SpaceTime with Stuart Gary Series 26 Episode 113 Show Notes - **Webb Telescope's Local Discoveries**: NASA's James Webb space telescope, renowned for peering into the distant universe, has unveiled a closer mystery. Astronomers report the discovery of 21 intriguing brown dwarfs. - **Mars' Mineral Mystery**: Earth boasts nearly 6,000 known minerals. Yet, Mars, a planet with many Earth-like qualities, has revealed only 161 minerals in over half a century of exploration. Why the stark difference? - **Neutrino: The Silent Majority**: Neutrinos, the universe's most abundant matter, are elusive. Despite their minuscule size, allowing billions to pass through us unnoticed, their cosmic significance is unparalleled. - **The Science Report Highlights**: - **AI's Creative Leap**: AI chatbots now rival human creativity in thinking tasks. - **China's COVID-19 Aftermath**: Post the zero COVID-19 policy, China witnessed an estimated 1.87 million excess deaths in two months. - **North Korea's Nuclear Move**: The nation claims to have launched its inaugural tactical nuclear attack submarine. - **Alex on Tech**: The latest in tech - unveiling the iPhone 15. *Stay tuned for more insights and discoveries on SpaceTime with Stuart Gary.
For more SpaceTime and details on how you can help support SpaceTime just visit our website at www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
#space #astronomy #science #news #spacetime #podcast #incogni
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-with-stuart-gary--2458531/support.
00:00:00
STUART GARY: This is Space Time series 26 episode 113 for
00:00:04
broadcast on the 20th of September 2023. Coming up on
00:00:08
Space Time, NASA's web space telescope discovers 21 new Brown
00:00:13
dwarfs. Geologists ask the question, why there's so few
00:00:17
minerals on Mars and physicists are closing in on the elusive
00:00:22
neutrino. All that and more coming up on Space Time.
00:00:28
GENERIC: Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Garry.
00:00:47
STUART GARY: As it searches the distant stars and Galaxies of
00:00:51
the ancient universe. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is
00:00:54
also discovering equally fascinating objects much closer
00:00:58
to home. And this week astronomers have announced the
00:01:01
discovery of some 21 Brown dwarves by the observatory.
00:01:06
Brown dwarves are trans stellar objects.
00:01:09
They fit into a unique category between the largest known
00:01:13
planets. These can have up to 13 times the mass of Jupiter and
00:01:17
the smallest stars known as spectral type M red dwarf stars
00:01:21
which have around 80 Jovian masses. That's about 0.08 solar
00:01:26
masses.
00:01:27
But simply Brown dwarfs are objects that don't have enough
00:01:31
mass to create the sort of core pressures and temperatures which
00:01:34
trigger the fusion of hydrogen into helium. The process that
00:01:38
makes stars like our sun shine. Brown dwarfs were first
00:01:42
theorized back in the 19 sixties, but the first
00:01:44
unambiguous detections weren't made until the mid 1990 s which
00:01:49
we reported on this program at the time.
00:01:52
One of the things which make Brown dwarfs so fascinating is
00:01:55
that some begin their lives as red dwarf stars, but as they
00:01:59
evolve, they burn through so much of their core hydrogen fuel
00:02:02
supply that they actually drop below the fusion threshold,
00:02:06
transforming them from a star to a Brown dwarf.
00:02:09
On the other hand, other Brown dwarfs start out simply as
00:02:12
massive planets, gas giants like Jupiter, the biggest planet in
00:02:16
our solar system. In fact, when you think about it, even Jupiter
00:02:20
generates more heat than what it gets from the sun.
00:02:23
In fact, were Jupiter more massive, it would have become a
00:02:26
Brown dwarf. So selecting and categorizing Brown dwarfs is
00:02:31
vital for exploring stellar initial mass function,
00:02:34
understanding binary stellar evolution and for increasing our
00:02:38
census of stars around which potentially habitable planets
00:02:42
could be orbiting.
00:02:44
The new web. Brown dwarf candidate discoveries have been
00:02:47
reported on the pre press physics website archive dot org
00:02:51
and are part of the Jades and Sears extragalactic surveys.
00:02:55
Jades is Webb's Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey.
00:02:58
While Sears is the cosmic evolution early release science
00:03:02
survey, both focus on distant ancient Galaxies and the newly
00:03:07
discovered Brown dwarfs were hidden deep in the data. The
00:03:11
study's lead author Kevin Hale from the Stewart Observatory
00:03:14
says most of the 21 newly discovered Brown dwarfs are
00:03:17
located in the Milky Way's thick disk or in its halo between 360
00:03:22
13 light years away.
00:03:26
Now, that's well beyond the local stellar neighborhood where
00:03:28
most previous Brown dwarf discoveries have been made
00:03:31
because that's where they're easiest to see their discoveries
00:03:35
will force the rewriting of some textbooks.
00:03:38
See finding some of the Brown dwarfs in the galactic halo on
00:03:41
the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy is at odds with what
00:03:44
shape we think our galaxy is. And their atmospheric spectra
00:03:48
also fails to match current Brown dwarf models. And that
00:03:52
raises further questions about their formation and evolution.
00:03:56
While extragalactic deep fields are designed to point outside
00:03:59
the plane of the Milky Way galaxy in order to minimize
00:04:02
stellar contamination, the use of Webb's deep observations to
00:04:06
collect these sources has implications for the population
00:04:09
of objects outside the thick disk, which may be among the
00:04:12
most metal poor and older stars at these temperatures in the
00:04:15
galaxy.
00:04:16
There are simply a host of unanswered questions surrounding
00:04:20
these new Brown dwarf discoveries for that matter
00:04:23
surrounding Brown dwarfs period. I mean, do they form out of the
00:04:27
gravitational collapse of molecular gas and dust clouds
00:04:30
like stars do or do they form by clumping and the creating of
00:04:34
matter together like planets?
00:04:35
Do astrophysicists think that as a Brown dwarf cools about 100
00:04:40
million to 500 million years after its formation, strange
00:04:43
things start to happen in its atmosphere. They're suggesting
00:04:47
it's possible that dusty clouds of quartz and other minerals
00:04:50
could form there but more studies needed.
00:04:54
And that's where James Webb comes in. This is Space Time
00:04:59
still to come. We ask the question, why are there so few
00:05:03
minerals found on? Mars and physicists are closing in on the
00:05:07
elusive neutrino? All that and more still to come on Space
00:05:12
Time.
00:05:27
So far, nearly 6000 different minerals are known to exist on
00:05:31
planet Earth. But after more than 50 years of investigation,
00:05:35
only 100 and 61 minerals have so far been recorded on the red
00:05:39
planet. Mars a dramatically lower number for a planet that
00:05:43
shares so much in common with the Earth.
00:05:46
Of course, Mars is a lot smaller than the Earth. The planet has a
00:05:50
diameter about half that of ours and it's not just smaller, it's
00:05:53
also less dense, although the red planet has just 15% of
00:05:58
Earth's volume, its mass is only 11% that of Earth.
00:06:02
Now, all this means that the pull of gravity on the surface
00:06:05
of Mars is only 38% as strong as the pull of gravity on Earth's
00:06:09
surface. Still Earth and Mars are both rocky planets and they
00:06:14
both have similar kinds of iron rich rocks on their surfaces.
00:06:19
Mars is often called the red planet because of its red iron
00:06:22
oxides. Or rust on its surface.
00:06:25
And like Earth, Mars is mountains and canyons, but
00:06:29
they're much bigger on the red planet. Thanks to its lower
00:06:31
gravity. For example, the tallest Martian Mountain Olympus
00:06:35
Mons is three times taller than Mount Everest, the largest
00:06:38
mountain on Earth. In fact, Olympus Mons is the tallest
00:06:42
known mountain in the solar system.
00:06:44
And the deepest Martian Canyon valley's marinas is four times
00:06:48
deeper than the Grand Canyon in the United States. And that
00:06:51
makes this Martian gully the deepest known canyon in the
00:06:55
solar system. Mars also has a much thinner atmosphere.
00:06:58
Now with atmospheric volume, less than 1% that of Earth, the
00:07:03
atmospheric composition is also significantly different
00:07:05
primarily carbon dioxide based while Earth is rich in nitrogen
00:07:09
and oxygen, but none of these differences can explain the lack
00:07:14
of Martian minerals compared to the Earth.
00:07:17
Now, the difference according to a new study reported in the
00:07:19
journal of Geophysical research, planets may have arisen because
00:07:23
minerals on Mars have had fewer pathways to form compared with
00:07:27
those on Earth. Even though birth planets began on very
00:07:30
similar trajectories for mineral evolution. Following on research
00:07:34
to catalog mineral formation and evolution on Earth.
00:07:37
Scientists conducted a systematic study of all 161
00:07:41
known Martian minerals revealed through the past half century of
00:07:44
Martian missions and analysis of Martian meteorites where his
00:07:49
earlier work has identified some 57 primary and secondary mineral
00:07:53
forming mechanisms on Earth.
00:07:55
This new study identified just 20 modes for mineral formation.
00:07:58
On Mars. It's fair to say that early in the planet's histories,
00:08:03
minerals on Earth and on Mars probably formed in similar ways.
00:08:07
For instance, the first minerals on both planets most likely
00:08:10
crystallize directly from cooling magma hydrothermal
00:08:15
activity would have also led to many new minerals on each
00:08:17
planet. However, Earth's array of minerals went through
00:08:21
extensive stages of diversification billions of
00:08:24
years ago with the onset of plate tectonics and of course,
00:08:27
the proliferation of life processes not known to have
00:08:30
occurred on Mars.
00:08:32
Although there are undoubtedly many more mineral phases on and
00:08:35
below the Martian surface yet to be discovered. The researchers
00:08:39
note that the total cut of Martian minerals is still likely
00:08:42
to be an order of magnitude smaller than that for Earth.
00:08:46
And that remains a mystery this Space Time still to come closing
00:08:53
in on the elusive neutrino. And later in the science report, a
00:08:57
new study has confirmed that A I chat bots are now every bit as
00:09:01
good as your average human when it comes to creative thinking,
00:09:05
all that and more still to come on Space Time.
00:09:23
Ok. Let's take a break from our show for a word from our sponsor
00:09:27
in Cockney. And if you haven't checked them out yet, you really
00:09:30
should. After all, we all wonder about how much of our personal
00:09:33
stuff is online and who has access to it, not just you
00:09:37
personally, but also your kids.
00:09:39
Well, the simple fact is no matter how careful you are,
00:09:42
there's a vast amount of your personal details that are online
00:09:45
and being sold right now. A lot of your details are being
00:09:48
published without you even realizing it. And it's not until
00:09:51
you start getting those spam emails that you realize what's
00:09:54
going on.
00:09:55
And of course, there's identity theft and all sorts of other
00:09:58
things as well. But there is a silver lining because you have
00:10:02
every right to protect your privacy and demand these data
00:10:06
brokers delete your information. Now, of course, the problem is
00:10:09
doing this manually will take years and as soon as you erase
00:10:13
one thing, something else has popped up somewhere else.
00:10:16
So you end up having to repeat the same process every few
00:10:19
months as they keep collecting more and more information and
00:10:22
records about your data. And this is where in Cockney comes
00:10:26
in, they handle all the hard work ensuring that your data is
00:10:30
removed from these databases and that it stays removed.
00:10:34
And in turn reduces the amount of spam you get and prevents
00:10:37
spam attacks. And the best part about in Coney is that their
00:10:41
subscription deal is really affordable. And because you're a
00:10:44
Space Time listener, there's an exclusive offer giving you a
00:10:47
whopping 60% off your subscription. So don't wait any
00:10:51
longer.
00:10:52
Take control of your data now and let in Coney do the work for
00:10:56
you. Visit in Cockney dot com slash Stuart Gary now and make
00:11:00
the most of this exclusive offer that's in Cockney dot com
00:11:03
forward slash Stuart Gary and Incognito Inc Ogn I. And of
00:11:09
course, we'll include the link details in our show notes. And
00:11:12
on our website.
00:11:18
SPK_2: This is Space Time with Stuart Gary.
00:11:22
STUART GARY: The humble neutrino is the most common form of
00:11:25
matter in the universe and they're so tiny that billions of
00:11:30
them are passing effortlessly through you every second. Yet,
00:11:34
their importance to the makeup of our universe is simply
00:11:37
unequaled.
00:11:38
They're generated through radioactive decay in stars in
00:11:42
supernovae, in nuclear explosions, in particle
00:11:45
accelerators and in atomic reactors, neutrinos are so named
00:11:50
because they're electrically neutral and because their rest
00:11:53
mass is so small, it was long thought to be zero, having
00:11:57
almost no mass neutrinos are capable of being accelerated to
00:12:01
almost the speed of light.
00:12:03
And as far as we know, they come in three flavors or types, the
00:12:07
electron neutrino, the muon neutrino and the tau neutrino
00:12:11
each has its own specific properties. Now, confusingly,
00:12:15
these three flavors of neutrinos don't line up specifically with
00:12:19
three mass species.
00:12:21
It seems each of the three flavors is made up of a quantum
00:12:24
mixture of the three mass species. So for example, a
00:12:28
particular town neutrino will contain bits of all three mass
00:12:32
species. And those different mass species are important
00:12:35
because they allow the neutrino to oscillate between the three
00:12:39
flavors.
00:12:40
So an electron neutrino produced through say a better decay
00:12:43
reaction may interact in a distant detector as a muon
00:12:47
neutrino or a town neutrino. Now, although neutrinos don't
00:12:51
have an electric charge, they do have their own corresponding
00:12:54
antimatter counterparts identified by the opposite
00:12:57
chirality or handedness.
00:13:00
Another important characteristic which we alluded to earlier is
00:13:03
that neutrinos are very weakly interactive with other matter
00:13:07
reacting really only through gravity in the weak nuclear
00:13:10
force. Again, that's why billions are passing right
00:13:13
through you without you noticing them.
00:13:16
Now, to fully explain how our universe came into being, we
00:13:19
need to know the mass of the neutrino. And now a group of
00:13:23
scientists called the Project Eight collaboration have
00:13:26
developed their own distinctive strategy to try and measure the
00:13:29
neutrino mass once fully scaled up. Project Eight could help to
00:13:34
reveal how neutrinos influence the early evolution of the
00:13:37
universe as we know it.
00:13:39
Now, back in 2022 after decades of research, a group of
00:13:43
scientists known as the Karon team were able to set an upper
00:13:46
limit for how heavy a neutrino could possibly be. Now, these
00:13:50
results don't solve the problem. All they do is simply narrow
00:13:54
down the search window. And the ultimate goal of determining a
00:13:57
neutrino's real mass remains.
00:13:59
Now in a report in the journal physical review letters, the
00:14:03
Project Eight collaboration are suggesting a new technique one
00:14:07
to reliably track and record a natural occurrence called beta
00:14:10
decay. Now, every event emits a tiny amount of energy when a
00:14:15
rare radioactive variant of hydrogen called tritium decays
00:14:18
into three subatomic particles. A helium ion, an electron and a
00:14:23
neutrino.
00:14:24
The ultimate success of project a s on an ambitious plan rather
00:14:29
than try to detect the neutrino which effortlessly passes
00:14:32
through most detector technology. The research team
00:14:35
has instead decided to look at the total mass of the entire
00:14:39
tritium atom which equates to the energy of all its parts.
00:14:43
They then measure the energy of a free electron generated by
00:14:46
beta decay. And we know the total mass.
00:14:49
So the missing energy must be that of the neutrino's mass in
00:14:53
motion. One of Project Eight's principal investigators, Brent
00:14:57
Van Der Wender from the US Department Of Energy Specific
00:14:59
North West National Laboratory says that in principle, with
00:15:03
technology developments and scale up, they have a realistic
00:15:06
shot of getting into the range necessary to pin down the
00:15:09
neutrino mass.
00:15:11
Now, the neutrino is going to be incredibly light over 500
00:15:15
times lighter than an electron. So when neutrinos and electrons
00:15:19
are created in the same way, the neutrino mass has only a tiny
00:15:23
effect on the electrons motion. And the authors want to see that
00:15:27
small effect. So they need a super precise method to measure
00:15:31
exactly how fast the electrons zipping around to do.
00:15:35
This Project Eight are relying on a technique called Cyclotron
00:15:38
radiation emission spectroscopy. It captures the microwave
00:15:42
radiation emitted by newborn electrons as they spiral around
00:15:46
a magnetic field. These electrons carry away most but
00:15:50
not all of the energy released during a beta decay event. And
00:15:55
it's that missing energy that can reveal the neutrino mass.
00:15:59
This is the first time that tritium beta decays have been
00:16:02
measured at an upper limit placed on the neutrino mass.
00:16:04
Using the Cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy technique.
00:16:09
Co author Talia Vase from Yale University has spent years with
00:16:13
her project, eight colleagues trying to figure out how to
00:16:15
accurately tease out the electron signal from all the
00:16:19
electronic background noise.
00:16:20
TALIA VASE: The neutrino is incredibly light. It's more than
00:16:23
500 times lighter than an electron. So when neutrinos and
00:16:28
electrons are created at the same time, the neutrino mass has
00:16:32
only a tiny effect on the electrons motion. We want to see
00:16:35
that small effect. So we need a super precise method to measure
00:16:39
how fast the electrons are zipping around.
00:16:41
STUART GARY: The team is interested in tracking these
00:16:43
electrons because their energy is key to revealing the neutrino
00:16:47
mass. While the strategy has been used previously, the
00:16:50
Cyclotron radiation emissions spectroscopy detector measures
00:16:54
that crucial electron energy with the potential to scale up
00:16:57
beyond the existing technology.
00:17:00
And that scalability is what sets Project Eight apart. Co
00:17:05
author Elise Novitsky from the University Of Washington says no
00:17:08
one else is trying this technique because it's a kind of
00:17:12
Wild West approach.
00:17:13
ELISE NOVITSKY: Nobody else is doing this. And so we're not
00:17:15
taking an existing technique and you know, trying to tweak it a
00:17:19
little bit. We are kind of in the Wild West, we do have
00:17:22
engineers who are crucial to the effort. It's kind of out there
00:17:26
from an engineer's point of view.
00:17:28
Often experimental physics is kind of at the boundary of
00:17:31
physics and engineering. You have to get particularly
00:17:34
adventuresome engineers and you know, practical physicists to
00:17:39
make these things come into being because it's not, this
00:17:42
stuff is not in the.
00:17:43
STUART GARY: Textbooks in their most recent experiment built at
00:17:46
the University Of Washington. The team tracked 3770 tritium
00:17:50
beta decay events over an 82 day trial window in a sample cell,
00:17:55
the size of a single P, the sample cell is cryogenically
00:17:59
cooled and placed in the magnetic field in order to trap
00:18:02
emerging electrons long enough for the system's recording
00:18:05
antennas to register a microwave signal.
00:18:08
Importantly, the team measured no false signals or background
00:18:12
events that could be confused for the real thing.
00:18:15
Now, that's important because even a very small background can
00:18:18
obscure the signal of neutrino mass making interpretation of
00:18:22
useful signals. More difficult co author aharov-Reutt from
00:18:25
Pacific North West National Laboratory helped to develop the
00:18:29
square of specialized software needed to take the raw data and
00:18:32
convert them to signals that can be analyzed.
00:18:35
NOAH OLA: Most experiments have, you know, 50 or 100 years
00:18:37
history, at least of the detection technique that they're
00:18:40
using. Whereas this is is really brand new, you know, project
00:18:43
data is not only a bigger and better crest experiment. It is
00:18:47
the first Cres experiment. It was the very first thing to ever
00:18:50
use this detection technique. It had never been done before.
00:18:52
STUART GARY: Now that the team have shown their design, an
00:18:55
experimental system works using molecules of tritium. They have
00:18:58
the next real barrier ahead. This will involve working on a
00:19:02
system that produces cools and traps individual atoms of
00:19:05
tritium. And it's tricky because tritium like its more abundant
00:19:09
cousin hydrogen refers to form molecules.
00:19:13
And those molecules would make the ultimate goal of project
00:19:16
date unachievable. So the team are developing a test bed to
00:19:20
create intra atomic tritium with intricate arrays of magnets
00:19:23
that'll keep the tritium from touching the walls of the sample
00:19:26
cell. Were they to do that?
00:19:29
They would almost certainly revert to a molecular form. This
00:19:32
technology advance will be the next step towards reaching and
00:19:36
ultimately hopefully exceeding the sensitivity level achieved
00:19:39
by the Karon team last year for now, project data working on
00:19:44
various designs for scaling up the experiment from a P size
00:19:48
sample chamber to 1000 times larger.
00:19:51
The idea there is to capture lots more beta decay events
00:19:54
using a much bigger listening device, thereby going from the
00:19:57
size of A P to that of a beach ball. This report from the US
00:20:02
Department Of Energy Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
00:20:07
REPORTER: The universe is full of particles that we can't see
00:20:10
or feel and neutrinos are some of the most elusive of these
00:20:14
subatomic particles.
00:20:16
If we could learn more about the neutrinos properties, we would
00:20:19
be another step closer to understanding what happened in
00:20:22
the first few moments after the Big Bang, an international team
00:20:26
is leading an ambitious quest called Project Eight to measure
00:20:29
the mass of the neutrino using a unique method of detection.
00:20:34
The research team behind Project Eight is pursuing a strategy
00:20:37
that involves Cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy
00:20:40
or crest.
00:20:43
Here's how it works. First. The research team tracks and records
00:20:47
a natural occurrence called beta decay. When a radioactive
00:20:51
variant of hydrogen called tritium decays, three new
00:20:55
subatomic particles are created a helium ion, an electron and
00:21:00
the exotic neutrino neutrinos are extremely light compared to
00:21:05
protons and electrons.
00:21:07
So how will the team weigh them? That's where crest comes in
00:21:11
crest captures the microwave radiation emitted from newborn
00:21:15
electrons as they spiral around a magnetic field. The electrons
00:21:19
carry most but not all of the energy generated from this beta
00:21:23
decay event. It's this missing energy.
00:21:26
The team is after we can summarize with this simple
00:21:31
equation, the total mass of a tritium atom equals the energy
00:21:35
of its parts. When we measure the free electron and we know
00:21:39
the total mass, the missing energy is the neutrino mass
00:21:43
bringing us one step closer to understanding the building
00:21:47
blocks of the universe.
00:21:53
STUART GARY: This Space Time.
00:22:11
And Tom had to take another brief look at some of the other
00:22:13
stories making news in science. This week with the science
00:22:16
report, a new study warns that A I chat bots are now every bit as
00:22:21
good as your average human at creative thinking tasks.
00:22:25
The findings published in the journal scientific reports
00:22:28
follows a study which compared the ability of bots and humans
00:22:31
to work out alternative uses for everyday objects. The test
00:22:36
provides a good example of divergent thinking. So they
00:22:40
pitted 100 and 53 humans against three A I chat bots on new uses
00:22:44
for four objects, a rope, a box, a pencil and a candle.
00:22:49
They then graded their responses using four different categories,
00:22:53
fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration.
00:22:58
The researchers found that while the best human responses
00:23:01
outperformed each of the chatbots best responses in many
00:23:04
categories, the bots were nevertheless able to perform
00:23:07
every bit as good as the average human. And that's a significant
00:23:13
advance.
00:23:15
A new study has found that two months after Beijing's 0,
00:23:19
COVID-19 policy ended in December 2022 there was an
00:23:23
estimated 1.87 million excess deaths in China. The findings
00:23:28
reported in the journal of the American Medical Association
00:23:31
combined published obituary data from three universities in China
00:23:35
with search engine data to estimate the excess deaths.
00:23:39
Authorities say their estimated number of excess deaths far
00:23:43
exceeds official Chinese government estimates of 60.
00:23:47
Although the pattern of excess deaths was consistent with
00:23:50
Chinese government reports that COVID-19 related
00:23:52
hospitalizations and deaths had hit their peak at the end of
00:23:56
December 2022 excess deaths primarily occurred among older
00:24:02
individuals and were observed in all provinces in China.
00:24:06
Official figures now suggest some 7 million people have been
00:24:10
cured by the COVID-19 Coronavirus since it was first
00:24:13
detected near China's Wuhan Institute Of Virology around
00:24:17
September 2019. However, the World Health Organization now
00:24:22
estimates the true death toll is likely to be around 18 million
00:24:26
with some 770 million confirmed cases globally.
00:24:32
North Korea has launched what it claims is its first tactical
00:24:35
nuclear attack submarine. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
00:24:39
presided over the unveiling ceremony saying the new nuclear
00:24:43
armed conventionally powered ballistic missile sub was part
00:24:46
of a push towards the nuclear weaponization of Pyongyang's
00:24:50
Navy.
00:24:51
Official images taken during this event reveal it's not
00:24:54
really a new sub but simply modifications made to an
00:24:58
existing old Romeo class conventionally powered submarine
00:25:01
so that it could launch tactical nuclear weapons. The most
00:25:05
significant modifications appear to focus on accommodating more
00:25:09
missiles. The missile section is now much longer containing four
00:25:13
launch tubes of about the same diameter as the 1250 kilometer
00:25:18
range.
00:25:18
Puku Song one or the 1900 kilometer range of the Puku Song
00:25:23
Three missile which could also accommodate the smaller diameter
00:25:27
kn 23 short range ballistic missile. There are also six
00:25:31
launch tubes most likely for the 2000 kilometer range. Waal two
00:25:36
land attack cruise missile.
00:25:38
But these larger tubes could not accommodate the North's newer
00:25:41
larger Puku Sung 45 and probably six submarine launch ballistic
00:25:46
missiles. According to the US based think tank nuclear threat
00:25:50
initiative, North Korea is estimated to have between 64 and
00:25:54
86 submarines that theoretically gives it one of the world's
00:25:58
largest fleets. However, most experts doubt that all of them
00:26:02
are operational given their age.
00:26:06
Apple have now released the new iphone 15 range with advanced
00:26:09
technology and eye watering prices to match with the
00:26:13
details. We're joined by technology editor Alex
00:26:16
Zaharov-Reutt from Tech Advice, start live.
00:26:19
ALEX ZAHAROV-REUTT: So the big change that has been long
00:26:21
predicted was USBC. So on the iphone 15 or 15 plus that is at
00:26:26
USB two speeds as far as I'm aware. But of course, you could
00:26:29
be convenience of USBC, the same connector that charges ipad
00:26:32
pros, Macs and all the Android phones.
00:26:35
So if you go to a friend's place and have an Android phone,
00:26:37
finally, you can use the same charger if you've upgraded to
00:26:41
15. Now the iphone 15 and the 15 plus also now have the 48
00:26:45
megapixel camera that was in the iphone 14 program last year. And
00:26:49
because of the larger sensor size, more pixels, they can
00:26:53
actually give you a two X image two times optical zoom
00:26:57
equivalent image without having a third optical zoom lens.
00:27:00
So previously, the zoom was digital now because of the
00:27:03
bigger sensor size they can give you that larger two times image,
00:27:06
which is really cool.
00:27:07
And you also have the dynamic island, which is at the a bubble
00:27:11
of space at the top that can show you halfway where your Uber
00:27:14
ride is or your meal is or what the sports calls are, or if
00:27:17
you're using the timer or a stopwatch who's calling you or
00:27:20
how much charge is left on your airpods, for example, without
00:27:24
having to actually go into another app.
00:27:25
Now, we also have the iphone 15 Pro models and the Pro Max
00:27:30
bigger one actually has a five times zoom capability, even
00:27:34
though it's only about a three times telephoto. It's got this
00:27:37
tetra prism inside the bend, the light four times Apple is not
00:27:40
using a periscope zoom using a different sort of zoom watch the
00:27:43
keynote for the details on that, but it is the biggest zoom that
00:27:47
we've had on an iphone.
00:27:48
There's actually the equivalent of seven lenses inside which is
00:27:52
going to be really cool for people who are mad about
00:27:55
photography. And so there's an 0.5 times ultra light macro
00:27:59
lens, a one times main 24 millimeter lens which can also
00:28:03
do 28 millimeters to 35 millimeters at one times.
00:28:06
There's the two times 48 millimeter lens and this new
00:28:09
five times 120 millimeter lens they made the bezel on the max
00:28:14
is slightly smaller, but the big news is that it's got USBC but
00:28:20
this is USBC that can do 10 gigabytes of speed. It's USBC
00:28:23
3.2.
00:28:24
STUART GARY: This follows the edict, doesn't it?
00:28:26
ALEX ZAHAROV-REUTT: It does. Yeah. And that's why the iphone
00:28:27
15 and the 15 plus and the pro and the Pro Max have USBC USBC
00:28:31
can give you 10 gigabit speed. That's 80 times faster than the
00:28:35
USB 2.0 that lightning normally transfers at. And so it also
00:28:40
means you can use USB dongles that have HDMI ports or.
00:28:45
STUART GARY: Standard USB three that we're all familiar with.
00:28:49
The blue one.
00:28:50
ALEX ZAHAROV-REUTT: Well, the USB three normally that was five
00:28:52
gigabits and the USB 3.1 was meant to be I think 10
00:28:56
gigabytes. And then I think there's a 20 version and the
00:28:59
thunderbolt standard is 40 gigabits. So it's not as fast.
00:29:02
There was rumors that is going to be using cable, but that's
00:29:06
probably for next year's iphone 16 ultra because this ultra
00:29:10
version that people said might have been coming this year.
00:29:12
That would have been even bigger than the Pro Max. It didn't
00:29:15
arrive. But because you've now got USBC 3.2 that can do this 10
00:29:19
gigabits, you can now record video to an external SSD. It
00:29:24
doesn't matter how much capacity your iphone 15 Pro Max has, you
00:29:28
can using a USB cable and a USC straight to an extent of the
00:29:33
device.
00:29:33
So it's really turning into a much more pro level device. One
00:29:36
of the other things on the iphone 15 Pro Max is the grade
00:29:39
five titanium frame, which is lighter than steel. And we're
00:29:42
talking about almost 20 g lighter for the Pro Max. So
00:29:45
look, there's lots of other features.
00:29:46
I've got all the details at Tech Advice dot life. I have all the
00:29:50
videos from Apple which go into detail, explain the different
00:29:53
phones, different models and there's also the one hour and 25
00:29:57
minute keynote. I definitely recommend you watch that on the
00:30:01
watch there too, isn't it?
00:30:02
They've got the new S Nine main processor and this is the first
00:30:05
time in about three or four years that they've launched a
00:30:07
faster processor. The previous processor was so good. So much
00:30:10
ahead of the competition, they didn't have to update it, but
00:30:12
they've had to update it finally now and you'll get smoother
00:30:15
performance, you'll get the ability for Siri to understand
00:30:18
what you're saying without sending it to the cloud.
00:30:19
So any responses where you ask it to start an outside walk or
00:30:23
do this or do that will be processed much faster. The S
00:30:26
Nine has a 2000 in maximum outdoor brightness. So when
00:30:29
you're out in the sun, the screen is twice as bad as
00:30:31
before. And the ultra two has a 3000 inch screen. So it's even
00:30:36
brighter skill.
00:30:37
STUART GARY: And of course, the big question, all the listeners
00:30:39
want to know is what about the cost?
00:30:40
ALEX ZAHAROV-REUTT: Well, they do seem to have kept the cost
00:30:43
the same at least at the entry level models. Now with the
00:30:46
iphone 15 Pro, the 128 gig model is 999 in the US and 18 49
00:30:52
nearly double in Australia. The 256 gig model is us 1299. The
00:30:57
Australian 2049 5 12 gig is US 12 99. But Australia 23 99 and
00:31:04
the one Terabyte model for the iphone 15 Pro is 14 99 US and 27
00:31:09
49 Australia.
00:31:10
Now, for the Pro Max, the bigger one with 6.7 in screen, there's
00:31:13
no more 1 28 gig tier. They just, they start at 2 56 gig.
00:31:18
That's 11 99 in the US at 21 99 in Australia because of a
00:31:22
terrible exchange rate. 5, 12 gig is us 13 99 and 25 49 in
00:31:28
Australia. And the one Terabyte is us 15 99 in Australia. It's
00:31:32
up to 28 99 100 or 200 more expensive than last year. And
00:31:37
look, unless you're loaded with cash, you get.
00:31:39
STUART GARY: Three grand for an, aren't you?
00:31:41
ALEX ZAHAROV-REUTT: Well, yes, it's definitely.
00:31:43
STUART GARY: That's Alex Sahara Roy from Tech Advice dot live
00:32:03
and that's the show for now. SpaceTime is available every
00:32:06
Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, itunes,
00:32:10
Stitcher, Google Podcast, OCA Casts, Spotify a cast. Amazon
00:32:15
Music bites dot com, soundcloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast
00:32:20
download provider and from Space Time with Stewart Gary dot com.
00:32:24
SpaceTime is also broadcast through the National Science
00:32:27
Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both iheart Radio And
00:32:31
Tune in radio.
00:32:32
And you can help to support our show by visiting the SpaceTime
00:32:35
store for a range of promotional merchandizing goodies or by
00:32:39
becoming a SpaceTime patron, which gives you access to triple
00:32:43
episode commercial free versions of the show as well as lots of
00:32:46
bonus audio content, which doesn't go to air access to our
00:32:49
exclusive Facebook group and other rewards. Just go to Space
00:32:53
Time with Stewart Garry dot com for full details.
00:32:56
And if you want more Space Time, please check out our blog where
00:32:59
you'll find all the stuff we couldn't fit in the show as well
00:33:02
as heaps of images, news stories, loads of videos and
00:33:06
things on the web. I find interesting or amusing. Just go
00:33:09
to Space Time with Stewart Gary dot com dot com.
00:33:12
That's all one word and that's Tumblr without the E you can
00:33:16
also follow us through at Stuart Garry on Twitter at Space Time
00:33:20
with Stewart Gary on Instagram through our Space Time YouTube
00:33:23
channel. And on Facebook, just go to Facebook dot com forward
00:33:27
slash Space Time with Stewart Gary and SpaceTime is brought to
00:33:31
you in collaboration with Australian Sky and Telescope
00:33:34
Magazine, your Window on the Universe.
00:33:37
GENERIC: You've been listening to Space Time with Stuart Garry.
00:33:40
This has been another quality podcast production from bites
00:33:43
dot com.