This is Spacetime Series twenty six, Episode fifty six, for broadcast on the
tenth of May twenty twenty three. Coming up on Spacetime, studying powerful stellar
eruptions called super flares. Europe announces plans to build a nuclear powered rocket,
and we look at the work done by the European space agencies. Are matter
of satellites undertaking air quality missions. All that and more coming up on Spacetime.
Welcome to Spacetime with Stewart Garry. Astronomers using a combination of space and
ground based observations have captured one of the most complete pictures yet of a super
flare erupt from a distant star. The findings are reported in the Estrophysical Journal,
describes a very massive, high velocity prominence eruption lasting out from the binary
star V thirteen fifty five arianis located some four hundred light years away in the
constellation O Ryan. The study is important because many stars are observed releasing super
flares, which can be over ten times larger than the largest solar flares ever
seen erupting from the Sun, and it raises the possibility of whether or not
the Sun could release such flares as well. Hot ironized gas released by the
Sun. Solar flares can have a major influence on the environment around the Earth,
referred to a space whether a solar flare or chronal mass ejection, can
cause Earth's atmosphere to wobble like a jellyfish. It triggers spectacular Aurora light displays,
the Northern and Southern lights, the Aurora borealis and Aurora Estrallas, which
are the displays we've been had over the past few weeks. But it can
also damage spacecraft, frying their electrical circuits and cause them to use up more
fuel in order to maintain operational orbits as the atmosphere around them expands and contracts,
increasing atmospheric drag and consequently orbital decay. The radiation from these flares can
also damage life, affecting astronauts aboard the International Space Station and on deep space
missions. It can disrupt navigation and communication systems, and even affect power grids
on Earth, causing widespread blackouts by overloading circuits. And they're just the big
ones from the Sun we know about. Could out Sun produce flares ten times
bigger, flares big enough to irradiate the planet and destroy life. The star
V thirteen fifty five Orionus is known to frequently release large scales super flares.
However, the details of how super flares and prominence eruptions on stars occur is
still claire. Now, a team of scientists led by shouldn't inu from Kiota
University have used the three point eight meter semi telescope in Japan and NASA's Transiting
Exoplanet Survey satellite tests to monitor the V thirteen fifty five Ranus binary system,
and the team succeeded in capturing a super flare with continuous high temporal resolution observations.
The data analyzes shows that the super flare originated with a phenomenon known as
a prominence eruption. Now, calculating the velocity of the eruption requires making some
assumptions about aspects that aren't directly observable, but even the most conservative estimates far
exceeded three hundred forty seven kilometer per second escape velocity of the star, and
that indicates that the prominence eruption was capable of breaking free of the star's gravity
and developing into a chronal mass ejection. The prominence eruption was also one of
the most massive ever observed carrying trillions of tons of men material. Over All,
the observations of providing astronomers with a better idea of how super flares and
still a prominence eruptions can occur. This is spacetime still to come. Europe
announcers plans to follow in the footsteps of the United States and develop a nuclear
powered rocket. And we look at the work done by the European space agencies
constellation of airmachoring spacecraft, the Copernicus Sentinel program, all that and more still
to come on spacetime. The European Space Agency has announced plans to follow in
the footsteps of NASA and develop nuclear powered rockets for deep space exploration. Spacecraft
currently use a variety of chemical rockets or electric ion propulsion systems, usually powered
by solar arrays, and of course there are also lots of solar serial experiments
continuing as a third potential option for the future. But NASCY began looking at
the idea of nuclear powered rockets back in the nineteen sixties under what was called
projector Ryan, but it was dropped due to funding constraints and the Nuclear Non
Proliferation Treaty. The problem is conventional space propulsion methods and now reaching their physical
limits. One of the original ideas involved nuclear impulse detonation systems, where small
atomic bombs would be ejected behind the rear of the spacecraft, ignited, and
the shockwaves from the nuclear blast then used to push the spacecraft forward. Likely,
they're no longer being considered as an option. Instead, scientists are looking
at nuclear based electrical propulsion systems, like the electric ion propulsion systems on which
they're based. Nuclear electric propulsion systems used propel much more efficiently than chemical rockets,
but provide far lower amounts of thrust. They would use a nuclear reactor
to generate electricity that positively charges gas propellants like zeon or crypton, pushing the
ions through a thruster, which then drives the spacecraft forward. Conventional iron propulsion
systems do the same thing, but use solar erase to generate the electricity.
Using low thrust. Efficiently, nuclear electric propulsion systems could accelerate spacecraft for extended
periods of time, propelling a vehicle and emission to say Mars, in just
a fraction of the time and for a fraction of the propellant of a high
thrust chemical system. Another idea being examined is nuclear, a thermal propulsion technology.
It provides high thrust and twice the propellant efficiency of any chemical rocket system
yet developed. It works by transferring heat from a nuclear reactor to a liquid
propellant, such as liquified hydrogen, which is being pumped through the reactor core.
This rapidly heats up, expanding to a gas which is then forced out
of the rocket nozzle, creating high thrust and accelerating the spacecraft rapidly forward.
The advantage of nuclear thermal propulsion is that it cannot only shorten travel times,
but also deliver vi graded payloads. For example, a trip to Mars could
be reduced by a quarter, cutting a six month one way trip down to
a list than five months. And of course, reducing flight times would be
especially important for a man mission, as the short travel times would reduce the
amount of exposure to harmful cosmic radiation that a crew would be exposed to.
NASA began its latest nuclear propulsion research program last year in collaboration with the Pentagon's
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DAPPER. They plan on developing a nuclear thermal propulsion
engine by twenty twenty seven. Esabes. It could have its system operational by
twenty thirty five. This space time still to come. Take a look at
the European Space enci's efforts to fight air pollution using a fleet of Copernicus satellites,
and later in the science report any study shows that open ais chat GPT
four can answer medical questions better than most doctors. All that and more still
to come on spacetime. Air pollution has become a serious global problem. According
to the World Health Organization, seven million premature deaths each year are linked to
air pollution. The European space edencies Copernicus atmosphere monitoring services provide key information about
air quality around the globe, helping sitists understand how people can keep the planet
breathable. Using the European Space ensies constantly of Earth observation satellites, it provides
constant, quality controlled information in relation to air pollution and health, solar energy,
greenhouse gases, and climate across the globe. Over the past year alone,
East's Sentinel satellite constellation has been monitoring Sahara desert dust storms, crossing the
Iberian Peninsula and then continuing across France towards northern and Central Europe. The networks
also observed large scale smoke blooms generated by devastating wildfires in central and southern Chilee
that was back in February, which then spread over the Pacific Ocean. They
followed even more extreme wildfires back in December, which burnt across Europe and the
Americas. The sentinel's atmospheric monitoring systems tracked devastating wildfire emissions around the globe,
and it monitored as European wildfire emissions reached their highest levels in fifteen years.
Copernicus also studied persistent Atarctic ozone holes in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one,
and twenty twenty two, which included some unusual behavior. Not only did the
closure of the ozone whole last year take longer than usual, but it was
also relatively large. The constellation also kept a close siye on the evolution of
Monoloa's volcanic eruption in Hawaii, which wound up spewing out a huge plume of
soph of the oxide, and it issued early warnings about spring dust, air
pollution and pollen outbreaks across Central Europe, and thanks to Copernicus, scientists are
now predicting further very high levels of surface ozone pollution across large areas of Europe.
It's temperature starts saw again this report from a TV. The atmosphere crucial
for life on Earth. It makes our planet habitable. However, air pollution
has become a serious problem. Human activities are altering our atmosphere at an unprecedented
scale. This has an impact on air quality is affecting people's health all around
the globe. Studies even show that in the urbanized regions of Europe, ninety
percent of the population is exposed to harmful levels of air pollution. According to
the World Earth Organization, adverse equality is responsible of seven million premature of death
on a global scale. In Europe, the Environment Agency is estimate to four
hundred to five hundred thousand premature death occurring. So this is a very real
problem. Air Quality affects our health in many ways, from causing heart and
respiratory disease, to exacerbating asthma and even impacting cognitive abilities. Recent studies have
also shown that even relatively low levels of air pollution can affect people's health.
In order to better understand this problem and find solutions, scientists need reliable data
on where and how the air is being polluted and how it spreads. This
can be done locally by taking in situ measurements, but with satellite data this
can be achieved at a larger scale across regions and countries, thus tracking pollution
as it's spread by the wind. Over the last two decades, the European
Space Agency launched a number of satellites the to observe our atmosphere the measure air
pollutants. ESA is involved in the air quality measurements by providing space measurements satellites
that have the capability to measure air pollution trace causes. We started on this
during ninety five by putting Come in space this instrumentation. This capability has then
been improved step by step by follow on instruments like Eskimaki two or OMI and
now with the Copernicus mission Sentinel five precursor, we have clover coverage within one
day and this allows for the first time to use this space based measurements to
be implemented in operational services for air quality monitoring but also for forecasting. The
Copernicus program, with its Sentinels satellites, has bridged the gap between research and
operational services. Using both satellite and institution measurements, the Copernica's atmosphere monitoring services
provides information about air composition and quality across the globe at the European level.
It's almost like a weather forecast. This information is picked up by media and
smartphone applications, warning the public on poor air quality in their region. With
Copernica's Sentinel five P launched in twenty seventeen, which carries a novel instrument called
Tropome, a big step was taken to observe sources of air pollution. Now
pollution hotspots are clearly visible. This increased spatial resolution comes from Sentinel five P
spectrometer the Tropom instrument. The Tropome instrument is really a big step forward in
what we hear, what we can do, and that's for different reasons.
I think maybe the most striking when you look at the data is the very
good space or resolution. So it can measure with a ground resolution of about
three and a half by seven kilometers, which is more an effector of ten
better than what we can that previous instruments had. With its Tropome instrument,
Copernicus Sentinel five P is showing how important it is by delivering operational data on
air quality every day within the Kaupernicus program, ESA and the EU are already
preparing new missions to monitor our atmosphere. For example, one of the potential
future Sentinel missions has been proposed to monitor emissions of carbon dioxide. Our atmosphere
is precious, but polluting emissions are both responsible for poor air quality as well
as adding to the greenhouse effect driving climate change. By monitoring emissions and understanding
how they spread, we might find solutions to keep our planet breathable unsustainable.
And in that report from ESA TV, we heard from Vincent Unripew ahead of
Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Services, Sentinel five piece mission manager at ESA, Klaus Zena,
and Peepin Vifkin, one of the principal investigators with the Sentinel five P
mission. This space time and time out to take another brief look at some
of the other stories making news in science this week. With a Science report,
A new study is found that sticking to a specific type of Mediterranean diet
known as a mind diet may help reduce dementia risk. Mind diet stands for
Mediterranean dietary approaches to stop hypertension intervention for neurodegenerative delay. The findings were ordered
in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Looked at two hundred thousand people,
finding that those who stuck to the diet had a seventeen percent lower risk
of dementia. The study showed that this type of diet emphasizes natural protein based
foods, limits the intake of animal foods and foods high and saturated fats,
and uniquely encourages people to eat berries and green leafy vegetables rich in vitaments and
antioxidants. Paleontologists have found that, just like modern day elephants, male wooly
mammoths underwent musks, which are testosterone driven changes during the mating season. A
report of the journal Nature claims scientists detected hormone fluctuations in the dentine of male
mammoth tasks estimated to be roughly thirty nine to thirty three thousand years old,
and there were similar to hormonal patterns seen in the tusks of modern day male
African elephants and whatever. Scientists say the hormone spikes were smaller in the mammoths
because the mammoth tusks they tested had degraded over thousands of years. But they
also tested female mammoth tusks aged around six thousand years old and found no fluctuation
in testosterone levels. The findings of the first evidence of must in mammoths based
on hormonal data, demonstrating the potential of teeth and tusks for shitting new light
on the live history of events in extinct animals. A new study has shown
that chat gpt is capable of answering questions about medical advice at a standard that's
often higher than what a doctor can provide, assuming, of course, the
AIS being honest. The findings are reported in the Journal of the American Medical
Association, suggest that AIS could play a role in helping overwarm doctors draft better,
quicker responses to questions. The authors simply asked the chat gpt to answer
questions submitted to Reddit's ask stocks that have already been answered by verified doctors,
and the team of licensed health professionals then judged the response to determine which had
the better quality of information and better bedside manner. The authors found that the
chat GPT's response turned out being better for seventy eight point six percent of the
questions answered Now, of course it read it threads, not the same as
a doctor's office, but the results do show that AIS could help doctors deliver
information in the best easiest way possible in the future. Now, while we're
on the subject of artificial intelligence, Jeffrey Hinton, the man widely seen as
the father of artificial intelligence, has Quitty's job with Google, warning about the
growing dangers from developments in AI. The seventy five year old announced his resignation
in the statement to The New York Times, saying he now regretted his work,
and later telling the BBC that the dangers of AI chatbots are quite scary.
Hinton's pioneering research on deep learning in neural networks pave the way for today's
AI systems like chat GPT four. Hitton's major AI breakthrough came back in twenty
twelve when his team successfully created an algorithm which could analyze images in the process
identifying common elements such as people, dogs, or cars. Now, that
was only a rudimentary algorithm, but it would eventually lead to today's current level
of AIS like open AI, chat, GPT four and Google's bad Hitten warns
that AIS will soon be more intelligent than humans if they aren't already and they're
already eclipsing humans in the amount of general knowledge they hold. Hitten's fees also
worker those expressed in a public letter earlier this year by more than a thousand
other tech leaders, including Elon Musk and Steve Wasn't the act. They called
for a six month halt in AI development because of concerns over its use.
Hitten says he's especially worried about bad actors like Russian president that to me Putin,
who could use AI for bad things, such as getting more power.
Technology editor alexaharav Royt from Take Advice, Start Life says his actions are significance.
It's interesting that someone says that they regret their life's work. I mean,
that's a pretty amazing statement. He did get his PhD and artificial intelligence
forty five years ago, so human kind has been thinking about this for a
long long time. Originally just something that was science fiction, but here nearly
fifty years later, and it's becoming true. And he did say that he
consoles himself with a normal excuse. If he hadn't done it, he says,
somebody else would have it. It's hard to see how he can prevent
bad actors from using it for bad things. What's he scared of? Is
it the Skynet thing? Look, I think that's a worried go on the
track. But at the moment he fears that the Internet could be flooded with
misinformation. Come on, that's the ABC and CNN's job. Sure well,
we haven't had fake news for quite some time without the power of AI.
We've had that through organic intelligence. But Hinton was concerned that we just won't
know what's true. We have had the case just in the last couple of
weeks where a German magazine called The Actuel published a world first interview with Michael
Schumacher and hinted that it was deceptively real. And it turns out when people
read the actual interview that the whole thing was generated by something from character dot
AI, which allows you to talk to famous people who are either no longer
with us or, in Michael Schumacher's case, are obviously not able to speak
anymore. He said in the New York Times article that everyone's been quoting.
He says, the idea that this stuff could actually gets smarter than people.
A few people believed that, he says, but most people thought it was
way off, and I thought it was way off. I thought it was
thirty to fifty years or even longer away. Obviously, he says, I
no longer think that. And in fact, the article seemed to imply that
Hinton left Google so that he could criticize Google. But he said in the
tweet that he left so that he could talk about the dangers of AI without
considering how this impacts Google. He reckons at Google has acted very responsibly.
Now. The thing is that AI has already gone mad in certain circumstances.
Microsoft has had to put the brakes on its own version of chat GBT for
the Big AI. It's also become woken politically biased. That's all down other
people who are of course programming. Yeah, absolutely absolutely. I mean this
is where individuals and companies are going to have to end up with their own
systems, their own AI systems that can be filled with the information that you
have read it. I mean, already Samsung has banned its staff from using
chat GPT. Samsung had discovered that some of its staff had been putting sensitive
information about unreleased products and also into chat tiput and also asking it to provide
summaries of meetings where sensitive topics were discussed, and this information is being used
by chat GPT without chat tiputs knowledge that Samsung will necessarily put it in there,
but it's just being used to train the system and could easily be regurgitated
in answers that it gives to other people, because that's how these chatbots work.
They are incredibly proficient aggregation and regurgitation machines. They give the appearance of
being intelligent because they've got so much information at their disposal that they know what,
in theory the correct things are to say in regards saying response, But
again it all depends what has been input into the system. And another concern
is that now we've got AI systems which can even read your mind. Yeah,
they're getting individuals to train themselves on a system that can analyze the patterns
of their brain and then they can take this analysis run it through a GPT.
It's a version one GPT, not the three point four or five years
today, and the GPTs results or responses Hugh very closely to what it is
that they say they were thinking about all what they were seeing in a video.
So this is the beginning of actually being able to have technology read your
mind and give out results. The great minds that Apple and Google have come
together and they've discovered whoop you do? People don't like being tracked? Why
did it attack them so long? It's not that people didn't like tracking.
I mean you were able to track your friends on iPhones. Using to Find
my Friends, you could switch on the ability to share your location for an
hour or for the rest of the day, or even on an ongoing basis.
Arents use these tracking features. Let me ask you a question here,
do you really if your tracker on or do you turn it off like I
turn off? I turn it off. But if I'm going to a friends
place, for example, and then I might turn it on for the hour
so they can see how long I'm going to be, that can actually tell
the distance I am away. I use this with my sister the other day.
She was coming to visit with her boyfriend, and I told her,
you know, turn your tracking on for the next hour, because they were
about narrow way and it was really cool to be able to see ow they're
ten minutes away, they're outside, and you know, you could sort of
not have to worry about where they were. Now. The problem is when
people have been using the Tile and the Apple trackers to track people, to
track ex partners, to track cars, to store people. And Apple has
been the only company that actually alerts you to the fact that you have a
tracker that is not one of your trackers, that seems to be staying with
you, is in your area. The Tile tracker doesn't do that. Other
trackers haven't done that, and so Apple has actually been responsible in this area
by alerting people though even delivered an app that Android users can install to see
if there's any Apple trackers around them. But Apple and Google have jointless submitted
a proposed industry specification. This is to help combat the misuse of Bluetooth location
tracking devices to unwanted tracking. And that's the first of us kind specification.
That's Alexahara Royd from Tech Advice, Start Live, and that's the show for
now. Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts,
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