(00:00:00) Lunar Water Disparities Explored, Asteroid 2024 YR4's Moonbound Journey
(00:00:46) Lunar Water Differences
(00:03:47) Asteroid 2024 YR4: From Earth Threat to Lunar Target
(00:06:33) Singing Stars and Galactic History
(00:18:56) The Science Report
(00:25:11) Show Wrap
SpaceTime Series 28 Episode 45
The Astronomy, Space and Science News Podcast
Uncovering Lunar Water Discrepancies, Asteroid 2024 YR4's Moon Targeting, and Stellar Seismology Insights
In this episode of SpaceTime, we delve into the intriguing findings from China's Chang'e 6 sample return mission, which reveal that the Moon's far side is significantly drier than its near side. This discovery sheds light on the geochemical differences between the two hemispheres and offers fresh perspectives on lunar evolution and the implications for the Moon's origin.
Asteroid 2024 YR4: From Earth Threat to Lunar Target
Next, we track the journey of asteroid 2024 YR4, which initially garnered attention as a potential Earth impactor. However, new observations indicate that this 60-meter-wide asteroid is now on a collision course with the Moon, raising the likelihood of an impact to 3.5%. We discuss its unique characteristics and the ongoing studies aimed at understanding its origins and physical properties.
Singing Stars and Galactic History
Additionally, we explore how stellar seismology is revealing the evolutionary history of stars in the open cluster Messier 67. By analyzing the oscillations of these stars, astronomers can map the history of the Milky Way and gain insights into stellar evolution. This innovative approach provides a deeper understanding of the life cycles of stars and their contributions to galactic archaeology.
00:00 Space Time Series 28 Episode 45 for broadcast on 14 April 2025
00:49 Findings from Chang'e 6 about lunar water distribution
06:30 Implications for lunar evolution and origin theories
12:15 Asteroid 2024 YR4's trajectory and characteristics
18:00 Transition from Earth impactor to Moon target
22:45 Stellar seismology insights from Messier 67
27:00 Summary of recent astronomical discoveries
30:15 Science report: Genetic engineering and the dire wolf
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✍️ Episode References
Nature
https://www.nature.com (https://www.nature.com/)
Astrophysical Journal Letters
https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0004-637X (https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0004-637X)
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Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/26632157?utm_source=youtube
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 This is Spacetime series 28, episode 45.
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 Coming up on Spacetime, why does the
00:00:06 --> 00:00:09 lunar far side have less water than the
00:00:09 --> 00:00:13 near side? Asteroid 2024 YF4, which came
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 to fame after it was designated a
00:00:15 --> 00:00:17 possible Earth impact earlier this year,
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 now appears to be targeting the moon.
00:00:20 --> 00:00:22 And how singing stars exposed their
00:00:22 --> 00:00:25 galactic past. All that and more coming
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 up on Spaceime.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:32 Welcome to Space Time with Stuart
00:00:32 --> 00:00:39 [Music]
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 Garry. Lunar rocks collected by China's
00:00:49 --> 00:00:51 Changi 6 sample return mission suggested
00:00:52 --> 00:00:54 the moon's far side is far drier than
00:00:54 --> 00:00:57 its earth-facing side. The findings
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 reported in the journal Nature add to
00:00:59 --> 00:01:01 the intriguing dichotomy between the
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 moon's two faces and offer potential new
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 insights into lunar evolution. The
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 analysis of Mar bassalts are showing
00:01:08 --> 00:01:10 scientists the lunar farides mantle
00:01:10 --> 00:01:13 contains far less water than on the near
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 side. Over the past two decades,
00:01:15 --> 00:01:17 extensive studies of lunar samples from
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 nearside rocks have demonstrated a
00:01:19 --> 00:01:21 highly heterogeneous distribution of
00:01:21 --> 00:01:23 water in the moon's interior.
00:01:23 --> 00:01:26 Concentrations range from roughly 1 to
00:01:26 --> 00:01:29 200 micrograms per gram. But the new
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31 data from the far side indicates water
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 concentrations there are just 1 to 1 12
00:01:34 --> 00:01:37 micrograms per gram. Notably the crust
00:01:37 --> 00:01:39 exposed on the surface of the procarium
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 creep terrain on the lunar side as a
00:01:41 --> 00:01:43 higher thorium concentration than the
00:01:43 --> 00:01:45 other two primary lunar geochemical
00:01:45 --> 00:01:47 provinces. The filled sporadic highlands
00:01:47 --> 00:01:49 and the south pole eken basin on the
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 lunar far side. The thing is both
00:01:52 --> 00:01:53 thorium and water are considered
00:01:54 --> 00:01:55 incompatible elements during magmatic
00:01:56 --> 00:01:58 processes meaning they preferentially
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 remain in the melt rather than becoming
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 incorporated into the crystallizing
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 materials. This geochemical behavior
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 suggested the mantle beneath the south
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 pole akin basin may contain lower
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 abundances of water. Now to confirm this
00:02:12 --> 00:02:13 hypothesis, the authors focused on
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 analyzing water content and hydrogen
00:02:16 --> 00:02:18 isotopes in melt inclusions in apatite
00:02:18 --> 00:02:20 within the Changi 6 Maria bassalt
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 samples which were the first lunar rocks
00:02:22 --> 00:02:25 returned from the far side. The results
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 indicate that the parent magma of these
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 bassaltants contain 15 to 168 micrograms
00:02:30 --> 00:02:33 per gram of water. The authors estimated
00:02:33 --> 00:02:35 that the mantle source of the Changi 6
00:02:35 --> 00:02:38 bassalts had a water content of 1 to 1.5
00:02:38 --> 00:02:41 microgram per gram. significantly lower
00:02:41 --> 00:02:43 than for the near side mantle. Now, this
00:02:43 --> 00:02:45 disparity points to a potentially
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 hemispheric dichotomy in the moon's
00:02:47 --> 00:02:49 interior water distribution, and that
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 mirrors many other asymmetrical features
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 observed on the lunar surface. The new
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 estimates of the lunar farside matter's
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 water content marks a significant step
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 forward in refining science's
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 understanding of the bulk silicut lunar
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 water content. It provides important
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 constraints in the giant impact
00:03:06 --> 00:03:08 hypothesis of the moon's origin and
00:03:08 --> 00:03:10 underscores the role of water in the
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 moon's long-term evolution. This is
00:03:13 --> 00:03:17 space time. Still to come, asteroid 2024
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 YF4, which came to fame after it was
00:03:20 --> 00:03:22 designated a possible Earth impactor
00:03:22 --> 00:03:24 earlier this year, now appears to be
00:03:24 --> 00:03:26 targeting the moon, and how singing
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 stars expose their galactic past. All
00:03:29 --> 00:03:36 that and more still to come on
00:03:36 --> 00:03:46 [Music]
00:03:46 --> 00:03:51 Spaceime. Asteroid 2024 YF4, which came
00:03:51 --> 00:03:52 to fame after it was designated a
00:03:52 --> 00:03:55 possible Earth impactor, now appears to
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 be targeting the moon. The widely
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 spinning 60 meter wide space rock was
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 discovered back on December the 27th
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 last year, just a few days after
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 Christmas with early observations
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 suggesting a possible collision with the
00:04:07 --> 00:04:10 Earth on December the 22nd, 2032. Now,
00:04:10 --> 00:04:12 of course, that was based on very early
00:04:12 --> 00:04:15 orbital data. NASA and the European
00:04:15 --> 00:04:17 Space Agency placed the odds of a direct
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 impact with the Earth as high as 3%. And
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 this potential threat quickly gained
00:04:22 --> 00:04:24 international attention among the public
00:04:24 --> 00:04:26 and media. The thing is, the figures
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 were still based on very early tracking
00:04:28 --> 00:04:31 of the asteroid's orbit. And as more and
00:04:31 --> 00:04:33 more detailed observations came flooding
00:04:33 --> 00:04:35 in over the following weeks earlier this
00:04:35 --> 00:04:37 year, including studies by the European
00:04:37 --> 00:04:39 Southern Observatory's VT, the Very
00:04:39 --> 00:04:41 Large Telescope in Chile, those risks
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 eventually began dropping and dropping
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 and dropping until they eventually
00:04:46 --> 00:04:50 became negligible. Asteroid 2024 YF4 was
00:04:50 --> 00:04:53 no longer likely to hit the Earth. But
00:04:53 --> 00:04:55 as the risk to Earth diminished, the
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57 chances of a collision with the moon
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 began to grow. In fact, it's now
00:04:59 --> 00:05:00 standing at
00:05:00 --> 00:05:04 3.5%. And that makes YF4 one of the
00:05:04 --> 00:05:06 largest objects in recent history that
00:05:06 --> 00:05:08 could impact the moon. Meanwhile, as
00:05:08 --> 00:05:10 this near-Earth asteroid continues
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 moving away from the Earth moon system
00:05:12 --> 00:05:14 on the outward leg of its four Earthyear
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 journey around the sun, astronomers
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 using the Gemini South telescope in
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 Chile examined the rock in multiple
00:05:20 --> 00:05:21 wavelengths, creating a
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 three-dimensional image, showing that it
00:05:23 --> 00:05:25 shaped more like a flat disc, a bit like
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 a not quite round hockey puck rather
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 than a potato, which most asteroids look
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 like. They also discovered that it was
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 tumbling at a rate of around once every
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 20 minutes. And astronomers using the
00:05:37 --> 00:05:38 Mosfire spectrograph on the kek
00:05:38 --> 00:05:40 observatory on Monarch in Hawaii were
00:05:40 --> 00:05:41 able to determine the physical
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 properties and potential origins of YF4
00:05:44 --> 00:05:47 revealing it to be a solid stony sype
00:05:47 --> 00:05:49 asteroid rich in silicates that likely
00:05:49 --> 00:05:51 originated from an asteroid family in
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 the main asteroid built between Mars and
00:05:53 --> 00:05:55 Jupiter. The findings have been reported
00:05:55 --> 00:05:58 in the astrophysical journal letters and
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 on the pre-press physics website
00:06:00 --> 00:06:04 archive.org. This is spaceime. Still to
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 come, how singing stars expose the
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 galactic past. And later in the science
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 report, there's been a lot in the news
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 about the extinct dire wolf being
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 resurrected through genetic engineering.
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 But how true really are those claims?
00:06:18 --> 00:06:25 All that and more still to come on
00:06:25 --> 00:06:33 [Music]
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 Spaceime. Astronomers studying the open
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 star cluster Messia 67 have used stellar
00:06:40 --> 00:06:43 seismology to help them determine how
00:06:43 --> 00:06:45 the stars in the cluster have evolved
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 over cosmic time. The findings reported
00:06:48 --> 00:06:49 in the journal Nature are allowing
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 scientists to map the history of the
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 Milky Way and other galaxies,
00:06:53 --> 00:06:55 accelerating knowledge in the field of
00:06:55 --> 00:06:58 astrophysics. Located some 2700 light
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 years away, and containing some 1
00:07:01 --> 00:07:04 solar masses, Messier 67 is one of the
00:07:04 --> 00:07:06 best studied star clusters. Yet,
00:07:06 --> 00:07:08 estimates of its physical parameters,
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 such as its age, its true mass, and the
00:07:10 --> 00:07:12 number of stars it contains of a given
00:07:12 --> 00:07:15 type, vary substantially. What is known
00:07:15 --> 00:07:17 is that the stars in this cluster were
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 all born at the same time from the same
00:07:19 --> 00:07:21 molecular gas and dust cloud with the
00:07:21 --> 00:07:24 best estimate suggesting about 4 billion
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 years ago. Now, that means any
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 differences between individual stars in
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 the cluster must be due primarily to
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 their stellar mass. Now, from what
00:07:33 --> 00:07:36 astronomers can tell, M67 has around 500
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 stars, including at least 150 white
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 dwarves and more than 100 sunlike stars,
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 as well as numerous red giants. These
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 are revolved stars, which have moved off
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 the main sequence. That's where stars
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 are burning hydrogen into helium in
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 their stellar cores. The ages and
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 prevalence of sunlike stars in the
00:07:54 --> 00:07:56 cluster has led some astronomers to
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 hypothesize that it's possible that this
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 could be the stellar nursery of our own
00:08:01 --> 00:08:04 local star, the sun. However, computer
00:08:04 --> 00:08:06 simulations disagree on whether our
00:08:06 --> 00:08:07 solar system would have survived an
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 ejection from M67. And the cluster
00:08:10 --> 00:08:11 itself would probably not have survived
00:08:12 --> 00:08:14 such an ejection event anyway. The
00:08:14 --> 00:08:15 cluster now contains no main sequence
00:08:16 --> 00:08:17 stars bluer than spectrotype F white
00:08:18 --> 00:08:19 stars. That's because any brighter stars
00:08:20 --> 00:08:21 of that age would have already left the
00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 main sequence. In fact, when stars in
00:08:24 --> 00:08:26 the cluster are plotted on the Herzbrung
00:08:26 --> 00:08:28 Russell diagram, there's a distinct
00:08:28 --> 00:08:29 turnoff representing the stars which
00:08:29 --> 00:08:31 have terminated hydrogen fusion in the
00:08:31 --> 00:08:33 core and are now destined to become red
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 giants. But that's not unusual. You see,
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 as a cluster ages, the turnoff moves
00:08:38 --> 00:08:40 progressively down the main sequence
00:08:40 --> 00:08:42 towards cooler stars. That's because
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 hotter stars burn through their nuclear
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 fusion process quicker while cooler
00:08:46 --> 00:08:49 stars like our sun tend to live much
00:08:49 --> 00:08:51 longer. The study's lead author Claudia
00:08:51 --> 00:08:53 Reyes from the University of New South
00:08:53 --> 00:08:55 Wales studied 27 of the stars in the
00:08:56 --> 00:08:57 cluster to better understand how stars
00:08:57 --> 00:08:59 of different masses but similar
00:08:59 --> 00:09:02 compositions have evolved differently.
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 Reyes says while these stars are all the
00:09:04 --> 00:09:06 same age, it's their mass which gives
00:09:06 --> 00:09:08 away how quickly they've evolved. The
00:09:08 --> 00:09:11 study also opens new ways to learn more
00:09:11 --> 00:09:13 about what the sun will do as it gets
00:09:13 --> 00:09:15 bigger and older. The thing is,
00:09:15 --> 00:09:17 verifying the age of a star is one of
00:09:17 --> 00:09:18 the most difficult things you can do in
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 astronomy. That's because the age of a
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 star isn't revealed by its surface. It's
00:09:23 --> 00:09:25 what happens inside that shows
00:09:25 --> 00:09:28 astronomers how old a star really is.
00:09:28 --> 00:09:30 Reyes and colleagues were able to
00:09:30 --> 00:09:32 precisely determine a star's age based
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 on its oscillation frequencies.
00:09:35 --> 00:09:37 basically how the star vibrates, how it
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 rings and that depends on the physical
00:09:39 --> 00:09:41 properties of the matter inside the
00:09:41 --> 00:09:44 star. It gives clues about stellar
00:09:44 --> 00:09:47 density, temperature and age. This is
00:09:47 --> 00:09:49 the first time researchers were able to
00:09:49 --> 00:09:50 interrogate the ringing across a cluster
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 of stars in order to learn more about
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 their internal structure. To do this,
00:09:55 --> 00:09:58 they use data from the Kepler K2 mission
00:09:58 --> 00:10:01 as a primary way to observe or listen.
00:10:01 --> 00:10:03 Reyes says the process is a bit like
00:10:03 --> 00:10:04 listening to an orchestra and
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 identifying instruments based on their
00:10:06 --> 00:10:08 sound. The frequency by which an
00:10:08 --> 00:10:10 instrument's vibrating or ringing
00:10:10 --> 00:10:12 depends on the physical properties of
00:10:12 --> 00:10:13 the matter that the sound's traveling
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 through. That's why a violin doesn't
00:10:16 --> 00:10:18 sound like a grand piano. And it's the
00:10:18 --> 00:10:21 same for stars. And we can see that
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 vibration or the effects of that
00:10:23 --> 00:10:25 vibration. That is the sound just like
00:10:25 --> 00:10:27 you can see the vibration of a violin
00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 string. The biggest stars have the
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 deepest sounds, while smaller stars have
00:10:32 --> 00:10:34 more high-pitch tones. But of course,
00:10:34 --> 00:10:37 it's not that simple. No one star plays
00:10:37 --> 00:10:40 just one note at once. Each star has a
00:10:40 --> 00:10:41 complete symphony of sounds coming from
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 its interior. And these sounds exist as
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 waves of energy, a vibration moving
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 through particles, solid, liquid, or
00:10:48 --> 00:10:51 gas. Reyes says each star is like a
00:10:51 --> 00:10:53 breathing ball of gas, cooling down and
00:10:53 --> 00:10:55 heating up, causing slight changes in
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 its brightness. And it's these
00:10:58 --> 00:11:00 fluctuations in brightness that Reyes
00:11:00 --> 00:11:01 and colleagues were watching for and
00:11:02 --> 00:11:03 then measuring in order to gauge the
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 sound frequencies. As stars in the main
00:11:06 --> 00:11:09 sequence mature towards the red giant
00:11:09 --> 00:11:11 phase, their frequencies change and they
00:11:11 --> 00:11:13 behave differently and these changes can
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 help track their evolution. The
00:11:15 --> 00:11:17 frequency differences between the many
00:11:17 --> 00:11:19 modes played by the star can give clues
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 about its interior properties. And by
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 studying 27 stars in the M67 open
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 cluster, the authors could for the first
00:11:27 --> 00:11:29 time observe the relationship between
00:11:29 --> 00:11:31 small and large frequency differences in
00:11:31 --> 00:11:34 giant stars. And that can now be applied
00:11:34 --> 00:11:37 to individual stars. You see, to better
00:11:37 --> 00:11:38 understand the formation and evolution
00:11:38 --> 00:11:41 of galaxies, scientists need to know the
00:11:41 --> 00:11:43 ages of all its components, including
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45 the stars. Reyes says the study will
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 lead to an accurate identification of
00:11:47 --> 00:11:49 the mass and age of stars in the Milky
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 Way. Something yet to be achieved. We
00:11:51 --> 00:11:54 have found that the seismology of stars
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56 can give a different tool to get the
00:11:56 --> 00:12:00 ages and it is way way more precise than
00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 traditional method. So what we do is we
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 use the oscillations of stars that have
00:12:06 --> 00:12:09 convective envelopes to measure the
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 frequencies at which they resonate and
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 we then compare those frequencies with
00:12:14 --> 00:12:15 the models that we have and we can
00:12:15 --> 00:12:19 estimate very good masses and age. We
00:12:19 --> 00:12:23 know in the file diagram where the stars
00:12:23 --> 00:12:25 that have convective envelopes lie. So
00:12:25 --> 00:12:28 our sun is a very good example of that
00:12:28 --> 00:12:31 but also most of the giant stars. So we
00:12:31 --> 00:12:34 target those and we observe the very
00:12:34 --> 00:12:37 small variations in their brightness and
00:12:37 --> 00:12:41 then we observe them for a long time as
00:12:41 --> 00:12:43 long as possible but we are limited of
00:12:43 --> 00:12:45 course by telescope capacities but then
00:12:45 --> 00:12:48 those we take those light curves and we
00:12:48 --> 00:12:50 transform them into the frequency space
00:12:50 --> 00:12:53 and that's what the oscillations that we
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 measure come from and you use that to
00:12:55 --> 00:12:56 calculate stellar age stellar
00:12:56 --> 00:12:58 revolution. That's right. Because we
00:12:58 --> 00:13:01 have very good models and our models
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 actually can predict very accurately
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06 where every one of those frequency peaks
00:13:06 --> 00:13:09 will lie in a frequency spectrum. Why
00:13:09 --> 00:13:12 did you choose M67? M67 is a very
00:13:12 --> 00:13:15 special cluster for a number of reasons.
00:13:15 --> 00:13:18 One of them is that it has very similar
00:13:18 --> 00:13:20 to solar composition which very good
00:13:20 --> 00:13:23 because our models are best calibrated
00:13:23 --> 00:13:26 to the sun normally. So another good
00:13:26 --> 00:13:29 reason is that it is not very obscure by
00:13:29 --> 00:13:32 D. We have a good look at them at those
00:13:32 --> 00:13:35 stars. And another good reason is that
00:13:35 --> 00:13:38 is very well populated. So from the main
00:13:38 --> 00:13:41 sequence to from lower evolutionary
00:13:41 --> 00:13:44 phases until the later evolutionary
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 phases we have an amazing sample of
00:13:47 --> 00:13:49 stars that we can observe very clearly.
00:13:49 --> 00:13:50 You knew they all formed in the same
00:13:50 --> 00:13:53 molecular dust cloud. So they had a
00:13:53 --> 00:13:54 similar composition. you knew they
00:13:54 --> 00:13:56 started out at roughly the same time, so
00:13:56 --> 00:13:59 they're the same age. And by looking at
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 how stars of different masses evolved,
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04 you were able to fine-tune your your
00:14:04 --> 00:14:06 hypothesis. Exactly. Because we know
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08 that the difference between two of them
00:14:08 --> 00:14:11 is mostly related to the mass that they
00:14:11 --> 00:14:13 started with. So it's not related to any
00:14:13 --> 00:14:16 other factor like chemical composition
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 or distance or dust or anything like
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 that. So yes, we can observe the entire
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 sequence of frequencies and basically
00:14:25 --> 00:14:28 it's the next best thing as to just
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 following a star for billions of years
00:14:30 --> 00:14:32 and seeing how it evolves. Of course we
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35 cannot do that but we can look at this
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 very nice thickness of stars and this
00:14:37 --> 00:14:38 will allow you to get a better
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 understanding of our sun as well. Yes.
00:14:40 --> 00:14:43 So the stars that we particularly target
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 in this study are stars that are more
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48 evolved than the sun which is like
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51 looking into our sun's future. So what
00:14:51 --> 00:14:54 we learned from this study one of the
00:14:54 --> 00:14:56 things that we learned is that we have
00:14:56 --> 00:15:00 evidence of how deep that convective
00:15:00 --> 00:15:03 envelope with will actually reach. So we
00:15:03 --> 00:15:05 have predicted this and we have indirect
00:15:05 --> 00:15:09 methods of getting this information of
00:15:09 --> 00:15:11 how deep the envelope actually reaches.
00:15:11 --> 00:15:15 But now we have very direct indication
00:15:15 --> 00:15:19 of the depth of that envelope and it is
00:15:19 --> 00:15:21 what will happen to the sun. Is our
00:15:21 --> 00:15:23 schedule of the sun accurate at this
00:15:23 --> 00:15:26 stage? So what does including our sun
00:15:26 --> 00:15:29 when they run out of hydrogen in it core
00:15:29 --> 00:15:32 they begin to puff up. So as the core
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35 will become even more dense, its outer
00:15:35 --> 00:15:38 layers will become more expanded and yes
00:15:38 --> 00:15:41 they will reach where the the radius
00:15:41 --> 00:15:44 where the earth is located. But it is
00:15:44 --> 00:15:46 still so so far in the future but a lot
00:15:46 --> 00:15:48 sooner than that as the sun continues to
00:15:48 --> 00:15:50 heat up a lot sooner than that the earth
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 will become uninhabitable anyway. Um
00:15:52 --> 00:15:53 well at least that's that's the
00:15:53 --> 00:15:56 hypothesis that I was taught. Yeah. Well
00:15:56 --> 00:15:59 before the earth is engulfed by the sun.
00:15:59 --> 00:16:02 Yes. It will become uninhabitable but
00:16:02 --> 00:16:05 the sun has a good billion of years in
00:16:05 --> 00:16:07 its current state. So nothing will
00:16:07 --> 00:16:10 happen for a long time. Star quakes tell
00:16:10 --> 00:16:12 me about them. So star quakes are very
00:16:12 --> 00:16:15 similar to earthquakes that we are
00:16:15 --> 00:16:16 familiar with just that they happen in
00:16:16 --> 00:16:20 stars but the cause of the quakes are
00:16:20 --> 00:16:22 different. So for example in the earth
00:16:22 --> 00:16:25 we are familiar with the tectonic plates
00:16:25 --> 00:16:27 running into each other. That is what
00:16:27 --> 00:16:29 causes these earthquakes. In stars they
00:16:29 --> 00:16:33 have this bubbling outer layer of gas.
00:16:33 --> 00:16:35 It's like water boiling in a pot. I
00:16:35 --> 00:16:38 think so. Yeah. So what happens is that
00:16:38 --> 00:16:40 convective envelopes need to transport
00:16:40 --> 00:16:43 energy from the core to the surface very
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 efficiently so that stars can keep from
00:16:46 --> 00:16:48 collapsing. Right? So these bubbles when
00:16:48 --> 00:16:52 they reach the surface they burst and by
00:16:52 --> 00:16:54 bursting they send ripples through the
00:16:54 --> 00:16:57 entire star and that is what causes the
00:16:57 --> 00:17:00 star wicks and I think it's really
00:17:00 --> 00:17:03 fascinating that we have we can learn so
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 much from that and does magnetism play
00:17:05 --> 00:17:08 an important role in this because we
00:17:08 --> 00:17:09 know that things like coronal mass
00:17:09 --> 00:17:11 ejections and stellar flares are
00:17:11 --> 00:17:14 triggered by magnetic ropes that are
00:17:14 --> 00:17:16 being twisted as the star rotates at
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18 different rates. Does that play a role
00:17:18 --> 00:17:20 in this or is that independent from
00:17:20 --> 00:17:22 perculations of plasma that lead to star
00:17:22 --> 00:17:26 quakes? Yeah. So a study of magnetism
00:17:26 --> 00:17:30 using seismology is a very active and
00:17:30 --> 00:17:32 one thing that it does that is really
00:17:32 --> 00:17:35 interesting is that the magnetism in the
00:17:35 --> 00:17:37 core of a star can actually suppress
00:17:37 --> 00:17:40 that oscillations and leave us with a
00:17:40 --> 00:17:43 partial power spectrum. So that is one
00:17:43 --> 00:17:45 one of the areas where magnetism can be
00:17:45 --> 00:17:47 observed in a source moon. And where
00:17:47 --> 00:17:49 would you like to take this research to
00:17:49 --> 00:17:52 next? It's very interesting because this
00:17:52 --> 00:17:55 research other than let us know a lot of
00:17:55 --> 00:17:58 what is going on underneath the outer
00:17:58 --> 00:18:00 layers of the stars as it is one of the
00:18:00 --> 00:18:03 main outcomes of this study was to find
00:18:03 --> 00:18:06 out specifically when the outer layer
00:18:06 --> 00:18:10 reaches this greater depth. So the other
00:18:10 --> 00:18:13 outcome of this study is that we can get
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 even more precise ages for a particular
00:18:17 --> 00:18:20 subset of stars everywhere in the galaxy
00:18:20 --> 00:18:23 not only in the cluster M67. So next for
00:18:24 --> 00:18:26 us is to look for stars in this
00:18:26 --> 00:18:28 particular phases everywhere in the
00:18:28 --> 00:18:32 gate. So we can then use that data for
00:18:32 --> 00:18:34 galactic archology which is the search
00:18:34 --> 00:18:37 for reconstructing the history of the
00:18:37 --> 00:18:40 galaxy. That's Claudia Reyes from the
00:18:40 --> 00:18:43 University of New South Wales and this
00:18:43 --> 00:18:44 is
00:18:44 --> 00:18:59 [Music]
00:18:59 --> 00:19:01 Spacetime. And time now to take a brief
00:19:01 --> 00:19:02 look at some of the other stories making
00:19:02 --> 00:19:04 news in science this week with a science
00:19:04 --> 00:19:07 report. Two new studies have linked
00:19:07 --> 00:19:09 diabetes drugs such as ampic, which
00:19:09 --> 00:19:11 lowers blood glucose, showing it may
00:19:11 --> 00:19:13 also lower the risk of Alzheimer's and
00:19:13 --> 00:19:16 dementia. A report in the Journal of the
00:19:16 --> 00:19:18 American Medical Association found that
00:19:18 --> 00:19:20 one study looked at Alzheimer's
00:19:20 --> 00:19:22 diagnosis in patients taking a class of
00:19:22 --> 00:19:24 drugs that includes glucagenike peptide
00:19:24 --> 00:19:29 1 receptor agonists GLP1 RAS and another
00:19:29 --> 00:19:32 class of glucoseing drugs known as
00:19:32 --> 00:19:35 SGT2is. They found that patients taking
00:19:35 --> 00:19:37 the newer drugs had lower rates of
00:19:37 --> 00:19:40 Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.
00:19:40 --> 00:19:41 Meanwhile, the second study pulled
00:19:41 --> 00:19:43 together the results of previous
00:19:43 --> 00:19:47 clinical trials, finding that GLP1
00:19:47 --> 00:19:50 ragt2is were associated with a reduction
00:19:50 --> 00:19:54 in dementia or cognitive impairment.
00:19:54 --> 00:19:55 The company behind efforts to resurrect
00:19:56 --> 00:19:57 the woolly mammoth, the thyloine, and
00:19:58 --> 00:20:00 the dodo now claim they've achieved what
00:20:00 --> 00:20:02 they're describing as the deextinction
00:20:02 --> 00:20:04 of the dire wolf. It's a species that
00:20:04 --> 00:20:07 went extinct about 10 years ago.
00:20:07 --> 00:20:09 Colossal biosciences claim it's produced
00:20:09 --> 00:20:11 three very cute little puppies named
00:20:11 --> 00:20:14 Romulus, Remis, and Kalesi based on
00:20:14 --> 00:20:17 genetically engineered greywolf genomes.
00:20:17 --> 00:20:19 However, according to Professor Philip
00:20:19 --> 00:20:21 Seden from the University of Vitago,
00:20:21 --> 00:20:23 greywolves and direwolves, despite the
00:20:23 --> 00:20:25 wolf part in their names, aren't closely
00:20:25 --> 00:20:27 related, having parted ways from a
00:20:27 --> 00:20:29 common ancestor some 6 million years
00:20:29 --> 00:20:31 ago. In fact, he says the African
00:20:31 --> 00:20:33 jackals probably more closely related to
00:20:33 --> 00:20:34 real
00:20:34 --> 00:20:36 direwolves. The company simply
00:20:36 --> 00:20:38 introduced a series of genetic changes
00:20:38 --> 00:20:40 to a grey wolf to produce greywolf pups
00:20:40 --> 00:20:43 with direwolf features, such as paler
00:20:43 --> 00:20:45 coats and potentially a slightly larger
00:20:45 --> 00:20:47 size.
00:20:47 --> 00:20:49 A new study shows that farmers had been
00:20:49 --> 00:20:52 transporting fish up into the Pyrenees
00:20:52 --> 00:20:53 mountains between modern day Spain and
00:20:53 --> 00:20:56 France into local Pyrenees waterways and
00:20:56 --> 00:20:59 lakes as early as the 7th century. A
00:20:59 --> 00:21:00 report of the journal Nature
00:21:00 --> 00:21:02 Communications found the lakes in the
00:21:02 --> 00:21:04 highest mountains of Europe didn't
00:21:04 --> 00:21:06 originally have fish, but evidence of
00:21:06 --> 00:21:08 people introducing them to these areas
00:21:08 --> 00:21:10 has been found dating from the 14th and
00:21:10 --> 00:21:13 15th centuries. The author studied a
00:21:13 --> 00:21:15 sedimentary core in Lake Rudon in the
00:21:15 --> 00:21:18 Spanish Pyrenees, finding data from fish
00:21:18 --> 00:21:20 parasites and fish prey dating back to
00:21:20 --> 00:21:22 the early 7th century, a time when the
00:21:22 --> 00:21:24 region was likely used for sheep
00:21:24 --> 00:21:26 farming. And that suggests that fish
00:21:26 --> 00:21:28 must have been brought there earlier
00:21:28 --> 00:21:30 than previously thought. Of course,
00:21:30 --> 00:21:32 today this lake is home to about 60
00:21:32 --> 00:21:35 brown trout, descendants of those
00:21:35 --> 00:21:37 original fish transported up by early
00:21:37 --> 00:21:39 farmers.
00:21:39 --> 00:21:41 There's a growing spread of
00:21:41 --> 00:21:42 misinformation online about the
00:21:42 --> 00:21:44 nutritional value of various
00:21:44 --> 00:21:46 supplements, but Tim Menum from
00:21:46 --> 00:21:48 Australian Skeptics says it's possible
00:21:48 --> 00:21:50 to protect yourself and tell the
00:21:50 --> 00:21:51 difference between what's good advice
00:21:51 --> 00:21:54 and what's not if you follow some simple
00:21:54 --> 00:21:56 rules. Nutrition, especially online
00:21:56 --> 00:21:58 recommendations for nutrition, you go
00:21:58 --> 00:21:59 through your Tik Toks and all that sort
00:21:59 --> 00:22:02 of stuff, is fraught with bad
00:22:02 --> 00:22:04 information, bad advice from people who
00:22:04 --> 00:22:05 really don't know what they're talking
00:22:05 --> 00:22:08 about. and wellness influencers are the
00:22:08 --> 00:22:09 people who often up there use this
00:22:09 --> 00:22:11 product and you know stick your mouth
00:22:11 --> 00:22:13 full of cinnamon or whatever or take the
00:22:13 --> 00:22:14 big one was apple cider vinegar which
00:22:14 --> 00:22:16 will cure anything going apparently all
00:22:16 --> 00:22:18 these things are recommended you go
00:22:18 --> 00:22:20 online you see these things everywhere
00:22:20 --> 00:22:22 this will guarantee the cure you of this
00:22:22 --> 00:22:23 particular problem I remember when
00:22:23 --> 00:22:25 echynatia was a big thing everyone had
00:22:25 --> 00:22:27 to take echania yeah I mean echynatia
00:22:27 --> 00:22:29 was a is that a homeopathic treatment it
00:22:29 --> 00:22:31 was a herbal treatment supposedly cure
00:22:31 --> 00:22:33 you for cold the fish oil it was largely
00:22:34 --> 00:22:35 overstated about sort what what it could
00:22:36 --> 00:22:37 actually do for you. And there also
00:22:37 --> 00:22:39 concerns about its quality and how old
00:22:39 --> 00:22:40 it is and how well it quality is
00:22:40 --> 00:22:42 especially a problem that you don't know
00:22:42 --> 00:22:44 how it's made and how true it is. I
00:22:44 --> 00:22:46 mean, despite what it says on the label,
00:22:46 --> 00:22:47 that's not necessarily a guarantee,
00:22:47 --> 00:22:50 especially if it's taken as a food
00:22:50 --> 00:22:51 supplement, not as a medicine thing,
00:22:52 --> 00:22:53 because the medicine things are more
00:22:53 --> 00:22:55 closely reviewed. Hopefully, the food
00:22:55 --> 00:22:57 things are less closely reviewed, except
00:22:57 --> 00:22:59 if they're poison, right? There's a big
00:22:59 --> 00:23:01 overlap there between what's a good diet
00:23:01 --> 00:23:03 or a nutritional product rather than a
00:23:03 --> 00:23:04 medical product. And that's part of the
00:23:04 --> 00:23:06 problem is is that in many cases the
00:23:06 --> 00:23:08 nutritional product is regarded as food
00:23:08 --> 00:23:09 and that's a different authority to the
00:23:09 --> 00:23:11 medical regulatory bodies. So what you
00:23:12 --> 00:23:14 have is that with nutrition anyone can
00:23:14 --> 00:23:15 get actually that happens with medicine
00:23:15 --> 00:23:17 as well. So people get online they go a
00:23:17 --> 00:23:20 Tik Tok a 3minut video about yeah use
00:23:20 --> 00:23:21 this thing it's worked for me and I got
00:23:21 --> 00:23:23 this great body etc. And you too can
00:23:23 --> 00:23:25 have this if you take this product. I
00:23:25 --> 00:23:26 had a great body once but I had to give
00:23:26 --> 00:23:29 it back. Yeah. Okay back to our story.
00:23:29 --> 00:23:30 So the thing about a lot of this stuff
00:23:30 --> 00:23:32 is that obviously you got to take it
00:23:32 --> 00:23:33 with a grain of salt. That's
00:23:33 --> 00:23:36 metaphorical. But the global dietary
00:23:36 --> 00:23:38 supplement industry is not some little
00:23:38 --> 00:23:41 thing. It's worth globally about 150
00:23:41 --> 00:23:44 billion US. So people talk about big
00:23:44 --> 00:23:46 farmer etc. Well, they should talk about
00:23:46 --> 00:23:49 big supplement or big homeopathy or big
00:23:49 --> 00:23:51 nutrition etc. This is a giant industry
00:23:51 --> 00:23:53 made up of lots of little different
00:23:53 --> 00:23:55 things and some of them major, some of
00:23:55 --> 00:23:57 them tiny, some of them promoted by one
00:23:57 --> 00:23:59 person on Tik Tok, others promoted by
00:23:59 --> 00:24:01 organizations that we hope would know
00:24:01 --> 00:24:03 better. But how do you tell? That's hard
00:24:04 --> 00:24:05 actually because a lot of these people
00:24:05 --> 00:24:06 are very convincing. They got
00:24:06 --> 00:24:08 confidence. They will use anecdotal
00:24:08 --> 00:24:09 evidence which is not worth very much.
00:24:09 --> 00:24:12 And a lot of them doctors, train medical
00:24:12 --> 00:24:14 practitioners to spru their claims. Yes.
00:24:14 --> 00:24:17 Unfortunately, there you'll always find
00:24:17 --> 00:24:19 some qualified person to promote any
00:24:19 --> 00:24:21 particular pseudocience, pseudo
00:24:21 --> 00:24:22 medicine. Yeah, the things to do. First
00:24:22 --> 00:24:24 of all, check your reasoning for trying
00:24:24 --> 00:24:26 to follow this. Is it fear? Is it anger?
00:24:26 --> 00:24:28 Why are you paying any attention to this
00:24:28 --> 00:24:29 at all? That's a bit of a hard one to
00:24:30 --> 00:24:31 do. Uh next, check who's saying it. Do
00:24:31 --> 00:24:33 they have qualifications? Do they know
00:24:33 --> 00:24:34 what they're talking about? Are they
00:24:34 --> 00:24:36 lying? But then if you say you can get a
00:24:36 --> 00:24:38 medical doctor to endorse something
00:24:38 --> 00:24:39 anywhere and then try and find some
00:24:40 --> 00:24:41 critical reviews of this thing. My
00:24:41 --> 00:24:44 advice I found in my experience is that
00:24:44 --> 00:24:45 if you say for instance apple cider
00:24:45 --> 00:24:48 vinegar, Google in apple cider vinegar
00:24:48 --> 00:24:49 skeptic, right? You add the word skeptic
00:24:50 --> 00:24:52 and you will find alternative views. So
00:24:52 --> 00:24:53 check your motivation, check the
00:24:53 --> 00:24:55 authority and check the facts and you
00:24:55 --> 00:24:57 will find you discover a lot of weird
00:24:57 --> 00:24:59 things. That's Tim Mendum from
00:24:59 --> 00:25:02 Australian Skeptics.
00:25:02 --> 00:25:11 [Music]
00:25:16 --> 00:25:19 And that's the show for now. Spaceime is
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