SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 36
*The Precise Mass of Neutron Stars Unveiled
Astronomers have pinpointed the exact upper mass limit for non-rotating neutron stars, providing a critical piece to the puzzle of black hole evolution. The study, detailed in Physical Review D, reveals that the heaviest non-rotating neutron stars weigh about 2.25 solar masses. This breakthrough in nuclear physics and astrophysics could refine our understanding of the stellar life cycle and the transition from neutron stars to black holes.
*Japan's Aspirations for Private Spaceflight Go Up in Smoke
Japan's first privately operated space launch provider, Space One, faced a fiery setback as its new solid-fuel rocket exploded seconds after liftoff. The ill-fated Karaos rocket, carrying a government test satellite, disintegrated over the Wakayama region, underscoring the harsh realities of space exploration. The incident highlights the challenges faced by emerging private space companies in the competitive launch market.
*NASA's PACE Satellite Embarks on a Climate Odyssey
NASA's PACE satellite has successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to begin its mission of monitoring Earth's changing oceans and atmosphere. The $948 million mission will utilize hyperspectral imaging to study the planet's plankton, aerosols, clouds, and ocean ecosystems with unprecedented detail. PACE aims to enhance weather predictions, track climate change, and uncover the intricate balance of our global environment.
*Dark Matter Data Retrieved from the Stratosphere
NASA's mission to map dark matter around galaxy clusters has been salvaged thanks to an innovative data recovery system from the University of Sydney. Despite a rough landing in Argentina that damaged the balloon-based telescope, the system successfully retrieved over 200GB of valuable data. This mission underscores the innovative approaches to overcoming the challenges of high-altitude astronomical research.
Plus, we delve into the story of how climate change is affecting polar bears, the decline in humpback whale populations, and the origins of chocolate as revealed by ancient vessels. And we explore the curious case of the "alien mummies" that turned out to be quite earthly in origin.
For more SpaceTime and show links, visit https://spacetimewithstuartgary.com and access our universal listen link at https://spacetimewithstuartgary.com/listen. Don't forget to support the show at https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-with-stuart-gary--2458531/support and follow us for more space and astronomy updates at our HQ at https://bitesz.com.
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This is Space Time, Series 27, Episode 36, for broadcast on the
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22nd of March, 2024. Coming up on Space Time, Measuring the
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exact mass of the biggest neutron stars. A new Japanese
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orbital rocket explodes seconds after launch. And downloading
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NASA's dark matter data from above the clouds. All that and
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more coming up on Space Time.
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Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Gary.
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Thank you.
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Astronomers have measured the exact upper mass limit of a
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non-rotating neutron star, a finding that will allow
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scientists to better understand the physics and evolution of
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black holes. The observations reported in the Journal Physical
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Review D showed that the largest non-rotating neutron stars have
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masses of around 2.25 times that of our Sun.
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This provides a pivotal aspect in the study of nuclear physics
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and astrophysics. The ultimate fate of any star is
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intrinsically linked to its mass. Stars with less than 8
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solar masses, with cores less than 1.44 solar masses, the
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so-called Chandrasekhar limit, end their life cycle as white
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dwarfs.
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That's where our Sun will wind up. They're supported from
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further collapse by electron degeneracy pressure, where the
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Pauli exclusion principle prevents identical fermions from
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occupying the same quantum state at the same time.
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However, more massive stars can crush through this electron
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degeneracy pressure limit, crushing the negatively charged
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electrons into the positively charged protons to form
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neutrons.
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But debate still exists around the mass limit, where stars can
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crush down beyond the neutron star stage to become
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stellar-mass black holes. This involves a process called
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neutron degeneracy. It produces an extremely compact star
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composed of nuclear matter, which is predominantly a
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degenerate neutron gas with a small admixture of degenerate
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proton and electron gases.
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The measurements made by scientists from the Purple
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Mountain Observatory showed that the maximum gravitational mass
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of a non-rotating neutron star was approximately 2.25 solar
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masses, with an uncertainty of just 0.07 solar masses.
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What it means is that for stars heavier than 8 but lighter than
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25 solar masses, neutron stars will be produced when they die,
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which are prevented from further collapse by neutron degeneracy
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pressure.
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For non-rotating neutron stars, there's also a critical
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gravitational mass known as the Oppenheimer limit, above which a
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neutron star will collapse further, eventually forming a
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stellar-mass black hole. But establishing a precise
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Oppenheimer limit has been challenging.
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Three diverse equations of state reconstruction models were
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employed to mitigate potential systematic errors, yielding
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almost identical results for critical gravitational mass and
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the corresponding radius, which by the way is 11.9 km, with an
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uncertainty of 0.6 km in these three independent equations of
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state reconstruction approaches.
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The precise evaluation of the critical gravitational mass
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carries profound implications for both nuclear and
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astrophysics.
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It indicates a moderately stiff equation of state for neutron
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star matter and suggests that compact objects with masses in
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the range of 2.5 to 3 solar masses, which have already been
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detected by LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave
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observatories, are more likely to be small stellar-mass black
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holes rather than heavy neutron stars.
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The authors claim that the merger remnants of binary
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neutron star systems exceeding a total mass of roughly 2.76 solar
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masses would collapse into black holes. While lighter systems
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would result in the formation of supermassive neutron stars.
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This is Space Time. Still to come, a new Japanese rocket
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explodes seconds after launch, and NASA's new climate satellite
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blasts into orbit. All that and more still to come on Space
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Time.
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Thank you.
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A company hoping to become Japan 's first privately operated
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space launch provider has just learnt what the famous
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expression really means when they say space is hard.
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Tokyo-based Space One has suffered a spectacular failure
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with its new solid fuel rocket exploding just seconds after
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launch.
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The 18-metre-tall Karyos rocket blasted off from the coast of
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Wakayama region of western Japan carrying a small government test
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satellite when it suddenly blew apart, raining flaming wreckage
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and billowing smoke down into the remote mountainous terrain
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surrounding the launch pad.
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The company says it detected an issue and ordered the abort code
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to destroy the rocket, but it hasn't gone into any details as
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to what actually happened. The launch of the Karyos, an ancient
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Greek word meaning the right moment, had already been
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postponed five times due to technical issues and even a
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parts shortage problem.
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Last July, another Japanese rocket engine, the solid-fuelled
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Epsilon-S, exploded during a ground test around 50 seconds
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into the burn. The Epsilon-S is designed to be used as a
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strap-on booster on Japan's new next-generation H-III rocket,
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which had its first successful test flight last month from the
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Tanegashima Space Center at Kagoshima in southern Japan.
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The H-III is the successor to the H-IIA launch system, which
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debuted in 2001. It's designed to compete directly against
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SpaceX's Falcon 9 and could deliver cargo to bases on the
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moon.
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Last month's successful launch followed a launch abort exactly
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a year earlier, after an ignition failure left the rocket
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standing motionless on the pad. However, a second launch attempt
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a month later saw the H-3 explode in mid-air shortly after
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blast-off, with mission managers at JAXA, the Japanese Aerospace
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Exploration Agency, saying technical issues forced them to
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issue a self-destruct order.
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This is Space Time. Still to come, NASA's new climate
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satellite blasts off into space, and downloading NASA's dark
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matter data from above the clouds. All that and more still
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to come on Space Time.
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Thank you.
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NASA's new PACE climate satellite is successfully
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blasted into orbit on a mission to survey the oceans and
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atmosphere of a warming planet in never-before-seen detail.
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SpaceX launched the PACE satellite aboard a Falcon 9
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rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida.
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The $948 million spacecraft headed South over the Atlantic
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and into a polar orbit. PACE, which stands for Plankton,
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Aerosol, Cloud and Ocean Ecosystem Spacecraft, will spend
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the next three years studying the oceans and atmosphere from
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its 676-kilometre-high perch.
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Project scientist Jeremy Weddell says the probe will scan the
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globe daily, providing measurements that will give
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scientists an unprecedented view of the Earth. The observations
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will help scientists improve hurricane and severe weather
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warnings, it will detail Earth's changes as temperatures rise,
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and it will better predict when harmful algal blooms are likely
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to happen.
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Waddell says currently most Earth observation satellites can
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see in seven or eight different colors. However, PACE will be
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able to see in over 200 colors, allowing scientists to identify
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different types of algae in the sea and different kinds of
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particulate matter in the air.
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NASA already has more than two dozen Earth-observing satellites
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and instruments in orbit. But ACE is different because it
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provides better high-resolution data, including new insights
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into how atmospheric aerosols like pollutants and volcanic ash
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will interact with sea life like algae and plankton. This report
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from NASA TV.
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One Phytoplankton cannot do too much, but so many of them
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actually control everything that we have, our food, our air that
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we breathe, and our climate. They're just insanely important.
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I mean, there's many things that are important, but these are
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insanely important.
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Plankton generally doesn't really mean like a taxonomic
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group of things. We think about mammals and then plants and
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plankton are not that. Plankton are really defined by the way
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they live. Plankton means the wanderer in Greek. And these are
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just oceanic organisms that really just don't swim that
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fast. They can fight the ocean currents.
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It's a really non-traditional way of thinking about biology in
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a sense.
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Plankton, we can define Traditionally, in zooplankton,
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something that is kind of more animal-like, and Phytoplankton,
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something that is more plant-like. All Phytoplankton
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does processes that we call photosynthesis.
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To take carbon dioxide in carbon inorganic form, capture some of
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the sunlight, and then produce carbohydrates, or just simply
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said sugars, they now are carrying that Sun energy and
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push it into the food system of the ocean.
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And while they're doing all that stuff, they also produce the
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oxygen. So opposites from us. We inhale oxygen, exhale carbon
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dioxide. So that's why they're really important. That's why we
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love them so much. And that's why they're really crucial for
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the whole life on the Earth.
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Phytoplankton itself, its diversity is gigantic. I think
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there's like 10 species and each of them has a specific
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role.
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Why is there so much diversity in something that is so teeny
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tiny? It's fantasy, science fiction, and horror comes
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together. I mean, it's just so beautiful.
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Thank you.
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But there's certain type of Phytoplankton, coccolithophores,
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and specifically the most famous one is Emiliania huxleyi.
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But they take this inorganic carbon to make that something
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like a shell in which they live in. They're causing carbonate,
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which they make, which is pretty much chalk.
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They make it in a shape with these hubcaps. And if you think
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about how teeny tiny they are, they're like, you know, I don't
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know, I can put probably like 30 or 40 or 50 of them in the width
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of my hair.
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When they bloom, once they die, not only do they take that
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normal sugar carbon that they produce, but they also take that
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calcium carbon, that inorganic, that chalky material down to the
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bottom of the ocean.
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So they're really, really good for exporting carbon, removing
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it from this contact with the atmosphere, which is really
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important when it comes to the flow of carbon in the whole
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Earth ecosystem, but also control of the carbon in the
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atmosphere.
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So, Alexandrum is a very specific type of Phytoplankton.
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It's called a dinoflagellate. So, it's kind of like, maybe
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plant, maybe zooplankton, maybe animal, maybe it can be both,
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no? But one thing that it does, it makes this very, very, very,
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very powerful toxin. They're causing problems in Gulf Of
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Maine.
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Alexandrion, you don't have to have a lot. Actually really low
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numbers of Alexandrion can be present and produce really
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detrimental effect on humanity that feeds on this shellfish.
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So the changes of the color of the ocean due to the presence of
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this Phytoplankton are just so miniature, you know? We cannot
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see it with our eyes. But if we have sensitive instruments such
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as ocean color instruments on PACE, we're going to be able to
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differentiate not only because it's sensitive to the intensity,
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but it's also sensitive to the colors.
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Having this hyperspectral view with really high sensitivity. Is
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going to allow me to differentiate much, much more of
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the Phytoplankton because each of them, or at least each group,
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has its own optical patterns. It 's an optical fingerprint.
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We're hoping that PACE, due to its capabilities, is going to be
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able to really focus on specific species of interest, such as the
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harmful algal bloom species or species that are very beneficial
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for the growth of certain organisms.
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So this speciation is a function of the technical abilities that
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PACE has, but it's also, it's a function of our capabilities to
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understand the local ecosystem.
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And in that report from NASA TV, we heard from PACE science lead
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for ocean biogeochemistry, Yvonne Asetanik. This is Space
00:12:47
Time. Still to come, downloading NASA's dark matter data set from
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above the clouds, and later in the Science Report, a new study
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tells us where chocolate actually came from. All that and
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more still to come on Space Time.
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Data from a NASA mission to map dark matter around galaxy
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clusters had been saved thanks to a new recovery system
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designed by scientists at the University Of Sydney. The new
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system allowed the retrieval of gigabytes of information even
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after communications failed and the balloon-based telescope was
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badly damaged in the landing process.
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A report in the Journal Aerospace says the recovery was
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quite an adventure, involving a smashed telescope, a cougar
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scare and even the police. Back in April last year, Superbit,
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the super pressure balloon imaging telescope, was launched
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from New Zealand suspended under a helium-filled balloon the size
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of a sports stadium.
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It floated around the world high up in the stratosphere at least
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five and a half times for the next month or so, before
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eventually coming down to land in southern Argentina. However,
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the landing didn't go smoothly and the instrument package was
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badly damaged.
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The good news is that separately, two data recovery
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system packages, storing more than 200 gigabytes of super-bit
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data and information, were ejected to descend by parachute,
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landing safely, including a map of dark matter around galaxies
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and stunning photos of space. Dark matter is an invisible
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substance that makes up 85% of the entire matter in the
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universe.
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Scientists know it exists because they can see its
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interaction gravitationally with normal matter. But they have no
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idea what it is or how it works. Now, in a typical balloon-based
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mission like NASA's, data is downloaded by satellite.
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But scientists often need a line of sight communications network
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in order to download the data quickly, which isn't always
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efficient or even possible, especially when you're talking
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about the magnitude of data which this mission managed to
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achieve. And that's where the University Of Sydney's data
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recovery system came in. The system is composed of two small
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computers with SD cards to store data.
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There's also a homemade Find My Phone satellite link and of
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course the parachutes. It's all housed in firm enclosures and
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uses everyday objects such as chicken roasting bags to keep
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them waterproof. But it turns out the story of recovering
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these packages was a mission in itself.
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Local Argentinian police were called in to help scour the
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countryside and to retrieve the packages given the rough terrain
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where they landed. Now, at first the team couldn't find one of
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the data packets, and when they did finally find it, they found
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local cougar tracks in the snow next to it, suggesting that
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maybe a chicken roast bag wasn't the best idea.
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This is Spacetime.
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And time now to take another brief look at some of the other
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stories making use in science this week with the Science
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Report.
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A new study shows how climate change's effect on Arctic sea
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ice is forcing polar bears to find food on land, putting the
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apex predators at risk of starvation. The findings
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reported in the Journal Nature Communications involved
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scientists placing trackers on 20 polar bears to monitor their
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daily energy expenditure as well as changes in their weight, diet
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behaviour and movement.
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The authors found that the bears began using different strategies
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to reduce their energy loss now that there are more ice-free
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days. This includes fasting, slowing their movements, and
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eating berries and birds instead of their usual main diet source,
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which is seals. The authors also found that 19 of the 20 polar
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bears they studied lost significant mass during their
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investigation period, which lasted from 2019 to 2022.
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Scientists are warning that humpback whale numbers are
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crashing in the North Pacific Ocean. 20 years of whale
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watching data has shown that humpback whale numbers in the
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North Pacific Ocean have dropped by 20% in the 10 years between
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2012 and 2021.
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The findings, reported in the Journal of the Royal Society Of
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Open Science, says the drop is likely due to a severe marine
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heatwave which lasted from 2014 to 2016, which reduced food
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availability for humpbacks. The scientists say humpback whales
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could be an ecosystem indicator in the face of climate change.
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A new study says the modern-day cacao tree, its scientific name
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means food of the gods, was likely spread from the Amazon
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basin to other regions of South and Central America, probably
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along trade routes and at least 5 years ago. The findings,
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published in the Journal Scientific Reports, are based on
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the discovery of residues of chocolate in ancient vessels.
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This also showed scientists how different strains of the
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chocolate tree were bred, suggesting that cacao products
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were widely used among cultures of people in the region. They
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found high levels of diversity among the ancient strains, which
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they suggest means that genetically distinct populations
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of these trees were being bred together.
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Peru's Attorney General's office has slammed attempts to pass off
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two humanoid dolls that mysteriously turned up at Lima
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Airport back in October as the corpses of a pair of
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extraterrestrial humanoids. The so-called alien mummies were
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examined by medical experts and were found to have been
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fashioned from both human and animal parts.
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A separate three-fingered hand, believed to be from Peru's Nazca
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Region, was also analysed, with experts ruling out any
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connection with alien life. The pair had turned up at the Lima
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Airport office of DHL in a cardboard box and were made to
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look like mummified bodies dressed in traditional Andean
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attire.
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Forensic archaeologist Favio Estrada from the Institute Of
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Legal Medicine warned that this kind of pseudoscience was
00:19:01
distorting real Peruvian history. The dummies were very
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similar to another pair of allegedly extraterrestrial
00:19:08
remains, which were presented in glass cases to dignitaries at
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the Mexican Chamber Of Deputies by a local TV personality last
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September.
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The two tiny mummified bodies featured elongated heads and
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hands with three fingers. They were presented by journalist and
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UFO enthusiast Jamie Mousen, who claimed the bodies were about
00:19:27
1 years old and recovered from Cusco in 2017. Mousen
00:19:32
insisted that these specimens didn't belong to our terrestrial
00:19:35
evolution.
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He claimed DNA testing showed that over 30% of the samples had
00:19:40
unknown characteristics not found in any Earth-based
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species. However, experts later dismissed them as a fraud,
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possibly mutilated ancient human remains combined with animal
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parts, but certainly from Earth. Mouson has a bit of a reputation
00:19:55
as somewhat of a charlatan, who in 2017 made similar claims in
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Peru.
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Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics says it just goes to
00:20:03
show there's one born every minute.
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If we're in contact, obviously people have been searching for
00:20:08
bodies of aliens for some time, ever since the Roswell supposed
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crash of a UFO.
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They're all in Area 51, we know this.
00:20:16
They're all in Area 51 except for those that are in the
00:20:18
Vatican. Ah. And those that are elsewhere as well. But anyway,
00:20:22
so people have been looking for these bodies. Obviously, how
00:20:25
well preserved are they? And what's happened recently in...
00:20:28
Central and South America is that people have presented what
00:20:31
is supposedly bodies of aliens. One person last year presented
00:20:34
them to the Mexican parliament, brought them into parliament.
00:20:37
These are the ones that look like E.T., yeah. A little bit
00:20:38
like E.T., yeah. Hi, hello.
00:20:43
They're about as ventriloquist as a dummy type. Mm-hmm. They're
00:20:46
very, very thin, desiccated, a bit sort of snouty, big eyes,
00:20:50
scrawny legs and arms.
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Three fingers, three long fingers.
00:20:53
Three fingers as well. There's various things. They look a bit
00:20:56
like they're made out of papier-mâché, but that could be
00:20:58
desiccated skin, of course. No, they look like papier-mâché.
00:21:02
Others have actually also presented them...
00:21:03
Some were from Chile and others were from Peru, supposedly. Also
00:21:07
recently the Peruvian government, or at least a
00:21:10
representative of it, has said sort of, really, this is sort of
00:21:13
silly. What they found was that there has been some
00:21:15
investigation of the Peruvian ones, I think.
00:21:17
Yeah, the Peruvian coroner had a look at them and decided, yeah,
00:21:21
well, it's definitely got some animal bones in them.
00:21:23
They had wool as well, wool, polypropylene, rubber, tissue
00:21:26
fibres and glue. So none of these sound like particularly
00:21:30
alien ingredients. I think it'd be hard-pressed to believe that
00:21:33
they were true, especially when they dress them up in little
00:21:35
uniforms and things. I think they could be accused more of
00:21:37
having bad taste.
00:21:38
They look like someone was on a mariachi band in that sort of
00:21:41
clothing. But, yeah, it's a strange thing that people
00:21:44
believe in. Some of the objection that's come out,
00:21:47
especially from the Peruvians, is that such a theory of aliens
00:21:51
is denigrating the ability of the original inhabitants. Of the
00:21:55
area.
00:21:55
You know, suggesting that things like Machu Picchu and the Nazca
00:21:59
Plains and that sort of stuff have not been man-made, but
00:22:02
needed aliens to do them. It's sort of like saying, well, the
00:22:04
locals are pretty stupid. You needed extraterrestrials to help
00:22:07
you do these things. And from a cultural point of view, there's
00:22:10
an anti-alien view.
00:22:12
But from a scientific point of view, especially from a forensic
00:22:15
point of view, you'd think, they don't look that good. They look
00:22:19
a bit sort of overly clichéd and all the components of them are
00:22:24
definitely earthbound. So I think we can clearly say that
00:22:27
they are fakes, not necessarily very good fakes, and that anyone
00:22:31
who believes them should go away and have a cold shower.
00:22:33
That's Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics.
00:22:49
Thank you.
00:22:52
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