WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:04.839 This is Spacetime Series twenty seven, Episode nineteen, for broadcast on the twurfth 2 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:10.199 of February twenty twenty four. Coming up on Space Time, Astronomers discover a 3 00:00:10.279 --> 00:00:15.880 surprise in a death star shaped moon, Gino's latest spectacular close flyby of the 4 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:22.359 volcanic world of Io, and new revelations prove organic compounds in asteroids can be 5 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:27.600 formed in colder regions of space. All that and more coming up on space 6 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:50.479 Time Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Gary. Astronomers have discovered a young, 7 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:55.600 subsurface liquid water ocean below the icy crust of Saturn's tiny moon, Mimas. 8 00:00:56.280 --> 00:01:00.119 Until now, Mimas's biggest claim to fame was the huge Impact crater in its 9 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:04.719 northern hemisphere, which gave the little moon the appearance of the infamous death star 10 00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:10.439 in the movie Star Wars. Now, a report in the journal Nature claims 11 00:01:10.439 --> 00:01:15.200 a review of data from NASA's Cassini mission indicates the four hundred kilometer wide Moon 12 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:21.719 contains a global subsurface ocean beneath its frozen crust. The data suggests this underground 13 00:01:21.719 --> 00:01:26.560 ocean still very young by geological standards, just five to fifteen million years old. 14 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:30.680 The studies. Lead author Valery Laney from the Observatoire de Paree says the 15 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:36.760 astonishing discovery makes mima sur prime target for studying the origins of life in our 16 00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:41.920 solar system. The moon's heavily created surface gave no hint of the hidden ocean 17 00:01:41.959 --> 00:01:47.120 beneath. The discovery adds Mimers to the exclusive club of moons in our Solar 18 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:51.519 system that are now known to have internal oceans, including Saturn's ice Moon and 19 00:01:51.640 --> 00:01:57.959 Soladus, and the Jovian Galileo Moon's Europa Ganny meeting Callisto. But the unique 20 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:02.200 difference here is the remarkably young age of Mimas's ocean. The young age has 21 00:02:02.239 --> 00:02:08.120 been determined through detailed analyzes of Mimas's title interactions with satin. The discovery of 22 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:15.439 an unexpected irregularity in Mimas's orbit suggests that the ocean formed very recently. As 23 00:02:15.479 --> 00:02:19.560 a result, Mimas provides a unique window into the very early stages of ocean 24 00:02:19.639 --> 00:02:23.240 formation and the potential for life to emerge. You see here on Earth, 25 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:30.840 wherever scientists find water, they find life. This space time still to come. 26 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:36.520 Juno's latest spectacular close flyby of the volcanic word of Io, and confirmation 27 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:40.680 that organic compounds found in asteroids can be formed in cold regions of space. 28 00:02:42.439 --> 00:03:02.800 All that and more still to come on Space Time NASA is Juno's spacecraft has 29 00:03:02.919 --> 00:03:08.400 just completed its second closed flyby of the volcanic Jervian moon Io, revealing stunning 30 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:15.879 erupting volcanoes blasting iridescent blue eject at deep into a velvet black sky. It 31 00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:19.639 was the second close encounter with this violent world in a row, the other 32 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:24.360 being Juno's previous orbit in December, and like the December encounter, JUNO swooped 33 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:30.599 down within fifteen hundred kilometers of the molten rock and sulfur covered moon. Io 34 00:03:30.759 --> 00:03:34.879 is the most volcanically active place in the Solar System. It's a world where 35 00:03:34.919 --> 00:03:39.319 instead of weather reports, it'd have geoscience reports, with fresh volcanic activity in 36 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:45.199 the north mountain forming in the east and new lava lakes forming in the southwest. 37 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:49.560 JUNO is studying the three thousand, three hundred and sixty kilometers wide world 38 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:53.639 and its pot marked surface to determine if Io's active volcanoes are powered by a 39 00:03:53.639 --> 00:03:59.960 global magma ocean beneath its crust. Based on current models, scientists believe that 40 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:05.479 it magma ocean results from gravitational tidal forces generated as ioorbit's Jupiter and is constantly 41 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:12.080 being stretched and crushed by the gas giant's overwhelming gravitational pool. Then there's the 42 00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:16.279 pull of the other Galilean Jovian moons as Io undertastes its orbit. All this 43 00:04:16.519 --> 00:04:20.600 causes what's known as geological flexing, and that results in a build up of 44 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:26.160 heat, which causes rocks in the moon's interior to melt. It's actually very 45 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:30.079 similar to what Europa and the other icy moons are understood to be experiencing, 46 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:33.839 where tidal flexing leads to hydrothermal activity in the core mantle boundary region, melting 47 00:04:33.879 --> 00:04:39.839 the rock solid water ice into liquid to form a subsurface ocean. Io is 48 00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:44.319 the fourth largest moon in our Solar System and is slightly bigger than Earth's moon. 49 00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:49.279 iOS volcanism is responsible for many of its unique features. Its volcanic plumes 50 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:55.800 and lava flows produce large crustal changes and paint the surface in various subtle shades 51 00:04:55.839 --> 00:04:59.560 of yellow, red, white, black, and green. Arriving in the 52 00:04:59.639 --> 00:05:03.439 Jovian System in twenty sixteen, Juno's the first mission to study Jupiter up close 53 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:09.639 from orbit since the Galileo spacecraft studied the gas giant and its satellites between nineteen 54 00:05:09.720 --> 00:05:15.000 ninety five and two thousand and three. JUNO has been looking deep below Jupiter's 55 00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:19.360 dense clouds to investigate the planet's magnetic field, its composition, at its structure. 56 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:25.360 This data is hooping scientists address serious questions about how Jupiter formed, for 57 00:05:25.439 --> 00:05:29.600 that matter, the origins of our Solar system see. As well as being 58 00:05:29.639 --> 00:05:32.040 the biggest planet in the Solar System, Jupiter is also believed to be the 59 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:36.279 oldest planet, having formed just a million years after the Sun and roughly fifty 60 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:42.279 million years before the Earth. Before Juno arrived, most scientists proposed one of 61 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:46.199 two scenarios for the formation of Jupiter. Now, if the planet accreated first 62 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:49.600 as a solid body, it would have consisted of a dense core, a 63 00:05:49.639 --> 00:05:56.120 surrounding layer of fluid metallic hydrogen with some helium and extending outwards to about eighty 64 00:05:56.120 --> 00:06:00.000 percent of the radius the planet. And then there's an outer layer of atmosphere 65 00:06:00.199 --> 00:06:04.639 consisting primarily of molecular hydrogen. Now, alternatively, if the planet collapsed directly 66 00:06:04.680 --> 00:06:10.120 from the gaseous protoplanetary disk which formed the Sun. It was expected to completely 67 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:15.360 lack a core, consisting instead of a denser and denser fluid predominantly molecular and 68 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:18.519 metallic hydrogen all the way to the center. However, the data from the 69 00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:24.040 junomission shows that Jupiter actually has a diffuse core that mixes into the mattel, 70 00:06:24.199 --> 00:06:29.240 extending for about thirty to fifty percent of the planet's radius and comprising heavy elements 71 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:32.600 with a combined mass seven to twenty five times that of the Earth. This 72 00:06:32.759 --> 00:06:38.639 mixing process could have arisen during its formation or the planet accrete its solids and 73 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:42.879 gases from the surrounding nebula. Alternatively, it could have been caused by the 74 00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:46.920 impact of a planet of about ten Earth masses a few million years after Jupiter's 75 00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:51.759 formation, which would have disrupted an originally solid choviing core. Outside the layer 76 00:06:51.759 --> 00:06:58.560 of metallic hydrogen lies a transparent interior atmosphere of hydrogen. At this depth, 77 00:06:58.680 --> 00:07:01.920 the pressure and temperature will above that for molecular hydrogen. In this state, 78 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:06.120 there are no distinct liquid in gas phases. Instead, the hydrogen is said 79 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:12.040 to be in a supercritical fluid state. The hydrogen and helium gas extending downwards 80 00:07:12.040 --> 00:07:16.319 from the cloud layer gradually transitions into a liquid in deeper layers, possibly resembling 81 00:07:16.360 --> 00:07:21.680 something akin to an ocean of liquid hydrogen and other supercritical fluids. Physically, 82 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:28.079 the gas simply becomes hotter and denser as the depth increases. Since twenty twenty 83 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:30.800 one, JUNO has been on its extended mission phase, where it's been making 84 00:07:30.839 --> 00:07:35.480 flybars of some of Jupiter's largest moons, including Ganymede, Europa, and now 85 00:07:35.560 --> 00:07:44.000 Io. This space time still the Coum conformation that organic compounds in asteroids can 86 00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:48.399 be formed in colder regions between the stars, and the asteroid that impacted near 87 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:54.040 Berlin identify it as a rare or bright All that and more still the corm 88 00:07:54.639 --> 00:08:15.240 on space time, a new study is confirmed that some organic compounds, including 89 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:22.079 those discovered inside asteroids, may have originated in cold interstellar space environments. Until 90 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:26.240 now, organic compounds were thought to have formed in hot regions near stars. 91 00:08:26.920 --> 00:08:31.680 The new findings are reported in the journal Science have ourbened fresh possibilities for studying 92 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:37.799 life beyond Earth. The study has been analyzing organic compounds known as polycyclic aromatic 93 00:08:37.879 --> 00:08:45.000 hydrocarbons or PAHs. Polycyclic Aromatic hydrocarbons are organic compounds made up of carbon and 94 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:48.240 hydrogen that are common on Earth, but are also found in celestial bodies like 95 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:54.000 asteroids and meteors. The authors had been looking for samples from two different asteroids, 96 00:08:54.240 --> 00:09:00.440 the asteroid Ryugu, a nine hundred meter wide potentially hazardous neroth asteroid belonging 97 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:05.639 to the Apollo group, which was visited by the Japanese Aerospace Expiration Agencies Hyabusa 98 00:09:05.720 --> 00:09:09.960 II sample return mission in twenty eighteen, and the Murchison meteorite, which fell 99 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:15.039 to Earth near the Victorian rural township of Murchison back on September twenty eighth, 100 00:09:15.240 --> 00:09:18.919 nineteen sixty nine. Two of the studies authors, Letty Gryce and Alex Holman, 101 00:09:20.039 --> 00:09:24.960 from Curtain University's WA Organic and Isotopic Geochemistry Center, had performed controlled experiments 102 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:31.519 on Australian plants, which were then isotopically compared to PAHs from both fragments of 103 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:35.039 Ryugu and Murchison. They were looking at the bonds between light and heavy carbon 104 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:41.039 isotopes to reveal the temperature at which they were formed, and they found that 105 00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:46.799 some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from both Ryugu and Murchison were found to have had different 106 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:52.360 characteristics. The smaller ones likely formed in cold outer space an interstellar environment, 107 00:09:52.679 --> 00:09:58.360 or bigger ones probably formed in warmer environments like near a star or in sight 108 00:09:58.440 --> 00:10:03.960 a celestial body. Hormon says, understanding the isotopic composition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons 109 00:10:05.080 --> 00:10:09.679 helps oun rebel conditions and environments in which these molecules were created, and that 110 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:15.960 offers insights into the history and chemistry of celestial bodies like asteroids and meteors grisiers. 111 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:20.799 The findings provide new insights into how organic compounds formed beyond the Earth and 112 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:24.120 where in space they're likely to come from. Quite a few years ago, 113 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:30.240 we did a series of burn experiments with Australian plants where we actually burn the 114 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:37.120 plants and collect the polycyclocharomatic hydrocarbons which have been formed on the land through use 115 00:10:37.240 --> 00:10:43.879 as a comparison of a terrestrial Earth sauce for these polycyclicaramatic hydrocarbins and they were 116 00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:52.480 measured alongside the patches from the asteroids and the Merchison meteorte sample to confirm that 117 00:10:52.600 --> 00:10:58.120 the source of the phatches in the asteroid and as a comparison of like temperature 118 00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:05.480 associated combustion of plant material that was used as a reference point. I would 119 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:09.679 say to compare the other PAHs in the asteroids. So we provided quite important 120 00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:16.200 information in terms of what the isotopes would be. So those pH is formed 121 00:11:16.240 --> 00:11:22.120 on land tell me about PAHs are very common organic molecules because they're very stable 122 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:26.720 and easily formed by a variety of different processes. On Earth, they're normally 123 00:11:26.759 --> 00:11:31.159 formed in high temperature processes, for example the combustion of plant material, and 124 00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:35.919 also in other areas such as hydro thermal high temperature events under the ocean like 125 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:39.759 in DC hydrothermal events, also when the formation of oil and gas under high 126 00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:43.559 temperature and pressure. They can be formed in space. These are generally considered 127 00:11:43.559 --> 00:11:48.080 to be formed in again high temperature processes, such as the areas surrounding stars 128 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:52.399 at the degree celsius, but it was also has been theorized that they could 129 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:56.399 be formed under low temperature processes within the interstellar medium between stars, but this 130 00:11:56.519 --> 00:12:01.080 had never been confirmed experimentally. What this work was designed to achieve. Was 131 00:12:01.080 --> 00:12:05.440 it able to achieve that? I guess it was the samples that were brought 132 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:11.559 back from royugu were subjected to a very advanced analysis of the distribution of isotopes 133 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:15.799 in the phs, the light and heavy aspects of carbon and how they bonded 134 00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:20.279 together using the advanced and instrumentation available at Caltech where these study was based, 135 00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:24.279 and these were able to determine the temperature that the phs were formed them and 136 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:28.000 they did find that certain phs in royugu and metrocine were formed at low temperature. 137 00:12:28.120 --> 00:12:33.639 What processes in low temperature would would do that uldrabol, radiation and shock 138 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:37.080 waves as well. Let's go back to the work you guys did to establish 139 00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:43.840 the PAHs, the organics that you burned to achieve that pieces can be from 140 00:12:43.080 --> 00:12:48.159 leaf litter and a wood particularly, so just like you would do with a 141 00:12:48.159 --> 00:12:54.840 wood fire, so you burn and then the pahi are actually formed through the 142 00:12:54.960 --> 00:13:01.240 combustion process. The either topic signal of fragments reflect the typed plant that's being 143 00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:05.879 burnt, so the carbon verding TABN twelve would reflect the type of plant material. 144 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.159 So for example, if there's a tree like a temperate tree such as 145 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:15.399 the eucalyptus, it uses a particular pathway before the synthesis compared to something like 146 00:13:15.519 --> 00:13:20.320 semisex graps, which uses a different pathway because leads from a very hot environment, 147 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:26.360 and therefore you can these different plant types factionate the carbon verding carbon twelve 148 00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:30.879 of the C or two taken means differently and that is reflected of what in 149 00:13:30.919 --> 00:13:35.200 the pH hs that are emitted from the combustion process. The other importance of 150 00:13:35.320 --> 00:13:39.440 these burn experiments we did is we're done in a controlled chamber and the temperature 151 00:13:39.480 --> 00:13:43.840 of the burn was very precisely monitored, so we were able to provide a 152 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:48.039 sample of PAHs that we could say were produced at this temperature, at these 153 00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:50.879 high temperatures, So that gave the researchers at katch Like a known point to 154 00:13:52.120 --> 00:13:56.039 compare their samples against, to compare with these ones from the asteroids and the 155 00:13:56.120 --> 00:14:00.879 metal meteorite formed at higher low temperatures, because they have these known hytis to 156 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:05.159 compare against. Were you informed whether or not that Ryego and Murchison had the 157 00:14:05.159 --> 00:14:09.320 same isotopic signatures The results in our Ego and medicine, some of the PAHs 158 00:14:09.600 --> 00:14:13.000 were found to have been formed at the low temperatures that they were theorriving, 159 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:16.200 but others were found to be formed at high temperatures. Yeah, most of 160 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:20.600 the from the ash of the plant is olympic different through the rag and the 161 00:14:20.679 --> 00:14:24.840 meicane, but there is quite a distinct difference between them. Tell me about 162 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:31.399 Curtain's organic and isotopic geochemistry center. I'm actually a laureate feller who investigates organic 163 00:14:31.559 --> 00:14:37.879 in very ancient fossils in soft tissues. Organic from the original organisms that are 164 00:14:37.919 --> 00:14:43.559 like the different types of natural product precursors which are preserved in soft tissue. 165 00:14:43.919 --> 00:14:48.039 These can be from modern right through to about six hundred million years old. 166 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:54.320 So I'm looking at exceptionally well preserved fossils in geological samples through that program, 167 00:14:54.360 --> 00:15:01.159 and we actually make fossils in the laboratory using micropilmat and actually fossilized material as 168 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:07.240 well, so we're really understanding the processes of different motor fossilization and geological record. 169 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:11.600 We also work on my extinction events, so the big five extinction events 170 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:18.720 in geological history, including the largest epatic extinction two fifty two million years ago. 171 00:15:18.840 --> 00:15:22.159 We look at the organics in rocks other time and track changes in the 172 00:15:22.279 --> 00:15:28.600 environment and changes in the ocean and atmosphere by using isotops and organics in the 173 00:15:28.679 --> 00:15:33.320 rock, and we've worked on the Chicks Loop impact crater from the Gulf of 174 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:39.440 Mexico. We have the core material here we've published looking at what happened within 175 00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:43.840 the day after the impact at Chick Saloop and how quickly MicroB your life and 176 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:48.639 life recovered after that event. Is the iridium line from chick salute from the 177 00:15:48.679 --> 00:15:52.759 impact? Does it change much in its chemical signature? Actually, it's not 178 00:15:52.919 --> 00:15:56.840 seen all around the world. We're actually going to be working on samples from 179 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:03.919 New Zealand shortly and be interesting to see whether there's actually an a rhythium layer 180 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:07.600 there because that's never really been investigated. So that's further away from the chicilic 181 00:16:07.720 --> 00:16:15.879 side. Asia. No. I think large beause the deposits that would be 182 00:16:15.960 --> 00:16:23.559 spanning that interval our need to involve ocean drilling projects and drilling deeply and places 183 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:30.720 where likely it might be Large Hole Rise or the Great Australian Bite where we 184 00:16:30.759 --> 00:16:36.879 would perhaps stand into that interval. So it's more accessibility to getting samples is 185 00:16:36.919 --> 00:16:41.960 the biggest issue in Australia. Your research has also looked at more recent plants. 186 00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:45.919 Tell me about that. We've actually developed the technique to be able to 187 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:52.480 capture volatile organic compounds from conversion experiments with control burms and determine the origin of 188 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:57.320 those organic So, for example, we can take atmospheric emissions and actually we've 189 00:16:57.360 --> 00:17:03.919 developed a technique where you can actually collect those organics onto our resinens, then 190 00:17:03.079 --> 00:17:08.880 analytically exhort and measure the composition and the isotopic composition, which is not an 191 00:17:08.880 --> 00:17:14.440 easy tax. And there you heard Clyttie Gryce and Alex Holman from Curtain University's 192 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:21.359 WA Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Center. And this space time still to come. 193 00:17:21.799 --> 00:17:26.279 The asteroid that impacted near Berlin last week identified as a rare all bright, 194 00:17:26.599 --> 00:17:30.279 and later in the science report, paleontologists have uncovered the fossilized remains of a 195 00:17:30.319 --> 00:17:34.599 new species of pterosol on the isle of sky. All that and more still 196 00:17:34.599 --> 00:17:55.559 to come. On space time, scientists have identified fragments of an asteroid that 197 00:17:55.640 --> 00:18:00.200 crashed towards near Berlin last month. The findings by researchers with the new zi 198 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:04.000 Inferna Kundan showed the space rock to have the mineralogy and chemical composition of an 199 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:10.240 albright type of chondrite. The results are based on an initial examination using an 200 00:18:10.279 --> 00:18:15.559 electron BM microprobe. The findings match observations of the fireball's color made by astronomers 201 00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:21.240 who described it as it streaked through the atmosphere. Astronomers knew it was coming 202 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:26.119 because they detected the meta white asteroid just three hours prior to its atmospheric entry, 203 00:18:26.279 --> 00:18:30.240 cataloging it as twenty twenty four BX one. BX one was first spotted 204 00:18:30.279 --> 00:18:34.880 and then tracked by the Concol Observatory in Hungary. That data was then fed 205 00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:40.960 to NASA's Scout and ESI's Mercat Asteroid Guard Impact has the assessment systems, which 206 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:45.519 then predicted its trajectory and confirmed that it definitely was an Earth impact. Scientists 207 00:18:45.559 --> 00:18:51.400 and meteorite hunters then followed its progress during its entry phase and calculated its likely 208 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:56.279 impact location, adjusting for strong winds faint Many people in Berlin and across central 209 00:18:56.319 --> 00:19:00.160 Europe were also able to witness the fireball, and many of them filmed it. 210 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:04.680 After breaking up in flight, small fragments eventually made their way to the 211 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:11.240 ground west of Berlin. Peter Jeniskins from the Seti Institute says the meteorites were 212 00:19:11.240 --> 00:19:15.559 difficult to identify because from a distance they looked like any other rock on Earth. 213 00:19:15.160 --> 00:19:21.799 Albrights look more like gray granite. They consist primarily of magnesium silicates and 214 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:26.519 statite and forster rite. Unlike other meteorites, which usually have a thin crust 215 00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:30.559 of black glass from atmospheric heat, these meteorites have a mostly translucent glass crust. 216 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:34.880 The name Albright comes from the village of Aubreeze in France, where a 217 00:19:34.920 --> 00:19:41.720 similar meteorite fell to Earth back in September eighteen thirty six. Only eight asteroids 218 00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:45.279 have ever been detected before their impact with's atmosphere. The first of these discoveries 219 00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:48.400 took place in two thousand and eight, and four were discovered in just the 220 00:19:48.480 --> 00:20:07.359 last two years. This Space time and Time that to take a brief look 221 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:10.559 at some of the other stories making news in science this week with a science 222 00:20:10.599 --> 00:20:15.680 report. A new study by the Raw society Open Science says more needs to 223 00:20:15.720 --> 00:20:19.880 be done to stop animal cruelty during transport. Dozens, maybe hundreds of animal 224 00:20:19.880 --> 00:20:25.319 deaths have been recorded on board a live export ship carrying more than fifteen thousand 225 00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:29.839 animals, which is now making its way back to Fremantle in Western Australia after 226 00:20:29.880 --> 00:20:33.440 being left adrift for over a month. The federal government took until last week 227 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:37.759 to decide what to do with this ship, which had been left stationary in 228 00:20:37.799 --> 00:20:41.119 heat wave of conditions because of attacks by Yemen's Islamic hootie terrorists in the Red 229 00:20:41.240 --> 00:20:45.960 Sea. The problem is the Albinesy Labor government has failed to keep its election 230 00:20:47.119 --> 00:20:52.559 promised to ban the inhumane practice of live animal exports. Now are reporting the 231 00:20:52.599 --> 00:20:56.680 journal of the Raw society Open Science shows that British and Canadian scientists studying livestock 232 00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:03.240 transportation regulations in five English speaking Western jurisdictions, including Australia, Canada, New 233 00:21:03.319 --> 00:21:06.960 Zealand, the EU, and the United States, have found that existing laws 234 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:11.839 are simply too vague or insufficient to prevent animal cruelty. The author's examined evidence 235 00:21:11.880 --> 00:21:17.960 relating to four major risk factors, including journey duration and space allowances, finding 236 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:23.480 regulations simply failed to adequately protect the animals. They say increased inspections and training 237 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:29.519 for transporters needs to be substantially improved for the sake of animal welfare. Of 238 00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:33.680 course, the Albenzi government could stop all this by simply keeping its election promise 239 00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:38.680 and banning the transport of live animals altogether. A new study conducted at the 240 00:21:38.680 --> 00:21:44.920 Westmead Institute for Medical Research has solved a complication that could occur following an experimental 241 00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:48.160 procedure to repair damaged heart muscles. Right now, when a heart muscle is 242 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:52.400 repaired using stem cells, there is a risk of developing an abnormal heart beat. 243 00:21:53.079 --> 00:21:56.119 Now, a report of the journal Nature is found a way to identify 244 00:21:56.240 --> 00:22:00.640 cells that are likely to have the abnormal beat, and that a combination of 245 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:07.799 therapy of existing drugs can control and potentially stop the abnormality. Palaeontologists on the 246 00:22:07.799 --> 00:22:12.519 Isle of Sky have uncovered the fossilized remains of a new species of pterosaur, 247 00:22:12.680 --> 00:22:18.279 the famous extinct cloud of flying reptiles that lived during the Age of dinosaurs. 248 00:22:18.039 --> 00:22:25.440 A report in the General Vertebrate Paleontology says incomplete but three dimensionally preserved fossilized remains 249 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:27.960 have been uncovered, including parts of the shoulder, wings, legs, and 250 00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:33.799 backbone. Names Apter Avenzi, the fossils date back to around one hundred and 251 00:22:33.799 --> 00:22:37.839 sixty eight to one hundred and sixty six million years ago. The discovery was 252 00:22:37.880 --> 00:22:42.759 quite a surprise as most of its close relatives are from China. Cloud seeding 253 00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:47.640 is a type of weather modification that aims to change the amount of type of 254 00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:52.599 precipitation that falls from clouds by dispersing substances into the air that serve as cloud 255 00:22:52.640 --> 00:22:57.720 condensation makers or ice nuclei, which then alter the microphysical processes within the cloud. 256 00:22:59.319 --> 00:23:03.640 Whether clouds is effective in producing a statistically significant increase in precipitation is still 257 00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:08.480 a matter of academic debate, and as Tim Mindum from Strands Skeptics points out, 258 00:23:08.559 --> 00:23:12.920 there are some serious concerns associated with the chemicals being used to see the 259 00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:18.200 clouds. It's an interesting thing, is though, obviously, or need to 260 00:23:18.279 --> 00:23:19.960 rain in certain places that they are drought, written places, et cetera, 261 00:23:21.079 --> 00:23:22.839 Cross agriculture, all that sort of stuff. They need rain, and that 262 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:27.039 encourages systems to create the rain to help the rain along, whether it's lightning 263 00:23:27.079 --> 00:23:30.680 rods, or whether it's sort of rain dancers, or whether it's firing cannons 264 00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:34.759 into the air. The cloud feeding idea has a little bit more scientific basis 265 00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:38.279 to it. The idea that you go up into a plane and you drop 266 00:23:38.359 --> 00:23:45.359 little granules of various sort of chemical combinations and they form as you do with 267 00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:48.319 creating a pearl an artificial pearl. You put a grain of sand in something 268 00:23:48.319 --> 00:23:52.599 and the pearl builds around it. Supposedly, these chemicals that are in the 269 00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:56.039 air, and they include sodium chloride or calcium chloride or silver either depending on 270 00:23:56.079 --> 00:24:00.839 the cloud you're putting this into, they will sort of draw droplets to the 271 00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:03.880 now create a drop around this. Drain is chemical. You have to have 272 00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:06.279 a cloud, so you can't just do it in the open air. And 273 00:24:06.319 --> 00:24:08.240 I think for my understanding of it, and it is a sort of an 274 00:24:08.279 --> 00:24:11.839 interesting area, but it's sort of as there's still a lot of mystery about 275 00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:15.279 it or uncertainty. You're basically pushing a cloud into raining. I don't think 276 00:24:15.279 --> 00:24:19.400 you can make rain out of a clear air or a cloud that's basically not 277 00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:22.359 going to go anywhere. And so you know, there might be some basis 278 00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:26.759 to it the places your cloud seeding might be going to rain anyway, perhaps 279 00:24:26.759 --> 00:24:30.279 not exactly there, or perhaps something exactly with the amount of rain that you 280 00:24:30.680 --> 00:24:33.519 might get through cloud feeding. I do know that CSIRO, the common Well 281 00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:37.319 Scientific Industrial Research Organization in Australia, did do a lot of studies, so 282 00:24:37.400 --> 00:24:40.720 there's something they came up with. Yes, yes, maybe, but but 283 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:45.720 they did get a lot of information a water divining, was it not a 284 00:24:45.720 --> 00:24:51.400 water divining, and that particularly one they stopped. Yeah, but what they 285 00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:53.880 what someone does point out, and this particular discussion of cloud setting that came 286 00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:57.440 out recently, was that some of the chemicals that are used can be dangerous 287 00:24:57.480 --> 00:25:00.519 in their own right. They can cause clue et cetera, especially when you're 288 00:25:00.519 --> 00:25:04.920 sort of trying to get your triggering ice production. In super cool clouds use 289 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:08.200 silver io dyed and silver eye dyed, and that was the most common seed 290 00:25:08.200 --> 00:25:11.440 element, wasn't usually Yeah, Yeah, and that that can be poisonous and 291 00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:15.559 it certainly can be polluting. So you might be getting rain, but you 292 00:25:15.640 --> 00:25:18.160 might be doing a lot more damage at the same time. The trouble with 293 00:25:18.200 --> 00:25:21.680 cloud seeding is that it does have a downside, and a serious downside, 294 00:25:21.839 --> 00:25:23.599 so that you might be sort of putting more things in the air that you 295 00:25:23.680 --> 00:25:26.759 don't want and then getting rain out. Would you do one simply getting the 296 00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:30.440 rain to fall over potentially over a different area to where it was going to 297 00:25:30.440 --> 00:25:34.079 fall anyway. Yeah, there were stories of conspiracies actually in the was the 298 00:25:34.200 --> 00:25:40.960 sixties or fifties with a supposedly cloud seeded cloud in the Gulf of Mexico and 299 00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:45.079 would rain over the gulf rather than on a central American country that the Americans 300 00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:48.440 didn't want to do. Well, we didn't want that nation to do or 301 00:25:48.559 --> 00:25:52.039 to ruin their banana crops. Well, they probably couldn't find any poison cigars 302 00:25:52.039 --> 00:25:55.680 for Castro at the time, that's right. Yeah. And this other story 303 00:25:55.799 --> 00:25:59.440 was that China was supposedly clearing pollution out of the air by doing this cloud 304 00:25:59.440 --> 00:26:19.279 setting before the Basic Olympics. That's tremendum from Australian skeptics. And that's the 305 00:26:19.319 --> 00:26:25.480 show for now. Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple 306 00:26:25.519 --> 00:26:30.440 Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Google podcast, pocker Casts, Spotify, acast, 307 00:26:30.680 --> 00:26:36.799 Amazon Music, bytes dot Com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast 308 00:26:36.839 --> 00:26:41.920 download provider, and from space Time with Stuart Gary dot com. 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