December 29, 2025 • 21 mins
SpaceTime with Stuart Gary Gary - Series 28 Episode 153
In this episode of SpaceTime, we dive into thrilling new missions and groundbreaking discoveries in the universe.
Ramses Mission to Asteroid Apophis
The European Space Agency has greenlit an exciting new mission to study the infamous doomsday asteroid Apophis. The Ramses spacecraft will closely observe the 450-meter-wide asteroid as it makes a close flyby of Earth on April 13, 2029, at a mere 32,000 kilometers away—closer than many satellites. Initially feared to be on a collision course with Earth, further observations have since ruled out the threat of impact. However, the Ramses mission aims to understand how Earth's gravitational forces might affect Apophis during this close encounter, potentially setting the stage for future impacts. The spacecraft will deploy smaller probes to monitor changes in Apophis's orbit, rotation, and surface, providing vital data for planetary defense and insight into the evolution of asteroids.
Solving the Mystery of Existence
In a groundbreaking study, scientists at CERN have made strides in explaining the universe's existence by observing a slight imbalance in the behavior of matter and antimatter. This charge parity (CP) violation suggests that a tiny difference favored matter over antimatter during the Big Bang, allowing the universe to evolve into its current state. The findings, based on 80,000 decays of the Lambda beauty particle, indicate a significant deviation that could reshape our understanding of the cosmos.
The Largest Planetary Nursery Ever Seen
Astronomers have discovered the largest planetary nursery ever observed, located in a massive protoplanetary disk around a young star. This chaotic environment, cataloged as IRAS230776707, spans an astonishing 650 billion kilometers and showcases intricate structures that hint at the complex processes of planet formation. The observations, made using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, reveal a unique perspective on how planetary systems may develop in extreme conditions, raising new questions about the dynamics shaping these disks.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Astrophysical Journal
Nature
CERN Reports
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
(00:00:00) This is Space Time Series 28, Episode 153 for broadcast on 29 December 2025
(00:00:47) ESA's Ramses mission to study asteroid Apophis
(00:12:30) CERN's discovery of matter-antimatter imbalance
(00:20:10) Astronomers observe the largest protoplanetary disk ever found
(00:25:00) New insights into sleep apnea and mental health risks
(00:28:30) Potential discovery of a new ancient human species
In this episode of SpaceTime, we dive into thrilling new missions and groundbreaking discoveries in the universe.
Ramses Mission to Asteroid Apophis
The European Space Agency has greenlit an exciting new mission to study the infamous doomsday asteroid Apophis. The Ramses spacecraft will closely observe the 450-meter-wide asteroid as it makes a close flyby of Earth on April 13, 2029, at a mere 32,000 kilometers away—closer than many satellites. Initially feared to be on a collision course with Earth, further observations have since ruled out the threat of impact. However, the Ramses mission aims to understand how Earth's gravitational forces might affect Apophis during this close encounter, potentially setting the stage for future impacts. The spacecraft will deploy smaller probes to monitor changes in Apophis's orbit, rotation, and surface, providing vital data for planetary defense and insight into the evolution of asteroids.
Solving the Mystery of Existence
In a groundbreaking study, scientists at CERN have made strides in explaining the universe's existence by observing a slight imbalance in the behavior of matter and antimatter. This charge parity (CP) violation suggests that a tiny difference favored matter over antimatter during the Big Bang, allowing the universe to evolve into its current state. The findings, based on 80,000 decays of the Lambda beauty particle, indicate a significant deviation that could reshape our understanding of the cosmos.
The Largest Planetary Nursery Ever Seen
Astronomers have discovered the largest planetary nursery ever observed, located in a massive protoplanetary disk around a young star. This chaotic environment, cataloged as IRAS230776707, spans an astonishing 650 billion kilometers and showcases intricate structures that hint at the complex processes of planet formation. The observations, made using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, reveal a unique perspective on how planetary systems may develop in extreme conditions, raising new questions about the dynamics shaping these disks.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Astrophysical Journal
Nature
CERN Reports
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
(00:00:00) This is Space Time Series 28, Episode 153 for broadcast on 29 December 2025
(00:00:47) ESA's Ramses mission to study asteroid Apophis
(00:12:30) CERN's discovery of matter-antimatter imbalance
(00:20:10) Astronomers observe the largest protoplanetary disk ever found
(00:25:00) New insights into sleep apnea and mental health risks
(00:28:30) Potential discovery of a new ancient human species
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Spacetime Series twenty eight, episode one hundred and
fifty three, for broadcast on the twenty ninth of December
twenty twenty five. Coming up on space Time, the Ramsey's
mission to study the doomsday asteroid Apofas, solving the mysteries
of existence, and the largest planetary nursery ever seen. All
(00:21):
that had more Coming up on space Time.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
The European Space Agency has approved a new mission to
study the doomsday asteroid Apofae. The Ramsey spacecraft will study
the four hundred and fifty meter white space rock as
it swoops down close to the Earth on April thirteenth,
twenty twenty nine. Apofas will fly by Earth at a
distance of just thirty two thousand kilometers, and that's closer
(01:06):
than the orbits of many satellites. Apofice is often called
the doomsday asteroid because early calculations back in twenty oh
four warned of a two point seven percent chance of
the asteroids slamming into the Earth. There were real fears
that it was on an impacting orbit, but as more
and more observations about the asteroid's orbit came in that
(01:26):
possibility was eventually ruled out, So the good news is
it wasn't going to crash into the planet in twenty
twenty nine, but it was going to come awfully close. However,
further calculations suggested that depending on how the Earth's gravitational
pull effects ap Office during that close encounter, the asteroid
would pass through a sort of well, I guess you'd
(01:47):
call it a gravitational keyhole, about eight hundred meters in diameter,
and if it went through the keyhole in the right way,
it could be set up for a future impact on
Earth exactly seven years later, on Easter Sunday, April the thirteenth,
twenty thirty six. In fact, the possibility of an Earth
impacting collision kept the threat at a level one on
(02:07):
the Tourino impact scale until August twenty oh six. That's
when enough observations of the asteroids orbit were available to
rule out any likelihood of a collision. However, for a
while there, Apofus did set the record as the highest
rating ever on the Tarinos scale, and it's not worth
getting too comfortable. It's estimated that an asteroid as big
(02:29):
as a pofice comes close to the Earth every eight
hundred years or so, and it's also estimated that an
asteroid that size hits the Earth at least once every
eighty thousand years on average. That means we're already overdue
for the next impact. The RAMSEYS mission will be a
joint venture between the European Space Agency and the Japan
(02:50):
Aerospace Expiration Agency JACKSA. It will launch in April twenty
twenty eight, arriving at a p office in February twenty
twenty nine, providing a unique optuny unity to study the
effects of Earth's gravitational tidal forces on asteroids, in the
process gaining new information necessary for future planetary defence. RAMSES
(03:10):
will be equipped with a high resolution imager that will
observe the shape and surface of the asteroid and characterize
possible changes caused by its gravitational poll see. At that distance,
Earth's immense gravity will slightly deform the asteroid, influence its rotation,
and possibly even trigger small debris avalanches on the asteroid surface,
(03:31):
exposing material in its interior to the surface which would
otherwise have remained hidden. The imager will be able to
analyze the reflectance of the surface of different wavelengths that
determine its mineralogical and its chemical composition, as well as
the physical properties of the rocks and dust exposed on
the surface. The flyby will allow astronomers a chance to
study this asteroid in great detail. The data obtained from
(03:55):
the mission will be crucial to improving mechanisms for protecting
Planet Earth from future asteroid in as well as to
better understand the formation and evolution of these small celestial bodies.
This report from iSER.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
TV Friday, the thirteenth of April twenty twenty nine will
be Humankind's lucky day. A Poffice will safely pass Earth
at a distance of less than thirty two thousand kilometers.
An asteroid this large passes this close to Earth once
every roughly seven thousand years, and the European Space Agency
(04:29):
will have a front row seat. Meat Ramsey. ESA's Space
Safety program is sending Ramseys to rendezvous with the Poffice
and study the asteroid up close as it is pulled
and stretched by Earth's gravity. Ramses will deploy too smaller
spacecraft to help it record any changes to the asteroid's orbit, rotation, surface,
(04:52):
and interior. With Ramseyes, ISA is capitalizing on a unique
opportunity to learn how asteroids act as strong forces, and
how we could push one off of a collision course
if we are not so lucky. Next time, when the
world looks up to see a poffice passing overhead, Ramses
(05:13):
will be flying alongside, providing close up images and learning
how to keep Earth safe.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
This is space time still to come. Scientists may finally
have found an explanation for why the universe exists, and
we look at the largest planetary nursery ever seen. All
that are more still to come on space time. Scientists
(05:53):
may finally have found an explanation for why the universe exists. See,
the problem's always been equal amounts of matter and antimatter
were created in the Big Bang thirteen point eight billion
years ago, and the thing is matter and antimatter annihilate
each other when they come into contact. So theoretically, the
universe should have disappeared in a flash of blue gamma
(06:15):
ray radiation moments after it formed, leaving behind nothing but
a barren, empty, radioactive void. Yet here we are in
a matter dominated universe. This phenomenon is known as the
charge parity or CP violation, and it can't be explained
by physics, at least not until now, physicists at CERN,
(06:38):
the European organization for Nuclear Research, have been using the
world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, to observe
a slight imbalance in the way matter and antimatter behave
during high enagure collisions. The Large Hadron Collider is a
massive atom smasher located in a twenty seven kilometer long
circular tunnel near Geneva deep under the I guess with sporder.
(07:01):
Packets of subatomic particles are accelerated around the collider in
two tubes in opposite directions, traveling at some ninety nine
point nine nine nine nine percent the speed of light.
These particles can then be made to smash into each
other at four massive detectors located in huge cathedral like
cabins situated around the collider, where the impact debris and
(07:22):
its decay constituents can be studied. Now are reporting The
journal Nature claims that in an analysis of some eighty
thousand decays of a particle known as the Lamba beauty baryon,
scientists have discovered that its antimatter counterpart decays just a
little bit differently, about two point five percent compared to
its matter particle. Now, that two point five percent may
(07:46):
not sound like much, but statistically it's a significant deviation,
and the discovery itself has only a one in ten
million chance of being a fluke, so a tiny imbalance
in the universe when it came into being favored matter
of antimatter, and that tiny microscopic difference was enough to
allow all the stars, planets, galaxies life to emerge. It's
(08:11):
not the first time CP violation had been detected, but
the only previous detection was in mesons. In other words,
this is the first time that such an asymmetry has
been found in baryons. The findings are hugely significant because
they bring scientists a step closer to understanding how everything
we know about has survived and our universe has evolved.
(08:34):
This is space time still to come, the largest birthplace
of planets ever found, and later in the science report,
the possible discovery of a new ancient human species. All
that and more still to come on space time, Astronomers
(09:05):
have observed the largest planetary nursery ever seen, located in
a massive protoplanetary disc orbiting a distant young star. The findings,
reported in the Astrophysical Journal are showing an incredibly chaotic
and turbulent environment, with wisps of material stretching further above
and below the disc the astronomers have ever expected. Even
(09:27):
more strangely is the dichotomy of the filaments. They seem
to be far more visible on one side of the
disk than the other, and no one's quite sure why.
The disc, cataloged as Iras twenty three zero seven seven
plus sixty seven zero seven and nicknamed Dracula Chevito, is
located a thousand light years away in the direction of
the constellation Cepheus. Now kesh, you're wondering. A chevito is
(09:50):
a Uruguayan sandwich of sliced beefsteak, mozzarella, ham, tomatoes, mayonnaise,
and either black or green olives. Of course, Dracula could
never really eaten one, because well, after all, vampires only
consumed blood. Still, the name playfully reflects the heritage of
the studies authors, one of whom is from Transylvanian Romania
and the other from Uruguay, and in fact, the edge
(10:13):
on view of this protoplanetary disc really does resemble a
sort of hamburger, with a dark central lane flanked by
glowing top and bottom layers of dust and gas. The
observations were made using NASA's Hubble Space telescope. They mark
a new milestone for Hubble, shedding light on how planets
may form in extreme environments. This massive protoplanetary disc spans
(10:36):
some six hundred and fifty billion kilometers. Now that's some
forty times the diameter of our entire Solar system. Measured
from the very outer edge of the Kaiper Belt, the
disc obscures the young star at its center. Scientists think
it's possibly either a hot massive star or maybe a
pair of small sun like stars. And this enormous disc
(10:56):
is not only the largest known planetary forming disk ever seen,
it's also shaping up as the most unusual the studies.
Lead author Christina Monsch from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics,
says the level of details seen in this image is
rare in protoplanetary disc observations. It shows how planetary nurseries
really can be far more active in chaotic than what's expected.
(11:19):
Astronomers are seeing this disc nearly air john and its
wispy upper and lower asymmetric layers are especially striking. Both
Hubble and web space telescopes have imaged similar structures in
other discs, but this new observation is providing an exceptional perspective,
tracing its substructures in visible light in unprecedented detail, and
(11:40):
that makes this system incredibly unique, a new laboratory for
studying planetary formation and the environments where it can happen.
The impressive height of these extended filaments wasn't the only
thing that captured the attention of scientists. The new images
also revealed that vertically imposing filament like features appear on
just one side of the disk, or the other appears
(12:01):
to have a sharp edge and no visible filaments. This
peculiar lopsided structure suggests the dynamic processes like a recent
infall of dust and gas, or interactions with its surroundings
is shaping the disc. Astronomers already know that all planetary
systems are formed from disks of gas and dust encircling
(12:21):
young stars. Over time, through static electricity, gas and dust
tends to clump together, eventually growing massive enough for gravity
to take over and to create more and more material
until the planet's formed. Finally, the gas and dust that
doesn't go to making the planet, it crets under the
star and so what we're seeing this new protoplanetary disk.
(12:43):
They simply represent a scaled up version of our own
early solar system, what it looked like four point six
billion years ago, but with a massive disc estimated to
be ten to thirty times that of Jupiter, ample material
per forming modible gas giants, Monch says. In theory, this
new system could host a vast planetary network. What planetary
(13:03):
formation may differ in such massive environments. The underlying processes
are thought to still be similar, but following these new observations,
astronomers have more questions than answers. Luckily, these new images
are a great starting point for understanding how planets form
over time and in what sort of different environments they
can evolve. This is space, time and time that To
(13:41):
take a brief look at some of the other stories
making news in science this week with a science report,
A new study has found that sleep apnea is linked
to a forty percent higher chance of developing some sort
of mental health problem. The findings are reported in the
Journal of the American Medical Association. Is based on data
from a long term aging study in Canada used to
identify all the people who are likely to suffer from
(14:04):
sleep apnea. Almost twenty eight thousand old Canadians were followed
for an average of three years for the study, about
seven thousand, five hundred of whom suffered from sleep apnea.
Looking at various indicators of mental health problems, the authors
found that sleep apnea was linked to about a forty
percent higher chance of having a mental health problem at
the beginning of the study and forty four percent higher
(14:27):
chance of mental health problems by the end of the study.
Paralontologists from La Trobe and Cambridge Universities have challenged the
classification of one of the world's most complete human ancestral fossils,
raising the possibility that it actually represents a new hominid
or human species. The fossil, found in South Africa's famous
Sturfontaine Caves in nineteen ninety eight, was dubbed Littlefoot, and
(14:50):
had been widely believed to be a member of the
Australopithecus genus, a lineage of ape like upright walkers that
lived in Africa between three million and one point ninety
five mision years ago. Littlefoot, known formally as STW five
seven three, remains one of the most complete ancient hominids
in the fossil record, but the new research reported in
(15:11):
the American Journal of Biological Anthropology names littlefoot doesn't share
the unique squeed of traits of other Australopithecus genus species,
and that is raising the possibility that it may actually
represent a you previously unidentified human relative, and that highlights
the need for further careful evidence based taxonomomy. Doctors have
(15:34):
reported the unusual case of a fit, healthy man in
his fifties who ended up having a stroke in extremely
high blood pressure after consuming an average of eight cans
of energy drinks every day now that's some three times
the recommended maximum daily intake of caffeine now. Once he
was weaned off the beverage, the patient's blood pressure did
eventually return to normal, but he didn't regain fulfiling on
(15:57):
his left side. A fascinating study reported in the British
Medical Journal suggests that any of You drinks may cause
cutdiovascular disease and stroke, but importantly, this may also be reversible.
A new study warns there's a growing number of people
who are starting to doubt the science behind climate change
because of misinformation propaganda campaigns spread by vested interests. The
(16:21):
research carried out for The Times by you GUVN, the
opinion consultancy firm Public First, compared twenty twenty five opinions
on climate change with poles carried out back in twenty
twenty one. They found that fifty percent of people now
think concerns about climate change have been over exaggerated, and
that compares to just twenty five percent four years ago.
(16:42):
Back in twenty twenty one, sixteen percent of people believed
warnings about climate change were not as real as scientists claimed.
That's now gone up to twenty five percent today. And
despite the science from countless studies, sixteen percent of people
now think global warming is not the result of human activity.
That's an increase of five percent over the past four years.
(17:03):
Skeptics timendum, So survey shows that vest that interests propaganda
really is working.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Yes, we're seeing there seeing propaganda and general misinformation all
other place, and it's definitely increasing the medium of choices. Obviously,
social media. Social media is the railway track upon which
this information drives us trained through everything. Whether it's vaccination,
health issues, whether it's sony curates of wellness things, whether
it's sort of conspiracy theories. Generally, and climate change is
suffering as much as anything else. Now, there's a surveys
(17:31):
that come out that The Times did one through Yugov
fairly recently. They compared it with two surveys they repeut
of four or five years, and they found that people
who think the dangers of global warming has increased by
more than fifty percent. That's the number of breads who
think that way. Sixteen percent believes that warnings about climate
change are not as real as scientists have said. That
was in twenty twenty one. In twenty twenty five they're
(17:54):
saying it's twenty five percent, so that's increasing as well. Similarly,
sixteen percent think global warming is not the result of
human activity, which is five to sent more than it
was four years ago. So I mean, yes, the impact
of misinformation and propaganda is having an effect, and that's
why it flourishes. If it didn't have an effect, it
would disappear. One of the problems is you have to
look at the sources of the misinformation, and a lot
of it comes from people with best at interest. One
(18:16):
of the big proponents of anti climate change group which
found to have had billions invested in fossil fuels, so I
mean they have the vested interest in making sure that
we don't drop fossil fuels by the way, So there's
also the things that people are taking advantage of us,
suggesting that reacting to climate change and changing your energy
mix will increase the cost of energy, and people in
straightened times will react badly to that.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
How big a problem is the fact that electricity prices
have gone up so so much it's becoming a major
cost burden for the average Australian consumer. Okay, climate change
is real. In my pumble opinion, the way we're combating
it is not appropriate. The use of renewables works to
some degree, but they're not looking at the downstream problems
associated with that. I have a problem with winterbine because
(18:57):
a bird strike. As a lifelong members are speciate. That's
an issue for me, But I don't have a problem
with having all rus with solar panels on them. Yeah,
we've got our reach and at zero. I think problem
is how we're doing it.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Electricity prices have gone up a huge amount over the
last eight ten years or so. I think part of
the problem is is that you have an aging fleet
of power generation cullside power stations are getting old, they're
getting less efficient, they're getting fewer of them, and certainly
in Australia, when they privatized all the generation of electricity,
there was a big increase in price. The suggestion was
(19:28):
that because it was the private sector, they'd be more
efficient and the price would go down. I know that
from a personal point of view that this was the policy,
because I wrote half of it myself the way back when,
and that proved not to be the case. They've actually
proved that as soon as you got it into the
private sector hands, the price went up because they had
a monopoly on the system. And also they started sort
of what you call goal plating the infrastructure which might
(19:48):
have been allowed to run down in the public sector,
and that raised the price as well. So there's a
whole range of different reasons.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Aren't that old as the biggest power station in the country.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
It's not that seventies that's old, it's fifty years old.
How long do you want these things to run? Yeah, anyway,
there are issues with the infrastructure and the replacement factor
the flow with their renewable energy. Although in Australia the
generation of solar pair with rooftop solar pair has been enormous,
just obviously taken off and as obviously have some reason
for doing so.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
That's the skeptics timendum, and this is space Time, and
that's the show for now. Space Time is available every Monday,
(20:40):
Wednesday and Friday through bites dot com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your
favorite podcast download provider, and from space Time with Stuart
Gary dot com. Space Time's also broadcast through the National
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(21:02):
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Speaker 2 (21:22):
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary. This
has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com.
This is Spacetime Series twenty eight, episode one hundred and
fifty three, for broadcast on the twenty ninth of December
twenty twenty five. Coming up on space Time, the Ramsey's
mission to study the doomsday asteroid Apofas, solving the mysteries
of existence, and the largest planetary nursery ever seen. All
(00:21):
that had more Coming up on space Time.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
The European Space Agency has approved a new mission to
study the doomsday asteroid Apofae. The Ramsey spacecraft will study
the four hundred and fifty meter white space rock as
it swoops down close to the Earth on April thirteenth,
twenty twenty nine. Apofas will fly by Earth at a
distance of just thirty two thousand kilometers, and that's closer
(01:06):
than the orbits of many satellites. Apofice is often called
the doomsday asteroid because early calculations back in twenty oh
four warned of a two point seven percent chance of
the asteroids slamming into the Earth. There were real fears
that it was on an impacting orbit, but as more
and more observations about the asteroid's orbit came in that
(01:26):
possibility was eventually ruled out, So the good news is
it wasn't going to crash into the planet in twenty
twenty nine, but it was going to come awfully close. However,
further calculations suggested that depending on how the Earth's gravitational
pull effects ap Office during that close encounter, the asteroid
would pass through a sort of well, I guess you'd
(01:47):
call it a gravitational keyhole, about eight hundred meters in diameter,
and if it went through the keyhole in the right way,
it could be set up for a future impact on
Earth exactly seven years later, on Easter Sunday, April the thirteenth,
twenty thirty six. In fact, the possibility of an Earth
impacting collision kept the threat at a level one on
(02:07):
the Tourino impact scale until August twenty oh six. That's
when enough observations of the asteroids orbit were available to
rule out any likelihood of a collision. However, for a
while there, Apofus did set the record as the highest
rating ever on the Tarinos scale, and it's not worth
getting too comfortable. It's estimated that an asteroid as big
(02:29):
as a pofice comes close to the Earth every eight
hundred years or so, and it's also estimated that an
asteroid that size hits the Earth at least once every
eighty thousand years on average. That means we're already overdue
for the next impact. The RAMSEYS mission will be a
joint venture between the European Space Agency and the Japan
(02:50):
Aerospace Expiration Agency JACKSA. It will launch in April twenty
twenty eight, arriving at a p office in February twenty
twenty nine, providing a unique optuny unity to study the
effects of Earth's gravitational tidal forces on asteroids, in the
process gaining new information necessary for future planetary defence. RAMSES
(03:10):
will be equipped with a high resolution imager that will
observe the shape and surface of the asteroid and characterize
possible changes caused by its gravitational poll see. At that distance,
Earth's immense gravity will slightly deform the asteroid, influence its rotation,
and possibly even trigger small debris avalanches on the asteroid surface,
(03:31):
exposing material in its interior to the surface which would
otherwise have remained hidden. The imager will be able to
analyze the reflectance of the surface of different wavelengths that
determine its mineralogical and its chemical composition, as well as
the physical properties of the rocks and dust exposed on
the surface. The flyby will allow astronomers a chance to
study this asteroid in great detail. The data obtained from
(03:55):
the mission will be crucial to improving mechanisms for protecting
Planet Earth from future asteroid in as well as to
better understand the formation and evolution of these small celestial bodies.
This report from iSER.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
TV Friday, the thirteenth of April twenty twenty nine will
be Humankind's lucky day. A Poffice will safely pass Earth
at a distance of less than thirty two thousand kilometers.
An asteroid this large passes this close to Earth once
every roughly seven thousand years, and the European Space Agency
(04:29):
will have a front row seat. Meat Ramsey. ESA's Space
Safety program is sending Ramseys to rendezvous with the Poffice
and study the asteroid up close as it is pulled
and stretched by Earth's gravity. Ramses will deploy too smaller
spacecraft to help it record any changes to the asteroid's orbit, rotation, surface,
(04:52):
and interior. With Ramseyes, ISA is capitalizing on a unique
opportunity to learn how asteroids act as strong forces, and
how we could push one off of a collision course
if we are not so lucky. Next time, when the
world looks up to see a poffice passing overhead, Ramses
(05:13):
will be flying alongside, providing close up images and learning
how to keep Earth safe.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
This is space time still to come. Scientists may finally
have found an explanation for why the universe exists, and
we look at the largest planetary nursery ever seen. All
that are more still to come on space time. Scientists
(05:53):
may finally have found an explanation for why the universe exists. See,
the problem's always been equal amounts of matter and antimatter
were created in the Big Bang thirteen point eight billion
years ago, and the thing is matter and antimatter annihilate
each other when they come into contact. So theoretically, the
universe should have disappeared in a flash of blue gamma
(06:15):
ray radiation moments after it formed, leaving behind nothing but
a barren, empty, radioactive void. Yet here we are in
a matter dominated universe. This phenomenon is known as the
charge parity or CP violation, and it can't be explained
by physics, at least not until now, physicists at CERN,
(06:38):
the European organization for Nuclear Research, have been using the
world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, to observe
a slight imbalance in the way matter and antimatter behave
during high enagure collisions. The Large Hadron Collider is a
massive atom smasher located in a twenty seven kilometer long
circular tunnel near Geneva deep under the I guess with sporder.
(07:01):
Packets of subatomic particles are accelerated around the collider in
two tubes in opposite directions, traveling at some ninety nine
point nine nine nine nine percent the speed of light.
These particles can then be made to smash into each
other at four massive detectors located in huge cathedral like
cabins situated around the collider, where the impact debris and
(07:22):
its decay constituents can be studied. Now are reporting The
journal Nature claims that in an analysis of some eighty
thousand decays of a particle known as the Lamba beauty baryon,
scientists have discovered that its antimatter counterpart decays just a
little bit differently, about two point five percent compared to
its matter particle. Now, that two point five percent may
(07:46):
not sound like much, but statistically it's a significant deviation,
and the discovery itself has only a one in ten
million chance of being a fluke, so a tiny imbalance
in the universe when it came into being favored matter
of antimatter, and that tiny microscopic difference was enough to
allow all the stars, planets, galaxies life to emerge. It's
(08:11):
not the first time CP violation had been detected, but
the only previous detection was in mesons. In other words,
this is the first time that such an asymmetry has
been found in baryons. The findings are hugely significant because
they bring scientists a step closer to understanding how everything
we know about has survived and our universe has evolved.
(08:34):
This is space time still to come, the largest birthplace
of planets ever found, and later in the science report,
the possible discovery of a new ancient human species. All
that and more still to come on space time, Astronomers
(09:05):
have observed the largest planetary nursery ever seen, located in
a massive protoplanetary disc orbiting a distant young star. The findings,
reported in the Astrophysical Journal are showing an incredibly chaotic
and turbulent environment, with wisps of material stretching further above
and below the disc the astronomers have ever expected. Even
(09:27):
more strangely is the dichotomy of the filaments. They seem
to be far more visible on one side of the
disk than the other, and no one's quite sure why.
The disc, cataloged as Iras twenty three zero seven seven
plus sixty seven zero seven and nicknamed Dracula Chevito, is
located a thousand light years away in the direction of
the constellation Cepheus. Now kesh, you're wondering. A chevito is
(09:50):
a Uruguayan sandwich of sliced beefsteak, mozzarella, ham, tomatoes, mayonnaise,
and either black or green olives. Of course, Dracula could
never really eaten one, because well, after all, vampires only
consumed blood. Still, the name playfully reflects the heritage of
the studies authors, one of whom is from Transylvanian Romania
and the other from Uruguay, and in fact, the edge
(10:13):
on view of this protoplanetary disc really does resemble a
sort of hamburger, with a dark central lane flanked by
glowing top and bottom layers of dust and gas. The
observations were made using NASA's Hubble Space telescope. They mark
a new milestone for Hubble, shedding light on how planets
may form in extreme environments. This massive protoplanetary disc spans
(10:36):
some six hundred and fifty billion kilometers. Now that's some
forty times the diameter of our entire Solar system. Measured
from the very outer edge of the Kaiper Belt, the
disc obscures the young star at its center. Scientists think
it's possibly either a hot massive star or maybe a
pair of small sun like stars. And this enormous disc
(10:56):
is not only the largest known planetary forming disk ever seen,
it's also shaping up as the most unusual the studies.
Lead author Christina Monsch from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics,
says the level of details seen in this image is
rare in protoplanetary disc observations. It shows how planetary nurseries
really can be far more active in chaotic than what's expected.
(11:19):
Astronomers are seeing this disc nearly air john and its
wispy upper and lower asymmetric layers are especially striking. Both
Hubble and web space telescopes have imaged similar structures in
other discs, but this new observation is providing an exceptional perspective,
tracing its substructures in visible light in unprecedented detail, and
(11:40):
that makes this system incredibly unique, a new laboratory for
studying planetary formation and the environments where it can happen.
The impressive height of these extended filaments wasn't the only
thing that captured the attention of scientists. The new images
also revealed that vertically imposing filament like features appear on
just one side of the disk, or the other appears
(12:01):
to have a sharp edge and no visible filaments. This
peculiar lopsided structure suggests the dynamic processes like a recent
infall of dust and gas, or interactions with its surroundings
is shaping the disc. Astronomers already know that all planetary
systems are formed from disks of gas and dust encircling
(12:21):
young stars. Over time, through static electricity, gas and dust
tends to clump together, eventually growing massive enough for gravity
to take over and to create more and more material
until the planet's formed. Finally, the gas and dust that
doesn't go to making the planet, it crets under the
star and so what we're seeing this new protoplanetary disk.
(12:43):
They simply represent a scaled up version of our own
early solar system, what it looked like four point six
billion years ago, but with a massive disc estimated to
be ten to thirty times that of Jupiter, ample material
per forming modible gas giants, Monch says. In theory, this
new system could host a vast planetary network. What planetary
(13:03):
formation may differ in such massive environments. The underlying processes
are thought to still be similar, but following these new observations,
astronomers have more questions than answers. Luckily, these new images
are a great starting point for understanding how planets form
over time and in what sort of different environments they
can evolve. This is space, time and time that To
(13:41):
take a brief look at some of the other stories
making news in science this week with a science report,
A new study has found that sleep apnea is linked
to a forty percent higher chance of developing some sort
of mental health problem. The findings are reported in the
Journal of the American Medical Association. Is based on data
from a long term aging study in Canada used to
identify all the people who are likely to suffer from
(14:04):
sleep apnea. Almost twenty eight thousand old Canadians were followed
for an average of three years for the study, about
seven thousand, five hundred of whom suffered from sleep apnea.
Looking at various indicators of mental health problems, the authors
found that sleep apnea was linked to about a forty
percent higher chance of having a mental health problem at
the beginning of the study and forty four percent higher
(14:27):
chance of mental health problems by the end of the study.
Paralontologists from La Trobe and Cambridge Universities have challenged the
classification of one of the world's most complete human ancestral fossils,
raising the possibility that it actually represents a new hominid
or human species. The fossil, found in South Africa's famous
Sturfontaine Caves in nineteen ninety eight, was dubbed Littlefoot, and
(14:50):
had been widely believed to be a member of the
Australopithecus genus, a lineage of ape like upright walkers that
lived in Africa between three million and one point ninety
five mision years ago. Littlefoot, known formally as STW five
seven three, remains one of the most complete ancient hominids
in the fossil record, but the new research reported in
(15:11):
the American Journal of Biological Anthropology names littlefoot doesn't share
the unique squeed of traits of other Australopithecus genus species,
and that is raising the possibility that it may actually
represent a you previously unidentified human relative, and that highlights
the need for further careful evidence based taxonomomy. Doctors have
(15:34):
reported the unusual case of a fit, healthy man in
his fifties who ended up having a stroke in extremely
high blood pressure after consuming an average of eight cans
of energy drinks every day now that's some three times
the recommended maximum daily intake of caffeine now. Once he
was weaned off the beverage, the patient's blood pressure did
eventually return to normal, but he didn't regain fulfiling on
(15:57):
his left side. A fascinating study reported in the British
Medical Journal suggests that any of You drinks may cause
cutdiovascular disease and stroke, but importantly, this may also be reversible.
A new study warns there's a growing number of people
who are starting to doubt the science behind climate change
because of misinformation propaganda campaigns spread by vested interests. The
(16:21):
research carried out for The Times by you GUVN, the
opinion consultancy firm Public First, compared twenty twenty five opinions
on climate change with poles carried out back in twenty
twenty one. They found that fifty percent of people now
think concerns about climate change have been over exaggerated, and
that compares to just twenty five percent four years ago.
(16:42):
Back in twenty twenty one, sixteen percent of people believed
warnings about climate change were not as real as scientists claimed.
That's now gone up to twenty five percent today. And
despite the science from countless studies, sixteen percent of people
now think global warming is not the result of human activity.
That's an increase of five percent over the past four years.
(17:03):
Skeptics timendum, So survey shows that vest that interests propaganda
really is working.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Yes, we're seeing there seeing propaganda and general misinformation all
other place, and it's definitely increasing the medium of choices. Obviously,
social media. Social media is the railway track upon which
this information drives us trained through everything. Whether it's vaccination,
health issues, whether it's sony curates of wellness things, whether
it's sort of conspiracy theories. Generally, and climate change is
suffering as much as anything else. Now, there's a surveys
(17:31):
that come out that The Times did one through Yugov
fairly recently. They compared it with two surveys they repeut
of four or five years, and they found that people
who think the dangers of global warming has increased by
more than fifty percent. That's the number of breads who
think that way. Sixteen percent believes that warnings about climate
change are not as real as scientists have said. That
was in twenty twenty one. In twenty twenty five they're
(17:54):
saying it's twenty five percent, so that's increasing as well. Similarly,
sixteen percent think global warming is not the result of
human activity, which is five to sent more than it
was four years ago. So I mean, yes, the impact
of misinformation and propaganda is having an effect, and that's
why it flourishes. If it didn't have an effect, it
would disappear. One of the problems is you have to
look at the sources of the misinformation, and a lot
of it comes from people with best at interest. One
(18:16):
of the big proponents of anti climate change group which
found to have had billions invested in fossil fuels, so I
mean they have the vested interest in making sure that
we don't drop fossil fuels by the way, So there's
also the things that people are taking advantage of us,
suggesting that reacting to climate change and changing your energy
mix will increase the cost of energy, and people in
straightened times will react badly to that.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
How big a problem is the fact that electricity prices
have gone up so so much it's becoming a major
cost burden for the average Australian consumer. Okay, climate change
is real. In my pumble opinion, the way we're combating
it is not appropriate. The use of renewables works to
some degree, but they're not looking at the downstream problems
associated with that. I have a problem with winterbine because
(18:57):
a bird strike. As a lifelong members are speciate. That's
an issue for me, But I don't have a problem
with having all rus with solar panels on them. Yeah,
we've got our reach and at zero. I think problem
is how we're doing it.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Electricity prices have gone up a huge amount over the
last eight ten years or so. I think part of
the problem is is that you have an aging fleet
of power generation cullside power stations are getting old, they're
getting less efficient, they're getting fewer of them, and certainly
in Australia, when they privatized all the generation of electricity,
there was a big increase in price. The suggestion was
(19:28):
that because it was the private sector, they'd be more
efficient and the price would go down. I know that
from a personal point of view that this was the policy,
because I wrote half of it myself the way back when,
and that proved not to be the case. They've actually
proved that as soon as you got it into the
private sector hands, the price went up because they had
a monopoly on the system. And also they started sort
of what you call goal plating the infrastructure which might
(19:48):
have been allowed to run down in the public sector,
and that raised the price as well. So there's a
whole range of different reasons.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Aren't that old as the biggest power station in the country.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
It's not that seventies that's old, it's fifty years old.
How long do you want these things to run? Yeah, anyway,
there are issues with the infrastructure and the replacement factor
the flow with their renewable energy. Although in Australia the
generation of solar pair with rooftop solar pair has been enormous,
just obviously taken off and as obviously have some reason
for doing so.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
That's the skeptics timendum, and this is space Time, and
that's the show for now. Space Time is available every Monday,
(20:40):
Wednesday and Friday through bites dot com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your
favorite podcast download provider, and from space Time with Stuart
Gary dot com. Space Time's also broadcast through the National
Science Foundation, on Science Own Radio and on both iHeartRadio
and tune In Radio. And you can help to support
our show by visiting the Spacetime Store for a range
(21:02):
of promotional merchandising goodies, or by becoming a Spacetime Patron,
which gives you access to triple episode commercial free versions
of the show, as well as lots of burnus audio
content which doesn't go to air, access to our exclusive
Facebook group, and other rewards. Just go to space Time
with Stewart Gary dot com for full details.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary. This
has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com.
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