Cosmic Tug-of-War: The Small Magellanic Cloud’s Demise, Lunar Base Blueprint

[00:00:00] This is Space Time Series 29 Episode 70 for broadcast on the 12th of June 2026. Coming up on Space Time, The Small Magellanic Cloud being ripped apart, A blueprint for building a base on the moon, and a meteor rocks New England. All that and more coming up on Space Time. Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Gary.

[00:00:40] A new study has confirmed that the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy orbiting our own Milky Way galaxy, is being slowly ripped apart. The findings, reported in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, show that the dwarf galaxy is being torn apart by the immense gravitational tidal forces being exerted on it by its neighbouring companion galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. Astronomers used more than a decade of observations from the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds

[00:01:07] to measure the motion of millions of stars across the Small Magellanic Cloud with unprecedented precision. Rather than showing coherent rotation typical of stable galaxies, stars across the Small Magellanic Cloud show large-scale outward motion, indicating the system is dynamically disturbed even in the inner regions. The results were a large-scale tidal expansion throughout the galaxy, and they challenged the long-standing assumption that the Small Magellanic Cloud behaves like a rotating disk.

[00:01:35] The study shows that the internal motions of the stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud are dominated not by orderly rotation, but by gravitational disturbances caused by repeated encounters with the Large Magellanic Cloud over billions of years. The Small Magellanic Cloud is one of the Milky Way's closest galactic neighbours, located just 200,000 light-years away. Together with the Large Magellanic Cloud, it forms a pair of interacting satellite galaxies visible from the Southern Hemisphere.

[00:02:03] Because of their proximity, the Magellanic Cloud provide astronomers with a unique opportunity to study how galaxies evolve under the influence of gravity. Over time, interactions between the two galaxies have distorted their shapes. That's triggered bursts of star formation and pulled streams of gas and stars into intergalactic space. In fact, there's now a constant flow of gas and stars between the two galaxies, even extending to our own galaxy, showing that the Milky Way is also playing a role.

[00:02:32] The motions of stars preserve a record of these interactions. By tracking how stars move across the sky, known as proper motion, astronomers can reconstruct the dynamical history of the galaxy. The study's lead author, Maria Rosa Scioti from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam, says the new data release extends the observational time baseline for the study to 11 years, enabling much more precise measurements of stellar motions than earlier observations.

[00:03:00] By combining observations that have now been taken over a base timeline of more than a decade, astronomers have been able to map the internal kinematics of the Small Magellanic Cloud, with a three-fold improvement in proper motion precision compared to previous measurements. The resulting motion maps reveal that stars across the Small Magellanic Cloud are moving outwards along a south-east to north-west axis, a signature consistent with tidal stretching caused by the gravitational pull of the Large Magellanic Cloud.

[00:03:28] In fact, the authors found that the stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud are moving outwards at an average speed of about 17 km per second. At this rate, the stars can be displaced by several thousand light years over a few hundred million years, enough to significantly distort the galaxy's structure. Remarkably, this expansion wasn't visible only in the galaxy's outskirts, but also deep within its central regions.

[00:03:52] In fact, Sienian colleagues found no evidence of coherent rotation motion once tidal effects were properly accounted for. Instead, the observed stellar motions are predominantly radial, indicating that the Small Magellanic Cloud is in a strongly disturbed dynamical state. The findings suggest that commonly used rotating disk models oversimplify the true complexity of the galaxy's internal dynamics. According to the study, such models can mistakenly interpret tidal streaming motions as rotation.

[00:04:21] The study also uncovered a distinct northward stellar motion seen only among the older red giant stars in the galaxy, and this feature may preserve the imprint of an interaction that occurred more than two billion years ago. Younger and intermediate-age stars respond differently to the tidal forces, showing stronger and more coherent outward motions. This population-dependent behaviour indicates that the Small Magellanic Cloud's stellar populations

[00:04:48] are retaining memory of the different stages of the galaxy's interaction history. This space-time. Still to come. A blueprint for building a base on the Moon. And a meteor rocks America's New England. All that and more still to come. On space-time.

[00:05:20] NASA's confirmation of establishing a base on the lunar south pole over the next few years has triggered a flurry of proposals looking at how to build it. While the initial habitat modules will be built here on Earth and then transported to the Moon, longer-term plans call for the use of local lunar materials which are already there. In other words, the Moon's rocks and soil. But the sole blanketing the Moon isn't actually soil. It's a fine, lethal, abrasive, talcum-like powder of shattered rocks and jagged glass,

[00:05:49] sharp enough to shred gaskets, chew through seals, and hang in the airless environment, blasted by unfiltered radiation and temperature swings that can warp steel. Scientists call it Lunar Regolith. To engineers and space scientists, Lunar Regolith is one of the most hostile construction materials in the human story. Working out how to use it to build a habitat for humans to live in has been occupying the minds of engineers and scientists for years. And now, with NASA's announcement of a lunar base, crunch time is approaching.

[00:06:19] A facility developed by Texas A&M University next to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will be one of the hubs of research simulating the brutal realities of extraterrestrial construction, ushering in a new generation of robotics, autonomous systems and space rovers. Included in the complex are two special testing areas, one replicating the surface of the Moon, the other, Mars, and which when combined with virtual reality will be used for research and testing.

[00:06:47] Dr Robert Ambrose from Texas A&M says the facility will allow researchers to develop mixed reality situations where humans and machines work together as partners, rather than simple remote-controlled tools. He says future lunar construction sites may look like scenes from science fiction movies, with rovers hauling regolith across the Moon's surface, robotic arms printing walls layer by layer, and engineers back on Earth overseeing operations through virtual reality headsets.

[00:07:15] The University's Dr Patrick Sermon says construction options on the Moon will be dependent on semi-autonomous robotic systems. The retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel was deployed to isolated regions from the deserts of Afghanistan to the frozen Arctic of Greenland in order to build sustainable infrastructure and bases to support military operations in remote areas. Sermon says significant research will focus on how humans and machines can work together in environments where humans can't safely do

[00:07:44] everything themselves. He says there's no natural shielding from radiation. Temperatures swing violently between lunar night and day, dust can permeate equipment, and even simple repairs will become high-risk operations. This report from the Texas A&M Space Institute.

[00:08:20] It's in human nature to be explorers. But it's even become more than that because for the first time in a long time, we are seriously leaving low Earth orbit. Ignition sequence start. Three, two, one, zero. Launch commit.

[00:08:43] Liftoff. We have... A&M has a storied legacy in space. Long before I came to Texas A&M, we've had faculty doing research on space related topics for decades. In fact, the latest search shows about 300 faculty at Texas A&M who are doing space related research. And A&M is the only one that I know of that employs four

[00:09:07] former astronauts on their campus. And so really, I think it's that legacy of being a land grant, sea grant, space grant institution, which again is very unique. And it's not about the few people like myself that have the privilege of actually going on a space mission. It's the tens of thousands or

[00:09:30] hundreds of thousands of people that it takes to make those missions happen and make it a reality to produce the systems, to engineer the systems of tomorrow. All the challenges that we face living on Earth are extremely amplified, trying to live on the lunar surface. You know, being able to find water is going to be very important. The communication and power and energy. All of our tough challenges

[00:09:59] for the future are multidisciplinary. And so what the Space Institute can do, and what I can do personally, is draw on expertise from our Health Science Center. Draw on expertise from AgriLife. Draw on expertise from our College of Arts and Sciences, our program of visualization. And clearly from an engineering college that is, you know, second to none in terms of size. That's what personally drew me here. And now

[00:10:26] when I'm able to leverage the Texas A&M Space Institute. And I know that it's going to be a marvelous, marvelous facility that's going to have a moonscape and a capability for us to be able to have rovers, our astronauts, everything working together in one place. And so when we get that very large facility that's going to be right outside of the gates here, and we can have our astronauts go over,

[00:10:51] our engineers, our scientists, and work with students and with others from industry in one place, it is going to be magnificent. This new facility is going to be the world's largest indoor moonscape, two and a half acres of moon. And that'll lock in the next generation of work in the civilian space sector. And while we're at it, we went ahead and threw in a two and a half acre Marscape too. So that locks in the next generation after that. So Texas is going to be at the forefront of the

[00:11:20] next two generations of space exploration because of this investment. In a multitude of garages will be private industry of all sizes. Some of the very well known companies that are out there developing spacesuits, developing rovers, some of the small startup companies. In the next garage, perhaps US Space Force working on some of their projects. In the next garage, some of the NASA Johnson Space

[00:11:47] Center research is going on. In the next garage, academic research to include students. And so everybody's working in this very collaborative environment, leveraging these very unique scape environments that are inside. And so all of this in this roughly 400,000 square foot facility,

[00:12:11] we're going to be able to offer to the state of Texas, whether they be industry, military, government, or academic. When they called me in roughly about a year ago and described this vision for the Texas A&M Space Institute. And the incredible funding supported by the state for a physical facility co-located at Johnson Space Center. How can you say no to that? I was super excited. Never

[00:12:38] did I envision that my two kind of careers would intersect like this. Personally, it's very rewarding. I was hoping that space, obviously, today touches almost every part of our economy. Agriculture, transportation, medicine, shipping, construction now uses space that when it goes right, you don't even know that space is an important part of your life. But if it were to stop working, you'd notice it really

[00:13:05] quickly. And now think about the future. With the investments and the faculty and the students and the infrastructure that we've got, A&M is going to be the number one space university in the world. And in that report from Texas A&M, we heard from Space Institute Director Dr. Nancy Curry-Gregg, the Space Institute's Lead Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Rob Ambrose,

[00:13:31] and NASA Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Weich. This is Space Time. Still to come, a meteor rocks New England, and later in the science report, Iceman Utsi's microbiome still showing signs of activity, even though he's been dead for more than 5,300 years. All that and more still to come on Space Time. This episode of Space Time is brought to you by NordVPN, Space Time's official

[00:14:00] VPN service. Let's face it, these days, your online privacy is more important than ever. Whether you're streaming science documentaries, reading the latest research, or exploring deep space images, you don't want your data to be tracked or your location exposed. With NordVPN, one click is all it takes to secure your internet connection. It encrypts your data, hides your IP address, and keeps your activity safe from prying eyes. Whether you're at home, work, or connected to a public Wi-Fi. And here's where it

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[00:15:23] NordVPN.com slash Stuart Gary. New England residents have reported a large explosion, sending emergency services scrambling, trying to understand what caused the event, which shook buildings across Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It turns out the explosion was the double sonic boom of a meteor about a metre wide, as it entered the Earth's atmosphere and the skies

[00:15:51] above the New Hampshire border with Massachusetts, north of Boston. The American Meteor Society says it received dozens of reports from Delaware to Montreal from people either hearing the bang, feeling the ground shake, or seeing the fireball which looked like a shooting star in the daytime sky. NASA confirmed the event was a meteor rather than a satellite or space debris. NASA spokesperson Alar Butel says the object was travelling at about 121,000 kilometres per hour

[00:16:20] and likely fragmented in the atmosphere at a height of about 60 kilometres with any surviving fragments falling to the North Atlantic Ocean. The agency says the energy released during the blast would have been the equivalent of some 300 tonnes of TNT. This is Space Time.

[00:16:37] And time out to take another brief look at some of the other stories making news in science this week with a science report. The Australian Fire and Emergency Services Authorities Council is predicting

[00:17:03] an increased risk of wildfires across the northern parts of the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia and parts of central and northern New South Wales over the next three months. The Council also warns of potentially drier and warmer than normal conditions across the nation's south-east. It says without significant rainfall there's the potential for increased fire activity later this year. A new study says video captured when you unlock your phone with your face might also be able to monitor your

[00:17:33] heart rate. A report in the journal Nature examined over 190,000 ID videos in order to develop a new way of measuring blood flow. The authors say the resting heart measurements observed met industry accuracy standards and had an error rate of less than 5 beats per minute compared with a wearable heart rate tracker. A new study has found that the Iceman Utsi's microbiome is still showing signs of activity even though

[00:17:59] he's been dead for some 5,300 years. Iceman Utsi was discovered in the Utsil Alps on the Austrian-Italian border back in 1991 and has since been preserved for study at some minus 6 degrees Celsius. Using a variety of methods and samples from skin swabs, tissue fragments and internally thawed water samples, the authors were able to differentiate which microorganisms were already present in the body during his lifetime and which only

[00:18:25] colonized it after his death, both during the time of the glacier and over the last three decades of preservation. Their report in the journal Microbiome found several yeast species were well adapted for cold weather temperatures, probably originating from the glacial environment, and which may ultimately hold potential for industrial applications such as low temperature fermentation. One of America's most famous mediums is

[00:18:51] now visiting Down Under and she's claiming to be here to help cops solve cold cases. The skeptic's Tim Mendham says these people are nothing more than grief vampires, turning tragedy into bad taste entertainment. She's supposed to be someone who can fight, who can talk to the dead and solve particular crimes for the missing person cases. She's been around a while, she hasn't found anybody, she might claim she helped police. A lot of psychics claim they helped police solve a crime. What they mean by helping

[00:19:18] police is they wrote them a letter and said, I know where the body is and the police say thank you very much and I'll waste no time in considering it. The history goes that all the examples of psychics popping up left right and centre saying I can solve this crime, they never have and the police get so tired of them coming in that they say please don't and their examples back to 1935 we found an example of someone in the magazine the Australian Women's Weekly which is hardly a journal of scientific note but they

[00:19:44] had a detective sergeant saying then that the psychics are not encouraged and in no single instance known to me has anything of value come from them and that was 1935 and that 90 years later they're still saying the same thing but psychics still keep putting it forward. The morning tv shows give her a lot of coverage, she's touring Australia and in her cold case tour and she's supposedly going to solve some big mysteries of disappearing people. Now this is sad, this is really sad. William Tyrrell.

[00:20:10] Yeah William Tyrrell, the Beaumont kids, all these sort of things. These are sad cases of little kids disappearing obviously families are totally distraught and here is someone coming in making a lot of money saying I can solve the case and then disappearing again and we've had this before especially with the Beaumont children and with William Tyrrell's psychics popping up saying I know where the body is or I know where they've been kidnapped through it and they only end up hurting people and then they say I help police. No you actually annoyed the police, the police don't want to hear from you, stop doing it, you're hurting the

[00:20:38] families, you're approaching the families and saying I can give you hope and that's the only currency three these families have and they're basically referred to as grief vampires. People who take advantage of distraught upset people for money they pretend that they can sort of make contact with a dead person or they can find a missing person. We would suggest that on past experience she won't find anything. She might say she has and then some poor deluded person will have to go and dig up a building to see if there's someone buried underneath it and they'll disappear after soon and they've made their

[00:21:05] money and they've gone and the local tv shows etc have gave them good coverage because they're just desperate for content anyway so they'll do anything to promote these people totally irresponsibly. I seem to remember a great case of one psychic predicting a tsunami would hit Adelaide. For some reason these things often happen in South Australia and so everyone had to wait for the tsunami to come because they wanted to see it. Of course nothing happened. It was a great day for a picnic. It was and and the premier of South Australia went down to the ground and said here we are. Nothing happened. The same

[00:21:35] thing was predicted for Perth. Same thing's been predicted for Sydney. I mean it's nothing new and as far as I know Sydney and Perth and Adelaide have not been destroyed by waves. These people predict disasters. They're not so bad. They're just silly. There's when people go and leech off grieving people where it stops being fun and this is where the skeptics go. Stop joking about this stuff. These are hurting people and the tv programs that cover them are hurting people and they're almost

[00:21:59] as bad as the claimants as the psychic. That's the skeptics Tim Mindham and this is Space Time. And that's the show for now. Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through

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