Barred Spiral Discoveries and Spirit's Final Mission: A Cosmic Journey Unfolds

This is Spacetime Series twenty nine, Episode twenty nine, we'll broadcast in the ninth of March twenty twenty six. Coming up on space Time, discovery of the earliest known barred spiral galaxy just like our own, but twelve billion years ago. Australia's Spirit satellite mission comes to an end, and the International Space Station to remain in orbit for an additional two years. All that and more coming up on space Time. Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary. Our Milky Way galaxy is known as a bad spiral and debate continues on exactly how the bars section of stars at the heart of these types of galaxies forms an evolved Now, astronomers have discovered one of the earliest barred spiral galaxies ever seen. The findings, reported at the two hundred and forty seventh meeting of the American Astronomical Society could play an important role in sciences understanding of galactic evolution. The newly discovered galaxy catalog do as Cosmos seven four seven zero six is located some eleven and a half billion light years away. That's back in time when the universe was just two point three billion years old. The studies. Lead author Daniel Ivanov from the University of Pittsburgh says it's one of the earliest observed spiral galaxies containing a stellar bar, a sometimes striking visual feature that can play an important role in the evolution of a galaxy. He says the findings helped constrain the timeframe in which stellar bars could have first emerged in the universe. Now, these galactic bars aren't objects themselves, but dense collections of stars and gas that are aligned in such a way that an image is taken perpendicular to the galactic plane, there appears to be a bright line bisecting the galaxy. Stellar bars can play a role in shaping a galaxy's evolution by funneling gas inwards from the outer reaches of a galaxy, feeding the supermassive black hole of the galactic center, and dampening star formation throughout the stellar disc. Ivanov says he wasn't surprised to find a barred spiral galaxy so early in the universe's evolution. He says some computer simulations have already suggested that bars can form it redshift five that's some twelve and a half billion years ago, but in principle. He thinks it's not an epoch when you'd normally expect to find many of these objects, so it helps to be able to constrain the time scales of bar formation. Now, other researchers have reported earlier bard spiral galaxies, but the analyzes of those are far less conclusive because the methods used to analyze the lights of redshifts from those galaxies aret as definitive as the spectroscopy used to validate Cosmos seven four seven zero six. In other cases, the galaxy's light was distorted by massive foreground galaxies acting as gravitational lenses. Ivanov says. This makes Cosmos seven four seven zero six the highest redshift spectroscopically confirmed unlensed barred spiral galaxy ever detected. This is space time still to come. Australia's Spirit satellite mission comes to an end, and the International Space Station to remain in orbit for an additional two years. All that and more still to come on space time. This episode of space time is brought to you by Square Space. If you've ever wanted to make your mark online, whether you're just getting started or ready to take your business to new heights, Square Space is the all in one website platform specifically designed to help you stand out and see seed. With Squarespace, you can easily claim your domain, build a beautiful website, showcase your skills and products, and even get paid all in one, seamless place. And he's where it gets really exciting. 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After more than twenty five months of successful operations in orbit, the University of Melbourne's Spirit satellite mission has come to an end. Mission manager's lost contact with the spacecraft in early January after the satellite began experiencing platform anomalies and communications were intimately lost. Now after careful assessment, the operations team have determined that reliable contact was unlikely to be restored, formally bringing the on orbit phase of the mission to an end. The course of the anomaly remains unknown. However, the mission did exceed its plan to your lifespan, proving the reliability of Australian designed and built spacecraft. The space industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal or SPIRIT spacecraft was a technology demonstrator testing next generation capabilities ranging from a new gamma ray space telescope and advanced thermal cooling systems in orbit the high performance autonomous artificial intelligence operations in actual, real life space environments. Over its lifetime, the shoebox sized the eleven and a half kilogram NANAS satellite completed some sixteen thousand orbits of the Earth, traveling around six hundred ninety million kilometers that's equivalent to the distance between the Earth and Jupiter. During that time, a downlink more than four hundred images and captured hundreds more for on board edge computing research. The mission also undertook gamma and X ray astronomy through the Hermes instrument, developed by the Italian Space Agency and international scientific partners. The mission's principal investigator, Mikael At twenty from the University of Melbourne, says that in the final months of twenty twenty five alone, Spirit recorded more than one hundred and eighty hours of X ray data using its on board instrument designed to detect gamma ray bursts, powerful explosions that can occur when stars die or when neutron stars merge. Twenty says the successful deployment and operations of Hermes marked a significant its achievement, both for the validation of the technology and for the high resolution timing of the measurements. In the short term, mission managers will focus on analyzing an archiving mission data for the broader scientific community, with several research publications already in preparation. Lessons learned from SPIRIT will inform the next generation of innovative PALOA designs and it will help shape the next generation of a strange space technologies, from remote sensing to edge computing in orbit, Tretty says, the spacecraft is now gradually descending through the two hundred kilometers altitude level. That's where atmospheric drag will the orbit the vehicle, probably around August, allowing it to burn up in its atmosphere. We've just concluded that the in orbit operations of the satellite. The satellite was originally designed to operate for twenty four months. We celebrated twenty four months the second birthday of operations in orbiting the December twenty five, and then everything was going stronger, and then in January we experienced a loss of communication with the satellite. And space is hard. Satellite has been exposed to a very harsh environment as it's orbited the Earth for over sixteen thousand times, so it's not surprising that you have a little bit of turnware. It actually did much better than we were expecting, and of. Course things were made even worse by the incredible amount of space whether it's enjoy during its time and over. Indeed, indeed, this is a really challenging time for satellites in orbit because We launched the Spirit satellite in December twenty twenty three when the solar activity was reaching the maximums. So we have gone through quite a bit of huh violent store space wather storms. You have ejection of the outer layers of materials from the Sun, so called the coronal mass ejections. And so yet the charge particles that start to travel through the Solar system and then they reach the rich Earth, they get trapped into earth magnetic field, which is a shielding as on the on the surface. But it also means that there are belts of charge particles in orbit. The satellite has to go through them, and they can be quite taxing on the electronic systems on the satellite. Spirit is naturally decaying in SORBITA and in any case, the mission would have been over by approximately July, because our orbit as decay to the point where we will now start to quickly UH spiral UH to lower and more altitudes, and in July UH maybe maybe August if the space weather is is favorable, maybe a bit earlier if if space weather UH is more temperamental, or the Spirit satellite will lower this orbit about two hundred kilometers after the surface, at which point there is enough drug, enough frictions that the satellite will set up quickly, spiral down even further and then completely burn up in the process for a brief moment, it will be a shooting start. What was the primary aim of the SPIRIT mission. That's a that's a really good question, and it depends on the type the type of aim that we're talking about, because I would say that as there were two, two are actually three primary primary aims. First, there was the aim to promote the growth of the Australian space industry and to demonstrate that Australia was ready to design, fabricate, test, launch and operate an internationally competitive satellite, and that I think was it was the primary aim in relation to the funding that we received from the Australian Space Agency to promote the growth of the local space industry and the space sector. From a scientific point of view, the primary aim was to study UH gamma and X ray transience in the sky by demonstrating the capabilities of the hermes A scientific instrument that we received thanks to international cooperation with the Italian Space Agency and so on. Spirit. We had the first flight of the her miss A space telescope UH we've been able to commission the instrument that measure the background the performance. We have done some astronomical observations and we have a scientific data that are in the process of analyzed and published. And there is a third aim which was to demonstrate the novel technology for future missions, particular made in Australia technology, and we have broken new ground in thermal control system. We have flown a turning cycle cryo cooler that has cool kept cool down and kept the stable temperature the Hermits instrumented during the mission. And this is a type of cooling system which had never flown before on such a small satellite. We've also flown a UH graphic card UH Processing Unity GQ that has allowed us to run a flexible computing environment to demonstrate artificial intelligence operations in orbits, so autonomous image processing using some of the small cameras on Spirit and in particular the ability of the system to find queue itself, so with very limited input from the mission control center. So very small satellite, just eleven and a bit kilos, but are very packed with multiple objectives and multiple pieces of tech. When you look at Australia space history, we were I think the fourth nation in the world to build a satellite and then have it launched from our own soil. That was RESET, which flew out of Womera. Since then there have been a few others such as fed Set, but not many. Australia hasn't really grabbed the reins in a big way, has it. Yeah, Look, I think that that's affair comment we've been. If we look at the size of our domestic space sector compared to other economies around the world or similar in size to Australia, we have definitely think lagging a little bit behind. There is still I feel a hope for the future because there are many research organizations startups across Australia have really good ideas and they're working within the available resources to try to have impact. And they think the Spirit is one example of what we can do when we get together and multiple organizations in Australia collaborate with each other with a sheared common goal of going up and doing a peaceful space exploration. We've just had some great success with Scramjet technology being launched on a rocket Lab electron based rocket from the United States. Rocket Lands an interesting company in New Zealand based then now I think next to space X there is the most amount of over the lawn is in a year. Yeah, yeah, indeed, And I think that that that's underscores how UH strategic investment into a particular. Area of UH. The space segments such as the one targeted by by rocket Lab, a very very very agile, small small rocket to believer small payloads exactly in orbit where you need them can be a very effective way for a for a smaller country or a smaller company to become internationally competitive and be considered, as you said, sort of one of the major players behind UH. The few bigger ones monopolize the sectors such as SpaceX at the moment, and for launch. Your more space hoping to replicate that sort of expertise here in Australia. Early time will tell what happens there. The sources of lessons learned from the Spirit mission is that being plowed back into the next satellite or is that sort of we reached an end now of this. Absolutely, I. Think that's what we saw with FAD. We build a satellite that's very wonderful and then nothing happens. Yeah, yeah, exactly, And I think that this is this is what we absolutely don't want to happen. The lessons learned from theory are already being implemented, for example by the contribution that the University of Melbourne and then through the Melbourne Space Laboratory is delivering to the Australia and Lunar Rover project, and so well, the experience on our formal control system on Spirit is being mapped into the thermal control system that we're going to use to ensure that the Australian ruver will survive transit to the Moon, orbiting around the Moon and then operations on the surface when it will be on the Moon later this a decade hopefully. Let's Professor Michael at Trenty from the University of Melbourne. And this space Time still to cam the International Space Station to remain in orbit for additional two years, and later in the science report, the World Meteorological Organization says neutral alminiolninia conditions should persist until at least the middle of the year. All that and more still to come on space time, the International Space Station is now expected to remain in orbit for an additional two years, thereby extending its operational life to twenty thirty two. The United States Senate Commerce Committee advanced and revised NASA Authorization Bill S. Nine thirty three, thereby extending the life of the International Space Station and implementing some of the changes to the Atomis Lunar exploration program sought by NASA. The extensions required because of ongoing delays in the Commercial lowerth Orbit Space Station program, which involves private companies building their own orbital space stations. The bill directs NASA to maintain International Space Station operations at current levels. It instructs the agency not to begin the transition preparing for de orbiting the station until at least one of the Commercial Space station's successors are operational. The first modules of the International Space Station were launched way back in nineteen ninety eight. The four hundred and fifty ton orbital outpost circles the Earth at an average altitude of about four hundred and thirteen kilometers, traveling at an orbital speed of twenty seven thousand, six hundred kilometers an hour, with each orbit lasting approximately ninety two point nine minutes. The new version of the Senate Commerce Committee bill also supports NASA Administrator Jarrett Isaacman's decision to increase lunar launch cadence for the Artomis program to a flight every year with standardization of the SOLS rocket and launch pad facilities by not proceeding with upgrades of the Space Launch System and instead retaining the existing Block one version of the SLS upper stage rather than proceeding to develop a new Block one B Exploration upper stage version. The bill also authorizes NASA to develop a base on the lunar surface, in line with White House directives to establish the initial elements of a permanent lunar outpost by twenty thirty. The plan will see the development of a permanently manned American base on the lunar South Pole, capable of long duration human habitation, undertaking robotic, scientific, technological, and strategic interests. However, the bill says very little about the Gateway Space Station, the first modules of which are now at a construction on the ground and which will eventually be placed in SICIL and orbit, acting as a jumping off point for missions down to the lunar's surface. The biggest failure in the new bill is the formal termination of the current Mars sample return mission project. Instead, it directs NASA to submit a new plan for carrying out a revised Mars sample return program within one hundred and twenty days of enactment. The bill also endorses continued support for existing NAS emissions and the proposed Mars Telecommunications Orbit of project, and it calls for new missions to send human tissues to Mars in order to study biological and environmental effects on human tissue in a Martian environment. Another mission would unlock space weather impacts on Mars, as well as more physical and life sciences studies that could support future human missions to the Martian surface. This space time and Time now to take a brief look at some of the other stories making news in science this week with a science report. Meteorologists say the climate is likely to see neutral La Nina Elninia conditions until at least the middle of the year. The findings by the Word Neurological Organization show that a week Larnina event driving somewhat cooler and rainier conditions is now fading, with neutral conditions expected from now through to June. After that, scientists say the chances of a hot at dry el Nino event rises to about forty percent by July, although they admit it's difficult to predict months in advance. While there's a lot of genetic evidence to show that modern humans and Neanderthals commonly interbred across Europe, your research shows that most of that copulation involved Neanderthol males in seminating modern human females. A report in the journal Science based on genetic evidence from three Neanderthals specimens is found that the X chromosome from the subjects had on average sixty two per cent more human DNA than non sex chromosomes. The authors say the bias could have been down to mate availability or cultural sanctions for certain combinations. Archaeologists examining the charred remains of food preserved inside ancient pottery are shown that a verse range of meals eaten by people across Europe thousands of years ago. The findings, reported in the journal Plus one, identified both plant and meat remains in fifty eight pieces of pottery from thirteen agricultural sites across northern and eastern Europe dating back to between the sixth and third millennium BCE. They found samples of a wide variety of grasses, berries, leaves, and seeds, with plants often found alongside meat in the same part. They say the mixtures of food found varied from region to region, likely due to the kinds of foods available in each area. A retired American chiropractice now living in Australia has come out with the outrageous claim that's smoking can cure cancer. Now, before we go any further, let's take categorically that there have been thousands of scientific studies undertaken clearly showing beyond any reasonable doubt that smoking, be it vape, cigarette, cigars, whatever causes cancer. The Skeptics timendum says this latest falsehood quickly circulated around the world despite repeated catter arguments put forward by the Cancer Council. Some of these things just a period of nowhere, and you wonder what are they thinking. It seems to be one off. I don't know how much support this guy. Hastill, the name Brian Artists, who's a retired chiropractor, is apparently Australian podcast, although I haven't heard him. He's saying that tobacco can cure all forms of cancer and a whole range of other conditions as well, including, if I may go on, chicken mallpox, chicken pox, herpes, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, or cancers and tumers. So it's a pretty all round qurel for a whole lot of diseases. There's a lot about the quality of chiropractice, doesn't it. It does equality in quotes. There's a lot of chiropractice who are dealing with some areas which are really outside their areas of expertise. In a chiropractic can cure bedwetting, asthma, all sorts of different things that you seem to have no relation to a spine. A part of the fact that this notion of a sub luxation is a thing based on your spine, which affects they'd be nerve in your body. But yeah, there's a lot of nonsense around the chiropractice. Some chiropractice, most current practice are putting forward. But this guy is he's not running on his chiropractic expertise. He's running on I'm not sure for what expertise he has actually in great treating cancer there. I mean, it's almost HARKing back to pre medical days. People were leaching people, bleeding people with the seventh cents. There's an examples in Tudor times of ingesting butters spiders to cure headaches. Which is an interesting idea. Yes, there's no evidence that tobacco cures cancer. There's a lot of evidence had tobacco ads to cancer, including this. One fact check I saw was that tobacco contains over seventy cars imogens and is linked with at least sixteen types of cancer. Also, it tobacco causes cancer. That's right, tobacco causes cancer and it doesn't cure cancer. And you wonder why is he saying this? Is it just for notoriety? Is he in the pay of big tobacco? Who knows it's a silly thing to say, it's a dangerous thing to say. And he has been put down very quickly. That's the skeptics timendum, and this space Time, and that's the show for now. The space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through at fytes dot com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast download provider, 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. 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