October 1, 2025 • 24 mins
(00:00:00) Stardust from Beyond: Unveiling the Secrets of Asteroid Bennu and Saturn's Mysteries
(00:00:47) Scientists have discovered minerals older than our solar system embedded in asteroid Bennu
(00:10:22) Scientists using NASA's Webb telescope have uncovered mysterious features in Saturn's atmosphere
(00:14:58) NASA's Parker Solar Probe completes 25th close approach to the sun
(00:17:27) The Science Report
In this episode of Space Time, we uncover groundbreaking discoveries that challenge our understanding of the cosmos. Join Stuart Gary as he discusses the astonishing findings from the asteroid Bennu, revealing minerals older than our solar system itself. Delve into the unexpected features observed in Saturn's atmosphere and learn about the Parker Solar Probe's close flyby of the Sun. This episode is packed with insights that could reshape our knowledge of planetary formation and cosmic history.
Chapters:
(00:00) This is space time series 28 episode 117 for broadcast on 29 September 2025
(00:47) Scientists have discovered minerals older than our solar system embedded in asteroid Bennu
(10:13) Scientists using NASA's Webb telescope have uncovered mysterious features in Saturn's atmosphere
(14:59) NASA's Parker Solar Probe completes 25th close approach to the sun
(17:41) A widely reported study on apple cider vinegar and weight loss has been retracted
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
(00:00:47) Scientists have discovered minerals older than our solar system embedded in asteroid Bennu
(00:10:22) Scientists using NASA's Webb telescope have uncovered mysterious features in Saturn's atmosphere
(00:14:58) NASA's Parker Solar Probe completes 25th close approach to the sun
(00:17:27) The Science Report
In this episode of Space Time, we uncover groundbreaking discoveries that challenge our understanding of the cosmos. Join Stuart Gary as he discusses the astonishing findings from the asteroid Bennu, revealing minerals older than our solar system itself. Delve into the unexpected features observed in Saturn's atmosphere and learn about the Parker Solar Probe's close flyby of the Sun. This episode is packed with insights that could reshape our knowledge of planetary formation and cosmic history.
Chapters:
(00:00) This is space time series 28 episode 117 for broadcast on 29 September 2025
(00:47) Scientists have discovered minerals older than our solar system embedded in asteroid Bennu
(10:13) Scientists using NASA's Webb telescope have uncovered mysterious features in Saturn's atmosphere
(14:59) NASA's Parker Solar Probe completes 25th close approach to the sun
(17:41) A widely reported study on apple cider vinegar and weight loss has been retracted
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-your-guide-to-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
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 seventeen,
well broadcast on the twenty ninth of September twenty twenty five.
Coming up on Spacetime, Stardust older than the Solar System
found in the asteroid Banu, strange and mysterious features discovered
in Saturin's atmosphere, and the Parker Solar Probe undertakes a
(00:21):
close flyby of the Sun. All that and more coming
up on space.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Time Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Scientists have discovered minerals older than our Solar System embedded
in the asteroid Banu. The findings, reported in the journal's
Nature Astronomy and Nature Geoscience, could or explain how planets
like the Earth first formed. The new research provides the
most comprehensive analysis yet of samples from NASAs a Cyrus
rex mission, which returned more than one hundred and twenty
(01:09):
grams of pristine asteroid material from Banu to Earth in
twenty twenty three. One of the studies authors, Nick Times
from Curtain University, says the finding show the asteroid Banu
is composed of ancient cosmic material, including stardust, which is
older than the Solar System itself. The analysis indicates that
(01:29):
the four hundred ninety meters white asteroid's parent body was
built from a rich varied mix of organic compounds, icy materials, silicates,
and grains from ancient stars preserved in near perfect conditions
for more than four and a half billion years. Tim
says some of these materials formed in other stars long
before the Solar System existed, others formed in the uter
(01:53):
Solar System, and still others were condensed close to the
Sun before being carried outwards. This means that asteroid Banu's
parent body must have been formed from dust from distinct
regions of the Solar System, or at least the protoplanetary disk,
which eventually would form our Solar System, and then likely
traveled from an orbit beyond Jupiter towards the inner Solar
(02:14):
System and the main asteroid built. Sometime later, the parent
body was destroid and some parts were reassembled into Banu,
a rubble pile asteroid which eventually drifted into its current
near Earth orbit. Tim says Banu helps astronomers understand how
planets form and how key ingredients such as water and
organic matter may have reached the Earth.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Some of the work involved looking at the small components
that make up asteroid Benu, and it's basically quite a
buffet of all sorts of different particles from early in
the Solar System, and even some tiny particles that formed
before our Solar system formed as well, which tells us
about whereabouts in the Solar System the parent body for
(02:57):
asteroid Benu was formed. And also we've been finding out
a lot about the conditions on the parent body for
the asteroid as well, and how water was very instrumental
in changing some of the components of the asteroid and
altering things. Conditions roughly around room temperature on the parent
body for asteroid BNU were very very early on in
(03:18):
the Solar System, long before it was smashed up and
reassembled into a big rubble pile asteroid BNU is today.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
So what can you tell us about the environment Banu
was formed in.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Well, the asteroid was, or the parent to the asteroid
at least, was kind of amalgamated or accreted from dust
particles and ice particles from different parts of the Solar
System very soon after the Sun formed, and before really
the planets got to form into the planets that we
know today. We think there were lots more proto planets
(03:50):
or baby planets which started to creep from the dust
in the solar disc in the early Solar System, and
some of those survived and accumulated today to what we
know as the planets, and some of them didn't. And
the parent body for asteroid Benu is one of the
early ones that didn't survive. But we find out some
of the components were formed in the inner Solar System
(04:11):
and some of the parts of Benu, the parent body,
were creted in the outer Solar System. So there's lots
of movement and mixing, migration of material in the early
Solar System to make up what we now see as
asteroid Benu.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
So how did you determine that? Was it simply that
you looked at the composition of the water itself to
see how much deuterium there was in it? Or how
is that done?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So what we can do is look at the well
there are two things, really, two main ways of studying
the asteroid material. One is to make measurements of larger
pieces of it than look at the bulk geochemistry of
those fragments, so it sort of amalgamates everything together together,
sort of a bulk view of what the average of
everything is in all of the bits inside the asteroid material.
(04:58):
And the other approach really is to look at the
individual grains and individual crystals and fragments and particles within
the asteroid material and try to fingerprint where they're from
using a combination of geochemistry and isotope geochemistry. And it's
the combination of those things that have helped sort of
identify all of these different weak components. For example, the
(05:20):
asteroid contains just a few percent of types of minerals
which have escaped hydrothermal alteration of some of the original bits,
if you like, some of the original fragments and hydroscilicates,
a group of minerals which include things like olivine, which
you might know is peridote which people pull on jewelry,
and a group of minerals called peroxides. Now we could
(05:42):
analyze those crystals individually and measure their oxygen isotope values,
so the proportions of different isotopes of oxygen, so oxygen
sixteen and oxygen seventeen, oxygen eighteen, and that allows us
to interpret what their sources were, and some of them
was really really primitive material primordial material formed right after
(06:04):
the formation of the Sun, some of the earliest solids
to form in the Solar System, and some of those
minerals were have actually been processed that being remelted again
and are fragments of what we call chondrils which have
been subject to sort of flash heating events in the
oly Solar System as well. So that's just an example
of how we can fingerprint some of the origins of
(06:25):
some of the minerals in asteroid Benet.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Some of your colleagues are also able to find material
in there that was from beyond our Solar system, brains
from status from interstellar origins.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Yeah, that's exactly right. So a small team couple of
groups around the world are able to look at the
composition of really really small particles that are very rare.
They only exist, you know, a few tens of parts
per million in the asteroid, which is very low abundance,
but they're very conspicuous because they have extremely different isotope
(06:57):
ratios in several different types of isotopes including nitrogen and
oxygen and so on and so forth, that really indicate
that they can't have formed our from the environment of
our Sun, and they have to have formed in different
star systems, so they were into Solar system or galactic
dust that was around at the time of the formation
(07:18):
of the Solar System, and then they got accreted or
basically absorbed into these protoplanetary bodies. They got mopped up
as well, and some of them have survived the alteration,
so we can analyze those and see back to what
kind of star systems that they were formed in. It
just gives us some indication of what sort of cosmic
dust was around right at the beginning of our Solar System,
(07:38):
in the environment that our Sun formed in.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
And one of the other surprising finds was that the
new was sibling to Ryugu, the other recent asteroid visited
by spacecraft for sample return.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, that's right. So the Japanese Space Agency JACKSA also
returned sample from an asteroid before we had samples from
the asteroid Benu. The asteroid they returned samples from was
called Royugu, and both of the two asteroids are very
very similar in all of the types of particles that
make them up and their isotopic and geochemical compositions, and
(08:13):
so in a sense, they're almost like sibling asteroids that
have happened to have come in from the asteroid belt
to near Earth orbits and have had very very similar
histories and probably formed in very very similar regions of
the Solar System originally. And both asteroids were chosen by
the different space agencies because they were very carbon rich
(08:34):
and we wanted to sample some carbon rich asteroids to
look at the organics in both of those, and it
turns out that they are very similar, which is quite phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Really.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I remember when the Asaris REX mission landed on Bernud,
who gained samples that discovered just how fluffy and little
density had had.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah, so when Osaris REX touched down on asteroid Benu,
after it was sort of hung around in orbit with
it for the best part of two years, and they
were taken incredibly detailed images of the asteroid so they
can map it in detail, figure out a really good
place to touch down, grab a sample, and jet back
off again. But nobody, guys, don't think anybody was expecting
(09:12):
how soft the asteroid was. I've heard my colleagues described
that touchdown it was almost like the probe sinking into
a bowl of popcorn. It was, you know, that soft,
and they had to initiate thrusters actually to get the
probe back out again before Astroid, before this spacecraft jetted
back to Earth. So it was a really kind of exciting,
(09:33):
intense moment and all of it captured with amazing video
footage as well from the spacecraft that was relaid back
to Earth, and it's really quite it's quite incredible. It
was really good to see when we were part of
the mission and that happened live as well. It was
really really exciting times.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
That's assourc you Professor Nicktims from Curtain University. And this
is space Time still the calm, strange and mysterious features
discovered in Saturn's atmosphere and NASA's Parker Solar Probe undertakes
a close flyby of the Sun. All that and more
still to come on space Time. New observations from the
(10:27):
web Space Telescope have uncovered mysterious, never before seen features
in Saturn's atmosphere. The strange, complex structures of beads in
the starlike pattern are unlike anything ever seen before on
another planet. The findings were presented at the euro Planet
Science Congress Division of Planetary Sciences conference in Helsinki, Finland.
(10:48):
One of the studies authors, Tom Stellard, from the Thumbria University,
says the findings came as a complete surprise. Stellard says
astronomers expected to see emissions in broad bands at various
at the spheric levels, but instead the observation showed these
fine scale patterns of beads and a star that, despite
being separated by huge distances in altitude, may somehow be
(11:11):
interconnected and may even be linked to Satin's famous north
pole hexagon. He says these features were completely unexpected and
at present are impossible to explain. The patterns were discovered
during a continuous ten hour observation period using web back
in November last year. The authors were focused on detecting
emissions by a positively charged molecular form of hydrogen, which
(11:34):
plays a key role in reactions in satins atmosphere and
so can provide valuable insights into the chemical and physical
processes at work. Webs near infrared spectrograph allowed the authors
to simultaneously observe hydrogen ions in the ionosphere eleven hundred
kilometers above Satin's cloud tops and methane molecules in the
underlying stratosphere at an altitude of around six hundred kilometers.
(11:58):
In the electrically charged plasma of the ionosphere, the authors
observed a series of dark beadlike features embedded in bright
auroral halos. These structures remained stable for hours, but they
appeared to drift slowly over longer periods, and around five
hundred kilometers lower down in Satin's stratosphere, the authors observed
a strange asymmetric star shaped feature. This unusual structure extended
(12:23):
out from Saturn's north pole towards the equator, but only
four of the stars six arms were visible, with two
mysteriously missing in the process, creating what appears to be
a lopsided pattern. Saturn's upper atmosphere has proven to be
incredibly difficult to study with missions and telescopes to date
due to the extremely weak emissions from this region, but
(12:44):
web sensitivity has revolutionized science's ability to observe these atmospheric layers,
in the process, revealing structures completely unlike anything ever seen before.
The authors mapped the exact locations of these features, finding
that they overlaid the same region of Saturn at different levels,
with the star's arms appearing to emanate from positions directly
(13:05):
above the points of the storm cloud level polar hexagon.
This all suggests that the processes that are driving the
patterns may influence a column stretching right through Satin's atmosphere.
Stellard thinks that the dark beads may result from complex
interactions between Saturn's magnetosphere and its rotating atmosphere, potentially providing
(13:25):
new insights into the energy exchange which drives Saturn's aurora.
The asymmetric star pattern suggests previously unknown atmospheric processes operating
in Satin's stratosphere, possibly linked to the hexagonal storm pattern
observed deeper in the atmosphere. Chantalizingly, the darkest speeds in
the ionosphere appear to line up with the strongest starrem
(13:46):
in the stratosphere, but it's not clear at this point
whether they are actually linked or whether it's just a coincidence. Well,
both features could have significant implications for understanding atmospheric dynamics
on gas giants. More work is needed provide explanations for
the underlying causes, so the authors are now looking for
additional time on web for follow up observations in order
(14:09):
to further explore these mysterious features and with Satin currently
at its equinox, which only occurs once every fifteen Earth years.
The structures may well change dramatically as Satin's orientation to
the Sun shifts and the northern hemisphere moves into autumn.
This space time still to come NASAs Parker's solo probe
(14:30):
undertakes a close flyby of the Sun, and later in
the science report, a new study is confirmed that people
who remain virgins into adulthood tend to be less happy.
All that and more still to come on space time,
(15:00):
Parker's Solar Probe has just completed its twenty fifth close
approach to the Sun. This latticed encounter matched the spacecraft's
previous record distance of six point two million kilometers above
the solar surface. The probe checked in with mission managers
at JOHNS. Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, two
days after the close approach using a series of coated
(15:20):
beacon urns, indicating that its systems were all operating nominally.
Parker was out of contact with the Earth and operating
autonomously during the close flyby. A more detailed download of
data will take place when the spacecraft moves further away
from the Sun out to an area where the star's
intense ionized plasma radiation atmosphere will have less of an
(15:41):
effect on communications. During the flyby, Parker also equaled its
record setting speed of six hundred and eighty seven thousand
kilometers per hour, a mark that, like the distance record,
was set and subsequently matched during close approaches on December
the twenty fourth last year, and on March the twenty
second and June the nineteenth. Parker will now remain in
(16:02):
this orbit around the Sun and continue making observations during
these solar encounters, Parker's four scientific instrument packages are gathering
unique observations from inside the Sun's atmosphere, the corona. The
flyby allows the spacecraft to conduct unrival with measurements of
solar activity as the Sun goes through Solar max, the
(16:24):
peak of its eleven year solar cycle. The data being
gathered includes observations of the solar wind, solar flares, and
coronal mass ejections, which are all critical help astronomers better
understand geomagnetic storms. These drive high energy space where the
events which can increase radiation exposure for crew in orbit,
(16:45):
on deep space missions and even people in high altitude aircraft.
Events can also damage or destroy spacecraft, or at least
shorten the life spans of satellites by causing Earth's atmosphere
to expand, thereby increasing atmospheric drag, resulting in orbital dega
and forcing spacecraft to use more fuel in order to
maintain their correct operational orbits. Solar storms also interrupt navigation
(17:08):
and communication networks here on Earth, and they can trigger
power grid overloads, which can cause terrestrial electricity blackouts affecting
wide areas on the ground. This is Space Time and
(17:36):
time that to take a brief look at some of
the other stories making using science this week with the
Science Report. Well, in case you haven't worked it out yet,
a new study has confirmed that people who remain virgins
in the adulthood are on average more nervous, more lonely,
and more unhappy. But the good news is they're also
likely to be more educated and less likely to use
(17:57):
alcohol or drugs. Findings reported in the journal PNAS analyzed
the traits of some four hundred thousand British virgins between
the ages of thirty nine and seventy three, as well
as some thirteen thousan five hundred Australian virgins aged eighteen
to eighty nine in order to look for similarities among
those who go well into adulthood without ever having had sex.
(18:19):
The authors found common genetic variants explained about seventeen percent
of variation in sexlessness in men and fourteen percent in women,
Although they stress there is no virgin gene. Links between
genetics and behavior are too complex for that, but they
did find that physical traits appeared to be far more
strongly linked to virginity in men. Men were also more
(18:40):
likely to be virgins if they lived in areas with
fewer women. A widely reported study on apple side of
vinegar and weight loss has now been retracted. A retracted
research reported in the British Medical Journal suggested that a
small amount of apple side of vinegar every day may
help overweight or obeste people lose weight and reduced their
(19:01):
body mass index. The small clinical troll received widespread international
attention when it was first published, and it continues to
be referenced by the media today. The retraction comes after
concerns were raised by critics of the study, which was
then referred to statistical experts to evaluate its reliability. Not
only were the statisticians unable to replicate the results, but
(19:22):
moudible analytical errors were also found. The British Medical Journal
also notes that there were irregularities in the data set
and the report. The authors say the errors were honesome
stakes and they've agreed with the decision to retract the study.
Scientists have confirmed a new species of theropod dinosaur. They're
(19:42):
the ones that look like t Rex harquein Raptica. Sally
was seven meters long and weighed over one thousand kilograms.
The fossil was found at a dig site in South
America with a crocodile leg burn in its jaws, suggesting
it may well have been a top predator when it
was roaming the land and in this case, the shoreline,
some seventy million years ago. A report in the journal
(20:05):
Nature Communications claims the new species is part of a
family of dinosaurs with powerful arms and large claws which
once lived across South America, Asia and Australia. An investigative
reporter with The New York Post has destroyed the credibility
of several paranormal true believers inside the US government. Tim
(20:25):
Mendhem from Australian Skeptics says cutting tackedoun exposed several rogue
military officials and a few Washington politicians. Some of them
even believed they were being haunted by UFOs, ghosts and
monsters from skin Walker Ranch.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
It was quite a good video that came out recently
and actually on New York posters a pilla there who
does a lot of investigations of the paranormal, and he's
very good. He does investigate properly. He looks at the
evidence and goes to places to see what happens. Anyway,
he was someone who is investigating in this recent video
UFOs and certain claims by UFOs that have had a
high profile lately, and also UFOs which often appear at
(21:02):
a place called skin Walker Rant in the US. Now,
the UFA claims, first of all, a number of people
peering before Congress putting their hand up and swearing this
is true, that they were told by someone the brother
in law of someone else, that the America and the
governments are covering up UFOs and that they're holding craft
and listen, the news are going to come out there
any day now, which is something they've been saying for
seventy years, literally seventy years that for any day. Now
(21:25):
the evidence, the convincing evidence is going to come out.
It hasn't. There is nothing substantial in what they've said
at all, no evidence, nothing, any move into the skin
Walker Ranch, which is this place in America which was
supposedly a center for UFO activity. Not to mention ghosts
and all kinds of monsters and various things in.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
A place in Native American folklore, don't they.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Yes, it's nice of them to appropriate that term and
apply to a place which therefore gives it the infomata
that it's sort of an ancient heritage. Strange things going on.
Skin Walkers were supposed to be someone who could take
on the form of an animal and therefore move unnoticed.
So they named this rant skinwalker Ranch. But it is
this place supposedly full of all sorts of paranormal encounters.
It's got TV shows they run, They've got a lot
(22:06):
of publicity guys running and obviously making a few bucks
out of it.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
And isn't it They keep searching for these mythical creatures
and they never quite get there in time.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
They just missed it. It was here yesterday, Yes, But
I mean, this is the thinking about this skin Walker ranches.
Has had a lot of followers, high profile followers, and
people who you would hope wouldn't know better, including a
lot of American politicians, some of who went to skin
Walker Ranch and then claimed that they were attacked by
a ghost or something which then followed them back to
where they came from Skinwalkers in the Midwest somewhere, and
(22:38):
these ghosts followed them back to the East Coast and
are still holding them and annoying them. And you think
these are people making policy decisions about the most important
things in America.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I'll let you in a little secret. Politicians really aren't
that bright. Believe me. I know, I met a lot
of them.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
They're as easily fooled as anybody else. And there's still
no evidence of these things being there, of attacking people.
It's all gossip, rumor, publicity, you name it. None of
these things have ever shown any good evidence for them,
but that's never stopped them being popular.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
That's timendum from Australian Skeptics, and that's the show for now.
(23:26):
Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher,
Google podcast Pocker Casts, Spotify, Acast, Amazon Music Bytes, Dot com, SoundCloud, YouTube,
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(23:47):
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(24:08):
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Speaker 2 (24:18):
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary. This
has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com.
This is Spacetime Series twenty eight episode one hundred and seventeen,
well broadcast on the twenty ninth of September twenty twenty five.
Coming up on Spacetime, Stardust older than the Solar System
found in the asteroid Banu, strange and mysterious features discovered
in Saturin's atmosphere, and the Parker Solar Probe undertakes a
(00:21):
close flyby of the Sun. All that and more coming
up on space.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Time Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Scientists have discovered minerals older than our Solar System embedded
in the asteroid Banu. The findings, reported in the journal's
Nature Astronomy and Nature Geoscience, could or explain how planets
like the Earth first formed. The new research provides the
most comprehensive analysis yet of samples from NASAs a Cyrus
rex mission, which returned more than one hundred and twenty
(01:09):
grams of pristine asteroid material from Banu to Earth in
twenty twenty three. One of the studies authors, Nick Times
from Curtain University, says the finding show the asteroid Banu
is composed of ancient cosmic material, including stardust, which is
older than the Solar System itself. The analysis indicates that
(01:29):
the four hundred ninety meters white asteroid's parent body was
built from a rich varied mix of organic compounds, icy materials, silicates,
and grains from ancient stars preserved in near perfect conditions
for more than four and a half billion years. Tim
says some of these materials formed in other stars long
before the Solar System existed, others formed in the uter
(01:53):
Solar System, and still others were condensed close to the
Sun before being carried outwards. This means that asteroid Banu's
parent body must have been formed from dust from distinct
regions of the Solar System, or at least the protoplanetary disk,
which eventually would form our Solar System, and then likely
traveled from an orbit beyond Jupiter towards the inner Solar
(02:14):
System and the main asteroid built. Sometime later, the parent
body was destroid and some parts were reassembled into Banu,
a rubble pile asteroid which eventually drifted into its current
near Earth orbit. Tim says Banu helps astronomers understand how
planets form and how key ingredients such as water and
organic matter may have reached the Earth.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Some of the work involved looking at the small components
that make up asteroid Benu, and it's basically quite a
buffet of all sorts of different particles from early in
the Solar System, and even some tiny particles that formed
before our Solar system formed as well, which tells us
about whereabouts in the Solar System the parent body for
(02:57):
asteroid Benu was formed. And also we've been finding out
a lot about the conditions on the parent body for
the asteroid as well, and how water was very instrumental
in changing some of the components of the asteroid and
altering things. Conditions roughly around room temperature on the parent
body for asteroid BNU were very very early on in
(03:18):
the Solar System, long before it was smashed up and
reassembled into a big rubble pile asteroid BNU is today.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
So what can you tell us about the environment Banu
was formed in.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Well, the asteroid was, or the parent to the asteroid
at least, was kind of amalgamated or accreted from dust
particles and ice particles from different parts of the Solar
System very soon after the Sun formed, and before really
the planets got to form into the planets that we
know today. We think there were lots more proto planets
(03:50):
or baby planets which started to creep from the dust
in the solar disc in the early Solar System, and
some of those survived and accumulated today to what we
know as the planets, and some of them didn't. And
the parent body for asteroid Benu is one of the
early ones that didn't survive. But we find out some
of the components were formed in the inner Solar System
(04:11):
and some of the parts of Benu, the parent body,
were creted in the outer Solar System. So there's lots
of movement and mixing, migration of material in the early
Solar System to make up what we now see as
asteroid Benu.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
So how did you determine that? Was it simply that
you looked at the composition of the water itself to
see how much deuterium there was in it? Or how
is that done?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So what we can do is look at the well
there are two things, really, two main ways of studying
the asteroid material. One is to make measurements of larger
pieces of it than look at the bulk geochemistry of
those fragments, so it sort of amalgamates everything together together,
sort of a bulk view of what the average of
everything is in all of the bits inside the asteroid material.
(04:58):
And the other approach really is to look at the
individual grains and individual crystals and fragments and particles within
the asteroid material and try to fingerprint where they're from
using a combination of geochemistry and isotope geochemistry. And it's
the combination of those things that have helped sort of
identify all of these different weak components. For example, the
(05:20):
asteroid contains just a few percent of types of minerals
which have escaped hydrothermal alteration of some of the original bits,
if you like, some of the original fragments and hydroscilicates,
a group of minerals which include things like olivine, which
you might know is peridote which people pull on jewelry,
and a group of minerals called peroxides. Now we could
(05:42):
analyze those crystals individually and measure their oxygen isotope values,
so the proportions of different isotopes of oxygen, so oxygen
sixteen and oxygen seventeen, oxygen eighteen, and that allows us
to interpret what their sources were, and some of them
was really really primitive material primordial material formed right after
(06:04):
the formation of the Sun, some of the earliest solids
to form in the Solar System, and some of those
minerals were have actually been processed that being remelted again
and are fragments of what we call chondrils which have
been subject to sort of flash heating events in the
oly Solar System as well. So that's just an example
of how we can fingerprint some of the origins of
(06:25):
some of the minerals in asteroid Benet.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Some of your colleagues are also able to find material
in there that was from beyond our Solar system, brains
from status from interstellar origins.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Yeah, that's exactly right. So a small team couple of
groups around the world are able to look at the
composition of really really small particles that are very rare.
They only exist, you know, a few tens of parts
per million in the asteroid, which is very low abundance,
but they're very conspicuous because they have extremely different isotope
(06:57):
ratios in several different types of isotopes including nitrogen and
oxygen and so on and so forth, that really indicate
that they can't have formed our from the environment of
our Sun, and they have to have formed in different
star systems, so they were into Solar system or galactic
dust that was around at the time of the formation
(07:18):
of the Solar System, and then they got accreted or
basically absorbed into these protoplanetary bodies. They got mopped up
as well, and some of them have survived the alteration,
so we can analyze those and see back to what
kind of star systems that they were formed in. It
just gives us some indication of what sort of cosmic
dust was around right at the beginning of our Solar System,
(07:38):
in the environment that our Sun formed in.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
And one of the other surprising finds was that the
new was sibling to Ryugu, the other recent asteroid visited
by spacecraft for sample return.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, that's right. So the Japanese Space Agency JACKSA also
returned sample from an asteroid before we had samples from
the asteroid Benu. The asteroid they returned samples from was
called Royugu, and both of the two asteroids are very
very similar in all of the types of particles that
make them up and their isotopic and geochemical compositions, and
(08:13):
so in a sense, they're almost like sibling asteroids that
have happened to have come in from the asteroid belt
to near Earth orbits and have had very very similar
histories and probably formed in very very similar regions of
the Solar System originally. And both asteroids were chosen by
the different space agencies because they were very carbon rich
(08:34):
and we wanted to sample some carbon rich asteroids to
look at the organics in both of those, and it
turns out that they are very similar, which is quite phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Really.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I remember when the Asaris REX mission landed on Bernud,
who gained samples that discovered just how fluffy and little
density had had.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah, so when Osaris REX touched down on asteroid Benu,
after it was sort of hung around in orbit with
it for the best part of two years, and they
were taken incredibly detailed images of the asteroid so they
can map it in detail, figure out a really good
place to touch down, grab a sample, and jet back
off again. But nobody, guys, don't think anybody was expecting
(09:12):
how soft the asteroid was. I've heard my colleagues described
that touchdown it was almost like the probe sinking into
a bowl of popcorn. It was, you know, that soft,
and they had to initiate thrusters actually to get the
probe back out again before Astroid, before this spacecraft jetted
back to Earth. So it was a really kind of exciting,
(09:33):
intense moment and all of it captured with amazing video
footage as well from the spacecraft that was relaid back
to Earth, and it's really quite it's quite incredible. It
was really good to see when we were part of
the mission and that happened live as well. It was
really really exciting times.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
That's assourc you Professor Nicktims from Curtain University. And this
is space Time still the calm, strange and mysterious features
discovered in Saturn's atmosphere and NASA's Parker Solar Probe undertakes
a close flyby of the Sun. All that and more
still to come on space Time. New observations from the
(10:27):
web Space Telescope have uncovered mysterious, never before seen features
in Saturn's atmosphere. The strange, complex structures of beads in
the starlike pattern are unlike anything ever seen before on
another planet. The findings were presented at the euro Planet
Science Congress Division of Planetary Sciences conference in Helsinki, Finland.
(10:48):
One of the studies authors, Tom Stellard, from the Thumbria University,
says the findings came as a complete surprise. Stellard says
astronomers expected to see emissions in broad bands at various
at the spheric levels, but instead the observation showed these
fine scale patterns of beads and a star that, despite
being separated by huge distances in altitude, may somehow be
(11:11):
interconnected and may even be linked to Satin's famous north
pole hexagon. He says these features were completely unexpected and
at present are impossible to explain. The patterns were discovered
during a continuous ten hour observation period using web back
in November last year. The authors were focused on detecting
emissions by a positively charged molecular form of hydrogen, which
(11:34):
plays a key role in reactions in satins atmosphere and
so can provide valuable insights into the chemical and physical
processes at work. Webs near infrared spectrograph allowed the authors
to simultaneously observe hydrogen ions in the ionosphere eleven hundred
kilometers above Satin's cloud tops and methane molecules in the
underlying stratosphere at an altitude of around six hundred kilometers.
(11:58):
In the electrically charged plasma of the ionosphere, the authors
observed a series of dark beadlike features embedded in bright
auroral halos. These structures remained stable for hours, but they
appeared to drift slowly over longer periods, and around five
hundred kilometers lower down in Satin's stratosphere, the authors observed
a strange asymmetric star shaped feature. This unusual structure extended
(12:23):
out from Saturn's north pole towards the equator, but only
four of the stars six arms were visible, with two
mysteriously missing in the process, creating what appears to be
a lopsided pattern. Saturn's upper atmosphere has proven to be
incredibly difficult to study with missions and telescopes to date
due to the extremely weak emissions from this region, but
(12:44):
web sensitivity has revolutionized science's ability to observe these atmospheric layers,
in the process, revealing structures completely unlike anything ever seen before.
The authors mapped the exact locations of these features, finding
that they overlaid the same region of Saturn at different levels,
with the star's arms appearing to emanate from positions directly
(13:05):
above the points of the storm cloud level polar hexagon.
This all suggests that the processes that are driving the
patterns may influence a column stretching right through Satin's atmosphere.
Stellard thinks that the dark beads may result from complex
interactions between Saturn's magnetosphere and its rotating atmosphere, potentially providing
(13:25):
new insights into the energy exchange which drives Saturn's aurora.
The asymmetric star pattern suggests previously unknown atmospheric processes operating
in Satin's stratosphere, possibly linked to the hexagonal storm pattern
observed deeper in the atmosphere. Chantalizingly, the darkest speeds in
the ionosphere appear to line up with the strongest starrem
(13:46):
in the stratosphere, but it's not clear at this point
whether they are actually linked or whether it's just a coincidence. Well,
both features could have significant implications for understanding atmospheric dynamics
on gas giants. More work is needed provide explanations for
the underlying causes, so the authors are now looking for
additional time on web for follow up observations in order
(14:09):
to further explore these mysterious features and with Satin currently
at its equinox, which only occurs once every fifteen Earth years.
The structures may well change dramatically as Satin's orientation to
the Sun shifts and the northern hemisphere moves into autumn.
This space time still to come NASAs Parker's solo probe
(14:30):
undertakes a close flyby of the Sun, and later in
the science report, a new study is confirmed that people
who remain virgins into adulthood tend to be less happy.
All that and more still to come on space time,
(15:00):
Parker's Solar Probe has just completed its twenty fifth close
approach to the Sun. This latticed encounter matched the spacecraft's
previous record distance of six point two million kilometers above
the solar surface. The probe checked in with mission managers
at JOHNS. Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, two
days after the close approach using a series of coated
(15:20):
beacon urns, indicating that its systems were all operating nominally.
Parker was out of contact with the Earth and operating
autonomously during the close flyby. A more detailed download of
data will take place when the spacecraft moves further away
from the Sun out to an area where the star's
intense ionized plasma radiation atmosphere will have less of an
(15:41):
effect on communications. During the flyby, Parker also equaled its
record setting speed of six hundred and eighty seven thousand
kilometers per hour, a mark that, like the distance record,
was set and subsequently matched during close approaches on December
the twenty fourth last year, and on March the twenty
second and June the nineteenth. Parker will now remain in
(16:02):
this orbit around the Sun and continue making observations during
these solar encounters, Parker's four scientific instrument packages are gathering
unique observations from inside the Sun's atmosphere, the corona. The
flyby allows the spacecraft to conduct unrival with measurements of
solar activity as the Sun goes through Solar max, the
(16:24):
peak of its eleven year solar cycle. The data being
gathered includes observations of the solar wind, solar flares, and
coronal mass ejections, which are all critical help astronomers better
understand geomagnetic storms. These drive high energy space where the
events which can increase radiation exposure for crew in orbit,
(16:45):
on deep space missions and even people in high altitude aircraft.
Events can also damage or destroy spacecraft, or at least
shorten the life spans of satellites by causing Earth's atmosphere
to expand, thereby increasing atmospheric drag, resulting in orbital dega
and forcing spacecraft to use more fuel in order to
maintain their correct operational orbits. Solar storms also interrupt navigation
(17:08):
and communication networks here on Earth, and they can trigger
power grid overloads, which can cause terrestrial electricity blackouts affecting
wide areas on the ground. This is Space Time and
(17:36):
time that to take a brief look at some of
the other stories making using science this week with the
Science Report. Well, in case you haven't worked it out yet,
a new study has confirmed that people who remain virgins
in the adulthood are on average more nervous, more lonely,
and more unhappy. But the good news is they're also
likely to be more educated and less likely to use
(17:57):
alcohol or drugs. Findings reported in the journal PNAS analyzed
the traits of some four hundred thousand British virgins between
the ages of thirty nine and seventy three, as well
as some thirteen thousan five hundred Australian virgins aged eighteen
to eighty nine in order to look for similarities among
those who go well into adulthood without ever having had sex.
(18:19):
The authors found common genetic variants explained about seventeen percent
of variation in sexlessness in men and fourteen percent in women,
Although they stress there is no virgin gene. Links between
genetics and behavior are too complex for that, but they
did find that physical traits appeared to be far more
strongly linked to virginity in men. Men were also more
(18:40):
likely to be virgins if they lived in areas with
fewer women. A widely reported study on apple side of
vinegar and weight loss has now been retracted. A retracted
research reported in the British Medical Journal suggested that a
small amount of apple side of vinegar every day may
help overweight or obeste people lose weight and reduced their
(19:01):
body mass index. The small clinical troll received widespread international
attention when it was first published, and it continues to
be referenced by the media today. The retraction comes after
concerns were raised by critics of the study, which was
then referred to statistical experts to evaluate its reliability. Not
only were the statisticians unable to replicate the results, but
(19:22):
moudible analytical errors were also found. The British Medical Journal
also notes that there were irregularities in the data set
and the report. The authors say the errors were honesome
stakes and they've agreed with the decision to retract the study.
Scientists have confirmed a new species of theropod dinosaur. They're
(19:42):
the ones that look like t Rex harquein Raptica. Sally
was seven meters long and weighed over one thousand kilograms.
The fossil was found at a dig site in South
America with a crocodile leg burn in its jaws, suggesting
it may well have been a top predator when it
was roaming the land and in this case, the shoreline,
some seventy million years ago. A report in the journal
(20:05):
Nature Communications claims the new species is part of a
family of dinosaurs with powerful arms and large claws which
once lived across South America, Asia and Australia. An investigative
reporter with The New York Post has destroyed the credibility
of several paranormal true believers inside the US government. Tim
(20:25):
Mendhem from Australian Skeptics says cutting tackedoun exposed several rogue
military officials and a few Washington politicians. Some of them
even believed they were being haunted by UFOs, ghosts and
monsters from skin Walker Ranch.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
It was quite a good video that came out recently
and actually on New York posters a pilla there who
does a lot of investigations of the paranormal, and he's
very good. He does investigate properly. He looks at the
evidence and goes to places to see what happens. Anyway,
he was someone who is investigating in this recent video
UFOs and certain claims by UFOs that have had a
high profile lately, and also UFOs which often appear at
(21:02):
a place called skin Walker Rant in the US. Now,
the UFA claims, first of all, a number of people
peering before Congress putting their hand up and swearing this
is true, that they were told by someone the brother
in law of someone else, that the America and the
governments are covering up UFOs and that they're holding craft
and listen, the news are going to come out there
any day now, which is something they've been saying for
seventy years, literally seventy years that for any day. Now
(21:25):
the evidence, the convincing evidence is going to come out.
It hasn't. There is nothing substantial in what they've said
at all, no evidence, nothing, any move into the skin
Walker Ranch, which is this place in America which was
supposedly a center for UFO activity. Not to mention ghosts
and all kinds of monsters and various things in.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
A place in Native American folklore, don't they.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Yes, it's nice of them to appropriate that term and
apply to a place which therefore gives it the infomata
that it's sort of an ancient heritage. Strange things going on.
Skin Walkers were supposed to be someone who could take
on the form of an animal and therefore move unnoticed.
So they named this rant skinwalker Ranch. But it is
this place supposedly full of all sorts of paranormal encounters.
It's got TV shows they run, They've got a lot
(22:06):
of publicity guys running and obviously making a few bucks
out of it.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
And isn't it They keep searching for these mythical creatures
and they never quite get there in time.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
They just missed it. It was here yesterday, Yes, But
I mean, this is the thinking about this skin Walker ranches.
Has had a lot of followers, high profile followers, and
people who you would hope wouldn't know better, including a
lot of American politicians, some of who went to skin
Walker Ranch and then claimed that they were attacked by
a ghost or something which then followed them back to
where they came from Skinwalkers in the Midwest somewhere, and
(22:38):
these ghosts followed them back to the East Coast and
are still holding them and annoying them. And you think
these are people making policy decisions about the most important
things in America.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I'll let you in a little secret. Politicians really aren't
that bright. Believe me. I know, I met a lot
of them.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
They're as easily fooled as anybody else. And there's still
no evidence of these things being there, of attacking people.
It's all gossip, rumor, publicity, you name it. None of
these things have ever shown any good evidence for them,
but that's never stopped them being popular.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
That's timendum from Australian Skeptics, and that's the show for now.
(23:26):
Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher,
Google podcast Pocker Casts, Spotify, Acast, Amazon Music 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
(23:47):
National Science Foundation, on Science Own Radio and on both
iHeartRadio and tune In Radio. And you can help to
support our show by visiting the Spacetime Store for a
range of promotional merchandising goodie or by becoming a Spacetime Patron,
which gives you access to triple episode commercial free versions
of the show, as well as lots of burnus audio
(24:08):
content which doesn't go to air, access to our exclusive
Facebook group, and other rewards. Just go to space Time
with Stewart Gary dot com for full details.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary. This
has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com.
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