The Space, Astronomy & Science Podcast.
SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 31
*The Enigma of the Universe's Oldest Dead Galaxy
In a universe brimming with stellar birth, astronomers have stumbled upon a galaxy that ceased forming stars over 13 billion years ago. This ancient cosmic graveyard, captured by the Webb Space Telescope, is challenging our understanding of galactic life cycles. The galaxy, which experienced a rapid starburst before falling eerily silent, offers a tantalizing glimpse into the early universe's dynamics. Join us as we unravel the mystery of this prematurely quenched galaxy and its implications for cosmic evolution.
*SpaceX's Starship: Gearing Up for the Next Giant Leap
SpaceX has eyes set on March 14 for the next monumental test flight of its colossal Starship Super Heavy rocket. With the goal of reaching orbital heights and splashing down in the Indian Ocean, this mission is critical for the future of space exploration. The success of Starship is not only pivotal for NASA's Artemis moon missions but also for Elon Musk's vision of interplanetary travel. Tune in as we dissect the challenges and aspirations of this groundbreaking space endeavor.
*Optimus: Australia's Trailblazing Satellite Servicer Takes Flight
The Australian-based Space Machines Company celebrates a milestone as their Optimus satellite servicing vehicle successfully orbits Earth. This pioneering mission introduces a new chapter in space operations, offering life extension services and on-orbit assistance. Discover how Optimus is setting the stage for a more sustainable and efficient presence in the final frontier.
*2024: A Stellar Year for Skywatchers
From a total solar eclipse to a parade of supermoons, 2024 is shaping up to be an astronomer's delight. With a penumbral lunar eclipse and the potential brilliance of a new comet on the horizon, the cosmos is putting on a show. We'll discuss the celestial events that have astronomers and enthusiasts alike marking their calendars.
For more SpaceTime and show links, visit https://spacetimewithstuartgary.com and access our universal listen link at https://spacetimewithstuartgary.com/listen. Join us on our journey through the stars and support the show at https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-with-stuart-gary--2458531/support.
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(00:00) This is spacetime series 27, episode 31, for broadcast on 11 March 2024
(00:50) Astronomers find galaxy that suddenly stopped forming new stars 13 billion years ago
(11:45) Next month's total solar eclipse will not be a full lunar eclipse
(14:58) As a professional astronomer and astrophysicist, what does the night sky evoke
(17:40) Professor Richard degrasse's research focuses on distant star clusters
(20:31) World Meteorological Organisation says current El Nino event is one of strongest
(21:41) Combination of two antibodies shows promising results against solid tumours
(23:04) A new story making the rounds claims a painting is haunted
00:00:00
This is Space Time Series 27 Episode 31, for broadcast on the
00:00:05
11th of March 2024. Coming up on Space Time, The oldest dead
00:00:10
galaxy ever seen, raising new questions about galactic
00:00:13
evolution. SpaceX looking at March 14 for the next Starship
00:00:18
test launch. And the Optimus satellite launches, marking a
00:00:23
new era for Australia and satellite servicing. All that
00:00:27
and more coming up. I'm Space Time.
00:00:31
Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Gary.
00:00:51
Astronomers have found a galaxy that suddenly stopped forming
00:00:54
new stars more than 13 billion years ago. The study's authors,
00:00:58
using the Webb Space Telescope, spotted the dead galaxy at a
00:01:02
time when the universe was just 700 million years old, making it
00:01:06
the oldest such galaxy ever observed. The galaxy appears to
00:01:11
have lived fast and died young.
00:01:13
Star formation happened quickly and then stopped almost just as
00:01:17
quickly. And that's totally unexpected for a time so early
00:01:21
in the evolution of the universe. The study's authors
00:01:24
say it's still unclear whether the galaxy's quenched state is
00:01:27
temporary or permanent, or for that matter, what caused it to
00:01:30
stop forming stars in the first place.
00:01:33
The discovery, reported in the journal Nature, could be
00:01:35
important to help astronomers understand how and why galaxies
00:01:39
stop forming new stars, and whether the factors affecting
00:01:42
star formation have changed over the years.
00:01:45
The study's lead author, Tobias Looser, from the Kavli Institute
00:01:48
For Cosmology, says the first few hundred million years of the
00:01:52
universe was a very active phase, with lots of gas clouds
00:01:56
collapsing to form new stars. He says galaxies need a rich supply
00:02:00
of gas to form stars, and the early universe was like an
00:02:03
all-you-can-eat buffet.
00:02:05
See, it's normally only much later in the evolution of the
00:02:08
universe that we start to see galaxies stop forming new stars,
00:02:12
whether that's due to a black hole... Or something else like a
00:02:15
gravitational perturbation. Astronomers believe star
00:02:19
formation can be slowed or stopped by different factors,
00:02:22
all of which will starve a galaxy of the gas it needs to
00:02:25
form new stars.
00:02:26
Internal factors, such as a supermassive black hole, or some
00:02:30
sort of feedback from star formation, can push gas out of a
00:02:33
galaxy, causing star formation to stop rapidly. Alternatively,
00:02:38
gas can simply be consumed very quickly by star formation
00:02:41
without being promptly replenished by fresh gas from
00:02:44
the surrounding galaxy.
00:02:45
That results in galaxy starvation. But the authors
00:02:49
aren't sure if any of these scenarios can explain the Webb
00:02:52
observations. Until now, to understand the early universe,
00:02:55
astronomers have relied on models, well, let's face it,
00:02:58
they're based on what we see in the modern day universe today.
00:03:01
But now that astronomers are seeing so much further back in
00:03:04
space-time thanks to Webb, and they've observed that star
00:03:07
formation was quenched so rapidly in this galaxy, models
00:03:11
based on the modern universe will need to be revised. The
00:03:14
authors determined that the galaxy did experience a short
00:03:17
and intense period of star formation over somewhere between
00:03:20
30 and 90 million years.
00:03:23
But between 10 and 20 million years before that point in time,
00:03:26
when it was observed by Webb, star formation had suddenly
00:03:30
stopped. Luce says it seems that everything happened faster and
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more dramatically in the early universe, and that might include
00:03:37
galaxies moving from a star formation phase to a dormant or
00:03:41
quenched phase.
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Astronomers have previously observed dead galaxies in the
00:03:45
early universe, but this galaxy is the oldest so far, just 700
00:03:49
million years after the Big Bang, some 13.8 billion years
00:03:53
ago. In addition to being the oldest, this galaxy is also
00:03:56
relatively low in mass.
00:03:58
It's about the same size as the Small Magellanic Cloud, a
00:04:02
satellite dwarf galaxy orbiting our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
00:04:06
Although it's worth pointing out that the Small Magellanic Cloud
00:04:08
is still forming new stars.
00:04:11
Other quenched galaxies in the early universe have always been
00:04:13
far more massive, but Webb's improved sensitivity allows
00:04:17
smaller and fainter galaxies to be observed and analysed.
00:04:21
Studies authors say although it appears to be dead at the time
00:04:24
of the observation, the It's possible that in the 13.1
00:04:27
billion years since, this galaxy may have come back to life and
00:04:31
started forming new stars again.
00:04:33
The team are now looking for other galaxies just like this
00:04:36
one in the early universe, which will help place constraints on
00:04:39
how and why galaxies stop forming new stars. It could be a
00:04:43
case that galaxies in the early universe die and then burst back
00:04:46
into life, but the study's authors will need more
00:04:50
observations to help them figure that one out.
00:04:53
This is Space Time. Still to come, SpaceX looking at March 14
00:04:58
for their next Starship test flight, and Australian-based
00:05:02
Space Machines Company say their Optimus satellite servicing
00:05:05
vehicle has safely reached orbit and is operational. All that and
00:05:10
more still to come on Space Time.
00:05:29
SpaceX is looking at March 14th as the likely earliest date for
00:05:33
the third launch attempt of the Company's massive new Starship
00:05:37
Super Heavy rocket. The Starship Super Heavy is the world's
00:05:41
biggest and most powerful rocket.
00:05:44
It stands some 121 metres in height and generates some 16.7
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million pounds, that's 74.3 meganewtons of thrust, almost
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double that of the world's second most powerful rocket,
00:05:56
NASA's SLS or Space Launch System Orion moon rocket. The
00:06:01
new test flight from SpaceX's Starbase launch complex at Boca
00:06:04
Chica in Texas will try to achieve orbital altitude before
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splashing down in the Indian Ocean.
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And that's different from the previous two launch attempts,
00:06:14
both of which were aiming for a Pacific Ocean splashdown north
00:06:17
of Hawaii. SpaceX were forced to issue a self-destruct order to
00:06:21
blow up the launch vehicle during the first test flight
00:06:24
back in April 2023, after the Starship upper stage failed to
00:06:28
separate from the Super Heavy core stage four minutes into the
00:06:31
flight.
00:06:32
Several of the Super Heavy's Raptor engines failed to light
00:06:35
up during the flight, possibly due to damage caused by debris
00:06:39
thrown up by the rocket's thrust blasting the launch pad into
00:06:42
bits.
00:06:43
The lack of engines during ascent meant the rocket simply
00:06:46
failed to reach the speed and altitude needed for a successful
00:06:50
stage separation. Instead, it entered an uncontrolled spin
00:06:54
before stage separation due to loss of thrust vector control,
00:06:58
triggering the activation of the flight termination system.
00:07:02
The second flight back in November last year lasted a
00:07:04
little bit longer with stage separation using the hot staging
00:07:08
technique successfully undertaken. The launch also saw
00:07:11
the introduction of a new water deluge system as part of the
00:07:15
ground support equipment at the launch pad. The good news is
00:07:18
that during the climb to orbit, all 33 Raptor engines continued
00:07:23
to fire for their full flight duration.
00:07:26
But after hot staging separation and the initiation of the flip
00:07:29
maneuver and boost back burn, several core stage booster
00:07:32
engines began shutting down. That was expected, but one of
00:07:36
them suddenly exploded, resulting in the destruction of
00:07:38
the core stage. The failure was eventually traced to a filler
00:07:42
blockage.
00:07:43
That led to inadequate inlet pressure in the engine oxidizer
00:07:46
turbopumps. Meanwhile, the upper stage, or Starship, continued to
00:07:51
ascend to orbit, flying for a total of seven minutes until a
00:07:55
leak developed in the aft section while a planned liquid
00:07:58
oxygen venting was underway.
00:08:00
That triggered a combustion event which interrupted
00:08:03
communications between the spacecraft's flight computers,
00:08:06
causing a full engine shutdown. And that triggered the
00:08:09
autonomous self-destruct system to initiate. Flight termination
00:08:14
happened just as Starship reached an altitude of 150km and
00:08:18
a velocity of 24km per hour.
00:08:22
The thing is, Starship becoming operational plays an important
00:08:25
part in NASA's Artemis man-moon project. That's because a
00:08:29
specially modified version of Starship, called the HLS, will
00:08:33
be used as a lunar shuttle in 2026, rendezvousing and docking
00:08:38
with an Orion capsule in cislunar orbit, and then
00:08:41
transporting the Artemis III crew and their equipment down to
00:08:44
the lunar surface and back up again.
00:08:47
So, not only will SpaceX need to show that it can launch, fly and
00:08:51
land Starship safely, it will need to prove that it can do so
00:08:54
multiple times, as several tanker versions of Starship will
00:08:57
also need to be launched in order to refuel the lunar
00:09:00
version of the spacecraft in Earth orbit for its mission to
00:09:03
the moon.
00:09:05
For SpaceX boss Elon Musk, it's all part of a much bigger
00:09:09
picture. Musk sees the Super Heavy Lift Starship as a
00:09:13
colonial transport system, eventually replacing the Falcon
00:09:17
9 and the Dragon capsule to carry humans not just to orbit
00:09:20
or the moon, but onto Mars and beyond. Musk believes that
00:09:25
mankind needs to establish a second permanent colony in
00:09:29
space.
00:09:30
With all humans living just on the Earth, It's a case of all
00:09:33
our eggs being in the one basket. And that's where the
00:09:37
Super Heavy Starship comes in. It can carry 100 people or 100
00:09:42
tons into orbit in one go, and therefore will play a crucial
00:09:46
role in setting up colonies on other worlds. This Space Time.
00:09:52
Still to come, Australian-based Space Machines Company say their
00:09:56
Optimus satellite servicing vehicle is safely in orbit and
00:10:00
operational. And 2024 is proving to be a spectacular year for
00:10:04
skywatchers, with highlights including next month's total
00:10:08
solar eclipse across North America and a series of four
00:10:11
supermoons in succession in August, September, October and
00:10:14
November. All that and more still to come on Space Time.
00:10:30
Thank Australian-based Space Machines Company say their
00:10:38
Optimus satellite servicing vehicle is safely in orbit and
00:10:42
operational. The spacecraft was flown into orbit aboard a Falcon
00:10:46
9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California
00:10:49
as part of SpaceX's Transporter 10 mission.
00:10:53
Following its deployment from the Falcon 9 upper stage, the
00:10:56
270kg satellite will fly to its planned orbital slot and
00:11:00
undertake a full testing campaign. Optimus is the first
00:11:04
Australian commercial satellite to provide life extension
00:11:07
services, inspections and on-orbit assistance to existing
00:11:11
orbital spacecraft.
00:11:13
Space Machines Company says it plans to expand its orbital
00:11:16
servicing vehicle fleet with further spacecraft launches.
00:11:20
This is Space Time. Still to come! 2024 proved to be a
00:11:25
spectacular year for astronomy, with highlights including next
00:11:29
month's total solar eclipse in North America and a series of no
00:11:33
less than four supermoons in a row between August and November.
00:11:37
And later in the Science Report, the World Meteorological
00:11:40
Organization says the current El Niño event is one of the five
00:11:44
strongest on record. All that and more still to come on Space
00:11:48
Time.
00:12:05
Well, it seems 2024 is proving to be a spectacular year for sky
00:12:09
watchers, with highlights including next month's total
00:12:12
solar eclipse across North America on April 8th. The lunar
00:12:15
eclipse, which normally comes either two weeks before or after
00:12:18
it, will be a bit of a dumper this year, because it won't be a
00:12:21
full lunar eclipse. Instead, the event on March 25th will be a
00:12:25
penumbral lunar eclipse.
00:12:27
That means the full moon will move through the faint outer
00:12:30
part of Earth's shadow known as Penumbra. Macquarie University
00:12:34
astrophysicist Professor Richard Grace says this type of eclipse
00:12:38
is not as dramatic as the full or even partial lunar eclipse,
00:12:42
but it's still worth a look. Grace says other highlights of
00:12:45
2024 will include a series of four supermoons in succession on
00:12:50
August 20, September 18, October 17 and November 16.
00:12:56
The concept of a supermoon is in essence that the moon is close
00:12:59
to the sun. To us on its orbit around the Earth. The orbit is
00:13:02
not entirely circular, so sometimes it gets a bit closer,
00:13:05
sometimes a bit more distant. When it's a full moon, and the
00:13:09
moon is at its closest approach, it's called a supermoon, and we
00:13:12
have four of those in succession this year, in August, September,
00:13:15
October, and November.
00:13:17
It's not that spectacular if you just look at the moon high in
00:13:20
the sky, but if the moon is close to the horizon, closest to
00:13:23
moonrise or moonset, and you look at it, it might look a bit
00:13:27
bigger, and that's more like... More psychological effects, but
00:13:30
at least if you know, then it might seem like it.
00:13:33
Now, we also have a blue new moon. A blue moon means that we
00:13:36
have two full moons during a month. And so blue moons happen
00:13:40
occasionally, but this year we have a new moon. So we have two
00:13:43
new moons happening during the month. One is on the 1st of
00:13:46
December. And one on the 31st of December. Now, new moons are
00:13:50
obviously very difficult to see.
00:13:51
We can see Andromeda from where we are in this part of the
00:13:54
world.
00:13:54
Andromeda is visible from Australia. This could not be a
00:13:59
problem. One could read binoculars, though, because it's
00:14:01
very difficult to see with the naked eye. Rather impossible and
00:14:05
have very good eyesight. And Andromeda is best visible in the
00:14:08
latter half of the, latter quarter of the year, from
00:14:11
October to December.
00:14:12
It's the closest large galaxy to the Milky Way. It's similar,
00:14:15
perhaps bigger, perhaps more massive than Our Milky Way. And
00:14:18
so best visibility is, of course, when there is no moon.
00:14:21
It has to be dark, otherwise you won't see it. And it's
00:14:24
relatively close to the northern horizon.
00:14:26
Well, as I said, it's probably slightly larger and more massive
00:14:29
than the Milky Way, with lots of stars, but it's... Quite far
00:14:32
away, and those stars are spread over a fairly large area, and so
00:14:36
individual stars themselves don't contribute too much at the
00:14:39
distance of the Earth. But together, it's like a plane,
00:14:42
supposedly, at the distance of about 2.5 million light years.
00:14:46
And, of course, it's getting a little bit closer every day.
00:14:49
Well, it is getting a bit closer every day, but we have to wait
00:14:51
about 4.5 billion years before we really work with the
00:14:54
Andromeda Galaxy. So there is no danger of a collision anytime
00:14:58
soon.
00:14:58
As a professional astronomer and astrophysicist, when you look up
00:15:02
at the night sky, what does it make you feel?
00:15:05
It doesn't matter whether you're a professional or amateur, I
00:15:07
think. When you look up at the night sky, you're often captured
00:15:10
by a sense of awe of what's out there, particularly when it's
00:15:13
dark, of course, and you see all those objects, the stars, the
00:15:16
galaxies, and you know what's out there, right? So I'm not
00:15:20
really a planetary astronomer, but I find it...
00:15:22
Cool to see the individual planets or, you know, get a pair
00:15:26
of binoculars and look at the moon. That's all fantastic to
00:15:28
see. I don't study it, but it's just a feeling that is far away
00:15:31
and that you're only a very significant part out there in
00:15:36
the universe. That's quite a... Quite a feeling I think. That's
00:15:39
actually what attracted me in the first place.
00:15:41
I love looking at the night sky from rural and country settings
00:15:45
because you see so much more than you do from the city. The
00:15:48
first thing I do is I either look for the Southern Cross or I
00:15:51
look for Orion because I use those as my sort of anchor
00:15:54
points. From there I can work my way across the sky.
00:15:57
For me it's usually Orion. I come originally from the
00:16:00
northern hemisphere so the Great Bear is more familiar than the
00:16:04
Southern Cross to me. But Orion is visible from both the
00:16:08
northern and southern hemisphere. So Orion, although
00:16:10
to me it looks upside down, it's for me a great anchor point.
00:16:13
And if you look hard at the middle star in Orion's sword,
00:16:17
you can see it's fuzzy. You can see it's not a star.
00:16:20
Yeah, just below the belt of Orion, or above it actually from
00:16:23
the perspective of us here in the southern hemisphere, is a
00:16:27
fuzzy blob that's called the Orion Nebula. It's probably the
00:16:31
nearest region where stars are being formed. It's a stellar
00:16:33
nursery. That's an area of research interest of my group
00:16:38
actually. So that's actually the closest area that we really
00:16:41
study in any detail.
00:16:42
It's a spectacular region with...
00:16:44
Yes, and you can see it fairly well by using a pair of
00:16:47
binoculars or a small telescope. And so I recommend that people
00:16:50
do so. Now don't be disappointed because on all those pictures on
00:16:54
public outreach websites, you have the most spectacular
00:16:57
colours, all kinds of reds, but...
00:16:59
In actual fact, when you look through a piece of equipment
00:17:02
like binoculars, you don't see those colours very brightly,
00:17:05
because your eyes are not that sensitive to colours at night.
00:17:08
Everyone wants to buy a telescope to look at the night
00:17:11
sky, but you don't need that. You just need an armchair and
00:17:13
binoculars and that's all.
00:17:15
Well, it depends on what you want to look for, but binoculars
00:17:18
are a good starting point, particularly for the moon, which
00:17:21
I wouldn't really look at through a telescope, because the
00:17:23
telescope only shows you a very small fraction of the sky.
00:17:26
Binoculars are much better.
00:17:29
The nearby planets can be done with binoculars as well. But if
00:17:31
you look at these conjunctions of planets, you don't even need
00:17:35
equipment. And meteor showers, you shouldn't need equipment
00:17:38
because you won't be able to see them.
00:17:40
What are you working on now?
00:17:41
My group is working on the contents of very dense groups of
00:17:44
stars, which we call star clusters. And at the moment, I'm
00:17:47
working with a PhD student in India, working on ultraviolet
00:17:51
observations, satellite observations, with the Indian
00:17:54
UVIT satellite. To try and understand how those stars
00:17:57
formed and how they will eventually evolve.
00:17:59
Do you believe globular clusters are all groups of stars born at
00:18:02
the same time, or are some of them the cause of other
00:18:05
galaxies?
00:18:06
That's a very good question, actually. The majority of
00:18:08
globular clusters in Our Milky Way, and it's about 160 to 170
00:18:12
or so, are groups of very old stars that formed roughly at the
00:18:16
same time. Different stellar masses form at slightly
00:18:19
different times, but the differences are no more than a
00:18:22
few hundred thousand years.
00:18:25
Well, their ages are billions of years, so for all practical
00:18:28
purposes they're formed at the same time.
00:18:30
A few of them, however, might be the skipped course of what we
00:18:34
call dwarf galaxies, and one of them is the object Omega
00:18:38
Centauri, which is often portrayed as the largest, most
00:18:43
massive globular cluster in the Milky Way, but it is likely that
00:18:46
it was actually the core of a dwarf galaxy that no longer has
00:18:49
the disk of stars around it. And that's based on observations
00:18:53
that there are.
00:18:54
Multiple chemical compositions of stars inside of that object.
00:18:59
Let's call it the cluster. And that is an unlikely result of
00:19:03
stellar evolution. We need to have multiple episodes of star
00:19:08
formation to form different chemical compositions, and most
00:19:11
likely, therefore, that object is the core of a galaxy.
00:19:14
It's all in the metallicity.
00:19:15
Different metallicities, yes.
00:19:16
What are you looking forward to the most this year?
00:19:18
As I mentioned earlier, I like deep-sky objects. It's cool to
00:19:23
look at planets and the moon, but my research really is on
00:19:27
much more distant objects. And there's a couple of them that we
00:19:30
can see this year. We talked about the Nucleus as a galaxy
00:19:33
visible during the winter, high up overhead. Of course, the
00:19:37
Milky Way has a central dark area known as the Emo in the sky
00:19:40
by Aboriginal people.
00:19:41
Best visible in June, high up in the sky at that time. And we
00:19:44
talked about the Andromeda Galaxy, which is an object that
00:19:49
I'm quite favorable of. But then, toward the end of the
00:19:52
year, we might have a spectacular object, but it's not
00:19:54
clear yet. In January last year, 2023, an object was discovered
00:19:59
that is likely to become a comet. And that comet... It has
00:20:03
the cryptic name C-2026A3, also known as Cuchin San Atlas.
00:20:08
It will have its closest approach to Earth on the 13th of
00:20:11
October at 71 million kilometers, but it will be best
00:20:14
visible if it develops a tail, and we don't know that yet.
00:20:18
About a week later, because the moon intervenes in the meantime.
00:20:20
So late October, if that comet really develops a spectacular
00:20:24
tail, that should be quite a spectacle to look for on the
00:20:27
sky.
00:20:28
That's Professor Richard DeGrasse from Macquarie
00:20:30
University. And this is Space Time.
00:20:47
Time now to take a brief look at some of the other stories making
00:20:49
news in science this week with the Science Report.
00:20:53
The World Meteorological Organization says this current
00:20:56
El Niño event is one of the five strongest on record. Scientists
00:21:01
say the event peaked in December and has been gradually weakening
00:21:04
ever since. However, they say it will continue to influence
00:21:08
global climate over the coming months.
00:21:11
Meteorologists say a combination of El Niño and climate change
00:21:15
has led to record temperatures on land and extreme events,
00:21:19
while ocean temperatures have also hit record highs.
00:21:22
Scientists say there's a 60% chance of El Niño persisting
00:21:26
until May and an 80% chance of neutral conditions, neither El
00:21:30
Niño or La Niña, in April to June. But they are also warning
00:21:35
that there is a chance of a La Niña event later in the year,
00:21:38
but the odds are currently uncertain.
00:21:42
An early stage clinical trial has shown that a combination of
00:21:45
two antibodies which target and boost the immune system are
00:21:48
showing promising results against hard-to-treat solid
00:21:51
tumors. The findings reported in the journal Cancer say the drugs
00:21:56
known as CS1002 and CS1003 were trialed in patients with
00:22:02
multiple types of cancer including melanoma, lung cancer
00:22:05
and liver cancer.
00:22:07
The trials, which were split into three parts, found that in
00:22:10
61 patients who received the drug in their third stage, 37.7%
00:22:16
had a positive response. The study also found that the drugs
00:22:20
had a manageable safety profile. The authors say this early stage
00:22:24
trial supports the idea of further assessment of the
00:22:27
combination of different drugs for the treatment of solid
00:22:30
tumors.
00:22:32
New biosensing technology has made it possible to create gene
00:22:36
testing strips that rival conventional lab-based testing
00:22:40
quality. A report in the journal Nature Communications claims the
00:22:44
test can easily detect specific gene sequences in a sample, but
00:22:48
unlike PCR, it can be done at room temperatures, using a test
00:22:52
that looks exactly like the well-known rat COVID test.
00:22:55
The authors say the test could transform human and animal
00:22:58
infection control, as well as quarantine and biodiversity
00:23:02
conservation efforts.
00:23:05
A new story making the rounds acclaims that a painting dubbed
00:23:09
the Rain Woman is the world's most haunted picture. Now
00:23:13
according to believers the artist who created the painting
00:23:16
felt something strange happening in the six months before
00:23:19
painting it.
00:23:20
It was in 1996 when she first started noticing flashes of
00:23:24
light in the corner of her eye but when she turned to look
00:23:27
nothing was there. But still, she felt something was always
00:23:31
watching. Now, once completed, the arts put the painting up for
00:23:35
sale at a local art shop. It was quickly bought, but promptly
00:23:39
returned again.
00:23:40
And the same thing kept happening time after time. Tim
00:23:44
Mendham from Australian Skeptics says it could be the case of the
00:23:48
artist having psychological or physiological problems, or it
00:23:51
could just be that the whole story's untrue, even down to the
00:23:54
actual existence of the painting itself.
00:23:56
The Rain Woman is this painting. No one's quite sure exactly when
00:23:59
it was done. In fact, it was probably in the 90s, supposedly,
00:24:03
the story goes. It's a story that is transplanted, moved
00:24:07
every time it's told, but there 's very little basis to it. It's
00:24:10
supposedly an artist named Svetlana Telet.
00:24:13
Who was inspired to do this painting of a fairly, I don't
00:24:16
know, Modigliani-style look of a woman and her body standing in
00:24:20
the rain. She's got a big, broad-brimmed hat. The trouble
00:24:22
is that no-one knows anything about this artist. The only
00:24:25
thing, if you look her up, the only thing you'll find is the
00:24:27
rain woman painting and nothing else about her.
00:24:30
Who she is, where she was, etc., except there are embellishments
00:24:33
that bring up extra stories. One is that she had this flash of
00:24:36
light in the corner of her eye and she looked around and there
00:24:38
was no one there, which might mean she has a problem with her
00:24:40
eyes and her retina coming loose, which is a dangerous
00:24:43
thing, if the story is true.
00:24:45
You've got to go back to that all the time, if the story is
00:24:47
true. The painting seems to exist, but you're not quite sure
00:24:49
it's the painting that she supposedly painted. And
00:24:52
certainly you can buy it on the net, you can buy prints of it,
00:24:54
etc., but whether that's the painting that is supposed to be
00:24:57
involved in this story, you're not quite sure what...
00:25:00
She supposedly did was sold it and it kept coming back because
00:25:03
people horrible things were happening when you bought this
00:25:04
painting not the only haunted painting where that's happened
00:25:07
to him by the way we've had a number of stories about similar
00:25:09
paintings that you sell it through an op shop or sell it
00:25:11
through some sort of an antique store or something and it keeps
00:25:13
coming back the owners keep bringing it back which will
00:25:15
raise the price of the painting eventually because they want
00:25:17
this oh good haunted painting i must buy that the trouble is
00:25:20
that everything's allegedly in this story what makes this
00:25:23
painting haunted i mean it's a lady wearing a black hat the
00:25:27
anguished man is much scarier oh yeah The woman in the rain looks
00:25:30
pretty placid.
00:25:31
Yeah. Looks like she doesn't mind being in the rain. There
00:25:33
are certainly other paintings of people sort of out in the open
00:25:35
who don't look particularly happy. This is not a very
00:25:37
exciting painting. The question is, was it painted by this
00:25:40
person? Did this person exist? The retelling of a story just
00:25:44
follows in a sort of cut and paste, copy and paste.
00:25:46
The retelling without any information at all, that's sort
00:25:48
of verifiable. So we have to sort of put this one in the
00:25:51
interesting. Is it really cursed? Are the stories about
00:25:53
people, terrible things happening, are they real? This
00:25:55
is a story totally without evidence, but it creates a myth
00:25:58
and it's sort of very impressive to people. And it's really one
00:26:02
of life's interesting non-events.
00:26:04
That's Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics.
00:26:23
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00:26:26
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