand and
00:13:17 --> 00:13:19 contract, that atmospheric drag has
00:13:19 --> 00:13:21 caused orbital decay, gradually dropping
00:13:21 --> 00:13:23 Swift from its original 600 km high
00:13:23 --> 00:13:27 orbit to just 335 km today. And it's
00:13:27 --> 00:13:29 continuing to drop. In fact, NASA now
00:13:30 --> 00:13:31 anticipates Swift will plunge through
00:13:31 --> 00:13:33 the atmosphere sometime between October
00:13:33 --> 00:13:36 and the end of the year. And of course,
00:13:36 --> 00:13:38 just like Swift, NASA's Hubble Space
00:13:38 --> 00:13:40 Telescope's also in a low Earth orbit.
00:13:40 --> 00:13:42 And it too isn't fitted with any
00:13:42 --> 00:13:45 boosters. See, NASA was always able to
00:13:45 --> 00:13:47 keep Hubble in its 500 to 550 km high
00:13:48 --> 00:13:50 orbit using space shuttles on servicing
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 missions to boost the observatory back
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 up. But with the premature mothballing
00:13:54 --> 00:13:57 of the shuttle fleet in 2011, Hubble is
00:13:57 --> 00:14:00 also slowly losing altitude. And so
00:14:00 --> 00:14:01 Catalyst is now developing a next
00:14:01 --> 00:14:03 generation link spacecraft, hopefully
00:14:03 --> 00:14:05 one that will be more reliable, which
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 could be used to boost Hubble back up
00:14:07 --> 00:14:09 into a higher orbit, consequently
00:14:09 --> 00:14:11 extending its life.
00:14:11 --> 00:14:28 This is spacetime.
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 And time out to take another brief look
00:14:30 --> 00:14:31 at some of the other stories making news
00:14:31 --> 00:14:33 in science this week with a science
00:14:33 --> 00:14:36 report. The latest data on HIV and
00:14:36 --> 00:14:38 sexually transmitted diseases in
00:14:38 --> 00:14:39 Australia has just been released and
00:14:40 --> 00:14:41 it's painting a mixed picture of
00:14:41 --> 00:14:44 progress and ongoing challenges. The
00:14:44 --> 00:14:46 report by the University of New South
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48 Wales Kirby Institute shows HIV
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51 diagnosis have fallen significantly over
00:14:51 --> 00:14:52 the past decade with the nation
00:14:52 --> 00:14:55 achieving the UN AIDS targets. That's
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 where 95% of people living with HIV are
00:14:58 --> 00:15:01 diagnosed. 95% of those diagnosed are on
00:15:01 --> 00:15:03 treatment and 95% of those on treatment
00:15:03 --> 00:15:06 have HIV that's virally suppressed.
00:15:06 --> 00:15:08 However, the study shows progress
00:15:08 --> 00:15:10 remains uneven across communities.
00:15:10 --> 00:15:12 Meanwhile, syphilis and gorrhea
00:15:12 --> 00:15:14 diagnoses remain high with concerning
00:15:14 --> 00:15:16 increases among females and
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 disproportionately high sexually
00:15:18 --> 00:15:20 transmitted disease rates among First
00:15:20 --> 00:15:22 Nations people.
00:15:22 --> 00:15:24 A new study has warned that climate
00:15:24 --> 00:15:26 change is forcing a decline in global
00:15:26 --> 00:15:28 seaweed forests, which is drastically
00:15:28 --> 00:15:31 outpacing restoration efforts. Seaweed
00:15:32 --> 00:15:34 forests soak up carbon dioxide from the
00:15:34 --> 00:15:36 atmosphere. They're also important
00:15:36 --> 00:15:37 habitats for marine life, and there have
00:15:38 --> 00:15:39 been concerted efforts to plant more
00:15:39 --> 00:15:41 seaweed in the battle against rising
00:15:41 --> 00:15:44 carbon levels. But now a report in the
00:15:44 --> 00:15:47 general plus biology estimates that 25
00:15:47 --> 00:15:49 million hectares of wild kelp forest
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51 will be lost due to climate change by
00:15:51 --> 00:15:55 2050. That's 6 times the area which
00:15:55 --> 00:16:00 has been restored since 1958.
00:16:00 --> 00:16:01 Scientists have discovered that Asian
00:16:02 --> 00:16:04 elephants can resist impulse behavior in
00:16:04 --> 00:16:06 favor of a more rational and effective
00:16:06 --> 00:16:09 course of problem solving. The findings
00:16:09 --> 00:16:10 reported in the journal papers in
00:16:10 --> 00:16:13 paleontology involved 16 Asian elephants
00:16:13 --> 00:16:15 who were presented with a transparent
00:16:15 --> 00:16:18 box with small holes through which they
00:16:18 --> 00:16:21 could see and smell the fruit inside.
00:16:21 --> 00:16:22 They consistently resisted the
00:16:22 --> 00:16:24 temptation to try and reach directly for
00:16:24 --> 00:16:27 the food and instead used an opening on
00:16:27 --> 00:16:28 the side of the box that they had been
00:16:28 --> 00:16:31 shown earlier. When the box was later
00:16:31 --> 00:16:33 rotated, elephants at first succumbed to
00:16:33 --> 00:16:35 the impulse to reach for the previous
00:16:35 --> 00:16:37 position of the opening, but they
00:16:37 --> 00:16:39 quickly corrected their behavior. The
00:16:39 --> 00:16:42 authors say that this inhibitory control
00:16:42 --> 00:16:44 might be a key part of elephant's fame
00:16:44 --> 00:16:48 problem solving and socializing skills.
00:16:48 --> 00:16:50 An advanced prototype of the artificial
00:16:50 --> 00:16:53 intelligence chatbot Claude has produced
00:16:53 --> 00:16:55 a 13 million line computer check proof
00:16:55 --> 00:16:58 of ferment's last theorem in just 11
00:16:58 --> 00:17:00 days. The company behind the project,
00:17:00 --> 00:17:02 Anthropic, says the same projects
00:17:02 --> 00:17:04 expected to take humans around a decade
00:17:04 --> 00:17:07 to solve. The results show that AI will
00:17:07 --> 00:17:09 play an increasingly important part in
00:17:09 --> 00:17:11 creating algorithmically checkable
00:17:11 --> 00:17:14 versions of mathematicians work. And it
00:17:14 --> 00:17:16 hints that such technology could soon
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18 scrutinize the entire library of
00:17:18 --> 00:17:20 mathematical knowledge. By the way,
00:17:20 --> 00:17:22 Fermont's last theorem states that no
00:17:22 --> 00:17:25 three positive integers a, b, and c
00:17:25 --> 00:17:27 satisfy the equation a to the^ of n plus
00:17:27 --> 00:17:30 b ^ of n equals c to the power of n for
00:17:30 --> 00:17:33 any integer value of n greater than 2.
00:17:33 --> 00:17:36 For over 350 years, mathematicians have
00:17:36 --> 00:17:39 tried and failed to prove or disprove
00:17:39 --> 00:17:41 the 1637 claim, turning it into one of
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43 the most famous challenges in the
00:17:43 --> 00:17:46 history of mathematics.
00:17:46 --> 00:17:48 Well, weren't we the fools? Forget
00:17:48 --> 00:17:50 calling it the Fold. Apple have just
00:17:50 --> 00:17:51 done a flip on us, calling their new
00:17:51 --> 00:17:55 iPhone the Duo instead. So, how good is
00:17:55 --> 00:17:56 it? With the details, we're joined by
00:17:56 --> 00:17:59 technology editor Alex Sahara from Tech
00:17:59 --> 00:18:00 Advice Start Life.
00:18:00 --> 00:18:02 >> So, yeah, it's called the iPhone Duo.
00:18:02 --> 00:18:04 Now, it always did seem a bit unusual to
00:18:04 --> 00:18:06 me that Apple would copy the name of
00:18:06 --> 00:18:09 what Samsung was doing with the Fold or
00:18:09 --> 00:18:11 even with Ultra, which is the name of
00:18:11 --> 00:18:14 Samsung's uh premium device. I mean, the
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 Duo doesn't have the telephoto camera.
00:18:17 --> 00:18:18 It's got a few things that are missing,
00:18:18 --> 00:18:19 but it's got plenty that people thought
00:18:19 --> 00:18:22 wouldn't be there. The interface wasn't
00:18:22 --> 00:18:24 just the standard interface slapped onto
00:18:24 --> 00:18:26 a slightly wider screen where Samsung
00:18:26 --> 00:18:28 just has the normal, you know, telephone
00:18:28 --> 00:18:30 and messaging and camera and whatever
00:18:30 --> 00:18:32 other icons on the bottom. Apple really
00:18:32 --> 00:18:33 thought it out. You've got this thumb
00:18:33 --> 00:18:35 width worth of space compared to a
00:18:35 --> 00:18:37 normal, say, iPhone mini or even just a
00:18:38 --> 00:18:39 normal iPhone on the right hand side.
00:18:39 --> 00:18:41 And when you've got a screen that's only
00:18:41 --> 00:18:44 5.4 or 5.5 in diagonally, it's obviously
00:18:44 --> 00:18:46 squatter. It's not as tall as a normal
00:18:46 --> 00:18:47 phone. So, you want to preserve as much
00:18:47 --> 00:18:49 of that vertical viewing space as
00:18:49 --> 00:18:51 possible. That means you don't put the
00:18:51 --> 00:18:52 time at the very top. You don't put the
00:18:52 --> 00:18:55 little icons for your Wi-Fi and signal
00:18:55 --> 00:18:56 strength and all that other sort of
00:18:56 --> 00:18:58 stuff. And at the bottom, you don't put
00:18:58 --> 00:19:00 the four icons for the phone and the
00:19:00 --> 00:19:01 messaging on the bottom. Apple shoved
00:19:01 --> 00:19:03 all that to the right where your thumb
00:19:03 --> 00:19:05 is when the phone is closed. Even the
00:19:05 --> 00:19:07 icon for the battery, signal strength,
00:19:08 --> 00:19:09 and the time, I think it is, that is now
00:19:09 --> 00:19:10 in a little circle.
00:19:10 --> 00:19:11 >> So, you're not losing any of the
00:19:11 --> 00:19:13 picture. you're maximizing the amount of
00:19:13 --> 00:19:15 vertical space you've got because
00:19:15 --> 00:19:17 normally it's taken up by stuff and even
00:19:17 --> 00:19:20 the apps that Apple has made notes and
00:19:20 --> 00:19:21 all sorts of other things. A lot of
00:19:21 --> 00:19:23 their controls are now on the right hand
00:19:23 --> 00:19:24 side where your thumb is but then when
00:19:24 --> 00:19:26 you open it up you have this 7.6 in
00:19:26 --> 00:19:28 canvas now it's smaller than an iPad
00:19:28 --> 00:19:30 mini but it looks pretty much like an
00:19:30 --> 00:19:32 iPad mini. The crease it's still there
00:19:32 --> 00:19:33 if you hold it in the right light but
00:19:33 --> 00:19:35 the way that the screen has a matte
00:19:35 --> 00:19:37 coating under normal circumstances you
00:19:37 --> 00:19:39 can't see the crease. The problem is of
00:19:39 --> 00:19:40 course the price. Now, in Australian
00:19:40 --> 00:19:43 dollars, we're talking $3
00:19:43 --> 00:19:47 for the 256 gig model. And this goes all
00:19:47 --> 00:19:50 the way up to $5
00:19:50 --> 00:19:53 for the two TB model. I mean, even the
00:19:53 --> 00:19:57 512 gig, it's 3899, the 1 TB 4699. So,
00:19:57 --> 00:19:59 that's definitely expensive prices. And
00:19:59 --> 00:20:01 this is where people are going to go on
00:20:01 --> 00:20:03 phone plans just to afford it. But even
00:20:03 --> 00:20:05 the 256 gig model over 36 months is
00:20:05 --> 00:20:07 nearly $100 a month. And this year,
00:20:07 --> 00:20:09 because all the price rises with the RAM
00:20:09 --> 00:20:13 and SSD, a two TBTE iPhone 18 Pro Max is
00:20:13 --> 00:20:15 something like 4.
00:20:16 --> 00:20:18 That's like $1 more this year for
00:20:18 --> 00:20:20 the same two TB model, which is on the
00:20:20 --> 00:20:21 iPhone 18 Pro Max.
00:20:22 --> 00:20:24 >> I download all my music onto my phone,
00:20:24 --> 00:20:26 so I need the full two terabytes just to
00:20:26 --> 00:20:29 survive. That's my life. Five grand on
00:20:29 --> 00:20:30 the phone. That That's huge.
00:20:30 --> 00:20:32 >> Yeah. And if you paid it off over 3
00:20:32 --> 00:20:33 years, I mean, you've got to be paying,
00:20:33 --> 00:20:35 you know, I don't know, 150 or more per
00:20:36 --> 00:20:38 month over 3 years, not including your
00:20:38 --> 00:20:39 phone plan. So, there's going to be a
00:20:39 --> 00:20:41 lot of hard choices to be made.
00:20:41 --> 00:20:43 >> So, on the 18 Pro Max, we've now got the
00:20:43 --> 00:20:45 larger battery, a smaller dynamic
00:20:45 --> 00:20:48 island, the smaller 2nm A20 chipset. Is
00:20:48 --> 00:20:49 that right?
00:20:49 --> 00:20:51 >> Exactly right. Yeah, it's a six core CPU
00:20:51 --> 00:20:54 up to 20% faster than the A19 Pro from
00:20:54 --> 00:20:54 last year.
00:20:54 --> 00:20:55 >> And the cameras are better, too, I
00:20:55 --> 00:20:56 believe.
00:20:56 --> 00:20:57 >> Yes, absolutely. Now, they've got this
00:20:58 --> 00:21:00 new variable aperture. So, it's like
00:21:00 --> 00:21:02 having this hexagonal series of little
00:21:02 --> 00:21:04 shutters that can make the hole very
00:21:04 --> 00:21:06 small, like your iris goes smaller in
00:21:06 --> 00:21:07 your eye when you're looking at a bright
00:21:07 --> 00:21:09 light, or you can widen it to let more
00:21:09 --> 00:21:10 light in. So, you've got these pro
00:21:10 --> 00:21:12 camera controls. The app as well shows
00:21:12 --> 00:21:14 histograms and a bunch of other pro
00:21:14 --> 00:21:16 things that you'll only get on this
00:21:16 --> 00:21:18 latest model. Longer battery life as
00:21:18 --> 00:21:19 well, the biggest battery ever.
00:21:19 --> 00:21:21 >> All the features that we talked about on
00:21:21 --> 00:21:24 the 18 Pro Max, are they also on the Duo
00:21:24 --> 00:21:25 as well?
00:21:25 --> 00:21:27 >> No. So, the Duo, see the Duo only has
00:21:27 --> 00:21:29 two cameras, not three. I mean, I wish
00:21:29 --> 00:21:31 it had the third telephoto, but it's
00:21:31 --> 00:21:32 thinner than the even the iPhone Air
00:21:32 --> 00:21:34 was, but of course, when you fold it, it
00:21:34 --> 00:21:36 almost the thickest iPhone Apple's ever
00:21:36 --> 00:21:38 made. Only the 3GS was thicker, but it
00:21:38 --> 00:21:39 still fits in the hand and in your
00:21:39 --> 00:21:41 pocket nicely. But we have to wait for a
00:21:41 --> 00:21:42 future model to get all three cameras.
00:21:42 --> 00:21:43 And even the cameras, although Apple
00:21:43 --> 00:21:44 sort of said, "Oh, it's the same
00:21:44 --> 00:21:46 camera." Well, no, it's not. It doesn't
00:21:46 --> 00:21:47 have the same level of optical image
00:21:47 --> 00:21:49 stabilization. Various things are just
00:21:49 --> 00:21:51 not as good because you're limited in
00:21:51 --> 00:21:52 the amount of space that you have in
00:21:52 --> 00:21:55 such a thin device. So that's why they
00:21:55 --> 00:21:56 didn't call the Ultra because it's not.
00:21:56 --> 00:21:58 They didn't call the Fold because well
00:21:58 --> 00:22:00 that's Samsung's name and Google's name
00:22:00 --> 00:22:02 as well. Unfortunately, it has arrived
00:22:02 --> 00:22:04 in a time when memory and SSD is
00:22:04 --> 00:22:06 ridiculously expensive and that has
00:22:06 --> 00:22:07 caused prices to skyrocket.
00:22:08 --> 00:22:09 >> Well, we know that Elon Musk's building
00:22:10 --> 00:22:11 a new chip factory in the United States
00:22:11 --> 00:22:13 will be the biggest in the world. Is
00:22:13 --> 00:22:15 that going to lower prices? And if so,
00:22:15 --> 00:22:15 how long will that take?
00:22:15 --> 00:22:17 >> Well, look, these chip factories take 2,
00:22:17 --> 00:22:19 three years to build and then they've
00:22:19 --> 00:22:20 got to be ramped up.
00:22:20 --> 00:22:23 >> That's Alex Harro from techadvice.life.
00:22:23 --> 00:22:41 life. And this is space time.
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