Ceres: A Potentially Habitable World?
Recent research published in Science Advances suggests that Ceres, currently a frigid and frozen world, may have once harboured conditions suitable for life. By modelling the planet's thermal and chemical history, scientists propose that Ceres could have sustained a long-lasting energy source, allowing for microbial metabolism. While there's no direct evidence of life, the findings indicate that Ceres had the necessary ingredients—water, carbon, and chemical energy—that could have supported single-celled organisms in its ancient past.
Nasa's New Heliospheric Mission
NASA has launched the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) to investigate the heliosphere, the magnetic bubble surrounding our solar system. This mission aims to enhance our understanding of solar wind and its interactions with interstellar particles, which are crucial for assessing space weather impacts on Earth. IMAP will operate alongside the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and NOAA's Swifo L1 spacecraft, contributing to a comprehensive study of our solar environment.
Spirit Nanosat's Milestone Achievement
The University of Melbourne's Spirit nanosatellite has successfully completed its initial mission phase, deploying its thermal management system and taking a selfie in space. Launched in December 2023, Spirit is equipped with a miniaturised gamma-ray detector to search for gamma-ray bursts, marking a significant advancement in small satellite technology and scientific exploration.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Science Advances
https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv
NASA IMAP Mission
https://www.nasa.gov/imap
University of Melbourne Spirit Nanosatellite
https://www.unimelb.edu.au/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
Ceres: A Potentially Habitable World?
NASA's New Heliospheric Mission
Spirit Nanosat's Milestone Achievement
(00:00) New study claims the dwarf planet Ceres could once have been habitable enough for life
(05:14) The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe will study the heliosphere
(15:58) New study finds tropical fish are colonising new habitats because of ocean warming
(18:07) Khloe Kardashian reportedly claims she's seen UFOs and experienced paranormal activity
00:00:00
This is Space Time Series 28 Episode 119 for broadcast on the
00:00:04
3rd of October 2025. Coming up on Space Time, could the dwarf
00:00:09
planet Ceres once have supported life? NASA's new mission to
00:00:14
study the heliosphere? And the University Of Melbourne's SPIRIT
00:00:17
Dinosat snaps a selfie? All that and more coming up on Space
00:00:22
Time.
00:00:24
Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Gary.
00:00:43
A new study claims that the dwarf planet Ceres, which today
00:00:47
is a cold, frozen world, could once have been habitable enough
00:00:50
to support life. A report in the journal Science Advances paints
00:00:54
a picture of Ceres hosting a deep, long-lived energy source
00:00:58
that may have maintained habitable conditions for long
00:01:01
periods of time in the past.
00:01:03
The new research by NASA found that Ceres may have had a
00:01:06
long-lasting source of chemical energy, the right types of
00:01:09
molecules needed to fuel microbial metabolisms. Now
00:01:13
before you get too carried away, there is no evidence at all that
00:01:17
microorganisms ever existed on Ceres.
00:01:19
But the findings do support theories that this intriguing
00:01:22
dwarf planet, which is the largest body in the main
00:01:25
asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, may once have had
00:01:27
conditions suitable for supporting single-cell
00:01:30
lifeforms.
00:01:32
Data from NASA's Dawn mission, which ended in 2018, previously
00:01:35
showed that the bright, reflective regions on Ceres'
00:01:38
surface are mostly made of salts left over from liquid that
00:01:41
percolated up from deep underground.
00:01:44
Later analysis in 2020 found that the source of this liquid
00:01:48
was an enormous reservoir of brine, that is, salty water,
00:01:51
deep below the surface. Dawn also revealed evidence that
00:01:55
Ceres had organic material in the form of carbon molecules,
00:01:58
essential, although not sufficient on its own. To
00:02:00
support microbial life.
00:02:02
The presence of water and carbon molecules are two of the key
00:02:06
critical components necessary for habitability. And the
00:02:09
findings also offer the third, a long-lasting source of chemical
00:02:13
energy in Ceres' ancient past that could have made it possible
00:02:16
for microorganisms to survive.
00:02:19
Now, once again, this result doesn't mean Ceres had life, but
00:02:24
rather that there was likely to have been food available should
00:02:27
life ever have arisen on Ceres. Now to reach their conclusions,
00:02:30
the study's authors built thermal and chemical models
00:02:33
mimicking the temperatures and composition of Ceres' interior
00:02:36
over long time spans.
00:02:38
They found that around 2.5 billion years ago, Ceres'
00:02:42
subsurface ocean may have had a steady supply of hot water
00:02:45
containing dissolved gases travelling up from
00:02:47
metamorphosized rocks on the seafloor. The heat would have
00:02:51
come through the decay of radioactive elements within the
00:02:53
dwarf planet's interior, which occurred when Ceres was still
00:02:56
quite young.
00:02:57
That's an internal process thought to be common throughout
00:02:59
the solar system. The study's lead author Sam Corville from
00:03:03
Arizona State University worked on the Dawn mission while with
00:03:06
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
00:03:10
He says that here on Earth, when hot water from deep underground
00:03:13
mixes with the ocean deep-sea hydrothermal vents, the result
00:03:16
is often a buffet for microbes, a feast of chemical energy. So
00:03:21
this could have big implications. If Corville and
00:03:23
colleagues determined that Ceres' ocean had an influx of
00:03:26
hydrothermal fluid in the past.
00:03:29
Of course, the Ceres astronomers know today is likely to be
00:03:32
completely uninhabitable. It's cooler, with a lot more ice and
00:03:35
far less water than what it had in the past. And there's
00:03:39
currently insufficient heat from radioactive decay within Ceres
00:03:42
to keep that water from freezing.
00:03:44
And what liquid remains has now become a concentrated brine. The
00:03:49
period when Ceres would most likely have been habitable would
00:03:52
have been between half a billion and two billion years after it
00:03:54
formed. That's about two and a half to four billion years ago,
00:03:58
when its rocky core reached its peak temperature.
00:04:00
That's when warm fluids would have been introduced into Ceres'
00:04:03
underground water supply. And the dwarf planet also doesn't
00:04:07
have the benefit of present-day internal heating generated by
00:04:10
gravitational tidal actions through the push and pull of
00:04:13
orbiting a large planet, like we see in Saturn's moon Enceladus
00:04:16
and the Jovian Moon Europa.
00:04:19
So, Ceres' greatest potential for habitability, fueling
00:04:22
energy, was well in the past. But the results have
00:04:25
implications for water-rich objects throughout the outer
00:04:28
solar system. There are many other icy moons and dwarf
00:04:31
planets that are of similar size to the 940 km wide Ceres and
00:04:35
which also lack the internal heating from the gravitational
00:04:38
pull of planets, but could also have had a period of
00:04:41
habitability way in their past.
00:04:43
This is Space Time. Still to come, NASA's new mission to
00:04:47
study the heliosphere, And the University Of Melbourne SPIRIT
00:04:50
Nanosat successfully completes the initial phase of its
00:04:53
mission, the search for gamma-ray bursts. All that and
00:04:56
more still to come. On Space Time, NASA's launched a new
00:05:16
mission to study the Sun's magnetic bubble, the
00:05:18
heliosphere.
00:05:19
The heliosphere fills the entire solar system, and it helps
00:05:23
shield it from interstellar particles and radiation. The new
00:05:26
mission... Called the Interstellar Mapping And
00:05:28
Acceleration Probe IMAP will help astronomers develop a
00:05:31
better understanding of this tenuous solar atmosphere and how
00:05:34
events like space weather interact with it.
00:05:37
IMAP was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket together
00:05:41
with NASA's Carruthers GeoCorona Observatory and NOAA's SWIFO L1
00:05:45
spacecraft from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
00:05:49
IMAP sensors and detectors will sample, analyze and map
00:05:53
particles streaming towards the Earth from the very edges of our
00:05:56
solar system and beyond. The mission will also help
00:05:59
scientists learn more about the solar wind, the continuous
00:06:02
stream of particles flowing out from the Sun, and about
00:06:05
energetic particles in the heliosphere.
00:06:07
These particles can affect humans in space. They can damage
00:06:11
spacecraft systems, and may even have played a role in the
00:06:14
presence of life in the solar system.
00:06:17
The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in L'Oreal,
00:06:19
Maryland, built the spacecraft, which is flying 10 instruments
00:06:22
to study the solar wind, interstellar dust and other
00:06:25
particles, magnetic fields and ultraviolet light in space.
00:06:29
Following its launch, the 900kg spacecraft, together with both
00:06:33
the Carruthers GeoCorona Observatory and SWIFO L1, have
00:06:36
commenced their four-month cruise phase to the Lagrangian
00:06:39
L1 position some 1.6 million kilometres away.
00:06:44
Located between the Earth and the Sun, L1 is a sort of
00:06:47
gravitational well, where the pull of the Earth and Sun cancel
00:06:50
each other out. Allowing a spacecraft in that position to
00:06:53
remain there in a stable orbit without expending a great degree
00:06:56
of fuel.
00:06:58
From L1, IMAP will have an uninterrupted view of activities
00:07:01
at the interstellar boundary in the Sun.
00:07:04
Meanwhile, the third member of the launch trio, the National
00:07:07
Oceanographic And Atmospheric Administration's SWIFO L1
00:07:10
spacecraft, is the first NOAA observatory designed
00:07:13
specifically for and fully dedicated to operational Space
00:07:16
Weather Observations.
00:07:18
It's stationed at the L1 position, will allow
00:07:21
unobstructed observations of the Sun's outer atmosphere, the
00:07:24
corona, enabling upstream measurements of solar wind
00:07:27
disturbances before they reach the Earth. This will allow the
00:07:30
spacecraft to serve as an early warning beacon for geomagnetic
00:07:34
storms.
00:07:35
The probe's primary instrument is the Core 2 Compact
00:07:38
Chronograph, which will monitor the Sun's surroundings to
00:07:41
provide data for enhanced forecasting and improve science
00:07:44
's understanding of the complex dynamics of the solar corona and
00:07:47
disruptive space weather events like coronal mass ejections,
00:07:50
blasts of plasma and magnetic field exploding out from the
00:07:53
Sun.
00:07:54
Core 2 employs a single external occulter, a cylindrical device
00:07:59
that blocks the direct sunlight creating an artificial eclipse.
00:08:02
This allows the telescope to exclusively focus on faint
00:08:06
details in the corona itself. Core 2 builds upon the earlier
00:08:10
Core 1 instrument, currently operational on NOAA's GOES-19
00:08:13
satellite in geostationary orbit.
00:08:16
While Core 1 experiences daily eclipses as the Earth passes
00:08:19
between the satellite and the Sun, Core 2 at the L1 position
00:08:23
will be able to provide a continuous 24-7 view of the Sun.
00:08:26
This location, coupled with a larger field of view and the
00:08:29
ability to observe closer to the solar surface, allows Core 2 to
00:08:33
capture slightly more images and more rapidly detect coronal mass
00:08:36
ejections closer to the solar disk. This means scientists can
00:08:40
determine their trajectory, mass and speed with greater accuracy.
00:08:43
With the goal of predicting any space weather impact on Earth.
00:08:47
Space weather events, also known as geomagnetic storms, are
00:08:50
triggered by sustained periods of high-speed solar wind coupled
00:08:53
with a southward-directed interplanetary magnetic field
00:08:56
component which facilitates magnetic reconnection and energy
00:08:59
transfer at Earth's magnetopause.
00:09:02
Understanding the initiation and propagation of coronal mass
00:09:05
ejections and their subsequent impact on Earth's magnetosphere
00:09:08
is crucial for predicting and mitigating the adverse effects
00:09:12
of space weather. The repercussions of geomagnetic
00:09:15
storms can range from temporary operational anomalies to
00:09:18
significant infrastructure damage.
00:09:20
These disturbances can disrupt satellite communications and
00:09:23
navigation systems, cause geomagnetically induced currents
00:09:26
in power grids, impacting their stability and reliability,
00:09:30
increase atmospheric drag on low-Earth orbit satellites,
00:09:33
potentially shortening their operational lifespans, and
00:09:36
interfere with high-frequency radio communications.
00:09:39
While coronal mass ejections typically require several days
00:09:42
to transit from the Sun to the Earth, the most energetic events
00:09:45
have been observed to arrive at Earth in as little as 18 hours'
00:09:48
time. Therefore, timely and accurate observations of
00:09:52
instruments like Core 2 are essential.
00:09:55
Once in its final orbit at L1, SWIFO L1 will be renamed Space
00:09:59
Weather Observations at L1 to Advanced Readiness or Solar 1
00:10:03
spacecraft.
00:10:04
This report from NASA TV.
00:10:06
From here on Earth, our Sun looks steady and unchanging. But
00:10:11
close up, it's a dynamic, active place. And sometimes you'd see
00:10:16
bursts of radiation called solar flares, and explosions of plasma
00:10:21
and magnetic fields called coronal mass ejections.
00:10:24
But when the coronal mass ejections hit Earth, our
00:10:27
magnetic field can go haywire. Powerful electromagnetic
00:10:31
currents generated during these storms can harm our power grids,
00:10:35
global positioning systems, communications networks, and
00:10:39
spacecraft and astronauts on orbit.
00:10:42
Meet SWIFO L1, NOAA's first purpose-built space weather
00:10:46
observatory. From its unique vantage point at Lagrange Point
00:10:50
1, a million and a half kilometers from Earth.
00:10:53
SWIFO L1 keeps an eye on the Sun 's corona 24-7, without
00:10:58
interruption, to provide early warning of solar storms heading
00:11:02
our way.
00:11:03
The spacecraft's crown jewel is its compact coronagraph, its eye
00:11:08
on the Sun.
00:11:10
Just like the GOES-19 coronagraph, it allows SWIFO L1
00:11:14
to detect even the fastest coronal mass ejections right as
00:11:18
they happen. The spacecraft is also packed with a suite of new
00:11:21
instruments. That allow it to make real-time measurements of
00:11:25
the solar wind's velocity, density, and temperature, and
00:11:29
variations in the interplanetary magnetic field, all to provide
00:11:33
better forecasts of incoming space weather than ever before.
00:11:38
All of that technology floating out in space on SWIFO L1 works
00:11:43
together closely to keep us safe back here on Earth.
00:11:47
Here's how it works. When a solar storm erupts from the Sun,
00:11:51
SWIFO L1'S coronagraph observes the event right away and sends
00:11:55
the data back to the SWIFO ground segment, a network of
00:11:59
antenna stations all over the world with the SWIFO command and
00:12:02
control in Maryland.
00:12:04
But spotting a storm is one thing. Actually measuring it
00:12:08
close up is another.
00:12:11
It's the difference between tracking a growing hurricane on
00:12:13
radar and flying through the storm on a Hurricane Hunter
00:12:17
aircraft.
00:12:19
SWIFO L1 does you both.
00:12:22
After the spacecraft spots a storm with its coronagraph, it
00:12:25
watches the approaching weather and waits.
00:12:29
Somewhere between 18 and 70 hours later, the incoming storm
00:12:33
passes over SWIFO L1.
00:12:35
Then, the spacecraft's instrument suite measures the
00:12:38
storm's severity and speed, and sends that data home too, giving
00:12:43
NOAA early warning somewhere between 15 and 60 minutes before
00:12:47
the storm arrives at Earth.
00:12:50
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado is constantly
00:12:54
on the alert, using all the data SWIFO L1 collects to develop and
00:12:59
communicate real-time forecasts and warnings to industry,
00:13:03
government agencies, and the public, so they can take action
00:13:07
before the storm arrives to minimize its impact.
00:13:10
Those actions might include putting satellites into safe
00:13:13
mode, rerouting polar airline flights, sheltering in a safe
00:13:18
area on the International Space Station, or changing loads on
00:13:21
the power grid. In our increasingly technology
00:13:24
dependent world, we're more vulnerable than ever to solar
00:13:28
storms.
00:13:29
But at the same time, our fleet of space weather satellites is
00:13:33
aging out of service after many years of work in the harsh
00:13:37
environment of outer space. That 's why SWIFO L1 is the first of
00:13:42
a new generation of Sun observing spacecraft that NOAA
00:13:46
is launching.
00:13:47
SWIFO L1 will use its cutting-edge observing
00:13:50
technology to provide NOAA forecasters the best and most
00:13:53
reliable data available and ensure our nation doesn't go a
00:13:58
minute without eyes on the Sun, our life-giving but turbulent
00:14:02
neighborhood star.
00:14:07
This is space-time. Still to come, the University Of
00:14:10
Melbourne's SPIRIT satellite snaps a selfie. And later in the
00:14:14
science report, a new study has found that tropical fish are now
00:14:18
colonizing new habitats in temperate waters. All that and
00:14:22
more still to come on Space Time.
00:14:39
The University Of Melbourne SPIRIT Nano Satellite has
00:14:42
successfully completed the initial phase of its mission.
00:14:46
The Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal
00:14:48
Nanosatellite, SPIRIT, is the first space telescope funded by
00:14:52
ASA, the Australian Space Agency, to carry a foreign space
00:14:55
agency's scientific instrument as its primary payload.
00:14:59
The spacecraft was launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from
00:15:02
the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California back in December
00:15:05
2023.
00:15:07
Since its launch, SPIRIT's circled the Earth more than
00:15:09
9 times, traveling a distance comparable with a trip
00:15:12
between the Earth and Mars, and has been in orbit for over 600
00:15:15
days. The completion of the first phase of SPIRIT's mission
00:15:19
was marked with the deployment of its wing thermal management
00:15:22
system and selfie stick, which it then used to take a selfie in
00:15:25
space.
00:15:27
SPIRIT will be scanning large areas of space using its Hermes
00:15:30
X-Ray detector to search for gamma-ray bursts, providing an
00:15:33
early warning system for astronomers studying these
00:15:36
stellar explosions.
00:15:38
SPIRIT's unique wings, designed by the University Of Melbourne,
00:15:40
helps keep the space telescope cool and increases science
00:15:44
instrument performance. The prototype miniaturized gamma-ray
00:15:47
detector on board was developed by the Italian Space Agency. It
00:15:51
was tested by targeting the Crab Nebula Pulsar. Detecting the
00:15:54
supernova remnant in 700 seconds of observation. This is Space
00:15:59
Time.
00:16:16
And time now to take another brief look at some of the other
00:16:18
stories making news in science this week with a science report.
00:16:22
A new study has found that tropical fish are now colonizing
00:16:25
new habitats in temperate oceans made available to them because
00:16:29
of ocean warming.
00:16:30
A report in the journal Animal Ecology found that those who
00:16:34
shoal alongside neighbors that are native to temperate waters
00:16:37
learn local behaviors that help them thrive. The authors found
00:16:41
that tropical fish species that live in mixed shoals, not solely
00:16:44
among other tropical fishes, become bolder and feed more,
00:16:47
which may aid them in surviving for longer and growing larger on
00:16:51
temperate reefs.
00:16:52
The southward migration of tropical fish isn't new. More
00:16:56
than a decade ago, studies found fish normally restricted to the
00:16:59
Great Barrier Reef were now swimming happily in Sydney
00:17:02
Harbour.
00:17:04
New research has found that children have a similar risk of
00:17:07
dehydration and hypothermia in extreme heat as what adults do.
00:17:11
The findings, reported in the British Journal Of Sports
00:17:14
Medicine, contradicts previous advice that kids were more
00:17:17
susceptible to heat-related illnesses.
00:17:19
The research represents the largest controlled study of its
00:17:22
kind, looking at the effects of high temperatures up to 40
00:17:25
degrees Celsius on 68 kids between the ages of 10 and 16.
00:17:32
After more than two decades of digging and analysing fossils in
00:17:35
central Otago, a trans-Tasman team of scientists have now
00:17:39
found enough fragments to describe a new species of
00:17:41
carawong, an ancient ancestor of the bird that menaces New
00:17:45
Zealand today.
00:17:46
The findings, reported in the journal PAL-Z, suggest that the
00:17:49
ancient bird would have been about the same size as the
00:17:52
Australian magpie found in New Zealand today, but was probably
00:17:55
all black. I think that's meant to be a sports reference. The
00:17:59
authors say these fossils show that these magpie ancestors
00:18:02
lived in New Zealand some 19 million years ago.
00:18:06
And time now for our silliest story of the week. And we've
00:18:10
kept them at bay until now, but the time has finally come when
00:18:13
one of the Kardashians, and no, we don't mean the lizard people
00:18:17
from Star Trek Deep Space Nine, has started talking about her
00:18:20
encounters with UFOs, ghosts and spooky voices.
00:18:24
Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics says Khloe Kardashian
00:18:27
believes she's not only seen UFOs but has experienced
00:18:30
paranormal activity in her own home.
00:18:33
Well, obviously Khloe believes it, so it's all game over, isn't
00:18:36
it? It's all proof. I'm sorry. I do not take any of the
00:18:38
Kardashians that seriously, apart from their ability to...
00:18:41
To promote themselves and make a lot of money.
00:18:43
I'm sorry to say this, but I'm probably one of the few people
00:18:46
in the world who have never ever watched an episode of the
00:18:48
Kardashians and consequently I don't know who Khloe Kardashian
00:18:51
is.
00:18:52
I'm in the same club, by the way. I'm not a follower. But
00:18:54
this is a celebrity. They're very famous. They're very rich.
00:18:57
The whole bunch of them. And everyone seems to find them very
00:18:59
convincing. They're famous for being famous. So Khloe reckons
00:19:03
she's witnessed UFOs and she's had voices whispering in her
00:19:06
ear. This is one of the weird phenomena, right?
00:19:08
That people who are famous... Tend to have more credence given
00:19:11
to their ideas. If it was Joe Blow down at the pub, had too
00:19:14
much to drink, and he was saying he sort of was taken up by a
00:19:17
UFO, you go, uh-huh, yes, because Khloe Kardashian and the
00:19:20
other people are famous, people give it more credence or it's
00:19:22
more interesting. I suppose that 's the thing. The media boosted.
00:19:25
That's why Hollywood actors are getting credibility for their
00:19:28
political views, when no-one really cares what their
00:19:30
political views are other than other Hollywood actors, but they
00:19:34
get credibility for it because the media hypes them up.
00:19:36
Media hypes them up. They're famous and therefore people say,
00:19:38
well, they must know what they're talking about. No, the
00:19:40
Hollywood actors and the famous Kardashian family and all these
00:19:43
sort of celebrities are no more or less intelligent than the
00:19:46
bulk of the people, I dare say. But because someone's famous
00:19:49
doesn't mean that they're worth listening to, certainly about
00:19:53
things like UFOs and ghosts and voices in their ear.
00:19:56
That's Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics.
00:20:14
And that's the show for now. Space Time is available every
00:20:18
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00:21:08
You've been listening to Space Time with Stuart Gary.
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This has been another quality podcast production from
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Bytes.Com.