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This is Space Time series 26 episode, 100 and 29 well
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broadcast on the 27th of October 2023. Coming up on Space Time,
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the largest ever Mars quake, the origins of organics on the dwarf
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planet series and is the asteroid Banu spinning apart all
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that and more. Coming up on Space Time.
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Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Gary.
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Scientists have announced the results of a search for the
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source of the largest ever seismic event recorded on Mars.
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The study led by the University Of Oxford rules out a meteorite
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impact suggesting instead that the Mars quake was the result of
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enormous tectonic forces within the Martian crust.
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And of course, the key there is that Mars doesn't have tectonic
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plates, at least not as far as we know the quake which had a
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magnitude of 4.7 caused vibrations to verber throughout
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the planet for 6.5 hours. It was recorded by NASA's Insight
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Lander back on May the 4th 2022 because its seismic signal was
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similar to previous quakes which were known to be caused by a
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meteorite impact.
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The authors believe that this event dubbed S 1222 A might have
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been caused by an impact as well. And so they launched a
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search for a fresh crater. Although Mars is smaller than
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Earth, it is a similar land surface area because it has no
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oceans. In order to survey this large area around 144 million
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square kilometers.
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The study's lead author Benjamin Fernando from the University Of
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Oxford, sought contributions from the European Space Agency,
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the Chinese Space Agency, the Indian Space Research
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Organization and the United Arab Emirates Space Agency. This is
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thought to be the first time that all these missions in orbit
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around. Mars have collaborated on a single project.
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Each group examined data from their satellites orbiting Mars
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to look for any new craters or other telltale signatures of an
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impact such as a dust cloud appear in the hours after the
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quake. But after several months of searching, the authors say
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there was no fresh crater found.
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They conclude that this event was instead caused by the
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release of enormous tectonic forces within the Martian
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interior. Their findings reported in the Journal
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Geophysical research letters indicate that the planet is much
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more seismically active than previously thought. Fernandez
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says he still believes Mars doesn't have any active plate
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tectonics today.
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So this event was likely caused by the release of stress within
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the red planet's crust. These stresses are the results of
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billions of years of evolution including the cooling and
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shrinking of different parts of the planet at different rates.
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Scientists still don't understand why some parts of the
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planet seem to have higher stresses than others but results
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like these help with the investigation.
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One day, this information may help scientists better
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understand where it would be safe for humans to live on. Mars
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and what areas of the red planet you'd want to avoid. S 12 22 A
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was one of the last events recorded by NASA's Insight
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Lander before it ended its mission in December 2022.
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The team are now moving forward by applying the knowledge from
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the study to future work, including upcoming missions to
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the moon and to Saturn's moon Titan, we'll keep you informed.
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This is Space Time still to come the origin of organics on the
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dwarf planet series and is the asteroid Banu spinning apart all
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that and more still to come on Space Time.
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One of the most exciting findings from NASA's Dawn
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mission is that the asteroid series, the largest object in
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the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is host to
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complex organics.
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The discovery of alpha molecules which consist of carbon and
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hydrogen chains in conjunction with evidence that Ceres's
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abundant water ice and may once have been an ocean world means
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this dwarf planet may once have harbored the main ingredients
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associated with life as we know it, how the alpha organics
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originated on Ceres has been the subject of intense research
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since their discovery in 2017, some studies have concluded that
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a comet or other organic rich impactor must have delivered
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them to Ceres.
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While others suggested the molecules formed on the dwarf
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planet after its primordial materials were altered by brainy
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water. But regardless of their origin, the organics on Ceres
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have been affected by impacts that have pot marked its
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surface.
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Now, new research presented at the Geological Society Of
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America's 2023 meeting is extending science's
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understanding of how impacts have affected C alpha molecules
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and what the implications are for determining their origin and
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assessing the dwarf planet's habitability.
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Tariq Dali from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics
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Laboratory says the organics were initially detected in the
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vicinity of a large impact crater, which is what motivated
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his team to look for how these impacts affected these organics
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and they're finding that the organics may be more widespread
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than first reported and they seem to be resilient to impacts
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with Ceres like conditions. From the Dawn data.
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Dally knew that Ceres was covered with impact craters of
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varying sizes formed with other asteroids slammed into it. But
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what he did not yet understand was how these impacts affect al
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phatic compounds. Information that was needed to help
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constrain where the organics originated from and how their
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signature might have changed after being exposed to multiple
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impacts over billions of years.
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Although scientists have performed impact shock
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experiments on various types of organics in the past what was
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missing was a study dedicated to the type of organics detected on
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series using the same type of analytical method used by the
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Dawn spacecraft to detect them.
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This D says will enable direct comparisons between the
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experimental and spacecraft data. Dully worked with a team
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that included Jessica Sunshine, an astronomer with the
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University Of Maryland and Juan Rizos, an astrophysicist at the
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Institute Of Astrophysics in Andalucia Spain.
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They conducted a series of experiments at NASA's Ames
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vertical gun range. The experiments mimic the impact
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conditions typical of Ceres with impact speeds ranging from 2 to
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6 kilometers per second and impact angles varying from 15 to
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90 degrees relative to horizontal Riso and Sunshine
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also conducted a new series of analyses.
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A combined data from two different instruments, the
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camera and the imaging spectrometer that both flew
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aboard the Dawn spacecraft and then used an algorithm to
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extrapolate the compositional information from the
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spectrometer down to the camera 's higher spatial resolution.
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The results allowed them to investigate the organics at
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finer detail than has previously been possible. People had looked
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at the Dawn camera data and the Dawn spectrometer data before
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but no one had previously taken the approach to extrapolate the
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data from one instrument to the other. And this provided new
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leverage in the author's search to map and understand the
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origins of organics on series.
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Collectively, the team's analysis points to some
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potentially exciting results by capitalizing on the strengths of
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two different data sets collected over series. The
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authors were able to map potential organic rich areas on
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the asteroid at high resolution.
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They say they can see some very good correlation of organics
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with units of older impacts and with materials like carbonates
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that also indicate the presence of water. While the origin of
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the organics still remains poorly understood. The authors
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now at least have some good evidence suggesting they formed
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on series and likely in the presence of water.
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In fact, they speculate there's always the possibility that a
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large interior reservoir of organics could exist inside
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Ceres. Riso says the result increases the astro biological
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potential of Ceres. And the authors hope that results from
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another NASA mission called Lucy could soon shed more light on
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organics in the solar system.
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Lucy visiting Jupiter's Trojan asteroids thought to be some of
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the oldest bodies in the solar system. Sunshine is also part of
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the Lucy mission team and it's been thinking about how to apply
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the results of the current study to the Trojan asteroids that
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Lucy will be studying around Jupiter.
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She says they could likely find differences as the Trojan
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asteroids have experienced very different impact histories to
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Ceres. And also because there are two compositionally
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different types of Trojan asteroids, still comparisons to
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Ceres will help astronomers better understand the
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distribution of organics in the outer solar system.
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This is Space Time still to come is the asteroid Banu spinning
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itself apart and later in the science report, new observations
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point out that deadly bird flu viruses are now starting to
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break out in places outside Asia. All that and more still to
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come on Space Time.
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Scientists studying data from the recently completed Osiris
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Rex mission to the near Earth asteroid Banu have found Alice
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in Wonderland like physics governing the gravity of this
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tiny world's surface. The new findings are part of a suite of
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papers published by teams behind the Osiris Rex mission.
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A report in the Journal Nature Astronomy by Daniel Shiraz and
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colleagues from the University Of Colorado Boulder was able to
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determine Benno's mass to be some 73 billion kg. The authors
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also developed a detailed map of the asteroids gravitational
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pull.
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Their findings suggest that Banu exists in the delicate balance
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between two competing forces. The result of the asteroid's
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wild spin Banu completes a full rotation about every four hours.
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Shiraz says those forces could play an important role in the
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asteroid's long term evolution and potential demise.
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You see when you spin Banu up, you create competition between
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the gravity that's holding the asteroid together and the
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centrifugal acceleration that's trying to rip the asteroid apart
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to study those forces to.
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And colleagues used Osiris Rex's navigational instruments to
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measure the minute tug that the asteroid exerts on the
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spacecraft and they dug up more than they expected. Now, based
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on the group's calculations, the region around Beano's equator is
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trapped within the gravitational feature called a rotational
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Roche lobe, something scientists hadn't clearly observed on an
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asteroid until now.
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Now, in practice, that feature makes things really weird. If
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you're standing inside the boundaries of Benno's Roche lobe
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and suddenly slipped over, not much would happen, you'd be
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captured by the lobe and fall back to the surface.
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But if you were outside the Roche lob and slipped, you'd
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roll towards the equator and if you could gain enough energy so
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that you'd roll off the equator, you may well end up in orbit and
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then out of space, it sounds like the sort of environment
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Lewis Carroll would appreciate. But it also matters for the
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lifespan of Beno itself.
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That's because radiation from the sun is causing Banu to spin
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ever faster. And as the asteroid 's rotational rate builds up its
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Roche lobe could be shrinking along with the forces that are
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holding it together.
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Shiraz says that as the Roche lobe narrows further and further
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around the equator, it becomes easier and easier for the
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asteroid to lose material so far that material has been trapped
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by gravity. But at some point, if the asteroid keeps spinning
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faster. Surez says Benu could be in the process of quite
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literally spinning its sulfon or oblivion.
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The main role of the University Of Colorado on the Osiris Rex
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mission is in the radio science experiment. The main result from
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radio science is actually to measure the mass and the gravity
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field of this asteroid Benu has a non negligible probability of
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impacting the Earth a few 100 years in the future. The ideal
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scenario is we take our very precise measurements, we'll be
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able to determine its location accurately enough.
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So we can say, oh, ok, it's gonna miss the Earth by a far
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distance in, in the future. If in fact, that's not the case,
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then we need to start thinking about, well, how would we
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actually push this asteroid out of the way you need time? And
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you need to understand the the the properties of the asteroid.
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We're really getting some pristine material from the very
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Dawn of the solar system and study it in in a very detailed
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manner.
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That's Daniel Shiraz from the University Of Colorado Boulder
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and this is Space Time and time now to take another brief look
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at some of the other stories making news in science this week
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with the science report, deadly bird flu virus outbreaks are now
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starting up in places outside Asia, including Europe and
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Africa, suggesting a shift in the global distribution of the
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virus.
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The deadly H five N one virus first emerged in China in 1996
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but it's now infecting and killing increasing numbers of
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wild birds and poultry as well as posing an ever growing risk
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to humans. Since 2014, there have been several outbreaks of
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similar bird flu viruses in the H five group.
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And researchers found that while the 2016 to 17 outbreak started
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in China. Two new H five group viruses emerged from African and
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European countries suggesting a shift in the H five S epicenter
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away from Asia. A report in the Journal nature suggests the
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increasing persistence of bird flu in the wild bird population
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is what's driving the evolution and spread of new strains.
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Researchers from Monash University have unlike new
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insights into the behavior of quantum impurities in materials.
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The new research reported in the Journal physical review letters
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introduces a novel approach known as the quantum viral
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expansion which provides a new tool to uncover the complex
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quantum interactions in two dimensional semiconductors.
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The authors say the breakthrough holds the potential to reshape
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science's understanding of complex quantum systems and to
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unlock new applications utilizing novel two D materials.
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Chinese scientists have genetically modified silkworms
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to produce spider silk fibers six times stronger than Kevlar
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as silkworm silk is the only animal silk fiber that's been
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commercialized on a large scale. The authors introduced a far
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stronger spider silk protein gene into the little worm's DNA.
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The material reported in the Journal matter could be used to
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manufacture environmentally friendly alternatives to common
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synthetic commercial fibers including surgical sutures,
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clothing, bulletproof vests, and military or aerospace
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technologies.
00:15:50
German skeptics are waging a campaign to get a leading German
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medical Journal to admit that they stuffed up an article on
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the pseudoscience of homeopathy by giving it credibility after a
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year long battle to try and get the magazine to publish a
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retraction. The journals now informed them that their
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application was not a priority that would justify publication.
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Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics says the magazine's
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failure to act has triggered skeptics to publish their own
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paper on the justification of criticism of homeopathy and
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highlight the disinterest and indifference towards the
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pseudoscience being run by the magazine.
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The German Skeptics have been investigating homeopathy a lot
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because it was founded in Germany a couple of 100 years
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ago, a couple of 100 plus years ago by a fellow named Haneman
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who developed this theory that like KC like, which is a bit
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weird anyway. And that increasingly diluted forms of
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the treatments object.
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The thing that works if you increasingly dilute it, it will
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actually become more effective rather than less effective,
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which is what you would think and they dilute it in a really
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weird way. It's called percussion. And you have to sort
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of put like a drop of this solution of a particular
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product.
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It could be a herbal product, it could be a mineral product, it
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could be a whole range of different things, supposedly
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specifically to treat particular conditions. And you drop it in
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some liquid like a dropper in liquid, you shake it up, you
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bash it on usually.
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So he backed it on a copy of the Bible because a leather bound
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book and then you take a drop of that and put it in some other
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sort of clean liquid, you know, pure liquid and then you do it
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again and you do it again and you keep taking a drop of the
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solution and put it in a new, eventually.
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There's so little left of the original treatment that there is
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nothing there. You do this 30 times. And if you look at some
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labels on homeopathic products, they'll have a 30 C which
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indicates how many times this d has been done. And when you get
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down to that level, there is literally nothing left of the
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original, there's no molecules left of it.
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So the suggestion that a dilution works, doesn't it
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cannot? Physics says stop, you have to rewrite the entire
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physics to make that work. Secondly, the sort of things
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they use to like treat like, you know, they would suggest if you
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have lead poisoning, you take lead.
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The most humorous example I ever saw was if you're suffering from
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barriers to your life to your psychological problems, you
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should take a bit of wall and they were using the Berlin Wall,
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take a little picture of the Berlin Wall, make that into a
00:18:09
solution, solution, solution. And that would help you barriers
00:18:12
in your life.
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Be well because it was knocked down. Of course. So you're
00:18:14
knocking down barriers and it's totally ludicrous on several
00:18:18
levels. If there's one area of medicine, the skeptics say is
00:18:21
100 per cent wrong, it's homeopathy, right? So the German
00:18:24
skeptics are trying to tell people that especially the
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learned journals and things.
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And they approached a Journal called Pediatric Research, which
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has a reasonable profile in medical fields. And they pointed
00:18:35
out a particular paper. Now they said it was wrong, it's full of
00:18:38
errors in various ways that the numbers don't add of the
00:18:42
results.
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And yet the paper then said they wouldn't publish their criticism
00:18:45
because the priority given to it was not sufficient to justify
00:18:48
publication. And you think, well, how do you work out the
00:18:50
priority? You know, surely if you're pointing out that a paper
00:18:53
is wrong, the Journal should publish that fact. But they said
00:18:56
no, no.
00:18:56
No, they'd have an obligation to do so.
00:18:58
They do, they do if they're a reputable Journal, they do it,
00:19:02
but they held it off for a year and then decided, oh no, it's
00:19:04
too late. Now. They said at least you should put in thing
00:19:06
that there was a warning on this paper that it has been, even if
00:19:10
you don't retract it just, they put a warning on it that there
00:19:12
have been arguments raised that, you know, it's not good.
00:19:14
That issue here is not just that homeopathy is a junk science,
00:19:18
but also that the publications don't want to retract stuff,
00:19:21
especially in Germany, which is where the home of homeopathy is.
00:19:24
So this German Skeptics group was sort of bashing their head
00:19:26
against the wall. It's a big problem when the publications
00:19:29
themselves don't want to admit that they published a dodgy.
00:19:32
Piece of work. What is it funding for these magazines that
00:19:35
's preventing them from doing.
00:19:36
This or reputation? It's sales.
00:19:38
That's Tim Ham from Australian Skeptics.
00:19:56
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