S27E97: Solar System's Fiery Birth, Starliner's Stranded Crew, and ISS Traffic Jam

[00:00:00] This is SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 97 for broadcast on the 12th of August 2024.

[00:00:07] Coming up on SpaceTime…

[00:00:09] The Solar System's origins revealed!

[00:00:12] It now looks like Starliners Crew could remain stranded on the space station until next year.

[00:00:18] And busy times aboard the orbiting outpost with all docking bays full.

[00:00:22] All that and more coming up on SpaceTime!

[00:00:26] Welcome to SpaceTime with Stuart Gary

[00:00:46] An analysis of asteroid samples brought to Earth by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft

[00:00:51] has shown that our solar system was created in the wake of a nearby supernova explosion.

[00:00:57] Supernovae mark the spectacular death of stars.

[00:01:01] These blasts of matter and energy are so powerful, they can briefly outshine an entire galaxy.

[00:01:08] Samples of the 4.6 billion-year-old asteroid Bennu brought back by OSIRIS-REx

[00:01:13] show that it's among the most chemically primitive materials known.

[00:01:17] The findings, reported in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science,

[00:01:21] is among a host of new discoveries uncovered by researchers

[00:01:24] as they delve deep into the hidden secrets of this ancient 490-meter wide relic.

[00:01:31] The OSIRIS-REx sample return mission was launched back on the 8th of September 2016,

[00:01:36] rendezvousing with the asteroid Bennu two years later on December 3rd, 2018.

[00:01:42] The probe spent the next two years analyzing the primitive space rock's rugged,

[00:01:47] boulder-strewn surface, before briefly touching down on October 20th, 2020,

[00:01:52] just long enough to grab a sample of rocks and regolith before returning to orbit.

[00:01:57] OSIRIS-REx finally left Bennu's space on May 10th, 2021 for the three-year return journey

[00:02:03] to Earth, providing scientists with a treasure trove of data and pristine samples.

[00:02:08] You see, unlike asteroid samples collected from Earth's surface in the form of meteorites,

[00:02:13] these samples from OSIRIS-REx were uncontaminated by Earth,

[00:02:17] by its atmosphere, its biosphere, or the journey through space to get here.

[00:02:22] Bennu was chosen as the target for this study because it was considered by astronomers to be

[00:02:27] a time capsule from the birth of our solar system.

[00:02:30] Bennu is a carbonaceous C-type asteroid. These are considered extremely primitive,

[00:02:35] having undergone little geological change from the time of their formation.

[00:02:39] Its dark surface is composed of pristine carbonaceous material.

[00:02:43] That's a key element in organic molecules necessary for life,

[00:02:47] as well as being representative of the sort of matter that existed before the formation of the Earth.

[00:02:52] Organic molecules, such as amino acids, have previously been found in meteorite and comet

[00:02:58] samples, indicating that some ingredients necessary for life can naturally be synthesized

[00:03:03] in outer space. The Bennu samples consisted of mostly dark particles, ranging in size from

[00:03:10] dust grains to some more than 3.5 centimetres long. Researchers identified some lighter

[00:03:15] particles scattered through the samples, some with stones also having brighter material,

[00:03:20] forming veins and crusts. One of the scientists studying these priceless Bennu samples is

[00:03:25] Associate Professor Nick Thames from Curtin University. Thames says the first findings

[00:03:30] from these samples revealed some real surprises. He says it's clearly undergone different processes

[00:03:36] to the planet. Analysis of the samples also confirmed the presence of various components

[00:03:41] previously thought to be present, things like hydrated phyllosilicates, that's a type of mineral

[00:03:46] which forms in the presence of water, as well as carbon-rich material. This means asteroids like

[00:03:51] Bennu may well have played a key role in delivering water and the building blocks of life to the Earth.

[00:03:57] But the samples also contained several unexpected components, including magnesium sodium phosphates,

[00:04:03] which further suggests that Bennu has experienced chemical environments that could possibly involve

[00:04:08] water. And there were other trace minerals, which offer clues as to the processes which happened on

[00:04:14] Bennu over billions of years, such as temperature and pressure conditions. These trace minerals are

[00:04:19] helping to paint a picture of Bennu's evolution, and they offer insights into the early solar system,

[00:04:25] how the different planetary bodies in the solar system were created, and how different parts of

[00:04:29] our solar system evolved. And it doesn't end there. Bennu also contained pre-solar grains,

[00:04:36] samples which were remnants created before our solar system existed, and which could provide

[00:04:41] a detailed biography of the lives of ancient neighbouring stars. Tim says when examined as a

[00:04:47] whole, these Bennu samples will provide a wide range of implications for better understanding

[00:04:53] the science of the early solar system. We were one of the first members of the international team

[00:04:58] to receive some material from the latest asteroid sample return mission, material from asteroid

[00:05:03] Bennu. What does it look like? The sample that was returned, the entire sample, comprises of

[00:05:09] small fragments a few centimetres across, right down to really, really tiny dust particles and

[00:05:15] everything in between. They look like little dark balls of soil, I guess. They're very, very dark.

[00:05:21] There are some white and transparent bits in there as well that we can see. And they're very,

[00:05:26] very soft and friable and very delicate sample. What did you find? Well, between the entire sample

[00:05:31] analysis team, we found out quite a lot at the moment. So first of all, we found out some things

[00:05:37] that really corroborate what the telescope observations could make, both from Earth and

[00:05:43] also when the spacecraft was orbiting the asteroid. And so far as it's got an appreciable

[00:05:49] amount of water in it, just less than 1 weight percent water, and it's quite carbon rich as well,

[00:05:55] almost 5% carbon rich. So that means we can link to the telescope observations with the sample

[00:06:00] observations and it lends a bit more confidence to how we can classify and look at asteroids

[00:06:05] in deep space. But there are many other things that we found out as well. We've looked at the

[00:06:09] bulk composition, so the abundance of all of the elements that we know, and it's got a very,

[00:06:14] very unique bulk composition in terms of the abundance of elements, very, very similar to

[00:06:20] that of the photosphere of the sun. We've also looked at some of the mineral components in there

[00:06:24] as well. There's quite a lot of very interesting small particles, you know, minerals. We're finding

[00:06:30] more about these things all the time. And also we found out there are some organic particles in

[00:06:35] there as well, things called nanoglobules, which are sort of made of sort of 1-4 ring chains of

[00:06:41] carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and they are allowing us to make some interesting conclusions too.

[00:06:47] What sort of conclusions are you drawing from these samples that you've got?

[00:06:51] Well, some of the particles in there, if we look at the detailed composition of them,

[00:06:55] the isotopes within them, they're not like what we find in our solar system. And these very rare

[00:07:01] particles actually source from before our solar system existed from exotically from other solar

[00:07:08] systems. So these are pre-solar grains, wow. Yeah, pre-solar grains, exactly right.

[00:07:13] That means they're more than 4.6 billion years old. They've got to be some of the oldest things

[00:07:17] we've ever seen. Yeah, that's right. And from the compositions of them, we can tell what kind of

[00:07:23] star that our system that they came from. And we're finding more and more all at the time,

[00:07:27] but for the first publication, we'd found seven. Some of them are from particular stars,

[00:07:32] and one looked like it was from a supernova. So that's really interesting. And there are also

[00:07:37] lots of minerals in there that are surprising us, things that we didn't expect to see as well as

[00:07:42] things that we did expect to see. The idea that you've got pre-solar

[00:07:45] grains from supernovae that supports the theory that, or the hypothesis that our solar system

[00:07:52] was formed following a supernova explosion that bumped a lot of gas together.

[00:07:57] Sure. Well, I mean the formation of the sun and then the proto-planetary disk of the clouds of

[00:08:04] gas and dust that formed after that are pretty much the primary ingredients for much of what

[00:08:09] we see in this asteroid. So the pre-solar grains are very rare, but most of the material

[00:08:13] is from the disk from the sun. How do you know what a pre-solar grain is?

[00:08:17] Is it a case of dating? Is that how you determine or has it got unusual chemical

[00:08:21] compositions that simply don't exist in our solar system?

[00:08:24] Yeah. They are discovered usually from very unusual compositions. So we can measure the

[00:08:29] isotopes of things like carbon and nitrogen and solar or things from our solar system

[00:08:35] are very predictable. They're almost identical ratios of these different isotopes, but the

[00:08:39] pre-solar grains have got very strange and wayward isotopic compositions that we can't explain from

[00:08:45] the generation of our own sun. So that would be because different stars have different chemical

[00:08:50] makeups. They've evolved to different levels. Yes, that's kind of along the right lines.

[00:08:54] Exactly. And you've also found some stuff which supports the idea that the Earth may have got

[00:09:00] its water from asteroids. For a long time, the hypothesis was that, oh, well, the Earth got its

[00:09:05] water from comets. But we now know that can't be true in all cases because the hydrogen-deuterium

[00:09:10] ratios don't work out. What have you been able to find with Bennu?

[00:09:14] So with Bennu, we're still working on the compositions from Bennu, but certainly from

[00:09:19] other asteroids that we've looked at. We've looked at tiny particles from Itokawa and the composition

[00:09:25] of the hydrogen-deuterium ratio looks to be matching that of Earth. And the way that the

[00:09:31] hydrogen got into those samples was actually a consequence of implantation from the sun,

[00:09:36] like a solar irradiation. So on one hand, it's interesting to think that asteroids delivered

[00:09:42] some of the water that we have on Earth, or a lot of it maybe. And on the other hand,

[00:09:46] it's interesting to think that the sun was actually the source of some of the hydrogen

[00:09:51] that forms the water on Earth as well. So that's really interesting.

[00:09:54] How do you actually perform these tests?

[00:09:56] So we look at the particles under quite high-powered instruments, microscope and

[00:10:00] different probes. So usually that involves firing an electron beam or even an iron beam at samples

[00:10:06] and then collecting signals that return from those. So we have to prepare the samples in

[00:10:11] very particular ways and avoid contaminating them with water and other fluids so we can get the

[00:10:17] pristine signal back from samples. But yeah, we've got a range of different analytical techniques

[00:10:22] that we can employ and we have been using.

[00:10:24] One of the interesting things about Bennu was that when OSIRIS-REx went for its sample,

[00:10:29] it almost got buried. If it didn't have an automatic system where it would launch again

[00:10:33] once it's collected a sample, it would have been buried under the surface. That's how

[00:10:37] loose the surface was.

[00:10:39] Bennu, like other pre-decesser missions to other asteroids, to Itokawa and to Ryugu,

[00:10:45] all three of the asteroid sample return missions, all three of those asteroids have been discovered

[00:10:51] to be piles of rubble. It flies against almost childhood notion of what asteroids look like,

[00:10:58] which are basically single solid pieces of rock. So the more and more we discover in the

[00:11:04] solar system that these rubble pile asteroids are quite common. And one reason for that is,

[00:11:10] well, they formed from catastrophic events that disrupted the parent body from which

[00:11:15] the asteroid was formed. But the other thing is it means that they are mechanically and physically,

[00:11:20] they behave quite differently. Like you said, this spacecraft almost disappeared into the surface of

[00:11:27] Bennu. It's quite soft, I guess, quite absorbent when it comes to absorbing hits and shock and

[00:11:33] things like that. So that has huge consequences for how these asteroids behave.

[00:11:38] Well, planetary defense, yeah.

[00:11:40] Yeah, from when we, you know, if they pose a threat to the Earth, also for how long

[00:11:46] they hang around in the solar system for as well. And in terms of if one collides with another,

[00:11:51] what the mechanical properties of those things will actually result in, whether they'll be

[00:11:55] destroyed or whether they can absorb those kinds of impacts.

[00:11:58] If you fire a gun at a solid rock, the gun will possibly deflect the rock, it'll move it to one

[00:12:04] side. But if you fire that same gun at a pile of rubble, the rubble doesn't actually move,

[00:12:09] it absorbs the bullet and it's still doing what it was doing before, which means if we're talking

[00:12:14] about an asteroid, that asteroid will continue on the path that was on previously. That's the

[00:12:19] defense issue.

[00:12:20] Yeah, that's a distinct possibility. That's a big implication for planetary defense. But having said

[00:12:25] that, NASA did launch a mission to try and deflect an asteroid.

[00:12:30] This is DART.

[00:12:30] This DART mission. And that deflection was caused by the spacecraft actually traveling

[00:12:36] into the asteroid of a binary system. So there are two asteroids orbiting each other.

[00:12:41] Itty bitty monster.

[00:12:42] The asteroid deflected, they deflected the asteroid quite successfully. So yeah,

[00:12:46] there's still a lot to learn about exactly how these bodies behave as we find more and more of

[00:12:52] them and we are trying to understand the threat that they might pose to Earth.

[00:12:55] What I found fascinating about Bennu was that it was so similar in appearance to Cayugu,

[00:13:01] they were both very cube-shaped. And that's very different to Itokawa,

[00:13:04] which was more like a potato in shape.

[00:13:06] Yeah, exactly. So they are very peculiar shapes. They're sort of like double cones or spinning

[00:13:12] tops, I guess. And they do have quite a lot of topography on their surface. Some of those look

[00:13:17] like they are places where there have been impact, but there are significant boulder fields

[00:13:22] and everything right down to the Tony's dust particles. They're very difficult places to try

[00:13:26] and sample and try and land on. But yeah, the shapes of them are quite different. And so

[00:13:30] Cayugu and Bennu are most similar to each other, like you say, but Itokawa, yeah, I think they would

[00:13:36] call it the peanut in space. It's a very unusual shape.

[00:13:40] I don't know if you had a chance yet to read the five papers that have come from the DART team

[00:13:44] in the last week or two. They've shown that it could be that Dimorphos, which is the moon

[00:13:49] orbiting Didymos, Dimorphos may have been created by boulders and rubble being flung

[00:13:54] off Didymos. That's how it may have formed.

[00:13:56] That's a distinct possibility. And so one thing that we're trying to find out is exactly when

[00:14:02] did these asteroids form? How long have they been in the solar system? Have they moved in

[00:14:07] their positions from one place in the solar system to another? Have they been destroyed

[00:14:11] and reformed many times or are they just ancient relics from the earliest part of the solar system?

[00:14:17] And so that's one thing that we're trying to do with our analyses of the samples that have

[00:14:22] come from Bennu and Cayugu. We have various analytical techniques to date some of the

[00:14:28] particles in there and some of the dating techniques are very susceptible to changes

[00:14:32] in temperature and so on. So if the impact has happened and the asteroid's been heated up,

[00:14:37] we should be able to see that in the data that we acquire.

[00:14:39] I remember a long, long time ago in a galaxy far away when I was working for a LISA radio station,

[00:14:44] one of the studies that I reported on, it was a meteorite sample. They were able to tell

[00:14:49] that it was originally formed through an impacting event in the main asteroid belt. It then travelled

[00:14:55] to the outer solar system around the Kuiper belt area before coming back in again. So it was formed

[00:15:01] extreme stress high heat event, froze out in the distant solar system and then came back in again

[00:15:06] to where it eventually slammed into the Earth. So these asteroids, they can go on quite wondrous

[00:15:12] journeys. Yeah, I mean all of these things are

[00:15:14] within the realms of possibility. So it's going to be really interesting to see what results we get.

[00:15:20] And I think the dynamicists have modelled asteroids such as Cayugu and Bennu and they

[00:15:25] are proposing that these things have been destroyed and reformed at least twice before. So that provides

[00:15:31] us a good hypothesis to try and test with our data that we can get from the actual samples themselves.

[00:15:37] In October, the European Space Agency will launch the HERA mission that again is going to Didymos

[00:15:42] and Dimorphos. Is that something you're looking forward to? Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I'm

[00:15:46] not part of that mission but it could be very interesting to see what they find out.

[00:15:50] Where to now? What's the next thing to be done? The next thing to be done? One of the big things

[00:15:54] that we're really looking forward to is actually looking at some of the bigger particles from

[00:15:59] Bennu. So far we've only been looking at the very fine grained aggregate of particles and not some

[00:16:04] of these larger centimetre sized bits. And because we can get quite a lot more out of those, we can

[00:16:11] look at all of the spatial relationships of all of the components in there and look at the

[00:16:16] textures and that can tell us a hell of a lot more about how these things have formed and evolved over time.

[00:16:22] How does it feel to know that you're changing the world humanity's view of our solar system and the

[00:16:29] evolution of the solar system? I mean that's pretty significant. Well, it's quite humbling really.

[00:16:35] It's not something I ever imagined myself being part of but it's incredible to be right at the

[00:16:41] forefront of the science of this and it feels like quite a privilege to be involved in these

[00:16:47] quite exciting and quite rare missions. And hopefully these things can continue into the

[00:16:52] future as we explore deep space and get to grips with exactly our place in the solar system and

[00:16:58] how we all came to be and how the Earth came to be. That's Associate Professor Nick Timms from

[00:17:03] Curtin University. And this is Space Time. Still to come, in our looks like Starliner's crew could

[00:17:10] be stranded on the International Space Station until 2025. And it's a busy time aboard the orbiting

[00:17:16] outpost with no less than six spacecraft currently docked there. All that and more still to come on

[00:17:23] Space Time. There are growing fears that the crew of Boeing's trouble-plagued Starliner spacecraft

[00:17:44] could remain stranded aboard the International Space Station until next year. NASA officials

[00:17:50] are now openly speculating that Starliner astronauts Butch Wiltmore and Sonny Williams

[00:17:55] could wind up returning to Earth on SpaceX's Crew Dragon in February 2025 if Starliner is still

[00:18:01] deemed unsafe. The space agency's been looking at leaving two seats empty on the upcoming SpaceX

[00:18:07] Crew Dragon 9 mission to the orbiting outpost. That flight, which was to launch this month carrying four

[00:18:13] crew members for the space station, has now been pushed back till September because Starliner is

[00:18:19] occupying the docking port the Crew Dragon was meant to use. NASA says that SpaceX Crew 9 mission

[00:18:26] isn't slated to return to Earth until February next year, meaning the Starliner crew's initial

[00:18:31] eight-day mission could balloon out to more than six months if the decisions taken to abandon

[00:18:36] Boeing spacecraft in favour of the Dragon. Previously, NASA and especially Boeing have

[00:18:42] dismissed suggestions that the pair could wind up being rescued by competitor SpaceX. Boeing says

[00:18:48] its confidence remains high in Starliner returning with a crew. But if that doesn't happen,

[00:18:54] they'll simply reprogram Starliner for an unmanned return to Earth flight. Starliner was launched from

[00:19:00] Cape Canaveral back on June the 5th aboard an Atlas V rocket on what was meant to be an eight-day

[00:19:06] shakedown flight, the first carrying a crew. However, a combination of ongoing helium leaks and sudden

[00:19:13] faulty thruster issues hampered the flight to the space station, eventually forcing a manual docking

[00:19:18] rather than the automated arrival originally planned. Helium is an inert non-combustible gas

[00:19:25] it's used to pressurize the spacecraft's propulsion systems. The helium leaks aboard Starliner were

[00:19:31] first detected prior to the launch but they weren't considered serious enough to abort the mission.

[00:19:36] That's because the spacecraft carries 10 times more helium than it needs. But as the mission

[00:19:41] progressed, the leaks became worse and more numerous with four more developing. NASA and

[00:19:47] Boeing have been trying to replicate the problems on the ground using a spare Starliner service

[00:19:52] module at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. They think the helium leaks could be caused

[00:19:57] by degrading seals due to oxidizer permeation. As for the thruster issues, well they began later in

[00:20:04] flight once Starliner was already in orbit. Starliner uses 28 thrusters as part of its reaction

[00:20:10] control system for fine orbital maneuvering. But during the flight, Starliner's computers suddenly

[00:20:16] deselected five of the thrusters and a propellant valve also failed to close properly. White Sands

[00:20:23] testing indicates the thrusters failed because they overheated and automatically shut down.

[00:20:28] The crew were eventually able to bring four of the thrusters back online manually and then

[00:20:32] complete their docking to the space station's Harmony module. As they approached the space station,

[00:20:38] the crew also noticed that other thrusters appeared to be weaker than normal. It's all

[00:20:43] raising some disturbing issues. Once again it was tests on the ground which came to play.

[00:20:49] They identified degradation issues in both fuel and liquid oxygen valves. Teflon was discovered

[00:20:55] eroding from the seals causing ejector poppets to clog and deform. Now mission managers are

[00:21:01] stressing the problems are only affecting thrusters controlling orientation, not the more powerful

[00:21:06] ones used for deorbiting. And they believe the remaining thruster seals should remain intact

[00:21:11] long enough for the return journey. Mission managers have been looking at using alternative orbital

[00:21:16] maneuvering thruster firing sequences for the re-entry, descent and landing. They've also

[00:21:21] determined that as a precaution there will be no manual flying of the spacecraft on the return

[00:21:25] journey. All of it will be automatic so as to avoid any undue stress on the system. None of this should

[00:21:32] be surprising. Boeing have had ongoing problems with Starliner for years. The spacecraft's first

[00:21:39] unmanned orbital test flight back in December 2019 was a total disaster. It failed to reach the space

[00:21:45] station for a planned docking because a timing clock on one of the computers had launched it

[00:21:50] into orbit at too low an altitude. It was then discovered that another computer, the one involved

[00:21:56] in the automatic docking procedure, wasn't working properly anyway. So even if the spacecraft had

[00:22:00] reached the space station it wouldn't have been able to dock there. And finally a third computer

[00:22:05] program was also found to be faulty and this one was a real doozy. It would have changed the firing

[00:22:11] sequence between the jettisoning of the command module and the service module. Instead of pushing

[00:22:16] the two apart it would have caused the service module to crash into the command module, destroying

[00:22:21] both modules. Luckily that one was discovered before EDL, in other words entry, descent and landing.

[00:22:28] Now most of these problems were linked to computer failures and programming errors.

[00:22:33] An investigation by NASA found more than 80 issues which needed to be addressed before Starliner could

[00:22:39] fly again. Finally a second unmanned orbital test flight was carried out in May 2022. Now it went a

[00:22:46] lot better with only some minor issues. However once back on the ground, propulsion system corrosion

[00:22:52] issues, parachute strengthening requirements and concerns over the fire resistance of electrical

[00:22:58] cabling insulation were all uncovered, pushing the first manned test flight back by over two years.

[00:23:04] And we now know how well that's gone. Now by comparison Boeing's competitor, SpaceX's Dragon

[00:23:10] capsule has experienced fairly smooth sailing, so far carrying nine crews to the International

[00:23:15] Space Station since 2020, as well as several private manned orbital space flights. NASA says

[00:23:21] that shows the advantage in developing two separate spaceflight systems as part of their

[00:23:26] commercial crew contract project to develop spacecraft to ferry crew to the space station

[00:23:31] following the early retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011. While on station the stranded

[00:23:36] Starliner team have been working with the seven Expedition 71 crew members, helping out with day-to-day

[00:23:41] tasks and scientific experiments. NASA say they expect to make a final decision on how the crew

[00:23:47] will return to Earth within the next few days. Needless to say we'll keep you informed.

[00:23:54] This is Space Time. Still to come, busy times aboard the International Space Station with all

[00:24:00] parking bays full and later in the science report a new study has shown that sea surface temperatures

[00:24:06] in the Great Barrier Reef are now the warmest they've been in 400 years. All that and more

[00:24:12] still to come on Space Time. Well it seems like rush hour aboard the International Space Station

[00:24:33] at the moment with no less than six spacecraft currently docked to the orbiting outpost.

[00:24:37] In other words every docking port is now full. The six spaceships include Boeing's Starliner,

[00:24:43] SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour, an orthorhombic Grumman Cygnus cargo ship, the Soyuz MS-25

[00:24:49] crew capsule and both the Progress MS-27 and MS-28 cargo ships. Other than the trouble-plagued Starliner,

[00:24:57] the most recent arrival was the Russian Progress MS-28 cargo ship carrying over two and a half tons

[00:25:03] of food, fuel and supplies. The Progress MS-28 had launched two days earlier aboard a Soyuz 2.1a

[00:25:11] rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan.

[00:25:15] The Progress docked automatically onto the orbiting outpost post module's space-facing

[00:25:20] zenith port where it will remain for the next six months. Ships manifest included 1290 kilograms of

[00:25:27] food, crew personal items and toiletries and general supplies. There's also 420 kilograms

[00:25:33] of fresh water on board, 754 kilograms of rocket fuel propellant and 40 kilograms of nitrogen.

[00:25:40] Once unloaded, it'll be used as a trash storage facility, being filled with garbage no longer

[00:25:46] needed by the crew before being de-orbited and allowed to burn up together with its trash in

[00:25:51] the Earth's atmosphere. This is Space Time, and time now to take a brief look at some of the

[00:26:12] other stories making use in science this week with the Science Report. New observations show

[00:26:17] recent temperatures in the Coral Sea surrounding the Great Barrier Reef are now the warmest they've

[00:26:22] been in 400 years. The findings reported in the journal Nature show how climate change is putting

[00:26:29] the reef in danger. The study's authors found that sea surface temperatures in the January to

[00:26:34] March period for 2024 as well as 2020 and 2017 were the warmest on record. They also confirmed

[00:26:42] that it's human interference in the use of greenhouse gases which is driving the swarming effect.

[00:26:47] A new study has linked a common plastic with an increased risk of autism spectrum disorder

[00:26:53] in young boys. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a wide spectrum of behavioral

[00:26:59] and cognitive changes. It's known to result from a complex interaction between genetics

[00:27:04] and the environment, and the nature of the environmental interactions are still largely unclear.

[00:27:10] Now a report in the journal Nature Communications has identified high levels of the chemical bisphenol

[00:27:16] A, also known as BPA, a plastic commonly used in food packaging. It was detected in urine samples

[00:27:23] taken from women pregnant with boys later found to have autism. The study involving 43 children

[00:27:29] suggested that male children who had low levels of the enzyme aromatase, that's an enzyme which

[00:27:35] converts brain androgens into brain estrogens, and a high exposure to BPA were more likely to

[00:27:40] have autism diagnoses or autism spectrum behaviors. A new study warns that Dugan numbers have been

[00:27:48] declining for a thousand years and those in the western Indian Ocean have now lost their genetic

[00:27:54] diversity. A report in the journal of the Royal Society Open Science looked at ancient DNA from

[00:28:00] Dugan specimens in museums and then mapped their genetic diversity in the Indo-Pacific. This was

[00:28:06] then used to model their past populations. The authors found that global Dugan populations are

[00:28:12] becoming fragmented and less diverse, putting them at increased risk of inbreeding and therefore a

[00:28:17] greater risk of human activities and climate change. Now most of you have probably noticed

[00:28:24] a big sports carnival happening in France at the moment, and the more observant of you may even

[00:28:28] have noticed some of the strange superstitious rituals some athletes undertake for or during

[00:28:34] competition. Well the good news is not all sports might of people fall for these magic lucky charms

[00:28:39] and rituals, but as Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics points out there are enough high-profile

[00:28:45] ones that do to influence impressionable people. Well it's interesting to see if athletes are more

[00:28:50] prone to these things than other people, okay, because athletes especially high-profile you see

[00:28:54] them all the time and therefore you see them do this little thing how many times Rafael Nadal

[00:28:58] bounces the ball, scratches his nose behind his ear etc. People who wear particular clothing,

[00:29:03] it applies across virtually every sport. There are people who sort of have little ticks and

[00:29:07] gear or things they use twinkly fingernails etc that they think will give them an advantage.

[00:29:12] Now there's various reasons for this, one that in the sporting world a split second advantage can

[00:29:16] mean anything. You could look at the swimmers who are getting down to hundreds of seconds,

[00:29:20] anything that they might say might give them an advantage is worthwhile trying. Also the fact

[00:29:24] that they'll also not be off putting other people. I would suggest that Rafael's bouncing at the ball

[00:29:28] all the time, really annoying to the tennis player at the other end of the court and the

[00:29:32] grunting and all the things they do. Okay, are sports people more prone to this sort of stuff?

[00:29:37] I think that's a very difficult question. We covered a lot in our magazine if I can give

[00:29:41] it a plug, the March 2022 issue had a lot of articles on superstition in sport looking at

[00:29:47] the various things they do and why they do it. The classic example is Djokovic who's regarded as one

[00:29:51] of the best tennis players ever. He's notorious for his things that he's sort of followed up on,

[00:29:56] everything from magic mountains to different foods and then crystals and you name it. So he's

[00:30:02] been in a lot of things actually. Other athletes are not quite frankly, there are a lot of athletes

[00:30:07] who don't fall for this sort of stuff whether it's an alternative medical treatment, a magic crystal,

[00:30:11] nothing to wear, a process you do, a little rigmarole that most sports people don't,

[00:30:16] you can say or at least we don't know that they do but it's not sort of overtly. I mean

[00:30:20] when you have cupping on your back, it shows up, all these little round marks that people do,

[00:30:24] no indication that that helps but never mind. Ask sports people more.

[00:30:27] The thing they really do, these sorts of things is give you more confidence and that's important.

[00:30:33] That's important too and that might be enough reasons for them to do it but the trouble is

[00:30:37] it influences other people to think that is the thing that works rather than the confidence

[00:30:41] building. Any advantage they can get especially in those sports where there's a minimal and tiny

[00:30:46] time issue or hype issue whatever, a difference between coming first and coming second,

[00:30:51] they will try or some will try. Now whether that's just a confidence thing, they think it works

[00:30:55] or whether it's just superstition. Question is how many do it? Most don't do it. A lot of

[00:31:00] sportsmen do do it but they're high profile and you can see them in the media so you can see them

[00:31:05] do it. The problem is it encourages lesser athletes, young athletes coming up to think,

[00:31:10] I don't have to work so hard, I can just get cupping or I can put a wristband on or I can

[00:31:16] go through a ritual. The issue is, okay, one is going to help them, unlikely except for a confidence

[00:31:20] booster. Do they do it because they want the maximum advantage they can get whether it's

[00:31:24] the colour of their clothes or whatever it is, you can understand they do it. If they're

[00:31:27] multi-million dollar athletes out there, you can probably reason to it. Is it going to help them?

[00:31:31] No. Is it influencing other people? Yes and that's where it really becomes a bit of a problem that

[00:31:36] people think it's a shortcut to success and it ain't. That's Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics

[00:31:42] and that's the show for now. Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday

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