September 24, 2025 • 23 mins
In this episode of SpaceTime, we celebrate a major milestone in exoplanet discoveries, unravel the enigmatic surface of Venus, and delve into the intriguing tale of interstellar comet 3I ATLAS.
Exoplanet Count Surpasses 6,000
Astronomers have reached an impressive milestone, confirming their 6,000th exoplanet, a testament to the rapid pace of discoveries since the first detection of an exoplanet in 1995. This milestone not only highlights the evolving understanding of our galaxy but also raises questions about the myriad of planetary types discovered, from rocky planets to gas giants. While the hunt for Earth-like planets continues, the methods employed to discover these distant worlds remain a challenge, with fewer than 100 exoplanets directly imaged to date. The future holds promise with upcoming missions, including NASA's Nancy Chris Roman Space Telescope, which aims to further uncover the secrets of our cosmic neighbourhood.
Decoding Venus's Mysterious Surface
Scientists are making strides in understanding the peculiar features of Venus, particularly the crown-like structures known as coronae. A new study suggests these features may be the result of magma plumes attempting to break through the planet's crust. By mapping the paths of these magmatic bursts, researchers are shedding light on Venus's geological history and its stark contrast to Earth, despite their similarities in size and formation. The findings could help explain why Venus has become a hellish environment, devoid of life, while Earth thrives.
Interstellar Comet 3I ATLAS
Astronomers have captured stunning new images of interstellar comet 3I ATLAS, revealing a prominent tail and glowing coma as it journeys through the inner solar system. These observations provide valuable insights into the comet's composition and behaviour, suggesting that it shares similarities with comets originating from our own solar system. As 3I ATLAS approaches the Sun, its increasing activity offers a unique opportunity for scientists to study material that formed around distant stars. The comet is expected to re-emerge in November, promising further observations and discoveries.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
NASA Exoplanet Science Institute
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
https://www.pnas.org/
Gemini Observatory
https://www.gemini.edu/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
Exoplanet Count Surpasses 6,000
Decoding Venus's Mysterious Surface
Interstellar Comet 3I ATLAS
Exoplanet Count Surpasses 6,000
Astronomers have reached an impressive milestone, confirming their 6,000th exoplanet, a testament to the rapid pace of discoveries since the first detection of an exoplanet in 1995. This milestone not only highlights the evolving understanding of our galaxy but also raises questions about the myriad of planetary types discovered, from rocky planets to gas giants. While the hunt for Earth-like planets continues, the methods employed to discover these distant worlds remain a challenge, with fewer than 100 exoplanets directly imaged to date. The future holds promise with upcoming missions, including NASA's Nancy Chris Roman Space Telescope, which aims to further uncover the secrets of our cosmic neighbourhood.
Decoding Venus's Mysterious Surface
Scientists are making strides in understanding the peculiar features of Venus, particularly the crown-like structures known as coronae. A new study suggests these features may be the result of magma plumes attempting to break through the planet's crust. By mapping the paths of these magmatic bursts, researchers are shedding light on Venus's geological history and its stark contrast to Earth, despite their similarities in size and formation. The findings could help explain why Venus has become a hellish environment, devoid of life, while Earth thrives.
Interstellar Comet 3I ATLAS
Astronomers have captured stunning new images of interstellar comet 3I ATLAS, revealing a prominent tail and glowing coma as it journeys through the inner solar system. These observations provide valuable insights into the comet's composition and behaviour, suggesting that it shares similarities with comets originating from our own solar system. As 3I ATLAS approaches the Sun, its increasing activity offers a unique opportunity for scientists to study material that formed around distant stars. The comet is expected to re-emerge in November, promising further observations and discoveries.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
NASA Exoplanet Science Institute
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
https://www.pnas.org/
Gemini Observatory
https://www.gemini.edu/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
Exoplanet Count Surpasses 6,000
Decoding Venus's Mysterious Surface
Interstellar Comet 3I ATLAS
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 fifteen,
for broadcast on the twenty fourth of September twenty twenty five.
Coming up on space Time, the exoplanet count passes six thousand,
the coding Venus's mysterious surface, and the growing tale of
interstellar comet three I Atlas. All that and more coming
(00:21):
up on Spacetime.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Astronomers have just confirmed their six thousandth exoplanet, that is,
a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun. The
new milestone highlights the accelerating redd of discoveries made in
the three decades since the first exoplanet, the hot Jubiter
fifty one Pergasi, was detected way back in nineteen ninety five.
Confirmed planets are added to the count on a rolling
(01:04):
basis by astronomers around the world, so there's not a
single planet which is actually considered as the six thousandth entry.
The numbers monitored by NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute, which is
based at Caltech in Pasadena, California. As well as the
six thousand confirmed exoplanets, there are more than eight thousand
additional candidate planets still await In confirmation, NASA's Astrophysics Division
(01:27):
Acting Director Shawn Dommigall Goldman says the historic milestone represents
decades of cosmic exploration that's completely changed the way humanity
sees the night sky. Instead of just seeing the stars
up there, we now know there are planets orbiting those stars. Still,
although researchers think there are probably billions of planets up
there in the Milky Way galaxy, finding them remains a challenge.
(01:51):
In addition to discovering many individual planets with fascinating characteristics,
as the total number of exoplanets climbs, astronomers are also
able to see how the planetary population compares to planets
in our own Solar System. For example, while our Solar
System hosts an equal number of terrestrial or rocky planets
compared to gas and ice giants, rocky planets appear to
(02:12):
be far more common around other stars, and astronomers have
also found a range of planets entirely different from anything
sinin our Solar System. Of course, there are the Jupiter
sized planets known as hot jupiters gas giants whose orbits
are closer to their host stars. The Mercury's orbit is
to the Sun. Then there are planets that orbit two stars,
rogue planets wandering through space not orbiting any star at all,
(02:35):
planets orbiting dead stars, planets covered in lava, some with
the density of styrofoam, and others with clouds made of gemstones.
Each of the different types of planets discovered gives astronomers
new information about the conditions under which planets can form,
and ultimately how common planets like the Earth might be
and where scientists should be looking for them. But despite
(02:57):
the thousands of discoveries now made, fewer than one hundred
exoplanets have actually been directly imaged. That's because most planets
are so faint they get lost in the bright glare
from their parents' star, and the other four methods of
planetary detection are all indirect. With the transit method, for example,
astronomers look for a start to dim for a short
period as an orbiting planet passes in front of it
(03:20):
to account for the possibility that something other than an
exoplanet's responsible for a particular signal. Most exoplanet candidates need
to be confirmed by follow up observations, often using additional
telescopes that takes up time. Then there's the wobble method,
where the massive an orbiting planet causes its host star
to slightly wobble off center, something which can be picked
(03:41):
up by the star's Doppler shift. The rate of exoplanet
discoveries has been accelerating in recent years. The database reached
five thousand confirmed exo planets just three years ago, and
this trend seems likely to continue. In fact, astronomers expect
to receive thousands of new exoplanetary candidates thanks to the
European Space Agencies GUY emission, which finds planets through a
(04:01):
technique called astrometry. And also, of course, there's NASA's upcoming
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will discover thousands of
new exoplanets, primarily through a technique called gravitational microlensing. At NASA,
the future of exoplanet science will emphasize finding rocky planets
similar to the Earth, and then studying their atmosphere for biosignatures,
(04:22):
that is, any characteristic element, molecule, substance of feature which
can be used as evidence of past or present life.
NASA's Web Space Telescope has already analyzed the chemistry of
more than one hundred exoplanetary atmospheres, but studying the atmospheres
of planets the size and temperature of the Earth will
require new technology. Specifically, astronomers need better tools to block
(04:44):
out the glare of the star of the planet's orbiting
and in the case of a small Earth like planet,
that glare will be significant. Put it this way, the
Sun is about ten billion times brighter than the Earth,
and that's more than enough to drown out our home
planet's light if it were being viewed by a distant observer.
NASA currently has two main initiatives to try and overcome
(05:04):
this hurdle. There's the Nazi Grace Roman Space Telescope. It'll
carrier technology demonstration instrument called the Roman Chronograph that will
test new technologies for blocking starlight and making faint planets
more visible. At its peak performance, the coronagraph should be
able to directly image a planet the size and temperature
of Jupiter orpening a star just like our Sun and
(05:25):
at a similar distance from that star. With its microlensing
survey and coronographic observations, Nazi Grace Roman will reveal new
details about the diversity of planetary systems, showing how common
they are, and how many are like our own Solar
system across the galaxy. Of course, additional advances in coronagraph
technology will still be needed in order to build a
(05:46):
coronagraph that can detect a planet the size of the Earth,
and NASA is working on the concept for just such
a mission, currently named the Habitable World's Observatory. This report
from nass A TV.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
The stars above, what secrets do they keep? One of
our biggest questions has always been are we alone? We've
now discovered thousands of planets beyond our solar system, but
how many of those distant worlds have the conditions for
life as we know it? How many have water, vapor,
(06:21):
a beacon indicating that oceans might be present, how many
of gases like oxygen and methane possible signs of life itself,
and of those which might truly have life. After decades
of asking, a future NASA telescope could bring us the answers.
(06:41):
The Habitable World's Observator is a future mission designed in
the tradition of the Hubble and web space telescopes. It
will use its unique and sensitive eyes to see planets
like our own hiding in the light of their distant stars.
Astronomers could then point to the Mighty Space Observatory to
(07:02):
the most promising planets, those that may hold liquid water.
With the help of its chronograph instrument, which blocks out
the dazzling starlight, the telescope will look for undiscovered Earth
sized planets in the star's habitable zone where liquid water
could exist. The light from each planet will be split
(07:23):
into a vibrant spectrum of colors, revealing clues to the
chemical signatures we seek. From there, we can attempt to
discover if a planet's atmosphere contains water, and from there
other signals like oxygen releasing. Should all these signs a lie,
the habitable world's observatory would delve deeper to reveal other
hidden cools of life. With further study, we could find
(07:47):
signs of sprawling oceans and rugged continents, and if signs
of life are revealed, keep a watchful eye for changes.
Over time, this magnificent observatory could discover dozens of worlds
akin to our own. In its first five years. The
(08:07):
telescope will gather data on a wide variety of worlds,
placing our own solar system in the context within the
grand tapestry of existence, and the Habitable World's Observatory will,
like the other great cosmic watchers Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer, Web
and SMO Roman, also conduct a wide range of revolutionary
(08:28):
observations of our cosmos, improving our understanding of how our
universe led to potentially habitable worlds. Thus, the Habitable World's
Observatory will help us embark on a quest as grand
as any to tell the story of life in the
cosmos and whether or not we are alone.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
This space time still to calm. Decoding Venus's mysterious surface
and the growing tale of interstellar comet pre I Atlas
or that and more still to come on space time,
(09:21):
Scientists trying to understand the weird surface features of the
planet Venus may finally have come up with an explanation
for at least some of this strange world's geography. Venus's
surface is pot marked with round crownlike features known as corone.
These more or less circular structures can look like terraced
hills pushed upwards by heat energy, or like collapsi FLEs
(09:43):
shrunken as supporting materials beneath them cool off and contract,
and these weird features, which can vary in size abap
to tenfold are unlike anything said on Earth. Now are reporting.
The Journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences suggest that corone are most likely by plumes of
magma trying to burst through the planet's crust. That studies
(10:04):
lead author Meddling Curve from Script's Oceanography says, one value
of studying Venus is understanding what's happened there, which makes
it unable to support biological life while life flourishes here
on its sister planet Earth. Venus is the closest planet
to the Earth. The two worlds are roughly the same size.
They were formed out of the same material and the
same part of the Solar System and under similar conditions.
(10:28):
Yet while Earth has become a habitable world with abundant
liquid water and life, Venus has become a hellish landscape
with vast laval planes, surface temperatures can reach more than
four hundred and sixty degrees celsius, and a thick come
dark side atmosphere where pressures are some ninety nine times
heavier than that at sea level on Earth. Thanks to
a vast and at wide eighty kilometer a thick blanket
(10:50):
of clouds, which acts like the lid of a pressure cooker. Now,
like Earth, it does rain on Venus, but the rain
isn't water, It's sulfuric acid, and metallic snow covers the
Venusian mountain peaks. Even stranger, Venus rotates backwards, with the
sun rising in the west and setting in the east.
A day on this weird world lasts some two hundred
(11:11):
and forty three earth days, which is longer than a
Venuzian year, which takes some two hundred and twenty five
earth days. To reach their conclusions of this new study,
the authors map the paths of bursts of magmatic energy
pushing outwards from Venus' core, some three thousand kilometers below
the crust. Unlike Earth, which has moving tectonic plates caused
by the convection of heat from deep below, Venus has
(11:34):
just a single, rigid crust covering its entire surface, so
heat has no way to escape. Hot upwellings like the
blobs that rise in a lava lamp can push through
from the core, creating massive two thousand kilometer wide volcanic structures,
But many of these hot channels of magnet don't have
enough energy to punch through the crust, so when they
(11:56):
approach the surface, say six hundred kilometers below, by a
layer in the mantle which forms due to changing crystal
structures in the rock, creating what the author's term a
glass ceiling effect. After some of these hot rocks are blocked,
even smaller blobs can rise up towards the surface from
this shallower layer. And it's these smaller blobs which may
(12:16):
form the abundant small corone features often seen scattered across
the Venetian surface. This is space time still to come
the growing tail of interstellar Comet three Eye Atlas, and
later in the Science report, a new study confirms that
daylight savings really is unhealthy for you. All that and
more still to come on space time, astronomers have obtained
(12:53):
a striking new image of the growing tail of the
interstellar comet three Eye Atlas. The observations are revealing what
is now a prominent tale and glowing coma from this
rare celestial visitor. It's also providing new scientific spectroscopic measurements,
allowing scientists to get a better idea of its composition.
To do this, the authors use the Gemini Multi object
(13:15):
spectrograph on the Gemini South Telescope in Chile. The observations
uncovered a broad coma that's the cloud of gas and
dust that forms around the comet's icy nucleus as it
gets closer to the Sun. They also saw a tail
spanning some one one hundred and twentieth of a degree
across the sky, pointing away from the Sun.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Now.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
While these features were there before, they now significantly more
extended than they appeared in earlier images of the comet,
and that shows that comet three eye Atlas has become
more active. It's traveling through the inner Solar System getting
closer to the head of the Sun. The comet was
first detected back on July the first by the Atlas
Asteroid Terrestrial Impact LAST Alert system. The new observations suggest
(13:57):
that the dust and ice of three I Atlas are broad,
similar to those of comets from our Solar system, and
that hints at shared processes for forming planetary systems around
other stars. The observations examine the comet spectra, which provides
clues about its composition and chemistry, as well as the
size of dust particles in the coma, but the growth
(14:17):
of the tail also suggests a change in the particles
from previous Gemini images. Interstellar comets are extraordinarily rare. Three
Eye Outlas is only the third confirmed example, after Comet
one eye A mal Maa back in twenty seventeen and
Comet two I BORISEV in twenty nineteen. Unlike comets from
our solar system, which are bound of the Sun, three
(14:38):
Eye Outlas is traveling on a hyperbolic orbit that will
eventually carry it back out into interstellar space, but its
brief passage through our solar system gives astronomers a once
in a lifetime opportunity to study material that formed around
a distant star. The comet's about to disappear behind the Sun,
but it will re emerge in November, where more observations
(14:59):
will be made. Needless to say, well keep you informed.
This is space time, and time out to take another
(15:23):
brief look at some of the other stories making US
and science this week with a science report. Every spring,
Americans and most Australians beautifully adjust their clocks forward to
daylight savings time, and every autumnal fall they adjust them
back to standard time. The problem is, no one really
seems very happy about it. This buying your time shift
(15:44):
is not only inconvenient, it's also known to be acutely
bad for human health, and it's been linked to heart
attacks and fatal traffic accidents in the ensuing days. Now,
a study by Stanford Medicine researchers finds there are longer
term hazards as well and better alternatives. The authors compared
how three different time policies sticking with a permanent standard time,
(16:05):
permanent daylight savings time, and the current biandle shifting, could
affect people's circadian rhythms and in turn their health. The
authors found that either permanent standard time or permanent daylight
savings time would be healthier than the current seasonal wafting,
with permanent standard time benefiting the most people. They also
found that by modeling light exposure, ccadian rhythm impacts, and
(16:27):
health characteristics across the United States, they could estimate that
permanent standard time would prevent some three hundred thousand cases
of stroke every year, and it would also result in
some two point six million fewer people having obesity. The findings,
reported in the journal The Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, also show that permanent daylight savings time would
achieve about two thirds of the same effect. Paleontologists have
(16:53):
identified a new species of dinosaur based on a fossil
which had been sitting in the museum draw for more
than one hundred and twenty five years. Is Scientists from
the University of Bristol officially identified the new species Utenetsaurus
Xanclodon cambriensis as a large predatory therapod dinosaur. A report
in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Geologists Association
(17:14):
says the half jaw bone section is some twenty eight
centimeters long, so originally the full jaw bone would have
been around sixty centimeters in length, corresponding to a dinosaur
with a body length of up to seven meters, and
this would have been unusually large for a Triassic period therapod,
most of which are only about half that size or
even smaller. The authors reached their conclusions using modern digital
(17:35):
three dimensional scanning techniques to shed new light on the
fossil jaw bone, which was dug up in eighteen ninety
nine from the Triassic fossil beds of South Wales that
had been on display at the National Museum of Wales
for many years but had not been correctly identified until now.
A new study has shown that artificial intelligence and now
(17:55):
determine which young adults need treatment to prevent vision loss.
The findings, reported at the forty third Congress of the
European Society for Cataract and Refractive Surgery, looked at people
with keretacanus, a visual impairment that generally develops in teenagers
and young adults, and which tends to worsen in adulthood.
The authors used artificial intelligence to assess images of patients eyes,
(18:16):
and combined with other data, successfully predicted which patients needed
prompt treatment and which could continue with simple monitoring. They
found the AI could predict accurately whether a patient's condition
would deteriorate or remain stable simply using images and data
from just one visit. Using AI, the authors could sort
two thirds of patients into a low risk gript that
(18:37):
didn't need immediate treatment, and the other one third into
a more high risk category who needed prompt attention. In Australia,
the final countdowns now underway to the federal government's introduction
of what will be a forced digital identification scheme for
access to social media. The legislation comes into force on
December the tenth now. The government claims it will protect
(18:59):
kids under sixty by preventing them from accessing social media
and YouTube, but what it really does is that it
will force you to prove that you're over sixteen to
access those sites. That means supplying often foreign based media
companies with your personal details of biometric information, which, despite
whateverearances they give you, past experience has proven will end
(19:20):
up with your digital ID being traded to other parties
or hacked and sold on the dark web. It also
provides the government with what they've always wanted, an Australia
Card style digital ID for every citizen, allowing politicians and
bureaucrats to link your medical records, your driver's license, your
tax file number, financial details, your criminal names index if any,
(19:41):
as well as addresses and contact information all in the
one file. It means the arrival of an or Willian
nineteen eighty four style Big Brother, and that's being seen
by some as the first step towards the Chinese government
style social credit scheme, in which the government will always
know what you're doing, where you are, and be able
to control what information you get, what services you have
(20:03):
access to, even what schools your kids can attend. And again,
that's happening right now in China. And before you say
that could only happen in a tatalitarian communist dictatorship like China.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Well.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Similar digital ID records in Canada were used recently the
Freeze protesting track drivers access to their own bank accounts,
and here in Australia, the spine assurances by the government
police use the covid ID passport scheme to track people's
whereabouts find out what they've been up to Big Brother indeed,
but the public is fighting back. People already started to
(20:37):
use more and more VPNs and anonymous browsers such as
tor with the details of where we're likely to go.
We're joined by technology editor Alex Haharovroyt from tech Advice
Start Life.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
In July this year, the UK had their own age
verification system, where people needed to be verifying their age
to get online to services like x or Reddit or
some of them the pornards, and when that happened, vp
and software became the most downloaded on the app store
in the UK. And VPNs obviously allow you to change
(21:09):
the location that you appear from, and people are clearly
using them to bypass these requirements of the Online Safety Act,
and that's human nature. Governments want to impose something, and people,
like water trying to find the easiest part, are going
to flow to things like VPNs to try and get
around these particular restrictions. We've seen this in China. I mean,
China had VPNs blockages and bands years ago, but people
(21:32):
in China still use VPNs to this day to get
access to Western services, to get access to Google. And
you know, this is just what's going to happen. The
government wants to do something to restrict freedom, and people
are going to want to do something else to get
their freedom back. So we've already seen what happens in
other countries and there's no reason to think that exactly
the same sort of thing won't happen here in Australia.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
That's an Exaharov Royd from Tech Advice start live and
that's the show for now. Spacetime is available every Monday,
(22:16):
Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcast,
pocker Casts, Spotify, Acast, Amazon Music, 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
(22:38):
iHeartRadio and tune in Radio. And you can help to
support our show by visiting the Spacetime Store for a
range 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 bonnus audio
content which doesn't go to wear, access to our exclusive
Facebook group and rewards. Just go to space Time with
(23:02):
Stewart Gary dot com for full details.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Garry. This
has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com
This is Spacetime Series twenty eight, Episode one hundred and fifteen,
for broadcast on the twenty fourth of September twenty twenty five.
Coming up on space Time, the exoplanet count passes six thousand,
the coding Venus's mysterious surface, and the growing tale of
interstellar comet three I Atlas. All that and more coming
(00:21):
up on Spacetime.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Astronomers have just confirmed their six thousandth exoplanet, that is,
a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun. The
new milestone highlights the accelerating redd of discoveries made in
the three decades since the first exoplanet, the hot Jubiter
fifty one Pergasi, was detected way back in nineteen ninety five.
Confirmed planets are added to the count on a rolling
(01:04):
basis by astronomers around the world, so there's not a
single planet which is actually considered as the six thousandth entry.
The numbers monitored by NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute, which is
based at Caltech in Pasadena, California. As well as the
six thousand confirmed exoplanets, there are more than eight thousand
additional candidate planets still await In confirmation, NASA's Astrophysics Division
(01:27):
Acting Director Shawn Dommigall Goldman says the historic milestone represents
decades of cosmic exploration that's completely changed the way humanity
sees the night sky. Instead of just seeing the stars
up there, we now know there are planets orbiting those stars. Still,
although researchers think there are probably billions of planets up
there in the Milky Way galaxy, finding them remains a challenge.
(01:51):
In addition to discovering many individual planets with fascinating characteristics,
as the total number of exoplanets climbs, astronomers are also
able to see how the planetary population compares to planets
in our own Solar System. For example, while our Solar
System hosts an equal number of terrestrial or rocky planets
compared to gas and ice giants, rocky planets appear to
(02:12):
be far more common around other stars, and astronomers have
also found a range of planets entirely different from anything
sinin our Solar System. Of course, there are the Jupiter
sized planets known as hot jupiters gas giants whose orbits
are closer to their host stars. The Mercury's orbit is
to the Sun. Then there are planets that orbit two stars,
rogue planets wandering through space not orbiting any star at all,
(02:35):
planets orbiting dead stars, planets covered in lava, some with
the density of styrofoam, and others with clouds made of gemstones.
Each of the different types of planets discovered gives astronomers
new information about the conditions under which planets can form,
and ultimately how common planets like the Earth might be
and where scientists should be looking for them. But despite
(02:57):
the thousands of discoveries now made, fewer than one hundred
exoplanets have actually been directly imaged. That's because most planets
are so faint they get lost in the bright glare
from their parents' star, and the other four methods of
planetary detection are all indirect. With the transit method, for example,
astronomers look for a start to dim for a short
period as an orbiting planet passes in front of it
(03:20):
to account for the possibility that something other than an
exoplanet's responsible for a particular signal. Most exoplanet candidates need
to be confirmed by follow up observations, often using additional
telescopes that takes up time. Then there's the wobble method,
where the massive an orbiting planet causes its host star
to slightly wobble off center, something which can be picked
(03:41):
up by the star's Doppler shift. The rate of exoplanet
discoveries has been accelerating in recent years. The database reached
five thousand confirmed exo planets just three years ago, and
this trend seems likely to continue. In fact, astronomers expect
to receive thousands of new exoplanetary candidates thanks to the
European Space Agencies GUY emission, which finds planets through a
(04:01):
technique called astrometry. And also, of course, there's NASA's upcoming
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will discover thousands of
new exoplanets, primarily through a technique called gravitational microlensing. At NASA,
the future of exoplanet science will emphasize finding rocky planets
similar to the Earth, and then studying their atmosphere for biosignatures,
(04:22):
that is, any characteristic element, molecule, substance of feature which
can be used as evidence of past or present life.
NASA's Web Space Telescope has already analyzed the chemistry of
more than one hundred exoplanetary atmospheres, but studying the atmospheres
of planets the size and temperature of the Earth will
require new technology. Specifically, astronomers need better tools to block
(04:44):
out the glare of the star of the planet's orbiting
and in the case of a small Earth like planet,
that glare will be significant. Put it this way, the
Sun is about ten billion times brighter than the Earth,
and that's more than enough to drown out our home
planet's light if it were being viewed by a distant observer.
NASA currently has two main initiatives to try and overcome
(05:04):
this hurdle. There's the Nazi Grace Roman Space Telescope. It'll
carrier technology demonstration instrument called the Roman Chronograph that will
test new technologies for blocking starlight and making faint planets
more visible. At its peak performance, the coronagraph should be
able to directly image a planet the size and temperature
of Jupiter orpening a star just like our Sun and
(05:25):
at a similar distance from that star. With its microlensing
survey and coronographic observations, Nazi Grace Roman will reveal new
details about the diversity of planetary systems, showing how common
they are, and how many are like our own Solar
system across the galaxy. Of course, additional advances in coronagraph
technology will still be needed in order to build a
(05:46):
coronagraph that can detect a planet the size of the Earth,
and NASA is working on the concept for just such
a mission, currently named the Habitable World's Observatory. This report
from nass A TV.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
The stars above, what secrets do they keep? One of
our biggest questions has always been are we alone? We've
now discovered thousands of planets beyond our solar system, but
how many of those distant worlds have the conditions for
life as we know it? How many have water, vapor,
(06:21):
a beacon indicating that oceans might be present, how many
of gases like oxygen and methane possible signs of life itself,
and of those which might truly have life. After decades
of asking, a future NASA telescope could bring us the answers.
(06:41):
The Habitable World's Observator is a future mission designed in
the tradition of the Hubble and web space telescopes. It
will use its unique and sensitive eyes to see planets
like our own hiding in the light of their distant stars.
Astronomers could then point to the Mighty Space Observatory to
(07:02):
the most promising planets, those that may hold liquid water.
With the help of its chronograph instrument, which blocks out
the dazzling starlight, the telescope will look for undiscovered Earth
sized planets in the star's habitable zone where liquid water
could exist. The light from each planet will be split
(07:23):
into a vibrant spectrum of colors, revealing clues to the
chemical signatures we seek. From there, we can attempt to
discover if a planet's atmosphere contains water, and from there
other signals like oxygen releasing. Should all these signs a lie,
the habitable world's observatory would delve deeper to reveal other
hidden cools of life. With further study, we could find
(07:47):
signs of sprawling oceans and rugged continents, and if signs
of life are revealed, keep a watchful eye for changes.
Over time, this magnificent observatory could discover dozens of worlds
akin to our own. In its first five years. The
(08:07):
telescope will gather data on a wide variety of worlds,
placing our own solar system in the context within the
grand tapestry of existence, and the Habitable World's Observatory will,
like the other great cosmic watchers Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer, Web
and SMO Roman, also conduct a wide range of revolutionary
(08:28):
observations of our cosmos, improving our understanding of how our
universe led to potentially habitable worlds. Thus, the Habitable World's
Observatory will help us embark on a quest as grand
as any to tell the story of life in the
cosmos and whether or not we are alone.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
This space time still to calm. Decoding Venus's mysterious surface
and the growing tale of interstellar comet pre I Atlas
or that and more still to come on space time,
(09:21):
Scientists trying to understand the weird surface features of the
planet Venus may finally have come up with an explanation
for at least some of this strange world's geography. Venus's
surface is pot marked with round crownlike features known as corone.
These more or less circular structures can look like terraced
hills pushed upwards by heat energy, or like collapsi FLEs
(09:43):
shrunken as supporting materials beneath them cool off and contract,
and these weird features, which can vary in size abap
to tenfold are unlike anything said on Earth. Now are reporting.
The Journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences suggest that corone are most likely by plumes of
magma trying to burst through the planet's crust. That studies
(10:04):
lead author Meddling Curve from Script's Oceanography says, one value
of studying Venus is understanding what's happened there, which makes
it unable to support biological life while life flourishes here
on its sister planet Earth. Venus is the closest planet
to the Earth. The two worlds are roughly the same size.
They were formed out of the same material and the
same part of the Solar System and under similar conditions.
(10:28):
Yet while Earth has become a habitable world with abundant
liquid water and life, Venus has become a hellish landscape
with vast laval planes, surface temperatures can reach more than
four hundred and sixty degrees celsius, and a thick come
dark side atmosphere where pressures are some ninety nine times
heavier than that at sea level on Earth. Thanks to
a vast and at wide eighty kilometer a thick blanket
(10:50):
of clouds, which acts like the lid of a pressure cooker. Now,
like Earth, it does rain on Venus, but the rain
isn't water, It's sulfuric acid, and metallic snow covers the
Venusian mountain peaks. Even stranger, Venus rotates backwards, with the
sun rising in the west and setting in the east.
A day on this weird world lasts some two hundred
(11:11):
and forty three earth days, which is longer than a
Venuzian year, which takes some two hundred and twenty five
earth days. To reach their conclusions of this new study,
the authors map the paths of bursts of magmatic energy
pushing outwards from Venus' core, some three thousand kilometers below
the crust. Unlike Earth, which has moving tectonic plates caused
by the convection of heat from deep below, Venus has
(11:34):
just a single, rigid crust covering its entire surface, so
heat has no way to escape. Hot upwellings like the
blobs that rise in a lava lamp can push through
from the core, creating massive two thousand kilometer wide volcanic structures,
But many of these hot channels of magnet don't have
enough energy to punch through the crust, so when they
(11:56):
approach the surface, say six hundred kilometers below, by a
layer in the mantle which forms due to changing crystal
structures in the rock, creating what the author's term a
glass ceiling effect. After some of these hot rocks are blocked,
even smaller blobs can rise up towards the surface from
this shallower layer. And it's these smaller blobs which may
(12:16):
form the abundant small corone features often seen scattered across
the Venetian surface. This is space time still to come
the growing tail of interstellar Comet three Eye Atlas, and
later in the Science report, a new study confirms that
daylight savings really is unhealthy for you. All that and
more still to come on space time, astronomers have obtained
(12:53):
a striking new image of the growing tail of the
interstellar comet three Eye Atlas. The observations are revealing what
is now a prominent tale and glowing coma from this
rare celestial visitor. It's also providing new scientific spectroscopic measurements,
allowing scientists to get a better idea of its composition.
To do this, the authors use the Gemini Multi object
(13:15):
spectrograph on the Gemini South Telescope in Chile. The observations
uncovered a broad coma that's the cloud of gas and
dust that forms around the comet's icy nucleus as it
gets closer to the Sun. They also saw a tail
spanning some one one hundred and twentieth of a degree
across the sky, pointing away from the Sun.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Now.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
While these features were there before, they now significantly more
extended than they appeared in earlier images of the comet,
and that shows that comet three eye Atlas has become
more active. It's traveling through the inner Solar System getting
closer to the head of the Sun. The comet was
first detected back on July the first by the Atlas
Asteroid Terrestrial Impact LAST Alert system. The new observations suggest
(13:57):
that the dust and ice of three I Atlas are broad,
similar to those of comets from our Solar system, and
that hints at shared processes for forming planetary systems around
other stars. The observations examine the comet spectra, which provides
clues about its composition and chemistry, as well as the
size of dust particles in the coma, but the growth
(14:17):
of the tail also suggests a change in the particles
from previous Gemini images. Interstellar comets are extraordinarily rare. Three
Eye Outlas is only the third confirmed example, after Comet
one eye A mal Maa back in twenty seventeen and
Comet two I BORISEV in twenty nineteen. Unlike comets from
our solar system, which are bound of the Sun, three
(14:38):
Eye Outlas is traveling on a hyperbolic orbit that will
eventually carry it back out into interstellar space, but its
brief passage through our solar system gives astronomers a once
in a lifetime opportunity to study material that formed around
a distant star. The comet's about to disappear behind the Sun,
but it will re emerge in November, where more observations
(14:59):
will be made. Needless to say, well keep you informed.
This is space time, and time out to take another
(15:23):
brief look at some of the other stories making US
and science this week with a science report. Every spring,
Americans and most Australians beautifully adjust their clocks forward to
daylight savings time, and every autumnal fall they adjust them
back to standard time. The problem is, no one really
seems very happy about it. This buying your time shift
(15:44):
is not only inconvenient, it's also known to be acutely
bad for human health, and it's been linked to heart
attacks and fatal traffic accidents in the ensuing days. Now,
a study by Stanford Medicine researchers finds there are longer
term hazards as well and better alternatives. The authors compared
how three different time policies sticking with a permanent standard time,
(16:05):
permanent daylight savings time, and the current biandle shifting, could
affect people's circadian rhythms and in turn their health. The
authors found that either permanent standard time or permanent daylight
savings time would be healthier than the current seasonal wafting,
with permanent standard time benefiting the most people. They also
found that by modeling light exposure, ccadian rhythm impacts, and
(16:27):
health characteristics across the United States, they could estimate that
permanent standard time would prevent some three hundred thousand cases
of stroke every year, and it would also result in
some two point six million fewer people having obesity. The findings,
reported in the journal The Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, also show that permanent daylight savings time would
achieve about two thirds of the same effect. Paleontologists have
(16:53):
identified a new species of dinosaur based on a fossil
which had been sitting in the museum draw for more
than one hundred and twenty five years. Is Scientists from
the University of Bristol officially identified the new species Utenetsaurus
Xanclodon cambriensis as a large predatory therapod dinosaur. A report
in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Geologists Association
(17:14):
says the half jaw bone section is some twenty eight
centimeters long, so originally the full jaw bone would have
been around sixty centimeters in length, corresponding to a dinosaur
with a body length of up to seven meters, and
this would have been unusually large for a Triassic period therapod,
most of which are only about half that size or
even smaller. The authors reached their conclusions using modern digital
(17:35):
three dimensional scanning techniques to shed new light on the
fossil jaw bone, which was dug up in eighteen ninety
nine from the Triassic fossil beds of South Wales that
had been on display at the National Museum of Wales
for many years but had not been correctly identified until now.
A new study has shown that artificial intelligence and now
(17:55):
determine which young adults need treatment to prevent vision loss.
The findings, reported at the forty third Congress of the
European Society for Cataract and Refractive Surgery, looked at people
with keretacanus, a visual impairment that generally develops in teenagers
and young adults, and which tends to worsen in adulthood.
The authors used artificial intelligence to assess images of patients eyes,
(18:16):
and combined with other data, successfully predicted which patients needed
prompt treatment and which could continue with simple monitoring. They
found the AI could predict accurately whether a patient's condition
would deteriorate or remain stable simply using images and data
from just one visit. Using AI, the authors could sort
two thirds of patients into a low risk gript that
(18:37):
didn't need immediate treatment, and the other one third into
a more high risk category who needed prompt attention. In Australia,
the final countdowns now underway to the federal government's introduction
of what will be a forced digital identification scheme for
access to social media. The legislation comes into force on
December the tenth now. The government claims it will protect
(18:59):
kids under sixty by preventing them from accessing social media
and YouTube, but what it really does is that it
will force you to prove that you're over sixteen to
access those sites. That means supplying often foreign based media
companies with your personal details of biometric information, which, despite
whateverearances they give you, past experience has proven will end
(19:20):
up with your digital ID being traded to other parties
or hacked and sold on the dark web. It also
provides the government with what they've always wanted, an Australia
Card style digital ID for every citizen, allowing politicians and
bureaucrats to link your medical records, your driver's license, your
tax file number, financial details, your criminal names index if any,
(19:41):
as well as addresses and contact information all in the
one file. It means the arrival of an or Willian
nineteen eighty four style Big Brother, and that's being seen
by some as the first step towards the Chinese government
style social credit scheme, in which the government will always
know what you're doing, where you are, and be able
to control what information you get, what services you have
(20:03):
access to, even what schools your kids can attend. And again,
that's happening right now in China. And before you say
that could only happen in a tatalitarian communist dictatorship like China.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Well.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Similar digital ID records in Canada were used recently the
Freeze protesting track drivers access to their own bank accounts,
and here in Australia, the spine assurances by the government
police use the covid ID passport scheme to track people's
whereabouts find out what they've been up to Big Brother indeed,
but the public is fighting back. People already started to
(20:37):
use more and more VPNs and anonymous browsers such as
tor with the details of where we're likely to go.
We're joined by technology editor Alex Haharovroyt from tech Advice
Start Life.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
In July this year, the UK had their own age
verification system, where people needed to be verifying their age
to get online to services like x or Reddit or
some of them the pornards, and when that happened, vp
and software became the most downloaded on the app store
in the UK. And VPNs obviously allow you to change
(21:09):
the location that you appear from, and people are clearly
using them to bypass these requirements of the Online Safety Act,
and that's human nature. Governments want to impose something, and people,
like water trying to find the easiest part, are going
to flow to things like VPNs to try and get
around these particular restrictions. We've seen this in China. I mean,
China had VPNs blockages and bands years ago, but people
(21:32):
in China still use VPNs to this day to get
access to Western services, to get access to Google. And
you know, this is just what's going to happen. The
government wants to do something to restrict freedom, and people
are going to want to do something else to get
their freedom back. So we've already seen what happens in
other countries and there's no reason to think that exactly
the same sort of thing won't happen here in Australia.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
That's an Exaharov Royd from Tech Advice start live and
that's the show for now. Spacetime is available every Monday,
(22:16):
Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcast,
pocker Casts, Spotify, Acast, Amazon Music, 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
(22:38):
iHeartRadio and tune in Radio. And you can help to
support our show by visiting the Spacetime Store for a
range 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 bonnus audio
content which doesn't go to wear, access to our exclusive
Facebook group and rewards. Just go to space Time with
(23:02):
Stewart Gary dot com for full details.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Garry. This
has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.