Auroras and Cosmic Craters: Unveiling Earth's Spectacular Space Weather and Impact Discoveries

This is Spacetime Series twenty eight, Episode one hundred and thirty five for broadcasts on the seventeenth of November twenty twenty five. Coming up on Space Time, spectacular auroral activity cover the planet skies, Earth's largest modern impact crater discovered in southern China, and a key NASA communications disc damaged and out of action. All that and more coming up on space Time. Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary. Planet Earth's been treated to a spectacular series of auroral displays, the Aurora Australas and Aurora Borealis. The Southern and Northern lights were triggered by three massive X class solar flares, including a next five point one event on November eleven, Remember and Stay, which was the most powerful blast this year and the most intense since October twenty twenty four. These explosions triggered a series of chronal mass ejections or CMEs, including a fast so called Cannibal CME, traveling at fifteen hundred kilomets per second, which caught up with and consumed to earlier CMEs as all three headed directly towards the Earth. The events were monitored by so ASLASCOW and the GOES nineteen core one chronographs. The X five point one event was caused by an eruption from a highly active sunspot region known as AAR forty two to seventy four, which had been erupting violently for days. AAR forty two seventy four is enormous, with primary duck umbracres as wide or even wider than the Earth and an overall active region more than a dozen earths in diameter. The number of sun spots on the solar surface increases as the Sun moves towards solar maximum solar MAX, the climax of its eleven year solar cycle. The current solar cycle twenty five began back in November twenty nineteen, and he's now at its peak, so this sort of activity really isn't all that unusual. Sunspots are cooler and hence darker looking regions on the Sun's surface caused by magnetic field lines from deep inside the Sun extending out into space. As different latitudes of the Sun rotate at different rates, these magnetic field lines become twisted and can snap, causing magnetic reconnection and triggering powerful blasts of energy called solar flares. Solar flares are categorized in five main groups, A, B, C, M, and X based on their X ray intensity, with X being the most powerful. Each class represents a logarithmic tenfold increase in energy, and each grouping is further divided into subclasses from one to nine, except for X class events which can exceed nine and so are considered open ended. Solar flares can trigger coronal mass ejections or CMEs. These are blasts of magnetic energy in charged particle or plasma from the Sun which can be flung deep into space as geomagnetic storms. When these solar storms reach the Earth, the flux of ionized particles can slam into the planet's magnetosphere and are guided by the planet's magnetic field lines through the ionosphere, a region already filled with charged particles, and down towards the north and South magnetic poles. This triggers the excitation of atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, causing auroral displays, just like those we've just witnessed. Different atoms and molecules light up in different colors at different altitudes. The colours being emitted depends on the particles being ionized reddish brown glows are caused by the collision of particles with single oxygen atoms in the Earth's upper atmosphere, usually above three hundred kilometers. Lower down, a green hue is created by single oxygen atoms. Down to an altitude of around one hundred kilometers, the kaleidoscope turns to a whitish, yellowish beige, and nitrogens mixed in with the oxygen. Aurora also exhibit blue, red, and evil purple blows in the lower atmosphere. These are caused by the excitation of molecular nitrogen Below one hundred kilometers. Auroral displays are common at high latitudes, but these latest events were seen globally at far lower latitudes than usual, including reports from Sydney and even as far north as Cairns in tropical Queensland north of the equator. Auroral activity was seen as far south as Florida. Space weather forecaster Gene Young from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology says auroral events are spectacular and well worth a look if you get the chance. You do have to be pretty lucky to see an aurora, but if you do see one, you won't be disappointed. The brightest auroras are concentrated in rings called the aurora ovals around the North or South poles. The auroras in the northern hemisphere are called Aurora borealis. Southern lights are called Aurora australis. Astrallus comes from the Latin word for southern Their best feud from Antarctica tasmi and the southern mainland coastlines. The colors displayed by an aurora are generally visible to the naked eye if you're near the pooles. This is because the aurora is overhead and more intense. However, at lower latitudes, the auroras are on the horizon, less color is seen by the naked eye. The lights tend to be shades of gray. However, if there is a high intense solar storm, there will be more color. Auroras can occur at any time in the year, but they're most likely to occur during the months of March and September. That's when the Earth's magnetic field is best oriented to interact with the solar wind. Of course, you ideally need a dark night with little cloud cover. You don't want a bright moon or any light pollution, so good location is a dark beach or a hill where you have an unobstructed view to the south. Bright auroras usually last for one to three hours, and the best viewing time is around midnight between ten pm and two am. When we forecast solar wind conditions that look favorable for auras occurring in the next one to three days, the forecasters from the Bureau Space Weather Center issue what's called an aurora watch notice when there's a high chance that there will be an aurora visible. Now, we issue an aurora alert. To be truthful, nothing beat seeing an aurora with the naked. Eye that space with the forecast Genine Young from the Bureau of Meteorology. But as well as spectacular auroral displays, these space wheather events can damage or even destroy spacecraft. They can disrupt communications and navigation systems, force aircraft to change their flight paths, trigger widespread power blackouts, and increase radiation exposure for astronauts and people in high altitude aircraft. All three of the coronal mass ejections last week slammed into the Earth, with the most severe X five point one class event, powerful enough to cause radio blackouts across Africa and Europe and disrupt high frequency communications on Earth. Sunlit side. Forecasters from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration NOAH are evaluating the Sun's activity and they could increase the threat level. According to the Space Weather Scales, there is currently a G three watching effect, which means there's a strong chance a geomagnetic storm could disrupt its magnetic field and effect communications. If NOAH raises the watch level to a G four, that means there's a higher chance of widespread problems with electrical communications and spacecraft operations. The highest watch level is a G five. This report from NOAH. What is space weather? When you think of weather, you probably think of Earth's weather snow, rain, and of course sunshine. Thank goodness, we only have Earth's weather to worry about, right. Actually that's not quite true. Did you know the Sun has weather? Two. We call this space weather. The Sun is a bubbling, boiling ball of gas and energy. It constantly belches out great clouds of hot gas that is charged up with electricity. This stuff travels through space really fast, some of it right toward Earth. This means that Earth's weather happens inside the Sun's weather. Thank goodness, we're mostly protected from this blast by Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere. Solar wind flows outward from the Sun charged particles, and that solar wind interact with Earth's magnetic field. That interaction can cause energy and particles to stream down to Earth's poles. When these charged particles hit oxygen and nitrogen atoms in Earth's atmosphere, the energy from the collision can create beautiful shades of green and red. We call these glowing colors the Northern lights and Southern lights, or the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australia. They are beautiful curtains of light that move and sway in the night sky. But sometimes the Sun releases more energy than usual. These sudden and intense hiccups and burbs are called solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These are huge explosions of high energy X rays, charged particles, and magnetic field. When the Sun's burps of X rays and charged particles and magnetic field reach Earth, they can cause trouble. Bad space weather can interrupt radio signals. It can also damage satellites. Electrical systems that bring power to our homes and businesses can be knocked out by this bad space weather too. That is why the goes short for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite has instruments like the Solar X Ray Imager to monitor the space around Earth for an increase in high energy particles from the Sun. We can't see the Sun's harmful X rays with our eyes, but these special telescopes can. Forecasters at the Space Weather Prediction Center analyze these observations and issue alerts and warnings about space weather that could harm satellites and the power grid. With early detection from satellites like the goes Are series, power companies and satellite operators alike will have enough time to adapt to any troubling space weather headed our way. This is space time still to come. Earth's largest modern impact credit discovered in southern China, and a key NASA communications dishes damaged and out of action. All that and most still to colm on space time, scientists have discovered what appears to be the largest modern impact crater on Earth. The nine hundred meters wide Ginlling Crater was founding Guandong Province in southern China, nestled on a hillside and preserved within thick granite weathering crust. A report in the journal Matter and Radiation at Extremes claims the impact structure dates to Earth's current geological epoch and is remarkably well preserved now. Based on measurements of nearby soil erosion. The studies authors claim the impact likely hit during the early to mid Holocene, that's the current geological epoch, which began at the end of the Last Ice Age around eleven thousand, seven hundred years ago. The steadiesly author Mingcheng says it's one of only around two hundred identified craters worldwide and could provide new insights on how extraterrestrial bodies collide with the Earth. It's also the largest known impact crater from the Holocene, far exceeding Russia's three hundred made a Malca crater, previously the largest known impact structure from this eparch. Ming says the discovery shows that the scale of impacts from small extraterrestrial objects on the Earth in the Holocene is far greater than previously recorded. In this case, the impact would have been a metia or rather than a comet, which would have left a crater at least ten kilometers wide. However, Ming and colleagues have not yet determined whether the impacting meteorite was made of iron or stone. The authors say one of the most surprising traits of the crater is how well preserved it is, especially given the regions monsoons, heavy rainfall, and high humidity, all conditions that accelerate erosion within the granite layers that helped to protect and preserve of the impact structure. The authors found many pieces of quartz with unique micro features called planar defamation features. Geologists can use this as evidence for some specific types of impacts. Ming says on Earth, the formation of planar deformation features in quartz only happens in really intense shock waves generated by telets to your body impacts, and its formation pressure ranges from ten to thirty five gigapascals, which is a shock effect that cannot be produced by any geological processes of the Earth itself. Now, it's generally accepted that throughout Earth's history, virtually every point on the planet's surface faces a roughly equal chance of being hit by an extraterrestrial object. However, geological differences mean the historical footprints of these impacts have been eroded at different rates, and many have now fully disappeared, and that makes the Ginlin Crater's discovery especially significant, Ming, says the impact crater is a true record of Earth's impact history, and the discovery can provide scientists with a more objective basis for understanding the distribution, geological evolution, and impact history of small terrestrial bodies. This is space time still to come. NASAs confirmed that its key seventy meter Goldstone deep space communications dish is out of service following a major accident, and later when the science report a new study says twenty twenty five won't be the hottest yur on record, but it will come in second or third. All that and more still to come on spacetime. NASA has now confirmed that its key seventy meter Goldstone deep space communications dish is out of service following a major accident back in September. A re book by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Passing to California, which operates the facility, says the antenna, located near Barstow, was over rotated, damaging cabling and piping in the center of the structure. JPL says hoses from the antenna's fire suppression system were also damaged in the incident, resulting in flooding. There is no timetable yet for its return to service. The antenna, designated DSS fourteen is the largest at the Goldstone complex and is essential for communication with multiple missions. Now. The facility does have four other antennas, but they're all small at thirty four meta dishes. NASAs Deep Space Network does have two other seventy meta dishes, one at its camera facility at Tidbinbilla and the other near Madrid in Spain, but the loss of DSS fourteen is putting extra strain on the rest of the network, which is already at capacity, especially with the upcoming Artemis two man mission to the Moon, which is slated for launch in April next year, although an earlier launch date of February is being considered. Other missions being affected include the web Space Telescope, with scientists having to adjust its operations because of the reduced access to the network following DSS fourteen's failure. This is Space Time and Time out to take a brief look at some of the other stories making us in science this week. With a science report, The World Meteorological Organization says twenty twenty five won't be the hottest year on record, but it will come in second or third. The new projections were released as part of the State of the Climate update ahead of the COP thirty conference in Brazil. The new findings continue an alarming streak of hot years, with the eleven most recent years making up the eleven hottest years since records began. Average global temperatures between January and August this year were on average about one point four to two degrees above pre industrial levels. But the COP thirty conference itself has been widely criticized because of the devastation its cause to the very environment it's supposed to be protecting. Hypocritically, the authorities behind the conference clear felled hundreds of thousands of lush, old growth rainforest trees to construct a new thirteen kilomet along four lane high way so attendees could travel to the conference and comfort. The diggers and machines carved through rainforest flows, paving over pristine wetlands to surface the highway, which cuts through a protected area and now prevents animals from crossing, reducing the areas where they can live and breed. It's also worth noting that most of the more than fifty thousand people attending the conference are flying in, many on private jets. A new study has shown that left wing extremism is linked to toxic, psychopathic tendencies and narcissism. The findings, reported in the journal Current Psychology, show a link between those suffering from psychological behavior known as the dark ego vehicle principle and higher levels of left wing authoritarianism and narcissism. The authors found individuals with dark personalities such as high narcissistic and psychopathic traits, are attracted to certain forms of political and social activism, which they can then use as a vehicle to satisfy their own ego focused needs instead of actually aiming at social justice and equality. The authors say certain forms of activism appear to provide these people with opportunities for positive self presentation and displays of moral superiority virtue signaling in order to gain social status, to dominate others, and to engage in social conflicts and aggression to satisfy their needs. The study also found that these people don't actually practice what they preach. However, The author's also stress that authoritarianism exists on both sides the political spectrum, and there's already extensive research in the field of right wing authoritarianism, but until now, research on authoritarianism observed in individuals or supporters of left wing political ideologies has been far more rare. Scientists of unearthed Australia's oldest known crocodile eggshells, which may have belonged to predators that climbed trees to hunt for prey below. A report in the journal Vertebrate Paleontology claims the fifty five millionaure at egg shells, which were found on a farm in Queensland, belonged to a long extinct group of five meter long crocodiles known as Mikue Succi's, which lived in inland waters at a time when Australia at Arctica in South America was still joined into a super continent. These semi arboreal carnivores have now been nicknamed drop crocs because of their hunting technique of dropping out of trees to unsuspecting prey. Auth authorities in Australia have issued another measles alert. The warning comes as death threats from preventable diseases like measles are on a dramatic rise thanks to anti vaccination campaigns by pseudo scientific lobbies. Tim Mindem from Australian skeptics, says, the latest figures are very concerning. I worry actually that the United States have seen a measles outbreak, you could call them epidemic books and outbreak that's more severe than anything they've seen in the last thirty three years. In nineteen ninety two, the number of cases was papering away and had remained at a low one hundred till spiking again in twenty twenty and now in twenty twenty five, and now it's the highest nupper they've had for thirty three years. In America. Was regarded as wiped out. It shouldn't have been there except for people bringing it into the country. So it's not endemic to the US. It has to be important, same for most western countries of the world. Actually, measles was that close to being wiped out entirely. And this is one of the frustrating things that skeptics to medical people everywhere yet involved with. When you talk about the anti vaccination move, you basically need about ninety five percent people vaccinated to put a lock on measles being passed around. And measles is highly contagious, right, it's probably the emails contagious disease, So you need about ninety five percent people to reach that herd immunity level. In America at the moment, it's about ninety two percent done a bit doesn't sound like a lot, but enough to get this thing in the system. And therefore what's happening is that people are dying, often as kids. Right, there's a number of kids cases who people who have died. They had one thousand and two and eighty eight confirmed cases in the US this year to date, and that doesn't sound like a lot. It's a lot more than it was and most measles cases. Yes, people can get over it and it's unpleasant and all. That sort of thing makes you feel pretty ill, but it can make you and a concurrio, and that's in extreme cases. But it's enough to make you worry about people allowing it to come in. The story that has gone down to ninety two from ninety five where it was is that people are hesitant about vaccines anti vaccine movement. People felt a bit over vaccinated during the COVID pandemic and therefore that number has been dropping away. Same thing is happening elsewhere in the world around Liverpool in the UK, there's been several deaths again often kids, which is the really sad bit. And Liverpool's vaccination rate has dropped dramatically. In the area northwest of England, we don't think we're talking about ninety five percent and nes it's for herd immunity. Northwest of England the figure is eighty five percent and around Liverpool it's seventy three percent according to National Health Service data. So you're talking about about a serious issue of a huge window being opened for highly contagious diseases like measles and mumps and rubella and eventually looking at polio and who knows what else is going to be sort of snuck in, not even under the radar, big doors being opened up by anti vaxx's misinformation, fear attacked and atity generally, that's a big issue as well. This is the serious end of the pseudo science scale of things, as opposed to the fun bits that the skeptics deal with, the sasquatches and lockness monsters of things usos. This is the deadly end. You talk about this with people who becomes very dark and unfortunately that's the case here. People opening the door through these other deadly diseases, preventable diseases. A vaccination will take it away, not let you catch it in the first place, to allow your body to get used to it and be able to fight. It's a very sad situation, a very worrying situation. That's timendum from Ustria and Skeptics, and that's the show for now. Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through fites dot com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast download, and from space Time with Stuart Gary dot com. Space Time's also broadcast through the National Science Foundation, on Science Own Radio and on both iHeartRadio and tune In Radio. And you can help to support our show by visiting the Spacetime Store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies, or by becoming a Spacetime Patron, which gives you access to triple episode commercial free versions of the show, as well as lots of bonnus audio content which doesn't go to air, access to our exclusive Facebook group, and other rewards. Just go to space Time with Stuart Gary dot com for full details. You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary. This has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com