WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:05.000 This is Spacetime Series twenty six, Episode one hundred and nine, for broadcast 2 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:10.199 on the eleventh of September twenty twenty three. Coming up on Spacetime, Have 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:17.839 they finally found Planet X? Japan's Chrism space telescope launches into orbit and discovery 4 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:24.079 of our own local baryonic acoustic oscillation. All that and more coming up on 5 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:49.079 Spacetime Welcome to Spacetime with Stewart Garry. Astronomers in Japan have found possible evidence 6 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:54.000 of an earthlike planet orbiting in the Kaiper Belt. The findings are reported in 7 00:00:54.039 --> 00:00:58.399 the Astronomical Journal and on the pre Press physics website archive dot org. Are 8 00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:03.799 based on the discovery event usual orbits for several Carper Belt objects, and suggest 9 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:08.239 a large Earth size planet orbiting around five hundred astronomical units out from the Sun. 10 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:12.840 An astronomical unit is the average distance between the Sun and the Earth, 11 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:18.640 roughly one hundred and fifty million kilometers or eight point three light minutes. The 12 00:01:18.799 --> 00:01:23.040 Kiper Belt is a ring of comets, icy worlds, and frozen debris circling 13 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:27.640 the Sun out beyond the orbit of Neptune, which orbits some thirty astronomical units 14 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:33.640 out from the Sun. The dwarf planets Pluto and Sharon are probably the best 15 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:38.200 known Carper Belt objects. The new statis authors Patrick's to Fear like Kakwa from 16 00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:45.000 Kindai University and Takashi Eater from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, describe the 17 00:01:45.079 --> 00:01:51.359 orbital properties of trans Neptunian objects, which appear to be consistent with gravitational perturbations 18 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:55.040 that would have been caused by a planet not much bigger than the Earth orbiting 19 00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:00.920 Among them, They also found a significant number of Carper built objects at inclination 20 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:06.920 orbits. Intrigued by their findings, follow up computer simulations designed to explain their 21 00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:12.919 observations showed that the most likely explanation was a relatively large carbo built object, 22 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:16.919 such as a planet. The simulations also showed that such a planet, if 23 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:21.000 it exists, would have a mass of between one and a half and three 24 00:02:21.159 --> 00:02:24.960 times that of the Earth, an inclination of approximately thirty degrees to the ecliptic 25 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:30.080 that is the plane where the planets roughly orbit the Sun, and an orbit 26 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:34.560 that would take the planet between two hundred and fifty and five hundred astronomical units 27 00:02:34.599 --> 00:02:38.599 out from the Sun. The new findings are just the latest effort in an 28 00:02:38.639 --> 00:02:43.560 ongoing search for a so called planet nine, sometimes referred to as planet X. 29 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:47.280 But what makes this new effort so interesting is that the suspected planets orbiting 30 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:53.080 much closer and than what previous studies have suggested. The first solid hints of 31 00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:57.520 a possible planet X or planet nine came to light over a decade ago when 32 00:02:57.599 --> 00:03:01.879 astronomers were looking for objects which could pose a threat to the New Horizon spacecraft, 33 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:06.000 which at that time was on a mission to study Pluto on the Kuiper 34 00:03:06.039 --> 00:03:12.319 Belt. As they undertook their surveys, astronomers noticed some unusual gravitational perturbations in 35 00:03:12.360 --> 00:03:15.719 the orbit of thirteen Kiper Belt objects, thought to have been caused by interactions 36 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:22.360 with a yet to be discovered massive planet sized body. Then, careful calculations 37 00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:25.879 of the orbit of a Kuiper Belt object twenty twelve VP one thirteen by planet 38 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:30.759 hunters in twenty fourteen led to the detection of similarities in the orbits of several 39 00:03:30.840 --> 00:03:37.719 other distant Kuiper Belt objects, and it resulted in the new hypothesis postulating the 40 00:03:37.719 --> 00:03:43.199 possible existence of an unknown planet X or planet nine, now based on the 41 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:46.599 earlier observations, the undiscovered world would be up to four times the size of 42 00:03:46.599 --> 00:03:52.240 the Earth and around nine times Earth's mass. Now that's a lot bigger what's 43 00:03:52.280 --> 00:03:54.919 being proposed now. Also, the orbit was very different too. It was 44 00:03:54.960 --> 00:04:00.240 on a highly elongated orbit around the Sun, estimated to last at least fifteen 45 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:03.879 thousand earth years. If it exists, the mysterious planet X could be an 46 00:04:03.879 --> 00:04:09.199 interstellar rogue planet captured by the Sun's gravitational pool, or it could be a 47 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:13.319 planet that was stolen by the Sun's gravity from a neighboring star system early in 48 00:04:13.319 --> 00:04:15.839 the history of the Solar System, when the Sun was just leaving it still 49 00:04:15.839 --> 00:04:20.959 a nursery. Another option is that there are several models of planets in migration 50 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:26.240 within the Solar System, which suggests that as Jupiter and Satin migrated out to 51 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:31.199 their current orbital positions, their gravitational perturbations caused Neptune and Uranus to also move 52 00:04:31.319 --> 00:04:36.680 outwards in the process, swapping their orbital positions and flinging a third ice giant, 53 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:41.040 which was part of the group, out into the Kiper Belt or possibly 54 00:04:41.079 --> 00:04:46.000 even beyond into interstellar space as a rogue planet. Oh And as for the 55 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:49.519 indecision between planet X and Planet nine. Well, the first ideas of a 56 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:54.800 planet X in the Kiper Belt came at a time when Plutter was still considered 57 00:04:54.800 --> 00:04:59.759 a fully fledged planet before it was demoted to dwarf planet status, and so 58 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:04.720 Skyper Belt World would have been a tenth planet a planet X. This is 59 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:12.439 space time still to come. Japan's CHRISM space telescope launches into orbit and discovery 60 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:17.759 of our own local barryonic acoustic oscillation all that them or still to come on 61 00:05:18.040 --> 00:05:40.560 spacetime. A powerful new Japanese X ray telescope is just blasted into orbit. 62 00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:45.759 The X ray Imaging in Spectroscopy mission CHRISM was launched aboard an H two a 63 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:58.759 rocket from the Tankashima Space Center in southern Japan's just a gossip. We have 64 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:02.079 a liftoff of the H Dwey launch peak or number of forty seven from jack 65 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:08.000 Start and the Gustimos based center at age forty two and level seconds am on 66 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:13.240 September stables depounced unt of time. The H Dewey is now flying about the 67 00:06:13.319 --> 00:06:17.839 amount of an ocean duley least led by Jackson, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency 68 00:06:17.959 --> 00:06:21.800 and collaboration with NASA and the European Space Agency, the two thousand, three 69 00:06:21.879 --> 00:06:27.439 hundred kilograms spacecraft was placed into a five hundred and fifty kilometer high orbit. 70 00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:32.079 Jackson had been forced to scrub three earlier launch attempts hit bad weather. The 71 00:06:32.120 --> 00:06:38.600 new orbiting observatory will spend the next month checking systems and calibrating instruments before beginning 72 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:43.639 a three year scientific mission. Once operational, CHRISM will study some of the 73 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:47.399 hardest objects in the universe, such as neutron stars, black holes as they're 74 00:06:47.480 --> 00:06:55.240 feeding, and massive galaxy clusters. CHRISMS Principal investigator Richard Kelly from NASA's Gottat 75 00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:59.399 Space Flight Center in green Belt, Maryland, says the spacecraft will also examine 76 00:06:59.439 --> 00:07:03.560 the aftermath of stellar explosions, and it will examine these speed of light particle 77 00:07:03.720 --> 00:07:10.399 jets being launched from supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. CHRISM will 78 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:15.959 detect X rays with energies ranging from four hundred to twelve thousand electron vaults. 79 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:19.079 Now by comparison, the energy of visible light is around two to three electron 80 00:07:19.160 --> 00:07:26.040 vaults. The electron vault range selected by scientists will provide astro physicists with new 81 00:07:26.040 --> 00:07:30.879 information about some of the universe's hottest regions, some of its largest structures, 82 00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:35.600 and objects with the strongest gravity. The mission has two principal instruments, Resolve 83 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:43.319 and EXTEND. Resolve as a microcalorometer spectrometer, developed in collaboration between NASA and 84 00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:47.759 JACKSA. When an X ray photon hits resolves six by six pixel detector, 85 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:54.120 its energy will cause a slight increase in temperature. By measuring each individual X 86 00:07:54.199 --> 00:07:59.399 rays energy, the instrument provides information about its source, such as its composition, 87 00:07:59.519 --> 00:08:03.680 it's and its physical state. But to detect these tiny temperature changes, 88 00:08:03.879 --> 00:08:09.920 Resolve needs to operate as just a fraction of degree above absolute zero minus two 89 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:13.480 hundred and seventy three point one five degrees celsius. To get that cold, 90 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:20.920 Resolves equipped with a multi stage mechanical cooling processor mounted inside a refrigerator size container 91 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:26.199 of liquid helium. Chrism's second instrument, Extend, is an image that developed 92 00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:30.240 by Jackson to give the spacecraft one of the largest fields of view of any 93 00:08:30.360 --> 00:08:33.720 X ray imaging satellite ever flown. It will be able to observe an area 94 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:39.320 about sixty percent larger than the average apparent size of the Moon, and the 95 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:45.120 images that collects will complement the data being collected by Resolve. Each instrument is 96 00:08:45.159 --> 00:08:48.080 mounted at the focus of its own X ray mirror assembly, designed and developed 97 00:08:48.120 --> 00:08:52.200 by Godard. See The thing is, X ray wavelengths are so short they 98 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:56.679 pass straight between the atoms of dis shape mirrors used to capture visible, infrared, 99 00:08:56.720 --> 00:09:03.559 and ultraviolet light become these issues. X ray astronomers use nested, curved 100 00:09:03.559 --> 00:09:07.519 mirrors turn on their sides. When X ray photons hit these mirrors, they'll 101 00:09:07.559 --> 00:09:11.960 skip off the surfaces and into the detectors, just like a stone skipping across 102 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:16.840 the surface of a pond. Each of chrism's two mirrors houses hundreds of concentric, 103 00:09:16.919 --> 00:09:22.480 precisely shaped aluminum shells, builting quadrants and assembled into a circle. In 104 00:09:22.519 --> 00:09:26.799 all, there are over thirty two hundred individual mirror segments in the two mirror 105 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:33.279 assemblies. Also aboard the h to A rocket for the launch was Jackson's Smart 106 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:39.080 Lander for Investigating the Moon, or SLIM Spacecraft. SLIM is designed to demonstrate 107 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:45.759 new accurate pinpoint lunar landing techniques. NASA provided the laser retroreflector array used by 108 00:09:45.879 --> 00:09:50.759 SLIM as. Both agencies cooperate in international effort to further explore the Moon and 109 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:58.720 ultimately human exploration of Mars. This report from NASS TV SO X rays really 110 00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:07.960 shows us that's the universe is very argentina. We find X rays in jets 111 00:10:07.159 --> 00:10:13.440 erupting from the centers of active galaxies. We use them to measure the spin 112 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:24.120 of black holes or supernova explosions. It takes a powerful event to produce cosmic 113 00:10:24.279 --> 00:10:28.440 X rays. Sometimes people also called the hot universe because you know when you 114 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:33.639 have this gas in galaxy clusters or also around galaxies that you can see only 115 00:10:33.679 --> 00:10:37.240 in X rays. This gas is about ten million to one hundred million of 116 00:10:37.240 --> 00:10:41.320 degrees, which is so hot. That's this gas does not radiating in opticals, 117 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:45.240 does not radiating in fright, but it only radiate an X rays. 118 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:56.000 To further understand these hottest regions, we need the next generation X ray telescope. 119 00:10:56.879 --> 00:11:01.600 The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency or XA, is partnering with NASA and the 120 00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:11.120 European Space Agency to launch the next generation X ray space telescope. The telescope, 121 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:16.240 called CHRISM, weighs over five thousand pounds, stands over thirty feet tall 122 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:22.960 and will orbit approximately three hundred and forty miles above Earth. We're familiar with 123 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:26.960 the medical uses of X rays. X ray light is energetic enough to pass 124 00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:33.240 through our skin. Our calcium dense bones absorb that light, blocking it from 125 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:39.519 reaching the detector and creating a shadow. Luckily for US, X rays from 126 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:45.279 space don't make it through our atmosphere. But what that does mean is that 127 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:50.080 we have to send X ray hunting missions into orbit to detect this high energy 128 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:56.440 light. CHRISM also needs special kinds of mirrors, which are built at NASA's 129 00:11:56.440 --> 00:12:01.320 Goddard Space Flight Center. The type of mirror is called a nested mirror. 130 00:12:03.080 --> 00:12:09.279 It looks like like a cross section of the audience. X rays are so 131 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:15.480 energetic they fly right through typical mirrors. For the visible light, we typically 132 00:12:15.879 --> 00:12:18.879 placed the mirror like for that light just bounce back, but for the X 133 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:24.720 rays this doesn't work, So that we put the mirror like so that X 134 00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:31.559 rays just graze saurface of the shell. When they strike mirrors. At very 135 00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:37.120 shallow angles, X rays two can bounce and then so we made it that 136 00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:43.799 like a corny call shell. Then X ray can be directed. CHRISM has 137 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:48.200 two instruments, each with their own mirror assembly, one for imaging called Extend, 138 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:56.639 the other for spectroscopy called Resolve. Jack's a built Extend to provide chrism 139 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:03.679 with a wide field of view. It can observe an area about sixty percent 140 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:13.120 larger than the average apparent size of the full moon. NASA's Resolve instrument is 141 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:18.480 a spectrometer that splits X ray light like a prism so scientists can detect specific 142 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:24.600 elements present in the sources they're studying. It uses a small six by six 143 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:31.440 pixel detector called a micro calorimeter, nestled in a refrigerator sized container of liquid 144 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:39.279 helium. Resolve will measure the small temperature changes caused when X rays hit one 145 00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:45.879 of those pixels. To track such small temperature changes, resolves detectors must be 146 00:13:45.960 --> 00:13:52.919 kept extremely cold. That liquid helium cryocooler will keep the instrument at point zero 147 00:13:54.120 --> 00:14:01.000 five degrees kelvin. It's so cold it is a fraction of a degree above 148 00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:09.919 absolute zero. Heat is simply a product of moving atoms. Keeping resolves detector 149 00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:16.720 that cold means that the atoms barely move, so there's very little thermal noise 150 00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:30.639 in the system. It's what keeps these accurate measurements possible. Each X ray 151 00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:35.279 detected will help scientists pursue many questions about the hottest regions of the cosmos. 152 00:14:37.919 --> 00:14:48.120 What's happening in the extreme gravitational fields around black holes? Can we discover what 153 00:14:48.279 --> 00:14:56.440 is inside a neutron star? How did some of the universe's largest structures, 154 00:14:56.759 --> 00:15:07.039 like galaxy clusters evolve optical telescope you will just see in galaxies everywhere if you 155 00:15:07.639 --> 00:15:09.399 if you look at this same cluster of galaxies and X rays, you will 156 00:15:09.399 --> 00:15:13.480 see actually a lot of gas and the gas it constitutes actually most of the 157 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:18.679 matter the cluster of the galaxies, which is something extreme important to understand because 158 00:15:18.679 --> 00:15:22.240 it means that most of the matter in the universe is not in the form 159 00:15:22.279 --> 00:15:26.480 of planets or stars, but it's really in the form and of these gas. 160 00:15:26.679 --> 00:15:35.480 So, but CHRISM really has this capability of decomposing this extraelites in a 161 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:46.039 way that's much much more accurate than what has ever been done before. And 162 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:50.600 in that report from Nassay TV, we heard from NASSA Chrism mission lestro physicist 163 00:15:50.720 --> 00:15:58.120 Francis Maria at the Cashier Okajima this space time still to come discovery of the 164 00:15:58.200 --> 00:16:03.559 local barry on a acoustic or oolation, and later in the Science report Australia 165 00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:07.440 on course for increasingly hot and dry conditions. All that are more still the 166 00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:30.039 calm on space time. Astronomers have discovered an immense bubble eight hundred twenty million 167 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:33.559 light years from Earth that's believed to be a fossil like remnant of the birth 168 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:37.879 of the universe. The bubble is thought to be the remains of a baryonic 169 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:44.919 acoustic oscillation, a pressure wave of fluctuation in the density of visible baryonic that 170 00:16:45.159 --> 00:16:48.960 is, normal matter caused by acoustic density waves in the primordial plasma of the 171 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:55.519 early universe. In the same way that type one a supernova provide a standard 172 00:16:55.600 --> 00:17:00.679 candle for astronomical distance. Baryonic acoustic oscillations are over dense cities of matter, 173 00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:04.640 such as galaxies and galaxy clusters, and they're at set distances, just like 174 00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:11.359 standard candles or standard rulers at this time on the scale of cosmology. The 175 00:17:11.480 --> 00:17:15.359 length of this standard ruler is given by the maximum distance acoustic waves could travel 176 00:17:15.440 --> 00:17:19.680 in the primordial plasma before the plasma cool to a point where it became neutral. 177 00:17:19.720 --> 00:17:26.000 Atoms that's the time of the epoch of recombination, which stopped the expansion 178 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:30.279 of the plasma density waves, freezing them at a place. The length of 179 00:17:30.279 --> 00:17:33.839 this standard ruler is about four hundred ninety million light years in today's universe, 180 00:17:34.519 --> 00:17:38.759 and it can be measured by looking at the large scale structure of matter using 181 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:45.440 astronomical surveys. Current Big Bang theory tells us that during the first three hundred 182 00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:49.160 eighty thousand years of existence since the universe came into being thirteen point eight billion 183 00:17:49.240 --> 00:17:53.880 years ago, it was a cauldron of harkwark gluon plasma, and within this 184 00:17:55.039 --> 00:18:00.400 plasma, electrons were separated from atomic nuclei. Now, during this period, 185 00:18:00.519 --> 00:18:04.599 regions with slightly higher densities began to collapse under gravity, even as the intense 186 00:18:04.680 --> 00:18:11.119 bath of radiation was still attempting to push matter apart. This struggle between gravity 187 00:18:11.160 --> 00:18:15.160 and radiation made the plasma oscillate or ripple, and spread outwards. The very 188 00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:19.920 largest ripples in the other universe depend on the distance a sound wave could travel, 189 00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:25.000 set by the speed of sound and the plasma. This distance was the 190 00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:29.759 four hundred ninety million light years we mentioned earlier, and it became fixed in 191 00:18:29.839 --> 00:18:34.720 place once the universe cooled and stopped being a plasma, leaving vast three dimensional 192 00:18:34.839 --> 00:18:40.720 ripples in its wake. Then, throughout the eons of the Universe's existence, 193 00:18:40.920 --> 00:18:45.960 galaxies and galaxy clusters formed at the density peaks of these enormous bubble like structures. 194 00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:51.079 The remnants of this plasma, now cooled down at just two point seven 195 00:18:51.079 --> 00:18:55.599 degrees above absolute zero, can still be seen across the universe as the cosmic 196 00:18:55.720 --> 00:19:00.599 microwave background radiation. You probably know it best as the faint white noise hiss 197 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:07.799 you get between stations on old analog radio and TV sets. The new structure, 198 00:19:07.799 --> 00:19:11.480 reported in the Astrophysical Journal, has been named Holilana, a term drawn 199 00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:18.000 from an Hawaiian creation chant involving the origins of structure. The studies lead author 200 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:22.319 Brent Tully from the University of Hawaii says he unexpectedly found the bubble while studying 201 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:26.839 a web of galaxies. He says his team weren't looking for it, but 202 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:30.119 it was so huge that it's spilled into the edges of the sector of the 203 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:36.000 scar that they were analyzing, and that piqued their interest as an enhancement in 204 00:19:36.039 --> 00:19:40.480 the density of galaxies. Turns out this bubbles a much stronger feature than expected. 205 00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:45.480 The very large diameter of a billion light years is beyond theoretical expectations. 206 00:19:47.240 --> 00:19:51.960 If its formation and evolution are in accordance with theory, then this baryonic acoustic 207 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:56.400 oscillation is closer than anticipated. That implies a higher value for the expansion rate 208 00:19:56.440 --> 00:20:02.720 of the universe. Astronomer's low the bubble using data from the Cosmic Flows For 209 00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:07.559 experiment, which is to date the largest compilation of precise distances to galaxies. 210 00:20:08.279 --> 00:20:12.119 Tally Co published a catalog last year, and this may be the first time 211 00:20:12.200 --> 00:20:19.400 astronomers have identified an individual structure associated with a baryonic acoustic oscillation. The discovery 212 00:20:19.440 --> 00:20:26.000 could help scientists bolster their knowledge on the effects of galaxy evolution. The same 213 00:20:26.039 --> 00:20:30.519 team of researchers also identified the Lanier Kya galaxy supercluster back in twenty fourteen. 214 00:20:32.359 --> 00:20:36.559 That structure, which includes their own Milky Way galaxy on its outskirts, is 215 00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:41.680 small in comparison, stretching at a diameter of about five hundred million light years. 216 00:20:41.880 --> 00:20:45.240 Laniar Key extends to the near edge of this much larger bubble. Tully's 217 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:49.759 team discovered that Ali Lana had already been noted in the twenty sixteen research paper 218 00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:55.720 as the most prominent of several shell like structures seen in the Sloan Digital All 219 00:20:55.799 --> 00:21:00.720 Sky survey. However, the earlier work did not reveal the extent of the 220 00:21:00.759 --> 00:21:04.960 structure, and that team didn't conclude that they had found was the baryonic acoustic 221 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:10.839 oscillation. Using the Cosmic Flows full catalog, the authors were able to see 222 00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:15.000 a full spherical shell of galaxies, identify its center and show that there really 223 00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:21.119 is a statistical enhancement in the density of galaxies in all directions from that center. 224 00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:26.519 Lellana encovers as many well known structures previously found by astronomers, such as 225 00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:30.640 the Harvard Smithsonian Great Wall containing the Coma cluster, the Hercules cluster, and 226 00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:37.720 the Slowing Great Wall, the Boeties supercluster resides at its center. Computer simulations 227 00:21:37.720 --> 00:21:42.920 have demonstrated that the shell structure identified as or Orlelana as less than a one 228 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:49.240 percent probability of being a statistical accident. Alilana has all the properties of a 229 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:56.480 theoretically anticipated baryonic acoustic oscillation, including the prominence of a rich supercluster at its 230 00:21:56.480 --> 00:22:00.640 center. However, it does stand out stronger than expect. Also, a 231 00:22:00.799 --> 00:22:06.200 Elana is slightly larger than anticipated based on the theory of the Standard Model of 232 00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:11.640 cosmology, but the size isn't accord with observations of the local expansion rate of 233 00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:15.720 the universe and of galaxy flows on large scales. That also hinted subtle problems 234 00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:37.039 with the Standard Model. This space time and Time that to take a brief 235 00:22:37.079 --> 00:22:41.240 look at some of the other stories making us in science this week with the 236 00:22:41.319 --> 00:22:45.519 Science Report. A new study has found a worrying change in the Indian Ocean 237 00:22:45.680 --> 00:22:52.000 surface temperatures, which are putting Southeast Australia on course for what it expected to 238 00:22:52.039 --> 00:22:57.000 be increasingly hot and dry conditions. The Indian Ocean dipole was found to be 239 00:22:57.079 --> 00:23:03.559 a major contributor to the severe drought and record hot temperatures seen across Australia last 240 00:23:03.640 --> 00:23:07.319 year. The event, known as a positive Indian Ocean dipole, cut off 241 00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:12.400 one of the major sources for Southern Australia's winter and spring rains. It also 242 00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:17.519 set up the extremely hot and dry conditions which promoted the Black Summer bush fires 243 00:23:17.559 --> 00:23:22.240 of twenty nineteen and twenty twenty. The new research are reported in the journal 244 00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:27.039 Nature Reveals that these historically rare events have become far more frequent and intense over 245 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:33.599 the past century, and the situation is expected to continue to worsen if greenhouse 246 00:23:33.599 --> 00:23:38.559 gas emissions continue to rise. To reach their conclusions, scientists used coral records 247 00:23:38.559 --> 00:23:45.400 from the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean to reconstruct Indian Ocean dipole variability over the last 248 00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:51.839 millennium with unprecedented precision, and the authors found that historically strong events like last 249 00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:56.880 year were incredibly rare. In fact, since the year twelve forty, scientists 250 00:23:56.880 --> 00:24:02.079 could identify only ten of these extreme events, but four of those ten took 251 00:24:02.119 --> 00:24:07.119 place in the last sixty years. The research also showed that a persistent tight 252 00:24:07.240 --> 00:24:11.519 coupling has existed between the variability of the Indian Ocean dipole and the Elnino southern 253 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:18.119 oscillation in the Pacific Ocean during the last millennium. While the Indian Ocean dipole 254 00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:22.039 and El Nino events can occur independently, periods of large year to year swings 255 00:24:22.079 --> 00:24:29.880 in the Indian oation variability also heightened Elno's southern oscillation variability across in the Pacific. 256 00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:36.680 Scientists have shown how the Black Death made the human immune system what it 257 00:24:36.759 --> 00:24:41.519 is today. Infectious diseases are one of the strongest drivers of human evolution, 258 00:24:41.880 --> 00:24:48.359 and a pandemic can cause the genes involved in immune responses to evolve rapidly. 259 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:52.680 The study, reported in the journal Nature, analyzed ancient DNA samples from five 260 00:24:52.799 --> 00:24:56.960 hundred and sixteen individuals, all of whom died about the time of the Black 261 00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:03.240 Death in the fourteenth century. They identified two hundred and forty five genetic variants. 262 00:25:03.319 --> 00:25:07.039 They are all very different when comparing pre and post Black Death samples. 263 00:25:07.799 --> 00:25:15.480 The variance associated with protection from Black Death bacterium overlap with genes associated with increased 264 00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:21.640 susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. The authors say this highlights the contribution of a natural 265 00:25:21.720 --> 00:25:27.559 selection of present day susceptibility towards chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The Black Death 266 00:25:27.640 --> 00:25:33.440 is considered the deadliest plague to be recorded in human history, causing the deaths 267 00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:37.920 of somewhere between seventy five million and two hundred million people. The pestilence was 268 00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:45.039 a bubonic plague pandemic which infected western Eurasia countries as well as northern Africa between 269 00:25:45.119 --> 00:25:49.119 thirteen forty six and thirteen fifty three. The Black Death is estimated to have 270 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:53.160 killed between thirty and sixty percent of the European population, as well as a 271 00:25:53.319 --> 00:25:59.319 third of the population of the Middle East. It's caused by the bacterium Yeshinia 272 00:25:59.440 --> 00:26:03.960 pests, which is spread by fleas, but it can also take a secondary 273 00:26:03.960 --> 00:26:07.200 form, or it's spread through a person to person contact by aerosols, causing 274 00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:14.359 neneumonic plagues. The plague created religious, social, and economic upheavals with profound 275 00:26:14.440 --> 00:26:18.880 effects on the course of European history. The pandemics thought of originated either from 276 00:26:18.920 --> 00:26:23.759 Central or Eastern Asia, but its first definitive appearance was in the Crimea in 277 00:26:23.880 --> 00:26:29.759 thirteen forty seven. From Crimea, it was most likely carried by fleas living 278 00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:34.799 on black rats. These traveled on Genoese trading ships, spreading throughout the Mediterranean 279 00:26:34.839 --> 00:26:40.119 Basin and reaching North Africa, Western Asia, and the rest of Europe through 280 00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:45.880 Constantinople, Sicily and the Italian Peninsula. There's evidence that once it came ashore, 281 00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.720 black death quickly spread person to person as inneumonic plague, and of course 282 00:26:49.759 --> 00:26:53.759 it wasn't just a single event. There were further outbreaks throughout the later Middle 283 00:26:53.799 --> 00:27:00.400 Ages, even continuing right through to the early nineteenth century. Sist of the 284 00:27:00.440 --> 00:27:06.400 black death include fever, headaches, painful aching joints, nausea with vomiting, 285 00:27:06.519 --> 00:27:10.880 a general feeling of malaise, and the appearance of buboes in the groin, 286 00:27:11.079 --> 00:27:15.680 neck, and armpits which use pass and blood when opened. Left untreated, 287 00:27:15.880 --> 00:27:23.200 eighty percent of those who contracted bubonic plague would die within eight days. Siters 288 00:27:23.240 --> 00:27:27.880 have found that baling whales around the coast of California are estimated to ingest up 289 00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:33.200 to ten million pieces of microplastics every day. The findings were reported in the 290 00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:40.680 journal Nature Communications. Combine microplastic data from the California Current with high resolution foraging 291 00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:45.119 behavior measurements from one hundred and ninety one TAGG baling whales, including blue fin 292 00:27:45.319 --> 00:27:51.599 and humpback whales. They found that baling whales mainly fit at depths of fifty 293 00:27:51.599 --> 00:27:55.839 to two hundred and fifty meters and that just happens to be where most microplastics 294 00:27:55.839 --> 00:28:00.359 are found now. Based on their measurements, the authors estimate that blue wales 295 00:28:00.440 --> 00:28:06.039 could consume up to ten million microplastic pieces every day, while humpback whales will 296 00:28:06.039 --> 00:28:11.519 still be consuming around four million pieces daily. The findings suggests that baaliing whales 297 00:28:11.599 --> 00:28:15.880 may consume the most plastic of any organisms, and that microplastics could pose a 298 00:28:15.960 --> 00:28:22.920 far greater risk to these whales than previously thought. There's growing concern in the 299 00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:30.680 international community about the honesty and trustworthiness of the World Health Organization, the world's 300 00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:36.680 most powerful health authority, recently celebrated at seventy fifth birthday. The WHO was 301 00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:41.160 originally set up by the United Nations to fight global diseases and provide medical treatments 302 00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:47.319 to underdeveloped in Third world countries, but according to the medical Fraternity, the 303 00:28:47.559 --> 00:28:52.559 WHO appears to have lost its way. In recent years. It's been pushing 304 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:59.079 dangerous pseudo scientific treatments, including alternative medicine practices such as nature apathy, traditional 305 00:28:59.160 --> 00:29:04.200 Chinese medicine, homeopathy, and a uvetic treatments. The situation grew worse after 306 00:29:04.319 --> 00:29:10.359 t Dross, a former guerrilla in Ethiopius socialist Tigray People's Liberation Front, became 307 00:29:10.599 --> 00:29:15.519 WHO Director General with the backing of the Chinese government. Then, in twenty 308 00:29:15.599 --> 00:29:21.079 seventeen, t Dross appointed Zimbabwe's asked that socialist President Robert mcgabe to serve as 309 00:29:21.079 --> 00:29:26.119 a WHO goodwill Ambassador mcgabe, a self described Marxist Leninist, had by this 310 00:29:26.240 --> 00:29:30.599 stage been accused by the European Union, the Innited Nations Security Council, the 311 00:29:30.759 --> 00:29:37.240 Human Rights Watch and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches of being a dictator and responsible 312 00:29:37.240 --> 00:29:41.160 for economic mismanagement and widespread corruption, as well as human rights abuses, including 313 00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:47.200 anti white racism and crimes against humanity. It was also on the ted Dross 314 00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:52.720 in twenty twenty that the WHO ignored warnings from front line doctors about a fast 315 00:29:52.759 --> 00:29:57.319 spreading new pandemic in China, which later became known as COVID nineteen. This 316 00:29:57.640 --> 00:30:03.039 failure to respond gave the deadly virus the time it needed to quickly spread globally, 317 00:30:03.279 --> 00:30:07.880 killing an estimated eighteen million people so far. To amend them from a 318 00:30:07.960 --> 00:30:12.319 strange skeptics says, now, instead of focusing on the provision of medical care 319 00:30:12.319 --> 00:30:18.960 to those who need it, the WHO is again promoting dangerous pseudo scientific treatments. 320 00:30:18.240 --> 00:30:22.480 In most cases, we's done a great job. It's been so instrumental 321 00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:26.440 in treating sort of diseases around the world, especially in the world countries of 322 00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:29.680 vaccimation and that sort of thing. So it's a very important body, so 323 00:30:29.720 --> 00:30:33.200 to see it going in certain directions is a worry. And over the last 324 00:30:33.240 --> 00:30:36.359 decade or so there have been signs, and they've sort of started off with 325 00:30:36.440 --> 00:30:40.839 the promotion of traditional Chinese medicine, saying that this is a valid part of 326 00:30:40.880 --> 00:30:44.160 medicine and should be regarded as part of normal treatments, et cetera. So 327 00:30:44.160 --> 00:30:48.359 it's given the intromater of the who there's so much in traditional Chinese medicine which 328 00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:52.640 is frankly which doctor stuff here is it's just magical thinking pretending to be ancient 329 00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:56.680 medicine or something. But most of it's just sort of something You take some 330 00:30:56.759 --> 00:30:59.240 of the stuff that's in there and you develop it and l like you do 331 00:30:59.319 --> 00:31:02.440 with any sort of actual product, and you find the actual working product. 332 00:31:02.480 --> 00:31:06.400 But most of traditional medicine is based on very ready uncientific theories. Okay, 333 00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:08.720 that's one aspect. At the same time, it's been pushing naturopathy, which 334 00:31:08.759 --> 00:31:12.680 is definitely magical thinking about the spirit of the body helping you cure, et 335 00:31:12.759 --> 00:31:17.000 cetera, and that promotes the whole range of pseudo sciences as well, and 336 00:31:17.279 --> 00:31:22.720 homeopathy. Will think the homeopathy is jumps another way of saying it. It 337 00:31:22.759 --> 00:31:26.200 can't work, it doesn't work, it shouldn't work, and it doesn't work. 338 00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:27.640 So I mean the WHO to be pushing that. Now, there's a 339 00:31:27.640 --> 00:31:32.440 lot of conspiracy theories about it, the reasons why the person who was running 340 00:31:32.599 --> 00:31:36.599 WHO for a while he was pushing Chinese medicine, and other suggestions that China 341 00:31:36.680 --> 00:31:38.640 is a big thunder of the WHO, so they're trying to plaque eate a 342 00:31:40.119 --> 00:31:45.920 Chinese approach to medicine. We've certainly seen Chinese involvement in administration of the WHO 343 00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:52.079 of lateran the WH refused to acknowledge the problems of COVID nineteen until very late. 344 00:31:52.559 --> 00:31:56.440 It was one of its great feelings and that was brought about by pressure 345 00:31:56.440 --> 00:31:59.720 by the Chinese government. Yeah so yeah, we can probably say there's the 346 00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:02.599 pressure from the Chinese government on a whole range of areas of medicine. I've 347 00:32:02.680 --> 00:32:07.119 spoken to a number of people in Australia who are concerned about influence on research 348 00:32:07.160 --> 00:32:09.799 activities, funding and control and sort of pushing certain areas before you're in for 349 00:32:09.880 --> 00:32:12.960 I had a Nobel Prize with her who said that to me, it's a 350 00:32:12.960 --> 00:32:15.839 concern and the concern of where the WHO is heading by trying to be a 351 00:32:15.880 --> 00:32:20.400 bit too inclusive. Now the reasons for that was up to everybody to figure 352 00:32:20.400 --> 00:32:22.759 out, but certainly the very factor of actually endorsing and saying that these things 353 00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:27.920 are valid when they're not, and coming from such an august body is a 354 00:32:27.960 --> 00:32:30.559 real worry and it's an ongoing worrying. We have been sort of mentioning it 355 00:32:30.599 --> 00:32:35.519 ourselves, but so is the world basically that is really concerned about this. 356 00:32:35.759 --> 00:32:57.079 That's temendum from Australian skeptics, and that's the show for now. Space Time 357 00:32:57.200 --> 00:33:01.200 is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, 358 00:33:01.400 --> 00:33:07.799 Google podcast, pocket Casts, Spotify, Acast, Amazon Music, bytes 359 00:33:07.839 --> 00:33:12.759 dot Com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcasts, download Provider, and 360 00:33:12.960 --> 00:33:17.599 from Spacetime with Stewart Gary dot com. Spacetimes also broadcast through the National Science 361 00:33:17.640 --> 00:33:23.039 Foundation, on Science Zone Radio and on both iHeartRadio and tune In Radio. 362 00:33:23.119 --> 00:33:27.880 And you can help to support our show by visiting the Spacetime Store for a 363 00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:32.240 range of promotional merchandising goodies, or by becoming a Spacetime Patron, which gives 364 00:33:32.240 --> 00:33:37.079 you access to triple episode commercial free versions of the show, as well as 365 00:33:37.119 --> 00:33:40.240 lots of burnus audio content which doesn't go to wear, access to our exclusive 366 00:33:40.279 --> 00:33:45.480 Facebook group and other rewards. Just go to Spacetime with Stewart Gary dot com 367 00:33:45.480 --> 00:33:50.880 for full details and if you want more Spacetime please check out our blog where 368 00:33:50.920 --> 00:33:52.799 you'll find all the stuff we couldn't fit in the show, as well as 369 00:33:52.839 --> 00:33:58.119 heaps of images, news stories, loads of videos and things on the whereby 370 00:33:58.200 --> 00:34:01.920 find interesting or amusing. Just go to Spacetime with Stewart Gary dot Tumbler dot 371 00:34:01.960 --> 00:34:07.559 com. That's all one word, and that's Tumbler without the E. You 372 00:34:07.640 --> 00:34:10.960 can also follow us through at Stewart Gary on Twitter, at Spacetime with Stewart 373 00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:15.880 Garry on Instagram, through our Spacetime YouTube channel, and on Facebook. Just 374 00:34:15.960 --> 00:34:22.320 go to Facebook dot com, forward slash Spacetime with Stewart Gary and Spacetime is 375 00:34:22.360 --> 00:34:25.800 brought to you in collaboration with Australian Sky and Telescope Magazine. Your window on 376 00:34:25.840 --> 00:34:30.960 the universe. You've been listening to Spacetime with Stewart Gary. This has been 377 00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:37.159 another quality podcast production from bites dot com.