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Stuart Gary: This is SpaceTime series 26 episode 68 for
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broadcast on the seventh of June 2023. Coming up on Space Time, a
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10 kilometer high water spout discovered on the
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Saturnian Iceman Enceladus. The search for habitable planets
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expands and NASA's first public UFO meeting all that and more
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coming up on Space Time.
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Generic: Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Garry.
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Stuart Gary: Astronomers have discovered the biggest water
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spouts in the solar system 10 kilometer tall geysers
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shooting deep into space from the Saturnian Iceman Enceladus.
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The stunning observations by NASA's new James Webb space
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telescope represent the tallest water geysers ever seen.
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The plumes reported in the journal Nature Astronomy are
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shooting out of Enceladus South Pole Tiger stripes where the
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tiny moon's icy crust is thought to be especially thin, thereby
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allowing the water in the global subsurface ocean below to erupt
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onto the surface. The tiny frozen word of Enceladus is just
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505 kilometers wide.
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That means the plumes are 20 times larger than the moon
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itself sandwiched between its icy crust and it's rocky inner
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core is a global reservoir of salty liquid water. It's kept
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liquid and prevented from freezing by the gravitational
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tidal effects.
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As the little moon orbits around Saturn and other moons, these
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constantly crush and squeeze on Enceladus and that causes
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friction and that causes heat, keeping the water liquid. The
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crow volcanoes are spewing jets of ice particles, water vapor
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and organic chemicals out of the tiger striped crevices and onto
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the moon's surface.
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Astronomers want to study these gays in greater detail to better
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understand the chemical compounds in the water vapor.
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See this will allow scientists to understand the global
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subsurface ocean and determine its potential habitability.
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It was during its 13 year recesses of the Saturnian system
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that NASA's Cassini spacecraft discovered that Enceladus has a
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subsurface ocean of liquid water and it was able to analyze
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samples as plumes of ice grains and water erupted into space
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from the cracks in the moon's tiger stripes. Study's lead
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author Christopher Glenn from the Southwest.
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Research Institute says Enceladus is one of the most
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dynamic objects in the solar system and it's a prime target
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in humanity's search for life beyond Earth in the years since
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NASA's Cassini spacecraft first looked at Enceladus, scientists
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have never ceased to be amazed by what they see happening on
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this extraordinary world and these latest observations made
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thanks to Webb's new infrared spectrograph have revealed some
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remarkable results.
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The instrument's sensitivity has revealed a new story about how
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Enceladus feeds its water supply to the entire Saturnian system,
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including Satin's Majestic rings as Enceladus whips around the
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gas giant every 33 hours, the moon spews water leaving a Halo
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almost like a doughnut in its wake. The plume is not only huge
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but the water spreads right across Satin's dense earring.
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The new web data indicates that roughly 30 per cent of the water
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stays in the moon's wake while the other 70 per cent escapes
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the supply of the rest of the Saturnian system. Glenn says the
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ongoing research of Enceladus will look for specific
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indicators of habitability such as organic signatures and
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hydrogen peroxide, hydrogen peroxide is especially
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interesting because it can provide important sources of
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metabolic energy.
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Now, Cassini didn't give a clear answer on the availability of
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strong oxidants on Enceladus. But the new web observations
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will provide the best remote opportunity to search for
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habitability indicators on the moon's surface. And
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understanding the variability of plume outgassing is also
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important in order to plan for future planetary missions to
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Enceladus to study the water vapor plumes.
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So Web is sort of serving like a bridge between Cassini and a
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proposed future mission to Enceladus dubbed Aubin Lander.
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After the next set of web observations, astronomers will
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have a better idea if ocean samples are widely distributed
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across the insulin surface as opposed to just near the South
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Pole tiger stripes.
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This report from NASA TV in February 2005, we had our first
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close fly by of Enceladus and the magnetometer seen off saw
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something unusual what a magnetometer does, is it
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measures the magnetic field in the vicinity of the instrument.
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Generic: We had to look at the wiggles and they look strange.
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The magnetic field of Saturn is moving towards it and it
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couldn't penetrate down onto the surface which was pointing to an
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atmospheric signature of some kind.
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Here, it looked like it had a tiny atmosphere.
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Then March, we came even closer looking for that same strange
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signal.
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What it showed was that the the signature, the atmospheric
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signature we were seeing was focused at the South Pole.
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It was almost like there was a cometary plume of water vapor
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coming off from the South Pole.
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People were saying it's gotta be jets, it's gotta be jets. And
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the imaging team was saying, no, no, no. We don't want to say
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that, you know, until we're sure. And so we went closer, we
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came within 100 and 75 kilometers of Enceladus.
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Then we got the data back and it was spectacular.
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And then we found the evidence geysers coming out of the South
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Pole with water vapor and water ice particles. They were active
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geysers at the South Pole of Enceladus.
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Because we were so close. All of the other instruments were able
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to take really good data and we put together all of this data,
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we saw the cracks, the tiger stripes of the South Pole, we
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saw heat leaking out from these tiger stripes on subsequent
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flybys. We found organic material dust, water vapor
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coming out of the plume.
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The Cassini discoveries in the first three flybys were so
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amazing. We changed our focus and added 20 more flybys of
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Enceladus including seven through the icy jets. The
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surprising magnetometer reading led us to the liquid water ocean
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underneath Enceladus icy crust.
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After over a decade of research with Cassini, we now know
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there's a potential for the ocean on Enceladus to support
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life and that has altered the way we think about where life
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might be found in our own solar system and in the world's
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beyond.
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Stuart Gary: And in that report from NASA TV, we heard from NASA
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Cassina project scientist Linda Splica and NASA Cassini
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magnetometer. Principal investigator Michelle Doherty.
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This is Space Time still to come. The search for habitable
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planets beyond our solar system expands and NASA conducts its
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first public UFO meeting all that are more still to come on
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Space Time.
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Scientists are expanding the search for habitable worlds to
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areas beyond the so called Goldilocks zone. The Goldilocks
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zone is the area around a star where temperatures are not too
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hot, not too cold, but just right for liquid water essential
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for life as we know it to exist on the planet's surface.
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Of course, all that assumes the planet has an atmosphere with
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enough pressure to prevent water supplementing directly from an
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ice into a gas. And also that the planet isn't being
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irradiated by stellar flares erupting from the host star a
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new study reported in the Astrophysical Journal letters
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suggests a new way to expand the search for habitable planets.
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The hypothesis also takes into account a zone not previously
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considered the space between the star and what's known as the
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soot line in the planet forming disk.
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See towards that form in this region, a disc of dust rotating
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around the central star could have surfaces rich in volatile
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carbon compounds quite different from the Earth. The study's lead
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author, Professor Ted Bergen says these planets will also be
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rich in organic carbon but poor in water.
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When scientists search for Earth like planets, they're usually
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especially interested not only in the worlds that look like the
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Earth, but also those that look like they were formed through a
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similar process. Current models of rocky Earth like exoplanets
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are built using earthlike atmospheric conditions and bulky
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composition, including the molecules essential for life
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that form from carbon based building blocks and water.
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Now, these models also focus on zones within a planet forming
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disc known as the snow line. That's the region distant from
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the central star which marks the area where water and other key
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molecules transition from a gas into a solid phase.
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It had long been thought that Earth which contains only about
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0.1% water by mass must have formed inside the snow line. But
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Bergen says that type of model may be too limited to expand the
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search for habitable planets.
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Bergen and colleagues suggest a new model one that includes a
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soot line, a boundary closer to the system star between this
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boundary and the star organic compounds and solids sublimate
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out of the solid into a gas. Considering this region would
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also encompass rocky planets that may have more carbon than
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Earth raises questions about what it means for habitability
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in these kinds of worlds.
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Bergen says just as Earth is poor in water, it's also carbon
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poor as well. He says, when forming Earth likely only
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received one carbon atom out of every 100 available in the
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protoplanetary disc.
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And he thinks that a soot line may explain why Earth is so
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little carbon. If Earth's building blocks formed inside
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the soot line, the temperature in solar radiation would be
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blasting in materials that would ultimately go on to form the
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young planet and that would turn carbon rich compounds into gas
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limiting the carbon and the solids that would be supplied to
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the forming Earth.
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The author's modeling goes on to theorize about the formation of
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other exoplanets, those born between the soot line and the
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snow line. Of course, such a world does not appear to exist
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in our solar system.
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But the thing is our solar system isn't representative of
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most known planetary systems around other stars. These other
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planetary systems all look completely different. Firstly,
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their planets are closer to their host stars and they're
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also much larger ranging in size from super Earth to mini
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neptunes.
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So these are either big rocks or small gas giants, the most
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common type of planetary system. So maybe with all these other
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systems out in the milky way galaxy, there exists a
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population of bodies that astronomers haven't recognized
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before, but one which would have a lot more carbon in their
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interiors.
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And that obviously leads one to question what the consequences
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of that would be. What does it mean for habitability in their
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study? The authors modeled what happens when the silicate rich
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world was 0.1% to 1% carbon biomass and variable water
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content forms in the Suan Region.
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They found that such a planet would develop a methane rich
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atmosphere through a process called outgassing. In this
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circumstance, organic compounds in a circuit rich planet produce
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a methane rich atmosphere and the presence of methane provides
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a fertile environment for the generation of hazers through
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interactions with stellar photons.
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And when you think about it, that's pretty analogous to the
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generation of hazers from methane, which we see on
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Saturn's moon Titan Bergen thinks planets born in this
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region which exists in every planetary forming dust disk will
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release more volatile carbon from their mantels.
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And that could lead to the natural production of hazers.
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And importantly, these sorts of hazes have already been observed
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in the atmospheres of some exoplanets and they therefore
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have the potential to change the calculus of what scientists
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consider habitable worlds.
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In fact, haze around the planet may well be an important
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signpost telling astronomers that that planet has volatile
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carbon in its mantle. And the more carbon, the backbone of
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life as we know it in the mantle means the planet has a better
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chance of being considered habitable or at the very least,
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it deserves a second.
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Look, this is Space Time still to come. NASA's first public UFO
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meeting and later in the science report, new warnings that
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exposure to air pollution can increase the risk of heart
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problems. All that and more still to come on Space Time.
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NASA has held its first public meeting on unidentified
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anomalous phenomena, what we used to call UFOs. The four hour
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event covered a wide range of topics and questions and was
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live streamed online. It follows last year's decision to have the
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space agency undertake an independent study of
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unidentified anomalous phenomena.
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Following the reaction stemming from the 2021 report issued by
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the office of the Director Of National Intelligence. The
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Pentagon was able to characterize 100 and 63 UAP
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events as being balloons or balloon like entities. Another
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26 were identified as drones and six others were either
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identified as birds, weather events or airborne debris like
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plastic bags blowing in the wind.
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But the office of the Director Of National Intelligence
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concluded that it didn't have enough information to form an
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explanation for 143 other UAP reports that it had received
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since 2004.
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Mind you, that doesn't mean the Klingons have arrived and have
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begun terrorizing the village still in October. NASA
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introduced a 16 member panel of experts from different
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scientific fields to head up their study. NASA's associate
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administrator for the science mission Director at Thomas Sabin
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says exploring unknown space in the atmosphere is at the very
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heart of what NASA does.
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But this public meeting wasn't a review or assessment of previous
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unidentified observations. Instead, it was designed to let
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NASA know where and what possible data could be collected
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in the future in order to help shed new light on the nature and
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origin of U A P S.
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Now NASA defines U A P S as observations of events in the
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sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or other known natural
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phenomena from a scientific perspective and if the Klingons
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have arrived. Well, I for one welcome our new colonos
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overlords and I for myself as a humble liaison between the
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Klingon Empire and the Terran Home world.
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And time now to take another brief look at some of the other
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stories making news in science. This week. With the science
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report, there are new warnings today that exposure to air
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pollution can increase your risk of heart problems.
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A report of the Canadian Medical Association Journal looked at
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hourly exposure to air pollution and the sudden onset of symptoms
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of arrhythmia that is an irregular heartbeat which could
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progress to more serious heart disease. Scientists used data
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from 2025 hospitals in 322 Chinese cities as well as air
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pollution concentrations from monitoring stations located
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close to those hospitals.
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They found that exposure to ambient air pollution was most
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strongly associated with atrial flutter and super ventricular
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tachycardia followed by atrial fibrillation and premature
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beats. Additionally, among six pollutants, nitrogen dioxide had
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the strongest association with all four types of arrhythmias
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and the greater the exposure, the stronger the association.
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While more research still needs to be done to find out how this
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occurs. The authors say the association is biologically
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plausible and the results highlight the importance of
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further reducing your exposure to air pollution.
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A new study has confirmed that teens who Vape using e
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cigarettes with nicotine in them are far more likely to also be
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using cannabis and binge drinking alcohol. The findings
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reported in the journal substance use and misuse are
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based on a survey of 50 teens in the United States about
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their drug use.
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It found that compared to those who didn't use any nicotine
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product, those who use nicotine vapes were 20 times more likely
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to also be using cannabis and those who both smoked and vaped
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were 40 times more likely to use cannabis and also more likely to
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binge drink.
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The authors say that when tackling teen vaping the
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likelihood that teens are also using other drugs at the same
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time needs to be factored in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in
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Antarctica are in hospitable environments today. But a new
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study has found that they actually had a warm and wet
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climate more recently than it was previously thought.
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Researchers studied the concentration of brim 10 in soil
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samples from three sites high above sea level and they were
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able to identify when these valleys were last wet. The
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findings reported in the Journal Nature Geoscience suggest the
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sites have been under a very dry polar climate since the late
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Mayo Sene about six million years ago and not the Middle
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Mayo between 13.8 and 12.5 million years ago.
00:18:14
As they had been previously indicated, Microsoft's Bill 23
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conference has just concluded with its new co pilot A I
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experience for Windows 11 and Edge being the starring
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attraction with the details. We're joined by technology
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editor Alex Sahara Roy from tech advice dot live.
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Alex Zaharov-Reutt: This week is going to be the big WWDC 2023
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Apple conference. Now at the time that we recorded this
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podcast, it hasn't happened yet, but the big rumors are the
00:18:40
headset is going to be launched.
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There'll be New Macs and we should also hear a lot of things
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about AI and we'll have all the details next week, but AI is
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going to be huge because at the BUILD 2023 conference from
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Microsoft, which happened in late May. AI I was front and
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center for everything. They've got huge improvements for AI
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with apps for developers.
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I mean, it's a developer conference and there's going to
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be a DEV home which will set up your computer and connect you to
00:19:06
all the developer resources. Part of the big conference
00:19:09
announcements for consumers was Windows Co pilot. Now, this is
00:19:12
going to be something that's in Windows 11 only.
00:19:14
So it's going to give people a reason to upgrade to Windows 11
00:19:18
or to buy a new computer that comes with Windows 11 as
00:19:21
standard or can be upgraded to Windows at some point if you
00:19:23
still need to use Windows 10 for some reason. And the co pilot
00:19:26
which will come in preview in June will sit persistently on
00:19:29
the right hand side of your screen.
00:19:31
If you want it to, there'll be an icon on the task bar and the
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whole idea is to revolutionize the way that you interact and
00:19:37
work with your PC. You might remember clipping from Office
00:19:40
XP, which offered to help you when it saw you when you were
00:19:43
writing a letter.
00:19:43
And also Microsoft Cortana didn't really amount to much
00:19:46
because it was a less impressive version of Apple, Siri Google's
00:19:50
assistant or Amazon Alexa. And eventually it got discontinued.
00:19:54
I mean, in the Halo games where it was an all powerful A I that
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could help you in multiple ways. I mean, that was never delivered
00:20:01
by the Cortana that Windows had in Windows 10, but the Windows
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Copilot.
00:20:04
It'll work with every app that you've got. It'll know things
00:20:07
that you're surfing about on the web and offer you interesting
00:20:10
information. You can pull documents into the Windows
00:20:13
Copilot and ask it to summarize it for you or to rewrite it or
00:20:16
to simplify it.
00:20:17
You can drag in voice notes that you've created and can
00:20:20
transcribe those into text or translate it into another
00:20:23
language altogether. If you ask it to play a playlist, it will
00:20:25
pop up at Spotify plug in and offer you chilled pumping
00:20:29
playlist or some other sort of playlist based on your
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preferences.
00:20:32
It will bring third party plug ins to you, first party plug
00:20:35
ins. It will do these things without you having to open up
00:20:38
apps to remember to save on things, to close apps. It will
00:20:41
be there.
00:20:42
And the whole idea is you interact with it in a natural
00:20:45
way as though it was a person and it is making suggestions you
00:20:48
so you do not have to become a prompt engineer that knows the
00:20:52
right questions to ask. Part of the problem with technology is
00:20:54
that if you don't know the right things to ask, you're still
00:20:57
using your iphone. Like it was launched in 2007.
00:20:59
As opposed to all the cool tricks that you can do that
00:21:02
enable you to use your phone, like it was launched in 2023.
00:21:05
I'm often showing people all sorts of cool things that they
00:21:07
just didn't know their phones could do. The thing is though,
00:21:09
if your device, your phone, your computer could sort of
00:21:12
anticipate what you're doing, see what you're doing and offer
00:21:14
useful and interesting suggestions.
00:21:16
Then it really comes a real help to you like the AI in all the
00:21:20
sci fi shows and movies where it's guiding you and helping you
00:21:23
and holding your hand to some extent so that you can do a
00:21:25
better job more effortlessly with less stress and complete
00:21:28
the task faster.
00:21:29
So look, we're yet to see if Microsoft can deliver on those
00:21:33
promises. Microsoft is always really big on promises. But if
00:21:35
it does work, if they get as seduced by it as they have been
00:21:38
by chat GPT or being at a chat or even bad, people are going to
00:21:41
love it.
00:21:42
Stuart Gary: That's Alex Sahara Reut from Advice dot live and
00:22:01
that's the show for now. SpaceTime is available every
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