Galactic Giants, Ancient Microbes, and Vulcan's Triumphant Flight

[00:00:00] This is SpaceTime Series 27, Episode 124, for broadcast on the 14th of October 2024.

[00:00:07] Coming up on SpaceTime, it turns out galaxies are much, much bigger than we thought.

[00:00:13] The discovery of live microbes living inside two billion year old rocks.

[00:00:18] And the United Launch Alliance Vulcan spacecraft snatches victory out of the jaws of defeat.

[00:00:25] All that and more coming up on SpaceTime.

[00:00:29] Welcome to SpaceTime with Stuart Gary.

[00:00:48] A new study has concluded that galaxies are actually much, much bigger than what we thought they were.

[00:00:54] The key to their true size, apparently, lies in the amount of gas surrounding them,

[00:01:00] which, it now appears, extends far further into intergalactic space than previously thought.

[00:01:06] The findings, reported in the journal Nature Astronomy,

[00:01:08] are based on detailed measurements of the circungalactic medium of a star-bursting galaxy

[00:01:13] located some 270 million light-years away.

[00:01:17] The observations, made using new deep space imaging techniques,

[00:01:20] were able to detect the cloud of gas glowing outside the galaxy 100,000 light-years into intergalactic space.

[00:01:27] Now, if this galaxy is typical, then our own galaxy, the Milky Way,

[00:01:32] is already interacting with our large and neighbouring galaxy, Andromeda.

[00:01:36] Astronomers had previously figured the two wouldn't collide and merge for at least another 3.7 billion years.

[00:01:42] The study's lead author, Associate Professor Nicole Nielsen from Swinburne University,

[00:01:47] Astro 3D and the University of Oklahoma, says it begs the question,

[00:01:52] where does a galaxy end and deep space begin?

[00:01:55] Now, that seems like a simple question,

[00:01:57] until you look more closely at the gas surrounding galaxies,

[00:02:00] known as the circungalactic medium.

[00:02:03] It turns out this halo of gas surrounding the galactic disk

[00:02:06] accounts for about 70% of the total mass of the galaxy, excluding dark matter.

[00:02:11] But until now, it's always remained something of a mystery.

[00:02:14] In the past, astronomers have only been able to observe the gas

[00:02:18] by measuring the light from background objects.

[00:02:21] But that limits the picture of the cloud to a pencil-like beam through it.

[00:02:25] It doesn't give you a true sense of the sheer vastness involved.

[00:02:29] To envisage the true size of this gas cloud,

[00:02:32] the astronomers needed to consider all the galaxy's starlight.

[00:02:36] That's what you typically view as the galactic disk of the galaxy.

[00:02:39] In this case, it extended around 7,800 light-years from the galactic centre.

[00:02:44] What this current study did was observe the physical connection

[00:02:47] of hydrogen and oxygen from the centre of the galaxy far into space.

[00:02:51] And it clearly showed that as you went further from the centre of the galaxy,

[00:02:56] the physical conditions of this gas changed.

[00:02:59] Nielsen says, put simply, these are usually fuzzy boundaries.

[00:03:02] But in this case, the authors seem to have found

[00:03:04] a fairly clear boundary in this galaxy

[00:03:06] between its interstellar medium and its circungalactic medium.

[00:03:10] The study observed stars ionising gas with their photons within the galaxy.

[00:03:15] In the circungalactic medium,

[00:03:17] the gas was being heated by something other than typical conditions inside stars.

[00:03:22] Now, this likely includes heating from the diffuse emissions

[00:03:25] of the collective galaxies in the universe

[00:03:27] and possibly some contribution due to shock fronts.

[00:03:30] And it's this change which provides some of the answers

[00:03:33] as to where a galaxy really ends.

[00:03:35] This study is adding another piece to the puzzle

[00:03:37] That's one of the big questions in astronomy and galactic evolution.

[00:03:41] How do galaxies evolve?

[00:03:43] How do they get their gas?

[00:03:44] How do they process that gas?

[00:03:46] And where does that gas eventually go?

[00:03:48] Nielsen says the circungalactic medium

[00:03:51] plays a huge role in the cycling of that gas.

[00:03:54] So, being able to understand what it looks like

[00:03:56] around galaxies of different types,

[00:03:58] ones that are star-forming and those that are no longer star-forming,

[00:04:01] and those that are transitioning between the two,

[00:04:04] will allow astronomers to observe differences in this gas.

[00:04:07] And that might be driving the differences between the galaxies themselves.

[00:04:11] It seems like with this gas that we observed around this particular galaxy,

[00:04:15] the ionized gas seems to actually be shocked at that boundary

[00:04:18] that we found in the surface brightness of this gas.

[00:04:21] And so, yeah, the physical conditions are changing.

[00:04:25] It's being ionized by the stars,

[00:04:26] and then it's being shocked at that boundary,

[00:04:28] and then beyond that, it's being ionized by other galaxies instead.

[00:04:32] This has to bring us to the cosmic web of the universe itself.

[00:04:35] The filaments and strands that contain the stars and galaxies

[00:04:40] and galaxy clusters and superclusters around vast voids.

[00:04:43] And this is all part of that mechanism.

[00:04:45] Yep, definitely.

[00:04:46] It's part of all those fuzzy boundaries

[00:04:48] between all the different things that make up that cosmic web.

[00:04:51] And so how did you actually make this discovery?

[00:04:53] So we used the Keck 10-meter telescopes

[00:04:56] with a fairly new instrument called the Keck Cosmic Web Imager.

[00:05:00] It's aptly named.

[00:05:01] And so it's this very sensitive integral field spectrograph.

[00:05:05] So what it does is it takes basically an image

[00:05:07] or like a region of the sky,

[00:05:10] and it splits it up into different parts of the sky,

[00:05:12] and then it splits it up into the spectrum.

[00:05:14] So it spreads out the light.

[00:05:16] And it does it in a way that it can detect

[00:05:17] very faint glowing emission from very distant things.

[00:05:21] So we used it, and we found glowing hydrogen and oxygen gas

[00:05:26] with temperatures of about 10 to the 5 Kelvin.

[00:05:28] And we saw it everywhere we looked, which was really exciting.

[00:05:31] And you can use this to provide you with an insight

[00:05:33] into the structure of galaxies overall

[00:05:36] and how they interact with each other.

[00:05:37] Yeah, so just understanding where all of that gas is

[00:05:41] and finding where it's located, its distribution,

[00:05:45] its temperature, and its physical condition,

[00:05:47] and how it connects to the galaxies themselves.

[00:05:51] Were you able to determine what types of gas were involved,

[00:05:53] what the actual elemental composition is?

[00:05:55] It's mostly hydrogen and oxygen.

[00:05:57] So it's ionized hydrogen and oxygen.

[00:06:00] Those are the only elements we were able to detect,

[00:06:02] just because we were limited in what wavelengths

[00:06:04] we're able to observe.

[00:06:05] So the other elements that we might be able to observe

[00:06:08] are either too faint or they're not covered

[00:06:10] by the instrument at the time.

[00:06:12] But if we were to go back and observe this galaxy again

[00:06:14] with the same instrument,

[00:06:16] it's now got a much wider wavelength range.

[00:06:18] And so we'd get a little bit more information

[00:06:20] about, say, like sulfur and nitrogen as well,

[00:06:23] which we expect to be there as well.

[00:06:25] Tell us about the galaxy itself.

[00:06:26] What's it called?

[00:06:27] How far away is it?

[00:06:28] Yeah, so the nickname we've given it is IRAS-08.

[00:06:32] So it's just a catalog name.

[00:06:33] The catalog is IRAS,

[00:06:35] and then its 08 is part of the declination

[00:06:37] and RA in declination.

[00:06:39] But the galaxy itself,

[00:06:40] so it's 270 million light years away.

[00:06:42] So it's actually quite a close galaxy

[00:06:46] for most of the work that I tend to do with this gas.

[00:06:49] But it's quite small.

[00:06:50] So it's about 8,000 light years in radius,

[00:06:52] and it's a star-bursting galaxy.

[00:06:54] So it's forming about 10 solar masses per year.

[00:06:57] In contrast, like the Milky Way

[00:06:59] is only forming one solar mass per year.

[00:07:01] So one star like our sun every year.

[00:07:03] And this galaxy was really exciting

[00:07:05] because we know it's forming stars,

[00:07:07] and we can see evidence of those stars

[00:07:10] ejecting lots of processed material

[00:07:13] out of the galaxy towards us as the observer.

[00:07:16] And then we also knew

[00:07:16] that there was a lot of neutral hydrogen

[00:07:19] outside of this galaxy

[00:07:20] and kind of the plume of gas

[00:07:22] that's kind of either coming off of the galaxy

[00:07:25] or falling onto the galaxy.

[00:07:26] So we thought maybe all of that neutral hydrogen,

[00:07:29] which is like 70% of the neutral hydrogen

[00:07:31] in the whole system itself,

[00:07:34] we thought that maybe that was falling onto the galaxy

[00:07:36] to provide fuel for that starburst

[00:07:38] and all those stars that are being formed.

[00:07:40] So yeah, we observed it

[00:07:42] to look for all of this ionized gas

[00:07:44] to see if we could see it

[00:07:45] also accreting onto the galaxy.

[00:07:47] But yeah, this galaxy is quite an interesting one,

[00:07:50] and it's very beautiful

[00:07:51] in the Hubble Space Telescope imaging as well.

[00:07:53] Is it very isolated,

[00:07:56] or has it got lots of galactic companions around it,

[00:07:59] satellite galaxies?

[00:08:00] It does have a smaller companion about,

[00:08:03] well, I can tell you in kiloparsecs,

[00:08:05] it's about 60 kiloparsecs away,

[00:08:07] so twice as far as we observed the gas.

[00:08:09] This galaxy, this companion galaxy,

[00:08:12] is about a tenth of the mass,

[00:08:13] so it's quite a bit smaller.

[00:08:15] So it's not doing any really strong interacting

[00:08:18] just yet with the galaxy we observed.

[00:08:21] So the galaxy we observed

[00:08:22] still has its grand spiral arm structure,

[00:08:25] and there doesn't seem to be any clear evidence

[00:08:28] that it's being torn apart by the other galaxy yet.

[00:08:31] But otherwise, it seems to be fairly isolated.

[00:08:33] And extrapolating that to our own Milky Way galaxy,

[00:08:36] you point out that it could mean

[00:08:38] that our interaction, let's be honest,

[00:08:41] our collision with Andromeda,

[00:08:42] may already have started.

[00:08:43] Yeah, I mean, this circumgalactic medium,

[00:08:45] all of this gas that's around galaxies,

[00:08:47] it extends out to hundreds of kiloparsecs,

[00:08:50] and Andromeda and the Milky Way

[00:08:52] are about 1,000 kiloparsecs away from each other,

[00:08:55] and so this gas is likely already starting

[00:08:59] to touch between the two galaxies

[00:09:01] and starting to interact and mix.

[00:09:03] Over the next few thousand years,

[00:09:05] millions of years.

[00:09:06] Oh, probably millions and billions.

[00:09:08] 3.5 to 4 billion years, okay.

[00:09:10] What will astronomers of the future be seeing

[00:09:12] as the gas from the two galaxies interacts more?

[00:09:15] Are we going to be seeing something like the heliopause,

[00:09:18] the shock front or something?

[00:09:20] Oh, I imagine there might be some shock front,

[00:09:24] a little bit maybe, but not sure actually.

[00:09:27] We haven't really studied this gas

[00:09:29] in the circumgalactic medium

[00:09:31] and how it interacts between galaxies very much yet,

[00:09:34] so we're not quite sure

[00:09:36] what it's going to look like at that boundary.

[00:09:38] But I imagine there might be some shock interaction here.

[00:09:41] Is that sort of where this research will now head?

[00:09:43] What do you hope to do with it?

[00:09:45] Yeah, so we found this boundary of this galaxy,

[00:09:49] and it's only one galaxy,

[00:09:50] and so what we hope to do is to do this

[00:09:53] for more galaxies that not only are similar,

[00:09:55] so they're also starbursting,

[00:09:57] just to see if our galaxy is special in some way,

[00:10:00] but also to look at galaxies

[00:10:02] that are not forming as many stars

[00:10:04] because their gaseous reservoirs

[00:10:07] might actually be quite different,

[00:10:08] and understanding what this circumgalactic medium

[00:10:11] looks like around these different galaxies

[00:10:13] will help us understand how galaxies evolve,

[00:10:15] to go from the starbursting galaxies

[00:10:18] to something that's more red and dead

[00:10:20] and no longer forming stars

[00:10:21] and has used up all of its gas.

[00:10:23] So, yeah, we've already obtained more observations

[00:10:26] with the Keck Cosmic Web Imager of other galaxies.

[00:10:29] They just need to be analyzed and put together,

[00:10:32] and hopefully we'll get some other galaxies

[00:10:34] that are not as star-forming

[00:10:35] and start to really put together this picture

[00:10:38] of what this gas looks like

[00:10:39] around a wide variety of objects.

[00:10:42] I guess because each galaxy has its own history,

[00:10:44] it's going to be very different for each galaxy.

[00:10:46] Our Milky Way, for example,

[00:10:48] we've got the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy

[00:10:49] plowing through it.

[00:10:51] We've got two other galaxies,

[00:10:52] the large and small Magellanic clouds,

[00:10:54] having their stars and gas

[00:10:57] being sucked into the Milky Way already through.

[00:11:00] Definitely.

[00:11:00] So all these interactions

[00:11:02] are going to be very individual for each galaxy.

[00:11:05] Yep.

[00:11:05] And in fact, RS-08, the galaxy we studied,

[00:11:07] when I look at the Hubble Space Telescope

[00:11:10] imaging of it that I have

[00:11:11] and look very close to the galaxy,

[00:11:13] it looks like there's a very similar

[00:11:15] sort of very small dwarf galaxy

[00:11:17] that is plunging through it.

[00:11:19] And so, yeah, that probably influences

[00:11:22] a little bit of the results as well.

[00:11:24] It's fascinating work.

[00:11:25] What does it tell you about the cosmic web?

[00:11:28] Oh, that maybe the boundaries

[00:11:29] aren't as fuzzy as we thought.

[00:11:32] Yeah, the cosmic web,

[00:11:33] there's so much gas between galaxies

[00:11:35] that we just don't see

[00:11:36] when we take images

[00:11:38] with like Hubble Space Telescope

[00:11:39] or the James Webb Space Telescope.

[00:11:41] When we just take pictures,

[00:11:42] we're missing so much

[00:11:44] of the non-dark matter mass

[00:11:46] in the universe

[00:11:47] that we really just need to go deeper

[00:11:50] and fainter

[00:11:50] and really understand

[00:11:52] where all this material is.

[00:11:54] Because, I mean, like I said,

[00:11:55] it's hydrogen and oxygen gas

[00:11:57] that we've observed

[00:11:57] and those are some of the

[00:11:59] building blocks of life

[00:12:00] it makes for water.

[00:12:01] So we need to understand

[00:12:02] where all of our elements

[00:12:04] are coming from.

[00:12:04] So normally,

[00:12:06] when we observe this gas,

[00:12:08] the way we do it

[00:12:09] is we do it indirectly.

[00:12:10] Like I said,

[00:12:11] it's this very faint,

[00:12:12] very faint gas.

[00:12:14] And so we have to,

[00:12:15] normally we've done it

[00:12:15] for like the last,

[00:12:16] I don't know, 40 years.

[00:12:18] We've done it

[00:12:18] by looking at it in absorption.

[00:12:21] So you use a bright background object

[00:12:23] like a quasar as a flashlight

[00:12:25] and then we see

[00:12:26] this absorption from this gas

[00:12:28] and it's only in this very small

[00:12:30] like pencil beam sized region

[00:12:32] for a single galaxy.

[00:12:34] And so these new observations

[00:12:36] have kind of helped

[00:12:38] move the field forward

[00:12:39] pretty significantly

[00:12:40] because now we're able

[00:12:41] to get basically thousands

[00:12:43] of these data points

[00:12:44] around galaxies.

[00:12:46] And so I'm really excited

[00:12:47] to see what other astronomers

[00:12:50] come up with

[00:12:50] with their observations

[00:12:51] as well as our new observations

[00:12:53] coming out as well.

[00:12:54] Because now we're able

[00:12:55] to map out all of this gas

[00:12:57] around a single galaxy.

[00:12:58] And like you said,

[00:12:59] every galaxy has its own history.

[00:13:01] And so if you're only getting

[00:13:02] one pinpoint of data

[00:13:04] from a galaxy,

[00:13:05] you're missing a whole host

[00:13:07] of history and detail

[00:13:09] that these new observations

[00:13:10] are hopefully going to be able

[00:13:12] to illuminate,

[00:13:13] kind of literally.

[00:13:15] That's Associate Professor

[00:13:16] Nicole Nielsen

[00:13:17] from Swinburne University,

[00:13:19] Astro 3D,

[00:13:20] and the University of Oklahoma.

[00:13:22] This is Space Time.

[00:13:24] Still to come,

[00:13:26] live microbes discovered

[00:13:27] inside two billion year old rocks

[00:13:29] and the United Launch Alliance's

[00:13:31] new Vulcan Centaur rocket

[00:13:33] has literally snatched victory

[00:13:35] out of the jaws of defeat,

[00:13:36] overcoming a faulty strap-on booster

[00:13:38] to successfully place

[00:13:40] its payload into orbit.

[00:13:41] All that and more still to come

[00:13:43] on Space Time.

[00:14:00] Scientists have discovered

[00:14:01] pockets of microbes

[00:14:03] living within a sealed fracture

[00:14:04] in two billion year old rock.

[00:14:07] The rock was excavated

[00:14:08] from the Bushveld Igneous Complex

[00:14:10] in South Africa,

[00:14:11] an area well known

[00:14:12] for its rich ore deposits.

[00:14:14] The findings,

[00:14:15] reported in the journal

[00:14:16] Microbial Ecology,

[00:14:17] found the sample

[00:14:18] to be the oldest examples

[00:14:19] of living microbes

[00:14:20] ever discovered.

[00:14:22] Scientists undertook

[00:14:23] infrared spectroscopy,

[00:14:25] electron microscopy,

[00:14:26] and fluorescent microscopy imaging

[00:14:28] to confirm

[00:14:28] that the microbes

[00:14:29] were indigenous

[00:14:30] to the ancient core sample

[00:14:32] and not simply

[00:14:33] caused by contamination

[00:14:34] during the retrieval

[00:14:35] and study process.

[00:14:37] Research on these microbes

[00:14:38] could help scientists

[00:14:39] better understand

[00:14:40] the very earliest

[00:14:41] evolutions of life,

[00:14:43] as well as the search

[00:14:44] for extraterrestrial life

[00:14:45] in similarly aged rocks,

[00:14:47] such as samples

[00:14:47] which hopefully

[00:14:48] will soon be brought back

[00:14:49] from Mars.

[00:14:50] It's fascinating

[00:14:51] when you think about it.

[00:14:53] Deep, deep inside the Earth

[00:14:54] lies something ancient

[00:14:56] and alive.

[00:14:57] Colonies of microbes

[00:14:58] living in rocks

[00:14:59] far beneath the surface,

[00:15:01] somehow managing

[00:15:01] to survive for thousands,

[00:15:03] even millions,

[00:15:04] or in this case,

[00:15:04] billions of years.

[00:15:06] Now these tiny,

[00:15:07] resilient organisms

[00:15:08] appear to live life

[00:15:09] at a slower pace,

[00:15:11] scarcely evolving

[00:15:12] over geological time spans,

[00:15:13] and so offering researchers

[00:15:15] a chance to literally

[00:15:16] look back in time.

[00:15:18] The study's lead author,

[00:15:19] Yohei Suzuki

[00:15:20] from the University of Tokyo,

[00:15:22] says the previous

[00:15:22] oldest geological layer

[00:15:24] in which living

[00:15:24] microorganisms had been found

[00:15:26] was a mere 100 million

[00:15:28] year old deposit

[00:15:29] beneath the ocean floor.

[00:15:31] The Bushveld igneous complex

[00:15:32] is a rocky intrusion

[00:15:34] in north-eastern South Africa

[00:15:35] formed when magma

[00:15:36] slowly cooled

[00:15:37] below the Earth's surface.

[00:15:39] It covers an area

[00:15:40] of roughly 66,000 square kilometres.

[00:15:42] It's about the size of Ireland

[00:15:44] and varies in thickness

[00:15:46] but up to 9 kilometres.

[00:15:48] It contains some of the richest

[00:15:49] ore deposits on Earth,

[00:15:51] including about 70%

[00:15:52] of the world's mine platinum.

[00:15:54] Due to the way it was formed

[00:15:56] and the minimal deformation

[00:15:57] or change occurring

[00:15:58] to it since then,

[00:15:59] the Rock's believed

[00:16:00] to have provided

[00:16:01] a stable habitat

[00:16:02] for ancient microbial life,

[00:16:04] allowing it to continue

[00:16:05] to thrive until today.

[00:16:07] The authors obtained

[00:16:08] a 30 centimetre long

[00:16:09] rock core sample

[00:16:10] from about 15 metres

[00:16:11] below ground.

[00:16:12] The rock was then

[00:16:14] cut into thin slices

[00:16:15] and analysed,

[00:16:16] which is when the team

[00:16:17] discovered the living

[00:16:18] microbial cells

[00:16:19] densely packed

[00:16:20] into cracks in the rock.

[00:16:21] Any gaps near these cracks

[00:16:23] were clogged with clay,

[00:16:24] making it impossible

[00:16:25] for these organisms

[00:16:26] to leave

[00:16:27] or for other things

[00:16:28] to enter.

[00:16:28] By staining the DNA

[00:16:30] of these microbial cells

[00:16:32] and using infrared spectroscopy

[00:16:34] to look at the proteins

[00:16:35] in the microbes

[00:16:36] and surrounding clay,

[00:16:37] the authors could confirm

[00:16:38] that these microbes

[00:16:39] were both alive

[00:16:40] and not contaminated.

[00:16:42] This is Space Time.

[00:16:45] Still to come,

[00:16:46] the United Launch Alliance's

[00:16:47] new Vulcan Centaur rocket

[00:16:49] snatches victory

[00:16:50] out of the jaws of defeat.

[00:16:52] And later in the science report,

[00:16:54] we look at the 2024 Nobel Prizes

[00:16:56] for Science

[00:16:57] which have just been awarded

[00:16:58] in Stockholm.

[00:16:59] All that and more

[00:17:00] still to come

[00:17:01] on Space Time.

[00:17:18] The United Launch Alliance's

[00:17:20] new Vulcan Centaur rocket

[00:17:21] has managed to snatch victory

[00:17:23] out of the jaws of defeat,

[00:17:24] overcoming a faulty

[00:17:25] strap-on solid rocket booster

[00:17:27] to successfully place

[00:17:29] its payload into orbit.

[00:17:30] The mission

[00:17:31] from Space Launch Complex 41

[00:17:33] at the Cape Canaveral Space Force

[00:17:34] space in Florida

[00:17:35] was the second

[00:17:36] of two certification test flights

[00:17:38] needed before

[00:17:38] the new Vulcan booster

[00:17:40] could be used

[00:17:40] to carry high-priority payloads

[00:17:42] for the National Reconnaissance Office.

[00:17:44] In 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3,

[00:17:52] BE-4 ignition, 2, 1,

[00:17:55] and liftoff of Vulcan SIRT-2

[00:17:58] for the second time

[00:18:00] and for the first time

[00:18:01] under the light

[00:18:02] of the rising sun,

[00:18:03] Vulcan has lifted off

[00:18:04] from Slick 41

[00:18:06] at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

[00:18:08] All temperatures

[00:18:09] and pressures are good.

[00:18:11] People have begun

[00:18:12] in the future program.

[00:18:13] We have two good BE-4

[00:18:14] and we've ended up...

[00:18:27] However, during the launch,

[00:18:29] SRB number one,

[00:18:30] one of two

[00:18:31] Northrop Grumman

[00:18:32] solid rocket boosters

[00:18:33] strapped onto the core stage,

[00:18:34] suffered an anomaly

[00:18:35] limiting performance

[00:18:36] and affecting the balance

[00:18:38] of the rocket.

[00:18:38] Coming up on SRB burnout

[00:18:39] and we have indication

[00:18:41] of SRB burnout.

[00:18:47] Standing by for SRB jettison.

[00:18:49] According to the timeline,

[00:18:50] it should have happened

[00:18:51] by now.

[00:18:52] BE-4 is now

[00:18:53] throttling down.

[00:18:54] Amazingly,

[00:18:55] the Vulcan's two

[00:18:56] Blue Origin built

[00:18:57] methane-burning BE-4 engines

[00:18:58] and the remaining SRB

[00:19:00] managed to continue

[00:19:01] its climb to orbit,

[00:19:02] successfully compensating

[00:19:04] for the failure.

[00:19:05] The booster anomaly

[00:19:06] could be clearly seen

[00:19:07] in long-range tracking

[00:19:08] camera views

[00:19:09] as a shower of sparks

[00:19:10] and what looked like

[00:19:11] debris falling away

[00:19:12] from the SRB

[00:19:13] 37 seconds after liftoff.

[00:19:16] The problem appeared

[00:19:17] to originate

[00:19:18] near the nozzle

[00:19:18] at the base

[00:19:19] of the booster,

[00:19:20] the exhaust plume

[00:19:21] changing shape dramatically,

[00:19:22] but the Vulcan

[00:19:23] was able to compensate,

[00:19:24] continuing its climb

[00:19:25] to orbit.

[00:19:26] The strap-on boosters

[00:19:27] continued to burn out,

[00:19:29] but were jettisoned

[00:19:29] 20 seconds later

[00:19:30] than planned.

[00:19:31] And we have a

[00:19:32] separation of those

[00:19:33] SRBs a little bit later

[00:19:35] than according to

[00:19:36] the planned timeline.

[00:19:37] Mission managers

[00:19:38] say the trajectory

[00:19:39] was normal

[00:19:39] throughout the climb.

[00:19:41] Next step

[00:19:41] we're anticipating

[00:19:42] here on the timeline

[00:19:43] is booster engine

[00:19:44] cutoff

[00:19:44] just before the

[00:19:45] five-minute mark

[00:19:46] into flight.

[00:19:47] Excellent work

[00:19:48] from our tracking team

[00:19:48] this morning.

[00:19:50] Continue to have

[00:19:50] two good engines,

[00:19:51] body rates trending

[00:19:52] toward zero,

[00:19:53] and we're now about

[00:19:54] one-minute phenomenal BECO.

[00:19:55] Vulcan is now

[00:19:56] one-quarter of its

[00:19:57] liftoff weight,

[00:19:57] and Vulcan is now

[00:19:59] passing the Carmen line.

[00:20:00] Vulcan now in space

[00:20:01] for about 30 seconds

[00:20:02] away from booster

[00:20:03] engine cutoff,

[00:20:04] or BECO.

[00:20:05] And we've started

[00:20:06] boost space chilldown

[00:20:07] on the second stage engine,

[00:20:09] and the BE-4s

[00:20:10] are throttling

[00:20:10] to maintain

[00:20:11] a constant acceleration.

[00:20:12] And we've concluded

[00:20:13] our boost space chilldown,

[00:20:14] and PU has gone

[00:20:15] to open loop,

[00:20:16] and we have BECO

[00:20:17] booster engine cutoff,

[00:20:18] and we have

[00:20:19] Vulcan sentar separation,

[00:20:20] and pre-start

[00:20:21] on LH-2 and L-O-2,

[00:20:22] and we have

[00:20:24] full thrust

[00:20:24] on the RL-10,

[00:20:26] and bearing jettison

[00:20:27] has been indicated.

[00:20:28] And we've begun

[00:20:29] thermal loop conditioning

[00:20:29] on the RCS,

[00:20:30] and fixed angles

[00:20:31] on sentar PU.

[00:20:32] Vehicle is now

[00:20:33] 123 miles in altitude,

[00:20:35] 345 miles downrange,

[00:20:38] and traveling

[00:20:38] at 10,000 miles per hour.

[00:20:40] And we're getting

[00:20:40] indications that

[00:20:41] booster performance

[00:20:42] was within expectation.

[00:20:43] RL-10 continues

[00:20:44] to perform nominally,

[00:20:45] and we are partway

[00:20:47] through a 10-and-a-half

[00:20:48] minute burn.

[00:20:48] The mission,

[00:20:49] which carried

[00:20:49] a dummy payload,

[00:20:50] was originally slated

[00:20:51] to launch the first

[00:20:52] Sierra Space

[00:20:53] Dream Chaser

[00:20:54] wing space plane.

[00:20:55] Dream Chaser

[00:20:56] will eventually

[00:20:57] ferry supplies

[00:20:58] to the International

[00:20:58] Space Station.

[00:21:00] But delays during

[00:21:01] testing at NASA

[00:21:02] forced United Launch

[00:21:03] Alliance to use

[00:21:04] a substitute

[00:21:04] mass simulator

[00:21:05] loaded with

[00:21:06] extra flight data

[00:21:07] instrumentation,

[00:21:08] as well as a couple

[00:21:08] of technology

[00:21:09] demonstrator experiments

[00:21:10] designed to help

[00:21:11] enable future

[00:21:12] long-duration

[00:21:13] space flights.

[00:21:14] This latest launch

[00:21:15] follows Vulcan's

[00:21:16] flawless maiden flight

[00:21:18] back on January 8th,

[00:21:19] which sent a lunar

[00:21:20] lander onto the moon.

[00:21:21] The new Vulcan

[00:21:22] booster replaces

[00:21:24] the earlier

[00:21:24] Atlas V and

[00:21:25] Delta IV family

[00:21:26] of rockets.

[00:21:27] They date back

[00:21:28] to the early days

[00:21:29] of the US space

[00:21:29] program.

[00:21:30] The Delta IV

[00:21:31] has now been

[00:21:32] formally retired,

[00:21:33] however the United

[00:21:33] Launch still has

[00:21:34] 15 Atlas Vs

[00:21:36] in its inventory.

[00:21:37] One of the problems

[00:21:38] is the Atlas V

[00:21:39] uses the Russian-built

[00:21:41] RD-180

[00:21:42] engines in its core

[00:21:43] stage,

[00:21:43] and with the West's

[00:21:44] boycott of Moscow

[00:21:45] following the Kremlin's

[00:21:46] invasion of Ukraine,

[00:21:48] once those engines

[00:21:48] are all used up,

[00:21:50] there'll be no more.

[00:21:51] Eight of the

[00:21:52] remaining Atlas V

[00:21:53] rockets will be

[00:21:54] used to launch

[00:21:54] Amazon's new

[00:21:55] Kuiper internet

[00:21:56] satellites.

[00:21:57] A further six

[00:21:58] is slated to fly

[00:21:59] Boeing's

[00:21:59] trouble-plagued

[00:22:00] Starliner,

[00:22:01] that's once it's

[00:22:01] returned to flight

[00:22:02] status.

[00:22:03] They'll be used

[00:22:03] to transport crew

[00:22:04] to the International

[00:22:05] Space Station.

[00:22:06] And the remaining

[00:22:07] Atlas V is slated

[00:22:08] to carry a

[00:22:09] VSAT telecommunications

[00:22:10] satellite into space.

[00:22:12] This is Space Time.

[00:22:29] And time now for a

[00:22:31] brief look at some

[00:22:31] of the other stories

[00:22:32] making news in science

[00:22:33] this week with the

[00:22:34] Science Report.

[00:22:35] And of course the

[00:22:36] big news in the past

[00:22:37] week has been the

[00:22:38] awarding of the

[00:22:39] 2024 Nobel Prizes for

[00:22:41] Science in Stockholm,

[00:22:42] Sweden.

[00:22:43] The Nobel Prize in

[00:22:45] Physics has been

[00:22:45] awarded to John

[00:22:46] Hopefield and

[00:22:47] Geoffrey Hinton for

[00:22:48] their work in

[00:22:49] developing the tools

[00:22:49] for understanding

[00:22:50] the neural networks

[00:22:51] that underpin

[00:22:52] artificial intelligence.

[00:22:54] Back in 1982,

[00:22:56] theoretical biologist

[00:22:57] Hopefield, who

[00:22:58] has a background

[00:22:58] in physics, came

[00:22:59] up with a network

[00:23:00] that described

[00:23:01] connections between

[00:23:02] virtual neurons as

[00:23:03] physical forces.

[00:23:05] It became known

[00:23:06] as associative memory.

[00:23:08] That's because it

[00:23:08] evokes the process

[00:23:09] of trying to remember

[00:23:10] a word or concept

[00:23:11] based on related

[00:23:12] information.

[00:23:13] Meanwhile Hinton,

[00:23:14] a computer scientist,

[00:23:16] later used principles

[00:23:17] from statistical

[00:23:17] physics which are

[00:23:18] used to collectively

[00:23:19] describe systems

[00:23:20] made up of too

[00:23:21] many parts to

[00:23:22] track individually

[00:23:23] to further develop

[00:23:24] Hopefield's work.

[00:23:25] These artificial

[00:23:26] neural networks were

[00:23:27] different from other

[00:23:28] types of computation

[00:23:29] because they learned

[00:23:30] from examples,

[00:23:31] including from

[00:23:32] complex data,

[00:23:33] that would have

[00:23:33] been challenging

[00:23:34] for conventional

[00:23:34] software based on

[00:23:36] step-by-step

[00:23:36] calculations.

[00:23:39] The 2024 Nobel Prize

[00:23:41] in Physiology or

[00:23:42] Medicine has been

[00:23:43] awarded to geneticists

[00:23:44] Victor Ambrose and

[00:23:45] Gary Rufkin for

[00:23:46] their discovery of

[00:23:47] microRNA.

[00:23:48] This is a class of

[00:23:50] tiny RNA molecules

[00:23:51] that help control

[00:23:52] how genes are

[00:23:53] expressed in

[00:23:53] multicellular organisms.

[00:23:55] During the 1990s,

[00:23:57] the pair identified

[00:23:58] genes that encoded

[00:23:59] four microRNAs in

[00:24:01] roundworms.

[00:24:02] Now for years,

[00:24:03] that discovery was

[00:24:04] considered just a quirk

[00:24:05] unique to roundworms.

[00:24:06] But the later discovery

[00:24:08] that microRNA is

[00:24:09] conserved across the

[00:24:10] tree of life caused

[00:24:11] this research field

[00:24:12] to explode.

[00:24:14] The Nobel Prize in

[00:24:16] Chemistry was split

[00:24:17] between computer

[00:24:17] scientist Demis

[00:24:18] Sussabas and

[00:24:19] theoretical chemist

[00:24:20] John Jumper.

[00:24:21] They won it for

[00:24:22] their work on the

[00:24:23] deep-mined artificial

[00:24:24] intelligence and the

[00:24:25] AI tool alpha

[00:24:26] fold which can

[00:24:27] predict the structure

[00:24:28] of nearly every

[00:24:29] artificial protein in

[00:24:30] the process

[00:24:31] transforming biology.

[00:24:33] The pair share the

[00:24:34] prize with

[00:24:35] computational

[00:24:35] biophysicist David

[00:24:36] Baker who led the

[00:24:37] development of the

[00:24:38] first protein with an

[00:24:39] entirely novel

[00:24:40] structure called

[00:24:41] Top7.

[00:24:42] His team are now

[00:24:43] redesigning proteins

[00:24:44] to do things like

[00:24:45] catalyzing specific

[00:24:46] chemical reactions by

[00:24:48] specifying the amino

[00:24:49] acids responsible for

[00:24:50] specific functions and

[00:24:52] letting the AI dream up

[00:24:53] the rest.

[00:24:55] A new study has found

[00:24:57] that two diametrically

[00:24:58] opposed personalities both

[00:25:00] enjoy magic tricks the

[00:25:02] most.

[00:25:02] First there are

[00:25:03] sceptical rational folk

[00:25:05] the category where most

[00:25:06] of our listeners fit into

[00:25:07] we love magic tricks

[00:25:08] and the second group

[00:25:10] those who believe in

[00:25:11] superstitions and the

[00:25:12] paranormal they love

[00:25:13] magic too and it seems

[00:25:15] the rest when it comes to

[00:25:16] magic tricks I guess

[00:25:17] you'd call them muggles

[00:25:18] can take it or leave it.

[00:25:20] Tim Mendham from

[00:25:21] Australian Skeptic says

[00:25:22] it's best to simply

[00:25:23] enjoy the magic that's

[00:25:24] all that matters.

[00:25:25] A lot of people like

[00:25:26] magic right but someone

[00:25:27] did a survey of course

[00:25:28] scientists do they can't

[00:25:30] get their hands off

[00:25:30] anything and they do a

[00:25:31] survey of the sort of

[00:25:32] people who like magic.

[00:25:33] Now there's a number of

[00:25:34] people who don't like

[00:25:35] magic and apparently

[00:25:35] they built another paper

[00:25:37] that they wrote looking

[00:25:38] at the loathing of

[00:25:39] leisure domains which is

[00:25:40] magic sleight of hand and

[00:25:42] of course they chose that

[00:25:43] because it's LOL

[00:25:43] makes you wonder how

[00:25:45] serious the research is

[00:25:46] but anyway this particular

[00:25:47] study they did it was

[00:25:48] quite scientific and

[00:25:49] they looked at a lot of

[00:25:50] people looked at their

[00:25:51] beliefs and their

[00:25:52] backgrounds and all that

[00:25:53] sort of stuff and asked

[00:25:54] them if they like magic

[00:25:55] and it turns out that

[00:25:56] there are two particular

[00:25:57] groups who really like

[00:25:58] magic and one is the

[00:25:59] sceptical rational folk

[00:26:01] which is like well like

[00:26:02] me anyway don't it was

[00:26:03] like you.

[00:26:03] I love magic but I also

[00:26:05] like I love magic too.

[00:26:06] I love magic but I'd

[00:26:07] like to know how the

[00:26:08] trick was done as well.

[00:26:09] Yeah.

[00:26:09] I find that just as

[00:26:10] fascinating.

[00:26:10] Yeah the other group

[00:26:11] that I like that are the

[00:26:12] superstitious and the

[00:26:13] paranormal so you almost

[00:26:14] get extremes on the

[00:26:17] rationality front although

[00:26:18] the superstitious would

[00:26:19] probably say they're

[00:26:19] rational as well.

[00:26:20] But yeah there's a lot

[00:26:21] of people in between who

[00:26:22] are not that interested

[00:26:23] but there's the two

[00:26:24] strongest groups based on

[00:26:25] their attitude towards

[00:26:26] magic.

[00:26:26] Now the trouble is the

[00:26:27] sceptical rational people

[00:26:28] would say that I like you

[00:26:30] I enjoy magic and I want

[00:26:31] to know how it's done

[00:26:32] right.

[00:26:32] The critical thinking and

[00:26:34] they do their research or

[00:26:35] just try and figure it out

[00:26:36] on the spot and the

[00:26:37] people who believe in

[00:26:38] paranormal who might

[00:26:38] actually believe it's

[00:26:39] true that magic is real

[00:26:41] and most magicians will

[00:26:42] tell you they can make a

[00:26:43] lot more money if they

[00:26:44] pretended that what they

[00:26:45] were doing is real as we

[00:26:46] know and call themselves

[00:26:47] psychics or whatever

[00:26:48] telekinesis that sort of

[00:26:49] stuff moving objects

[00:26:50] sort of stuff that

[00:26:51] magicians do all the time

[00:26:52] and magicians are

[00:26:53] therefore very good at

[00:26:54] debunking a lot of

[00:26:55] people with these

[00:26:56] particular claims.

[00:26:56] Yuri Geller being a case

[00:26:57] in point for being

[00:26:58] debunked and Houdini being

[00:27:00] a case in point of

[00:27:00] someone who'd like to go

[00:27:01] around and debunk them.

[00:27:02] So there are these two

[00:27:03] groups but one of them

[00:27:04] is a believer in all the

[00:27:05] magic and the other ones

[00:27:06] are saying I wonder

[00:27:07] how it's done.

[00:27:11] They do come up with

[00:27:12] explanations for how a

[00:27:13] trick is done and I've

[00:27:14] spoken with magicians

[00:27:15] about it and they love

[00:27:15] it because they say the

[00:27:17] skeptics come up with the

[00:27:17] most convoluted

[00:27:18] explanation whereas the

[00:27:20] simplest explanation is the

[00:27:21] one which is most likely.

[00:27:22] It's a trick, it's a

[00:27:23] sleight of hand, it's

[00:27:24] distraction, it's all

[00:27:25] sorts of things like that

[00:27:26] which are the techniques

[00:27:26] that magicians use.

[00:27:27] It's not something

[00:27:28] particularly hugely

[00:27:29] complicated technological

[00:27:30] etc which is you'd wonder

[00:27:32] if skeptics are trying to

[00:27:33] sort of say I can't be

[00:27:34] fooled easily therefore the

[00:27:35] reason must be

[00:27:36] complicated whereas the

[00:27:37] paranormal superstitious

[00:27:39] person would say I can't

[00:27:40] be fooled easily but this

[00:27:41] is so nice that it must be

[00:27:42] true so they tend to believe

[00:27:44] it that it's true and the

[00:27:45] others sort of say it's fun

[00:27:47] but I don't know how it's

[00:27:48] done but I'd like to figure

[00:27:49] out and it's these two

[00:27:50] extremes that are looking at

[00:27:51] the way that the belief in

[00:27:53] magic.

[00:27:53] That's Tim Mendham from

[00:27:55] Australian Skeptics.

[00:27:57] And that's the show for now.

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