SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 40
*Magnetic Mysteries at the Milky Way's Heart
The Event Horizon Telescope has revealed organized magnetic fields swirling at the periphery of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's core. In a groundbreaking observation, astronomers have captured these fields in polarized light, finding remarkable similarities to the black hole in galaxy M87. This discovery suggests that strong magnetic fields could be a universal trait among black holes, influencing how they interact with their surrounding matter. The study's implications stretch far beyond the iconic Sagittarius A*, offering a glimpse into the enigmatic behavior of black holes and their powerful ejections into space.
*The Birth of Blue Supergiants Through Stellar Mergers
Blue supergiants, some of the universe's most luminous and massive stars, have long puzzled astronomers due to their abundance and solitary nature. A new study posits that these cosmic behemoths, often found alone, could be the result of binary star systems merging. This revelation, derived from simulations and observations in the Large Magellanic Cloud, challenges previous theories and suggests that stellar mergers play a pivotal role in the life cycle of galaxies and their stellar populations.
*Webb Telescope Unveils the Star-Forming Tendrils of NGC 604
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope peeks into NGC 604, a vibrant nursery of star formation within the Triangulum Galaxy, M33. Webb's infrared gaze has uncovered the intricate dance of star birth, highlighting massive blue stars and intricate gas filaments. This detailed view of NGC 604, a region teeming with over 200 massive stars, offers astronomers a rare opportunity to study these celestial giants at a critical stage in their evolution, providing new insights into the complex processes that shape galaxies.
*New Crew Arrives at the International Space Station
The Soyuz MS-25 mission has successfully delivered a trio of spacefarers to the International Space Station after an initial launch delay. The mission continues the tradition of international partnership in space, as the ISS remains one of the few collaborative ventures between Russia and the West amidst geopolitical tensions.
For more SpaceTime and to support the show, visit our website at https://spacetimewithstuartgary.com where you can access our universal listen link, find show notes, and learn how to become a patron. Listen to SpaceTime on your favorite podcast app with our universal listen link: https://spacetimewithstuartgary.com/listen and access show links via https://linktr.ee/biteszHQ. Support the show: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-with-stuart-gary--2458531/support. For more space and astronomy podcasts, visit our HQ at https://bitesz.com.
https://spacetimewithstuartgary.com https://bitesz.com This week’s guests include: WEBB senior Project Scientist Jane Rigby Josef Aschbacher, Director of ESA Earth Observation Programs Michael Rast, ESA’s Earth Observation Senior Advisor. And our regular guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics Jonathan Nally from Sky and Telescope Magazine
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This is Space Time, Series 27, Episode 40, for broadcast on the
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1st of April, 2024. Coming up on Space Time, the discovery of
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strong magnetic fields at the edge of the Milky Way's
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supermassive black hole. New studies show how blue
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supergiants can be formed through the merger of smaller
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stars and peering into the tendrils of a distant galaxy.
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All that and more coming up on Space Time.
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Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Gary.
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Thank you A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope's
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uncovered strong organised magnetic fields that are
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spinning around the edge of Sagittarius A Star, the
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supermassive black hole at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy.
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The new observations reported in the astrophysical Journal
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letters are seen in polarized light for the first time. The
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data shows that these magnetic fields in the monster lurking in
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the heart of the Milky Way galaxy are strikingly similar in
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structure to those found in the supermassive black hole at the
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center of the galaxy M87.
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And that suggests that strong magnetic fields may be common to
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all black holes. History was made in 2022 when astronomers
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unveiled the first ever direct image of the supermassive black
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hole Sagittarius A Star at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy.
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Until then, we knew it existed, but we never actually saw it.
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Sagittarius A Star has a mass roughly 4.3 million times that
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of our Sun.
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It's located 27 light-years away, and it's the pivot point
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around which our entire galaxy, including the Sun and Solar
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System, revolves. Yet despite its huge size, Sagittarius A
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Star is still more than a thousand times smaller and less
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massive than the supermassive black hole in M87, which was the
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first ever supermassive black hole imaged directly.
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The new observations show that with the exception of the size
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difference, the two look remarkably similar. And that
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made scientists wonder whether the two shared other common
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traits beyond their simple appearance. To find out, the
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authors decided to study Sagittarius A Star using
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polarised light.
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Previous studies of light around M87's supermassive black hole
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revealed that the magnetic fields around it allowed the
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black hole to launch powerful jets of material back into
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space. Depending on the angle you're viewing them, they're
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called quasars, blazars or active galactic nuclei. Now
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building on this work, the new images suggest that the same may
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be true for Sagittarius A-Star.
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One of the study's lead authors, Sarah Izoan from the
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Harvard-Smithsonian Center For Astrophysics, says that as well
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as Sagittarius A-Star having a strikingly similar polarization
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structure to that seen in the much larger and more powerful
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M87, astronomers have learned that strong and ordered magnetic
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fields are critical to how black holes interact with the gas and
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matter around them.
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Black holes are basically gravity wells. Anything that
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gets too close winds up being ripped apart and consumed by the
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black hole. But it doesn't happen all at once. Firstly, the
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material is torn apart by powerful gravitational forces,
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forming an accretion disk around the black hole just beyond a
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point of no return, called an event horizon.
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The material in the secretion disk is being further heated and
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ripped apart at the subatomic level, releasing huge amounts of
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energy in the form of X-rays. Most of this material will
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eventually pass beyond the event horizon, a point of no return,
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beyond which it falls forever towards the black hole's
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singularity.
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But a small fraction of material gets caught up in the black hole
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's magnetic fields, the very ones that have now been imaged.
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And these shoot that material out perpendicular to the event
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horizon, firing it deep into space, often at superluminal
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speeds. And these can be so bright, we see them on the other
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side of the universe, more than 13 billion light years away.
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Now, the reason the scientists in this study used polarised
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light is because of some of its unique properties. You see,
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light isn't oscillating or moving an electromagnetic wave.
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Sometimes the light oscillates in a preferred direction. We
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call that polarised. You'll get the same effect when you look at
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a plasma screen using sunglasses which have polarisation in them.
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Turn your head one way and the picture seems to disappear.
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That's because the light coming from the plasma screen is
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polarised. Now, you don't see the polarization without the
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sunglasses on because the human eyes aren't able to distinguish
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it from normal light. But in the plasma around these supermassive
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black holes, particles whirling around the magnetic field like
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lines impart a polarization pattern which is perpendicular
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to the field.
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And this allows astronomers to see in increasingly vivid
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details what's actually happening in the black holes
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regions, and that allows them to map the magnetic field lines. By
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imaging polarized light from hot glowing gas near the black hole,
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they're able to directly infer the structure and strength of
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the magnetic field lines which are threading through the flow
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of gas and matter that the black hole's feeding on and ejecting.
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Polarized light teaches science a lot about astrophysics,
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including the properties of gas and the mechanisms taking place
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as the black hole feeds. But imaging black holes in polarized
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light isn't as easy as simply putting on a pair of polarized
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sunglasses. And this has been especially true for Sagittarius
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A-Star, which is changing so fast, it simply doesn't sit
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still for pictures.
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Imaging Sagittarius A-Star required sophisticated tools
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above and well beyond those previously used for capturing
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M87, which was a much steadier target. To observe Sagittarius
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A-Star, the authors linked eight telescopes around the world, in
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the process creating a virtual Earth-sized telescope, which
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they've called the Event Horizon Telescope. This report from the
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Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration.
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Just over 100 years ago, Einstein showed how gravity
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could be imagined as a distortion of space-time. His
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equations revealed that an object small enough and massive
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enough could hide behind an event horizon, a point where
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gravity is so strong that not even light could escape.
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Astronomers now believe that these objects, known as black
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holes, exist. They inhabit the centers of almost all galaxies,
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where they can grow to be millions or billions of times
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the mass of our Sun. The Event Horizon Telescope, or EHT, is
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the first experiment designed to capture a black hole's image.
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In doing so, the EHT will test Einstein's theory of gravity at
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one of the most extreme places in the universe, the event
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horizon. The best chance we have of taking a picture of an event
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horizon is the supermassive black hole at the center of our
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own Milky Way.
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Though it is 4 million times as massive as our Sun, it is so far
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away that mapping its event horizon is equivalent to
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standing in New York and counting the individual dimples
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on a golf ball in Los Angeles.
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Gas falling towards this black hole heats up to billions of
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degrees, causing the event horizon to appear as a
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silhouette whose size and shape are predicted by Einstein's
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theory.
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It is best to observe this silhouette in light with a
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wavelength of about 1, where the gas glows most brightly and
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light can travel unimpeded from the center of the galaxy to
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telescopes on Earth.
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Close to the black hole, the light waves appear circular,
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like ripples in a pond. But by the time they reach Earth, they
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are essentially plane waves.
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Imaging a black hole at this wavelength requires a telescope
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as big as our planet. The EHT uses a global network of dishes
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to simulate a telescope of this size. Each dish collects and
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records radio waves coming from near the black hole. The data
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are then combined to create the image of the event horizon.
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This will only work, however, if the dishes are completely
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synchronized. To understand this, let's use the analogy of a
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mirror, such as in optical telescopes used for stargazing.
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Imagine the EHT formed from all the different array sites as one
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big parabolic mirror.
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The mirror is curved so that when a line of waves comes into
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the dish, they bounce off at specific angles and arrive at
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the focus at the same time. When the EHT sites are synchronized,
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their recordings can later be perfectly aligned in the same
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way that the mirror aligns the optical light.
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If the surface of the mirror is not stable, if it is vibrating
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for example, the reflected light rays will not combine properly
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at the focus.
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For the EHT, an unstable mirror surface is analogous to an
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unstable recording.
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To ensure stability, the EHT uses atomic clocks that would
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lose only one second every 100 million years.
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The amount of data recorded during observations is so large
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that it could never be transferred over the internet.
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Instead, the recordings are stored on hard disks and shipped
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back to a central facility for processing. There, a
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supercomputer combines the data from all the sites, staggering
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them during playback to account for the time difference between
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waves getting to each telescope.
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The resulting data can then be used to make images with extreme
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magnifying power. As more dishes join the EHT, and the more
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widely spaced they are, the sharper our image of the event
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horizon will be. In April 2017, the EHT coordinated observations
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of the Milky Way's central black hole using a global network of
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telescopes. The results transform our understanding of
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black holes, gravity, and even the universe.
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Because Sagittarius A-Star moved around while astronomers were
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trying to image it, it was difficult to construct even an
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unpolarised image. In fact, the first images were really an
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average of multiple images owing to Sagittarius A-Star's constant
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movement. The authors were relieved to find out that
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polarised imaging was even possible. Some models were far
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too scrambled and turbulent to construct a polarised image.
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But now, having achieved that, astronomers have a sample of two
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supermassive black holes, with very different masses and from
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very different host galaxies. Since both are pointing
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scientists towards strong magnetic fields, it suggests
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that this may be a universal and perhaps fundamental feature of
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these kinds of systems. And one of the similarities between
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these two specific supermassive black holes might be a jet.
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But while the team have imaged a very obvious jet in M87 Star,
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they're yet to find one in Sagittarius A Star. And the
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Event Horizon Telescope is slated to observe Sagittarius A
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Star again later this month. This is Space Time. Still to
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come, new studies show that blue supergiant stars can be formed
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through stellar mergers. And we peer into the tendrils of a
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distant galaxy. All that and more still to come on Space
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Time.
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A new study has found that some of the brightest, hottest and
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most luminous stars in the universe, spectral type B blue
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supergiants, can be created by the mergers of two less massive
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stars. These giants of the cosmos are at least 10 times
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more luminous and up to 5 times hotter than our Sun.
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And they have masses of between 16 and 40 times that of the Sun.
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Current astrophysics tells us that these are created during a
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very rapid phase of stellar evolution, and so they should be
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fairly rare. Yet when astronomers peer into the
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heavens, they see lots of them.
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Well, a new study reported in the Astrophysical Journal
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Letters claims that an important clue to their origin lies in the
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fact that most blue supergiants are actually observed as single
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stars, that is, they have no gravitationally bound
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companions. And the problem with that is, most stars in our
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galaxy are born in binary or multiple star systems.
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Our Sun is a rare exception to that rule. But that's another
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story. So why a blue supergiant single? Well, the answer,
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according to this new study, is that massive binary stellar
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systems merge to produce blue supergiants.
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The study's lead author, Athira Menon from the Institute Of
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Astrophysics in the Canary Islands, says the findings are
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based on computer model simulations combined with actual
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observational studies looking at 59 early spectral type E blue
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supergiants in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite
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galaxy orbiting our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
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By simulating the mergers of evolved giant stars with their
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smaller stellar companions over a wide range of parameters,
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taking into account the interaction and mixing of the
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two stars during the merger, they found the newly born stars
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live as blue supergiants during the second longest phase of a
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star's life. This is after it's left the main sequence and is
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burning helium in its core.
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The authors found that the stars born from such mergers have
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greater success in reproducing the surface composition,
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especially the nitrogen and helium enhancement, of a large
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fraction of observed sample stars compared to conventional
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stellar models. And this indicates that mergers may well
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be the dominant way to produce blue supergiants.
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The findings appear to provide a significant step forward in
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solving an old problem of how blue supergiants form, and
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indicates the important role of stellar mergers in the
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morphology of galaxies and their stellar populations.
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The next part of the study will attempt to explore how these
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blue supergiants explode into supernovae and contribute to the
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black hole and neutron star landscape of the universe. This
00:14:24
is Space Time. Still to come, peering into the tendrils of a
00:14:29
distant galaxy, and Moscow sends a new crew to the International
00:14:33
Space Station. All that and more still to come on Space Time.
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NASA's WEBB Space Telescope has provided astronomers with a new
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view of a spectacular star-forming region called NGC
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604, which is located deep inside M33, the Triangulum
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Galaxy. Located some 2.73 million light-years away, the
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Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy with a diameter of
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roughly 61 light-years.
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That makes it the third largest galaxy in our local galactic
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group behind the Andromeda galaxy M31 and our own galaxy
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the Milky Way. The Triangulum is thought to be a satellite galaxy
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of Andromeda, or possibly on its rebound into M31 due to their
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gravitational interactions, velocities and proximity to one
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another in the sky. It's also the smallest spiral galaxy in
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our local galactic group.
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Although both large and small Magellanic clouds were also once
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spiral galaxies, before becoming distorted by their encounters
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with the Milky Way. The new James WEBB observations of M33
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have revealed the structure known as NGC 604 to be a hotbed
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of star formation. The formation of new stars and the chaotic
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environments they inhabit is one of the most well-studied but
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also mystery-shrouded areas of cosmic investigation.
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Two new web images, using the observatory's near-infrared
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camera and mid-infrared instrument, are showing
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cavernous bubbles and stretched-out filaments of gas
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deep inside the nebula. It's providing a far more detailed
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and complete tapestry of star birth than previously seen.
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Sheltering among NGC 604'S dusty envelopes are more than 200 of
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the hottest, most massive stars known.
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These are spectral type O and B blue stars, some with masses
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over 100 times that of the Sun. It's actually quite rare to find
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such a huge concentration of these types of stars in the
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nearby universe. In fact, there 's no similar region that we've
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identified within our own galaxy.
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So, this concentration of massive stars, combined with
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their relatively close distance, means NGC 604 is giving
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astronomers a unique opportunity to study these objects at a
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fascinating time early in their life cycles. Based on the new
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observations, NGC 604 is estimated to be about half a
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million years old. Just a baby in astronomical terms. The
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massive cloud of glowing gases and dust is some 1 light
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years crossed.
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WEBB's also detected bright orange-colored streaks in the
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near-infrared image, signifying the presence of carbon-based
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molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. And this
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material plays an important role in the interstellar medium and
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in the formation both of stars and planets. But the origins of
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this molecule are still a mystery.
00:17:41
This report from NASA TV.
00:17:43
NASA's James WEBB Space Telescope. Has taken two new
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images of the star-forming region NGC 604, located in the
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Triangulum Galaxy, 2.7 million light-years away from Earth.
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Sheltered among these dusty envelopes of gas are more than
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200 of the hottest, most massive kinds of stars, all in the early
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stages of their lives. The largest of these stars can have
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more than 100 times the mass of our own Sun. Using WEBB's
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powerful near-infrared camera, called NIRCam, the most
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noticeable features are tendrils and clumps of bright red
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emission.
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Extending out from areas that look like clearings or large
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bubbles in the nebula. Stellar winds from the brightest and
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hottest young stars have carved out these cavities, while
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ultraviolet radiation ionizes the surrounding gas. This
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ionized hydrogen appears as a white and blue ghostly glow.
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As you travel further from the immediate clearings of dust, the
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deeper red signifies molecular hydrogen. This cooler molecular
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gas may be the fuel for future generations of stars that are
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forming.
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WEBB's Midenfred instrument, called MIRI, lets us see a new
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window into the diverse and dynamic activity of this region.
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In the MIRI view of NGC 604, there are noticeably fewer
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stars. This is because hot stars are much fainter at these
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wavelengths of light, while the large clouds of cooler gas and
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dust glow brightly.
00:19:20
Some of the stars seen in this image from the surrounding
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galaxy are red supergiants, stars with low surface
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temperatures that are very large, hundreds of times the
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diameter of our Sun.
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How stars are born and how they interact with their environments
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are two big questions in astronomy today that are
00:19:37
actively being studied with the WEBB Telescope. WEBB is showing
00:19:41
us parts of the story of star formation that we could never
00:19:44
see before, revealing more about the universe and our place in
00:19:48
it.
00:19:48
And in that report from NASA TV, we heard from WEBB Senior
00:19:51
Project Scientist Jane Rigby. This is Space Time. Still to
00:19:56
come, Moscow sends a new crew to the International Space Station,
00:20:00
and later in the Science Report, it's true, the music of today
00:20:04
really isn't as good as what it was 20, 30 or even 40 years ago.
00:20:09
I knew it. All that and more still to come on Space Time.
00:20:29
Three new crew members have arrived aboard the International
00:20:31
Space Station. Their Soyuz MS-25 capsule launched two days
00:20:35
earlier aboard a Soyuz-21A rocket from the Baikonur
00:20:39
Cosmodrome in the Central Asian Republic Of Kazakhstan. The
00:20:43
flight had been delayed by several days after mission
00:20:45
managers detected a voltage drop in a chemical power supply just
00:20:49
20 seconds before the initially planned liftoff, triggering a
00:20:52
launch abort.
00:20:53
Launch pad 6, site 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
00:20:56
Kazakhstan, where that Soyuz 2.1A booster stands fully fueled
00:21:01
once again, ready for launch to send an American astronaut, a
00:21:04
Roscosmos cosmonaut, and a spaceflight participant from
00:21:07
Belarus into orbit, this time on a two-day journey to reach their
00:21:11
destination, the International Space Station. ...National Space
00:21:13
Station.
00:21:13
The initial attempt to launch Soyuz MS-25 on Thursday was
00:21:17
scrubbed at the T-minus 22nd Mark when the automatic launch
00:21:21
sequencer cut off the countdown. The crew was never in any danger
00:21:24
as the Soyuz booster was safed, enabling the crew to be
00:21:27
extracted from the Soyuz within an hour. Engineers in Baikonur
00:21:31
determined that the cause of the scrub was a low voltage rating
00:21:34
in the booster's first stage electrical system.
00:21:37
Batteries were changed and retested Friday morning, setting
00:21:40
the stage for today's... Launch attempt. Three crew members
00:21:45
escorted to the stairs, the stairwell at the base of the
00:21:49
Soyuz 2.1A booster. They climbed a few stairs, waved goodbye to
00:21:54
well-wishers, and entered the elevator there for the ride to
00:21:58
the top of the Soyuz rocket to board their spacecraft, which
00:22:01
they've now been aboard for about two hours or so.
00:22:05
Auto sequence initiated.
00:22:07
Launch.
00:22:08
Second umbilical now retracting. Ignition. This initiates engine
00:22:12
start.
00:22:15
We now have engine ignition. Preliminary. Turbo pumps and
00:22:18
engines up to flight speed. Now at full throttle.
00:22:23
Engines at maximum thrust.
00:22:24
We have liftoff.
00:22:27
Dyson, Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya finally underway on
00:22:30
a two-day journey to the International Space Station.
00:22:34
Thank I don't know.
00:22:45
And we have third stage shutdown and third stage separation.
00:22:52
The command now will be given to deploy the Soyuz solar arrays.
00:22:58
That now underway.
00:23:01
And the solar arrays and navigational antennas have all
00:23:04
been deployed. Perfect ride to orbit for Tracy Dyson, Oleg
00:23:08
Novitskiy, and Marina Vasilevskaya. The two-day chase.
00:23:11
To catch up to the International Space Station now underway.
00:23:14
The International Space Station remains one of few areas of
00:23:17
cooperation between Moscow and the West in the wake of the
00:23:20
Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.
00:23:22
Russia had previously threatened to quit the orbiting outpost,
00:23:25
but ongoing delays in developing a new core module for their own
00:23:29
independent Russian space station has seen the Russian
00:23:32
federal space agency Roscosmos agree to remain part of the
00:23:35
International Space Station project until at least 2028.
00:23:39
Meanwhile, NASA and its other partners hope to continue
00:23:42
operating the ISS until at least 2030. This is Space Time.
00:24:03
And time now to take a brief look at some of the other
00:24:05
stories making use in science this week with the Science
00:24:08
Report.
00:24:09
A new study has confirmed that spending less time sitting could
00:24:13
help reduce blood pressure in people aged over 60. The
00:24:17
findings reported in the Journal of the American Medical
00:24:19
Association looked at some 280 patients with hypertension,
00:24:23
splitting them into two groups.
00:24:25
One group was given interventions to help them
00:24:27
reduce the time they spent sitting down, including health
00:24:30
coaching, a standing desk and a fitness tracker, while the
00:24:34
second group only received health coaching.
00:24:36
The study found that those in the sitting intervention group
00:24:39
spent about 30 minutes less a day sitting and also had a
00:24:43
reduction in their blood pressure of around 3.48 mmHg.
00:24:48
The authors say that reducing the amount of time sitting could
00:24:51
be a simple but promising approach to improve the health
00:24:54
of older adults.
00:24:57
A major step forward has been taken in Sugarcane research with
00:25:00
a mapping of its complete genome, which as it turns out is
00:25:04
three times the size of the human genome. Sugarcane
00:25:08
contributes some $2.2 billion to the Australian economy and
00:25:12
accounts for up to 80% of global sugar supplies.
00:25:16
The new study, reported in the Journal Nature, says the mapping
00:25:19
of its genetic blueprint opens opportunities for new tools to
00:25:22
enhance breeding programs for this valuable food crop and
00:25:25
bioenergy source.
00:25:28
Well, it's true, today's music really isn't as good as what it
00:25:32
was back in the olden days. A new study by Austrian and German
00:25:36
researchers has found that the lyrics of English language songs
00:25:40
have become more repetitive and simpler over the last 40 years.
00:25:44
The research published in the Journal Scientific Reports
00:25:47
analyzed the lyrics of some 12 songs across genres
00:25:51
spanning from rap, country, pop, R&B and rock, all of which were
00:25:55
released between 1980 and 2020. They say that while the number
00:25:59
of different words used in songs have decreased over that period
00:26:03
of time, the songs have tended to use longer words, but the
00:26:06
repetition made them more simple overall.
00:26:09
Additionally, the lyrics appear to have become more emotional
00:26:12
over time. The use of emotionally positive and
00:26:15
negative words increased in rap songs, whereas R&B, pop and
00:26:19
country music songs increased their emotionally negative
00:26:22
lyrics.
00:26:23
Now, for the record, I have to point out that I was a radio
00:26:26
music DJ long before I became a journalist. And so I speak with
00:26:30
a modicum of authority when I say that you just can't beat the
00:26:33
rock music of the 70s, the new romantics of the 80s, or the
00:26:37
grunge of the 90s. And anyone who says otherwise must be
00:26:41
wrong.
00:26:42
And now for something completely different.
00:26:44
We all know that astrology is not a science, and it has no
00:26:48
scientific validation. Yet newspapers and websites continue
00:26:52
to publish horoscopes, and people still ask each other what
00:26:55
their star sign is, in a futile hope that it will provide some
00:26:58
sort of clue about their personality.
00:27:01
Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics says the reasons behind
00:27:04
this ongoing belief in astrology are multifaceted, encompassing
00:27:08
elements of psychology, personality traits, societal
00:27:12
influence and personal preference.
00:27:14
He says this new study, reported in the Journal Personality and
00:27:17
Individual Differences, explored the surge in astrology beliefs,
00:27:21
finding narcissism linked to a higher belief, while
00:27:24
intelligence showed a negative correlation.
00:27:27
Astrology has been around for how long? ...a couple thousand
00:27:30
years. Why do you believe, therefore, that these signs,
00:27:32
which correspond to parts of the year, will influence what you do
00:27:35
or say something about what you are?
00:27:37
The whole philosophical concept, to me, falls apart totally. One,
00:27:41
why a star sign at your birth should be influential on you is
00:27:45
unknown. Why not at conception rather than at birth? Because,
00:27:48
you know, your birth could be induced or late or whatever.
00:27:51
Premature anything so why should that have an influence on you
00:27:53
two how does it have an influence on you your listeners
00:27:56
will know about you know gravity and the inverse square law and
00:27:59
blah blah blah all that sort of stuff and the fact that
00:28:01
obviously the constellations are not all in one plane they're all
00:28:04
over the place they're like a 3d image so that if you turn around
00:28:06
from a different direction and they look totally different and
00:28:08
there are 13 of them not 12 that 's right i'm even suggesting 14
00:28:12
actually should be nasty 13 at least Yes, Ophiuchus normally
00:28:15
gets left out of the zodiac.
00:28:16
And then, of course, the length of the time that they're
00:28:20
important varies from the actual time that they're in that guy,
00:28:23
because some of them are actually only around for about
00:28:25
seven days and others around for the 35, high 30s, but we tend to
00:28:29
even them out just to make life easier for the astrologers.
00:28:31
But why do people believe in them? That's a $64 question
00:28:35
because obviously there's no reason to. There's no
00:28:37
explanation for what should be influential, whether it's even
00:28:39
character or whether it's foretelling the future or
00:28:41
whatever. A lot of astrologers say they no longer look.
00:28:44
At the planets, even though planets form a major part of
00:28:47
astrological character assessment, et cetera, your
00:28:49
birth chart, some of them say they no longer look at the
00:28:51
constellations because they know they're an artificial concept.
00:28:54
And so you start wondering, well, what are they looking at?
00:28:56
Some people suggested that it sounds like a science-y, it's an
00:28:59
ology word, like geology and anthropology and things like
00:29:02
that. So which we know that ology just means a study. And it
00:29:05
's from the Greek word logos, spinning word. They also learn
00:29:08
it and... That's... ...studying that sort of thing, so there's
00:29:10
nothing necessarily scientific.
00:29:12
You could be studying teddy bears if you want, teddy
00:29:14
bearology. Astronomy doesn't have an ology to it, but that's
00:29:17
the other thing, because it's astro, astro, astronomy,
00:29:19
astrology, people think it's scientific, but that's a pretty
00:29:22
superficial way of looking at it and of looking at people for why
00:29:24
they believe.
00:29:25
Some are suggesting that, like a lot of beliefs... And at other
00:29:28
times we've discussed the leaf in psychics and crystal balls
00:29:32
and all sorts of things like that, that it provides a coping
00:29:35
mechanism dealing with traumatic events. It's something to hang
00:29:38
on to in an uncertain world or in a stressful world, and that's
00:29:42
been put forward a lot of times.
00:29:43
Most people know their star sign, which, as we know, it's a
00:29:47
Sun sign, as it's called. It has no bearing whatsoever. It's
00:29:50
totally ridiculous. It's the state 1 in 12th of the
00:29:52
population will have. This future and another 12th will
00:29:55
have a different future even.
00:29:56
Well, thanks to the Milankovitch cycles, which we know are real,
00:29:59
the star signs don't really match up with your date of birth
00:30:02
anymore.
00:30:03
Well, they'd be precepts of the equinox. Yes. Which means that
00:30:06
the Earth, because it's on a tilt, as we know, and because
00:30:09
there's a little vibration in that tilt, it's like a top that
00:30:12
's leaning over and having a little shake at the same time,
00:30:14
means that we're actually changing the positioning of the
00:30:17
stars against... The background, or the foreground of the Sun.
00:30:21
The signs that are behind the Sun at a certain time of the
00:30:23
year are changing over a period of about 2 years. We change
00:30:26
through one star sign. So it's about 25 years roughly,
00:30:29
whatever, you can take an even of that, and we'll go through
00:30:32
the entire zodiac. Now, most star charts in the newspaper
00:30:36
will start with Aries, which, of course, was the spring in
00:30:40
Babylonian times, right?
00:30:41
The start of a new year, a new planting year, etc. And... That
00:30:46
's the only reason why there's no Aries. It's because of the
00:30:48
Babylonian thing when they have plants. That's spring. But
00:30:51
gradually, that spring is actually going into Aquarius
00:30:53
now, not Aries, which is why this is the dawning of the age
00:30:56
of Aquarius for those who remember the 60s musicals.
00:30:59
I certainly do. And that's what it means. And no one's exactly
00:31:02
quite sure where the changeover spot is. It's obviously a period
00:31:05
of long time. But yeah, we're probably now in the age of
00:31:08
Aquarius where those news columns should start with
00:31:10
Aquarius rather than Aries. Really talking about starting
00:31:13
with spring. So for those people who think they're Aquarians,
00:31:16
they're probably not.
00:31:17
They're probably, well, the Capricornians, they were the one
00:31:21
who's... And so therefore you are a different star sign saying
00:31:23
a totally different character from what you've been told that
00:31:25
you are. Your personality is not what you think it is. You can
00:31:28
blame the appreciation of the equinox. That's Tim Mendham from
00:31:52
Australian Skeptics.
00:32:09
That's the show for now. SpaceTime is available every
00:32:12
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