Barnard's New Neighbour, Hera's Asteroid Mission, and the Sun's Fiery Ring

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: This is SpaceTime Series 27, Episode 121, for broadcasts on the 7th of October 2024.

[00:00:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Coming up on SpaceTime, scientists discover a planet orbiting the nearest single start of the Sun,

[00:00:13] [SPEAKER_00]: the European Space Agency's Planetary Defence HERA mission slated for launch today,

[00:00:19] [SPEAKER_00]: and a spectacular ring of fire around the Sun.

[00:00:23] [SPEAKER_00]: All that and more coming up on SpaceTime.

[00:00:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to SpaceTime with Stuart Gary

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Astronomers have discovered a planet orbiting Barnard Star, the closest single start of the Sun.

[00:00:52] [SPEAKER_00]: The newly discovered exoplanet has about half the mass of the Earth and orbits its host star in just over three Earth days.

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Barnard Star is a small spectral type M red dwarf star in the constellation Afusius.

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_00]: It's located some 5.96 light years from the Sun.

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_00]: That makes it the nearest start of the Sun after the Alpha Centauri triple star system.

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_00]: They're located around 4.3 light years away.

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Barnard Star has a mass about 16% that of the Sun, and it has about 19% of the Sun's diameter.

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_00]: The new planetary discovery, reported in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics,

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_00]: was made using the European Southern Observatory's very large telescope, the VLT.

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_00]: And the observations don't end there.

[00:01:38] [SPEAKER_00]: There are also some tantalising hints at the possible existence of three more exoplanetary candidates in various orbits around the star.

[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And that could make this star system a reflection of our own solar system.

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Despite a promising detection back in 2018,

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_00]: no planet orbiting Barnard Star had been confirmed until now.

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_00]: The study's lead author, Johnny Gonzalez Hernandez from the Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands,

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_00]: says the new discovery was the result of more than five years of observations.

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_00]: See, the team were looking for signals of possible exoplanets within the star's habitable zone.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: That's the distance from the star where temperatures would allow liquid water,

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_00]: essential for life as we know it, to exist on the planet's surface.

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Red dwarves, like Barnard Star, are often targeted by astronomers

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_00]: because their habitable zones are much closer into the star than hotter stars like our Sun.

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_00]: That means the planets orbiting within this zone have shorter orbital periods,

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_00]: allowing astronomers to monitor them over several days or weeks rather than years.

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Also, because red dwarf stars are far less massive than the Sun,

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_00]: they're more easily disturbed by the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet around them.

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, their spectral movements towards and away from the observer are more easily identified.

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_00]: In other words, they're easier to spot by the wobble method.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_00]: The new planet, which has been named Barnard B,

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_00]: is about 20 times closer to Barnard Star than Mercury is to the Sun.

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_00]: That gives it a surface temperature of around 125 degrees Celsius.

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_00]: And that puts it inside the habitable zone,

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_00]: a region where it's too hot for water to exist in a liquid state.

[00:03:15] [SPEAKER_00]: What makes this discovery really interesting is that Barnard B

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_00]: is one of the lowest mass exoplanets found so far,

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_00]: and one of only a few with less mass than the Earth.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_00]: For their observations, the authors used ESPRESSO.

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_00]: That's a highly precise spectrometer,

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_00]: specifically designed to measure the wobble of a star

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_00]: caused by the gravitational pull of orbiting planets.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Interestingly, however, this new data doesn't support the existence

[00:03:40] [SPEAKER_00]: of the exoplanet first speculated to exist back in 2018.

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_00]: The observations simply no longer support that.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_00]: As I mentioned earlier, in addition to the confirmed planet,

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_00]: the authors also found hints of three more exoplanetary candidates orbiting the same star.

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_00]: These candidates, however, will require additional observations to be confirmed.

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER_00]: It's also worth noting that Barnard's star is slowly getting closer to our own solar system.

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Measurements of its proper motion through space

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_00]: show that it has a relative lateral speed of around 90 kilometers per second,

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_00]: and the star's radial velocity is 110 kilometers per second,

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_00]: as measured from its blue shift due to its motion towards the Sun.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, combined with its proper motion and distance,

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_00]: this gives it a space velocity, that is an actual speed relative to the motion of our Sun,

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_00]: of 142.6 kilometers per second.

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, when you work all that out,

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_00]: it means Barnard's star will make its closest approach to the Sun

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_00]: in around 9,800 years from now,

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_00]: at which point it'll be within 3.75 light-years of the Earth.

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_00]: That's closer than the Alpha Centauri star system is now.

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_00]: This is space time.

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Still to come,

[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_00]: The European Space Agency's HERA planetary defense mission is slated for launch today,

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_00]: and a spectacular ring of fire seen around the Sun.

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_00]: All that and more coming up on Space Time.

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_00]: The European Space Agency's HERA planetary defense mission is slated for launch today.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: The 1,125-kilogram spacecraft will fly aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force base in Florida

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_00]: on a two-year journey to the near-Earth asteroid Didymos and its tiny moon Dimorphos.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Dimorphos was the target of NASA's DART double asteroid redirection test,

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_00]: which was designed to slam an impactor spacecraft into an asteroid

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_00]: to see if they could deflect it onto a different trajectory.

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_00]: The DART spacecraft hit Dimorphos on September 26, 2022,

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: impacting the asteroid at a relative speed of 6.1 km per second.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And the crash was spectacular.

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_00]: It altered Dimorphos's orbit around Didymos,

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_00]: shortening its orbital period by around 32 minutes

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_00]: and leaving a massive crater and debris cloud in its wake.

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: The test marked the first time humanity had demonstrated its ability to deflect an asteroid,

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_00]: providing proof of concept that we might in the future be able to protect the Earth

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_00]: from a potential asteroid impact simply by altering the asteroid's path.

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Given enough time, of course.

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: HERA, which is named after the Greek goddess of marriage,

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_00]: will undertake a forensic follow-up evaluation mission,

[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_00]: finding out exactly what happened in the wake of the impact.

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Its payload includes a series of cameras, altimeters and spectrometers.

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_00]: It'll help scientists answer some key outstanding questions,

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_00]: such as the exact mass and composition of Dimorphos,

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_00]: the structural effects of the impact,

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_00]: the size of the crater formed by the collision,

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_00]: an analysis of the expanding debris cloud caused by the impact,

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_00]: and whether Dimorphos may have actually been fractured by the impact

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_00]: and is now really nothing more than a bunch of rocks held together by weak gravity.

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_00]: It'll also carry out technology demonstration experiments,

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_00]: including the deployment of ESA's first deep space cubesats,

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Melania and Juventus,

[00:07:16] [SPEAKER_00]: two small spacecraft that will approach the asteroid and eventually land on it.

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_00]: As well as gathering crucial close-up data on the surface characteristics of the asteroid,

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: HERA will explore the binary system as a whole in unprecedented detail,

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_00]: becoming the first mission to study a binary asteroid system in depth.

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_00]: It'll study both asteroids' internal porosity and structure using a low-frequency radar aboard the CubeSat Juventus.

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, Melania will help collect spectral data from the surface of both asteroids.

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_00]: It'll also help identify the presence of debris dust in the surrounding space.

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Dimorphos will be mapped completely with a spatial resolution of a few metres,

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_00]: and the vicinity of the impact will be mapped with a resolution down to just 10 centimetres.

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_00]: The mass of the moon Dimorphos will be estimated with high accuracy.

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_00]: That will allow a direct estimate of the momentum transfer efficiency of the DART impact.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_00]: That's an important step, as binary asteroid systems make up some 15% of all-known asteroids.

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_00]: The mission will also test advanced autonomous navigation technology based on visual data.

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Before rendezvousing with Didymos and Dimorphos in December 2026,

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_00]: HERA will undertake a gravity assist flyby of Mars in March next year.

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And that will give scientists the chance to study the Marsha moon Dimorphos in some detail.

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_00]: This report on the HERA mission from ESA-TV.

[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_01]: There's a mystery out there in deep space, and solving it will make Earth safer.

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_01]: That's why the European Space Agency's HERA mission is taking shape,

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_01]: to go where one particular spacecraft has gone before.

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_01]: On the 26th of September 2022, at 6.1 kilometres per second,

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_01]: NASA's DART spacecraft crashed into the Dimorphos asteroid.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Part of our solar system changed.

[00:09:10] [SPEAKER_01]: The impact shrunk the orbit of the great pyramid-sized Dimorphos around its parent asteroid,

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_01]: the mountain-sized Didymus.

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_01]: It also sent a plume of debris thousands of kilometres across space.

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_01]: This grand experiment was performed to prove we could defend Earth against an incoming asteroid

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_01]: by striking it with a spacecraft to deflect it.

[00:09:36] [SPEAKER_01]: DART succeeded, but that still leaves many things scientists don't know.

[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_01]: What is the precise mass and makeup of Dimorphos?

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_01]: What did the impact do to the asteroid?

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_01]: How big is the crater left by DART's collision?

[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Or has Dimorphos completely cracked apart, held together by its own weak gravity?

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_01]: That's why we're going back with ESA's HERA mission.

[00:10:07] [SPEAKER_01]: After a two-year trek through space and a Mars flyby,

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_01]: HERA will go into orbit around Dimorphos and begin its crash site investigation.

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER_01]: This will be a hazardous undertaking.

[00:10:22] [SPEAKER_01]: The impact might have left clouds of debris hanging in the asteroid's vicinity.

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_01]: But HERA is not going alone.

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_01]: It takes with it two briefcase-sized CubeSats to go in closer

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_01]: and take more risks than their parent spacecraft.

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_01]: One will identify the minerals making up Dimorphos,

[00:10:44] [SPEAKER_01]: while the other will unfurl a radar antenna

[00:10:47] [SPEAKER_01]: to make the first subsurface probe of an asteroid.

[00:10:51] [SPEAKER_01]: And they'll end their duties by touching down on Dimorphos

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_01]: to gather extra data on its surface and gravity field.

[00:10:59] [SPEAKER_01]: By the end of HERA's observations,

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Dimorphos will become the best-studied asteroid in history,

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_01]: which is vital,

[00:11:09] [SPEAKER_01]: because if a body of this size ever struck Earth,

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_01]: it could destroy a whole city.

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_01]: The dinosaurs had no defense against asteroids,

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_01]: because they never had a space agency.

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_01]: But through HERA,

[00:11:26] [SPEAKER_01]: we are teaching ourselves what we can do to reduce this hazard

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_01]: and make space safer.

[00:11:38] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Space Time.

[00:11:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Still to come, a spectacular ring of fire around the sun,

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_00]: and later in the science report,

[00:11:46] [SPEAKER_00]: a new study finally explains why the Tonga volcano blast

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_00]: was as powerful as it was.

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_00]: All that and more still to come on Space Time.

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_00]: The people of the East and South Pacific and South America

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_00]: have been treated to a spectacular annulus solar eclipse.

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_00]: An annulus solar eclipse occurs when the moon's elliptical orbit

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_00]: is slightly further away from the Earth,

[00:12:24] [SPEAKER_00]: making it appear smaller.

[00:12:25] [SPEAKER_00]: And so, when it lines up between the sun and the Earth

[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_00]: to create a solar eclipse,

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_00]: it doesn't quite block out all of the sun's disk,

[00:12:34] [SPEAKER_00]: but instead leaves a spectacular ring of fire in the darkened sky.

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_00]: The event began over the East and South Pacific Ocean,

[00:12:42] [SPEAKER_00]: before making landfall across the southern tip of South America.

[00:12:46] [SPEAKER_00]: People on Easter Island and parts of Argentina and Chile

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_00]: were in the best positions to witness the spectacular celestial show.

[00:12:53] [SPEAKER_00]: The narrow path of annularity then continued into the South Atlantic Ocean

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_00]: before finally ending.

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_00]: A partial eclipse was observed from Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay,

[00:13:05] [SPEAKER_00]: as well as parts of Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand,

[00:13:08] [SPEAKER_00]: and several islands in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

[00:13:11] [SPEAKER_00]: It was the second solar eclipse this year.

[00:13:14] [SPEAKER_00]: April's total solar eclipse dazzled sky watches in parts of Mexico,

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_00]: the United States, and eastern Canada.

[00:13:20] [SPEAKER_00]: The next total solar eclipse won't arrive until 2026,

[00:13:24] [SPEAKER_00]: and it'll pass over the northern fringes of Greenland, Iceland and Spain.

[00:13:28] [SPEAKER_00]: But before that, two more partial solar eclipses will take place next year,

[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_00]: one in March, the other in September.

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_00]: The March event on the 29th will be visible mainly from eastern North America,

[00:13:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Europe, Siberia and northwestern Africa.

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_00]: The year's second partial solar eclipse will take place on September the 21st,

[00:13:47] [SPEAKER_00]: and it'll be visible over Antarctica, New Zealand and the islands of the South Pacific.

[00:13:52] [SPEAKER_00]: People in Tasmania and along the east coast of Australia

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER_00]: will also be able to see just an ever-so-slight sliver of the sun covered by the moon.

[00:14:01] [SPEAKER_00]: It won't be till 2028 that Australians will get to see their next total solar eclipse.

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Space Time.

[00:14:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And time now to take a brief look at some of the other stories

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_00]: making news in science this week with a science report.

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_00]: A new study has concluded that the Hunga Tonga underwater volcano,

[00:14:34] [SPEAKER_00]: one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history,

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_00]: was triggered by an explosion, most likely due to gas-compressed rock,

[00:14:41] [SPEAKER_00]: which released as much energy as five thermonuclear explosions.

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_00]: The findings were reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters,

[00:14:49] [SPEAKER_00]: and based on computer models suggesting gas-compressed rock

[00:14:52] [SPEAKER_00]: being trapped underneath a shallow sea,

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_00]: acted as a sort of overcooked pressure cooker.

[00:14:58] [SPEAKER_00]: The study's authors from the Australian National University

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_00]: analysed the cataclysmic event's noisy but valuable seismic records

[00:15:04] [SPEAKER_00]: in order to decipher its mysterious physical mechanism.

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_00]: They found the explosion caused a massive vertical push of water upwards into the atmosphere,

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_00]: causing tsunamis that reached as high as 45 metres on nearby islands.

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Scientists have developed a version of a Zempic and Wigovie,

[00:15:23] [SPEAKER_00]: which could involve a once-a-month rather than weekly injection.

[00:15:27] [SPEAKER_00]: The study's authors, presenting their findings at the annual meeting

[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_00]: of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes,

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_00]: say they've developed a new drug delivery system

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_00]: that could cut the dosing schedule for the type 2 diabetes weight-controlled drug,

[00:15:40] [SPEAKER_00]: some eglotide, to just once a month.

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_00]: The new drug delivery system involves a hydrogel composed of two biodegradable plastics.

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_00]: These are injected under the skin and then release the drug slowly over 1-3 months.

[00:15:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Lab tests showed extended and consistent release rates over 3 months,

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_00]: suggesting the hydrogel was well-tolerated and didn't cause any inflammation.

[00:16:03] [SPEAKER_00]: A new study claims those cutesy puppy voices people often use when speaking with their pets

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER_00]: might not just be because they're overwhelmed with love,

[00:16:11] [SPEAKER_00]: but could actually have evolved over time to help man's best friend understand you better.

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_00]: A report in the journal Plus Biology analyzed the vocal sounds of 30 dogs

[00:16:22] [SPEAKER_00]: as well as 27 humans across 5 language groups speaking to other people

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_00]: and 22 humans across those same language groups speaking to dogs.

[00:16:31] [SPEAKER_00]: They also looked at the brain responses to speech in both humans and dogs.

[00:16:35] [SPEAKER_00]: They found that humans are much faster talkers than dogs with a speech rate of about 4 syllables per second,

[00:16:42] [SPEAKER_00]: while dogs tend to bark and growl and woof and whine at about 2 vocalizations per second.

[00:16:47] [SPEAKER_00]: The brain scans also found that dogs were more responsive

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_00]: to specific slower rhythms than humans usually speak.

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_00]: The results imply that people could be changing their speech and tempo

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_00]: in order to match what puppies can process.

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_00]: In a finding that's about to make every man shake in their boots with fear,

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_00]: a new study has shown that women are now more and more

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_00]: turning to psychics to find out if their husbands are cheating on them.

[00:17:13] [SPEAKER_00]: But as Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics explains,

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_00]: the study was limited, confined to those interested in a specific type of extramarital activity.

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_02]: This is a dangerous one mainly because of the source of the story actually.

[00:17:25] [SPEAKER_02]: It comes from a survey done by a romantic website dating service thing called Illicit Encounters,

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_02]: which is actually for married couples and presumably for married couples or for members thereof

[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_02]: to go out and find alternative partners.

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_02]: So leading to, you know...

[00:17:43] [SPEAKER_00]: You had a name for that back in the 70s and 80s, didn't they,

[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_00]: where you put your car keys in a dish or something?

[00:17:48] [SPEAKER_02]: A little wife swapping.

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Wife swapping is what it's called.

[00:17:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, very sexist that term, but yeah.

[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't think anyone did husband swapping, you know.

[00:17:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, yummy mummies are always better looking than their husbands, aren't they?

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, this website, this dating service called Illicit Encounters,

[00:18:02] [SPEAKER_02]: did a survey of its members, who are people, customers, if you like,

[00:18:05] [SPEAKER_02]: who are all there looking for affairs, et cetera,

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_02]: and it found out that a lot of them are turned into psychics

[00:18:10] [SPEAKER_02]: to find out if their partner is wandering, is having an affair.

[00:18:14] [SPEAKER_02]: And according to this survey, 52% of those who took part of the survey

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER_02]: hoped to uncover infidelities from their partners,

[00:18:22] [SPEAKER_02]: and 58% of people had suspicion.

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_02]: So people out there, based on this website,

[00:18:26] [SPEAKER_02]: are looking for wandering people that are sort of unsure.

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_02]: So they're turning to psychics.

[00:18:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Once upon a time, it might have been a private investigator

[00:18:33] [SPEAKER_02]: to go around and sort of photograph your husband or wife

[00:18:36] [SPEAKER_02]: meeting up with other people.

[00:18:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Now they're turning to psychics for the answer.

[00:18:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Whether they're getting the answer that is correct,

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_02]: they might get the answer they want,

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_02]: but they're not necessarily getting a correct answer

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER_02]: is a bit uncertain.

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_02]: But apparently it's very popular in Scotland.

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_02]: This is the UK site.

[00:18:49] [SPEAKER_02]: So the largest number of people of this survey using it

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_02]: was 43% of women admitting to seeking supernatural guidance

[00:18:55] [SPEAKER_02]: in Scotland, down to 31% in England, 16% in Wales,

[00:18:59] [SPEAKER_02]: and only 10% of people in Northern Ireland

[00:19:01] [SPEAKER_02]: looking for, you know, going to a psychic

[00:19:03] [SPEAKER_02]: to see if their partner was wandering.

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_02]: It tends to be apparently women going to the psychics.

[00:19:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, we've covered that before, haven't we?

[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Women go to psychics and see ghosts and spirits.

[00:19:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Men see Bigfoot and UFOs.

[00:19:14] [SPEAKER_00]: UFOs.

[00:19:14] [SPEAKER_02]: That's right, yes.

[00:19:15] [SPEAKER_02]: It's almost like a gender division of these things.

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, sort of one person, one particular case

[00:19:20] [SPEAKER_02]: that was quite amusing said,

[00:19:21] [SPEAKER_02]: I was worried about this, did everything to find out,

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_02]: checking her phone, analysing behaviour,

[00:19:25] [SPEAKER_02]: installing a tracking app in her partner's phone.

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_02]: And then she went to the psychic to find out.

[00:19:29] [SPEAKER_02]: The psychic said, yes, he's having an off with someone else.

[00:19:32] [SPEAKER_02]: And so she got her revenge by having her own affair.

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_02]: So you justify what you're doing, yeah.

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_02]: That's right, yeah.

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_02]: So anyway, it's a survey based on a very niche group

[00:19:40] [SPEAKER_02]: who I think are already predisposed

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_02]: for having illicit affairs anyway, as the name of the site is.

[00:19:45] [SPEAKER_00]: That's Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics.

[00:19:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's the show for now.

[00:20:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday

[00:20:09] [SPEAKER_00]: through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts,

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Pocket Casts, Spotify, Acast, Amazon Music,

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Bytes.com, SoundCloud, YouTube,

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER_00]: your favourite podcast download provider

[00:20:22] [SPEAKER_00]: and from spacetimewithstuartgary.com.

[00:20:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Space Time's also broadcast through the National Science Foundation

[00:20:28] [SPEAKER_00]: on Science Zone Radio

[00:20:30] [SPEAKER_00]: and on both iHeart Radio and TuneIn Radio.

[00:20:33] [SPEAKER_00]: And you can help to support our show

[00:20:35] [SPEAKER_00]: by visiting the Space Time store

[00:20:37] [SPEAKER_00]: for a range of promotional merchandising goodies.

[00:20:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Or by becoming a Space Time patron,

[00:20:42] [SPEAKER_00]: which gives you access to triple episode

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_00]: commercial free versions of the show,

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_00]: as well as lots of bonus audio content

[00:20:48] [SPEAKER_00]: which doesn't go to air,

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_00]: access to our exclusive Facebook group

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER_00]: and other rewards.

[00:20:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Just go to spacetimewithstuartgary.com

[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_00]: for full details.

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_00]: And if you want more Space Time,

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_00]: please check out our blog

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_00]: where you'll find all the stuff

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_00]: we couldn't fit in the show,

[00:21:03] [SPEAKER_00]: as well as heaps of images,

[00:21:04] [SPEAKER_00]: news stories, loads of videos

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_00]: and things on the web

[00:21:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I find interesting or amusing.

[00:21:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Just go to spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com.

[00:21:13] [SPEAKER_00]: That's all one word

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_00]: and that's Tumblr without the E.

[00:21:16] [SPEAKER_00]: You can also follow us

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_00]: through at Stuart Gary on Twitter,

[00:21:20] [SPEAKER_00]: at spacetimewithstuartgary on Instagram,

[00:21:23] [SPEAKER_00]: through our Space Time YouTube channel

[00:21:25] [SPEAKER_00]: and on Facebook.

[00:21:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Just go to facebook.com

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_00]: forward slash spacetimewithstuartgary.

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_00]: You've been listening

[00:21:32] [SPEAKER_00]: to Space Time with Stuart Gary.

[00:21:34] [SPEAKER_01]: This has been another

[00:21:35] [SPEAKER_01]: quality podcast production

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_01]: from Bytes.com.