Speaker 1: Welcome. This is Rebecca Shore for Radio Eye, and today
Speaker 1: I will be reading the Smithsonian Magazine dated April May
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. As a reminder, Radio Eye is a
Speaker 1: reading service intended for people who are blind or have
Speaker 1: other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
Speaker 1: Please join me now for the first article titled the
Speaker 1: Gunboat Philadelphia lasted one day in battle. It's still telling
Speaker 1: us about the Revolution. Two hundred and fifty years later,
Speaker 1: the twenty nine ton ship went to war against the British,
Speaker 1: then sat at the bottom of Lake Champlain for one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty years. Now it's a relic of Ragged
Speaker 1: Glory by Covey Biacolo. In the summer of seventeen seventy six,
Speaker 1: when the fifty six delegates of the thirteen Colonies signed
Speaker 1: the United States Declaration of Independence, construction was already under
Speaker 1: way on eight gunboats, part of a planned fleet to
Speaker 1: be commanded by Brigadier General Benedict Arnold. By the fall,
Speaker 1: one of the flotilla's gunboats, the Philadelphia, would join the
Speaker 1: fight against the British Royal Navy at the Battle of
Speaker 1: Valcour Island in Lake Champlain between New York and Vermont.
Speaker 1: The Philadelphia flat bottomed, weighing about twenty nine tons and
Speaker 1: measuring fifty four feet long, was mounted with three cannons,
Speaker 1: one twelve pounder and two nine pounders, and eight swivel guns.
Speaker 1: The Revolutionary War had begun more than a year earlier,
Speaker 1: and Arnold, who would later become infamous as a trader,
Speaker 1: was still working for the Continental Army. The gunboat's construction
Speaker 1: was officially under his directive, but the Assistant Deputy Commissary General,
Speaker 1: Hermanus Schuyler administered the day to day production in Skenesborough,
Speaker 1: New York by soldiers who had previously been ship carpenters.
Speaker 1: Their skills were so valuable that these soldiers became some
Speaker 1: of the highest paid workers in the army, earning an
Speaker 1: estimated thirty four Das dollars a week only Skuyler himself
Speaker 1: made more. Enslaved people of African descent were also vital
Speaker 1: to the completion of the gunboats, particularly in mining iron
Speaker 1: ore and blacksmithing. In fact, the regiments and units stationed
Speaker 1: around Lake Champlain would become notably integrated, comprising free citizens,
Speaker 1: Native Americans, and enslaved black men. Says Kenneth Cohen, Chair
Speaker 1: of Military History and Curator of Early American History at
Speaker 1: the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in m a h.
Speaker 1: In October, after a summer of shipbuilding fighting commenced, the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia was captained by Benjamin Rue from Pennsylvania on October eleventh,
Speaker 1: the day the Battle of Valcour Island began. The noble
Speaker 1: ship's career started and ended with poignant speed. Six hours
Speaker 1: into the exchange of fire, just after sunset, the Philadelphia
Speaker 1: was struck by one of the Royal Navy's twenty four
Speaker 1: pound cannonballs. The vessel swiftly sank. By the battle's end
Speaker 1: two days later, the BRIT's higher caliber arsenal had damaged
Speaker 1: or destroyed much of the American fleet. Defeated, Arnold torched
Speaker 1: the remaining boats as he and the surviving crew retreated,
Speaker 1: eventually reaching the safety of Fort Tykwonderoga, near the south
Speaker 1: end of Lake Champlain. The Philadelphia rested largely undisturbed at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the lake for nearly one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty years, but in nineteen thirty four, Lorenzo F. Hagland,
Speaker 1: an underwater engineer working for a salvage company, discovered timbers
Speaker 1: in the lake from the wreckage of another ship the
Speaker 1: Patriots had used at Valcour. A World War One vet
Speaker 1: who trained near Lake Champlain, Hagland was also a novice historian,
Speaker 1: and he suspected the Philadelphia might still be under water too.
Speaker 1: The next year, with help from locals who'd passed stone
Speaker 1: stories of the gunboat's demise for generations, Hagland managed to
Speaker 1: locate the Philadelphia and raise it from Lake Champlain. For
Speaker 1: more than two decades, he displayed the gunboat through the
Speaker 1: region as a historical attraction, even exhibiting it at one
Speaker 1: point as a roadside landmark on New York State's Route
Speaker 1: twenty two. In nineteen sixty four, four years after Hagland's death,
Speaker 1: the Smithsonian acquired the vessel. Conservators at NMAH made minor changes,
Speaker 1: shoring up the timbers that fractured when the British shot
Speaker 1: penetrated the Philadelphia's hull, and which decayed further underwater. Starting
Speaker 1: July nineteen sixty five, the boat was on permanent display
Speaker 1: at the museum. Then in the early two thousands, the
Speaker 1: Smithsonian began a decades long conservation project in partnership with
Speaker 1: Texas A and M's Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation.
Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, the ENDEPHOR entered a more ambitious phase,
Speaker 1: marshaled by Cohen and Jennifer L. Jones, curator and project
Speaker 1: coordinator at n M A H. Jones first encountered the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia in nineteen eighty three when she was an intern
Speaker 1: at the museum. Her first Philadelphia task was simple vacuuming.
Speaker 1: The project's goal, Jones and Cohen say, is not to
Speaker 1: recreate the seventeen seventy six boat. Instead, they're doing something
Speaker 1: more delicate, stabilizing the intricate structure of the craft. We
Speaker 1: are not reconstructing, Jones says, we are cleaning and making
Speaker 1: sure that it lasts for another two hundred years or more. Today,
Speaker 1: the oldest surviving American warship looks undeniably like a relic,
Speaker 1: but it still has a ragged glory. Visitors can see
Speaker 1: precisely where the cannonballs struck the starboard side. The added
Speaker 1: wood is painted gray to distinguish it from the original structure.
Speaker 1: Jones lovingly described the original materials that make up the boat,
Speaker 1: including green oak harvested in and around Skeensborough. Among other
Speaker 1: next steps, the team plans to raise the boat onto
Speaker 1: rubber isolation pads to reduce the impact of low level
Speaker 1: vibrations from the museum floor. In the ongoing preservation process,
Speaker 1: the team will continue to add structural elements to support
Speaker 1: weakening timbers, while replacing any pieces that might threaten the
Speaker 1: overall structural integrity. For example, says Peter Fix, a research
Speaker 1: scientist at Texas A and M, the gunboat's planks were
Speaker 1: originally fastened with iron spikes, which corroded during the one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty nine year immersion in Lake Champlain. Conservators
Speaker 1: have augmented the fastenings to keep all the planking secured.
Speaker 1: Cowen argues that the importance of the Battle of Valcour
Speaker 1: Island is often overlooked. The battle was significant, he says,
Speaker 1: by virtue of building the fleet. The Americans then forced
Speaker 1: the British to also build a fleet, all of which
Speaker 1: makes this a much more long drawn out war than
Speaker 1: the British had hoped for. That delay proved crucial. The
Speaker 1: British held off their invasion from the North until the
Speaker 1: following year, allowing the Continental Army precious time to regroup
Speaker 1: and triumph at the critical Battle of Saratoga in the
Speaker 1: fall of seventeen seventy seven. The gunboat Philadelphia had served
Speaker 1: briefly but bravely, and to day its planks and cannons
Speaker 1: tell a complicated tale of ingenuity that threw off the monarchy.
Speaker 1: And accompanying that article, did you know Before the Battle
Speaker 1: of Valcour Island? The Continental Army invaded Quebec In September
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy five, about a year before the Battle of
Speaker 1: Valcour Island, the Continental Army invaded British controlled Quebec to
Speaker 1: head off any British forces who might use the province
Speaker 1: to attack the Colonies from the north. That winter, around
Speaker 1: ten thousand British and German troops arrived and routed the Americans,
Speaker 1: who burned its boats and retreated to Fort Taekwonderoga, where
Speaker 1: it began building the fleet that would serve the Patriots
Speaker 1: in the Battle of Valcour Island. Next see the spectacular
Speaker 1: winners of Smithsonian Magazine's twenty third annual Photography Contest. This
Speaker 1: year's best photos command attention by capturing intimate moments and
Speaker 1: bold colors. By Tracy Scott Forsen, Senior Editor. Like rebellious
Speaker 1: bandmates on stage, the three chicks featured in the grand
Speaker 1: prize winning image of the twenty third annual Smithsonian Magazine
Speaker 1: Photo Contest are full of attitude, energy, and individuality, says
Speaker 1: photographer Jacqueline Burke, who playfully titled her entry the punk Rockers.
Speaker 1: Their unruly spiked plumage which gives the unmistakable look of
Speaker 1: tiny mohawks, she says. Photographed at a New Jersey rookery
Speaker 1: or breeding ground, the Egret chicks playing and fighting with
Speaker 1: one another stood out among hundreds of birds. Their little
Speaker 1: necks and heads were writhing. Burke says, one would peck,
Speaker 1: the other would peck back. Although the small birds have
Speaker 1: a huge presence, their parent looms large in the background.
Speaker 1: The photographer framed it beautifully, says Smithsonian Creative director Maria Keyhan.
Speaker 1: The scale jump between the long legs and gnarly imposing
Speaker 1: feet compared to the fluffy heads below is remarkable. Like
Speaker 1: the grand prize photo, the other six winners of this
Speaker 1: year's contest, which received more than seventeen thousand submissions from
Speaker 1: one hundred and eight countries, invite a closer look. A
Speaker 1: bare foot devotee boldly expressing herself during a holy ritual.
Speaker 1: A teenager captured in a symbolic moment between youth and adulthood,
Speaker 1: and a rare encounter with the colorful creature are some
Speaker 1: of the scenes that earned the top prizes. Grand prize
Speaker 1: winner Jacqueline Burke. Burke, a sixty four year old veterinarian,
Speaker 1: observed the recently hatched egrets, each no larger than a
Speaker 1: golf ball, when curled up underneath a ramp at the
Speaker 1: Ocean City Welcome Center in New Jersey, where she was
Speaker 1: visiting from her home in Perkiomenville, Pennsylvania. They were squabbling NonStop,
Speaker 1: she says. She estimates that there were fifty to seventy
Speaker 1: nests that day at the rookery, where native and migratory
Speaker 1: birds choose to breed. It is such a popular destination
Speaker 1: for birds and birders alike that the state's Audubond Society
Speaker 1: hosts events there. Burke's interest in animals led her to
Speaker 1: take up photography in twenty fourteen. That's when she traded
Speaker 1: in bird watching binoculars for a camera. We need to
Speaker 1: save species like this and save moments like this, she says.
Speaker 1: Artistic Irena Denisova, as part of a project organized by
Speaker 1: a local photo club Denisova, forty four, of Melbourne, was
Speaker 1: tasked with taking a picture of a woman wearing a
Speaker 1: cultural head covering. As I worked on it, the idea shifted,
Speaker 1: says Denisova, who decided to create something a bit more
Speaker 1: abstract in her home studio. She used black fabric as
Speaker 1: a veil for her model. She added finishing touches in
Speaker 1: editing using Adobe Photoshop. The white fractures cutting through the
Speaker 1: image hint at inner division, at the layers we are
Speaker 1: made of, and at moments of awareness when that apparent
Speaker 1: wholeness begins to crack. Denisova, who began her photography career
Speaker 1: almost ten years ago, appreciates the complete calm and serenity
Speaker 1: captured in the image. Travel Arun Kumar Malamela during their
Speaker 1: annual Hindu festival of Shivaratri. Nalamela, a thirty three year
Speaker 1: old resident of Telangana, India, watched as devotees lit oil
Speaker 1: lamps or dayas in an act of prayer. Seemingly moved
Speaker 1: by the moment a woman stepped out among the illuminated rows.
Speaker 1: Her bare feet speak louder than anything else, Nlamela says,
Speaker 1: you don't always need a visible face. What truly matters
Speaker 1: is whether you can feel the essence of the scene,
Speaker 1: the devotion, the silence, the energy, everything that exists beyond
Speaker 1: this subject. Nalamela took up photography, a hobby he inherited
Speaker 1: from his older brother, in twenty thirteen. He began capturing
Speaker 1: images of wild life, but his focus has shifted. When
Speaker 1: you photograph culture with true devotion, images reveal themselves as unplanned, unimagined,
Speaker 1: almost gifted. He said, this photograph came to me in
Speaker 1: that way. People Willem Kuipers. During the week leading up
Speaker 1: to Easter, Christians in many cities across the world take
Speaker 1: part in holy observances, But Kuipers seventy three, a retired
Speaker 1: photographer with more than fifty years experience, says no place
Speaker 1: he scene commemorates the holiday like Sicily. In Tripani, you
Speaker 1: find the most intense Holy Week processions full of emotions.
Speaker 1: During the Tuesday procession of the Madonna Dai Masari, Koiper's
Speaker 1: photographed men as they carried floats representing the stations of
Speaker 1: the Cross, supported by bars lifted onto the men's shoulders.
Speaker 1: The heavy floats, many with wooden statues, can weigh hundreds
Speaker 1: of pounds. You can imagine that this becomes very intense
Speaker 1: and painful, says Kuipers, whose photograph represents the intense efforts
Speaker 1: these carriers go through for their faith American experience. Christopher
Speaker 1: Scott Carpenter, at fourteen, Delchha Hennio took part in a
Speaker 1: traditional Navajo canalda ceremony that welcomed her to womanhood. Carpenter,
Speaker 1: thirty two, a Salt Lake City native and a long
Speaker 1: time friend of the family, was there to observe the
Speaker 1: four day ritual of communal meals, chanting, and all night prayer.
Speaker 1: Dalchat worked with horses on the family ranch and competed
Speaker 1: at rodeos throughout her childhood, so she incorporated her horse
Speaker 1: Hazel into the ceremony. As she led Hazel to Gray's
Speaker 1: Dlchhay turned to face a slight breeze. It's a quiet,
Speaker 1: soft portrait of a young woman looking toward her future,
Speaker 1: Carpenter says. Wild Life Victoria West, a conservation photographer based
Speaker 1: in Johannesburg, West twenty nine, usually aims her camera at
Speaker 1: vulnerable species. She's filmed African wild dogs for the Endangered
Speaker 1: Wildlife Trust and rhinoceroses for African parks and wee wild Africa.
Speaker 1: My work is now almost full time conservation story telling.
Speaker 1: West says her winning image of a chameleon, photographed in
Speaker 1: the garden of a boarding school where she was documenting
Speaker 1: a herpetologist, was different from her other work, a creative endeavor.
Speaker 1: She says, I just thought it was really, really beautiful.
Speaker 1: Drone Yongln's son recognized for its award winning architecture. The
Speaker 1: Apo chang An R and D Center is a circular sensation.
Speaker 1: Using a d g I Mavic two pro drone flying
Speaker 1: five hundred feet above, Sun captured the ring structure that
Speaker 1: connects the curvaceous buildings of the campus, which occupies five
Speaker 1: city blocks. He describes the complex as a miniature world
Speaker 1: that includes educational buildings, residences, and an eight hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty foot office tower. The bridge was still under construction
Speaker 1: when Sun took the photo. In the top right of
Speaker 1: the image, the pavement is still gray. Sun, a long
Speaker 1: time freelance photographer, appreciates the juxtaposition of architectural structure and
Speaker 1: random human activity. The movement of vehicles and people inside
Speaker 1: and around the ring weaves a dynamic thread of urban
Speaker 1: life within this geometric city space. He says reader's choice
Speaker 1: Roberto Potzi. Through his work as a travel photographer, Potzi,
Speaker 1: a fifty two year old resident of Spain, seeks to
Speaker 1: chronicle peoples and customs. The Mundari ethnic group of South Sudan,
Speaker 1: known for its cattle oriented culture, is one that captivates him.
Speaker 1: Adolescent members of the tribe are often the primary handlers
Speaker 1: of the ana animals, carrying out daily tasks. His photograph
Speaker 1: captures a typical moment at sunrise, a Mundari child cleaning
Speaker 1: a bull's horns using a mixture of mud and water.
Speaker 1: In capturing the essence of some of the world's most
Speaker 1: remote communities, I pay tribute to the extraordinary beauty of
Speaker 1: human diversity, he says, accompanying this article, facts and figures.
Speaker 1: What to know about the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest. Some
Speaker 1: two thousand, eight hundred and fifteen photographers, both amateur and professional,
Speaker 1: from around the world entered the twenty third annual Smithsonian
Speaker 1: Magazine Photo Contest. The twenty fourth annual contest will open
Speaker 1: for entries in September next The endangered Probasis monkey is
Speaker 1: easily identifiable by one physical trait, its supersized schnas. When
Speaker 1: you see this primates nose you know o in Borneo,
Speaker 1: where efforts are underway to restore its habitat by Alex Fox.
Speaker 1: If Cyrino de Bergerac had been a pis monkey, he
Speaker 1: might not have needed poetry. For this furry primate found
Speaker 1: only on the island of Borneo, a prominent nose is
Speaker 1: an asset. Males with the biggest snouts up to nearly
Speaker 1: seven inches long, usually have the largest bodies overall, and
Speaker 1: because their noses are an indicator of both status and
Speaker 1: reproductive fitness, these fellows attract more mates than their lesser
Speaker 1: endowed competitors. Probasis, monkeys can be seen and heard thanks
Speaker 1: to the male's deep nasal honks in the forests along
Speaker 1: Borneo's inland waterways and coastal mangroves, where they survive on
Speaker 1: young leaves and unripe fruit. Perhaps the world's most aquatic primates,
Speaker 1: they swim across crocodile patrolled rivers in search of fresh foliage,
Speaker 1: aided by partially webbed fingers and toes. Every night, the
Speaker 1: monkeys return to trees at the water's edge to socialize
Speaker 1: and sleep. Researchers think the water mix it harder for
Speaker 1: predators such as tree climbing clouded leopards to sneak up
Speaker 1: on them, but this dependence on Borneo's water front forests
Speaker 1: has put the species in danger, as humans have destroyed
Speaker 1: much of their habitat in the past several decades. In
Speaker 1: some areas of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island,
Speaker 1: the monkeys are also hunted for food and traditional medicine.
Speaker 1: Combining regional estimates based on scant data puts the current
Speaker 1: population at twenty thousand to twenty five thousand. The International
Speaker 1: Union for Conservation of Nature has classified the Probasis monkey
Speaker 1: as endangered since two thousand, calculating in twenty fifteen that
Speaker 1: the population had declined by more than seventy percent over
Speaker 1: roughly four decades. The Kinabatangan River floodplain in the Malaysian
Speaker 1: state of Sabah has lost approximately eighty percent of its
Speaker 1: natural forest to agriculture and logging, leaving the Probasis monkey
Speaker 1: and other wildlife in isolated fragments. To heal the landscape,
Speaker 1: the Malaysian conservation organization Hutan has planted more than two
Speaker 1: hundred and forty six thousand native trees since two thousand
Speaker 1: eight rebuilding forest corridors along the river banks and government
Speaker 1: protected areas and private lands secured by Hutan and its partners.
Speaker 1: Houton is also working with farmers to plant native trees
Speaker 1: on their lands. A few years after the group helped
Speaker 1: in oil palm Plantation add native trees to its riverside land,
Speaker 1: monkeys returned to the area. Today we have a couple
Speaker 1: of families we see regularly, says Mark Ancrenaz, a wildlife
Speaker 1: veterinarian who co founded Huton with primatologist Isabelle Lachmann in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight. In an area with so much degraded forest,
Speaker 1: small sites like this one offer Oncrena's hope. These monkeys
Speaker 1: don't need a perfect pristine forest, he says, with even
Speaker 1: a little restoration, the forest can become usable for the
Speaker 1: prosis monkeys. Again, this gives us a tremendous opportunity to
Speaker 1: link together habitat fragments with agro forestry and restoration work
Speaker 1: to help rebuild this population. And with this article. Fun
Speaker 1: fact a nose by any other name, The appearance of
Speaker 1: newborns monkeys is as distinct as the adults, but for
Speaker 1: different reasons. The baby's noses are small when born, but
Speaker 1: they still have stand out features blue faces and dark,
Speaker 1: nearly black fur. Next, Mohma plans a retrospective for a
Speaker 1: Marcel Duchamp, the Da DA artist, who was unimpressed with
Speaker 1: his own masterpieces. The French American avant garde artist said
Speaker 1: painting and sculpture exhibitions made him sick, but the collection
Speaker 1: of two hundred of his works may tell the story
Speaker 1: of art in the twentieth century. By Amy Crawford. The
Speaker 1: French American artist Marcel Duchamp eighteen eighty seven to nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty eight made a splash when his Fountain, an impishly
Speaker 1: repurposed porcelain urinal, was rejected by a major New York
Speaker 1: art show in nineteen seventeen. But while he became a
Speaker 1: household name through his conception of ready made sculpture, Duchamp
Speaker 1: spent his six decade career experimenting with nearly every available
Speaker 1: medium and subject. In April, the Museum of Modern Art
Speaker 1: in New York mounted the artist's first u s retrospective
Speaker 1: in more than half a century. The exhibition includes more
Speaker 1: than two hundred works, including a nineteen sixty eight replica
Speaker 1: of Fountain, that together tell the story of art in
Speaker 1: the twentieth century. Duchamp, who once confessed to a friend
Speaker 1: all painting and sculpture exhibitions make me sick, might have
Speaker 1: laughed at such a claim. Yet his place in art history,
Speaker 1: he saw, was not up to him. A painting is
Speaker 1: made not by the artist, but by those who look
Speaker 1: at it, says Duchamp. In other words, no painter knows
Speaker 1: himself or what he is doing. And accompanying this article,
Speaker 1: did you know who was Marcel Duchamp? Duchamp experimented with
Speaker 1: Cubist and futurist paintings, cartoon sketches of Paris life, avant
Speaker 1: garde films, and photographic collaborations with the likes of Man Ray.
Speaker 1: The new exhibit runs at the Museum of Modern Art
Speaker 1: in New York April twelfth through August twenty second, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six. Next, some letters to the editor Real life Drama.
Speaker 1: I read your article on the British propaganda radio station
Speaker 1: during World War Two and thought it so interesting Voice
Speaker 1: of Deception, March twenty twenty six. Then I went looking
Speaker 1: to see if someone had made a movie or PBS
Speaker 1: style mini series, and there was nothing. A ragtag group
Speaker 1: of artists and outcasts fighting Nazis through the power of media.
Speaker 1: How has Hollywood not gotten on top of this? That
Speaker 1: was from bray Wright Clawson, Michigan. And from Clark Carboneau,
Speaker 1: Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was inspiring to learn that
Speaker 1: Agnes Bernauer was half Jewish, she had escaped Germany, and
Speaker 1: then she was aiding the war effort in such a
Speaker 1: significant manner. Congratulations to author April White for a well
Speaker 1: written history that needs to be remembered. And from Sandra
Speaker 1: bow Graham, Washington. Beware of the Dogs. I'm always pleased
Speaker 1: when a natural solution to managing pests as many sea coyotes, wolves,
Speaker 1: and cougars is found. Paul Patrol, March twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: I'm also always disappointed when an age old solution like
Speaker 1: guardian dogs goes unnoticed and unused for so long. History
Speaker 1: often holds solutions to problems if we take the time
Speaker 1: to learn it. Going Green This is from Tony Ioviccini, Waymart, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: There were so many interesting yet relatively unknown facts in
Speaker 1: Shifting Sands March twenty twenty six. I was surprised to
Speaker 1: read about the world's largest aquifer under the Sahara, as
Speaker 1: well as the animal life that existed there not that
Speaker 1: long ago, relatively speaking, then, I was pleasantly surprised to
Speaker 1: read that various species are being introduced back into the region.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed learning as I read the article from Donna
Speaker 1: Cotton Johnson, Mills River, North Carolina. As an art teacher,
Speaker 1: the idea that petroglyphs exist in the vastness of the
Speaker 1: Sahara was surprising. That the artworks depicted animals that no
Speaker 1: longer live in the area is fascinating. And from Sioux Maglietta, Scottsdale, Arizona,
Speaker 1: this was a really educational article about the geological history
Speaker 1: of the Sahara. I am always impressed by the slow
Speaker 1: and thoughtful accumulation of bits of information being put together
Speaker 1: into a larger historical picture. And finally ask Smithsonian, you've
Speaker 1: got questions, We've got experts question, are there any planets
Speaker 1: in space that don't orbit around a star? The answer
Speaker 1: is from Jennifer cy Observational Astronomer, Center for Astrophysics, Harvard
Speaker 1: and Smithsonian. As planetary systems form, its theoretically possible that
Speaker 1: some planets whose orbits haven't fully stabilized could be kicked
Speaker 1: out of their star systems through close gravitational encounters with
Speaker 1: other planets or stars. In stellar nurseries where many new
Speaker 1: solar systems are forming, the James Webb Space Telescope has
Speaker 1: detected hundreds of isolated objects smaller than Jupiter. These might
Speaker 1: be planets based on their small mass. However, they might
Speaker 1: be miniature brown dwarfs, failed stars that are too small
Speaker 1: to fuse hydrogen the way our Sun does. Demonstrating that ejected,
Speaker 1: free floating planets exist and do not have host stars
Speaker 1: is part of the mission of the upcoming Nancy Grace
Speaker 1: Roman Space Telescope. This concludes readings from the Smithsonian Magazine
Speaker 1: for today. Your reader has been Rebecca Shore. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening, and have a great day.