Unraveling the Long Period Transient
Astronomers have uncovered a new cosmic phenomenon, ASCAP J1832-0911, which emits both radio and X-ray pulses every 44 minutes for just two minutes at a time. This first-ever detection of a Long Period Transient has left scientists puzzled about its nature and origins. Lead author Dr Andy Wang from Curtin University discusses the potential theories, including the possibility of a magnetar or a binary star system, while emphasizing the need for further observations to unravel this cosmic mystery.
Betelgeuse's Stellar Companion
In a remarkable discovery, astronomers have identified a stellar companion orbiting the red supergiant Betelgeuse. This pre-main sequence star, approximately one and a half times the mass of the Sun, resides within Betelgeuse's outer atmosphere. As Betelgeuse approaches the end of its life, this companion is also on a collision course with destiny, likely spiraling into Betelgeuse within the next 10,000 years. This finding could shed light on the periodic brightness changes observed in similar red supergiant stars.
Mars Perseverance Rover's New Discoveries
NASA's Perseverance Rover continues its exploration of Jezero Crater, uncovering unusual rock formations that may reveal significant geological history. The rover is investigating an intriguing contact area where clay-bearing units meet olivine-rich rocks, potentially preserving evidence of ancient intrusive processes. Despite challenges in studying these formations, mission managers remain determined to unlock the secrets they hold about Mars' past.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Astrophysical Journal Letters
https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/1538-4357
NASA's Perseverance Rover Mission
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
00:00 Space Time series 28 episode 90 for broadcast on 28 July 2025
00:47 Long Period Transient emitting radio and X ray pulses every 44 minutes
07:48 Astronomers have discovered what appears to be a companion star in binary orbit
12:30 NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover is continuing its exploration of Jetro Crater
15:00 New study links early smartphone use to poorer mental health later in life
17:39 There are new reports of Bigfoot activity in the Pacific Northwest state of Washington
00:00:00
This is Space Time, Series 28, Episode 90, for broadcast on the
00:00:04
28th of July, 2025. Coming up on Space Time, an amazing cosmic
00:00:10
mystery deepens, discovery of a Stellar Companion to the red
00:00:15
supergiant star Betelgeuse, and Perseverance discovers strange
00:00:19
new rock formations on the Red Planet Mars. All that and more
00:00:24
coming up on Space Time.
00:00:28
Welcome to Space Time.
00:00:29
With Stuart Gary.
00:00:47
Astronomers are trying to resolve a cosmic mystery worthy
00:00:50
of a detective story. They've discovered a new type of
00:00:53
phenomenon, an object which they've catalogued as ASCAP
00:00:57
J1832-0911.
00:01:00
It's emitting both radio and X-ray pulses every 44 minutes,
00:01:04
but these pulses are only lasting 2 minutes in duration.
00:01:08
Astronomers have named this object a long-period transient,
00:01:12
and it's the first time an object like this has ever been
00:01:14
seen.
00:01:15
The discovery made by ASCAP, the Australian Square Kilometre Ray
00:01:19
Pathfinder Radio Telescope, a group of 36 12-metre parabolic
00:01:24
dishes located at the Murchison Observatory in the Western
00:01:27
Australian outback. Following its discovery, further
00:01:30
observations were made using NASA's Earth-Orbiting Chandra
00:01:33
X-Ray Observatory.
00:01:35
The study's lead author Andy Wang, from the Curtin University
00:01:38
node of the International Centre For Radio Astronomy Research,
00:01:41
says this object's unlike anything ever seen before. There
00:01:45
's no clear explanation for what 's causing these signals. Or why
00:01:49
they switch on and off at such long, regular and unusual
00:01:52
intervals.
00:01:53
Now, since X-rays are much higher energy levels than radio
00:01:57
waves, any theory needs to account for both types of
00:02:00
emissions. And that could be a valuable clue, given their
00:02:03
nature remains a cosmic mystery. Wang says it was fortunate that
00:02:07
Chandra was looking at the same area of the sky as ASCAP at the
00:02:10
same time.
00:02:11
He thinks this mysterious object could be a magnetar, a highly
00:02:15
magnetized neutron star, Or it could be a. Pair of stars in a
00:02:18
binary system where one of the two is a highly magnetized white
00:02:22
dwarf, the core of a dead Sun-like star.
00:02:25
Trouble is, neither of those theories fully explain what's
00:02:28
actually being observed. It means the discovery could
00:02:31
indicate a new type of physics or new models of stellar
00:02:35
evolution. Wang says detecting these objects using both X-rays
00:02:39
and radio waves may help astronomers find more samples of
00:02:42
them and learn more about them.
00:02:44
As you can see in their names, like, they're gone, period. Yep.
00:02:47
So. I will just try to explain each word one by one. So like
00:02:51
non-period, because usually in the radio, what we saw are the
00:02:55
pulsars, those that are stars, and they rotate pretty fast,
00:02:58
every megaseconds to seconds.
00:03:00
So if you see something like emit radio pulses every tenth of
00:03:05
minutes or several hours, then you will say, all right,
00:03:08
compared to those pulsars, they are non-period. And the second
00:03:11
word is trillions. So the trillions are the things that
00:03:14
just suddenly appear and disappear, so you can't...
00:03:17
Imagine if something like the brightness of the source just
00:03:21
becoming up and down, then we'll just say it is a transient. So
00:03:26
you're a transient associated with some very energetic events
00:03:30
in the universe. For example, the explosion of the star or
00:03:34
very like energetic jets from the source, something like that.
00:03:38
Where in the sky is this?
00:03:40
It is right towards the galactic plane and it is about 15
00:03:45
light years away from us.
00:03:46
They're emitting wavelengths over a broad range of the
00:03:49
electromagnetic spectrum?
00:03:50
Yeah, right. We see the radio emission every 44 minutes
00:03:53
compared to the normal pulse, they are seconds. So what makes
00:03:56
this specific one special is that we also see periodic X-ray
00:04:00
emission from it. Because there are, I would say, two main
00:04:04
models to explain a long-period training. The first one is a
00:04:09
very magnetized neutron star.
00:04:11
However, we will expect to see X-ray emission from these kind
00:04:15
of objects. As well. Despite we've already discovered about
00:04:18
10 of them, none of them has been ever detected in X-ray. So
00:04:22
this is the first one detected in X-ray. It also shows 44
00:04:27
minutes period. So you know like some sources, they will have
00:04:30
X-ray emission across the whole period.
00:04:33
But for this one, you can still see pulses in X-ray as well. So
00:04:37
this implies that this kind of sources is more energetic than
00:04:41
what we thought because previously we didn't see similar
00:04:44
objects. Emit X-ray emission and X-ray is at a higher energy than
00:04:49
the radio band. And the second is we only see X-ray emission
00:04:53
when the source was extremely radio bright.
00:04:55
What we think is it can be a very slow rotating thing. I
00:04:59
think it is a slow rotating magnetitar. So like a highly
00:05:04
magnetized neutron star that rotates. Very slow. So to catch
00:05:08
up X-ray things from similar objects, we need to be very
00:05:12
lucky and we need to have very prompt reactions so that we can
00:05:18
observe the source in X-ray in a timely manner.
00:05:21
The other option, I guess, is the idea of the source being in
00:05:24
a binary system with another star, most likely.
00:05:27
For this source, it is slightly unlikely, but we already see
00:05:31
lots of similar objects showing similar radio behavior. In other
00:05:36
long-period transients. So the current idea is, I guess some of
00:05:39
them are coming from a binary system where one star is what we
00:05:44
call a white dwarf. White dwarf is like when our song is
00:05:48
becoming a white dwarf. So heavy things will become neutron star
00:05:51
and a lighter thing will become a white dwarf.
00:05:54
One is a white dwarf and the other one is a normal star. And
00:05:57
when a normal star just orbiting around the white dwarf, it will
00:06:01
just produce the emission in radio band. But. Given the
00:06:05
properties of this specific source, I would say it is
00:06:08
unlikely, even though some other similar system has been
00:06:11
discovered and confirmed to be such a system.
00:06:14
It doesn't sound like a binary system.
00:06:16
It's too hard. Otherwise, you should say 10 or 20 minutes of
00:06:20
the source and then just walk. That is possible, but just two
00:06:24
minutes is hard to explain.
00:06:25
Yeah, that's not a normal light curve. No.
00:06:28
We might be able to get more information from x-ray, but we
00:06:32
don't collect enough. Information to confirm it. But
00:06:35
next time, if the source becomes bright or we discover some new
00:06:38
sources, we'll be able to get ready and get enough data we
00:06:42
need to try to understand the nature of the source.
00:06:46
It's a real mystery.
00:06:46
You need to know more about this object. So we just write
00:06:49
proposals to apply for times for telos around the world, try to
00:06:53
catch more pulses. And we also contact some theoretical people
00:06:57
to work out the nature of the source, even though by the end,
00:07:00
we didn't come to a conclusion. What the source actually is.
00:07:04
That's the study's lead author, Dr. Andy Wang, from the Curtin
00:07:07
University node of the International Centre For Radio
00:07:10
Astronomy Research. And this is Space Time.
00:07:14
Still to come, discovery of a Stellar Companion to the red
00:07:17
supergiant Betelgeuse, better known to many of our listeners
00:07:20
as Betelgeuse, and NASA's Mars Perseverance Rovers discovered
00:07:24
some strange new rock formations on the Red Planet, which are
00:07:27
proving difficult to explain. All that and more still to come
00:07:31
on Space Time.
00:07:48
Astronomers have discovered what appears to be a companion star
00:07:51
in a binary orbit with the red supergiant Betelgeuse, better
00:07:55
known to many of our listeners as Betelgeuse. The findings,
00:07:59
reported in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, show the binary
00:08:02
companion is a pre-main sequence spectrotype B or possibly A
00:08:06
blue-white star.
00:08:08
It's about one and a half times the mass of the Sun and it
00:08:11
hasn't yet commenced fusing hydrogen in its core. The
00:08:14
companion is relatively close to the surface of Betelgeuse. About
00:08:18
four times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. This
00:08:21
discovery is the first example of a close-in Stellar Companion
00:08:25
detected orbiting any supergiant.
00:08:28
Even more impressive, companion orbits will within Betelgeuse's
00:08:31
outer extended atmosphere. Betelgeuse is one of the 20
00:08:35
brightest stars in the night sky, and it's also the closest
00:08:38
red supergiant to Earth. It has an enormous volume, spanning a
00:08:43
radius of around 700 times that of the Sun.
00:08:46
In fact, were it where our Sun is in our solar system, its
00:08:49
surface would extend out almost as far as the orbit of Jupiter.
00:08:53
Despite being just 10 million years old, which is considered
00:08:57
young by astronomical standards, Betelgeuse is reaching the end
00:09:00
of its life, having already left the main sequence, no longer
00:09:03
fusing hydrogen in its core, but helium, and burning hydrogen in
00:09:07
an outer shell.
00:09:09
Consequently, Betelgeuse is ruling its way to becoming a
00:09:12
supernova. And that could happen any day now. Which in
00:09:16
astronomical terms could mean tomorrow or it could mean in a
00:09:19
million years from now. When it does explode, it'll be so
00:09:23
bright, you'll be able to easily see it shining in broad daylight
00:09:26
for many months on end.
00:09:28
Betelgeuse is located on the shoulder of the constellation
00:09:31
Orion the Hunter. People have been observing Betelgeuse as a
00:09:34
naked-eye star for millennia, noticing that the star changes
00:09:38
in brightness over time.
00:09:40
So far, astronomers have established that Betelgeuse has
00:09:43
a main periodicity of variability of around 400 days,
00:09:47
but it also has a second more extended periodicity of around 6
00:09:51
years. And so there are these constant pulsations going on.
00:09:55
Now you may recall back in 2019 and 2020 there were growing
00:09:59
concerns that Betelgeuse was about to go supernova.
00:10:02
That's because it suddenly displayed a steep decrease in
00:10:04
brightness, an event now being referred to as the Great
00:10:07
Dimming. Eventually, astronomers determined the dimming was
00:10:11
actually caused by a large cloud of dust ejected from Betelgeuse
00:10:14
itself. The great dimming mystery was solved, but the
00:10:17
event did spark renewed interest in studying Betelgeuse, which
00:10:21
resulted in a new analysis of existing archival data on the
00:10:24
star.
00:10:25
Now, one analysis led astronomers to propose that the
00:10:28
cause of Betelgeuse's six-year variability was the presence of
00:10:31
a small companion star. But observations by both the Hubble
00:10:35
Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory found nothing.
00:10:39
However, Stephen Howe from NASA 's Ames Research Center
00:10:42
eventually tracked down a Stellar Companion using the
00:10:44
Alepeki speckle imager on the Gemini North telescope in
00:10:47
Hawaii. Speckle imaging is a technique that uses very short
00:10:51
exposure times in order to freeze out distortions in images
00:10:54
caused by things like Earth's atmosphere.
00:10:57
The technique enables high resolution, which when combined
00:11:00
with the light collecting power of the Gemini North's 8.1 meter
00:11:03
mirror finally allowed Betelgeuse's faint companion to
00:11:06
be directly seen. Betelgeuse and its companion star were likely
00:11:11
born at the same time.
00:11:12
And as Betelgeuse is running out of time, so too is its
00:11:15
companion, which will have its lifespan shortened as strong
00:11:19
tidal forces will cause it to spiral into Betelgeuse and meet
00:11:22
its demise, which scientists estimate should occur within the
00:11:25
next 10 years. This discovery could help explain why
00:11:30
similar red supergiant stars may also undergo periodic changes in
00:11:34
their brightness on the scale of years.
00:11:37
Another opportunity to study Betelgeuse's Stellar Companion
00:11:40
will occur in November 2027, when it returns to its further
00:11:43
separation from Betelgeuse, and thus will be easier to detect.
00:11:48
This is Space Time. Still to come, NASA's Mars Perseverance
00:11:52
Rover's continuous exploration of the rim of the Red Planet's
00:11:55
Jezero Crater has found some unusual rock formations which
00:11:59
are unusual to explain.
00:12:01
And later in the science report... A new study warns that
00:12:04
kids who get their first smartphone before their 13th
00:12:06
birthday end up being more likely to experience poorer
00:12:09
mental health once they're adults. All that and more still
00:12:13
to come on Space Time.
00:12:30
NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover is continuing its exploration of
00:12:34
the rim of the Red Planet's Jezero Crater. The six-wheel
00:12:37
car-sized Merbo laboratory has been travelling in a westerly
00:12:40
direction to a new site which scientists have named Westport.
00:12:44
It's a region where the clay-bearing crocodilian unit,
00:12:46
which we've talked about before on the show, meets an
00:12:49
olivine-bearing rock formation.
00:12:51
Now it's possible that these olivine-rich rocks may be an
00:12:54
intrusive igneous unit, meaning they could have been formed when
00:12:57
molten magma from deep within Mars pushed its way up and then
00:13:01
cooled just below the surface.
00:13:03
Now, if that's the case, Westport could be preserving a
00:13:06
dramatic moment in Martian history when hot and molten
00:13:09
material intruded into existing rock formations. These intrusive
00:13:13
processes are common here on Earth, and the heat from the
00:13:16
intruding magma can fundamentally alter the
00:13:18
surrounding geology through a process which geologists call
00:13:22
contact metamorphism. The heat from the intrusion literally
00:13:25
bakes nearby rocks.
00:13:27
In the process creating new minerals and potentially new
00:13:30
environments for microbial life. At the same time, the intrusive
00:13:34
material is getting rapidly chilled as they meet the
00:13:37
pre-existing solid rock formations above. So at West
00:13:41
Point, Perseverance is looking for evidence that the
00:13:44
crocodilian rocks at the contact point were indeed baked, and
00:13:48
that the olivine-bearing rocks there were chilled.
00:13:52
Images from the Mastcam-Z instrument are revealing that
00:13:54
this contact area is littered with intriguing dark rubbly
00:13:58
rocks alongside lighter toned smooth boulders. But both rock
00:14:02
types are proving challenging to study.
00:14:05
You see the dark fragments are too small and rough for
00:14:07
Perseverance's standard abrasion techniques. Still the rover has
00:14:11
cleared off the surface of one of the rocks called Holyrood Bay
00:14:14
using its dust removal tool for a closer examination.
00:14:18
Perseverance also tried to abrade one of the nearby smooth
00:14:21
boulders. This one's been named Drake's Point.
00:14:24
But the rock shifted to the side, causing the abrasion to
00:14:26
stop short. Nevertheless, the science questions being raised
00:14:30
here are so compelling that mission managers will continue
00:14:32
to try and look inside these boundary rocks in order to find
00:14:35
out more about them and what's going on. Needless to say, we'll
00:14:40
keep you informed. This is Space Time.
00:15:00
Time now to take a brief look at some of the other stories making
00:15:02
news in science this week with a science report. And a new study
00:15:06
warns that children who get their first smartphone before
00:15:09
their 13th birthday are more likely to end up with poorer
00:15:12
mental health during their early adulthood.
00:15:15
The findings, reported in the Journal Of Human Development And
00:15:18
Capabilities, are based on data from a global mental health
00:15:21
study which looked at people aged 18 to 24. The authors
00:15:25
compared a range of mental health factors with how early
00:15:28
participants received their first smartphones.
00:15:31
They found that receiving a smartphone at the age of 12 or
00:15:34
less was linked to a lower overall level of mental health,
00:15:38
with this link strongest for suicidal thoughts, aggression,
00:15:41
detachment from reality and hallucinations. The authors say
00:15:45
that much of this link to poorer mental health may be explained
00:15:48
by access to social media, cyberbullying, disrupted sleep
00:15:52
and poor family relationships.
00:15:55
A new study has confirmed that a series of global marine heat
00:15:59
waves in 2023 were unprecedented in their intensity persistence
00:16:04
and scale. The findings reported in the journal Science showed
00:16:08
that these ocean heatwaves covered some 96% of the global
00:16:12
marine area in 2023, and they lasted for an average of 120
00:16:16
days.
00:16:17
Now the authors say the primary factors driving these heatwaves
00:16:21
varied in different regions, but in the southwestern Pacific
00:16:24
Ocean area, the heatwaves were primarily being driven by a
00:16:27
strong high-pressure system which disrupted prevailing
00:16:30
westerlies. The authors warn that these ocean heat waves may
00:16:33
be indicating an early sign of some sort of tipping point in
00:16:37
the Earth's climatic systems.
00:16:40
A new study claims that walking at least 7 steps a day has
00:16:44
the potential to reduce your risk for several serious health
00:16:47
outcomes, including premature death, heart disease, cancer,
00:16:51
dementia and depression. The findings, reported in the Lancet
00:16:54
Medical Journal, are based on over 160 people in 31
00:16:58
studies.
00:17:00
The authors say 7 steps per day was linked to a 47%
00:17:04
reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality, a 25%
00:17:08
reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease, a 6%
00:17:11
lower risk of cancer, a 14% reduction in type 2 diabetes, a
00:17:15
38% drop in dementia, a 22% drop in depression, and a 28% drop in
00:17:21
falls.
00:17:22
Interesting, the authors found that after 7 steps, the
00:17:25
benefits tended to level off. Additionally, the authors also
00:17:29
showed that even a modest step count, say around 2 steps
00:17:32
per day, was also linked to better health when compared to
00:17:36
very low activity levels.
00:17:39
There are new reports today of Sasquatch activity in the
00:17:42
Pacific Northwest state of Washington. The area already has
00:17:46
one of the highest levels of reported Bigfoot sightings in
00:17:48
the world, and these latest reports involve a Sasquatch
00:17:52
staring at someone through a window.
00:17:54
Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics says, the alleged
00:17:57
victim of this peeping Tom hominid, didn't manage to take a
00:17:59
few snapshots. But as always seems to happen in these cases,
00:18:04
they only really ended up with swatch blobs.
00:18:06
This follows the trend, this continual trend of Bigfoot,
00:18:10
UFOs, blockchain sponsors, whatever, that people never seem
00:18:14
to have a good camera with them. This is someone living in a
00:18:16
cabin in the wilderness of Washington State, northwest of
00:18:19
the USA, Bigfoot country.
00:18:21
Suddenly they looked up and there was Bigfoot staring
00:18:23
through the window at them. And they managed to get a couple of
00:18:25
photos off. Presumably with their phone. I'm not quite sure
00:18:28
whether it was a phone or a proper camera or whatever. And
00:18:30
they're terrible photos.
00:18:31
One of the photos, the front-on one, shows what looks like a
00:18:33
Great Dane.
00:18:35
Or it looks like someone with a mask or it looks like all sorts
00:18:37
of things. It's pretty unimpressive just because of the
00:18:40
fact that the photo is rubbish. It's fuzzy. Phone cameras are
00:18:42
pretty good these days. You know, very good, in fact. And if
00:18:45
you want to take a decent photo that's sharp, you're probably
00:18:47
going to have a better job doing it with a phone camera than with
00:18:49
any other sort of camera, especially at short notice.
00:18:51
But there's several photos. That 's not like this person looked
00:18:54
up, there was a... The Bigfoot and they ran off. He managed to
00:18:56
get a few photos taken, at least two if not more, and all of them
00:19:00
are fuzzy. Now you think, goodness gracious, why? Why are
00:19:03
these photos fuzzy? Unfortunately, there's no
00:19:05
evidence for Bigfoot.
00:19:06
There's nothing sort of definitive that comes down to
00:19:08
show that Bigfoot exists, including how many of them are
00:19:12
they, are they breeding? Although every state in America
00:19:14
has apparently a Bigfoot and basically every country in the
00:19:17
world has a Bigfoot version of some sort or another, including
00:19:20
Australia, including Singapore, which is interesting. It's not a
00:19:22
very big place.
00:19:23
Wasn't the thing of Boreas, Bigfoot, a wino living in the
00:19:26
park?
00:19:26
Oh, there were a wino living in the park. It was a soldier. The
00:19:29
old story of a Japanese soldier who still thinks the war's on. I
00:19:32
don't think they've seen it for a while.
00:19:33
There'll be a hundred now, but.
00:19:34
There'll be more. They haven't seen it for a while. Okay. It
00:19:38
was in a, basically, what is a large park. I mean, there's
00:19:41
pathways, walkways through it. So it's not like it's a
00:19:43
wilderness. But yeah, every country has their big feet.
00:19:46
Uh-uh-uh. It's Bigfoots.
00:19:48
Bigfoots?
00:19:48
Bigfoots, I've been officially told.
00:19:51
Bigfoots. Foot, three big foot, three penguins, three sheep, one
00:19:55
sheep, two sheep, three sheep. So, okay, big foot. Anyway, no
00:19:59
evidence for big foot. What evidence there is presented is
00:20:01
pretty poor.
00:20:01
That's Tim Endham from Australian Skeptics.
00:20:20
And that's the show for now. Space Time is available every
00:20:23
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spacetimewithstuartgarry.com.
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Space Time is also broadcast through the National Science
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Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both IHeart Radio and
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TuneIn Radio. And you can help to support our show by visiting
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the Space Time store for a range of promotional merchandising
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goodies.
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Or by becoming a Space Time patron, which gives you access
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to triple episode commercial free versions of the show, as
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well as lots of bonus audio content which doesn't go to air,
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access to our exclusive Facebook group and other rewards. Just go
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to spacetimewithstuartgary.com for full details. You've been
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listening to Space Time with Stuart Gary.
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This has been another quality podcast production from
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Bytes.Com.