00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Stuart Gary: This is space Time Series 29, Episode
00:00:02 --> 00:00:04 77 for broadcast on 29
00:00:05 --> 00:00:08 June 2026. Coming up on space
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 time, the BepiColombo mission finally
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 reaches Mercury. Space. Is our sun
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 changing? There's growing evidence suggesting
00:00:16 --> 00:00:19 that it might be. And a strange new
00:00:19 --> 00:00:22 type of X ray flare detected in deep space.
00:00:22 --> 00:00:25 All that and more coming up on UH Space Time.
00:00:27 --> 00:00:29 Stuart Gary: Welcome to Space Time with Stuart
00:00:29 --> 00:00:30 G.
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 Stuart Gary: After eight years of powered flight towards
00:00:49 --> 00:00:51 the planet Mercury, mission managers have
00:00:51 --> 00:00:53 finally turned off the BepiClimber
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 spacecraft's propulsion engines in
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 preparation for planetary orbit. Insertion
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 engine cutoff marks the end of the joint
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 Exploration Agency probe's long cruise phase
00:01:06 --> 00:01:09 and the beginning of its arrival at Mercury.
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 Since its launch way back in October 2018,
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 the BepiColombo spacecraft has been propelled
00:01:15 --> 00:01:18 by four electric propulsion thrusters located
00:01:18 --> 00:01:21 on its Mercury Transfer Module. The thrusters
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 use electricity generated by the spacecraft's
00:01:24 --> 00:01:26 solar arrays from sunlight to ionise Xeon
00:01:26 --> 00:01:29 gas and then shoot it out the rear of the
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31 engines, providing a key continuous glowing
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 blue thrust. The mission's complicated flight
00:01:34 --> 00:01:36 path included a, uh, gravity assist manoeuvre
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 swing around the Earth and two past Venus, as
00:01:39 --> 00:01:42 well as six loops around Mercury to slow down
00:01:42 --> 00:01:44 enough to be captured by the rock nearest the
00:01:44 --> 00:01:46 sun's gravity. As
00:01:46 --> 00:01:49 BepiColombo draws closer to Mercury, this
00:01:49 --> 00:01:51 iron propulsion system, which is effective
00:01:51 --> 00:01:53 for long range flight, no longer offers the
00:01:53 --> 00:01:56 braking force needed to slow the spacecraft
00:01:56 --> 00:01:59 down and enter orbit around the planet. It
00:01:59 --> 00:02:01 leaves BepiColombo on a ballistic trajectory
00:02:01 --> 00:02:04 towards Mercury, reaching a point suitable
00:02:04 --> 00:02:06 for the first chemical propulsion manoeuvre
00:02:06 --> 00:02:09 aimed at orbital insertion in late November.
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 BepiColombo is the first mission to study
00:02:12 --> 00:02:15 Mercury using three spacecraft at the same
00:02:15 --> 00:02:18 time. There's the Mercury Transfer Module,
00:02:18 --> 00:02:19 which is equipped with the ion propulsion
00:02:19 --> 00:02:21 system used to propel the mission during its
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 cruise phase. Mind you, things didn't always
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 go smoothly. A thruster glitch saw the
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 mission slowed down by 11 months, with
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 arrival at Mercury now slated for November
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34 21st. Then there's the European Space
00:02:34 --> 00:02:37 Agency's Mercury Planetary Orbiter. It'll
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 circle close to the planet, providing
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 scientists with a precise map of Mercury's
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 surface, detailing its composition, how it
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47 formed, how it's changed over time and what
00:02:47 --> 00:02:50 temperature it is. The Mercury Planetary
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 Orbiter will also fly over uh, Mercury's
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 poles, allowing the spacecraft to peer deep
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 into permanently shadowed craters in order to
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 see the any water there. Then there's the
00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 Japanese Exploration Agency's Mercury
00:03:02 --> 00:03:05 Magnetospheric Orbiter. It'll take a larger
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 elliptical orbit around the planet, studying
00:03:07 --> 00:03:09 the interaction between the planet's magnetic
00:03:09 --> 00:03:12 field and the solar wind. It'll also observe
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 plasma and energetic particles in the
00:03:14 --> 00:03:16 magnetosphere, providing an analysis of
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 electric fields, plasma waves and radio
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21 waves. It'll measure the abundance,
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 distribution and dynamics of sodium in
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 Mercury's exosphere, and investigate the
00:03:26 --> 00:03:28 distribution of interplanetary dust in
00:03:28 --> 00:03:31 Mercury's orbit. Bippi Colombo
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33 is humanity's third mission to the planet
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 Mercury, and it follows in the path of two
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 NASA missions, the 1973 Mariner 10
00:03:38 --> 00:03:41 flight and the 2004 MESSENGER mission.
00:03:42 --> 00:03:44 Astronomers know very little about Mercury
00:03:44 --> 00:03:47 because it's so close to the sun. That means
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 spacecraft need to avoid being trapped by the
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 massive gravity of Earth's nearest star,
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 which makes navigation and ongoing operations
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 complicated. And once a spacecraft reaches
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 Mercury, temperatures are fierce, even
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 hundreds of kilometres above the planet's
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 surface. It's also hard to observe with
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 telescopes because the sun's powerful glare
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 can damage sensitive optics. The
00:04:08 --> 00:04:10 spacecraft carries multiple instruments,
00:04:10 --> 00:04:12 including one from the UK Space Agency.
00:04:13 --> 00:04:15 Speaker C: Firstly, it's a very difficult thing to do,
00:04:15 --> 00:04:16 and it's something that we know very little
00:04:16 --> 00:04:18 about. There's been very few spacecraft that
00:04:18 --> 00:04:20 have visited Mercury in the past,
00:04:21 --> 00:04:24 so just finding out about how the
00:04:24 --> 00:04:27 planet is made and how it interacts with our
00:04:27 --> 00:04:29 sun will tell us a lot about the formation of
00:04:29 --> 00:04:32 our solar system and our place in the solar
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 system as well. The UK has invested
00:04:35 --> 00:04:38 6.8 million pounds in this mission,
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 and this has mostly gone to the University of
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43 Leicester to build the MIX instrument.
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 The MIX instrument is going to be dedicated
00:04:46 --> 00:04:49 to space, studying the planet itself. So
00:04:49 --> 00:04:51 we're going to be looking at the surface of
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 Mercury and what that tells us about the
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 formation of Mercury and its history, how
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 its surface has evolved over time. The
00:05:00 --> 00:05:01 other aspect of the mixed science is that
00:05:01 --> 00:05:04 we're going to be able to look at how Mercury
00:05:04 --> 00:05:07 interacts with its surrounding magnetic
00:05:07 --> 00:05:09 environment. We're going to be able to see
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 how the sun interacts with Mercury
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 directly using our instrument.
00:05:14 --> 00:05:17 Stuart Gary: As a volcanologist, one thing that intrigues
00:05:17 --> 00:05:20 me about Mercury is the causes and the
00:05:20 --> 00:05:22 nature of the volcanic explosions. There's
00:05:22 --> 00:05:25 impact craters everywhere, but some of them
00:05:25 --> 00:05:27 have holes in their floors which have been
00:05:27 --> 00:05:30 blasted out by volcanic explosions.
00:05:30 --> 00:05:33 Um, and some of these volcanic
00:05:33 --> 00:05:35 explosions are not that ancient. Most of
00:05:35 --> 00:05:37 Mercury's surface is 2 or 3 billion years
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 old, but the explosive volcanic activity
00:05:41 --> 00:05:43 has continued into at least the last billion
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 years. So there's something going on there.
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49 BepiColombo's got two spacecraft, the
00:05:49 --> 00:05:51 European one and the Japanese one. We'll
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53 measure what's going on in the magnetic field
00:05:53 --> 00:05:56 in two different places at the same time?
00:05:56 --> 00:05:58 That's never been done anywhere except for
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 the Earth. Ah, we're going to learn so much
00:06:00 --> 00:06:01 from BepiColombo.
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 Stuart Gary: And in that report, we heard from UK Space
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 Agency programme manager Rosemary Young, the
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 principal investigator for the MIX
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 instrument, Emma Bruce from Leicester
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 University, and planetary scientist David
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 Rothbury from the Open University. This
00:06:15 --> 00:06:17 is space time still to come.
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 Is our sun changing? There's growing evidence
00:06:20 --> 00:06:23 suggesting that it might be, and discovery of
00:06:23 --> 00:06:26 a strange new type of X ray flare detected
00:06:26 --> 00:06:29 in deep space. All that and more still to
00:06:29 --> 00:06:31 come on, um, spacetime.
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 A new study claims the sun has been
00:06:42 --> 00:06:45 mysteriously changing over the last 40 years.
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 Listening to tiny sound waves inside the star
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 has led scientists to discover that it may be
00:06:51 --> 00:06:54 entering a new, different mode of behaviour.
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 The findings, reported in the Monthly Notices
00:06:56 --> 00:06:58 of the Royal Astronomical Society, are of
00:06:58 --> 00:07:00 special significance for space weather
00:07:00 --> 00:07:03 events. And astronomers now need to explore
00:07:03 --> 00:07:05 what this all means. The sun's
00:07:05 --> 00:07:08 activity rises and falls in 11 year
00:07:08 --> 00:07:11 cycles, in the process producing increasing
00:07:11 --> 00:07:13 and decreasing amounts of solar flares and
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 coronal mass ejections, spewing highly
00:07:15 --> 00:07:17 charged particles that give rise to
00:07:17 --> 00:07:20 geomagnetic storms and aurorae. This
00:07:20 --> 00:07:22 activity and its cyclic variation has its
00:07:22 --> 00:07:25 origins in the sun's interior, in processes
00:07:25 --> 00:07:27 that regenerate and reorganise the sun's
00:07:27 --> 00:07:30 magnetic field. Every solar minimum,
00:07:30 --> 00:07:33 the last was in 2019 and the next will be in
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 2030. The sun's magnetic field flips
00:07:35 --> 00:07:38 polarity. North pole becomes south and south
00:07:38 --> 00:07:41 pole north. Understanding what drives this
00:07:41 --> 00:07:43 cycle is therefore crucial for making
00:07:43 --> 00:07:45 predictions about space weather and how it
00:07:45 --> 00:07:48 affects the Earth. Space weather events can
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 damage or destroy satellites, disrupt
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 communications and navigation systems,
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 blackout power grids on the Earth and
00:07:54 --> 00:07:57 increase radiation dosage for astronauts in
00:07:57 --> 00:07:59 space and people on high flying aircraft.
00:08:00 --> 00:08:03 Traditional measures of solar activity track
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 these emissions and other surface phenomena
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 like sunspots, but they don't look deep under
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 the solar surface. However, by
00:08:10 --> 00:08:12 listening to tiny sound waves inside the sun,
00:08:12 --> 00:08:15 a technique known as helioseismology, it's
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 possible to do just that by tracking
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 changes in the otherwise hidden solar
00:08:20 --> 00:08:22 interior, the study's authors found a
00:08:22 --> 00:08:24 different picture emerged of the sun's
00:08:24 --> 00:08:26 activity over the past few solar cycles.
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 Using almost 40 years of helioseismic data,
00:08:30 --> 00:08:32 uh, collected by six telescopes around the
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 world in the Birmingham Solar Oscillations
00:08:34 --> 00:08:36 Network, or bison, the authors uncovered a
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39 gradual change in structure just beneath the
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42 sun's visible surface. That change has
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 spanned multiple cycles, with the current
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 solar cycle 25 showing especially strong
00:08:47 --> 00:08:50 signatures of these changes. The authors
00:08:50 --> 00:08:52 discovered that solar magnetic activity is
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 being squeezed into an increasingly shallow
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 layer just below the visible surface,
00:08:56 --> 00:08:59 signposting long term changes to the sun's
00:08:59 --> 00:09:02 active behaviour. The study's lead author,
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 Bill Chaplin from the University of
00:09:04 --> 00:09:06 Birmingham, says the sun has its own active
00:09:06 --> 00:09:09 biorhythm, creating rising and falling
00:09:09 --> 00:09:11 magnetic activity that shapes space weather.
00:09:12 --> 00:09:14 However, traditional surface measurements
00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 don't capture the full storey that the sun
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 may be entering a different mode of behaviour
00:09:18 --> 00:09:21 unfolding over decades. Chaplin and
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 colleagues uncovered evidence of systematic
00:09:23 --> 00:09:25 changes in the sun's activity cycle.
00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 Crucially, magnetic activity is becoming more
00:09:28 --> 00:09:31 tightly confined near the surface with each
00:09:31 --> 00:09:33 cycle. The authors analysed P mode
00:09:33 --> 00:09:36 oscillations formed by global sound waves
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 inside the sun, whose frequencies shift in
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 response to solar magnetic activity. They
00:09:41 --> 00:09:43 allowed them to determine how the sun's
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 internal structure changed across solar
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 cycles 23, 25 between
00:09:48 --> 00:09:50 1987 and 2025.
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 They grouped the oscillations into low,
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 medium and high frequency bands to probe
00:09:55 --> 00:09:57 different depths beneath the solar surface.
00:09:57 --> 00:09:59 They then compared these frequency shifts
00:09:59 --> 00:10:01 with traditional measures of solar activity
00:10:02 --> 00:10:04 and they found evidence of changing
00:10:04 --> 00:10:07 behaviour. The link between oscillation
00:10:07 --> 00:10:09 frequencies and traditional activity measures
00:10:09 --> 00:10:12 has shifted significantly since cycle 23,
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 indicating long term evolution in the sun's
00:10:14 --> 00:10:17 internal processes. They also found
00:10:17 --> 00:10:19 surface confinement of structural changes.
00:10:20 --> 00:10:23 The combined behaviour of low, mid and high
00:10:23 --> 00:10:25 frequency modes showed that the solar cycle
00:10:25 --> 00:10:27 driven structural changes are uh, becoming
00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 increasingly confined to just the shallow
00:10:29 --> 00:10:31 layers within 1 kilometres of the sun's
00:10:31 --> 00:10:33 surface. And by reinterpreting the strength
00:10:33 --> 00:10:36 of the later solar cycle, cycle 25 appears to
00:10:36 --> 00:10:39 be weaker in traditional surface indicators,
00:10:39 --> 00:10:41 but comparably strong when seen in high
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 frequency helioseismic data. The
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 thing is, this trend can't be simply
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 explained by weaker magnetic fields.
00:10:48 --> 00:10:50 Instead it indicates a structural
00:10:50 --> 00:10:53 reorganisation of how the sun's magnetic
00:10:53 --> 00:10:55 activity is stored beneath the surface.
00:10:56 --> 00:10:58 Ongoing collection and analysis of Bison
00:10:58 --> 00:11:01 solar data over what remains of cycle 25
00:11:01 --> 00:11:04 and for the upcoming cycle 26 will be crucial
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 in determining whether the changes discovered
00:11:06 --> 00:11:08 in the sun's activity are pointing to a
00:11:08 --> 00:11:11 sustained systematic change in solar magnetic
00:11:11 --> 00:11:14 behaviour. And we then need to work out how
00:11:14 --> 00:11:17 that's going to affect the Earth. This is
00:11:17 --> 00:11:20 space time. Still to come, a
00:11:20 --> 00:11:22 strange new type of X ray flare detected in
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 deep space. And later in the Science Report,
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 special coverage of the latest bombshell
00:11:27 --> 00:11:29 developments in the case of the COVID 19
00:11:30 --> 00:11:32 pandemic. All that and more still to come on
00:11:32 --> 00:11:33 space time.
00:11:49 --> 00:11:52 Astronomers have detected a mysterious, never
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 before seen new type of X ray flare in the
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56 skies. Of the Southern Hemisphere. The
00:11:56 --> 00:11:58 discovery, reported in the Journal of the
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 Society, was made by the Wide Field X Ray
00:12:03 --> 00:12:05 Telescope aboard the Einstein Probe
00:12:05 --> 00:12:08 spacecraft. No previous X ray source had
00:12:08 --> 00:12:09 ever been detected at the location of the
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 flare, which is now being catalogued as
00:12:11 --> 00:12:14 EP24 0305A.
00:12:15 --> 00:12:18 Its light curve comprised two brief, powerful
00:12:18 --> 00:12:20 X ray flares, one right after the other, and
00:12:20 --> 00:12:23 the two separated by about 200 seconds of
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 quiet. Additional observations were carried
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 out using further X ray observatories as well
00:12:28 --> 00:12:31 as infrared, optical and radio telescopes,
00:12:31 --> 00:12:34 confirming that this new discovery doesn't
00:12:34 --> 00:12:36 fit any known class of cosmic explosion.
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 The authors found that the X rays faded
00:12:39 --> 00:12:42 rapidly over the following days, while radio
00:12:42 --> 00:12:44 observations faded much more slowly over
00:12:44 --> 00:12:47 weeks, revealing evidence of an evolving jet.
00:12:48 --> 00:12:50 A faint fading near infrared source was also
00:12:50 --> 00:12:53 detected at the same location, but
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 interestingly, there was no detection of
00:12:55 --> 00:12:58 anything at optical wavelengths. To try
00:12:58 --> 00:13:00 and determine what's going on, the authors
00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 compared their observations to other known
00:13:02 --> 00:13:05 events. These included a jetted tidal
00:13:05 --> 00:13:07 disruption event caused by a star being
00:13:07 --> 00:13:09 shredded by a black hole, or an X ray binary
00:13:09 --> 00:13:12 outburst from a neutron star or black hole
00:13:12 --> 00:13:13 feeding on a stellar companion which then
00:13:13 --> 00:13:16 suddenly flares up. But both of these were
00:13:16 --> 00:13:17 ruled out because they'd take weeks or months
00:13:17 --> 00:13:18 to fade, whereas
00:13:18 --> 00:13:21 EP24305A faded in
00:13:21 --> 00:13:24 just days. A thermonuclear burst on a
00:13:24 --> 00:13:26 neutron star surface was also ruled out
00:13:26 --> 00:13:28 because the measured temperature was simply
00:13:28 --> 00:13:31 too low and its radio signal lasted far too
00:13:31 --> 00:13:34 long. A giant magnetar flare wouldn't work
00:13:34 --> 00:13:36 either, because they fared in less than a
00:13:36 --> 00:13:39 second, and a stellar flare was also
00:13:39 --> 00:13:42 ruled out because the radio signal lasted far
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44 too long compared with typical stellar
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 flares. Now, interestingly, this
00:13:47 --> 00:13:49 mysterious blast's properties did line up
00:13:49 --> 00:13:52 with several features of gamma ray bursts.
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 The double flash pattern resembles a known
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57 feature seen in some gamma ray bursts known
00:13:57 --> 00:14:00 as double bursts, and both the X ray
00:14:00 --> 00:14:03 luminosity and radio pattern emissions match
00:14:03 --> 00:14:06 that expected from a gamma ray burst. The
00:14:06 --> 00:14:07 problem here is there was no actual gamma
00:14:07 --> 00:14:10 rays detected from the event. The authors
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12 think the lack or weakness of gamma ray
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 emissions from this event could have been
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 caused by the jet pointing slightly off axis
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 as seen from Earth. Or the jet simply could
00:14:19 --> 00:14:20 have failed to fully break through its
00:14:20 --> 00:14:23 surrounding material. Or the jet may have
00:14:23 --> 00:14:25 been loaded with extra material, dampening
00:14:25 --> 00:14:28 its gamma ray output. Needless to say, the
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 search is now on for more such objects, and a
00:14:30 --> 00:14:32 close eye will be kept on the location of
00:14:32 --> 00:14:33 this one.
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 This is space, time,
00:14:40 --> 00:14:43 And time now for the Science report Today, a
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 special report looking at the latest
00:14:45 --> 00:14:48 bombshell developments in the ongoing saga of
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51 the COVID 19 pandemic. The
00:14:51 --> 00:14:53 United States Office of the Director of
00:14:53 --> 00:14:55 National Intelligence has released new
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57 documents claiming that former National
00:14:57 --> 00:14:59 Institute of Health Director and Chief
00:14:59 --> 00:15:01 Presidential medical Advisor Anthony Fauci
00:15:01 --> 00:15:03 was involved in manipulating intelligence
00:15:03 --> 00:15:06 assessments in order to cover up that China's
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 Institute of Virology was the real source of
00:15:09 --> 00:15:11 the COVID 19 pandemic. The
00:15:11 --> 00:15:14 outgoing director, Tulsi Gabbard has accused
00:15:14 --> 00:15:16 Fauci of politicising leadership within the
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 intelligence community in order to suppress
00:15:18 --> 00:15:21 information regarding the origins of COVID 19
00:15:21 --> 00:15:23 and American and funding of gain of function
00:15:23 --> 00:15:26 research on bat coronaviruses prior to the
00:15:26 --> 00:15:29 outbreak of the pandemic. Gabbards also
00:15:29 --> 00:15:31 accused Fauci of lying under oath to Congress
00:15:31 --> 00:15:34 in 2024 by denying that he had knowledge of
00:15:34 --> 00:15:36 or participated in discussions with
00:15:36 --> 00:15:37 intelligence officials about the research.
00:15:39 --> 00:15:42 So what are we dealing with here? Well, COVID
00:15:42 --> 00:15:44 19 is 96.4%
00:15:44 --> 00:15:47 identical to the RATG 13 bat
00:15:47 --> 00:15:50 virus. The problem is, no confirmed
00:15:50 --> 00:15:52 direct animal to human sources for COVID 19
00:15:52 --> 00:15:55 have ever been identified. The
00:15:55 --> 00:15:58 first confirmed cases of COVID originated in
00:15:58 --> 00:16:01 three lab assistants working at the Wuhan
00:16:01 --> 00:16:03 Institute of Virology in September or early
00:16:03 --> 00:16:06 October of 2019 in what's suspected to
00:16:06 --> 00:16:08 have been an accidental lab leak during an
00:16:08 --> 00:16:11 experiment. Coincidentally, on
00:16:11 --> 00:16:14 September 12, 2019, the Wuhan Institute of
00:16:14 --> 00:16:16 Virology suddenly decided to, uh, erase all
00:16:16 --> 00:16:18 computed data on its research into
00:16:18 --> 00:16:21 coronaviruses, destroy all existing
00:16:21 --> 00:16:24 samples. Now, uh, this is unprecedented.
00:16:24 --> 00:16:26 It's never been done in any laboratory and it
00:16:26 --> 00:16:29 goes against everything science stands for.
00:16:29 --> 00:16:32 At the same time, the lab ordered new air
00:16:32 --> 00:16:34 filtration equipment for its facilities and
00:16:34 --> 00:16:37 it purchased PCR equipment to test for SARS
00:16:37 --> 00:16:40 CoV2. By late October
00:16:40 --> 00:16:42 2019, people in the surrounding Wuhan
00:16:42 --> 00:16:44 district began raising the alarm about a
00:16:44 --> 00:16:47 deadly new flu like virus rapidly spreading
00:16:47 --> 00:16:49 through the city. At the same time,
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 truckloads of extra body bags were seen being
00:16:52 --> 00:16:54 delivered to local hospitals and morgues in
00:16:54 --> 00:16:56 the area. And while all this was going on,
00:16:56 --> 00:16:59 Chinese embassy employees around the world
00:16:59 --> 00:17:01 began visiting local medical suppliers and
00:17:01 --> 00:17:03 pharmacies in the countries therein,
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 including Australia, purchasing as many face
00:17:05 --> 00:17:07 masks, personal protective equipment,
00:17:07 --> 00:17:10 antiviral medications and PCR tests for
00:17:10 --> 00:17:13 SARS CoV2 as they could, literally
00:17:13 --> 00:17:16 hoarding global stocks. As
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18 concern spread, numerous doctors, scientists,
00:17:18 --> 00:17:20 medical staff and journalists in China
00:17:21 --> 00:17:22 investigating or speaking out about the
00:17:22 --> 00:17:24 growing outbreak were suddenly being
00:17:24 --> 00:17:27 arrested. And many simply disappeared,
00:17:27 --> 00:17:29 forever, never to be heard from again.
00:17:30 --> 00:17:32 Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation
00:17:32 --> 00:17:34 repeatedly denied there was any sort of
00:17:34 --> 00:17:37 Global China flu pandemic developing. At
00:17:37 --> 00:17:39 least that was until the death toll began to
00:17:39 --> 00:17:41 climb into the tens of thousands around the
00:17:41 --> 00:17:44 world, leaving the WHO with no choice but to
00:17:44 --> 00:17:47 finally admit there was a problem. Uh, it's
00:17:47 --> 00:17:49 worth noting at this point that the Director
00:17:49 --> 00:17:50 General of the World Health Organisation,
00:17:50 --> 00:17:53 Tedros Adiom Ghebriash, was appointed to his
00:17:53 --> 00:17:54 position at the World Health Organisation
00:17:54 --> 00:17:56 with the strong support and backing of
00:17:56 --> 00:17:59 Beijing. China has repeatedly
00:17:59 --> 00:18:01 blocked or interfered with attempts to
00:18:01 --> 00:18:03 conduct independent investigations into the
00:18:03 --> 00:18:06 source of the outbreak, instead insisting
00:18:06 --> 00:18:07 there was nothing to worry about, or when
00:18:07 --> 00:18:09 they couldn't say that anymore, claiming it
00:18:09 --> 00:18:12 emerged from outside China, possibly from
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 Europe, but more likely through American
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 troops. As the pandemic
00:18:17 --> 00:18:18 continued to spread, documents began
00:18:18 --> 00:18:21 appearing which confirmed reports that the
00:18:21 --> 00:18:23 Wuhan Institute of Virology was indeed ground
00:18:23 --> 00:18:26 zero. The laboratory had participated in gain
00:18:26 --> 00:18:29 of function research to genetically engineer
00:18:29 --> 00:18:31 coronaviruses. The Washington Post reported
00:18:32 --> 00:18:34 that US State Department inspections of the
00:18:34 --> 00:18:36 Wuhan lab in 2018 had already sent two
00:18:36 --> 00:18:39 official warnings back to America that they
00:18:39 --> 00:18:41 had found insufficient safety cautions at the
00:18:41 --> 00:18:44 facility. As the pandemic grew,
00:18:44 --> 00:18:46 the U.S. department of Energy, which is
00:18:46 --> 00:18:49 responsible for America's nuclear arsenal and
00:18:49 --> 00:18:51 is expert in weapons of mass destruction,
00:18:51 --> 00:18:53 undertook its own investigation into the
00:18:53 --> 00:18:56 origins of the virus. Finding COVID 19 did
00:18:56 --> 00:18:58 likely arise from a laboratory leak at the
00:18:58 --> 00:19:01 Wuhan Institute of Virology. The findings,
00:19:01 --> 00:19:03 first reported by the Wall Street Journal,
00:19:03 --> 00:19:05 were based on an updated classified national
00:19:05 --> 00:19:07 intelligence report provided to the White
00:19:07 --> 00:19:09 House and key members of Congress.
00:19:10 --> 00:19:12 Now, the then FBI Director, Christopher Wray,
00:19:12 --> 00:19:14 had previously said that the agency had
00:19:14 --> 00:19:16 already assessed that a leak from the Wuhan
00:19:16 --> 00:19:19 lab was the cause of the COVID 19 pandemic.
00:19:20 --> 00:19:22 US officials said that while the Department
00:19:22 --> 00:19:24 of Energy and the FBI both claimed the source
00:19:24 --> 00:19:27 was an unintended lab leak, they arrived at
00:19:27 --> 00:19:29 the conclusions through different independent
00:19:29 --> 00:19:32 sources. It's, uh, worth noting at this
00:19:32 --> 00:19:35 Stage, a previous August 2021 report by the
00:19:35 --> 00:19:36 Office of the Director of National
00:19:36 --> 00:19:38 Intelligence had already stated that the SARS
00:19:38 --> 00:19:41 CoV2 virus which caused COVID19 most likely
00:19:41 --> 00:19:43 originated through gain of function
00:19:43 --> 00:19:45 experiments at China's Wuhan Institute of
00:19:45 --> 00:19:48 virology sometime before September 2019.
00:19:49 --> 00:19:51 The United States House Oversight and
00:19:51 --> 00:19:54 Accountability Committee's COVID 19 panel
00:19:54 --> 00:19:56 later concluded that a lab related incident
00:19:56 --> 00:19:58 involving gain of function research at the
00:19:58 --> 00:20:00 Wuhan Institute of Virology was the most
00:20:00 --> 00:20:03 likely origin of the COVID 19 pandemic.
00:20:04 --> 00:20:06 Its highly detailed 520 page report
00:20:07 --> 00:20:09 found the weight of evidence increasingly
00:20:09 --> 00:20:12 supports the lab leak hypothesis. It
00:20:12 --> 00:20:14 followed two years of intense investigations
00:20:14 --> 00:20:16 and ridiculed suggestions that the virus
00:20:16 --> 00:20:18 emerged in nature and then jumped from
00:20:18 --> 00:20:21 animals to people. The House report also
00:20:21 --> 00:20:23 found that Wuhan is the home of China's
00:20:23 --> 00:20:26 former SARS research lab, which has a long
00:20:26 --> 00:20:28 history of conducting gain of function
00:20:28 --> 00:20:30 research under inadequate biosafety levels.
00:20:31 --> 00:20:33 It confirmed that researchers at the Wuhan
00:20:33 --> 00:20:35 Institute of Virology were infected with
00:20:35 --> 00:20:38 COVID 19 during the fall of 2019,
00:20:38 --> 00:20:40 months before it was discovered in a local
00:20:40 --> 00:20:42 wet market in December of that year. This
00:20:42 --> 00:20:45 report also slammed the New York non profit
00:20:45 --> 00:20:47 Eco Health alliance for using American
00:20:47 --> 00:20:50 taxpayer dollars to facilitate gain of
00:20:50 --> 00:20:52 function research at the Wuhan lab and the
00:20:52 --> 00:20:54 Biden administration for deliberately
00:20:54 --> 00:20:57 spreading COVID 19 misinformation by wrongly
00:20:57 --> 00:20:59 claiming that the lab leak was just a
00:20:59 --> 00:21:01 conspiracy theory. Now, EcoHealth
00:21:01 --> 00:21:03 Alliance President Peter Daszak would later
00:21:03 --> 00:21:06 be one of the so called international experts
00:21:06 --> 00:21:08 selected by the World Health Organisation to
00:21:08 --> 00:21:10 travel to China in January 2021 to
00:21:10 --> 00:21:13 investigate the origins of the COVID 19
00:21:13 --> 00:21:16 pandemic. The 14 member team spent
00:21:16 --> 00:21:18 weeks reviewing data, interviewing government
00:21:18 --> 00:21:20 approved Chinese researchers and visiting
00:21:20 --> 00:21:23 specially prepared sites including the Wuhan
00:21:23 --> 00:21:25 Institute of Virology and the Hunan Seafood
00:21:25 --> 00:21:28 Market. They concluded that a zoonotic
00:21:28 --> 00:21:30 spillover through an intermediary host animal
00:21:30 --> 00:21:32 was the most likely pathway and that a
00:21:32 --> 00:21:35 laboratory origin was extremely unlikely.
00:21:36 --> 00:21:37 The problem is that finding has been widely
00:21:37 --> 00:21:39 criticised, as Daszak's inclusion on the
00:21:39 --> 00:21:42 panel was a clear and deliberate conflict of
00:21:42 --> 00:21:44 interest. So instead of ending debate, it
00:21:44 --> 00:21:46 sparked significant scrutiny and pushback
00:21:46 --> 00:21:49 from the scientific community. Even the media
00:21:49 --> 00:21:51 was forced to take a second look. Later,
00:21:51 --> 00:21:53 congressional investigations and Federal
00:21:53 --> 00:21:55 audits revealed EcoHealth had failed to
00:21:55 --> 00:21:58 properly report or oversee its risky gain of
00:21:58 --> 00:22:00 function experiments conducted at Wuhan with
00:22:00 --> 00:22:03 their Chinese partners. And it's not just
00:22:03 --> 00:22:06 the Americans who express concern. In
00:22:06 --> 00:22:08 2020, Germany's foreign intelligence service,
00:22:08 --> 00:22:11 the BDN, provided its own intelligence to
00:22:11 --> 00:22:13 then German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
00:22:13 --> 00:22:15 indicating that the Coronavirus behind the
00:22:15 --> 00:22:18 COVID 19 pandemic was accidentally released
00:22:18 --> 00:22:20 from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology.
00:22:21 --> 00:22:23 According uh to a joint report by the Zeit
00:22:23 --> 00:22:25 and Zu Deutsche Zeitung, Germany's spy agency
00:22:25 --> 00:22:27 had indicated that the Institute had
00:22:27 --> 00:22:29 conducted gain of function experiments in
00:22:29 --> 00:22:31 which viruses were modified to become more
00:22:31 --> 00:22:33 transmissible to humans for research
00:22:33 --> 00:22:36 purposes. These assessments were based on an
00:22:36 --> 00:22:38 intelligence operation codenamed Zarimar, as
00:22:38 --> 00:22:40 well as through publicly available data.
00:22:41 --> 00:22:44 Leaked official documents also show that the
00:22:44 --> 00:22:46 former head of the UK's foreign intelligence
00:22:46 --> 00:22:48 agency M MI6 told then British Prime Minister
00:22:48 --> 00:22:51 Boris Johnson in early 2020 that the COVID
00:22:51 --> 00:22:54 19 virus escaped from the Wuhan lab
00:22:54 --> 00:22:56 Meanwhile, a Central Intelligence Agency
00:22:56 --> 00:22:58 assessment prepared during the Biden
00:22:58 --> 00:23:01 administration admitted COVID 19 was more
00:23:01 --> 00:23:03 likely to have originated from a laboratory
00:23:03 --> 00:23:05 leak at Wuhan, but the agency went to pains
00:23:05 --> 00:23:08 to stress its assessment had only a low level
00:23:08 --> 00:23:11 of confidence. That CIA UH assessment
00:23:11 --> 00:23:13 was based on analysis of existing
00:23:13 --> 00:23:14 intelligence related to the virus's
00:23:14 --> 00:23:17 characteristics, its initial spread and the
00:23:17 --> 00:23:19 working conditions in the virology lab,
00:23:19 --> 00:23:21 leading to the conclusion that a UH
00:23:21 --> 00:23:23 laboratory origin was more likely than a
00:23:23 --> 00:23:24 natural origin based on the available
00:23:25 --> 00:23:27 information. However, it is also known that
00:23:27 --> 00:23:30 the CIA supported the Wuhan SARS research
00:23:30 --> 00:23:32 through Black Ops funding in order to keep a
00:23:32 --> 00:23:34 close eye on China's biological weapons
00:23:34 --> 00:23:37 programme, how advanced it was and in which
00:23:37 --> 00:23:40 direction it was heading. This included some
00:23:40 --> 00:23:42 US$53 million given to EcoHealth
00:23:42 --> 00:23:45 alliance through USAID. In
00:23:45 --> 00:23:48 March 2020 we reported the original Nature
00:23:48 --> 00:23:50 Medicine Journal storey the proximal origin
00:23:50 --> 00:23:53 of SARS cov2 on um, the Space Time Science
00:23:53 --> 00:23:55 report which looked at the origins of the
00:23:55 --> 00:23:58 COVID 19 virus. The nature study
00:23:58 --> 00:24:00 concluded the virus resulted from natural
00:24:00 --> 00:24:02 evolution rather than laboratory
00:24:02 --> 00:24:04 manipulation. That study found the spike
00:24:04 --> 00:24:07 protein's receptor binding domain and the
00:24:07 --> 00:24:09 virus's overall molecular structure strongly
00:24:09 --> 00:24:11 suggested natural selection, contradicting
00:24:11 --> 00:24:13 theories of an engineered laboratory
00:24:13 --> 00:24:15 construct. The authors proposed two
00:24:15 --> 00:24:18 scenarios that could plausibly explain the
00:24:18 --> 00:24:21 origins of SARS COV2 either
00:24:21 --> 00:24:23 natural selection in the animal host before
00:24:23 --> 00:24:25 zoonotic transfer, or natural selection in a
00:24:25 --> 00:24:27 human host following zoonotic transfer.
00:24:28 --> 00:24:30 But since its original publication, the
00:24:30 --> 00:24:33 Nature article has been strongly criticised.
00:24:33 --> 00:24:35 Virologists, biological researchers and
00:24:35 --> 00:24:37 experts in genetic engineering argue the
00:24:37 --> 00:24:40 conclusion was premature and lacked
00:24:40 --> 00:24:42 definitive empirical evidence at the time, as
00:24:42 --> 00:24:44 the natural zoonotic spillover pathway
00:24:44 --> 00:24:47 remained unproven. Then there were
00:24:47 --> 00:24:49 uncovered emails and Freedom of Information
00:24:49 --> 00:24:51 release communications which revealed that
00:24:51 --> 00:24:53 while drafting the Nature paper, the authors
00:24:53 --> 00:24:55 privately expressed significant concerns that
00:24:56 --> 00:24:58 that the virus's genome did have features
00:24:58 --> 00:25:00 potentially indicative of laboratory
00:25:00 --> 00:25:02 engineering, such as the fur and cleavage
00:25:02 --> 00:25:04 sites. Critics argue they failed to
00:25:04 --> 00:25:07 disclose these key misgivings in the final
00:25:07 --> 00:25:10 published text. Many observers and
00:25:10 --> 00:25:12 scientists accuse the authors of using their
00:25:12 --> 00:25:14 Nature article to prematurely steer the
00:25:14 --> 00:25:17 public, the media and policymaker attention
00:25:17 --> 00:25:19 away from legitimate investigations into
00:25:19 --> 00:25:22 research related origins, potentially to
00:25:22 --> 00:25:23 protect the scientific community from
00:25:23 --> 00:25:25 political scrutiny or to prevent any
00:25:25 --> 00:25:28 restriction of research funding. Importantly,
00:25:28 --> 00:25:30 while the Nature authors claim the virus's
00:25:30 --> 00:25:33 unique fur and cleavage site was the result
00:25:33 --> 00:25:35 of natural selection, critics and virologists
00:25:35 --> 00:25:37 have argued that this specific feature is
00:25:37 --> 00:25:39 highly uncharacteristic of naturally
00:25:39 --> 00:25:42 occurring SARS related coronaviruses and
00:25:42 --> 00:25:44 remains a structural element highly
00:25:44 --> 00:25:46 compatible with laboratory manipulation.
00:25:47 --> 00:25:49 And finally there's the issue of the missing
00:25:49 --> 00:25:52 intermediate hosts. Despite the paper's
00:25:52 --> 00:25:54 advocacy for natural selection either in
00:25:54 --> 00:25:56 animals before or in humans after transfer,
00:25:57 --> 00:25:59 years and years of extensive sampling have
00:25:59 --> 00:26:01 still not identified a direct animal
00:26:01 --> 00:26:03 reservoir OR intermediate host.
00:26:04 --> 00:26:06 Gabbard's documents allege that US money
00:26:06 --> 00:26:08 funnelled through the EcoHealth alliance to
00:26:08 --> 00:26:11 the Wuhan Institute of Virology sparked a
00:26:11 --> 00:26:13 pandemic accusing Fauci of deliberately
00:26:13 --> 00:26:15 manipulating intelligence assessments and
00:26:15 --> 00:26:17 lying to Congress to cover up the financing.
00:26:17 --> 00:26:20 The declassified information also outlined
00:26:20 --> 00:26:22 the US government's support for more than 120
00:26:22 --> 00:26:25 biological laboratories operating across 30
00:26:25 --> 00:26:27 foreign countries. Gabbard's accused
00:26:27 --> 00:26:30 Fauci of orchestrating a deliberate attempt
00:26:30 --> 00:26:32 to cover up the truth, during which she
00:26:32 --> 00:26:34 claimed that he pushed lies, disinformation
00:26:34 --> 00:26:37 and censorship. Gabbard stated that her
00:26:37 --> 00:26:39 office received testimony from whistleblowers
00:26:39 --> 00:26:41 within the intelligence community who've
00:26:41 --> 00:26:43 reportedly faced threats in retaliation for
00:26:43 --> 00:26:46 challenging the narrative put forth by Fauci.
00:26:46 --> 00:26:48 The release has prompted fresh questions
00:26:48 --> 00:26:51 about congressional testimony, whistleblower
00:26:51 --> 00:26:53 claims and the scope of, uh, former President
00:26:53 --> 00:26:56 Joe Biden's preemptive auto pen pardon for
00:26:56 --> 00:26:58 Fauci. You see, historically,
00:26:58 --> 00:27:00 presidential pardons involve specific
00:27:00 --> 00:27:03 charges, specific conduct or
00:27:03 --> 00:27:05 identifiable offences. Now, that
00:27:05 --> 00:27:08 didn't happen in Fauci's case. The
00:27:08 --> 00:27:11 World Health Organisation says over 7.1
00:27:11 --> 00:27:13 million people have now been killed by the
00:27:13 --> 00:27:16 COVID19 coronavirus since it was first
00:27:16 --> 00:27:18 detected among those workers at China's Wuhan
00:27:18 --> 00:27:20 Institute of Virology way back in September
00:27:20 --> 00:27:23 2019. The Lancet Medical Journal
00:27:23 --> 00:27:26 estimates the true global death toll is
00:27:26 --> 00:27:28 likely to be more than 18 million, with well
00:27:28 --> 00:27:30 over three quarters of a billion confirmed
00:27:30 --> 00:27:33 cases globally. Even if you hadn't had
00:27:33 --> 00:27:36 Covid, you probably know someone who has.
00:27:36 --> 00:27:38 This is Space Time,
00:27:53 --> 00:27:56 And that's the show for now. Space Time is
00:27:56 --> 00:27:58 available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday
00:27:58 --> 00:28:01 through bytes.com soundcloud,
00:28:01 --> 00:28:03 YouTube, your favourite podcast download
00:28:03 --> 00:28:05 provider, and from
00:28:05 --> 00:28:07 spacetimewithstuartgarry.com
00:28:07 --> 00:28:09 spacetime's also broadcast through the
00:28:09 --> 00:28:11 National Science foundation on Science Zone
00:28:11 --> 00:28:14 Radio and on both iHeartradio and
00:28:14 --> 00:28:17 TuneIn radio. And you can help to support our
00:28:17 --> 00:28:19 show by visiting the Space Time Store for a
00:28:19 --> 00:28:22 range of promotional merchandising goodies,
00:28:22 --> 00:28:25 or by becoming a Space patron, which gives
00:28:25 --> 00:28:27 you access to triple episode commercial free
00:28:27 --> 00:28:29 versions of the show, as well as lots of
00:28:29 --> 00:28:31 bonus audio content which doesn't go to air,
00:28:31 --> 00:28:34 access to our exclusive Facebook group and
00:28:34 --> 00:28:36 other rewards. Just go to
00:28:36 --> 00:28:38 spacetimewithstuartgarry.com for full
00:28:38 --> 00:28:39 details.
00:28:40 --> 00:28:42 Stuart Gary: You've been listening to Space time with
00:28:42 --> 00:28:44 Stuart Gary. This has been another quality
00:28:44 --> 00:28:47 podcast production from bytes.com.