The Space, Astronomy & Science Podcast.
SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 33
*The Black Hole that Ripped Apart a Star
In a cosmic display of destruction, astronomers have witnessed the closest recorded incident of a star being devoured by a supermassive black hole. The event, spotted in galaxy NGC 3799, was observed in visible light, offering unprecedented insights into these violent phenomena. The tidal disruption event, now cataloged as Assassin 23 BD, emitted less energy and faded more rapidly than typical cases, placing it in a unique classification and suggesting such occurrences may be more common than once thought.
*Hunting New Physics in Neutron Star Wrecks
The cataclysmic mergers of neutron stars could be hiding secrets of new physics, with potential clues about the enigmatic dark matter. The historic GW170817 collision, which sent ripples through space-time, has now been used to constrain theories on axion-like particles. These elusive entities could be part of the dark matter puzzle, and their traces might be detectable in future neutron star mergers, offering a new window into the fundamental workings of the universe.
*Guardian Gas Giants and Their Terrestrial Charges
A new study suggests that Earth-like planets often come with Jupiter-like protectors. Simulations of planetary systems show that "dry" super-Earths and distant "cold" Jupiters frequently coexist, with the gas giants acting as cosmic shields. This relationship hints at a formation pattern where massive protoplanetary disks give rise to both rocky worlds and their gaseous sentinels, providing a glimpse into the architecture of alien solar systems.
*China's Moonwalk Ambitions by 2030
China has set its sights on the Moon, with plans to land taikonauts on the lunar surface before the end of the decade. The ambitious project involves the development of the Long March 10 rocket, a new spacecraft, and a lunar lander. In a two-launch scenario, the vehicles will rendezvous in lunar orbit, setting the stage for China's historic manned moon landing and furthering their collaboration with Russia on a lunar base.
Plus, we examine the latest space news, delve into the science of extreme heat and preterm births, and explore the mystery of microplastics in human arteries.
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00:00:00
This is Space Time Series 27 Episode 33 for broadcast on the
00:00:04
15th of March 2024. Coming up on Space Time, astronomers watch a
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star being literally torn apart by a black hole, the new physics
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that could be hiding in the debris of colliding neutron
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stars, and China says it'll have people walking on the Moon by
00:00:22
the end of the decade. All that and more coming up on Space
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Time.
00:00:28
Welcome to SpaceTide with Stuart Gary. Thank you Astronomers have
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observed the closest recorded occurrence of a star being torn
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apart by a supermassive black hole. Using ASSASSIN, the
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All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, the authors detected
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a sudden surge of brightness, followed by a rapid dimming in a
00:01:05
galaxy known as NGC 3799, located just 160 million
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light-years away.
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While black holes destroying stars have been seen before,
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this is the first one observed this close using visible light.
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The study's lead author, William Huggendan from the University Of
00:01:23
Hawaii, says the discovery could give astronomers a much better
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understanding of how supermassive black holes grow
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and how they collect material around them.
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Follow-up observations were taken using the Asteroid
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Terrestrial Last Alert System or ATLAS telescopes on Mauna Loa
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and the giant 10-metre Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea. The
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authors then analysed these data, determining that the burst
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of brightness was indeed caused by a tidal disruption event.
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That's the term used to describe what happens when a star gets
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too close to a supermassive black hole and is torn to pieces
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by the black hole's immense gravitational forces. The
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findings reported in the monthly notices of the Royal
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Astronomical Society suggest that black holes ripping stars
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apart nearby could actually be more common than previously
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thought.
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The intense brightness produced by the star's mass feeding the
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black hole creates a luminous flare which all-sky surveys like
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ASSASSIN can observe. While such events have been detected far
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away, finding one this relatively close is rare. Events
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now being catalogued as ASSASSIN-23BD and will become a
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subject for further intense study.
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The authors have already found that this tidal disruption event
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was unlike many others they've observed because it emitted much
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less energy than previous such events, and its change in
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brightness happened about twice as fast as most tidal disruption
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events. The reasons for this is still unclear. And so, ASSASSIN
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23 BD has been placed into a unique category of objects known
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as low luminosity and fast tidal disruption events.
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This is Space Time. Still to come, astronomers search for new
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physics in the debris of colliding neutron stars. And new
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computer simulations suggest that rocky Earth-like planets
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could come with their own Jupiter-Like bodyguards. All
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that and more still to come on Space Time.
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Thank you.
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Scientists say neutron star mergers are likely to be a
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treasure trove of new physics, with implications for even
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determining the true nature of dark matter. Back on August 17,
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2017, the LIGO laser interferometer gravitational
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wave observatories in the United States, together with the Virgo
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detector in Italy, observed gravitational waves coming from
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a collision of two neutron stars.
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And for the first time, this astronomical event was not only
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heard in gravitational waves, but also seen in light by dozens
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of telescopes on the ground and in space. Physicist Bhopal Deb
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from Washington University in St. Louis used the observations
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of the merger, identified as GW170817, to derive new
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constraints on hypothetical axion-like particles.
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These particles have never been directly observed. But they do
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appear in many extensions of the standard model of particle
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physics, the foundations of science's understanding of the
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universe. You see, axions and axion-like particles are the
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leading candidates for dark matter, the invisible substance
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that makes up 85% of the entire mass of our universe.
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Even though we can't see dark matter and scientists have no
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idea what it is, they know it must exist because they can see
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its influence on ordinary, so-called baryonic matter, the
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stuff stars, planets, houses, trees, dogs, cats, cars and
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people are made out of. They can see how dark matter holds
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galaxies together as they rotate, preventing them from
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flinging apart.
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Deb says scientists have good reason to suspect that new
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physics beyond the standard model might be lurking just
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around the corner inside the collision of neutron stars. You
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see, when two neutron stars merge, a hot, dense remnant is
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formed for a brief period of time, and this remnant is an
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ideal breeding ground for exotic particle production.
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Deb says the remnant gets much hotter than the individual stars
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for about a second before settling down to form either a
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bigger neutron star or collapsing entirely to form a
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black hole, depending on the initial masses. But these new
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particles could quietly escape the debris of the collision and,
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far away from their source, they might decay into known particles
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like photons.
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Devon colleagues have shown how these escaped hypothetical
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particles could give rise to unique electromagnetic signals
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that could be detected by gamma-ray telescopes such as
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NASA's Fermi. The authors analyzed spectral and temporal
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information from these hypothetical electromagnetic
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signals and determined that they could distinguish the signals
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from other known astrophysical background events.
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They then used real Fermi data on GW1708-17 to derive new
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constraints on the axion-photon coupling as a function of axion
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mass. Their findings, reported in the journal Physical Review
00:06:29
Letters, suggest that these astrophysical constraints are
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complementary to other studies coming from laboratory
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experiments, such as those probing a different region of
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axion parameter space.
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The authors say that in future, scientists could use existing
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gamma-ray space telescopes like Fermi, or proposed gamma-ray
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missions like the Advanced Particle Astrophysics Telescope,
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to take other measurements during neutron star collisions,
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and help improve on their understanding of these
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hypothetical axion-like particles.
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That's if they exist, of course. This is Space Time. Still to
00:07:03
come, new computer simulations suggest that rocky Earth-like
00:07:07
planets are likely to come with their own Jovian-like
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bodyguards. And Beijing says it'll have taikonauts walking on
00:07:14
the Moon before the end of the decade. All that and more still
00:07:18
to come on Space Time.
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website. And now, it's back to our show. You're listening to
00:09:34
Space Time with Stuart Gary.
00:09:38
A new computer study looking at exoplanetary systems has found
00:09:42
that terrestrial Earth-like planets are often found in
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systems which also host Jovian-like gas giants. The
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findings, reported in the journal Astronomy And
00:09:51
Astrophysics, are based on simulations that track the
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evolution of planetary systems over several billion years.
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The study's lead author Martin Schlecker from the Max Planck
00:10:00
Institute detected the arrangement of rocky, gaseous
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and icy planets in planetary systems around sun-like stars,
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saying it's apparently not random and depends only on a few
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initial conditions.
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He says it seems planetary systems which produce
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super-Earths with low water and gas content in their inner
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regions very often also form a planet comparable with Jupiter
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on a more outer orbit. These gas giants are thought to help keep
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potentially dangerous objects away from inner regions.
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Schlecker calls these Jupiter-Like planets cold
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Jupiters. That's because they grow at a distance from their
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central star where water exists in the form of ice. And he calls
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Earth-like planets in his simulation super dry Earths
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because they tend to be rocky worlds larger and more massive
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than the Earth which have only a very thin atmosphere and hardly
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any water or ice.
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They populate the inner more temperate regions of a planetary
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system and they're generally very similar to the Earth except
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for their size. Also, Schlecker points out that the Earth,
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despite the enormous oceans and polar regions the planet has,
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really only has a volume fraction for water of just
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0.12%, meaning that it is really a dry planet.
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His findings are based on a statistical evaluation of new
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simulations of a thousand planetary systems that have been
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evolving in protoplanetary disks around sun-like stars. He ran
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the simulations for the equivalent of several billion
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years.
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The authors started with random initial conditions for the
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masses of gas and solid matter in the systems, the size of the
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disk, and the position of the seed cells for the new planets.
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They then tracked the life cycles of these systems as they
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evolved.
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During the simulations, the planetary embryos all collected
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material and grew into proper planets. They changed their
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orbits, some collided, others were ejected out from the
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system. The simulated planetary systems all eventually wound up
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with planets of different sizes, masses and compositions, and all
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on different orbits around their central stars.
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These simulations were then compared to observations of real
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exoplanetary systems. Schlecker says that about 30% of real
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planetary systems in which super-Earths are formed also
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appear to have a cold Jupiter. The trouble is these simulated
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planetary systems couldn't confirm this trend.
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In fact, only a third of all cold Jupiters were accompanied
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by at least one super-Earth. And only 10% of simulated systems
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that contained a super-Earth also contained a cold Jupiter.
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In other words, the simulation showed that both super-Earths
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and cold Jupiters are only slightly more likely to occur
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together in a planetary system than if they appeared
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separately.
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A possible explanation for this could involve the rate at which
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gas planets gradually migrate inwards. Planetary formation
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theory seems to predict higher rates than observed, leading to
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an increased accumulation of gas giants on orbits of intermediate
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distance.
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In the simulations, these, let's call them warm Jupiters,
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interfere with the inner orbits, causing more super-Earths to be
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either ejected or collide. However, with a slightly lower
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programmed tendency of simulated gas planets to migrate, more
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super-Earths would remain, which is more comparable with
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real-life observations.
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Based on these findings, the authors developed a scenario
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that could explain the formation of these quite different types
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of planetary systems. They conclude that in disks with a
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medium amount of mass, there's simply not enough material in
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the inner warm regions to produce super-Earths.
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At the same time, the amount is also too small in the outer
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parts beyond the snow line, that 's where water is present in
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frozen form, and so the proportion of ice chunks there
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is quite large.
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So instead the material there condenses into super-Earth with
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a large proportion of ices with a possible extended gas
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envelope. These super-Earths then gradually migrate inwards.
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Now, in contrast, there's usually enough material in
00:14:04
massive disks to form both Earth-like rocky planets with
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poor ice and gas and moderate distances from the central star,
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and also form cold gas giants like Jupiter beyond the snow
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line.
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Outside the orbit of cold Jupiter, ice-rich super-Earths
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can form, but their migration in the radial direction is limited
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by the influence of the gas giants. Therefore, they can't
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enter the inner warm zone. Sound familiar?
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Hi there, Martin Schlecker from MPIA in Heidelberg. I'm a PhD
00:14:36
student with Hubert Klar and Thomas Henning, and I study
00:14:40
exoplanet demographics using planet population synthesis.
00:14:45
In the work I'm presenting, we study the relations between
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inner super-Earth and outer giant planets that live in the
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same system. And we were wondering, is there a difference
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in the composition of a super-Earth when there's a cold
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Jupiter in the system compared to when there's none?
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We found that indeed there is such a difference And it lies on
00:15:09
the properties of the protoplanetary disk in which the
00:15:12
planets have formed.
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In a nutshell...
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If you have a moderately massive disk, 100 Earth masses or so, We
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see that primarily icy cores form just beyond the ice line.
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They migrate to detectable distances and we end up with
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systems of volatile rich super-Earths of low bulk
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density. No giants are formed.
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If you have on the other hand a rather massive disk, several
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hundreds of Earth masses or more, you can form planetary
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cores further in and then migrate inwards to become dry
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super-Earths. But the conditions are also right to form giant
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planets further out. And they prevent icy cores from migrating
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inwards. In this case we get high density super Earths in the
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inner system plus a distant giant planet.
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From this follows a testable prediction. If you find an inner
00:16:04
super-Earth with a high density, you're more likely to find a
00:16:09
cold Jupiter in the same system as well.
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That's the study's lead author, Martin Schlecker, from the Max
00:16:14
Planck Institute in Germany. And this is Space Time. Still to
00:16:19
come, China says it left astronauts walking on the Moon
00:16:22
before the end of the decade. And later in the Science Report,
00:16:26
a new study has found a link between extreme heat conditions
00:16:30
and the likelihood of having a preterm birth. All that and more
00:16:34
still to come on Space Time.
00:16:51
Beijing says it'll achieve a manned Moon landing before 2030.
00:16:57
It says central to their efforts is the development of a new
00:17:00
super rocket, the Long March 10, which is being specially
00:17:03
designed to carry spacecraft and landers into lunar orbit.
00:17:07
The new rocket will use combinations of liquid hydrogen,
00:17:10
liquid oxygen and kerosene as propellants. Now, alongside the
00:17:14
Long March 10, Beijing's also continuing development work on
00:17:18
both the Menju Man spacecraft and the Lan Yu lunar lander.
00:17:23
Beijing's current plans involve launching two Long March 10
00:17:26
rockets.
00:17:27
One will carry the spacecraft, the other the lunar lander. The
00:17:31
two vehicles will rendezvous in lunar orbit. Once in orbit, the
00:17:35
spacecraft and lander will dock, allowing Tarkinauts to transfer
00:17:39
to the lander for the descent down to the lunar surface.
00:17:42
And like their American counterparts, Beijing says
00:17:45
they're also developing a new type of spacesuit for use on the
00:17:48
lunar surface. China's already announced plans for the
00:17:52
development of a joint lunar base with the Russians, which
00:17:54
will be situated near the Moon's south pole. This is Space Time.
00:18:12
And time now to take another brief look at some of the other
00:18:14
stories making use in science this week with the Science
00:18:17
Report.
00:18:19
Scientists have discovered tiny plastic fragments known as
00:18:22
microplastics in the plaques of more than half of clogged artery
00:18:26
patients they've examined. A report in the New England
00:18:29
Journal Of Medicine claims the authors examined 257 patients
00:18:33
with carotid artery disease.
00:18:35
That's where fatty clumps called plaques form in the arteries.
00:18:39
They've found microplastic polyurethane in the artery
00:18:42
plaques of some 150 of the patients. That equates to 58.4%.
00:18:47
Thank you. Other microplastics, including polyvinyl chloride,
00:18:50
were found in the plaques of a further 31 patients, or 12.1%.
00:18:55
Using powerful microscopes, the authors could see the jagged
00:18:59
fragments of plastic among the fatty plaques. Following up
00:19:03
patients for 34 months, the authors found the plastics
00:19:07
appeared to increase the risk of heart attack, stroke or death
00:19:10
compared to patients who didn't have any plastics in their
00:19:12
system.
00:19:15
Scientists say they've found a link between being exposed to
00:19:18
extreme heat while pregnant and the likelihood of having a
00:19:21
preterm birth. Yet amazingly, the same study also showed that
00:19:26
simply being around green spaces, or greenness in general,
00:19:29
might mitigate the negative effects of the heat.
00:19:32
The findings, reported in the Journal Of The American Medical
00:19:35
Association, involved investigations of over 1.2
00:19:39
million babies born in Sydney. The authors found extreme heat
00:19:43
exposure during the third trimester had the strongest link
00:19:46
to having a preemie. But by looking how green the area was
00:19:51
in which the women were living, the authors say these
00:19:53
associations could be somewhat mitigated by living in a greener
00:19:57
district.
00:19:59
New research warns that the first half of 2024 is likely to
00:20:03
see many areas of the world experience record-breaking
00:20:06
average surface air temperatures because of the influence of El
00:20:09
Nino. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports,
00:20:13
says coastal areas in Asia such as the Bay Of Bengal and the
00:20:16
South China Sea, as well as Alaska, the Caribbean Sea and
00:20:20
the Amazon, are especially susceptible.
00:20:23
They say this impending warmth heightens the risk of year-round
00:20:27
marine heatwaves and also escalates the threat of
00:20:30
wildfires and other negative consequences in Alaska and the
00:20:33
Amazon Basin.
00:20:36
Well, it seems enthusiasts have now compiled a list of what they
00:20:39
say are the 10 most haunted bodies of water in the world.
00:20:44
Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptic says the list ranges
00:20:47
from a pearly northern Queensland through to the
00:20:49
Bermuda Triangle and Loch Ness, but also includes lots of places
00:20:54
you've never heard of.
00:20:55
The list of the 10 most haunted bodies of water in the world is
00:20:57
a classic, what we call listicles, like an article which
00:21:00
is based on a list. Everyone likes a list. Everyone likes a
00:21:03
top list.
00:21:03
I love the lists.
00:21:04
Yeah, and so listicles appear all the time. It's a sure way of
00:21:07
trying to get a, you put it on your cover and you're trying to
00:21:09
get a following. Bodies of water in this... Context for the most
00:21:13
haunted is a variable term from a pool in northern Queensland,
00:21:18
and that's the only Australian entry to it, to the Bermuda
00:21:20
Triangle, which is a huge stretch of water in the ocean.
00:21:23
Bodies of water covers a multitude of sins. Okay, the
00:21:26
number 10 in this is the Devil's Pool in Australia, where in
00:21:29
Aboriginal legend, a Romeo and Juliet type situation, and the
00:21:33
woman leapt into the pool and said to her boyfriend, follow
00:21:36
me, and he was killed, and her ghost made you heard as you
00:21:39
passed by the Devil's Pool.
00:21:40
A lot of other people have slipped in. Apparently it's a
00:21:42
bit dangerous. A lot of slippery rocks and things have fallen in
00:21:45
and got caught underwater. Often they don't reappear. Some
00:21:47
reappear, some don't. Dead. The suggestion is they're caught
00:21:50
under rocks and things. Prone to flash flooding. So you can be
00:21:53
standing by the rocks and suddenly whoosh, you're washed
00:21:55
in.
00:21:56
This is somewhere in northern Queensland.
00:21:57
Yeah, northern Queensland. Number nine is the Bermuda
00:21:59
Triangle, which this article says, there is no explanation
00:22:02
for what occurs in the Devil's Triangle. As much as scholars
00:22:06
try to find a logical explanation for lost ships or
00:22:09
crew, in many instances, what happened out at sea remains a
00:22:12
mystery.
00:22:12
Well, naturally, if a boat disappears and they haven't told
00:22:15
anyone, that's a mystery. But there'll probably be
00:22:16
explanations for everything that happens in the Bermuda Triangle.
00:22:18
It's no more dangerous than any other area regarding...
00:22:22
Considering how much traffic there is in the area and also
00:22:24
how much illicit traffic there is in that area because there's
00:22:26
a lot of drug smuggling and people smuggling through there.
00:22:28
But they say the Bermuda Triangle is one of the best sort
00:22:31
of haunted bodies of water. There's another one called Chook
00:22:34
Lagoon, C-H-U-U-K, in Micronesia, which is little
00:22:38
islands up in the sort of Pacific. They featured a lot in
00:22:40
the Second World War.
00:22:41
And this was supposed to be a fleet of Japanese ships in a
00:22:45
lagoon. The Americans found out, bonded, all the ships sank.
00:22:48
Biggest site of wrecks. ...in the world that a lot of scuba
00:22:51
divers and things like to go and visit. That was in 1945, and the
00:22:54
people said they can still hear the voices of the Japanese
00:22:57
sailors and Japanese crew on these ships after they sank.
00:23:00
And it says that the fact that there are... Skeletal remains at
00:23:03
the bottom of the lagoon. It's no wonder that he's one of the
00:23:05
most haunted bodies of water in the world. I've been trying to
00:23:07
do some research as to how long skeletons last underwater. And
00:23:10
if it's very cold water, they can last a fair while.
00:23:13
The bodies tend to get eaten pretty quickly, and the skeleton
00:23:15
might last longer. In the hot water, which is this with
00:23:18
Micronesia, that's pretty much on the equator. The skeleton
00:23:21
might last a few years. I would suggest... Decades, but since
00:23:24
1945, how many years is that? That's 50, 70, 80 years. You're
00:23:28
very unlikely to find anything left of a skeleton.
00:23:30
You might find little bits and pieces. If you're an
00:23:32
archaeologist or a paleontologist or something, you
00:23:34
might find something of interest. But generally
00:23:36
speaking, you're not going to go down to these wrecks and find
00:23:38
bodies, skeletons with their skulls with their mouths open
00:23:41
looking really scary.
00:23:42
Animals, tide, composition of the water is going to sort of
00:23:45
take away the skeletons pretty much entirely. So making a
00:23:48
statement like that is as bad as saying that the Bermuda Triangle
00:23:51
hasn't been solved. It has been. White Rock Lake in Texas is
00:23:55
another place that can't be used for swimming again. It's like
00:23:57
the Devil's Pool in Queensland.
00:23:59
They've sort of fenced it off because it's a dangerous bit of
00:24:01
water. That doesn't stop people going in, and some people will
00:24:04
drown. Suppose a young woman dressed in white haunts this
00:24:07
body of water, and people have said she's still around and
00:24:10
making things uncomfortable for people, including soaked from
00:24:12
head to foot.
00:24:13
Oh, it's like the Wakers Parkway ghost.
00:24:15
The Wakers Parkway ghost? It's like the Central Coast ghost up
00:24:19
near the top of Terrigal.
00:24:21
Oh, there's one at the Citroën.
00:24:23
Oh, that's been around for ages. Okay.
00:24:24
I heard one the other day. Apparently there's a ghost that
00:24:27
haunts Macquarie Fields Railway Station in Sydney South.
00:24:31
Does it hop in the back of cars?
00:24:32
No, it sits between the railroad tracks after the last train of
00:24:37
the night has departed. What train? Yeah. Not in a carriage.
00:24:41
On the tracks.
00:24:42
On the tracks itself.
00:24:43
It's White Rock Lake, Wilman. Smoking wet because she's been
00:24:46
in the water, obviously standing by the side of the road saying,
00:24:48
can you give me a lift? People stop to give her a lift and say,
00:24:50
where do you want to go? And they turn around and she's not
00:24:52
there anymore, but the seat's wet.
00:24:55
It's like a lot of urban myth, the vanishing hitchhiker and all
00:24:58
this sort of stuff.
00:24:58
Yeah, and the sound of tapping and, yeah.
00:25:00
Tapping on the roof is just the killer on the roof smashing the
00:25:04
head of the boyfriend on the roof of the car. Yep. Manchac
00:25:07
Swamp in Louisiana, again with Native Americans'involvement.
00:25:10
Someone has drowned there. Julia Brown is hanging around the
00:25:13
water there.
00:25:14
Americans went through it and destroyed town on the day of her
00:25:16
funeral, and therefore the people are regarded as cursed.
00:25:20
Gardner Lake, Connecticut. It's just a weird one. People on one
00:25:23
side of the lake decided they wanted to move their house
00:25:25
across to the other side of the lake. I'm not quite sure it's a
00:25:27
nice view. Who knows? So... In typical American innovative
00:25:31
style.
00:25:31
Pick it up, put it on the barge.
00:25:33
They put it on the barge and tried to push it across the
00:25:34
frozen lake during winter, obviously. Okay. And that's a
00:25:37
quick way of getting it across. You just sort of, wee, skate.
00:25:40
Unfortunately, surprise, it broke through the...
00:25:42
The ice wasn't thick enough.
00:25:43
No, to carry a house, yeah. Whoops. And they broke through
00:25:47
and the thing fell to the bottom of the water and there's the
00:25:49
piano. The furniture was all in the house. The story goes. I
00:25:51
have seen photos of the house sinking, actually. Obviously, it
00:25:53
didn't sink very quickly. It could get out there with a
00:25:56
camera.
00:25:56
You'd think it'd be made of wood so it would float.
00:25:58
Maybe it didn't sink. Entirely, but that hasn't stopped a good
00:26:01
story from being made about it.
00:26:02
And they can what? They can still hear the piano playing at
00:26:04
night?
00:26:05
They can still hear the piano playing, yeah. It's cool, isn't
00:26:07
it? I like that one. Okay. Mantenita Beach in Oregon. I
00:26:10
don't know how well Oregon is sort of set up for beaches, but
00:26:12
never mind.
00:26:12
It's great for Bigfoot, or is that Bigfeet?
00:26:15
Bigfoots.
00:26:15
Bigfoots, yeah.
00:26:16
Sasquatch. Yeah. Sasquatches. Mantenita Beach in Oregon.
00:26:20
Shipwreck sailors. Spanish sailors. Going up that side of
00:26:22
the American coast shipwreck, hiding their treasure, because
00:26:25
they had a lot of treasure on the boat, so they carried it up
00:26:27
the shore, killed someone, they buried the treasure and put the
00:26:30
body on top of it to try and discourage anyone trying to rob
00:26:32
their treasure, and disappeared.
00:26:34
So basically the treasure is supposed to be still there.
00:26:37
People find piles of rocks stacked down on the beach in the
00:26:40
dawn and no one's seen them, so they put it up there. Number
00:26:42
three is Okika's World Japan, which is a world that someone
00:26:44
who didn't like being hooked up with, someone she particularly
00:26:47
didn't like, so she threw herself down a well and her
00:26:49
voice could be heard.
00:26:50
I can relate to that, yeah.
00:26:51
Yeah, I can relate to that too. Then a samurai came out and then
00:26:54
a priest came out later on. This was a long time ago, supposedly.
00:26:59
He came out and he sort of quietened her cries because it's
00:27:03
something to do with valuable plates and they're going to
00:27:05
blame it on this girl or something like that.
00:27:07
Something weird. Number two, Loch Ness. Now, I have to point
00:27:11
out that I don't think Loch Ness is haunted. Put aside Nessie,
00:27:14
the Loch Ness monster, for which there is no convincing evidence,
00:27:17
well, it depends on who you are, I suppose, if it's convincing or
00:27:19
not.
00:27:19
See, I would have thought this would have been number one.
00:27:21
I would have thought it would be pretty good, actually. But the
00:27:23
thing is that Loch Ness, some people suggest that Nessie is a
00:27:26
paranormal beast, not a real thing, and that would be sort of
00:27:29
haunted-ish, but it's not really haunted. It's more just
00:27:32
phenomena and a strange creature. I think most people
00:27:35
who are saying there's a monster in the lake think it's a real
00:27:38
creature.
00:27:39
Yeah, they're thinking cryptozoology as opposed to
00:27:41
spirituality.
00:27:43
I think so, yeah. A real thing, not a ghost. I don't know if
00:27:46
that one qualifies.
00:27:47
A real made-up thing, not an imaginative thing.
00:27:51
I think this is in the list of number two because it's a
00:27:53
well-known bit of water, not because necessarily it's
00:27:55
haunted. We'll put that one to one side and go to number one.
00:27:58
There's a castle there. Is that supposed to be haunted? It
00:28:00
wasn't the castle.
00:28:01
It was a castle. Yeah. Which I've been to several times. I
00:28:04
don't know. It's pretty open. It 's pretty much a ruin. I don't
00:28:06
know if there's a place for a ghost to hang around there,
00:28:08
actually.
00:28:09
There'd be spirits there, but they're of the type that used to
00:28:11
be in bottles.
00:28:12
Ah, boom, boom. Because it is in Scotland. They're bound to be in
00:28:14
Scotland, yeah. You know, there 's another monster down in Loch
00:28:18
Morag, which is down the road from Loch Ness?
00:28:19
Yes, yes. Most Scottish lochs have a creature in them.
00:28:22
Yeah, but people ignore that because, you know, Loch Ness is
00:28:24
more famous.
00:28:25
Well, that's the one you want to go to, yeah.
00:28:26
They go to Loch Ness and don't see it there. Okay, number one,
00:28:29
Lower Yellowstone Falls in Wyoming. As you can see, a lot
00:28:33
of these things are in America, so... The international
00:28:36
component doesn't get a big look in. So anyway, the group of
00:28:38
explorers being led through Yellowstone, not the national
00:28:42
park, it wasn't then, by an Indian Native American guide.
00:28:45
They're looking, trying to find gold. Local Native Americans
00:28:49
decide to come to the camp and they steal their horses. And
00:28:52
when the explorers wake up and find the horses gone, they then
00:28:55
start looking for this tribe of people who stole their horses.
00:28:57
And they see them at the top of the falls, these Lower
00:29:00
Yellowstone Falls, and they're trying to cross. However, the
00:29:03
current proved too strong and they were unable to cross on
00:29:06
their raft. I don't know why they're crossing on a raft with
00:29:08
horses at the top of a waterfall. It doesn't seem very
00:29:11
likely. You'd go further across when it slows down a bit.
00:29:14
I think so.
00:29:15
And they fall off. And they obviously were never heard from
00:29:18
again. But they were heard. They were singing their death songs
00:29:21
as they fell down.
00:29:22
You're missing the Lorelei on the Rhine River. There are so
00:29:26
many that are missing because of this American-Centric listicle.
00:29:29
Yeah, American-Centric listicles is a common genre. I've seen the
00:29:33
most haunted hotels in the world, and about one of them is
00:29:36
not in the listicle. And you think, oh, God.
00:29:38
A lot of them have exactly the same theme. A girl or people die
00:29:42
there and their spirit haunts the place. That seems to be it.
00:29:45
Yeah, it's the little mermaid theory.
00:29:47
That's Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics.
00:30:06
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