SpaceTime with Stuart Gary Gary - Series 28 Episode 147
In this episode of SpaceTime , we delve into remarkable discoveries that significantly enhance our understanding of the cosmos.
Longest Gamma Ray Burst Ever Detected
Astronomers have made headlines with the discovery of the longest gamma ray burst ever recorded, GRB 250702B, which lasted over seven hours. This unprecedented event is reshaping our understanding of stellar explosions and their aftermath. Initial observations indicate that this extraordinary burst may have originated from a black hole consuming a star, prompting new theories about the mechanisms behind these powerful cosmic phenomena. We explore the implications of this finding and how it challenges existing models of gamma ray bursts.
Elemental Bounty in Supernova Remnant
For the first time, scientists have detected chlorine and potassium in the remnants of the supernova Cassiopeia A, utilizing the advanced capabilities of the CRISM spacecraft. This discovery sheds light on the elemental processes that occur during stellar explosions and their connection to the formation of elements crucial for life on Earth. We discuss the significance of these findings and their impact on our understanding of stellar nucleosynthesis.
International Space Station Fully Occupied
In a historic first, the International Space Station has reached full capacity, with all eight of its docking ports in use. We discuss the implications of this milestone, including the logistics of managing multiple spacecraft and the ongoing missions currently underway aboard the ISS.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com (https://www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com/)
✍️ Episode References
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Astrophysical Journal Letters
Nature Astronomy
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(00:00:00) This is space Time Series 28, Episode 147 full broadcast on 17 December 2025
(00:00:47) Astronomers have detected the longest gamma ray burst ever detected
(00:11:11) Astronomers have detected chlorine and potassium in a supernova remnant
(00:18:27) International Space Station is fully occupied with all eight docking ports now in use
(00:20:05) New study claims flavonoids may help improve insulin resistance
(00:24:58) You're a multiple award winner. You've won in creative writing and controversy
(00:26:05) Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through bitesz. com (https://play.headliner.app/episode/30691704?utm_source=youtube
00:00:00 --> 00:00:04 This is Spacetime Series 28, episode 147
00:00:04 --> 00:00:06 for broadcast on the 17th of December
00:00:06 --> 00:00:07 2025.
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 Coming up on Spaceime, discovery of the
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 longest gammaray burst ever detected. An
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 elemental bounty discovered in a
00:00:15 --> 00:00:18 supernova remnant. And for the first
00:00:18 --> 00:00:20 time, the International Space Station is
00:00:20 --> 00:00:22 full up with no spare parking spaces
00:00:22 --> 00:00:25 available. All that and more coming up
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 on Spaceime.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:47 Welcome to Spaceime with Stuart Garry.
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 Astronomers have discovered the longest
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 gammaray burst ever detected, lasting
00:00:52 --> 00:00:54 over 7 hours, and in the process
00:00:54 --> 00:00:56 changing science's understanding about
00:00:56 --> 00:00:59 the death of the most massive stars.
00:00:59 --> 00:01:01 Astronomers have been trying to work out
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 exactly what was responsible for this
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 extraordinary cosmic explosion ever
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 since it was first detected on July the
00:01:07 --> 00:01:10 2nd. The initial observations have been
00:01:10 --> 00:01:12 reported in the monthly notices of the
00:01:12 --> 00:01:14 Royal Astronomical Society and in the
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 Astrophysical Journal letters. Gammaray
00:01:17 --> 00:01:20 bursts are incredibly rare. Put simply,
00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 they're the most powerful explosions
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 since the big bang of creation 13.8
00:01:25 --> 00:01:28 billion years ago. And they come in two
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30 broad types. There are short period
00:01:30 --> 00:01:32 gammaray bursts which last just a few
00:01:32 --> 00:01:33 seconds and are thought to be caused by
00:01:34 --> 00:01:35 the merger of two neutron stars forming
00:01:35 --> 00:01:38 a black hole or by the merger of a
00:01:38 --> 00:01:40 neutron star into a black hole. Then
00:01:40 --> 00:01:43 there are long period gammaray bursts.
00:01:43 --> 00:01:45 They can last for more than 10 seconds
00:01:45 --> 00:01:46 and are thought to be caused by the
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 explosive supernova deaths of the most
00:01:48 --> 00:01:51 massive stars, turning them into black
00:01:51 --> 00:01:54 holes. This specific gammaray burst
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 named GRB250702b
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 continued not for hours but days and is
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 now thought to have herald a new kind of
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 stellar explosion.
00:02:04 --> 00:02:06 Astronomers still think the best
00:02:06 --> 00:02:08 explanation for this outburst is a black
00:02:08 --> 00:02:11 hole consuming a star, but they disagree
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 on exactly how this would have happened.
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 Possibilities include a black hole
00:02:15 --> 00:02:17 weighing a few thousand times the mass
00:02:17 --> 00:02:19 of our sun shredding a star that passed
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 too close or alternatively a much
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 smaller black hole merging with and
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 consuming its stellar companion. One of
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 the study's authors, Eliza Knights from
00:02:29 --> 00:02:30 George Washington University in NASA's
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 Godard Space Flight Center in Green
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34 Belt, Maryland, says the initial wave of
00:02:34 --> 00:02:37 gamma rays lasted at least 7 hours, and
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 that's nearly twice the duration of the
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 longest gammaray bursts previously seen.
00:02:42 --> 00:02:44 It was unlike anything observed in the
00:02:44 --> 00:02:46 last half century, and it had some
00:02:46 --> 00:02:49 really unusual properties. On average, a
00:02:49 --> 00:02:51 gammaray burst is detected somewhere in
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 the universe at least once a day. They
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 can appear anywhere in the sky without
00:02:56 --> 00:02:59 warning. Usually, they're very distant
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 events with even the closest known
00:03:01 --> 00:03:03 example erupting more than 100 million
00:03:03 --> 00:03:05 lighty years away. But the record
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 setting duration of the July burst
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 places it in a class by itself. Of the
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 roughly 15 gammaray bursts observed
00:03:13 --> 00:03:14 since the phenomenon was first
00:03:14 --> 00:03:17 recognized back in 1973, none have been
00:03:17 --> 00:03:19 as long and only around half a dozen
00:03:19 --> 00:03:21 have even come close. Because
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 opportunities to study such events are
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 so rare and because many reveal new ways
00:03:26 --> 00:03:28 to create gammaray bursts, astronomers
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 are especially excited about the July
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 event. All gammaray bursts are thought
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 to be generated by matter falling into a
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 black hole. But not all the matter
00:03:37 --> 00:03:39 falling into a black hole is immediately
00:03:39 --> 00:03:42 consumed. Most of it first forms an
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 accretion disc around the black hole.
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47 There it's crushed and torn apart at the
00:03:47 --> 00:03:50 subatomic level. Most will pass beyond
00:03:50 --> 00:03:52 the point of no return called the event
00:03:52 --> 00:03:54 horizon after which it falls forever
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 into the black hole singularity. But
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 black holes are messy eaters and some of
00:04:00 --> 00:04:01 the material is caught up in magnetic
00:04:02 --> 00:04:04 fields which channels the matter into
00:04:04 --> 00:04:06 tight jets of particles that stream out
00:04:06 --> 00:04:08 across the universe at almost the speed
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 of light in the process creating gamma
00:04:11 --> 00:04:14 rays as they go. The thing is none of
00:04:14 --> 00:04:15 this is thought to be able to readily
00:04:15 --> 00:04:17 create jets able to keep firing for days
00:04:17 --> 00:04:21 on end. And that's why 2550702b
00:04:21 --> 00:04:24 poses such a unique puzzle. The gammaray
00:04:24 --> 00:04:27 burst monitor on NASA's Fermy gammaray
00:04:27 --> 00:04:29 space telescope discovered the burst and
00:04:29 --> 00:04:31 triggered multiple times over the course
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 of 3 hours. It was also detected by the
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 burst alert telescope on NASA's swift
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38 space telescope, the Russian Kronos
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 instrument on NASA's wind mission, the
00:04:40 --> 00:04:42 gammaray and neutron spectrometer on the
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 psyche spacecraft. That's the NASA
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 mission currently on its way to the
00:04:46 --> 00:04:49 asteroid 16 psyche and by Japan's
00:04:49 --> 00:04:50 monitor of all sky x-ray image
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 instrument aboard the international
00:04:52 --> 00:04:55 space station. The thing is this burst
00:04:55 --> 00:04:58 went on for so long that no high energy
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 monitor in space was equipped to fully
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 observe it and so it took the combined
00:05:02 --> 00:05:04 power of instruments on multiple
00:05:04 --> 00:05:06 spacecraft to better understand the
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 event. The Whitefield X-ray telescope on
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 China's Einstein probe also detected the
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 burst in X-rays and showed that a signal
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 was already present the previous day.
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 The first precise location came early
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 July 3rd when Swift's X-ray telescope
00:05:20 --> 00:05:22 imaged the burst in the constellation
00:05:22 --> 00:05:25 Scootum. That's near the crowded dusty
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Now given
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 this location and the day earlier X-ray
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 detection, astronomers initially
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 wondered whether this might be a
00:05:34 --> 00:05:35 different type of outburst from
00:05:35 --> 00:05:37 somewhere within our own Milky Way
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 galaxy. But images from some of the
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41 largest telescopes on Earth, including
00:05:41 --> 00:05:43 those at the KEK and Gemini
00:05:43 --> 00:05:45 Observatories in Hawaii and the European
00:05:45 --> 00:05:47 Southern Observatory's VT or Very Large
00:05:47 --> 00:05:50 Telescope in Chile, indicated that there
00:05:50 --> 00:05:53 was a galaxy at those coordinates. And
00:05:53 --> 00:05:55 so astronomers turn to NASA's Hubble
00:05:55 --> 00:05:58 Space Telescope for a clearer view.
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 Andrew Lean from Redbound University in
00:06:00 --> 00:06:01 the Netherlands says it definitely is
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 another galaxy, proving that it was a
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 distant and powerful explosion, but he
00:06:06 --> 00:06:07 admits it was a very strange looking
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 one. He says the Hubble data is a bit
00:06:10 --> 00:06:13 ambiguous. It shows either two galaxies
00:06:13 --> 00:06:16 merging or one galaxy with a dark band
00:06:16 --> 00:06:18 of dust splitting the core into two
00:06:18 --> 00:06:21 pieces. And more recent images captured
00:06:21 --> 00:06:23 by NASA's web space telescope strongly
00:06:23 --> 00:06:26 support Leven's interpretation. The web
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28 observations clearly show the gammaray
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 burst shining through this dust lane
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 spilling across the galaxy. In late
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 August, astronomers using web and the
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 very large telescope to determine the
00:06:37 --> 00:06:39 galaxy's distance and other properties
00:06:39 --> 00:06:41 concluded that the burst was remarkably
00:06:41 --> 00:06:43 powerful, erupting with the equivalent
00:06:43 --> 00:06:46 energy emitted by a thousand suns
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 shining for 10 billion years. Amazingly,
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 this galaxy so far away that light from
00:06:51 --> 00:06:54 this explosion began racing outward some
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 8 billion years ago, long before our sun
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 and solar system had even begun to form.
00:06:59 --> 00:07:01 A comprehensive study of the X-ray light
00:07:01 --> 00:07:02 following the main burst used
00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 observations from Swift, NASA's Chandra
00:07:05 --> 00:07:07 X-ray Observatory and the AY's Newar
00:07:07 --> 00:07:09 Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
00:07:09 --> 00:07:12 mission. The Swift and Newar data
00:07:12 --> 00:07:14 revealed rapid flares occurring up to 2
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 days after the burst discovery. The
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 continued accretion of matter by the
00:07:19 --> 00:07:20 black hole powered an outflow that
00:07:20 --> 00:07:23 produced these flares. But the process
00:07:23 --> 00:07:24 continued for far longer than possible
00:07:24 --> 00:07:27 in standard gamay burst models. The late
00:07:27 --> 00:07:30 X-ray flares showed that the blast power
00:07:30 --> 00:07:32 source simply refused to shut off which
00:07:32 --> 00:07:34 means the black hole kept feeding for at
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 least a few days after the initial
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 eruption. A firmian swift data indicate
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 a typical if unusually long gammaray
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 burst. But spectroscopic web
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 observations didn't find a supernova
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 explosion, which typically follows a
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 stellar collapse gammaray burst,
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 although it may have been obscured by
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 its dust and distance. The Einstein
00:07:54 --> 00:07:57 probe saw X-rays a day before the burst,
00:07:57 --> 00:07:59 while New star tracked the X-ray flares
00:07:59 --> 00:08:01 up to 2 days after it, but neither was
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 typical for gammaray bursts. In
00:08:03 --> 00:08:06 addition, a detailed study shows that
00:08:06 --> 00:08:08 the host galaxy appears to be very
00:08:08 --> 00:08:09 different from the typically small
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 galaxies that host most stellar collapse
00:08:12 --> 00:08:14 gammaray bursts. It turns out this
00:08:14 --> 00:08:16 galaxy surprisingly large with more than
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19 twice the mass of our own Milky Way.
00:08:19 --> 00:08:21 Now, in both the two scenarios we've
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 discussed here, the black hole should
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 have consumed the star in about a day.
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 The first involves an intermediate mass
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 black hole, one with a few thousand
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 solar masses and an event horizon a few
00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 times larger than the Earth. As a star
00:08:34 --> 00:08:37 wanders too close, it becomes stretched,
00:08:37 --> 00:08:38 spaghettified, if you will, along its
00:08:38 --> 00:08:40 orbit by gravitational forces from the
00:08:40 --> 00:08:44 black hole and is then rapidly consumed.
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 This describes what astronomers call a
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 tidal disruption event, but one caused
00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 by a rarely observed middleweight black
00:08:50 --> 00:08:52 hole with a mass much greater than those
00:08:52 --> 00:08:55 born in stellar collapses and much
00:08:55 --> 00:08:57 smaller than the behemoth super massive
00:08:57 --> 00:08:58 black holes found at the centers of
00:08:58 --> 00:09:01 galaxies. Right now, the Gammaray team
00:09:01 --> 00:09:03 are favoring a different scenario
00:09:03 --> 00:09:04 because if this burst is like the
00:09:04 --> 00:09:06 others, the black holes mass must be
00:09:06 --> 00:09:09 more similar to that of our sun. Their
00:09:09 --> 00:09:11 model envisions a black hole with about
00:09:11 --> 00:09:13 three solar masses with an event horizon
00:09:13 --> 00:09:16 just 18 km across orbiting and then
00:09:16 --> 00:09:19 merging with a companion star. The star
00:09:19 --> 00:09:20 would be of similar mass to the black
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 hole but much smaller than the sun.
00:09:23 --> 00:09:25 That's because its hydrogen atmosphere
00:09:25 --> 00:09:27 has already been mostly stripped away
00:09:27 --> 00:09:30 leaving just a dense helium core forming
00:09:30 --> 00:09:31 an object which astronomers call a
00:09:32 --> 00:09:34 helium star. Now in both cases, matter
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 from the star first flows towards the
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 black hole, then collects into a vast
00:09:38 --> 00:09:40 accretion disc from which material makes
00:09:40 --> 00:09:43 its final plunge into the black hole. At
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 some point in this process, the system
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 begins to shine bright in X-rays. Then,
00:09:48 --> 00:09:50 as the black hole rapidly consumes the
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 stars matter, gammaray jets are blasted
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 outwards. But notably, the helium star
00:09:55 --> 00:09:58 merger model makes a unique prediction.
00:09:58 --> 00:10:00 Once the black hole is totally immersed
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 within the main body of the star,
00:10:02 --> 00:10:04 feasting on it from the inside, if you
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 will, the energy it releases explodes
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 the star and powers a supernova.
00:10:09 --> 00:10:10 Unfortunately, this explosion occurs
00:10:10 --> 00:10:13 behind enormous clouds of dust and gas,
00:10:13 --> 00:10:15 meaning even the power of the web space
00:10:15 --> 00:10:17 telescope wouldn't be enough to see the
00:10:17 --> 00:10:19 expected supernova.
00:10:19 --> 00:10:21 While the smoking gun evidence to
00:10:22 --> 00:10:23 explain exactly what happened on July
00:10:23 --> 00:10:25 the 2nd will have to wait for future
00:10:25 --> 00:10:29 events, GB250702b
00:10:29 --> 00:10:31 has already provided new insights into
00:10:31 --> 00:10:33 what is now the longest gammaray burst
00:10:33 --> 00:10:35 ever seen.
00:10:35 --> 00:10:38 This is spaceime still to come.
00:10:38 --> 00:10:40 Astronomers have for the first time
00:10:40 --> 00:10:42 detected the elements chlorine and
00:10:42 --> 00:10:44 potassium in a supernova remnant. And
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 the International Space Station's been
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 forced to put out the fully occupied
00:10:48 --> 00:10:50 sign for the first time with all eight
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 of its docking ports now in use. All
00:10:52 --> 00:11:11 that and more still to come on Spaceime.
00:11:11 --> 00:11:13 Astronomers have for the first time ever
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 detected the elements chlorine and
00:11:15 --> 00:11:18 potassium in a supernova remnant. The
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 discovery reported in the journal Nature
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 Astronomy was made using Chrysom, the
00:11:22 --> 00:11:24 X-ray imaging and spectroscopic mission
00:11:24 --> 00:11:27 spacecraft. Chrysen observed the
00:11:27 --> 00:11:29 elements in the supernova remnant Casia
00:11:29 --> 00:11:31 A, which is the remains of a star that
00:11:31 --> 00:11:34 exploded some 340 years ago. This
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 expanding cloud of debris is located
00:11:36 --> 00:11:39 some 11 lighty years away in the
00:11:39 --> 00:11:41 northern constellation Cassiopia and is
00:11:41 --> 00:11:44 now some 10 lighty years across. Other
00:11:44 --> 00:11:46 than hydrogen and helium which were
00:11:46 --> 00:11:48 produced in the big bang 13.8 billion
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50 years ago, all the elements in our
00:11:50 --> 00:11:53 universe are manufactured in stars
00:11:53 --> 00:11:55 either during their lives or when they
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 die. This includes the iron in your
00:11:57 --> 00:12:01 blood, the calcium in your bones. Heat
00:12:01 --> 00:12:03 and pressure fuse lighter elements like
00:12:03 --> 00:12:05 carbon and oxygen into progressively
00:12:05 --> 00:12:08 heavier ones like neon and ion, creating
00:12:08 --> 00:12:10 onion-like layers of materials inside
00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 stars. But nuclear reactions also take
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 place during explosive events like
00:12:15 --> 00:12:17 supernova, which occur when a star runs
00:12:17 --> 00:12:20 out of fuel and collapses and explodes.
00:12:20 --> 00:12:22 Elemental abundances and different
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 locations in a stellar wreckage can tell
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 astronomers a lot about the progenitor
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 star and its explosion, even after
00:12:28 --> 00:12:31 hundreds or thousands of years. Some
00:12:31 --> 00:12:33 elements like oxygen, carbon, and neon
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 are more common than others and are
00:12:35 --> 00:12:37 therefore easier to detect and trace
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 back to a particular part of a star's
00:12:39 --> 00:12:41 life. But other elements like chlorine
00:12:41 --> 00:12:44 and potassium are far more elusive.
00:12:44 --> 00:12:45 Since scientists have less data about
00:12:45 --> 00:12:48 them, it's more difficult to model where
00:12:48 --> 00:12:50 in the star they formed. But these rarer
00:12:50 --> 00:12:53 elements still play important roles in
00:12:53 --> 00:12:56 life on Earth. Potassium, for example,
00:12:56 --> 00:12:58 helps cells and muscles function, and so
00:12:58 --> 00:13:00 astronomers are interested in tracing
00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 its cosmic origins. This study's lead
00:13:02 --> 00:13:05 author, Tashiki Sato from Menai
00:13:05 --> 00:13:07 University in Tokyo says the discovery
00:13:07 --> 00:13:09 helps illustrate how the deaths of stars
00:13:09 --> 00:13:12 and life on Earth are fundamentally
00:13:12 --> 00:13:13 intertwined.
00:13:13 --> 00:13:16 As Carl Sean once said, we are all
00:13:16 --> 00:13:18 stardust. Now, thanks to Chrysom,
00:13:18 --> 00:13:20 astronomers have a better idea of when
00:13:20 --> 00:13:22 and how stars might make crucial yet
00:13:22 --> 00:13:25 harder to find elements. The roughly
00:13:25 --> 00:13:28 circular Cassia supernova remnant has a
00:13:28 --> 00:13:30 super dense neutron star at its center,
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 the remains of the progenitor stars
00:13:32 --> 00:13:35 original core. Astronomers using NASA's
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 Changer X-ray observatory had previously
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 identified signatures for iron, silicon,
00:13:39 --> 00:13:41 sulfur, and other elements within
00:13:41 --> 00:13:43 Cassiopia. In the hunt for other
00:13:43 --> 00:13:45 elements, the authors used Chrysom to
00:13:45 --> 00:13:48 look at the remnant in December of 2023,
00:13:48 --> 00:13:49 and they were able to pick out the
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 signatures for chlorine potassium,
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53 determining that the remnant contains
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56 much higher ratios than expected. They
00:13:56 --> 00:13:58 also detected a possible indication of
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00 phosphorus, which had previously already
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02 been discovered in Cassopia A through
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04 infrared observations. The study's
00:14:04 --> 00:14:06 authors think stellar activity could
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08 have disrupted the layers of nuclear
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10 fusion inside the star before it
00:14:10 --> 00:14:13 exploded. That kind of upheaval may have
00:14:13 --> 00:14:15 led to persistent large-scale churning
00:14:15 --> 00:14:17 of material inside the star that created
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19 the sorts of conditions where chlorine
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 potassium formed in abundance. The
00:14:22 --> 00:14:23 authors also combined their crisis
00:14:23 --> 00:14:25 observations with those from the Chandra
00:14:25 --> 00:14:27 Earth orbiting X-ray telescope, showing
00:14:27 --> 00:14:29 that the elements were concentrated in
00:14:29 --> 00:14:31 the southeastern and northern parts of
00:14:31 --> 00:14:34 the remnant. This lopsided distribution
00:14:34 --> 00:14:37 may mean the star itself had undergone
00:14:37 --> 00:14:39 asymmetries before it exploded.
00:14:39 --> 00:14:41 Something that the Chandra data had
00:14:41 --> 00:14:43 previously suggested. The authors had
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 always suspected that a key part might
00:14:45 --> 00:14:47 be asymmetry. And now they have more
00:14:47 --> 00:14:50 evidence to support that hypothesis. But
00:14:50 --> 00:14:51 there's still a lot they don't
00:14:51 --> 00:14:53 understand about how stars explode and
00:14:54 --> 00:14:55 how they distribute all their elements
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 across the cosmos. Being able to make
00:14:58 --> 00:14:59 measurements with good statistical
00:15:00 --> 00:15:02 precision of these rarer elements allows
00:15:02 --> 00:15:03 astronomers to develop a better
00:15:04 --> 00:15:05 understanding of the nuclear fusion
00:15:05 --> 00:15:08 process going on inside stars before and
00:15:08 --> 00:15:11 during their supernova explosions and
00:15:11 --> 00:15:12 spacecraft like Chrysom helps to
00:15:12 --> 00:15:15 accelerate that understanding. This
00:15:15 --> 00:15:17 report from NASA TV.
00:15:17 --> 00:15:20 >> Krism is our newest X-ray telescope in
00:15:20 --> 00:15:23 space. It's a Jackson NASA collaborative
00:15:23 --> 00:15:26 mission with ISSA participation and will
00:15:26 --> 00:15:28 revolutionize X-ray observations of the
00:15:28 --> 00:15:31 universe.
00:15:31 --> 00:15:33 It does this with a one-of-a-kind sensor
00:15:33 --> 00:15:36 that captures data with 36 super cooled
00:15:36 --> 00:15:38 pixels.
00:15:38 --> 00:15:41 Yes, you heard that right. This
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43 groundbreaking detector isn't measured
00:15:43 --> 00:15:47 in megapixels. It's a 6x6 grid of 36
00:15:47 --> 00:15:52 pixels. But they're unlike any others.
00:15:52 --> 00:15:54 Although this detector called Resolve
00:15:54 --> 00:15:57 can create lowresolution X-ray images,
00:15:57 --> 00:16:01 that is not what makes it unique. Each
00:16:01 --> 00:16:03 pixel in Resolve is a microc
00:16:03 --> 00:16:05 calorimeter, so it can measure tiny
00:16:05 --> 00:16:08 amounts of heat. A six-stage system
00:16:08 --> 00:16:11 cools it to 50 ml or a fraction of a
00:16:12 --> 00:16:15 degree above absolute zero. This extreme
00:16:15 --> 00:16:17 low temperature allows Resolve to
00:16:17 --> 00:16:19 measure how much a pixel warms when it
00:16:19 --> 00:16:23 absorbs a single X-ray and therefore
00:16:23 --> 00:16:25 measure the energy of that one particle
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 of light. It's basically a precise way
00:16:28 --> 00:16:31 of measuring the X-ray's color.
00:16:31 --> 00:16:34 As a result, Krism can create the most
00:16:34 --> 00:16:37 detailed X-ray spectrum ever for distant
00:16:37 --> 00:16:40 objects. This spectrum can give a great
00:16:40 --> 00:16:42 deal of useful information like
00:16:42 --> 00:16:44 temperature, what elements are present
00:16:44 --> 00:16:47 and in what quantities, and how fast an
00:16:47 --> 00:16:49 object is moving towards or away from
00:16:49 --> 00:16:51 us, even if we can only see it as a dot
00:16:51 --> 00:16:54 in the sky too distant to resolve
00:16:54 --> 00:16:55 details.
00:16:55 --> 00:16:57 This would be a revolutionary
00:16:57 --> 00:16:59 achievement for a detector with a single
00:16:59 --> 00:17:03 pixel, but Resolve has 36. This allows
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 Chrysom to observe extended objects that
00:17:05 --> 00:17:08 aren't point source dots and create
00:17:08 --> 00:17:10 spectrum maps of their different regions
00:17:10 --> 00:17:13 that can reveal speed and temperature
00:17:13 --> 00:17:16 differences in extremely hot gases.
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18 Using that information, scientists can
00:17:18 --> 00:17:21 determine how nebula and galaxy clusters
00:17:21 --> 00:17:24 have evolved and interacted over time.
00:17:24 --> 00:17:27 The resolve detector was invented and
00:17:27 --> 00:17:29 built at NASA's Gddard Space Flight
00:17:29 --> 00:17:32 Center. The detector success in Crism
00:17:32 --> 00:17:34 will enable Goddard to further the
00:17:34 --> 00:17:36 design and follow up with X-ray microc
00:17:36 --> 00:17:39 calorimeters with hundreds or even
00:17:39 --> 00:17:41 thousands of pixels.
00:17:41 --> 00:17:44 So while it may not sound as impressive
00:17:44 --> 00:17:47 as 4K or 50 megapixels, the resolve
00:17:47 --> 00:17:48 detector on Chrism will be
00:17:48 --> 00:17:51 revolutionizing our understanding of the
00:17:51 --> 00:17:54 large scale high energy universe. And
00:17:54 --> 00:17:56 that's pretty amazing for a mere three
00:17:56 --> 00:18:00 dozen pixels. This is spacetime. Still
00:18:00 --> 00:18:02 to come, the International Space Station
00:18:02 --> 00:18:04 puts out the full up sign with no spare
00:18:04 --> 00:18:06 parking spaces available. And later in
00:18:06 --> 00:18:09 the science report, a new study claims
00:18:09 --> 00:18:11 flavoroids may help improve insulin
00:18:11 --> 00:18:13 resistance. All that and more still to
00:18:13 --> 00:18:31 come on Spaceime.
00:18:31 --> 00:18:33 For the first time in its history, the
00:18:33 --> 00:18:35 International Space Station is fully
00:18:35 --> 00:18:37 occupied with all eight of its docking
00:18:37 --> 00:18:40 ports now in use. The houseful sign went
00:18:40 --> 00:18:41 up following the redocking of the
00:18:41 --> 00:18:43 Northrrook Grumman Signis cargo ship
00:18:43 --> 00:18:45 under the Earth-facing port of the Unity
00:18:45 --> 00:18:47 module. The orbiting outpost is
00:18:47 --> 00:18:49 currently playing host to a pair of
00:18:49 --> 00:18:51 SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, the Signis
00:18:51 --> 00:18:53 cargo ship we just mentioned, Jax's
00:18:53 --> 00:18:55 HTVX1
00:18:55 --> 00:18:57 cargo ship, two Roscosmos Soyuse
00:18:57 --> 00:19:00 capsules, and two Roscosmos Progress
00:19:00 --> 00:19:02 cargo ships. The Signis is flying
00:19:02 --> 00:19:04 Northrup Grman's 23rd commercial
00:19:04 --> 00:19:06 resupply mission for NASA and was
00:19:06 --> 00:19:08 repositioned using the station's Canada
00:19:08 --> 00:19:11 arm 2 robotic arm. NASA Northrup Grman
00:19:11 --> 00:19:14 and Ros Cosmos jointly planned the move
00:19:14 --> 00:19:15 to clear the way for the arrival of the
00:19:15 --> 00:19:18 soy MS28 spacecraft late last month and
00:19:18 --> 00:19:21 its new threeperson crew. The signis is
00:19:21 --> 00:19:23 expected to remain docked until March
00:19:23 --> 00:19:25 when it will depart loaded with up to
00:19:25 --> 00:19:27 11 lbs of trash and excess gear and
00:19:27 --> 00:19:29 then re-enter Earth's atmosphere where
00:19:29 --> 00:19:31 it will burn up. Meanwhile, the 10
00:19:31 --> 00:19:35 member expedition 7374 crew are about to
00:19:35 --> 00:19:37 drop down to seven with the scheduled
00:19:37 --> 00:19:39 departure of the Soyuse MS-27 spacecraft
00:19:39 --> 00:19:42 and its threeperson crew slated to
00:19:42 --> 00:19:44 undock from the PAL module and return to
00:19:44 --> 00:19:47 Earth landing in Kazakhstan.
00:19:47 --> 00:20:04 This is spaceime
00:20:04 --> 00:20:06 And time now to take another brief look
00:20:06 --> 00:20:07 at some of the other stories making news
00:20:07 --> 00:20:09 in science this week with the science
00:20:09 --> 00:20:12 report. A new study claims flavoronoids,
00:20:12 --> 00:20:15 chemicals found in dark colored fruits,
00:20:15 --> 00:20:17 orange, citrus tea, white wine, and dark
00:20:17 --> 00:20:19 chocolate may help improve insulin
00:20:19 --> 00:20:22 resistance. Previous research has linked
00:20:22 --> 00:20:24 flavonoid intake with benefits for
00:20:24 --> 00:20:26 cancer and blood pressure. Now, a report
00:20:26 --> 00:20:29 in the journal plus one examined data
00:20:29 --> 00:20:30 from Australian health and nutrition
00:20:30 --> 00:20:33 surveys showing a link between the
00:20:33 --> 00:20:35 intake of these foods and lower insulin
00:20:35 --> 00:20:37 resistance, a condition that can lead to
00:20:37 --> 00:20:39 type 2 diabetes and other metabolic
00:20:39 --> 00:20:42 events. Now, this type of study can't
00:20:42 --> 00:20:44 prove flavoronoids are the reason for
00:20:44 --> 00:20:46 the link, but the authors say their lab
00:20:46 --> 00:20:48 tests were able to show evidence of
00:20:48 --> 00:20:50 flavoronoids affecting insulin
00:20:50 --> 00:20:53 resistance in cells.
00:20:53 --> 00:20:55 The Israeli Defense Forces banned
00:20:55 --> 00:20:57 Chinese vehicles from their bases and
00:20:57 --> 00:20:59 production facilities, issuing blanket
00:20:59 --> 00:21:01 orders that any military personnel or
00:21:01 --> 00:21:03 civilian employees who own Chinese-made
00:21:03 --> 00:21:05 cars must park them well away from
00:21:05 --> 00:21:08 bases. The new IDF regulations are based
00:21:08 --> 00:21:11 on security concerns about data leaks
00:21:11 --> 00:21:13 from built-in cameras, GPS technology,
00:21:13 --> 00:21:15 and other sensors which are fitted to
00:21:15 --> 00:21:17 these vehicles and which can be remotely
00:21:17 --> 00:21:19 controlled and monitored from China. The
00:21:19 --> 00:21:21 fear is images, audio, or other data
00:21:21 --> 00:21:24 collected by these devices is being sent
00:21:24 --> 00:21:26 back to China and then handed over to
00:21:26 --> 00:21:29 Chinese intelligence agencies. Earlier
00:21:29 --> 00:21:31 this year, the United Kingdom imposed a
00:21:31 --> 00:21:33 similar ban on parking electric vehicles
00:21:33 --> 00:21:35 built with Chinese manufactured parts
00:21:35 --> 00:21:37 near British military bases because of
00:21:37 --> 00:21:40 their own espionage fears. Concerns were
00:21:40 --> 00:21:42 also recently raised in Australia about
00:21:42 --> 00:21:44 Chinese manufactured solar panels,
00:21:44 --> 00:21:46 batteries, and inverters, which are
00:21:46 --> 00:21:47 equipped with unexplained additional
00:21:47 --> 00:21:49 communications technology, allowing
00:21:49 --> 00:21:51 Beijing to remotely control them and
00:21:51 --> 00:21:53 change their settings or turn them off
00:21:54 --> 00:21:56 without any local approval. And concerns
00:21:56 --> 00:21:59 about Chinese spying don't end there. In
00:21:59 --> 00:22:02 2023, the Australian government began
00:22:02 --> 00:22:03 removing cameras made by Chinese
00:22:03 --> 00:22:05 companies from government facilities,
00:22:05 --> 00:22:08 also on the grounds of security.
00:22:08 --> 00:22:11 A new study suggests that over the past
00:22:11 --> 00:22:13 50 years, top hit songs have grown to
00:22:13 --> 00:22:15 become simpler, more negative, and to
00:22:15 --> 00:22:18 contain more stress related words. The
00:22:18 --> 00:22:20 finding published in the journal
00:22:20 --> 00:22:22 Scientific Reports analyze song lyrics
00:22:22 --> 00:22:24 from the Billboard Hot 100 charts
00:22:24 --> 00:22:28 between 1973 and 2023. Now, that's some
00:22:28 --> 00:22:30 2
00:22:30 --> 00:22:32 songs and have found that these changes
00:22:32 --> 00:22:34 in the lyrics coincided with increasing
00:22:34 --> 00:22:37 rates of depression and anxiety and also
00:22:37 --> 00:22:39 with increased levels of negativity in
00:22:39 --> 00:22:41 the news media and literature. The
00:22:41 --> 00:22:43 authors also looked at major events and
00:22:43 --> 00:22:45 they found that the Islamic terrorist
00:22:45 --> 00:22:48 attacks of September the 11, 2001 and
00:22:48 --> 00:22:50 the beginning of the CO 19 pandemic in
00:22:50 --> 00:22:52 2019 were associated with lyrics
00:22:52 --> 00:22:54 becoming more complex and positive and
00:22:54 --> 00:22:56 containing fewer stress words, which the
00:22:56 --> 00:22:59 authors say might signify some form of
00:22:59 --> 00:23:02 escapism during stressful periods.
00:23:02 --> 00:23:05 After just a week, it's already clear
00:23:05 --> 00:23:07 that kids across Australia are easily
00:23:07 --> 00:23:09 getting around the federal government's
00:23:09 --> 00:23:12 social media ban for under 16s. The ban,
00:23:12 --> 00:23:14 which affects some 2 million children,
00:23:14 --> 00:23:15 was designed to protect them from cyber
00:23:16 --> 00:23:17 bullying and inappropriate material
00:23:17 --> 00:23:20 online. But it was hardly selective in
00:23:20 --> 00:23:22 nature, not including gaming chat rooms
00:23:22 --> 00:23:24 or left-wing social media platforms like
00:23:24 --> 00:23:27 Blue Sky. But as forecast, kids are
00:23:27 --> 00:23:29 fighting back. Kids are easily getting
00:23:29 --> 00:23:31 around the restrictions by simply
00:23:31 --> 00:23:33 switching to a range of other platforms
00:23:33 --> 00:23:35 like Lemonade, Yelope, WhatsApp, and
00:23:35 --> 00:23:37 Coverstar, or by simply scanning an
00:23:37 --> 00:23:40 older friend's face, by using VPNs, or
00:23:40 --> 00:23:42 by using their parents' social media
00:23:42 --> 00:23:45 accounts. And the age verification
00:23:45 --> 00:23:47 technology itself has also turned out to
00:23:47 --> 00:23:49 be fairly poor with many under
00:23:49 --> 00:23:51 16year-olds being judged as over 16 by
00:23:51 --> 00:23:54 the software. Technology editor Alex
00:23:54 --> 00:23:56 Harov Royo from Tech Advice Start Life
00:23:56 --> 00:23:58 says all of these workarounds were
00:23:58 --> 00:23:59 always going to happen.
00:23:59 --> 00:24:01 >> Well, I mean that was already known
00:24:01 --> 00:24:02 before the ban came into place. There
00:24:02 --> 00:24:04 were stories of teenagers finding out
00:24:04 --> 00:24:07 how. as Tohea Field on X who's a
00:24:07 --> 00:24:09 commentator and was showing lots of
00:24:09 --> 00:24:11 information about voting and how to vote
00:24:11 --> 00:24:13 your preferences in the last federal
00:24:13 --> 00:24:14 election in Australia. He said look
00:24:14 --> 00:24:16 parents have an obligation to show and
00:24:16 --> 00:24:17 teach their children because if get
00:24:17 --> 00:24:19 around the social media banned and they
00:24:19 --> 00:24:20 can't talk to their parents because
00:24:20 --> 00:24:22 somebody has subjected them to online
00:24:22 --> 00:24:24 harm which honestly we should teach the
00:24:24 --> 00:24:25 children how to deal with if they've
00:24:25 --> 00:24:27 been subjected to something and well
00:24:27 --> 00:24:28 they can't talk to the teachers or the
00:24:28 --> 00:24:29 government about it because it's against
00:24:29 --> 00:24:30 the law. The only people they have left
00:24:30 --> 00:24:32 they can trust are their parents. If the
00:24:32 --> 00:24:34 children know how to get online safely
00:24:34 --> 00:24:35 and they can talk to their parents about
00:24:35 --> 00:24:37 it, we have some trust there. Then not
00:24:37 --> 00:24:38 worried that your kids are going to be
00:24:38 --> 00:24:39 doing this thing behind your back, which
00:24:40 --> 00:24:41 is what the government rules have
00:24:41 --> 00:24:44 created this this reality. So, um, yeah,
00:24:44 --> 00:24:46 week one, it's chaos already. And of
00:24:46 --> 00:24:47 course, Albo, our prime minister, has
00:24:48 --> 00:24:49 said it's the finest thing he's done.
00:24:49 --> 00:24:50 All throughout history, I've seen this
00:24:50 --> 00:24:52 on X under Elon Musk and other people
00:24:52 --> 00:24:53 posting the same thing, but the people
00:24:53 --> 00:24:55 trying to censor speech are never the
00:24:55 --> 00:24:57 good guys. And that's really what it
00:24:58 --> 00:24:58 comes down to.
00:24:58 --> 00:25:00 >> Now, you're a multiple award winner.
00:25:00 --> 00:25:01 You've won in creative writing and uh
00:25:01 --> 00:25:03 this time you've won for controversy.
00:25:03 --> 00:25:05 >> Ah yes. Well, there's the consensus
00:25:05 --> 00:25:06 group awards. They've been giving awards
00:25:06 --> 00:25:08 for over 20 years mainly to companies
00:25:08 --> 00:25:11 for their innovations in software,
00:25:11 --> 00:25:12 agricultural technology, medical
00:25:12 --> 00:25:14 technology, hardware. It's a business
00:25:14 --> 00:25:16 awards, but they also have an IT writers
00:25:16 --> 00:25:18 award which you know going for just
00:25:18 --> 00:25:20 about as long. Well, it's the most
00:25:20 --> 00:25:22 controversial writer award, and it's an
00:25:22 --> 00:25:24 article I wrote about Telstra and their
00:25:24 --> 00:25:26 $10 a month discount, which removed a
00:25:26 --> 00:25:28 Wi-Fi 7 router that cost several hundred
00:25:28 --> 00:25:30 to buy if you bought it separately. It
00:25:30 --> 00:25:33 removes the 4G 5G SIM card backup in
00:25:33 --> 00:25:35 case your wide connection goes down. If
00:25:35 --> 00:25:36 you were to have one of those from
00:25:36 --> 00:25:38 Telstra, it would cost you a lot more
00:25:38 --> 00:25:39 than $10 a month. You also miss out on
00:25:39 --> 00:25:41 the AI fix for any Wi-Fi problems that
00:25:41 --> 00:25:43 you have. And really, the this discount
00:25:43 --> 00:25:45 makes it easy for Telstra not to serve
00:25:45 --> 00:25:47 you as a customer properly. and all for
00:25:47 --> 00:25:50 you to save whopping 32.9 a day. So I
00:25:50 --> 00:25:51 just said this was a terrible discount
00:25:51 --> 00:25:54 and it was Telster was playing a joke on
00:25:54 --> 00:25:55 all of us to offer this and their PR
00:25:55 --> 00:25:57 people said oh it's competitive with the
00:25:57 --> 00:25:59 market. I said well it's still bad and
00:25:59 --> 00:26:01 here I am a few months later winning an
00:26:01 --> 00:26:03 award for pointing that out and I did
00:26:03 --> 00:26:04 tell Telster about it but I've heard
00:26:04 --> 00:26:05 nothing back.
00:26:05 --> 00:26:07 >> That's Alex Harro from tick advice.life.
00:26:07 --> 00:26:23 life.
00:26:23 --> 00:26:26 And that's the show for now. Spacetime
00:26:26 --> 00:26:28 is available every Monday, Wednesday,
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00:26:31 --> 00:26:33 YouTube, your favorite podcast download
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00:26:35 --> 00:26:37 withstartgary.com.
00:26:37 --> 00:26:39 Spacetime's also broadcast through the
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00:27:10 --> 00:27:11 >> You've been listening to Spacetime with
00:27:12 --> 00:27:14 Stewartgary. This has been another
00:27:14 --> 00:27:16 quality podcast production from
00:27:16 --> 00:27:19 byes.com.