00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Stuart Gary: This is space time series 28 episode 99
00:00:02 --> 00:00:05 full broadcast on 18 August
00:00:05 --> 00:00:08 2025 coming up on SpaceTime,
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 the most massive black hole ever discovered.
00:00:11 --> 00:00:14 The detection of what looks like another planet in the Alpha
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 Centauri star system, and the growing
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 concern among scientists about the ongoing
00:00:20 --> 00:00:22 proliferation of satellites in Earth orbit.
00:00:23 --> 00:00:25 All that and more coming up on, um, Space
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 Time. Welcome to
00:00:28 --> 00:00:30 Space Time with Stuart Gary Gary.
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 Astronomers have discovered what's potentially the biggest
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 supermassive black hole ever seen, called
00:00:52 --> 00:00:55 the cosmic horseshoe, because it's so big, it's
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 distorting space time. This behemoth's
00:00:57 --> 00:01:00 estimated to be around 36 billion times the
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03 mass of the sun. And that puts it close to the
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 theoretical upper limit of what's possible.
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 Located some 5 billion light years away,
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 supermassive black hole warps and gravitationally
00:01:11 --> 00:01:14 lenses light from background galaxies, turning its
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 appearance into that of a giant horseshoe shaped Einstein
00:01:17 --> 00:01:20 ring. A report in the Monthly Notices of the Royal
00:01:20 --> 00:01:23 Astronomical Society claims the monster is located in
00:01:23 --> 00:01:26 one of the most m massive galaxies ever observed.
00:01:26 --> 00:01:29 Astronomers believe that most, if not all galaxies
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 contain supermassive black holes at their centers.
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 And the bigger the galaxy, the bigger the black hole.
00:01:35 --> 00:01:38 One of the study's authors, Thomas Collett from the University
00:01:38 --> 00:01:41 of Portsmouth, says the cosmic horseshoe is among the 10
00:01:41 --> 00:01:44 most massive black holes ever discovered and quite
00:01:44 --> 00:01:47 possibly the biggest of all. The thing is,
00:01:47 --> 00:01:49 most of the other black hole mass measurements have been
00:01:49 --> 00:01:52 through indirect methods, and that means there's quite a bit
00:01:52 --> 00:01:55 of leeway for uncertainties. So
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58 astronomers don't really know for sure which is the
00:01:58 --> 00:02:01 biggest. However, Collette says they've got far
00:02:01 --> 00:02:03 more certainty with the mass of this black hole, thanks to the way
00:02:03 --> 00:02:06 it was measured. The authors detected the cosmic
00:02:06 --> 00:02:09 horseshoe black hole using a combination of gravitational
00:02:09 --> 00:02:12 lensing and stellar kimatics.
00:02:12 --> 00:02:15 Gravitational lensing involves the bending of light from
00:02:15 --> 00:02:17 background objects by the mass of a foreground
00:02:17 --> 00:02:20 object. Kinematics is the study of the
00:02:20 --> 00:02:23 motion of stars within galaxies and the speed and
00:02:23 --> 00:02:26 way they're moving around black holes. And the
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 latter is seen as the gold standard for measuring black hole
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 masses. But it doesn't really work outside the very
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34 nearby universe because galaxies appear too small in
00:02:34 --> 00:02:37 the sky to resolve the region a supermassive
00:02:37 --> 00:02:40 black hole lies. But adding gravitational
00:02:40 --> 00:02:43 lensing allowed the authors to push much further out into
00:02:43 --> 00:02:46 the universe. So they were able to detect the
00:02:46 --> 00:02:49 effect of the black hole in two ways. Firstly, by the way
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 it's altering the path that light takes as it travels past
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 the black hole, and secondly, the way it's causing
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 stars in the Inner regions Of its host galaxy to move
00:02:57 --> 00:03:00 extremely quickly around the black hole, Often at
00:03:00 --> 00:03:03 speeds of greater than 400 kilometers per second.
00:03:03 --> 00:03:06 By combining these two measurements, astronomers could be
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 completely confident that the black hole is real.
00:03:09 --> 00:03:12 This discovery was made for what's referred to as a
00:03:12 --> 00:03:15 dormant black hole. That's one that isn't actively accreting
00:03:15 --> 00:03:18 material at the time of its observation. So
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21 its detection relied purely on its immense
00:03:21 --> 00:03:24 gravitational pull and the effect it has on its
00:03:24 --> 00:03:26 surroundings. Uh, typically, for such a remote
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 system, Black hole mass measurements are only possible when the
00:03:29 --> 00:03:32 black hole is active. The authors are describing the
00:03:32 --> 00:03:35 cosmic horseshoe system As a fossil group,
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 Galaxy fossil groups at the end
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 state of the most massive Gravitationally bound
00:03:40 --> 00:03:43 structures in the universe, Arising when they've
00:03:43 --> 00:03:46 collapsed down to a single extremely massive galaxy
00:03:46 --> 00:03:49 with no bright companions. Collette says
00:03:49 --> 00:03:52 it's now likely that all of the supermassive black
00:03:52 --> 00:03:55 holes that were originally the companion galaxies have
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 now been merged to form this one single
00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 giant. So that means what we're really
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 seeing here Is the end state of
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 galaxy formation and the end
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 state of black hole formation.
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 This is space time. Still to
00:04:11 --> 00:04:14 come, astronomers discover what could be another
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 planet Orbiting in the Alpha Centauri triple star system.
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 And there's growing concern among scientists about the
00:04:20 --> 00:04:23 ongoing proliferation of satellites in Earth orbit.
00:04:23 --> 00:04:26 All that and more still to come, uh, on space
00:04:26 --> 00:04:26 time,
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 astronomers may have discovered another planet
00:04:44 --> 00:04:47 Orbiting the Alpha Centauri triple star system.
00:04:48 --> 00:04:51 At a distance of just 4.25 light years,
00:04:51 --> 00:04:53 Alpha Centauri is the nearest star system to our
00:04:53 --> 00:04:56 own solar system. The system is located in
00:04:56 --> 00:04:59 the southern skies. It's the second of the two
00:04:59 --> 00:05:02 pointer stars Showing the way to the Southern cross.
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 The system comprises two sun like stars,
00:05:05 --> 00:05:08 Alpha Centauri A and B, which orbit each other.
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 Alpha Centauri A is fractionally larger Than our Sun,
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 Alpha Centauri B, just a little bit smaller.
00:05:14 --> 00:05:17 And both are orbited by the system's third star, the
00:05:17 --> 00:05:20 red dwarf Proxima Centauri, which right now
00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 is the nearest star to the sun, consequently the second
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 nearest star to Earth after the Sun. And astronomers
00:05:26 --> 00:05:29 have already confirmed three planets Orbiting Proxima
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 Centauri. But the search for possible worlds Orbiting
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 Alpha Centauri A and B has proven to be far more
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 challenging. Now, a report in the
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 Astrophysical Journal Letters has used observations
00:05:40 --> 00:05:42 from NASA's Webb Space Telescope's mid infrared
00:05:42 --> 00:05:45 instrument to suggest that a Saturn sized gas
00:05:45 --> 00:05:48 giant is orbiting Alpha Centauri A.
00:05:48 --> 00:05:51 Alpha Centauri A is the third brightest star system in the
00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 night sky. Now, if confirmed, it would
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 make this planet the closest to Earth orbiting the
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 habitable zone of a sun like star. Uh,
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 studies lead author Charles Beckman from NASA's Jet
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, says
00:06:05 --> 00:06:08 that because this exoplanetary candidate is a gas
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 giant, it's not likely to support life as we know it.
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 But Beckman says with the system being so close,
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 any exoplanets found there would offer a great
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 opportunity to collect data on planetary systems other
00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 than our, um, own. Yet these are incredibly
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 challenging observations to make, even with the world's
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 most powerful space telescopes. That's because
00:06:28 --> 00:06:31 they're orbiting stars that are really bright and close and
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 moving quickly across the sky. Webb
00:06:34 --> 00:06:36 was actually designed and optimized to find the most distant
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 stars and galaxies in the universe. So the
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 operations team at the Space Telescope Science Institute
00:06:42 --> 00:06:45 in Baltimore, Maryland, had to come up with a custom
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 designed observation sequence just for this target.
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 And it looks like this extra effort may well have paid off
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 spectacularly. Several rounds of
00:06:53 --> 00:06:56 meticulously planned observations by Webb, careful
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 analysis by astronomers and extensive computer
00:06:59 --> 00:07:02 modeling all combine to help determine that the
00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 source in the Webb image is likely to be a planet and not
00:07:05 --> 00:07:08 just a background object like a distant galaxy or a
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 foreground object like a passing asteroid, or for that
00:07:10 --> 00:07:13 matter, some sort of detector or image artifact.
00:07:14 --> 00:07:17 The first observations of this planetary candidate actually
00:07:17 --> 00:07:20 took place back in August 2024, using
00:07:20 --> 00:07:23 the chronographic mask to block Alpha Centauri
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 A's light. Still, the extra brightness
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 from the nearby companion star Alpha Centauri B
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 complicated the analysis. Nevertheless,
00:07:31 --> 00:07:34 Beckman and colleagues were able to subtract out the light from both the
00:07:34 --> 00:07:37 stars Alpha Centauri A and B to reveal an object
00:07:37 --> 00:07:40 over 10 times fainter than Alpha Centauri
00:07:40 --> 00:07:43 A, separated from the star by about two times
00:07:43 --> 00:07:45 the distance between the sun and the earth, about
00:07:45 --> 00:07:48 300 million kilometres. While the
00:07:48 --> 00:07:51 initial detection was exciting, the authors still needed
00:07:51 --> 00:07:53 more data in order to come to a firm conclusion.
00:07:54 --> 00:07:56 The trouble is, the additional observations of the system by
00:07:56 --> 00:07:59 Webb in February and April this year didn't reveal any
00:07:59 --> 00:08:02 objects like the one initially identified back in August
00:08:02 --> 00:08:05 last year. So to work out what was likely
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 happening, the authors turned to computer models to
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 simulate millions of potential orbits. And these
00:08:10 --> 00:08:13 simulations included both the new Webb data and
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 Also an earlier 2019 potential
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 exoplanetary candidate sighting by the European
00:08:18 --> 00:08:21 Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile.
00:08:22 --> 00:08:25 And they also considered orbits that would be gravitationally stable
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 in the presence of Alpha Centauri B, meaning the
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 planet wouldn't be getting flung out of the system. The
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 authors say, a non detection in the second and third round of
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 observations using Webb wasn't surprising. The
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39 models showed that the planet simply would have moved too close to the
00:08:39 --> 00:08:41 star to be visible during both the February and April
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 observations. Now, if confirmed, the
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 potential planet could mark a new milestone for
00:08:46 --> 00:08:49 exoplanetary imaging efforts. In fact, of all the
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 directly imaged planets seen so far, this would be the
00:08:52 --> 00:08:55 closest to its star. It's also the most
00:08:55 --> 00:08:58 similar in terms of temperature and age to the gas giants
00:08:58 --> 00:09:01 in our own solar system and the nearest to Earth.
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 But its very existence in a system of two
00:09:04 --> 00:09:07 closely separated stars challenges our
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 understanding of how planets form and how they could
00:09:10 --> 00:09:12 survive and evolve in such a chaotic environment.
00:09:13 --> 00:09:16 If confirmed by additional observations, the results could
00:09:16 --> 00:09:19 transform the future of exoplanetary science,
00:09:19 --> 00:09:22 Beckman says. It would become a touchstone object.
00:09:22 --> 00:09:25 For example, NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space
00:09:25 --> 00:09:28 Telescope, which is set to launch in May 2027, is
00:09:28 --> 00:09:31 equipped with dedicated hardware that's specifically designed
00:09:31 --> 00:09:34 to test new technologies to observe bina systems like
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 Alpha Centauri in the search for other
00:09:36 --> 00:09:39 worlds. This is space time
00:09:40 --> 00:09:43 still to come. Growing concern among astronomers about the
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 worsening proliferation of satellites in Earth orbit.
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 And later in the Science report, early stage
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51 trials have shown positive results for a
00:09:51 --> 00:09:54 vaccine specifically designed to recognize and kill
00:09:54 --> 00:09:57 cancer cells. All that and more still to come
00:09:57 --> 00:09:58 on space time.
00:10:04 --> 00:10:04 Tim Mendham: Foreign.
00:10:14 --> 00:10:17 Stuart Gary: Astronomers have again raised concerns about the
00:10:17 --> 00:10:20 interference broadband Internet satellites are causing the
00:10:20 --> 00:10:22 vital scientific research. The latest
00:10:22 --> 00:10:25 warnings are focused on radio emissions being generated by
00:10:25 --> 00:10:28 Starlink and other broadband satellites, which are
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 interfering with radio astronomy observations.
00:10:31 --> 00:10:34 A study led by Dylan Gregg from Curtin University
00:10:34 --> 00:10:36 Note of the International center for Radio Astronomy Research
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 specifically looked at the effect of the Starlink
00:10:39 --> 00:10:42 megaconstellation, which now has more than 7
00:10:42 --> 00:10:45 satellites in orbit. Gregg says Starlink
00:10:45 --> 00:10:48 is the most immediate and frequent source of potential
00:10:48 --> 00:10:51 interference for radio astronomy. IT launched
00:10:51 --> 00:10:53 some 477 satellites alone during the
00:10:53 --> 00:10:56 study's four month data collection period.
00:10:57 --> 00:11:00 The problem is unintended signals coming from the
00:11:00 --> 00:11:03 satellites. The signals are being leaked by
00:11:03 --> 00:11:05 onboard electronics, and they drown out the faint
00:11:05 --> 00:11:08 radio waves astronomers are trying to study from the
00:11:08 --> 00:11:11 universe. Greg and colleagues collected and
00:11:11 --> 00:11:13 analyzed some 76 million images of the
00:11:13 --> 00:11:16 sky using a prototype of the Square Kilometer
00:11:16 --> 00:11:19 Array, which when complete, will be the world's largest and most
00:11:19 --> 00:11:22 sensitive radio telescope. They detected
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 more than 112 radio emissions coming from
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 1 Starlink satellites.
00:11:28 --> 00:11:31 That makes it the most comprehensive catalogue of satellite
00:11:31 --> 00:11:34 radio missions at low frequencies ever undertaken.
00:11:34 --> 00:11:37 They found that Starlink satellites, uh, are causing significant
00:11:37 --> 00:11:40 radio Pollution by interfering with radio astronomy
00:11:40 --> 00:11:43 observations, potentially impacting important
00:11:43 --> 00:11:46 discoveries and research. The study
00:11:46 --> 00:11:49 reported in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics found that
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 some data sets had up to 30% of images
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 showing interference from a Starlink satellite.
00:11:55 --> 00:11:58 Now, these latest warnings follow ongoing similar
00:11:58 --> 00:12:01 concerns raised by optical astronomers who have had to deal
00:12:01 --> 00:12:03 with trains of Starlink satellites blocking out their
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 observations of the night skies. Griggs
00:12:06 --> 00:12:09 says the issue isn't just the number of satellites up there, but
00:12:09 --> 00:12:12 the strength of their radio signals and the frequencies they were
00:12:12 --> 00:12:15 visible at. Some of the satellites were being detected
00:12:15 --> 00:12:17 emitting in radio bands where no signals are supposed to
00:12:17 --> 00:12:20 be present at all. And that included some 703
00:12:20 --> 00:12:23 satellites identified at 150.8
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 MHz, which is meant to be a, uh, protected fre
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 for radio astronomy. Greg says because they come
00:12:29 --> 00:12:32 from components on the satellites like electronics, they're
00:12:32 --> 00:12:35 not part of any intentional signal and astronomers
00:12:35 --> 00:12:38 can't easily predict them or filter them out.
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 Alex Zaharov-Reutt: We wanted to find out what the prevalence of
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 satellites were at the frequencies that the SKA
00:12:43 --> 00:12:46 Low is going to be looking over, because similar studies
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49 with other telescopes around the world had seen satellite
00:12:49 --> 00:12:52 in images and data are, ah, created of the
00:12:52 --> 00:12:55 sky. So, yeah, we, um, designed a
00:12:55 --> 00:12:57 survey using telescope called
00:12:58 --> 00:13:01 Engineering Development Array 2. It's pretty much
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 the same size as a SKA Low
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06 station. And yeah, so we found a lot of satellites
00:13:06 --> 00:13:09 in the images that we created, most of them being
00:13:09 --> 00:13:12 Starlink satellites. And so the way we looked
00:13:12 --> 00:13:15 at the sky was we took images of the
00:13:15 --> 00:13:18 sky in radio every two seconds, uh,
00:13:18 --> 00:13:21 for about a month. And yeah, so that's how we searched
00:13:21 --> 00:13:22 for the satellites.
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 Stuart Gary: Something like 30% of the images showed
00:13:24 --> 00:13:27 interference from Starlink satellites.
00:13:27 --> 00:13:30 Alex Zaharov-Reutt: Uh, yeah, in some of the frequencies that we looked at,
00:13:30 --> 00:13:33 we saw a lot of Starlink satellites in the images.
00:13:33 --> 00:13:36 And it kind of makes sense because if we see one or two of
00:13:36 --> 00:13:38 them, most of them are designed pretty
00:13:38 --> 00:13:41 similarly. And the launch of
00:13:41 --> 00:13:43 Starlink satellites has been almost
00:13:43 --> 00:13:46 exponential. So yeah, it kind of makes sense that we see so
00:13:46 --> 00:13:47 many of them in the images.
00:13:47 --> 00:13:50 Stuart Gary: Can you filter them out of the data to save the research,
00:13:50 --> 00:13:53 or is this just an interference we now have to deal with?
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56 Alex Zaharov-Reutt: They're quite bright, so they're roughly
00:13:56 --> 00:13:59 sometimes the same brightness as like
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 the brightest radio galaxy that we see in the,
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04 um. And when they're so bright compared
00:14:05 --> 00:14:08 to really faint signals from the early
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10 universe, which is what radio astronomers are looking for,
00:14:10 --> 00:14:13 it makes them quite difficult to filter out. But a lot of
00:14:13 --> 00:14:16 the time, the current mitigation strategy is just to
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 get rid of data when they're visible, or
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 be smarter in how the surveys are
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 required so that, uh, you're looking at the sky with the
00:14:25 --> 00:14:27 telescope when the satellites aren't directly overhead.
00:14:27 --> 00:14:30 Stuart Gary: But that's one of the big problems, isn't it? Because they're everywhere now.
00:14:30 --> 00:14:33 You've got potentially 35 of them. This
00:14:33 --> 00:14:36 is Starlink alone, potentially 35 of
00:14:36 --> 00:14:39 them about to be launched. Already. You've got what,
00:14:39 --> 00:14:42 over 7 at the time of recording
00:14:42 --> 00:14:43 this program, correct?
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 Alex Zaharov-Reutt: Yeah. So, uh, yeah, there's going to be.
00:14:45 --> 00:14:46 Tim Mendham: A lot more launch.
00:14:46 --> 00:14:49 Alex Zaharov-Reutt: So we've had dialogue with SpaceX,
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 which is the company that operates these
00:14:51 --> 00:14:54 satellites. So we're hoping that, yeah, further
00:14:54 --> 00:14:56 discussion with them will help with
00:14:56 --> 00:14:59 introducing mitigations for future
00:14:59 --> 00:15:02 satellites that they launch. Because, yeah, there's going to be
00:15:02 --> 00:15:03 a lot more in the future.
00:15:03 --> 00:15:06 Stuart Gary: And this isn't a problem which is new, because when
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 Starlink first began launching, optical
00:15:09 --> 00:15:12 astronomers began seeing them in their images, and
00:15:12 --> 00:15:15 they began seeing entire trains of these satellites and
00:15:15 --> 00:15:17 more and more of them. And it's affecting research
00:15:18 --> 00:15:21 for optical astronomy to a huge degree. And even
00:15:21 --> 00:15:24 then, this is five years ago, there are already warnings
00:15:24 --> 00:15:27 that the same thing would happen in radio astronomy. And that's exactly what
00:15:27 --> 00:15:27 we're seeing.
00:15:27 --> 00:15:30 Alex Zaharov-Reutt: Yeah. So, um, in optical, SpaceX
00:15:30 --> 00:15:33 has made some good mitigations for the satellites.
00:15:33 --> 00:15:36 Like they made some changes, like pa. The satellite.
00:15:36 --> 00:15:39 Stuart Gary: They're stealth satellites, they're calling them, but they're making some
00:15:39 --> 00:15:41 changes. But they're still coming up in images.
00:15:41 --> 00:15:44 Alex Zaharov-Reutt: Oh, for sure, for sure. Yeah. But at least there has been
00:15:44 --> 00:15:46 some progress towards mitigating it. And we're
00:15:46 --> 00:15:49 hoping that some similar mitigations could be made
00:15:49 --> 00:15:52 for the radio data as well. But, yeah, with
00:15:52 --> 00:15:55 the sheer volume of satellites up there, and especially in
00:15:55 --> 00:15:58 optical, it's reflection of sunlight, so
00:15:58 --> 00:16:01 it's a little bit of a different transmission problem.
00:16:01 --> 00:16:04 Um, but yeah, with the sheer volume of them being up there,
00:16:04 --> 00:16:05 you're going to see a lot of them.
00:16:05 --> 00:16:08 Stuart Gary: I know we've been Starlink for this, but of course, it's
00:16:08 --> 00:16:11 not just StarLink. We've got GlobeStar up there as well.
00:16:11 --> 00:16:14 They've got thousands of satellites either in space or on
00:16:14 --> 00:16:17 their way there. Iridium is still there and they've been around
00:16:17 --> 00:16:20 for years now. And you've also got Kuiper
00:16:20 --> 00:16:23 Systems, Inmarsat. There are so many of them up there, and the problem's
00:16:23 --> 00:16:26 not going to go away. This is something, unfortunately, we're going
00:16:26 --> 00:16:26 to have to live with.
00:16:26 --> 00:16:29 Alex Zaharov-Reutt: Yes, the number of satellites being launched into space is
00:16:29 --> 00:16:32 going to keep increasing, at least for the near future. So
00:16:32 --> 00:16:35 it's pretty important that continuing surveys
00:16:35 --> 00:16:38 are done to see if the prevalence of satellites in the
00:16:38 --> 00:16:41 IM of astronomy gets worse.
00:16:41 --> 00:16:44 And if it does, it's probably going to come down to having
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 conversations with the individual operators
00:16:46 --> 00:16:49 and hoping like so the, the emission from
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 the Starlink satellites that we detected was
00:16:53 --> 00:16:56 outside of their designated downlink frequency.
00:16:56 --> 00:16:59 And so it's emission coming from somewhere on board
00:16:59 --> 00:17:01 the satellites electronics.
00:17:01 --> 00:17:04 And so it's kind of a gray area of regulation
00:17:04 --> 00:17:06 at the moment. So it's, there's no one
00:17:07 --> 00:17:09 regulating that. So we're having
00:17:09 --> 00:17:12 continued conversations about getting this kind of stuff
00:17:12 --> 00:17:15 regulated in the future, which would help
00:17:15 --> 00:17:15 astronomy.
00:17:15 --> 00:17:18 Stuart Gary: It's only by government mandated regulations that
00:17:18 --> 00:17:21 these things tend to change. Otherwise companies who are out there to
00:17:21 --> 00:17:24 make a profit, well, they're going to drag their feet.
00:17:24 --> 00:17:26 Alex Zaharov-Reutt: There's uh, an organization called the International
00:17:26 --> 00:17:28 Telecommunications Union and so they
00:17:28 --> 00:17:31 regulate a lot of the radio emissions for these
00:17:31 --> 00:17:34 satellites for the intentional transmissions and
00:17:34 --> 00:17:37 they do most of the radio spectrum
00:17:37 --> 00:17:40 terrestrial transmission on Earth as well. So it would be an
00:17:40 --> 00:17:43 organization like that which would probably
00:17:43 --> 00:17:46 be in the best position to regulate
00:17:46 --> 00:17:48 something like this. And ultimately they're having those
00:17:48 --> 00:17:51 discussions to hopefully regulate it in the future.
00:17:51 --> 00:17:54 So it'll probably come down to an organization that
00:17:54 --> 00:17:57 represents a lot of different countries rather
00:17:57 --> 00:17:59 than one country, like federal government.
00:18:00 --> 00:18:03 That's a, that's the side of regulation of policy
00:18:03 --> 00:18:06 and stuff which my work didn't focus on at all.
00:18:06 --> 00:18:08 Stuart Gary: That's where the politics comes into it all, I guess.
00:18:08 --> 00:18:08 Tim Mendham: Correct?
00:18:08 --> 00:18:11 Stuart Gary: Yes, that's Dylan Gregg from the Curtin University
00:18:11 --> 00:18:14 node of the International center for Radio Astronomy
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 Research. And this is space, time
00:18:33 --> 00:18:36 and time there to take a brief look at some of the other stories maybe making
00:18:36 --> 00:18:39 news in science this week with the Science Report.
00:18:40 --> 00:18:43 Early stage trials in 25 patients have
00:18:43 --> 00:18:45 shown that a vaccine designed to stimulate a type of
00:18:45 --> 00:18:48 immune T cell to recognize and kill cancer cells
00:18:48 --> 00:18:51 is showing positive results. The
00:18:51 --> 00:18:54 findings reported in the journal Nature Medicine could help
00:18:54 --> 00:18:57 prolong long term recurrence free survival in
00:18:57 --> 00:18:59 some cancer patients. The vaccine is
00:18:59 --> 00:19:02 not personalized to people's individual tumors,
00:19:02 --> 00:19:05 but instead trains the immune system to attack
00:19:05 --> 00:19:07 a specific type of cell carrying a prot
00:19:08 --> 00:19:11 Kras, which is often mutated in people with specific
00:19:11 --> 00:19:14 cancers. The study found that after around
00:19:14 --> 00:19:16 20 months, 68% of participants had
00:19:16 --> 00:19:19 developed strong T cell responses specific to
00:19:19 --> 00:19:22 these mutant Kras tumour proteins.
00:19:22 --> 00:19:25 The patients with the strongest T cell responses also
00:19:25 --> 00:19:28 lived longer and stayed cancer free for longer than
00:19:28 --> 00:19:30 those with weaker responses.
00:19:31 --> 00:19:34 A new study has shown that While being stuck at home
00:19:34 --> 00:19:37 during the COVID 19 pandemic, more parents
00:19:37 --> 00:19:40 were thinking about, shall we say, playing an away
00:19:40 --> 00:19:42 game compared to non parents. A
00:19:42 --> 00:19:45 report in the journal PLOS ONE found that a survey
00:19:45 --> 00:19:48 of 1American adults showed that parents
00:19:48 --> 00:19:51 were more likely than non parents to cheat on their partners
00:19:51 --> 00:19:54 during the pandemic. In fact, the authors found
00:19:54 --> 00:19:57 that parents were both more likely to think about cheating as
00:19:57 --> 00:19:59 well as actually having an affair, with
00:19:59 --> 00:20:01 20.7% of parents engaging in
00:20:01 --> 00:20:04 infidelity compared to just 13.9% of
00:20:04 --> 00:20:07 non parents. They also found that males were more
00:20:07 --> 00:20:10 likely to cheat and think about cheating compared to females,
00:20:10 --> 00:20:13 although among the parents, both mothers and fathers
00:20:13 --> 00:20:16 showed similar patterns. The
00:20:16 --> 00:20:19 Australian Navy signed a contract to purchase 11
00:20:19 --> 00:20:22 Japanese designed upgraded Mogami Class
00:20:22 --> 00:20:24 FMM guided missile frigates.
00:20:25 --> 00:20:27 Developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The
00:20:27 --> 00:20:30 4880 ton warships will be equipped
00:20:30 --> 00:20:33 with 32 vertical launch cells capable of
00:20:33 --> 00:20:35 firing long range Tomahawk cruise missiles.
00:20:36 --> 00:20:39 The new 10 billion dollar fleet will replace the aging
00:20:39 --> 00:20:42 ANZAC class frigates and will work closely with
00:20:42 --> 00:20:44 Canberra's Aegis class destroyers. The
00:20:44 --> 00:20:47 first three frigates will be built in Japan with shipbuilding yards
00:20:47 --> 00:20:50 in Western Australia expected to produce the remainder.
00:20:51 --> 00:20:54 The first of these new so called stealth frigates should be in
00:20:54 --> 00:20:56 the water by 2030. In
00:20:56 --> 00:20:58 2021, Australia announced a deal to
00:20:58 --> 00:21:01 acquire at least three American Virginia class nuclear
00:21:01 --> 00:21:04 submarines with a further five SSN Aukus
00:21:04 --> 00:21:07 nuclear submarines be built in South Australia under an
00:21:07 --> 00:21:09 agreement with the British Royal Navy. The
00:21:09 --> 00:21:12 SSN Aukus subs will use a combination
00:21:12 --> 00:21:14 of Australian, British and American
00:21:15 --> 00:21:15 technologies.
00:21:17 --> 00:21:20 Well, despite all the scientific advances in
00:21:20 --> 00:21:22 medicine, there are still millions of people who practice
00:21:22 --> 00:21:25 worthless traditional Chinese medicine pseudoscience
00:21:25 --> 00:21:28 to make up for their, shall we say, lack of manliness.
00:21:29 --> 00:21:31 The result is the slaughter or cruel
00:21:31 --> 00:21:34 captivity of thousands of innocent animals,
00:21:34 --> 00:21:36 including many rare and endangered species.
00:21:36 --> 00:21:39 Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics says the science
00:21:39 --> 00:21:42 proves it simply doesn't work. But men with
00:21:42 --> 00:21:45 teeny weeny attributes simply don't
00:21:45 --> 00:21:45 care.
00:21:45 --> 00:21:48 Tim Mendham: The animals that they use and abuse, quite frankly
00:21:48 --> 00:21:51 with this medicine, things for tiny treatments, quite frankly
00:21:51 --> 00:21:54 that uh, that don't work. Rhino horn of course
00:21:54 --> 00:21:57 being used as an aphrodisiac during impotency issues.
00:21:57 --> 00:22:00 Stuart Gary: I thought that was only something that people with small worried
00:22:00 --> 00:22:00 about.
00:22:01 --> 00:22:03 Tim Mendham: I haven't checked but it could be
00:22:03 --> 00:22:06 tigers, bears, the bile from
00:22:06 --> 00:22:09 bears, pangolins of course with the scales or
00:22:09 --> 00:22:12 whatever. Well, musk, it's a terrible situation that is
00:22:12 --> 00:22:15 actually uh, wiping out animals. Seahorses are
00:22:15 --> 00:22:18 being sort of wiped out by um, this traditional
00:22:18 --> 00:22:21 Chinese medicine for cures that are Totally. Just because it's
00:22:21 --> 00:22:23 traditional doesn't mean it works. It just makes it sound good. It's
00:22:23 --> 00:22:26 unfortunate. That prime effect of traditional Chinese
00:22:26 --> 00:22:29 medicine when it uses these animal products is that
00:22:29 --> 00:22:32 they just ruthlessly pay money for animals which are
00:22:32 --> 00:22:34 just torn out of their natural environments,
00:22:35 --> 00:22:37 killed for a very small bit of it if they're not farmed
00:22:37 --> 00:22:40 like a lot of the bears are. Ah, for, uh, farming the bile
00:22:40 --> 00:22:43 ducks and have a little tube stuck in the river moor and they're kept in
00:22:43 --> 00:22:46 awful conditions. It's a real problem and it still exists. The rhino
00:22:46 --> 00:22:49 hood, the tigers are sort of have been banned, the tiger
00:22:49 --> 00:22:52 bones to be used in China, but there's still people there using it. And
00:22:52 --> 00:22:55 actually a lot of them, uh, a lot of overseas Chinese
00:22:55 --> 00:22:58 practitioners not in China, uh, are using tiger
00:22:58 --> 00:23:00 bones as well. And you think these are animals being depleted from the
00:23:00 --> 00:23:03 natural environment? These are endangered species if not
00:23:03 --> 00:23:06 wiped out entirely for one small part of their body.
00:23:06 --> 00:23:09 And, uh, it's a real concern from a natural environment
00:23:09 --> 00:23:12 point of view. It definitely is a concern and certainly also from a
00:23:12 --> 00:23:15 medical point of view because they don't actually do anything. It's a false
00:23:15 --> 00:23:18 treatment with a major problem associated with it.
00:23:18 --> 00:23:20 Stuart Gary: That's Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics.
00:23:36 --> 00:23:39 And that's the show for now. Space Time is
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