November 3, 2025 • 25 mins
In this episode of SpaceTime, we explore a trio of intriguing astronomical phenomena that are reshaping our understanding of the cosmos.
Interstellar Comet 3I Atlas: A Close Encounter
Interstellar comet 3I Atlas has reached its perihelion, passing closest to the Sun without any signs of alien life forms, despite wild media speculation. This episode discusses how the comet maintained its expected trajectory and velocity, while also revealing groundbreaking findings from NASA's Swift Space Telescope, which detected ultraviolet signatures of water from the comet, providing new insights into the chemistry of interstellar objects and their potential to harbour the building blocks of life.
A Colossal Gas Bridge Between Dwarf Galaxies
Astronomers have discovered a massive bridge of neutral hydrogen gas linking two dwarf galaxies, NGC 4532 and DDO 137, located approximately 53 million light years away. This remarkable structure spans an astonishing 185,000 light years and is accompanied by a vast tail of gas extending 1 million light years. The findings shed light on how galaxies interact and evolve, particularly in dense environments like the Virgo Cluster, and offer crucial insights into the dynamics of galactic gas and star formation.
Volcanic Eruptions and Hidden Ice on Mars
A new study suggests that explosive volcanic eruptions on ancient Mars may have transported water ice to the equatorial regions of the Red Planet. Using computer modelling, researchers propose that water vapour released during these eruptions could have frozen in the Martian atmosphere, leading to the accumulation of significant ice deposits. This discovery could have profound implications for future human exploration of Mars, as it raises questions about the availability of water resources in unexpected locations.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Astrophysical Journal Letters
https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2041-8205
Nature Communications
https://www.nature.com/naturecommunications/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
Interstellar Comet 3I Atlas: A Close Encounter
A Colossal Gas Bridge Between Dwarf Galaxies
Volcanic Eruptions and Hidden Ice on Mars
Interstellar Comet 3I Atlas: A Close Encounter
Interstellar comet 3I Atlas has reached its perihelion, passing closest to the Sun without any signs of alien life forms, despite wild media speculation. This episode discusses how the comet maintained its expected trajectory and velocity, while also revealing groundbreaking findings from NASA's Swift Space Telescope, which detected ultraviolet signatures of water from the comet, providing new insights into the chemistry of interstellar objects and their potential to harbour the building blocks of life.
A Colossal Gas Bridge Between Dwarf Galaxies
Astronomers have discovered a massive bridge of neutral hydrogen gas linking two dwarf galaxies, NGC 4532 and DDO 137, located approximately 53 million light years away. This remarkable structure spans an astonishing 185,000 light years and is accompanied by a vast tail of gas extending 1 million light years. The findings shed light on how galaxies interact and evolve, particularly in dense environments like the Virgo Cluster, and offer crucial insights into the dynamics of galactic gas and star formation.
Volcanic Eruptions and Hidden Ice on Mars
A new study suggests that explosive volcanic eruptions on ancient Mars may have transported water ice to the equatorial regions of the Red Planet. Using computer modelling, researchers propose that water vapour released during these eruptions could have frozen in the Martian atmosphere, leading to the accumulation of significant ice deposits. This discovery could have profound implications for future human exploration of Mars, as it raises questions about the availability of water resources in unexpected locations.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Astrophysical Journal Letters
https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2041-8205
Nature Communications
https://www.nature.com/naturecommunications/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
Interstellar Comet 3I Atlas: A Close Encounter
A Colossal Gas Bridge Between Dwarf Galaxies
Volcanic Eruptions and Hidden Ice on Mars
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Versus Spacetime Series twenty eight, episode one hundred and twenty
nine or broadcast on the third of November twenty twenty five.
Coming up on Spacetime, Interstellar Comet three eye Antlas passes
behind the Sun with no signs of any alien lifeforms,
two dwarf galaxies linked by a massive intergalactic bridge, and
could volcanic eruptions have delivered hidden ice to the marsh
(00:23):
and Equator. All that and more coming up on Spacetime.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Inter Stellar Comet three I Antlas has reached its perihelium,
marking its closest position to the Sun. Despite a lot
of ill informed media speculation, a close encounter didn't the
comet devi eight from its expected trajectory or its sixty
eight point three kilometers per second velocity. There was no
sudden maneuvering towards the Earth, no slowing down, and no
(01:11):
abrupt turns. It behaved exactly as it should have and
not that some have speculated like an alien spacecraft, So
unless Klingons or Cardashians make a sudden appearance, it should
pass safely by the Earth on December the nineteenth, marking
its closest approach at a distance of two hundred and
sixty eight million kilometers. Three I Atlas is only the
(01:34):
third known interstellar comet to visit our Solar System. There
undoubtedly have been many others, but we weren't able to
detect them until now. Meanwhile, a report in the Astrophysical
Journal Letters claims astronomers have detected ultraviolet signatures of water
emanating from the interstellar visitor the Sturdies. Authors use NASA's
(01:55):
Swift Space Telescope to undertake the first ever detection of
hydroxyl gas from this object, are commonly used chemical fingerprint
for water. The discovery is considered a major breakthrough for
understanding how the interstellar comet evolved. For millions, possibly billions
of years, this fragment of ice and dust has been
(02:15):
traveling between the stars. Because it's orbiting above its atmosphere,
the Swift Space telescope is able to capture wavelengths of
light that would be absorbed before they reach the Earth's
surface and therefore unseen by ground based observatories. In Solar
System comets, water is a yardstick by which astronomers measure
their overall activity and track how sunlight drives the release
(02:38):
of other gases. It's the chemical benchmark that anchors every
comparison of volatile ices in a comet's nucleus. Finding the
same signal in an interstellar object means that for the
first time, astronomers can begin to place three I Atlas
on the same scale they use to study native Solar
System comets, and that's considered a step towards coming chemistry
(03:01):
of planetary systems right across the galaxy. What makes three
Eye Atlas remarkable is where its water activity occurs. The
Swift telescope observations are detecting hydroxyls when the comet was
still three times further from the Sun than the Earth.
That's well beyond the region where water ice on a
comet's surface can easily suplement into space. Swift was able
(03:24):
to measure a water loss rate of about forty kilograms
per second. That's roughly the output of a fire hose
running at full blast. The thing is that those sort
of distances most Solar System comets are still quiet, so
the strong ultraviolet signal from Atlas suggests that something else
is at work, perhaps sunlights heating small icy grains released
(03:45):
from the nucleus, allowing them to vaporize and feed the
surrounding cloud of gas. Such extended sources of water have
only ever been seen in a handful of distant comets,
and they point to complex layered ices that preserve clues
about how these objects are fully formed. Each interstellar comet
discovered so far has revealed a different side of planetary
(04:06):
chemistry beyond our Sun. Together, they demonstrate that the building
blocks of comets and the volatile ices that shape them
can vary dramatically from one star system to the next,
and these differences hint at how diverse planet forming environments
can be and our processes like temperature, radiation, and composition
sculpt the materials that ultimately seed planets and potentially life.
(04:30):
One of the sturdies authors, Dennis Birdwitz from Auburn University,
says the detection of water or its faint ultraviolet echo
hydroxyls from this interstellar comet tells science that the ingredients
for life's chemistry are not unique to our solar system.
He says, every interstellar comet so far has been a surprise.
When I A mail Maur was dry, to IBORISEV was
(04:53):
rich in carbon monoxide, and now three Eye Atlas is
giving up water at a distance where astronomers didn't expl
so each is rewriting what astronomers thought they knew about
planets and comets, how they form around different stars. It's
a fascinating discovery. This is space time still to come.
(05:13):
Two dwarf galaxies linked by a massive intergalactic bridge, and
a new study suggests that violent volcanic eruptions may have
delivered head and ice to the marsh and Equator. All
that and more still to come on space time. Astronomers
(05:44):
have discovered a colossal bridge of neutral hydrogen gas linking
to distant dwarf galaxies. This immense structure spans an astonishing
one hundred and eighty five thousand light years between galaxies
NNGC forty five, thirty two and one thirty seven, which
are riach located around fifty three million light years away.
(06:05):
The findings, reported in the Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society, also revealed a vast tale of gas accompanying
the bridge, extending one point six million light years and
making it the longest ever observed. The studies lead author
mister Steverly Smith, from the University of Western Australia, node
of the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research, says the
(06:26):
discovery marks a significant step forward in understanding how galaxies interact.
He says the modeling shows that the tidal forces acting
between these galaxies, alongside their proximity to the massive Virgo cluster,
is a crucial role in the gas dynamics observed. As
the two galaxies orbit around each other, moved towards the
(06:47):
hot gas cloud surrounding the Virgo Cluster, which is some
two hundred times hotter than the surface of the Sun,
they experience ram pressure, which trips and hates the gas
from the galaxies. Steverly Smith says the density of electors
and the speed at which the galaxies are falling into
the hot gas cloud are enough to explain why so
much gas has been pulled away from the galaxies and
(07:07):
into the bridge surrounding areas. The observations were part of Wallaby,
the wide Field Australian square kilometer ray Pathfinder l band
Legacy All Sky Survey. This large scale project maps the
sky and studies the distribution of hydrogen gas in galaxies.
Steverly Smith and colleagues detected the colossal gas formations by
(07:29):
using high resolution observations of neutral hydrogen. Neutral hydrogen plays
a crucial role in the formation of stars, making this
finding fundamental to understanding how galaxies interact and evolve, especially
in dense environments. Steverlli Smith says the system has strong
similarities with our own Milky Way galaxy and two of
its satellite galaxies, the large and small Machileni clouds. He
(07:53):
says understanding these gas bridges and their dynamics provides crucial
insights into how galaxies evolve over time. Our galactic gas
is redistributed in the cosmos and the varying conditions under
which galaxies may or may not stars.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
We've found a couple of very interesting dwarf galaxies, very
normal looking dwarf galaxries in optical images. What we've found
recently was a large bridge of guests which extended between them.
And we saw this bridge using some new observations that
we made with the ASCAP the Australia Pathfinder telescope.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
What's that telling you about the relationship between these two galaxies.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
So these two galaxies are both known to be in
the vicinity of what we call the Burger cluster of galaxies,
and we believe that these galaxries were or are falling
into the Roger cluster of galaxies, and by falling in
I mean a very high speed, something like eight hundred
(08:54):
kilometers per second. But not only that, these dwarf galaxies
appear to be interact with each other as they fall
towards this cluster, and our understanding as this interaction has
raised this huge bridge of gas between above galaxies. So
you know, therefore the tightly coupled together, they've been orbiting
(09:15):
each other for some time, and this bridge of gas
is really a tide, what we call a tide, a
bit like the Earth's moon ocean tide, except that tide
has created a massive bridge that extends all the way
between the two galaxies, and that tide is made as
hydrogen gas, which is the main element that the inverse
consists of.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And we've seen similar effects closer to home the large
and small Madelanic clouds and how they interact with each other,
and also how they're both interacting with the Milky Way.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yes, of course, one of the nearest extroglectic neighbors is
the large and small Madrolonic clouds. It's not known if
they're actually in orbit around the Milky Way, so falling
in for the first time, but in both cases are
interacting strongly with each other and strongly with the Milky Way.
And in that case, so we're seeing a tidal interaction
between the galaxies, and we're seeing effect of gas being
(10:06):
stripped off both galaxies as the plummet into the halo
of the around Milky Way galaxy. And there's kind of
the same situation here where we have a couple of
dwarf galaxies interacting with each other very strongly, but also
plummeting in the much higher speed of course, to this
Virgo cluster of galatries. And you know what that tells
(10:28):
us is not only how strongly these galaxies are interacting
with each other, but also that the Virgo cluster, this
giant cluster of galaxies, has an even more giant halo
of hot guts around the cluster. And even though the
dwarf galaxy pairs some distance away from the Verga cluster,
can still detect the drag of the scacious halo as
(10:51):
the galaxies plummet into the cluster. And this halo that
the Virgo cluster has is only a couple of atoms
per cubic meter of space. So it's very very tenuous,
but don't the speed. It's enough to cause significant interaction effects.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
And that's causing the heating.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Yes, that tiny amount of gas combined with that huge
speed is enough to cause heating of the dwarf galaxy pair,
heating as the halo it around the Dwarf galaxy pair,
stripping of this hydrogen that's been raised by this tidal
interaction between them, and has created a very long tail
that one and a half million light years long that
(11:30):
extends behind the Dwarf galaxy pair as it plummets into
the Urga cluster. So it's this complex interaction of between
galaxies and between galaxies and clusters that's kind of typical
of the forces that happen in galaxies as they evolved
in the universe, and this particular system is just a
spectacular example of the complexity of that interaction. And being
(11:54):
able to use our new observations to understand it more
detail has been quite rewarding.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
And all this hot gas you see, this hot hydrogen
you're finding this is part of the missing mess in
the universe. I'm not talking about dark matter here, I'm
talking about missing baryonic matter that scientists have been looking
for for so long.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Yes, that's right. The universe, of course mainly consists of
ordinary matter. In the universe's ordinary atomic matter, mainly hydrogen
and helium. Of course, that missing ordinary matter must really
lives in diffuse guests, diffuse hot gas, diffuse ionized gas,
in integlectic base. It hasn't been able to collapse to
form galaxies at the stage. Some of it will in future,
(12:35):
much of it will stay in into galctic space. And
we've known about the existence of the guests theoretically for
some time, but it's only been in the last five
years or so where we've been able to detect it directly.
But it is that guess which is responsible for tearing
at the neutral guess that's been residing in these two
(12:55):
dwarf galaxies.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
That's Professor Listista Hillie Smith from the University of Western
Australia node of the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research.
And this is space time still to come. A new
study suggests volcanic eruptions may have delivered hidden ice to
the Martian Equator, and later in the science report, Moscow
successfully tests a new nuclear powered, nuclear armed cruise missile,
(13:20):
which could be a complete game changer for geoglobal politics.
All that and more still to come on space time.
(13:43):
A new study suggests explosive volcanic eruptions on ancient Mars
may have transported water ice to equatorial regions of the
Red planet. The findings, reported in the journal Nature Communications,
are based on new computer modeling. The authors suggest that
these eruptions could will have led to conditions that allow
these ice deposits to still exist under the Martian surface today.
(14:05):
The Red planets already known to have an ice rich surface,
but the majority of these ice deposits are expected to
be found towards the polar regions of the planet. However,
recent measurements in equatorial regions have detected elevated levels of
knee surface hydrogen, and that could indicate the presence of
bulk ice below the surface. Now, if this is all verified,
(14:27):
it raises the question of how this ice originated in
these unexpected areas, and one potential explanation now being explored
involves explosive volcanic eruptions using a planetary climate model. Syria
Hamedan colleagues tested this hypothesis by simulating explosive volcanic eruptions
that are known to have occurred on Mars between four
(14:48):
point one and three billion years ago. Their modeling show
that water vapor released during these eruptions could have frozen
in the cold Martian atmosphere, triggering ice precipitation and leading
to an accumulation of up to five meter thick ice
deposits on the Martian surface during a single three day
eruptive event, and if buried under dust or volcanic debris,
(15:10):
the ice could have persisted for long periods, and that
means it could still be present below the surface of
equatorial regions of Mars even today. The findings also suggest
that the release of sulfuric acid into the Martian atmosphere
during volcanically active periods may well have plunged the planet
into a global winter, in turn allowing for the accumulation
(15:31):
of ice for a sustained period. The conditions predicted by
these models in the event of multiple volcanic eruptions over
time could help explain that detection of elevated in neat
surface hydrogeny and equatorial regions of Mars, with implications for
human exploration of the Red planet. When people finally get
there in the next decade. This is spacetime and time
(16:09):
out to take a brief look at some of the
other stories making us in science this week. With a
science report, Moscow says it's successfully tested a new nuclear
powered cruise missile which could be a complete game changer
for geoglobal politics. The twelve meter long nine a seven
thirty bureauves nickel storm petrel is launched using a detachable
(16:30):
solid rocket booster in order to reach sufficient speed. Then
an onboard nuclear reactor takes over. It may power compressor first. Alternatively,
it may be heating the air directly as the air
is drawn through a forward facing intake nozzle before it's expanded.
Thanks to the heat of the nuclear reactor is allowed
to escape as high pressure thrust through a reamounted nozzle.
(16:51):
So basically this is a nuclear version of a ramjet.
The Kremlin says the unique weapon flew some fourteen thousand
kilometers during a fifteen hour test flight. The little intelligence
we have on the weapon tells us that the missile
will cruise at over three thousand kilometers an hour and
it can fly as low as fifty tow one hundred
meters above the ground that's low enough to avoid radar networks.
(17:13):
The revolutionary new weapon, which is known by the NATO
code named Skyfall, is designed to carry a thermonuclear warhead
of an as yet unknown yield. The Russian Chief of
the General Staff but Very Jiassimov says the missile is
invincible to all current defenses, with an almost unlimited range,
extended loiter time, and an unpredictable flight path, and Norway's
(17:35):
intelligence services confirmed that it did detect the test flight
of what appeared to be a new Russian low flying
cruise missile late last month. Russia's President Vladimir Putin first
announced the development of dismissile back in twenty eighteen. Years
of testing and several significant failures, including at least one
would saw the release of radiation, have delayed the project.
(17:56):
Now seven years later, The announcement of a successful test
flight comes as Russian forces continue to attack Ukraine, slowly
gaining ground as they grind through Kiev's defenses. The idea
of nuclear powered missiles has been around since the nineteen
fifties with the United States Project Pluto. However, its radioactive
exhaust plume made the weapon undesirable for Western Powers, and
(18:20):
the news from the Kremlin doesn't end there. Putins also
just confirmed that Russia has successfully tested the Poseidon doomsday
torpedo and nuclear powered underwater weapon, said to be even
more powerful than the samat ICBM. Poseidon is designed to
carry a two megaton thermo nuclear warhead, and it can
travel across ocean silently, hiding on the seabed until needed,
(18:43):
and then exploding, generating a five hundred meters high radioactive
tsunami capable of leveling coastal cities. In response to the
Kremlin's latest announcements, US President Donald Trump has announced that
the United States will resume nuclear weapons testing. The twenty
twenty five State of Climate Report has been released, revealing
(19:04):
that Earth is now hotter than at any point in
the past one hundred and twenty five thousand years, with
twenty two or thirty five vital signs now at critical levels.
The findings, reported in the journal Bioscience, show that despite
surpassing one point five degree celsius, warming, scientists stress that
urgent action could still prevent the worst outcomes. The report
(19:26):
outlines high impact solutions ranging from reforestation to clean energy
and education, all of which could help reduce projected emissions.
Paleontologists have identified a complete mature skeleton of a Nanotyrannus
or dwarf Tyrannosaurus, putting an end to a long running
dino debate. A few Nanotyrannus bones that had previously been
(19:49):
found were all thought to have come from juvenile Tyrannosaurus
rexes by A report in the journal Nature shows that
these letters findings solidifies Nanotyrannus as its own distinct species
of therapod dinosaur. The authors say Nanotyrannus weighed up to
ten times less than t rex that they coexisted with
their larger cousins at the end of the Cretaceous era.
(20:11):
Legacy media have unearthed an old study which claims still
found an apparent relationship between fasting, vegetarianism, and psychic abilities.
The study recruited one hundred and fifty four participants who
regularly fasted and eight hundred and four vegan and vegetarian participants.
The subjects were mostly women recruited through Facebook special interest groups,
(20:32):
with almost three quarters of them being college educated. The
studies authors claim that there was a significant correlation between
long periods of fasting and anomalous psychic experiences and abilities.
They also claimed to have found that vegans and vegetarians
do better with anomalous psychic abilities than carnivals omnivores, but
as timendum from Australian Skeptics points out, the study was
(20:54):
flawed from the very start.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
So study that's recently publicized a paper publisher of the
Journal of Psychology, which is a journal that tries to
investigate paranormal, parapsychological to psychic powers and that sort of stuff.
From a scientific perspective, there's a lot of criticism of
a lot of things in parapsychology. One is that it
starts off from assumptions that this is real. And that's
one of the issues with this study that they did
(21:17):
of a survey of fasting and vegetarians and the ability
to promote psychic ability. I'm not a vegetarian, so I
don't have psychic abilities. I'm carnival through and through. Obviously
that just qualifizes me. But this study has a few
issues that you can see instantly just from the summary
of it, without even going into the deep data base. One,
it starts off by assuming that psychic abilities are real,
(21:40):
so it doesn't say are they real. It just says, yes,
psychica ability is real. Now let's find out if fasting
and vegetarianism affects it. Well, that's of steel. Bad starts
because there's been no evidence to prove that these things
are real, no compulsive definity of evidence, despite the efforts
of people over the last oh getting close to one
hundred and fifty two hundred years of people trying to
figure this out. The survey were self nominated. They wasn't
(22:02):
a random survey. So someone comes to you and says,
I'm doing a survey on psyche abilities. Would you like
to put yourself forward for this study?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Any people who are going to agree to that are
people already believe in that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
That's exactly right, exactly right. So again, the study assumes
it's real. The people who are doing the survey not
only probably assume it's real, claimed to have the powers anyway.
There's no blinding to it, so the responders knew the
purpose of the test, and they could assume that their
food intake when they asked about it was relevant. Naturally,
they did not cover individual differences in psychic ability, seeming
there is a difference or all the people's ability to
(22:34):
stick to their diets either. I mean, this is all
self reporting. Didn't stand over them and say, you know,
have another carrot. They don't have that job, don't have
that stake, so it's just self reporting. They didn't ask
how psychic are you or are you really dain the diet?
And at the end the researchers admitted that other factors
might come into play. Wow, in other words, it's pretty poor.
(22:54):
So part of that that's great, you know, part of
the fact that the whole attitude is wrong. The survey
people are badly chosen, The process was poor, didn't actually
cover a lot of things, and there might be other
things involved. And of course, like all these surveys, they
end up with a rule that more would needs to
be done.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
And that's the only real proof of psychic ability is
your pet dog or cat when you have to take
them to the vet and they know.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
We have a pet dog who used to know which
is going to taken for a bar and he used
to go and hide under the house. Is to drag
him to track him out and be proa. We had
no indication what he was doing either though he was
just clever and pets are a lot cleverer.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Than dog that would eat anything out of the garbage.
But as soon as you put a tablet in his meat,
all of a sudden, he's Gordon Ramsey.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Very clever. I don't know how they do that. They're
gorgeous things, yes, but I mean that's the psychic ability,
or they just don't like doing things. But anyway, this
psychic survey vegetarianism and hit the buzzer and say, Matt,
try again, but you don't have some more money to
do it. Thank you very much, until you get to
your protocols. Correct.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
That's timendum from Austria Skeptics, and that's the show for now.
(24:18):
Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through bytes
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
(24:38):
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 weir,
access to our exclusive Facebook group, and other rewards. Just
go to space Time with Stuart Gary for full details.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Garry. This
has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com
Versus Spacetime Series twenty eight, episode one hundred and twenty
nine or broadcast on the third of November twenty twenty five.
Coming up on Spacetime, Interstellar Comet three eye Antlas passes
behind the Sun with no signs of any alien lifeforms,
two dwarf galaxies linked by a massive intergalactic bridge, and
could volcanic eruptions have delivered hidden ice to the marsh
(00:23):
and Equator. All that and more coming up on Spacetime.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Inter Stellar Comet three I Antlas has reached its perihelium,
marking its closest position to the Sun. Despite a lot
of ill informed media speculation, a close encounter didn't the
comet devi eight from its expected trajectory or its sixty
eight point three kilometers per second velocity. There was no
sudden maneuvering towards the Earth, no slowing down, and no
(01:11):
abrupt turns. It behaved exactly as it should have and
not that some have speculated like an alien spacecraft, So
unless Klingons or Cardashians make a sudden appearance, it should
pass safely by the Earth on December the nineteenth, marking
its closest approach at a distance of two hundred and
sixty eight million kilometers. Three I Atlas is only the
(01:34):
third known interstellar comet to visit our Solar System. There
undoubtedly have been many others, but we weren't able to
detect them until now. Meanwhile, a report in the Astrophysical
Journal Letters claims astronomers have detected ultraviolet signatures of water
emanating from the interstellar visitor the Sturdies. Authors use NASA's
(01:55):
Swift Space Telescope to undertake the first ever detection of
hydroxyl gas from this object, are commonly used chemical fingerprint
for water. The discovery is considered a major breakthrough for
understanding how the interstellar comet evolved. For millions, possibly billions
of years, this fragment of ice and dust has been
(02:15):
traveling between the stars. Because it's orbiting above its atmosphere,
the Swift Space telescope is able to capture wavelengths of
light that would be absorbed before they reach the Earth's
surface and therefore unseen by ground based observatories. In Solar
System comets, water is a yardstick by which astronomers measure
their overall activity and track how sunlight drives the release
(02:38):
of other gases. It's the chemical benchmark that anchors every
comparison of volatile ices in a comet's nucleus. Finding the
same signal in an interstellar object means that for the
first time, astronomers can begin to place three I Atlas
on the same scale they use to study native Solar
System comets, and that's considered a step towards coming chemistry
(03:01):
of planetary systems right across the galaxy. What makes three
Eye Atlas remarkable is where its water activity occurs. The
Swift telescope observations are detecting hydroxyls when the comet was
still three times further from the Sun than the Earth.
That's well beyond the region where water ice on a
comet's surface can easily suplement into space. Swift was able
(03:24):
to measure a water loss rate of about forty kilograms
per second. That's roughly the output of a fire hose
running at full blast. The thing is that those sort
of distances most Solar System comets are still quiet, so
the strong ultraviolet signal from Atlas suggests that something else
is at work, perhaps sunlights heating small icy grains released
(03:45):
from the nucleus, allowing them to vaporize and feed the
surrounding cloud of gas. Such extended sources of water have
only ever been seen in a handful of distant comets,
and they point to complex layered ices that preserve clues
about how these objects are fully formed. Each interstellar comet
discovered so far has revealed a different side of planetary
(04:06):
chemistry beyond our Sun. Together, they demonstrate that the building
blocks of comets and the volatile ices that shape them
can vary dramatically from one star system to the next,
and these differences hint at how diverse planet forming environments
can be and our processes like temperature, radiation, and composition
sculpt the materials that ultimately seed planets and potentially life.
(04:30):
One of the sturdies authors, Dennis Birdwitz from Auburn University,
says the detection of water or its faint ultraviolet echo
hydroxyls from this interstellar comet tells science that the ingredients
for life's chemistry are not unique to our solar system.
He says, every interstellar comet so far has been a surprise.
When I A mail Maur was dry, to IBORISEV was
(04:53):
rich in carbon monoxide, and now three Eye Atlas is
giving up water at a distance where astronomers didn't expl
so each is rewriting what astronomers thought they knew about
planets and comets, how they form around different stars. It's
a fascinating discovery. This is space time still to come.
(05:13):
Two dwarf galaxies linked by a massive intergalactic bridge, and
a new study suggests that violent volcanic eruptions may have
delivered head and ice to the marsh and Equator. All
that and more still to come on space time. Astronomers
(05:44):
have discovered a colossal bridge of neutral hydrogen gas linking
to distant dwarf galaxies. This immense structure spans an astonishing
one hundred and eighty five thousand light years between galaxies
NNGC forty five, thirty two and one thirty seven, which
are riach located around fifty three million light years away.
(06:05):
The findings, reported in the Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society, also revealed a vast tale of gas accompanying
the bridge, extending one point six million light years and
making it the longest ever observed. The studies lead author
mister Steverly Smith, from the University of Western Australia, node
of the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research, says the
(06:26):
discovery marks a significant step forward in understanding how galaxies interact.
He says the modeling shows that the tidal forces acting
between these galaxies, alongside their proximity to the massive Virgo cluster,
is a crucial role in the gas dynamics observed. As
the two galaxies orbit around each other, moved towards the
(06:47):
hot gas cloud surrounding the Virgo Cluster, which is some
two hundred times hotter than the surface of the Sun,
they experience ram pressure, which trips and hates the gas
from the galaxies. Steverly Smith says the density of electors
and the speed at which the galaxies are falling into
the hot gas cloud are enough to explain why so
much gas has been pulled away from the galaxies and
(07:07):
into the bridge surrounding areas. The observations were part of Wallaby,
the wide Field Australian square kilometer ray Pathfinder l band
Legacy All Sky Survey. This large scale project maps the
sky and studies the distribution of hydrogen gas in galaxies.
Steverly Smith and colleagues detected the colossal gas formations by
(07:29):
using high resolution observations of neutral hydrogen. Neutral hydrogen plays
a crucial role in the formation of stars, making this
finding fundamental to understanding how galaxies interact and evolve, especially
in dense environments. Steverlli Smith says the system has strong
similarities with our own Milky Way galaxy and two of
its satellite galaxies, the large and small Machileni clouds. He
(07:53):
says understanding these gas bridges and their dynamics provides crucial
insights into how galaxies evolve over time. Our galactic gas
is redistributed in the cosmos and the varying conditions under
which galaxies may or may not stars.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
We've found a couple of very interesting dwarf galaxies, very
normal looking dwarf galaxries in optical images. What we've found
recently was a large bridge of guests which extended between them.
And we saw this bridge using some new observations that
we made with the ASCAP the Australia Pathfinder telescope.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
What's that telling you about the relationship between these two galaxies.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
So these two galaxies are both known to be in
the vicinity of what we call the Burger cluster of galaxies,
and we believe that these galaxries were or are falling
into the Roger cluster of galaxies, and by falling in
I mean a very high speed, something like eight hundred
(08:54):
kilometers per second. But not only that, these dwarf galaxies
appear to be interact with each other as they fall
towards this cluster, and our understanding as this interaction has
raised this huge bridge of gas between above galaxies. So
you know, therefore the tightly coupled together, they've been orbiting
(09:15):
each other for some time, and this bridge of gas
is really a tide, what we call a tide, a
bit like the Earth's moon ocean tide, except that tide
has created a massive bridge that extends all the way
between the two galaxies, and that tide is made as
hydrogen gas, which is the main element that the inverse
consists of.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And we've seen similar effects closer to home the large
and small Madelanic clouds and how they interact with each other,
and also how they're both interacting with the Milky Way.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yes, of course, one of the nearest extroglectic neighbors is
the large and small Madrolonic clouds. It's not known if
they're actually in orbit around the Milky Way, so falling
in for the first time, but in both cases are
interacting strongly with each other and strongly with the Milky Way.
And in that case, so we're seeing a tidal interaction
between the galaxies, and we're seeing effect of gas being
(10:06):
stripped off both galaxies as the plummet into the halo
of the around Milky Way galaxy. And there's kind of
the same situation here where we have a couple of
dwarf galaxies interacting with each other very strongly, but also
plummeting in the much higher speed of course, to this
Virgo cluster of galatries. And you know what that tells
(10:28):
us is not only how strongly these galaxies are interacting
with each other, but also that the Virgo cluster, this
giant cluster of galaxies, has an even more giant halo
of hot guts around the cluster. And even though the
dwarf galaxy pairs some distance away from the Verga cluster,
can still detect the drag of the scacious halo as
(10:51):
the galaxies plummet into the cluster. And this halo that
the Virgo cluster has is only a couple of atoms
per cubic meter of space. So it's very very tenuous,
but don't the speed. It's enough to cause significant interaction effects.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
And that's causing the heating.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Yes, that tiny amount of gas combined with that huge
speed is enough to cause heating of the dwarf galaxy pair,
heating as the halo it around the Dwarf galaxy pair,
stripping of this hydrogen that's been raised by this tidal
interaction between them, and has created a very long tail
that one and a half million light years long that
(11:30):
extends behind the Dwarf galaxy pair as it plummets into
the Urga cluster. So it's this complex interaction of between
galaxies and between galaxies and clusters that's kind of typical
of the forces that happen in galaxies as they evolved
in the universe, and this particular system is just a
spectacular example of the complexity of that interaction. And being
(11:54):
able to use our new observations to understand it more
detail has been quite rewarding.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
And all this hot gas you see, this hot hydrogen
you're finding this is part of the missing mess in
the universe. I'm not talking about dark matter here, I'm
talking about missing baryonic matter that scientists have been looking
for for so long.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Yes, that's right. The universe, of course mainly consists of
ordinary matter. In the universe's ordinary atomic matter, mainly hydrogen
and helium. Of course, that missing ordinary matter must really
lives in diffuse guests, diffuse hot gas, diffuse ionized gas,
in integlectic base. It hasn't been able to collapse to
form galaxies at the stage. Some of it will in future,
(12:35):
much of it will stay in into galctic space. And
we've known about the existence of the guests theoretically for
some time, but it's only been in the last five
years or so where we've been able to detect it directly.
But it is that guess which is responsible for tearing
at the neutral guess that's been residing in these two
(12:55):
dwarf galaxies.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
That's Professor Listista Hillie Smith from the University of Western
Australia node of the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research.
And this is space time still to come. A new
study suggests volcanic eruptions may have delivered hidden ice to
the Martian Equator, and later in the science report, Moscow
successfully tests a new nuclear powered, nuclear armed cruise missile,
(13:20):
which could be a complete game changer for geoglobal politics.
All that and more still to come on space time.
(13:43):
A new study suggests explosive volcanic eruptions on ancient Mars
may have transported water ice to equatorial regions of the
Red planet. The findings, reported in the journal Nature Communications,
are based on new computer modeling. The authors suggest that
these eruptions could will have led to conditions that allow
these ice deposits to still exist under the Martian surface today.
(14:05):
The Red planets already known to have an ice rich surface,
but the majority of these ice deposits are expected to
be found towards the polar regions of the planet. However,
recent measurements in equatorial regions have detected elevated levels of
knee surface hydrogen, and that could indicate the presence of
bulk ice below the surface. Now, if this is all verified,
(14:27):
it raises the question of how this ice originated in
these unexpected areas, and one potential explanation now being explored
involves explosive volcanic eruptions using a planetary climate model. Syria
Hamedan colleagues tested this hypothesis by simulating explosive volcanic eruptions
that are known to have occurred on Mars between four
(14:48):
point one and three billion years ago. Their modeling show
that water vapor released during these eruptions could have frozen
in the cold Martian atmosphere, triggering ice precipitation and leading
to an accumulation of up to five meter thick ice
deposits on the Martian surface during a single three day
eruptive event, and if buried under dust or volcanic debris,
(15:10):
the ice could have persisted for long periods, and that
means it could still be present below the surface of
equatorial regions of Mars even today. The findings also suggest
that the release of sulfuric acid into the Martian atmosphere
during volcanically active periods may well have plunged the planet
into a global winter, in turn allowing for the accumulation
(15:31):
of ice for a sustained period. The conditions predicted by
these models in the event of multiple volcanic eruptions over
time could help explain that detection of elevated in neat
surface hydrogeny and equatorial regions of Mars, with implications for
human exploration of the Red planet. When people finally get
there in the next decade. This is spacetime and time
(16:09):
out to take a brief look at some of the
other stories making us in science this week. With a
science report, Moscow says it's successfully tested a new nuclear
powered cruise missile which could be a complete game changer
for geoglobal politics. The twelve meter long nine a seven
thirty bureauves nickel storm petrel is launched using a detachable
(16:30):
solid rocket booster in order to reach sufficient speed. Then
an onboard nuclear reactor takes over. It may power compressor first. Alternatively,
it may be heating the air directly as the air
is drawn through a forward facing intake nozzle before it's expanded.
Thanks to the heat of the nuclear reactor is allowed
to escape as high pressure thrust through a reamounted nozzle.
(16:51):
So basically this is a nuclear version of a ramjet.
The Kremlin says the unique weapon flew some fourteen thousand
kilometers during a fifteen hour test flight. The little intelligence
we have on the weapon tells us that the missile
will cruise at over three thousand kilometers an hour and
it can fly as low as fifty tow one hundred
meters above the ground that's low enough to avoid radar networks.
(17:13):
The revolutionary new weapon, which is known by the NATO
code named Skyfall, is designed to carry a thermonuclear warhead
of an as yet unknown yield. The Russian Chief of
the General Staff but Very Jiassimov says the missile is
invincible to all current defenses, with an almost unlimited range,
extended loiter time, and an unpredictable flight path, and Norway's
(17:35):
intelligence services confirmed that it did detect the test flight
of what appeared to be a new Russian low flying
cruise missile late last month. Russia's President Vladimir Putin first
announced the development of dismissile back in twenty eighteen. Years
of testing and several significant failures, including at least one
would saw the release of radiation, have delayed the project.
(17:56):
Now seven years later, The announcement of a successful test
flight comes as Russian forces continue to attack Ukraine, slowly
gaining ground as they grind through Kiev's defenses. The idea
of nuclear powered missiles has been around since the nineteen
fifties with the United States Project Pluto. However, its radioactive
exhaust plume made the weapon undesirable for Western Powers, and
(18:20):
the news from the Kremlin doesn't end there. Putins also
just confirmed that Russia has successfully tested the Poseidon doomsday
torpedo and nuclear powered underwater weapon, said to be even
more powerful than the samat ICBM. Poseidon is designed to
carry a two megaton thermo nuclear warhead, and it can
travel across ocean silently, hiding on the seabed until needed,
(18:43):
and then exploding, generating a five hundred meters high radioactive
tsunami capable of leveling coastal cities. In response to the
Kremlin's latest announcements, US President Donald Trump has announced that
the United States will resume nuclear weapons testing. The twenty
twenty five State of Climate Report has been released, revealing
(19:04):
that Earth is now hotter than at any point in
the past one hundred and twenty five thousand years, with
twenty two or thirty five vital signs now at critical levels.
The findings, reported in the journal Bioscience, show that despite
surpassing one point five degree celsius, warming, scientists stress that
urgent action could still prevent the worst outcomes. The report
(19:26):
outlines high impact solutions ranging from reforestation to clean energy
and education, all of which could help reduce projected emissions.
Paleontologists have identified a complete mature skeleton of a Nanotyrannus
or dwarf Tyrannosaurus, putting an end to a long running
dino debate. A few Nanotyrannus bones that had previously been
(19:49):
found were all thought to have come from juvenile Tyrannosaurus
rexes by A report in the journal Nature shows that
these letters findings solidifies Nanotyrannus as its own distinct species
of therapod dinosaur. The authors say Nanotyrannus weighed up to
ten times less than t rex that they coexisted with
their larger cousins at the end of the Cretaceous era.
(20:11):
Legacy media have unearthed an old study which claims still
found an apparent relationship between fasting, vegetarianism, and psychic abilities.
The study recruited one hundred and fifty four participants who
regularly fasted and eight hundred and four vegan and vegetarian participants.
The subjects were mostly women recruited through Facebook special interest groups,
(20:32):
with almost three quarters of them being college educated. The
studies authors claim that there was a significant correlation between
long periods of fasting and anomalous psychic experiences and abilities.
They also claimed to have found that vegans and vegetarians
do better with anomalous psychic abilities than carnivals omnivores, but
as timendum from Australian Skeptics points out, the study was
(20:54):
flawed from the very start.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
So study that's recently publicized a paper publisher of the
Journal of Psychology, which is a journal that tries to
investigate paranormal, parapsychological to psychic powers and that sort of stuff.
From a scientific perspective, there's a lot of criticism of
a lot of things in parapsychology. One is that it
starts off from assumptions that this is real. And that's
one of the issues with this study that they did
(21:17):
of a survey of fasting and vegetarians and the ability
to promote psychic ability. I'm not a vegetarian, so I
don't have psychic abilities. I'm carnival through and through. Obviously
that just qualifizes me. But this study has a few
issues that you can see instantly just from the summary
of it, without even going into the deep data base. One,
it starts off by assuming that psychic abilities are real,
(21:40):
so it doesn't say are they real. It just says, yes,
psychica ability is real. Now let's find out if fasting
and vegetarianism affects it. Well, that's of steel. Bad starts
because there's been no evidence to prove that these things
are real, no compulsive definity of evidence, despite the efforts
of people over the last oh getting close to one
hundred and fifty two hundred years of people trying to
figure this out. The survey were self nominated. They wasn't
(22:02):
a random survey. So someone comes to you and says,
I'm doing a survey on psyche abilities. Would you like
to put yourself forward for this study?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Any people who are going to agree to that are
people already believe in that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
That's exactly right, exactly right. So again, the study assumes
it's real. The people who are doing the survey not
only probably assume it's real, claimed to have the powers anyway.
There's no blinding to it, so the responders knew the
purpose of the test, and they could assume that their
food intake when they asked about it was relevant. Naturally,
they did not cover individual differences in psychic ability, seeming
there is a difference or all the people's ability to
(22:34):
stick to their diets either. I mean, this is all
self reporting. Didn't stand over them and say, you know,
have another carrot. They don't have that job, don't have
that stake, so it's just self reporting. They didn't ask
how psychic are you or are you really dain the diet?
And at the end the researchers admitted that other factors
might come into play. Wow, in other words, it's pretty poor.
(22:54):
So part of that that's great, you know, part of
the fact that the whole attitude is wrong. The survey
people are badly chosen, The process was poor, didn't actually
cover a lot of things, and there might be other
things involved. And of course, like all these surveys, they
end up with a rule that more would needs to
be done.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
And that's the only real proof of psychic ability is
your pet dog or cat when you have to take
them to the vet and they know.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
We have a pet dog who used to know which
is going to taken for a bar and he used
to go and hide under the house. Is to drag
him to track him out and be proa. We had
no indication what he was doing either though he was
just clever and pets are a lot cleverer.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Than dog that would eat anything out of the garbage.
But as soon as you put a tablet in his meat,
all of a sudden, he's Gordon Ramsey.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Very clever. I don't know how they do that. They're
gorgeous things, yes, but I mean that's the psychic ability,
or they just don't like doing things. But anyway, this
psychic survey vegetarianism and hit the buzzer and say, Matt,
try again, but you don't have some more money to
do it. Thank you very much, until you get to
your protocols. Correct.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
That's timendum from Austria Skeptics, and that's the show for now.
(24:18):
Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through bytes
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
(24:38):
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 weir,
access to our exclusive Facebook group, and other rewards. Just
go to space Time with Stuart Gary for full details.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
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.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com