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In this episode of SpaceTime, we delve into the mysterious absence of river deltas on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Despite having rivers of methane and ethane, a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Planets reveals that Titan is largely devoid of these geological features, raising intriguing questions about its unique processes and history. We discuss the implications of this finding and what it means for our understanding of Titan's climate and geological past.
Volcanic History of Mars
Next, we explore groundbreaking research from NASA's Perseverance rover, which has uncovered a diverse array of iron-rich volcanic rocks in Jezero Crater. This study, reported in Science Advances, provides fresh insights into Mars's geological history and its potential to have supported ancient life. The findings reveal complex volcanic processes that may have occurred on the Red Planet, enhancing our understanding of its habitability.
Rare Earth Metals in Exoplanet Atmosphere
Finally, we celebrate the discovery of rare Earth metals in the atmosphere of Kelt 9b, one of the hottest known exoplanets. Astronomers have detected vaporized elements such as sodium, magnesium, and the rare Earth metals scandium and yttrium, marking a significant milestone in exoplanet research. This discovery opens new avenues for understanding the atmospheres of distant worlds and their unique compositions.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com (https://www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com/)
✍️ Episode References
Journal of Geophysical Research Planets
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/21699356 (https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/21699356)
Science Advances
https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv (https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv)
Astronomy and Astrophysics
https://www.aanda.org/ (https://www.aanda.org/)
NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/ (https://www.nasa.gov/)
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-space-astronomy--2458531/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-space-astronomy--2458531/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss) .
00:00 This is space Time Series 28, Episode 52 for broadcast on 30 April 2025
00:46 Scientists are looking for Titan's missing river deltas
06:02 NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover is analyzing Martian volcanic rocks
10:17 Astronomers have discovered rare Earth metals in the atmosphere of a hot exoplanet
17:58 People who were conceived during colder seasons store fat differently, study finds
20:25 YouTube is celebrating its 20th birthday with some interesting stats
22:16 Google to launch Android 16 three or four months earlier than Apple's iOS
Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/26878967?utm_source=youtube
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 This is Spacetime series 28 episode 52
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 for broadcast on the 30th of April
00:00:06 --> 00:00:09 2025. Coming up on Spaceime, the strange
00:00:09 --> 00:00:13 mystery of Titan's river deltas. A new
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 study unveils the volcanic history and
00:00:15 --> 00:00:18 clues to ancient life on Mars and rare
00:00:18 --> 00:00:20 earth metals discovered in the
00:00:20 --> 00:00:23 atmosphere of a glowing hot exoplanet.
00:00:23 --> 00:00:27 All that and more coming up on Spaceime.
00:00:27 --> 00:00:31 Welcome to Space Time with Stuart
00:00:31 --> 00:00:39 [Music]
00:00:45 --> 00:00:48 Garry. Scientists are looking for the
00:00:48 --> 00:00:51 Saturn moon Titans missing river deltas.
00:00:51 --> 00:00:53 For researchers who want to learn about
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 the geological past of a planet, river
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 deltas are a great place to start. See,
00:00:58 --> 00:01:00 deltas gather sediments from large areas
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03 into one small place. There they can be
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 studied and reveal climate, tectonic
00:01:05 --> 00:01:08 histories, or even signs of past life.
00:01:08 --> 00:01:09 And that's why NASA sent its most recent
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 Mars rover, Perseverance, to Jezro
00:01:12 --> 00:01:14 Crater, home of a prominent and well
00:01:14 --> 00:01:16 preserved river delta. And it's also why
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 planetary scientists are so interested
00:01:18 --> 00:01:20 in finding deltas on Saturn's moon
00:01:20 --> 00:01:23 Titan. Titan is a unique place in our
00:01:23 --> 00:01:26 solar system. It's the only planetary
00:01:26 --> 00:01:27 body in our solar system other than
00:01:27 --> 00:01:30 Earth that has liquid rains that form
00:01:30 --> 00:01:32 rivers and streams across its surface
00:01:32 --> 00:01:34 and eventually flow down into lakes and
00:01:34 --> 00:01:38 seas. But unlike the Earth, on Titan,
00:01:38 --> 00:01:40 the liquid isn't water, but methane and
00:01:40 --> 00:01:43 ethane. See, Titan's so cold, water is
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46 frozen solid, forming much of the
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 bedrock. Still, because river deltas are
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 a great place to study an area's
00:01:50 --> 00:01:51 history, planetary scientists have been
00:01:52 --> 00:01:53 interested in finding river deltas on
00:01:53 --> 00:01:56 Saturn's moon, Titan. Like on Earth,
00:01:56 --> 00:01:58 river deltas on Titan are likely to be a
00:01:58 --> 00:02:01 treasure trove of scientific data. But
00:02:01 --> 00:02:04 there's one problem. It seems Titan is
00:02:04 --> 00:02:06 largely devoid of river deltas despite
00:02:06 --> 00:02:08 its large rivers of liquid methane and
00:02:08 --> 00:02:11 ethane. So, a new study reported in the
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 journal of geoysical research planets
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 has been trying to understand Titan's
00:02:15 --> 00:02:17 strange geography why it's so different
00:02:17 --> 00:02:20 to other worlds like the Earth and Mars.
00:02:20 --> 00:02:21 The study's lead author Sam Burch from
00:02:22 --> 00:02:23 Brown University says while
00:02:23 --> 00:02:25 disappointing, this absence of river
00:02:25 --> 00:02:28 deltas on Titan does raise a host of
00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 interesting questions. See, Boot says
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 scientists have always taken it for
00:02:32 --> 00:02:33 granted. If you have rivers and
00:02:33 --> 00:02:35 sediments, you're bound to get river
00:02:35 --> 00:02:38 deltas. But it seems Titan is very
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 weird, making it a great playground for
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 studying processes scientists thought
00:02:42 --> 00:02:44 they understood that clearly don't.
00:02:44 --> 00:02:47 Titan is the largest of Saturn's 274
00:02:47 --> 00:02:50 known moons. Its thick nitrogen and
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 methane atmosphere gives rise to a host
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 of Earthlike climate and weather
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 features. Scientists first learned of
00:02:56 --> 00:02:59 Titan's clouds, wind, rain, rivers,
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 lakes, and seas during the Cassini
00:03:01 --> 00:03:04 spacecraft flyby in 2006.
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 Earing through Titan's thick atmosphere
00:03:06 --> 00:03:08 with synthetic aperture radar, Yini
00:03:08 --> 00:03:10 revealed spattering channels and large
00:03:10 --> 00:03:12 flat areas consistent with large bodies
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 of liquid. But largely missing from the
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 Cassini images were deltas even at the
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 mouths of large rivers. But it wasn't
00:03:20 --> 00:03:21 clear, however, whether these deltas
00:03:22 --> 00:03:23 were truly absent or whether they just
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 didn't show up in the Cassini data. See,
00:03:26 --> 00:03:28 the problem with Cassini's data is that
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 shallow liquid methane is largely
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 transparent in any images. So, while the
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 images could see the broad seas and
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 river channels, it's harder to
00:03:37 --> 00:03:39 confidently make out coastal features.
00:03:39 --> 00:03:40 That's because it's difficult to see
00:03:40 --> 00:03:41 where the coast ends and where the
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 seafloor
00:03:43 --> 00:03:45 begins. For the study, Bur developed a
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47 numerical model that simulates what
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 Cassini would see if it looked at a
00:03:49 --> 00:03:50 landscape which scientists already
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 understood well, planet Earth. In the
00:03:53 --> 00:03:55 model, the water in Earth's rivers and
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 oceans was replaced by Titan's methane
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 liquid, which has different radar
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 absorption principles compared to water.
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 Burch says he basically made synthetic
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 images of the Earth that assume
00:04:05 --> 00:04:06 properties of Titan's liquid instead of
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 Earth's. Once they see the transformed
00:04:09 --> 00:04:11 images of a landscape they know, they
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13 can then go back to Titan and better
00:04:13 --> 00:04:15 understand what they're looking at. But
00:04:15 --> 00:04:17 the researchers found that the synthetic
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 images of Earth clearly resolved large
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 deltas and many other large coastal
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 landscapes. So if there are deltas on
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 Titan size of the one say at the mouth
00:04:26 --> 00:04:27 of the Mississippi River, scientists
00:04:27 --> 00:04:29 should be able to see them. And if there
00:04:29 --> 00:04:31 are large barrier islands similar
00:04:31 --> 00:04:33 coastal landscapes like those seen along
00:04:33 --> 00:04:34 the American Gulf Coast, they should be
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 able to see those too. But when Burching
00:04:37 --> 00:04:39 colleagues combed over the Titan images
00:04:39 --> 00:04:40 in light of the new analysis, they came
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43 up mostly empty. Aside from two probable
00:04:43 --> 00:04:45 deltas near Titan South Pole, the rest
00:04:46 --> 00:04:47 of the moon's rivers were entirely
00:04:47 --> 00:04:50 deltar-free. The authors found that only
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 about 1.3% of Titan's large rivers that
00:04:52 --> 00:04:55 terminated at coastlines have deltas. In
00:04:56 --> 00:04:57 contrast, on Earth, nearly every river
00:04:58 --> 00:05:00 of similar size has a delta of some
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 description. It's still not entirely
00:05:02 --> 00:05:05 clear why Titan lacks river deltas. The
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07 fluid properties of Titan's rivers
00:05:07 --> 00:05:09 should make them perfectly capable of
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 carrying and depositing sediment. Now,
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 it could be that sea levels on Titan
00:05:13 --> 00:05:16 rise and fall so rapidly that deltas
00:05:16 --> 00:05:17 across the landscape more quickly than
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 what they can build up at a single
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 point. Winds and tidal currents along
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 Titan's coast may also play an equally
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 large role in preventing delta
00:05:26 --> 00:05:28 formation. And missing deltas aren't the
00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 only mystery raised by the new research.
00:05:31 --> 00:05:33 A new analysis of Titan's coastlines
00:05:33 --> 00:05:36 reveal pits of unknown origin deep
00:05:36 --> 00:05:38 within lakes and seas. The study also
00:05:38 --> 00:05:40 found deep channels on the floors of the
00:05:40 --> 00:05:42 seas that seem to have been carved out
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 by river flows, but it's not clear how
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 they got there. Now, all of these
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 surprises are going to require a lot
00:05:48 --> 00:05:50 more research in order to fully
00:05:50 --> 00:05:54 understand them. This is spaceime. Still
00:05:54 --> 00:05:56 to come, a new study unveils the
00:05:56 --> 00:05:58 volcanic history of the red planet Mars
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 and rare earth metals discovered in the
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 atmosphere of a glowing hot exoplanet.
00:06:03 --> 00:06:07 All that and more still to come on
00:06:07 --> 00:06:10 Spacetime. This episode of Spacetime is
00:06:10 --> 00:06:13 brought to you by NordVPN, our official
00:06:13 --> 00:06:15 VPN partners and the ones we trust right
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 here on the show. These days, it doesn't
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00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 compromise your online safety. In fact,
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00:07:22 --> 00:07:31 [Music]
00:07:32 --> 00:07:33 A new study has revealed that the floor
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 of the red planet's Jezro crater is
00:07:35 --> 00:07:38 composed of a diverse array of ironrich
00:07:38 --> 00:07:40 volcanic rocks. The new research
00:07:40 --> 00:07:42 reported in the journal Science Advances
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 is providing fresh insights into the
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 crater's geological history. The
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 observations by NASA's Mars Perseverance
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 Rover are providing scientists with
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 their best chance yet to uncover signs
00:07:53 --> 00:07:55 of ancient life. The study's lead author
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 Michael Ty from Texas A&M University
00:07:58 --> 00:08:00 says that by analyzing these diverse
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 volcanic rocks, scientists have gained
00:08:02 --> 00:08:04 valuable insights into the processes
00:08:04 --> 00:08:07 which shape this region of Mars. Ty says
00:08:07 --> 00:08:09 it enhances science's understanding of
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 the planet's geological history as well
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 as its potential to have supported life.
00:08:13 --> 00:08:16 Perseverance landed in Jezro Crater back
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19 on February the 18th, 2021 as part of
00:08:19 --> 00:08:21 the Mars 2020 mission search for signs
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 of ancient microbial life on the red
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 planet. The rover has been collecting
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 core samples of Martian rock and
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 regalith for a future sample return
00:08:29 --> 00:08:32 mission and analysis back on Earth.
00:08:32 --> 00:08:33 Meanwhile, scientists like Tyus are
00:08:33 --> 00:08:35 using the rover's high-tech tools to
00:08:35 --> 00:08:37 analyze Martian rocks in situ to
00:08:38 --> 00:08:39 determine the chemical composition and
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42 detect compounds that could be signs of
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 past life. The six wheel cars size
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 mobile laboratory also has a
00:08:46 --> 00:08:47 highresolution camera system that
00:08:48 --> 00:08:50 provides detailed images of rock texture
00:08:50 --> 00:08:52 and structure. But Tai says the
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 technology is so advanced compared to
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 that of past mass rovers that they're
00:08:56 --> 00:08:58 now gathering new information, detailed
00:08:58 --> 00:09:00 chemical analysis, mineral compositions,
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 and even microscopic textures at
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 unprecedented rates. Tyson colleagues
00:09:04 --> 00:09:06 analyzed rock formations within the
00:09:06 --> 00:09:08 crater to better understand Mars's
00:09:08 --> 00:09:10 volcanic and hydraological history. The
00:09:10 --> 00:09:12 authors used an advanced spectrometer
00:09:12 --> 00:09:14 called Pixel to analyze the chemical
00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 composition and textures of rocks at the
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 mass formation, a key geological area
00:09:18 --> 00:09:21 within Jezro crater. And the author's
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 analysis revealed two distinct types of
00:09:23 --> 00:09:26 volcanic rocks. The first type, dark
00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 toned and rich in iron and magnesium,
00:09:28 --> 00:09:30 contains integrown minerals such as
00:09:30 --> 00:09:33 pyroine and pliolays filspar with
00:09:33 --> 00:09:35 evidence of altered olivine. The second
00:09:35 --> 00:09:38 type, a lighter tone rock classified as
00:09:38 --> 00:09:40 tracheanderite, includes pageiolays
00:09:40 --> 00:09:42 crystals with a potassiumrich ground
00:09:42 --> 00:09:45 mass. These findings indicate a complex
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 volcanic history, one involving multiple
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 lava flows with varying compositions. To
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 determine how these rocks were formed,
00:09:52 --> 00:09:54 the authors conducted thermodynamic
00:09:54 --> 00:09:56 modeling, a method that simulates the
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 conditions under which the minerals were
00:09:58 --> 00:10:00 solidified. Their results suggested the
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 unique compositions resulted from
00:10:02 --> 00:10:05 highderee fractional crystallization. a
00:10:05 --> 00:10:06 process where different minerals
00:10:06 --> 00:10:08 separate out of moles and rock as it
00:10:08 --> 00:10:10 cools. They also found signs that the
00:10:10 --> 00:10:12 lava may have mixed with ironrich
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 material from the Martian crust, further
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 changing the rock's composition. Tai
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 says the processes seen here, fractional
00:10:19 --> 00:10:21 crystallization and crustal assimilation
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 also happen in active volcanic systems
00:10:23 --> 00:10:25 on Earth. It suggests that this part of
00:10:25 --> 00:10:27 Mars may have had prolonged volcanic
00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 activity which in turn could have
00:10:29 --> 00:10:31 provided a sustained source for
00:10:31 --> 00:10:34 different compounds used by life. The
00:10:34 --> 00:10:35 discovery is crucial to understanding
00:10:35 --> 00:10:38 the red planet's potential habitability.
00:10:38 --> 00:10:40 See, if Mars had an active volcanic
00:10:40 --> 00:10:42 system for an extended period of time,
00:10:42 --> 00:10:43 it might also have maintained conditions
00:10:43 --> 00:10:45 suitable for life for long periods of
00:10:45 --> 00:10:47 Martian history. The authors carefully
00:10:47 --> 00:10:49 selected their sample rocks because they
00:10:49 --> 00:10:52 contain clues to the red planet's past
00:10:52 --> 00:10:54 environments. But the real data will
00:10:54 --> 00:10:56 come with a future Mars sample return
00:10:56 --> 00:10:58 mission. A collaborative effort between
00:10:58 --> 00:11:00 NASA and the European Space Agency
00:11:00 --> 00:11:02 aiming to bring back samples within the
00:11:02 --> 00:11:03 next decade is now in the planning
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 stage. Once on Earth, scientists will be
00:11:06 --> 00:11:08 able to access these materials using
00:11:08 --> 00:11:10 more advanced laboratory techniques,
00:11:10 --> 00:11:12 allowing their analysis in far greater
00:11:12 --> 00:11:16 detail. This is spaceime. Still to come,
00:11:16 --> 00:11:18 rare earth minerals discovered in the
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 atmosphere of a glowing hot exoplanet.
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 And later in the science report, a new
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 study shows that AI chatbots make
00:11:25 --> 00:11:28 inconsistent moral judgments. All that
00:11:28 --> 00:11:46 and more coming up on Spaceime.
00:11:46 --> 00:11:48 Astronomers have discovered rare earth
00:11:48 --> 00:11:50 metals in the atmosphere of Kelt 9b, one
00:11:50 --> 00:11:53 of the hottest known exoplanets. Back in
00:11:53 --> 00:11:56 the summer of 2018, a joint team of
00:11:56 --> 00:11:57 astronomers from the University of Burn
00:11:57 --> 00:12:00 and Geneva found signatures of gases
00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 iron and titanium in Kelt 9b's
00:12:03 --> 00:12:05 atmosphere. Now, these researchers have
00:12:05 --> 00:12:07 also been able to detect traces of
00:12:07 --> 00:12:09 vaporized sodium, magnesium, chromium,
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 and the rare earth metals scandium and
00:12:11 --> 00:12:14 utrium. Exoplanets are planets outside
00:12:14 --> 00:12:16 our solar system that orbit around stars
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 other than the sun. Since the discovery
00:12:19 --> 00:12:21 of the first exoplanets in the mid
00:12:21 --> 00:12:24 1990s, over 5 have now been found.
00:12:24 --> 00:12:27 And many are extreme compared to planets
00:12:27 --> 00:12:29 in our solar system, such as hot gas
00:12:29 --> 00:12:31 giants that orbit incredibly close to
00:12:31 --> 00:12:33 their host stars, sometimes with periods
00:12:33 --> 00:12:36 of less than a few days. Now, these
00:12:36 --> 00:12:38 so-called hot Jupiters don't exist in
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 our solar system, and their presence has
00:12:40 --> 00:12:42 defied predictions of how and why
00:12:42 --> 00:12:44 planets form. For more than 20 years
00:12:44 --> 00:12:46 now, astronomers from all over the world
00:12:46 --> 00:12:48 have been working to understand where
00:12:48 --> 00:12:50 these planets come from, what they're
00:12:50 --> 00:12:52 made of, and what their climates must be
00:12:52 --> 00:12:55 like. The planet's host star, Kelt 9, is
00:12:55 --> 00:12:58 located 650 lighty years from Earth in
00:12:58 --> 00:13:01 the constellation Signis the Swan. Its
00:13:01 --> 00:13:04 exoplanet, Kelt 9b, exemplifies the most
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 extreme of these hot Jupiters. That's
00:13:06 --> 00:13:08 because it's orbiting very closely
00:13:08 --> 00:13:09 around a star that's almost twice as hot
00:13:10 --> 00:13:11 as the sun. And therefore, the
00:13:11 --> 00:13:13 atmosphere of this hot Jupiter reaches
00:13:13 --> 00:13:17 an incredible 4° C. Now, in such
00:13:17 --> 00:13:19 heat, all elements are almost completely
00:13:19 --> 00:13:21 vaporized, and molecules are broken
00:13:21 --> 00:13:23 apart into the constituent atoms, very
00:13:24 --> 00:13:26 similar to the outer layers of stars.
00:13:26 --> 00:13:28 Now, this means that Kilt 9b's
00:13:28 --> 00:13:30 atmosphere contains no clouds or
00:13:30 --> 00:13:33 aerosols, and the sky is clear and
00:13:33 --> 00:13:35 mostly transparent to light from its
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 host star. The atoms that make up the
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 gas of the planet's atmosphere absorb
00:13:39 --> 00:13:41 light at very specific wavelengths in
00:13:41 --> 00:13:44 the spectrum. And each atom has a unique
00:13:44 --> 00:13:46 fingerprint of colors that it absorbs.
00:13:46 --> 00:13:48 These fingerprints can be measured with
00:13:48 --> 00:13:50 a sensitive spectrograph mounted on a
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 large telescope, allowing astronomers to
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 determine the chemical composition of
00:13:54 --> 00:13:56 atmospheres of planets many light years
00:13:56 --> 00:13:58 away. Now, for this study, the authors
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00 used the HAPS north spectrograph mounted
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02 on the Italian national telescope on the
00:14:02 --> 00:14:05 island of La Palmer. They found iron and
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 titanium atoms in the hot atmosphere of
00:14:07 --> 00:14:10 Colt 9b. One of the study's authors,
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12 Kevin Hang from the University of Burn
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 says he then went to re-examine the coat
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 9b system in order to both confirm their
00:14:16 --> 00:14:18 previous detections, but also to search
00:14:18 --> 00:14:21 for additional elements. A new survey
00:14:21 --> 00:14:22 reported in the journal Astronomy and
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 Astrophysics involved 73 atoms,
00:14:25 --> 00:14:26 including some so-called rare earth
00:14:26 --> 00:14:29 metals. These substances are less common
00:14:29 --> 00:14:31 on Earth, but are used in many advanced
00:14:31 --> 00:14:33 materials and devices. The authors
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 predicted that the spectrum of this
00:14:35 --> 00:14:36 planet could well be a treasure trove
00:14:36 --> 00:14:38 where a multitude of metals might be
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 detected but have not been observed in
00:14:40 --> 00:14:42 the atmospheres of any other planets
00:14:42 --> 00:14:45 before. After careful analysis, the
00:14:45 --> 00:14:47 authors indeed found strong signals of
00:14:47 --> 00:14:50 vaporized sodium, magnesium, raium, and
00:14:50 --> 00:14:51 the rare earth metals scandium and
00:14:52 --> 00:14:54 utitrium. The latter three of these have
00:14:54 --> 00:14:55 never been detected robustly in the
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 atmosphere of an exoplanet before. The
00:14:58 --> 00:15:00 authors were also able to use these
00:15:00 --> 00:15:02 signals to estimate at what altitude in
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 the planet's atmosphere these atoms were
00:15:04 --> 00:15:06 absorbing and to learn more about strong
00:15:06 --> 00:15:08 global wind patterns high up in the
00:15:08 --> 00:15:10 planet's atmosphere. Wind patterns that
00:15:10 --> 00:15:12 are blowing material from one hemisphere
00:15:12 --> 00:15:15 to the other. This report from Kevin
00:15:15 --> 00:15:17 Hang and Yan Shriarkers from the
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 University of Burn. I'm Kevin Hang. I'm
00:15:20 --> 00:15:22 a theoretical astrophysicist who is
00:15:22 --> 00:15:24 interested in exoplanets, planets around
00:15:24 --> 00:15:28 other stars beyond our solar system. I'm
00:15:28 --> 00:15:30 currently a professor of astrophysics at
00:15:30 --> 00:15:31 the University of Bayon in Switzerland
00:15:31 --> 00:15:34 and the director of his center for space
00:15:34 --> 00:15:35 and
00:15:35 --> 00:15:37 habitability. My name is Yanu Marakers.
00:15:38 --> 00:15:39 I am from the Netherlands but I've
00:15:39 --> 00:15:41 worked at the center for space and
00:15:41 --> 00:15:45 habitability in University of Bayon and
00:15:45 --> 00:15:48 the observatory of Geneva. My interest
00:15:48 --> 00:15:50 is the study of the atmospheres of
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 exoplanets
00:15:52 --> 00:15:55 uh using very large telescopes that are
00:15:55 --> 00:15:58 spread out all over the world. Kelt 9b
00:15:58 --> 00:16:02 is a very hot gas giant planet. You can
00:16:02 --> 00:16:05 imagine it as a planet that is somewhat
00:16:05 --> 00:16:07 similar as Jupiter in our own solar
00:16:07 --> 00:16:09 system but it is located very close to
00:16:10 --> 00:16:13 its host star. And that itself is not
00:16:13 --> 00:16:15 necessarily special because we know of
00:16:15 --> 00:16:18 many planets that are like this. We call
00:16:18 --> 00:16:20 them hot Jupiters. But this planet is
00:16:20 --> 00:16:22 orbiting a particularly hot star as
00:16:22 --> 00:16:24 well. And that means that it is the
00:16:24 --> 00:16:27 hottest exoplanet that we know exists
00:16:27 --> 00:16:29 today. So what we have discovered in the
00:16:29 --> 00:16:32 atmosphere of kelp 9b is that it
00:16:32 --> 00:16:36 contains in gaseous form uh heavy metals
00:16:36 --> 00:16:39 such as iron, titanium, chromium and
00:16:39 --> 00:16:41 other heavy metals that have never been
00:16:41 --> 00:16:43 observed in the atmosphere of a planet
00:16:43 --> 00:16:46 before. In the atmosphere of kelp 9b, we
00:16:46 --> 00:16:49 have detected a number of heavy metals
00:16:49 --> 00:16:51 and two of these are what we call rare
00:16:51 --> 00:16:54 earth metals, scandium and itrium. And
00:16:54 --> 00:16:56 these have not been observed in the
00:16:56 --> 00:16:58 atmosphere of any planet before. To
00:16:58 --> 00:17:00 study what the atmosphere of a planet is
00:17:00 --> 00:17:03 made of, astronomers make use of a
00:17:03 --> 00:17:04 technique called
00:17:04 --> 00:17:07 spectroscopy. So the light from the
00:17:07 --> 00:17:10 exoplanet system will reach our
00:17:10 --> 00:17:13 telescope. And the telescope instead of
00:17:13 --> 00:17:16 making a picture, it will feed the light
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18 into the instrument called a
00:17:18 --> 00:17:21 specttograph. And the specttoraph acts
00:17:21 --> 00:17:24 to disperse the light into its
00:17:24 --> 00:17:27 individual colors like a rainbow. Now
00:17:27 --> 00:17:30 this rainbow will tell us how bright the
00:17:30 --> 00:17:32 object is at each of its individual
00:17:32 --> 00:17:35 colors. But the material that is present
00:17:35 --> 00:17:39 in the planet will absorb colors at very
00:17:39 --> 00:17:44 specific places. And uh for many uh for
00:17:44 --> 00:17:48 many atoms or species that can be a very
00:17:48 --> 00:17:50 complicated pattern of colors that is
00:17:50 --> 00:17:52 absorbed. So you can think of that as
00:17:52 --> 00:17:54 some sort of a fingerprint. Every atom
00:17:54 --> 00:17:57 has its unique pattern of colors or its
00:17:57 --> 00:17:59 unique fingerprint that it absorbs. So
00:17:59 --> 00:18:01 by passing the light through a
00:18:01 --> 00:18:04 specttoraph and seeing at which colors
00:18:04 --> 00:18:06 the light has absorbed, we will be able
00:18:06 --> 00:18:09 to distinguish which elements are
00:18:09 --> 00:18:11 present in the object. even if it's many
00:18:11 --> 00:18:13 light years away. So, one of the reasons
00:18:13 --> 00:18:16 why we are so uh interested almost
00:18:16 --> 00:18:17 obsessed with this technique is because
00:18:18 --> 00:18:21 it's very general. It makes us think of
00:18:21 --> 00:18:23 molecules and atoms as fingerprints of
00:18:23 --> 00:18:25 an exoplanet. So once you accept that
00:18:25 --> 00:18:27 idea, you can use this idea to search
00:18:27 --> 00:18:29 for anything you want. In the case of
00:18:29 --> 00:18:32 K9B, we searched for metals, but you
00:18:32 --> 00:18:33 could imagine in the future that we
00:18:33 --> 00:18:35 could use it to search for bio
00:18:35 --> 00:18:39 signatures, so signs of life in another
00:18:39 --> 00:18:41 exoplanet. That's Kevin Hang in
00:18:41 --> 00:18:44 Shremarkers from the University of Burn
00:18:44 --> 00:18:46 and this is
00:18:46 --> 00:19:01 [Music]
00:19:01 --> 00:19:03 spacetime. And time now to take another
00:19:03 --> 00:19:05 brief look at some of the other stories
00:19:05 --> 00:19:06 making news in science this week with a
00:19:06 --> 00:19:09 science report. A new study suggests
00:19:09 --> 00:19:11 that you can now blame when you were
00:19:11 --> 00:19:13 conceived for how you store fat. A
00:19:13 --> 00:19:15 report in the journal Nature Metabolism
00:19:15 --> 00:19:17 has found that people who are conceived
00:19:17 --> 00:19:19 during colder seasons may grow up to
00:19:19 --> 00:19:21 store fat differently in their body,
00:19:21 --> 00:19:23 putting them at an advantage when it
00:19:23 --> 00:19:25 comes to weight loss. The authors
00:19:25 --> 00:19:26 investigated the density of different
00:19:26 --> 00:19:29 types of fat in 683 people and then
00:19:29 --> 00:19:31 compared them based on whether they were
00:19:31 --> 00:19:33 conceived in the warmer or cooler half
00:19:33 --> 00:19:35 of the year. They found that those
00:19:35 --> 00:19:37 conceived in cooler months generally
00:19:37 --> 00:19:39 showed higher levels of brown fat
00:19:39 --> 00:19:41 activity which is used to regulate body
00:19:41 --> 00:19:43 temperature and which has been linked to
00:19:43 --> 00:19:45 more energy expenditure, more heat
00:19:45 --> 00:19:47 production, less fat accumulation around
00:19:47 --> 00:19:50 body organs and lower body mass
00:19:50 --> 00:19:53 index. Paleontologists have for the
00:19:53 --> 00:19:55 first time analyzed the soft body tissue
00:19:55 --> 00:19:58 of a fossilized 183 million year old
00:19:58 --> 00:20:00 plesiosaur. The results reported in the
00:20:00 --> 00:20:02 journal current biology showed that the
00:20:02 --> 00:20:05 long neck marine reptile had both smooth
00:20:05 --> 00:20:07 and scaly skin. This was likely so that
00:20:07 --> 00:20:09 it could swim rapidly and move along
00:20:09 --> 00:20:12 rough seabeds. Plesiosaurs lived in the
00:20:12 --> 00:20:15 wards oceans for much of the misoic era
00:20:15 --> 00:20:18 between 203 and 66 million years ago.
00:20:18 --> 00:20:20 These reptiles could grow up to 12 m
00:20:20 --> 00:20:22 long. They fed on fish and they moved
00:20:22 --> 00:20:24 much like sea turtles using four
00:20:24 --> 00:20:27 paddlike flippers. Until now, little had
00:20:27 --> 00:20:29 been known about the external anatomy of
00:20:29 --> 00:20:32 plesiosaurs. Fossilized soft tissue such
00:20:32 --> 00:20:34 as skin and internal organs is
00:20:34 --> 00:20:36 exceptionally rare. The specimen was
00:20:36 --> 00:20:39 found near Holtz Martin in Germany and
00:20:39 --> 00:20:41 provides unparalleled insights into the
00:20:41 --> 00:20:43 appearance and biology of these long
00:20:43 --> 00:20:44 extinct
00:20:45 --> 00:20:47 reptiles. A new study has found that
00:20:47 --> 00:20:49 chatbots make inconsistent moral
00:20:49 --> 00:20:51 judgments. A report in the journal of
00:20:51 --> 00:20:54 the Royal Society Open Science presented
00:20:54 --> 00:20:55 large language models with a moral
00:20:55 --> 00:20:57 dilemma a self-driving car might
00:20:57 --> 00:20:59 encounter and then prompted them to
00:20:59 --> 00:21:01 choose the better of two options. For
00:21:01 --> 00:21:03 example, either hitting and killing the
00:21:03 --> 00:21:05 pedestrian or swerving into a barrier
00:21:05 --> 00:21:07 and killing the car's occupants.
00:21:07 --> 00:21:09 However, the scientists found that small
00:21:09 --> 00:21:11 changes to the prompts like labeling
00:21:11 --> 00:21:13 options with letters instead of numbers
00:21:13 --> 00:21:15 is all that it takes for a chatbot to
00:21:15 --> 00:21:17 choose differently. The authors say
00:21:17 --> 00:21:20 previous research to identify chatbots
00:21:20 --> 00:21:22 moral biases treated them as having
00:21:22 --> 00:21:24 moral values like humans. But this new
00:21:24 --> 00:21:26 study shows their behavior is
00:21:26 --> 00:21:28 fundamentally different. They suggest
00:21:28 --> 00:21:30 future research should assist the
00:21:30 --> 00:21:32 reliability of large language models
00:21:32 --> 00:21:35 before trying to understand their
00:21:35 --> 00:21:37 behavior. YouTube is celebrating its
00:21:37 --> 00:21:40 20th birthday. Two decades of everything
00:21:40 --> 00:21:42 from funny cat videos to major
00:21:42 --> 00:21:44 historical moments in time. With the
00:21:44 --> 00:21:46 details, we're joined by technology
00:21:46 --> 00:21:49 editor Alex Sahara from techadvice.life.
00:21:49 --> 00:21:53 Yes, they're celebrating 20 years in the
00:21:53 --> 00:21:54 business. They're the number two most
00:21:54 --> 00:21:56 visited website on the internet. It's
00:21:56 --> 00:21:58 the place you go. They have competition
00:21:58 --> 00:22:00 from Rumble and other places, but
00:22:00 --> 00:22:02 YouTube is well Google. I mean, Google
00:22:02 --> 00:22:04 is still despite despite all the AI,
00:22:04 --> 00:22:06 despite chat GBT, despite all the things
00:22:06 --> 00:22:08 that are happening, Google is number one
00:22:08 --> 00:22:10 and YouTube is number two. I mean,
00:22:10 --> 00:22:11 people YouTube is owned by Google
00:22:11 --> 00:22:13 anyway. Yeah, that's right. And YouTube
00:22:13 --> 00:22:14 is used like a search engine. I mean, so
00:22:14 --> 00:22:16 many people discover how to do things
00:22:16 --> 00:22:18 by, you know, it's monkey see monkey do.
00:22:18 --> 00:22:19 You see someone on the internet showing
00:22:19 --> 00:22:21 how to fix your car or fix something
00:22:21 --> 00:22:22 that you have that, you know, you need
00:22:22 --> 00:22:25 the instructions to, and people bring up
00:22:25 --> 00:22:26 YouTube and watch a video there. But,
00:22:26 --> 00:22:28 uh, over the 20 years, there's a few
00:22:28 --> 00:22:30 different interesting milestones. I
00:22:30 --> 00:22:32 mean, the first clip was 19 seconds long
00:22:32 --> 00:22:34 called Me at the Zoo, and you can still
00:22:34 --> 00:22:36 watch that today, but there are now over
00:22:36 --> 00:22:39 20 billion videos on YouTube, and that's
00:22:39 --> 00:22:41 music and shorts and podcasts. Uh, but
00:22:42 --> 00:22:43 will anything beat a cat playing a
00:22:43 --> 00:22:46 piano? Well, of course it was one of the
00:22:46 --> 00:22:48 uh famous videos as well. I mean, a lot
00:22:48 --> 00:22:50 of the memes and things that you now see
00:22:50 --> 00:22:52 on X or other places or little snippets
00:22:52 --> 00:22:54 taken out of, you know, popular videos.
00:22:54 --> 00:22:56 But there's some interesting stats.
00:22:56 --> 00:22:57 There are over 20 million videos
00:22:57 --> 00:23:00 uploaded daily to YouTube and so many
00:23:00 --> 00:23:02 people have their own YouTube shows and
00:23:02 --> 00:23:03 have become stars like Mr. Beast. Both
00:23:03 --> 00:23:06 YouTube music and YouTube Kids are 10
00:23:06 --> 00:23:08 years old each this year as well. So
00:23:08 --> 00:23:10 that's sort of halfway through YouTube's
00:23:10 --> 00:23:11 lifespan. And there's a lot of music
00:23:11 --> 00:23:13 videos that have hit the billion views
00:23:13 --> 00:23:15 club. There's more than 300 of those.
00:23:15 --> 00:23:17 Number one is Adele with Hello. Number
00:23:17 --> 00:23:19 two is Ed Sheeran with Shape of You and
00:23:19 --> 00:23:22 Lewis Fona with Despacito. But uh yeah,
00:23:22 --> 00:23:24 YouTube is 20 years old, and it'll be
00:23:24 --> 00:23:25 interesting to see how it changes in the
00:23:26 --> 00:23:27 next 20 years. The other big news, we
00:23:27 --> 00:23:29 just covered it last week, but it's
00:23:29 --> 00:23:30 happening again. Another update for
00:23:30 --> 00:23:32 Samsung. In early April, there were a
00:23:32 --> 00:23:35 number of updates for I think the S24
00:23:35 --> 00:23:36 series in different parts of the world
00:23:36 --> 00:23:39 to get 1 UI7. But in Australia, we've
00:23:39 --> 00:23:41 had to wait until the last week of April
00:23:41 --> 00:23:43 for them to arrive here. So that's 1 UI
00:23:43 --> 00:23:46 7 and Android 15. There's a lot of extra
00:23:46 --> 00:23:48 and newer AI features that have improved
00:23:48 --> 00:23:51 over what was delivered last year. But
00:23:51 --> 00:23:53 interestingly, Android 16 is going to be
00:23:53 --> 00:23:54 released about three or four months
00:23:54 --> 00:23:57 earlier. And the big Google IO is coming
00:23:57 --> 00:23:59 this month. And so this is where Google
00:23:59 --> 00:24:01 is going to unveil and showcase Android
00:24:01 --> 00:24:03 16. Normally it comes when the new
00:24:03 --> 00:24:05 Pixels arrive, but they've decided to
00:24:05 --> 00:24:07 amp up the pressure on Apple and
00:24:07 --> 00:24:08 everybody else and they want to have
00:24:08 --> 00:24:10 Android 16 ready to go. So we're going
00:24:10 --> 00:24:12 to see a whole stack of new features,
00:24:12 --> 00:24:15 but this also means that 1 UI8 is going
00:24:15 --> 00:24:17 to arrive as well. So a lot of people
00:24:17 --> 00:24:19 who are just upgrading to 1 UI 7 will in
00:24:20 --> 00:24:22 a few months time get 1 UI8. Hopefully
00:24:22 --> 00:24:24 we won't have to wait till 2026 for
00:24:24 --> 00:24:26 that. But Google has decided that it
00:24:26 --> 00:24:28 really wants to accelerate the Android
00:24:28 --> 00:24:30 time scale. So, it looks as though
00:24:30 --> 00:24:32 they're going to be beating Apple every
00:24:32 --> 00:24:34 year by launching the newest version of
00:24:34 --> 00:24:36 Android before the newest version of
00:24:36 --> 00:24:38 iOS. So, the big battle between Apple
00:24:38 --> 00:24:40 and Google continues. And at the moment,
00:24:40 --> 00:24:42 Google and Samsung are winning the AI
00:24:42 --> 00:24:44 race much more than Apple is. In fact,
00:24:44 --> 00:24:46 we're yet to see what Apple is going to
00:24:46 --> 00:24:47 do because a lot of the big AI features
00:24:47 --> 00:24:49 that were meant to come, you know, by
00:24:49 --> 00:24:52 18.4, the iOS 18.4 didn't arrive. Apple
00:24:52 --> 00:24:53 was very embarrassed about that. And yet
00:24:53 --> 00:24:55 on Samsung and Google devices, you can
00:24:55 --> 00:24:57 do a lot more with Google Gemini, you
00:24:57 --> 00:24:59 can hold the phone up and look at
00:24:59 --> 00:25:00 different things and it can explain to
00:25:00 --> 00:25:01 you what it's seeing. In fact, one of
00:25:02 --> 00:25:03 the features you'll be able to upload a
00:25:03 --> 00:25:06 video into Gemini with Android 16 and it
00:25:06 --> 00:25:07 can tell you what it sees and help you
00:25:07 --> 00:25:09 understand what it is you're watching
00:25:09 --> 00:25:11 and it's going to be great for consumers
00:25:11 --> 00:25:13 globally. That's Alexarovit from
00:25:13 --> 00:25:17 techadvice.life.
00:25:17 --> 00:25:22 [Music]
00:25:30 --> 00:25:33 and that's the show for now. Spaceime is
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