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[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01]: This is SpaceTime, series 26 episode 132 for broadcasts in the third and November 2023. Coming up on SpaceTime, the rare heavy element discovered in a stellar collision.
[00:00:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Or systems go for our next planetary defense mission, and Moscow threatening Star Wars in orbit. All that and more coming up. I'm SpaceTime.
[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_04]: Welcome to SpaceTime with Stuart Gary.
[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Astronomers have detected the rare heavy element to Lorium being produced in a killer nerve collision between a pair of neutron stars.
[00:00:52] [SPEAKER_01]: The findings reported in the journal Nature were made by teams using a ray of NASA Spaceborne telescopes, including the web infrared observatory, a Fermi gamma ray space telescope and the Swift Observatory.
[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Astronomers observed that exceptionally bright gamma ray burst, cataloged as GRB 230307A was caused by the merger of a pair of superdense neutron stars.
[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_01]: During this massive explosion, known as a killer nerve, we've also helped scientists detect the chemical element to Lorium in the explosions after mouth.
[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Where is a supernova occurs when a light star explodes at the end of its life? A killer nerve is an explosion produced by a neutron star merging with either another neutron star or with a black hole.
[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Other elements need to Lorium on the periodic table, things like iodine which is needed for life on Earth are also likely to be present in the killer nerve as ejected material.
[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_01]: The studies lead author Andrew Levin from RedBad University says that just over 150 years since the metrometre medleave first wrote down the periodic table of elements,
[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_01]: scientists are now finally able to fill out most of the remaining blank spaces and the standing, the origins of where these elements came from.
[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_01]: While neutron star mergers have often been theorised as being the ideal pressure-coogers to create some of these rare elements substantially heavier than iron, astronomers had previously been encountering a few obstacles in obtaining any solid evidence.
[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_01]: See for a start, killer nerve are extremely rare, making it difficult to observe these events.
[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Short-gammery bursts traditionally thought to be those lasting less than about two seconds can be by products of these infrequent merger episodes.
[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_01]: That places them in contrast to long period gamma ray bursts which can last for several minutes, and are usually associated with the explosive deaths of massive stars.
[00:02:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And the case of GAB 230307A is especially remarkable. First detected by Fermi back in March, it was the second brightest gamma ray burst observed in the last 50 years, about a thousand times brighter than a typical gamma ray burst.
[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_01]: And it also lasted a long time, some 200 seconds, and that should firmly place in the category of long duration gamma ray bursts despite its different origin.
[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_01]: The collaboration of many telescopes both on the ground and in orbit, Alara Strannum is to piece together wealth of information about this event pretty well as soon as the burst was detected.
[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_01]: After that first detection, an intense series of observations from the ground and in space swang into action pinpointing the source on the sky and tracking how the brightness changed.
[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_01]: These observations in the gamma ray X-ray optical infrared and radio showed that the optical infrared canapart was faint, evolved quickly, and became very red, all the hallmarks of a killernova.
[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_01]: This type of explosion is very rapid with the material expanding quickly. As the whole cloud expands, the material cools off quickly and the peak of its light becomes visible in the infrared range, but then becomes red on timescurs of days and weeks.
[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_01]: An important contribution to the observations were made by NASA's web space telescope.
[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_01]: It's near infrared camera and near infrared spectrograph were used to study this tumultuous event from space.
[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Web spectrograph produced a spectrum of broad lines that showed material being injected at high speeds, and one feature stood out really clearly.
[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_01]: The spectral lines emitted by Tullorium and element rare than platinum here on Earth.
[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_01]: The honey sensitive infrared capabilities of web also allowed astronomers to identify the location of the two neutron stars that created the killernova, a spiral galaxy about 120,000 light years away from the side of the merger.
[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_01]: It seems that prior to their cataclysmic adventure, these were two normal massive stars that formed a binary system in their home spiral galaxy.
[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Since this duo work gravitationally bound, both stars will launch together on two separate occasions.
[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Firstly, when one among the pair exploded as a supernova, then became a neutron star, and then when the other star followed doing the same thing.
[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_01]: The two supernova explosions flung the pair further and further away from their galaxy.
[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_01]: But the two stars remain in a binary system, even though they travel approximately the equivalent of the Milky Way's diameter before finally merging into a single object 100 million years later.
[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_01]: This is space time. Still to come, an update on the European Space Agency's Hera Planetary Defense Mission, and Moscow getting more and more aggressive with the Kremlin threatening Star Wars.
[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_01]: It's almost in orbit. All that and more still to come.
[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Aren't space time.
[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_01]: The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft has now arrived at ESA's S-Tech Test Center in the Netherlands as a continuous preparations for next October's launch on its planetary defense mission to the Asteroid Ditti Moss and its small moon die morphus.
[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_01]: The mission will undertake a detailed investigation of the changes that NASA's Dart Impact Emission did when it collided with the 160-meter wide moonlet just over a year ago.
[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Launched back on 24 November 2021, the Dart Spacecraft successfully slammed into Dye Morphus on 26 September 2022 about 11 million kilometres from Earth.
[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_01]: The collision left the massive crater in Dye Morphus, and there was a 10,000-kilometer long debris stream trailing behind the moon.
[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_01]: It also pushed Dye Morphus closer to Ditti Moss, shortly at orbit around its host by some 32 minutes.
[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_01]: The Hera spacecraft together with its two nanos said like CubeSets, Aligning Yaventus, will fully characterize the composition of physical properties of the binary asteroid system, including their sub-surface and internal structures.
[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_01]: The information obtained will help inform scientists on the success of the kinetic impact emethered for deflecting an era of object that's threatening to crash into the planet.
[00:07:16] [SPEAKER_01]: This report from ESA TV.
[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_04]: Somewhere in the vastness of space, might well lurk and unobserved asteroid.
[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_04]: On course, for a head-on collision, without planet, its impact could be devastating for humankind.
[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_04]: Should we not wish to experience the fate of dinosaurs?
[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_04]: We best be prepared.
[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_04]: This is also the view of ESA and NASA as both agencies invest in locating these loans of wanderers and seek to prepare a planetary defense strategy.
[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_04]: As ESA's here a spacecraft arrives at the Estech test center in Nordvike the Netherlands,
[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_04]: humankind takes an understepped towards a safer future for our planet and its species.
[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_04]: The test center at Estech is the largest and best satellite testing facility in Europe,
[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_04]: and is equipped to simulate all aspects of spaceflight from the force and noise of a rocket take-off to the sustained vacuum and temperature extremes.
[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_04]: It dreams of deep space.
[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_04]: This allows new spacecraft such as Hira to efficiently undergo the crucial tests needed to qualify for launch.
[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_03]: We need to make sure that the satellite works, which means the software, all the different pieces of software together work,
[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_03]: and it does what is supposed to be when it's going to be alone into space.
[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_03]: And this entails not only doing the nominal operations, but even more importantly,
[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_03]: to be able to react in case of failures, in case things go wrong, or things go differently from what we have planned.
[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_04]: At the facility, Hira will not only receive her metaphorical wings, proving her worthy of flight,
[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_04]: but also its solar wings will be installed here.
[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_04]: Finally, the spacecraft will be ready to meet its tight October 2024 launch window
[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_04]: in order to make its appointment with the binary asteroid system Didimus and Dimorphus.
[00:09:30] [SPEAKER_04]: The Hira spacecraft is part of a larger program, only a year ago, NASA's Dart mission successfully impacted on Dimorphus,
[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_04]: shifting the celestial bodies orbit as planned.
[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_04]: Now, Hira will survey the aftermath and the asteroid up close to help turn this grand experiment into a well understood
[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_04]: and potentially repeatable planetary defence technique.
[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_03]: One of the interesting aspects of Hira is that for the first time we bring two cube sets with us,
[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_03]: these are very small spacecraft, similarly to drones that will go very close to the surface of the asteroid
[00:10:08] [SPEAKER_03]: and gather complementary information to Hira.
[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_03]: They will have a grand penetrating raiders, they will have multi-spectral images, all of this,
[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_03]: and as going closer of course, they will take more risks.
[00:10:22] [SPEAKER_03]: So the idea there is that we fly cheaper systems closer to the danger zone
[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_03]: and keep Hira at the safe distance.
[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_04]: So it is not only Hira that needs to be tested, but also the cube sets it carries with it
[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_04]: and how the trio of spacecraft will work together in deep space.
[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Out of all these tests, which are typically performed on all the spacecraft that are launching to space,
[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_00]: one of particular interests will be the one in the Unicorn Chamber when we will assess the what's called electromagnetic
[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_00]: compatibility. In that framework, we will operate for the first time the cube set and the mother spacecraft
[00:11:04] [SPEAKER_00]: communicating to each other via this inter-satellite link. This is one of the primes of the Hira mission in deep space.
[00:11:12] [SPEAKER_04]: Hira is a unique spacecraft and compared to similar missions like Resetta,
[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_04]: Hira is about 10 times smaller and cheaper and enormous achievement for the team.
[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_04]: Soon, Hira will leave Estek and be fully ready to take on the vastness of space and explore dimorphous.
[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_04]: Teaching human kind about strategies how to defend itself against the asteroid that could end it all.
[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_01]: And in that report from E.C. TV, we had from Hira Project Manager Ian Cannelly and Hira lead systems engineer Palo Matino.
[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_01]: This is space time. Still to come? The Kremlin threatening Star Wars in orbit.
[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_01]: And later in the Science Report, could Ty Chi help slow the progression of Parkinson's disease?
[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Or that are more still to come? On space time.
[00:12:24] [SPEAKER_01]: As Musco continues its war against Ukraine, the Kremlin is also continuing to ratchet up its threats against the West.
[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Rashes already threatened to use nuclear weapons on several occasions in response to ongoing economic sanctions by the West over its Ukrainian invasion.
[00:12:41] [SPEAKER_01]: And now, they've begun saber-rattling in space, but undertaking what a known as run-the-vill and proximity operations by moving one of their luchenspector satellites aggressively closed to a western spacecraft in G.A. Station, Rearbit.
[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_01]: The maneuver was reported by the private company Slingshot Aerospace, which uses algorithms and unofficially intelligence to track satellites.
[00:13:04] [SPEAKER_01]: The company says the intercept was undertaken by Musco's luch-to spacecraft, which was launched in March this year.
[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Its predecessor Luch-1, which was launched back in 2014, also undertook several close flybars of other nation spacecraft,
[00:13:20] [SPEAKER_01]: often traveling to within 10km of the satellites and for reasons which Musco refused to explain.
[00:13:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Now Luch-to is following its predecessors' footsteps, undertaking a similar maneuver moving within 60km of a western satellite.
[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_01]: But none of this is new for the Russians.
[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Back in January 2020, we reported on the Russian Cosmos 2542 and Cosmos 2543 satellites, which maneuvered close to an American K-hole K-A-H11 spy satellite.
[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And six months later in July, the Cosmos 2543 spacecraft fired a projectile into space, demonstrating a new capability.
[00:14:01] [SPEAKER_01]: This space-time.
[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And time that I take another brief look at some of the other stories making news in science this week with the science report.
[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_01]: New researchers found that Tai Chi, the ancient Chinese martial art that involved sequences of very slow controlled movements,
[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_01]: could slow the progression of Parkinson's disease.
[00:14:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that causes tremors and restricts movement.
[00:14:42] [SPEAKER_01]: To investigate the potential benefits of Tai Chi for patients, researchers followed that a disease as progression over five years,
[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_01]: in 147 patients had took Tai Chi classes twice a week, and 187 patients who didn't.
[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_01]: The researchers say that at every monitoring point, disease progression was slower among Tai Chi patients compared to those that did not participate in the classes,
[00:15:04] [SPEAKER_01]: and were more likely to need increases in their medication to manage their symptoms.
[00:15:09] [SPEAKER_01]: The findings reported in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery in Psychiatry,
[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_01]: who might prove that Tai Chi classes slowed the disease's progression, however, it does show that the practice should at least be considered for people with Parkinson's.
[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_01]: A new study is found that lead exposure is likely to blame for five and a half million adult deaths from heart disease each year,
[00:15:32] [SPEAKER_01]: and also for a loss of 765 million IQ points in kids under five globally every year.
[00:15:38] [SPEAKER_01]: The findings reported in the Lancet Medical Journal suggested that up to 95% of those effects were found in lower and middle income countries,
[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_01]: with the affected children losing an average of 5.9 IQ points before they reached the age of five.
[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Researchers say these health effects are similar to the dangers of both outdoor and indoor air pollution combined,
[00:16:00] [SPEAKER_01]: and three times worse than the effects of drinking unsafe water, having poor sanitation, and incorrect hand washing.
[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Additionally, they estimate that the global cost of lead exposure annually could be over 9.3 trillion dollars, equivalent to 7% of global GDP.
[00:16:19] [SPEAKER_01]: A bit of good news now, and a new study claims that getting just 20 to 25 minutes of exercise every day may be enough to offset the heightened risk of death from highly-sitenti life styles in people over the age of 50.
[00:16:33] [SPEAKER_01]: A report in the British Journal's Sports Medicine analyzed two years of activity tracker data from almost 12,000 people aged 50 or over.
[00:16:42] [SPEAKER_01]: They found that being sedentary for more than 12 hours a day was associated with a 38% heightened risk of death,
[00:16:49] [SPEAKER_01]: but only for those undertaking less than 22 minutes of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity.
[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever noticed that when people talk about ghosts and ghouls and hauntings and things like that, it usually involves spirits from a long time ago,
[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_01]: usually from something ancient, medieval or at least from Chudor Elizabethan or Victorian times,
[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_01]: to amend them from Australian skeptics points out, you seldom hear about the ghost of some funsie-like Greece,
[00:17:48] [SPEAKER_02]: people go to the Royal People in Victoria and close or drive in a year,
[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_02]: and looking at the strange and the person who's been wandering the halls of this castle for 5,000 years.
[00:17:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Where are the new ghosts?
[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_02]: The question that people are asking for, they have their people still dying, maybe modern ghosts, but I try to think of some.
[00:18:03] [SPEAKER_02]: They're not trying to get away. They're not many animal ghosts.
[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_01]: So how do we have the way to resolution on this?
[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_02]: One of the suggestions is that who's going to be scary?
[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_02]: If we ever have a ghost, the most perhaps I mean, because a person who was stolen to death as a witch in the 1600s,
[00:18:15] [SPEAKER_02]: or someone from the 1970s, if it was just stone, and it fell out of window.
[00:18:20] [SPEAKER_02]: Obviously, the old person is going to be old, but a witch should ghost is going to be more effective, cool,
[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_02]: for sparing people.
[00:18:26] [SPEAKER_01]: That's Timendom from Austria in skeptics.
[00:18:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's the show for now.
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