September 12, 2025 • 20 mins
Sponsor Details:
This episode of SpaceTime is brought to you with the support of Insta360. Capture your adventures with their latest game-changer, the GOUltra. For a special SpaceTime listener offer, visit store.insta360.com and use the promo code SPACETIME at checkout. Help support SpaceTime and get a great deal. Win/win!
In this episode of SpaceTime, we explore fascinating insights into the origins of Earth's water, the launch of Israel's advanced spy satellite, and the development of a groundbreaking high-energy rocket fuel.
About Earth's Water Origins
Recent findings suggest that the water in Comet 12P Pons-Brooks shares the same isotopic signature as Earth's oceans, bolstering the hypothesis that comets played a vital role in delivering water and essential ingredients for life to our planet. Observations from the Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimeter Array telescope reveal that the deuterium to hydrogen ratio in the comet's water is remarkably similar to that found in Earth's oceans, providing compelling evidence that some Halley-type comets may have contributed to making Earth habitable.
Israel's New Spy Satellite Launch
Israel has successfully launched its Ofek 19 surveillance satellite to monitor terrorist activities across the Middle East. The satellite, equipped with advanced optical and radar systems, is designed to provide high-resolution imagery under various conditions. This launch comes amid ongoing tensions in the region, as Israel seeks to enhance its intelligence capabilities in response to recent attacks.
Revolutionary High-Energy Rocket Fuel
Scientists have synthesised a new high-energy compound, manganese diboride, which could revolutionise rocket fuel efficiency. This innovative fuel is over 20% more energetic by weight and 150% more energetic by volume than traditional aluminium-based fuels. The safety and efficiency of manganese diboride may significantly enhance payload capacities for space missions, paving the way for more ambitious exploration efforts.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Nature Astronomy
https://www.nature.com/nature-astronomy/
Journal of the American Chemical Society
https://pubs.acs.org/journal/jacsat
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
Nigel About Earth's Water Origins
Israel's New Spy Satellite Launch
Revolutionary High-Energy Rocket Fuel
This episode of SpaceTime is brought to you with the support of Insta360. Capture your adventures with their latest game-changer, the GOUltra. For a special SpaceTime listener offer, visit store.insta360.com and use the promo code SPACETIME at checkout. Help support SpaceTime and get a great deal. Win/win!
In this episode of SpaceTime, we explore fascinating insights into the origins of Earth's water, the launch of Israel's advanced spy satellite, and the development of a groundbreaking high-energy rocket fuel.
About Earth's Water Origins
Recent findings suggest that the water in Comet 12P Pons-Brooks shares the same isotopic signature as Earth's oceans, bolstering the hypothesis that comets played a vital role in delivering water and essential ingredients for life to our planet. Observations from the Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimeter Array telescope reveal that the deuterium to hydrogen ratio in the comet's water is remarkably similar to that found in Earth's oceans, providing compelling evidence that some Halley-type comets may have contributed to making Earth habitable.
Israel's New Spy Satellite Launch
Israel has successfully launched its Ofek 19 surveillance satellite to monitor terrorist activities across the Middle East. The satellite, equipped with advanced optical and radar systems, is designed to provide high-resolution imagery under various conditions. This launch comes amid ongoing tensions in the region, as Israel seeks to enhance its intelligence capabilities in response to recent attacks.
Revolutionary High-Energy Rocket Fuel
Scientists have synthesised a new high-energy compound, manganese diboride, which could revolutionise rocket fuel efficiency. This innovative fuel is over 20% more energetic by weight and 150% more energetic by volume than traditional aluminium-based fuels. The safety and efficiency of manganese diboride may significantly enhance payload capacities for space missions, paving the way for more ambitious exploration efforts.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Nature Astronomy
https://www.nature.com/nature-astronomy/
Journal of the American Chemical Society
https://pubs.acs.org/journal/jacsat
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
Nigel About Earth's Water Origins
Israel's New Spy Satellite Launch
Revolutionary High-Energy Rocket Fuel
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 ten,
for broadcast on the twurth of September twenty twenty five.
Coming up on space Time, another clue about the origins
of Earth's water. Israel launches a new spy satellite and
discovery of a new high energy rocket fuel.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
All that and more coming up on space Time.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Water is essential for life as we know it Now.
A new study has shown that the composition of water
on the comet twelve P ponds Brooks as the same
isotopic signature as Earth's oceans. The findings are reported in
the journal Nature Astronomy strengthens the idea that commets may
have played a crucial role in delivering water, possibly some
(01:02):
of the molecular ingredients for life itself, to planet Earth.
The your research is based on observations by Alma the
Adda Kama Large millimeter submillimeter array telescope in Chile. It
revealed that water in the Halle type Comet twelve P
has an isotopic composition virtually identical to that found in
earth oceans.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Now.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Depending on which hypothesis you prefer, Earth's water either formed
in situ as the planet itself condensed out of the
protoplanetary disc around the still nascent Sun some four point
six billion years ago, or alternatively through impacts by comets, asteroids,
and meteoroids. Now in that second hypothesis. For a long time,
scientists thought comets may have been the likely origin. That's
(01:43):
because they're composed of a lot of water ice. But
as they grew better at analyzing cometure composition, scientists discovered
that the actual composition of the water, that is, the
deuterium to hydrogen ratio, didn't match that which we found
here on Earth, or previous measurements in many comets showed
significant deay differences from Earth's water. The new results provide
the strongest evidence yet that at least some Hali type
(02:05):
comets carried water with the same chemical fingerprint as that
found here on Earth. Astronomers use alma's sensitivity and imaging
capabilities to measure the comet's coma that's the cloud of
gas surrounding its nucleus. They looked at the spatial distribution
of both ordinary water that's hydrogen and oxygen H two oer,
and also heavy water that's water containing deuterium, an isotope
(02:27):
of hydrogen which contains a neutron as well as the
proton and its nucleus. These observations, made as twelve p
ponds Brooks approached the Sun, were combined with infrared measurements
from NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility to determine the ratio of
deitium to hydrogen with unprecedented precision for a comet of
this class. By mapping both regular and heavy water in
(02:48):
these cometary comas, astronomers can tell if these gases are
coming from the frozen ices within the solid body of
the nucleus, rather than forming from chemistry or other processes
in the gaseous coma Steadies. Author Martha Cordner from NASA's
got Out Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, says the
deuterium to hydrogen ratio was the lowest ever measured in
a Hali type comet, and it falls at the lower
(03:10):
end of all cometary values in the process, matching earths oceans.
Cordiner says comets are frozen relics left over from the
birth of the Solar System. The new results provide the
strongest evidence yet that at least some Halli type comets
carried water with the same isotopic signatures as that found
on Earth. That supports the idea that comets could have
(03:30):
at least help make our planet habitable this space time
still to come. Israel launches a new Spice satellite and
discovery of a new high energy rocket fuel. All that
and more still to come on space time. Israel has
(04:01):
launched a new advanced by satellite to monitor terroist activities
across the trouble plagued Middle East. The OPHEC or Horizon
nineteen Savelli satellite was launched aboard a Chavat Comet two
three stage rocket from the Palmachim Air Base spaceport near
Tel Aviv. The launch caused a brief panic in Tel
Aviv and central Israel, where residents mistook the orbital rocket
(04:21):
for an interceptor missile. The IDF says the spacecraft successfully
entered orbit was performing as planned, passing a series of
initial tests and transmitting data. The launch comes as Jerusalem
continues its against multiple Palestinian terrorist groups in response to
the October seven attacks, which saw the massacre and rape
of over twelve hundred Israeli civilians, including many children. Since
(04:45):
Palestinians began their attacks. Iran, together with Iranian backed terror groups,
have fired over one thousand ballistic missiles and tens of
thousands of rockets at Israel, with Tehran also financing thousands
of often violent hate protests around the world, including anti
Semitica tax reminiscent of the Nazis in the lead up
to the Holocaust. Jerusalem says the Jewish States response will
(05:06):
only end when Palestinians return the hostages they kidnapped on
October seven, and Hamas terrorists surrender their weapons. The OFK
nineteenth spacecraft is equipped with high resolution optical and multi
spectral synthetic aperture radar systems, providing continuous imagery coverage day
and night in all weather conditions. The new satellite will
serve as a force multiplier, able to image objects with
(05:28):
resolutions down to under fifty centimeters day or night. The
spacecraft was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, the IDF, including
Unit ninety nine hundred of the Intelligence Directorate and the
Israeli Air Force. It joins a growing constellation of IDF
intelligence gathering of conaisance satellites, which include optical, infrared radar
and electronics, single surveillance capabilities.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
This is space time.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Still to come discovery of a new high energy rocket fuel,
and later in the science report, researchers develop a glue
gun which can print out buron grafts. All that and
more still to come on space time. Okay, let's take
a break from our show for a word from our
sponsor into three sixty.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
The trailblazers in three sixty.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
In action cameras pushing the boundaries of what's possible, or
creators everywhere. The go Ultra a pocket sized camera that's
reader finding how you capture life's adventures. Imagine it a
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that'll make your vlogs, travel diaries, or family moments look
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with your shots in seconds. You can cip it to
your shirt or hat for hands free POV footage while
you're running, biking, or chasing your kids around the park
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or you can stick it on any magnetic surface like
bike frames, gym equipment, or even the street sign for
those unique angles that no other camera can match. Plus,
with flow state stabilization and three sixty hurrahzon lock, your
footage stays silky smooth and perfectly level no matter how
well the action gets. And in terms of battery life
to Go Ultras got you covered with a next generation
(07:20):
stack polymer battery. The standalone camera runs for seventy minutes,
and when paired with the action pod, you'll get up
to two hundred minutes of shooting time. And here's the
best part. For the first thirty Spacetime listeners who purchase
the Inster three sixty Go Ultra at store dot Inster
three sixty dot com, you'll score a free sticky tabs
accessory to mount your camera on anything from backpacks to
(07:41):
winter jackets. Just use the promo code space time at
the checkout that store dot Inster three sixty dot com
promo code space time. Just go to our links page
for full details and descriptions. So don't miss out on
this titan of a camera that's ready to capture your
world like never before. That's the Insta three sixty Ultra
and now it's back to our show. Scientists have created
(08:11):
a new high energy compound that could revolutionize rocket fuel,
making spaceflights more efficient. A report in the Journal of
the American Chemical Society says that on ignition, the new
compound releases more energy relative to its weight and volume
impaired to current fuels in a rocket. This would mean
less fuel required for the same flight duration or increased payload,
(08:31):
and more room for mission critical supplies. The newly synthesized compound,
known as manganese diboride, is over twenty percent more energetic
by weight at about one hundred and fifty percent more
energetic by volume compared to the aluminum currently used in
solid rocket boosters, and despite being highly energetic, it's also
very safe. In fact, the only combusts when it meets
(08:52):
an ignition agent like kerosene. Maganese diboride belongs to a
class of chemical compounds thought to have unusual properties. Exploring
exactly what these properties entail has been limited by an
inability to actually produce the substance. One of the researches
involved in the project, Josef Doane from the University of
Albany says dot borides first started getting attention way back
(09:14):
in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
Booster ignition and lift off of discovery.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
Ramjet technology and rockets has really a focus for the
United States as well as the rest of the world.
So in current solid state rocket engines they use aluminum
powderized as part of their formulation. But now with the
manganese diboride, we hope to see that we have a
large enough return on the investment to say, yes, we
(09:41):
should be swapping out aluminum and see if we can
get more bang for our buck out of igniting this
material over the standard materials. If you translate the energy
that we discovered into energy per cubic centimeter, we are
actually one hundred and forty eight percent more energy dense
(10:01):
than the aluminum that's being used. You could actually load
less manganese diboride to make it the same distance, which
allows you to put more weight on the rocket itself
to transport key mission equipment. This enables us to take
more with us to do more research in distant places. SpaceX,
NASA satellite companies, any of those low Earth orbit applications
(10:25):
could certainly be used for this.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Since those initial looks. New technologies are now allowing scientists
to actually synthesize chemical compounds that were once only hypothesized
to exist. Knowing what scientists do about the elements on
the periodic table, you also suspected that meganese di boroid
would be structurally asymmetrical and unstable, facts which together wouldn't
make it highly energetic. But until recently they couldn't test
(10:49):
the id because they couldn't make it successfully. Synthesizing pure
manganese di boride is an exciting achievement in itself. It
means they can now test it experimentally discover you to
use it. Synthesizing manganese diboride requires extreme heat generated using
a tool called an arc melter. The first step involves
pressing manganese and boron powders together into a pellet, which
(11:12):
is then placed in a small reinforced glass chamber. The
anc melter then trains a narrow electrical current on the pellet,
heating it to a scorching three thousand degrees celsius, half
the temperature of the Sun's surface. The molten material is
then rapidly cooled to lock the structure in place. Now
at the atomic level, the precess forces the central manganese
atom to bond to too many other atoms, making for
(11:34):
an overly crowded structure, packed tight like a coiled spring.
When exploring new chemical compounds, being able to physically produce
the compound is crucial. You also need to be able
to define its molecular structure in order to better understand
why it behaves the way it does. Another one of
the researchers, Gregory John also from the Universe of Albany,
(11:55):
built computer models to visualize manganese di borid's molecular structure,
and these models revealed something crucial, a subtle skew, and
it's a defamation which gives the compound it's high potential energy.
John says the muddle of the manganese di borid compound
looks a lot like the cross section of an ice
cream sandwich, where the art cookies are made of a
ladder structure composed of interlocking hexagons. John says, when you
(12:19):
look closely, you can see that the hexagons aren't perfectly symmetrical.
They're all just a little bit skewed. That's defamation. By
measuring the degree of defamation, they can use that measures
a proxy to determine the amount of energy stored in
the material, and that skew is where the energy stored.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
I specialize in material science. I'm a computational chemist. So
you're not going to see me in the wet lab
mixing chemicals. You're going to see me in the computer
lab doing calculations, frantically scribbling on the whiteboard with my
head in my hands. Once we got past the initial
point of whether they had really produced what they thought
they'd produced, the initial calculations I started running were just
(12:59):
to see this is all check out? You know, is
this all kosher? Is this even possible? And from that
point I started trying to model the material. The material
is almost like a layer cake of alternating layers of
boron and metal, and they're perfectly flat, and so I
set out trying to come up with a model where
we could force it to deform artificially. The effect of
(13:23):
that is now the material is storing a lot of
energy like a sprint. Once we combust it, that energy
is released and accounts for the larger energy of combustion
than the other similar materials, which don't have that sort
of internal strain. The rocket fuel project that we're talking
about right now. I'm telling my family like, oh, yeah,
like we just figured out this and blah blah blah.
(13:43):
The more bleeding edge or the less there is known
about the problem that I'm working on, the happier I am.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
This space time.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
And time that To take another brief look at some
of the other stories making use in science this week.
With a Science report, scientists have modified a glue gun
to print out bone grafts, which they say could be
three D printed directly under fractures and defects during surgery.
A report in the General Device claims the new tool
has already been tested and found to quickly create complex
burone implants without the need for prefabricated parts being made
(14:31):
in advance. The new graphs were shown to have both
high structural flexibility, as well as the ability to release
anti inflammatory antibiotics and aid natural bone regrowth at the
grafting site.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Current methods of fixing.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Bones use either metal donor bone or three D printed
materials to repair the brake, all of which take time
to build or repair in the case of irregular bone brakes,
but now the authors were able to print in situ,
taking a feature of natural bone that's known to promote
healing and compatible plastic in mixing them together into a
sort of glue, which will then bind and conform to
(15:05):
the jagged grooves of a fractured bone. A new study
warns that unfit preteens carrying extra belly fat are more
likely to suffer from mental health issues. Are reporting the
Journal of the American Medical Association found that pre adolescent
kids who are carrying extra weight around their middle, as
well as those with bad cardio fitness, could be more
(15:26):
likely to experience symptoms of anxiety and depression compared with
their lina fitter peers. The study looked at over two
hundred kids aged eight to eleven found that greater lean
mass and higher fitness levels than the kids was linked
to fewer anxiety and depression symptoms, whereas higher levels are
fat around their organs was linked to higher.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Levels of both.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
A new study has shown that explosions of diversity throughout
the evolution of the plant animal kingdom today likely explained
why some groups of species are so dominant. Scientists were
investigating why some groups of species evolved from a single
anset that become dominant. For example, beetles make up some
forty percent of modern day insects and eighty five percent
of plants of flowering plants. A report in the journal
(16:09):
Frontieres in a collagen evolution Ana lies more than three
hundred thousand plant species, over a million insects species, and
in excess of one and a half million other animal species.
They found a consistent pattern with the majority species were
part of disproportionately large clades, likely as a result of
explosions of diversity when an ancestor had an evolutionary breakthrough,
such as developing flight, morving to a new area, or
(16:32):
new relationships with other species. A recent survey is found
that almost half of news Nation viewers believe the United
States government is concealing information about unidentified flying objects. To
mendum from Australian skeptics, says the Nationwide Pole found that
forty four percent of those surveyed think the government's hiding something.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
The survey poll carried out by a online TV theywork
called Newstation, another called to Season This. They found that
in April of this year of twenty twenty five, they
found that forty four percent of Americans think the government
is concealing information about unidentified flying objects. The interesting thing
because News Nation is a big promoter of UFO myths
and conspiracies, and it features the Australian journalist Ross Coulthard
(17:15):
who has this ongoing series of programs claiming that any
day now the proof is going to be revealed about
the UFOs. But anyway, so this audience from News Nation,
and I don't know how they did the survey, whether
it was sort of people just phoned in with their
views or whether they just surveyed their own audience somehow,
and their audience would tend to have a higher belief
in UFOs and things because that's the way the TV
(17:35):
program goes. Almost half of the people who are aged
under thirty says they believe the government was hiding something.
News Nation is big on conspiracy theories. People early forties,
et cetera. Much the same percentages, but only thirty four
percent of baby boomers there has been taught one between
forty six and sixty four said the same. It's almost
like a statistical issue. Forty four percent of Americans seek
the government sealing it, but only thirty four percent of
(17:56):
those who are over certain eight in their sixty seventies
eighties strongest amongst those with a high school diploma or less.
It's an education thing. It's lower thirty six percent among
Collie's graduates. Belief is higher among non white ethnic groups,
but that also might be associated with education background. Partially.
The thing is it's still high numbers. Thirty four percent
of the lowest number among BABY members think that the
(18:17):
government is covering up information. It's like it's a no
win situation. A third of people think there's a conspiracy.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Well, they're probably right.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
There is a conspiracy the government is covering up. But
it's not aliens from another planet. It's black projects by
the US military.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Yeah, I know, I know. The whole one about UFOs
is they're unidentified, so you can't jump to the fact
they say they're aliens. They're are identified. You don't know
what they are, so you can't really jump to say
they're identified, but I know what they are because you've
just identified them. Strange and normally, there that this belief
in things that we don't know exists that we have
never identified as subtly the subject of government conspiracies. Perhaps
that's why we don't know what they are, because the
(18:51):
governments covering them up. It's a too easy answer held
by a lot of people, especially in America, and this
particular news nation operation is very much pro and stuff,
so I would take what they say with a TV
grain of salt.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
That's timndum from Australian skeptics, and that's the show for now.
(19:24):
Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher,
Google Podcast poker 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
(19:46):
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(20:08):
to our exclusive Facebook group, and other rewards. Just go
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Speaker 3 (20:16):
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 ten,
for broadcast on the twurth of September twenty twenty five.
Coming up on space Time, another clue about the origins
of Earth's water. Israel launches a new spy satellite and
discovery of a new high energy rocket fuel.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
All that and more coming up on space Time.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Water is essential for life as we know it Now.
A new study has shown that the composition of water
on the comet twelve P ponds Brooks as the same
isotopic signature as Earth's oceans. The findings are reported in
the journal Nature Astronomy strengthens the idea that commets may
have played a crucial role in delivering water, possibly some
(01:02):
of the molecular ingredients for life itself, to planet Earth.
The your research is based on observations by Alma the
Adda Kama Large millimeter submillimeter array telescope in Chile. It
revealed that water in the Halle type Comet twelve P
has an isotopic composition virtually identical to that found in
earth oceans.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Now.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Depending on which hypothesis you prefer, Earth's water either formed
in situ as the planet itself condensed out of the
protoplanetary disc around the still nascent Sun some four point
six billion years ago, or alternatively through impacts by comets, asteroids,
and meteoroids. Now in that second hypothesis. For a long time,
scientists thought comets may have been the likely origin. That's
(01:43):
because they're composed of a lot of water ice. But
as they grew better at analyzing cometure composition, scientists discovered
that the actual composition of the water, that is, the
deuterium to hydrogen ratio, didn't match that which we found
here on Earth, or previous measurements in many comets showed
significant deay differences from Earth's water. The new results provide
the strongest evidence yet that at least some Hali type
(02:05):
comets carried water with the same chemical fingerprint as that
found here on Earth. Astronomers use alma's sensitivity and imaging
capabilities to measure the comet's coma that's the cloud of
gas surrounding its nucleus. They looked at the spatial distribution
of both ordinary water that's hydrogen and oxygen H two oer,
and also heavy water that's water containing deuterium, an isotope
(02:27):
of hydrogen which contains a neutron as well as the
proton and its nucleus. These observations, made as twelve p
ponds Brooks approached the Sun, were combined with infrared measurements
from NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility to determine the ratio of
deitium to hydrogen with unprecedented precision for a comet of
this class. By mapping both regular and heavy water in
(02:48):
these cometary comas, astronomers can tell if these gases are
coming from the frozen ices within the solid body of
the nucleus, rather than forming from chemistry or other processes
in the gaseous coma Steadies. Author Martha Cordner from NASA's
got Out Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, says the
deuterium to hydrogen ratio was the lowest ever measured in
a Hali type comet, and it falls at the lower
(03:10):
end of all cometary values in the process, matching earths oceans.
Cordiner says comets are frozen relics left over from the
birth of the Solar System. The new results provide the
strongest evidence yet that at least some Halli type comets
carried water with the same isotopic signatures as that found
on Earth. That supports the idea that comets could have
(03:30):
at least help make our planet habitable this space time
still to come. Israel launches a new Spice satellite and
discovery of a new high energy rocket fuel. All that
and more still to come on space time. Israel has
(04:01):
launched a new advanced by satellite to monitor terroist activities
across the trouble plagued Middle East. The OPHEC or Horizon
nineteen Savelli satellite was launched aboard a Chavat Comet two
three stage rocket from the Palmachim Air Base spaceport near
Tel Aviv. The launch caused a brief panic in Tel
Aviv and central Israel, where residents mistook the orbital rocket
(04:21):
for an interceptor missile. The IDF says the spacecraft successfully
entered orbit was performing as planned, passing a series of
initial tests and transmitting data. The launch comes as Jerusalem
continues its against multiple Palestinian terrorist groups in response to
the October seven attacks, which saw the massacre and rape
of over twelve hundred Israeli civilians, including many children. Since
(04:45):
Palestinians began their attacks. Iran, together with Iranian backed terror groups,
have fired over one thousand ballistic missiles and tens of
thousands of rockets at Israel, with Tehran also financing thousands
of often violent hate protests around the world, including anti
Semitica tax reminiscent of the Nazis in the lead up
to the Holocaust. Jerusalem says the Jewish States response will
(05:06):
only end when Palestinians return the hostages they kidnapped on
October seven, and Hamas terrorists surrender their weapons. The OFK
nineteenth spacecraft is equipped with high resolution optical and multi
spectral synthetic aperture radar systems, providing continuous imagery coverage day
and night in all weather conditions. The new satellite will
serve as a force multiplier, able to image objects with
(05:28):
resolutions down to under fifty centimeters day or night. The
spacecraft was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, the IDF, including
Unit ninety nine hundred of the Intelligence Directorate and the
Israeli Air Force. It joins a growing constellation of IDF
intelligence gathering of conaisance satellites, which include optical, infrared radar
and electronics, single surveillance capabilities.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
This is space time.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Still to come discovery of a new high energy rocket fuel,
and later in the science report, researchers develop a glue
gun which can print out buron grafts. All that and
more still to come on space time. Okay, let's take
a break from our show for a word from our
sponsor into three sixty.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
The trailblazers in three sixty.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
In action cameras pushing the boundaries of what's possible, or
creators everywhere. The go Ultra a pocket sized camera that's
reader finding how you capture life's adventures. Imagine it a
camera no bigger than an oro, weighing just fifty three grams,
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and now it's back to our show. Scientists have created
(08:11):
a new high energy compound that could revolutionize rocket fuel,
making spaceflights more efficient. A report in the Journal of
the American Chemical Society says that on ignition, the new
compound releases more energy relative to its weight and volume
impaired to current fuels in a rocket. This would mean
less fuel required for the same flight duration or increased payload,
(08:31):
and more room for mission critical supplies. The newly synthesized compound,
known as manganese diboride, is over twenty percent more energetic
by weight at about one hundred and fifty percent more
energetic by volume compared to the aluminum currently used in
solid rocket boosters, and despite being highly energetic, it's also
very safe. In fact, the only combusts when it meets
(08:52):
an ignition agent like kerosene. Maganese diboride belongs to a
class of chemical compounds thought to have unusual properties. Exploring
exactly what these properties entail has been limited by an
inability to actually produce the substance. One of the researches
involved in the project, Josef Doane from the University of
Albany says dot borides first started getting attention way back
(09:14):
in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
Booster ignition and lift off of discovery.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
Ramjet technology and rockets has really a focus for the
United States as well as the rest of the world.
So in current solid state rocket engines they use aluminum
powderized as part of their formulation. But now with the
manganese diboride, we hope to see that we have a
large enough return on the investment to say, yes, we
(09:41):
should be swapping out aluminum and see if we can
get more bang for our buck out of igniting this
material over the standard materials. If you translate the energy
that we discovered into energy per cubic centimeter, we are
actually one hundred and forty eight percent more energy dense
(10:01):
than the aluminum that's being used. You could actually load
less manganese diboride to make it the same distance, which
allows you to put more weight on the rocket itself
to transport key mission equipment. This enables us to take
more with us to do more research in distant places. SpaceX,
NASA satellite companies, any of those low Earth orbit applications
(10:25):
could certainly be used for this.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Since those initial looks. New technologies are now allowing scientists
to actually synthesize chemical compounds that were once only hypothesized
to exist. Knowing what scientists do about the elements on
the periodic table, you also suspected that meganese di boroid
would be structurally asymmetrical and unstable, facts which together wouldn't
make it highly energetic. But until recently they couldn't test
(10:49):
the id because they couldn't make it successfully. Synthesizing pure
manganese di boride is an exciting achievement in itself. It
means they can now test it experimentally discover you to
use it. Synthesizing manganese diboride requires extreme heat generated using
a tool called an arc melter. The first step involves
pressing manganese and boron powders together into a pellet, which
(11:12):
is then placed in a small reinforced glass chamber. The
anc melter then trains a narrow electrical current on the pellet,
heating it to a scorching three thousand degrees celsius, half
the temperature of the Sun's surface. The molten material is
then rapidly cooled to lock the structure in place. Now
at the atomic level, the precess forces the central manganese
atom to bond to too many other atoms, making for
(11:34):
an overly crowded structure, packed tight like a coiled spring.
When exploring new chemical compounds, being able to physically produce
the compound is crucial. You also need to be able
to define its molecular structure in order to better understand
why it behaves the way it does. Another one of
the researchers, Gregory John also from the Universe of Albany,
(11:55):
built computer models to visualize manganese di borid's molecular structure,
and these models revealed something crucial, a subtle skew, and
it's a defamation which gives the compound it's high potential energy.
John says the muddle of the manganese di borid compound
looks a lot like the cross section of an ice
cream sandwich, where the art cookies are made of a
ladder structure composed of interlocking hexagons. John says, when you
(12:19):
look closely, you can see that the hexagons aren't perfectly symmetrical.
They're all just a little bit skewed. That's defamation. By
measuring the degree of defamation, they can use that measures
a proxy to determine the amount of energy stored in
the material, and that skew is where the energy stored.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
I specialize in material science. I'm a computational chemist. So
you're not going to see me in the wet lab
mixing chemicals. You're going to see me in the computer
lab doing calculations, frantically scribbling on the whiteboard with my
head in my hands. Once we got past the initial
point of whether they had really produced what they thought
they'd produced, the initial calculations I started running were just
(12:59):
to see this is all check out? You know, is
this all kosher? Is this even possible? And from that
point I started trying to model the material. The material
is almost like a layer cake of alternating layers of
boron and metal, and they're perfectly flat, and so I
set out trying to come up with a model where
we could force it to deform artificially. The effect of
(13:23):
that is now the material is storing a lot of
energy like a sprint. Once we combust it, that energy
is released and accounts for the larger energy of combustion
than the other similar materials, which don't have that sort
of internal strain. The rocket fuel project that we're talking
about right now. I'm telling my family like, oh, yeah,
like we just figured out this and blah blah blah.
(13:43):
The more bleeding edge or the less there is known
about the problem that I'm working on, the happier I am.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
This space time.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
And time that To take another brief look at some
of the other stories making use in science this week.
With a Science report, scientists have modified a glue gun
to print out bone grafts, which they say could be
three D printed directly under fractures and defects during surgery.
A report in the General Device claims the new tool
has already been tested and found to quickly create complex
burone implants without the need for prefabricated parts being made
(14:31):
in advance. The new graphs were shown to have both
high structural flexibility, as well as the ability to release
anti inflammatory antibiotics and aid natural bone regrowth at the
grafting site.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Current methods of fixing.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Bones use either metal donor bone or three D printed
materials to repair the brake, all of which take time
to build or repair in the case of irregular bone brakes,
but now the authors were able to print in situ,
taking a feature of natural bone that's known to promote
healing and compatible plastic in mixing them together into a
sort of glue, which will then bind and conform to
(15:05):
the jagged grooves of a fractured bone. A new study
warns that unfit preteens carrying extra belly fat are more
likely to suffer from mental health issues. Are reporting the
Journal of the American Medical Association found that pre adolescent
kids who are carrying extra weight around their middle, as
well as those with bad cardio fitness, could be more
(15:26):
likely to experience symptoms of anxiety and depression compared with
their lina fitter peers. The study looked at over two
hundred kids aged eight to eleven found that greater lean
mass and higher fitness levels than the kids was linked
to fewer anxiety and depression symptoms, whereas higher levels are
fat around their organs was linked to higher.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Levels of both.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
A new study has shown that explosions of diversity throughout
the evolution of the plant animal kingdom today likely explained
why some groups of species are so dominant. Scientists were
investigating why some groups of species evolved from a single
anset that become dominant. For example, beetles make up some
forty percent of modern day insects and eighty five percent
of plants of flowering plants. A report in the journal
(16:09):
Frontieres in a collagen evolution Ana lies more than three
hundred thousand plant species, over a million insects species, and
in excess of one and a half million other animal species.
They found a consistent pattern with the majority species were
part of disproportionately large clades, likely as a result of
explosions of diversity when an ancestor had an evolutionary breakthrough,
such as developing flight, morving to a new area, or
(16:32):
new relationships with other species. A recent survey is found
that almost half of news Nation viewers believe the United
States government is concealing information about unidentified flying objects. To
mendum from Australian skeptics, says the Nationwide Pole found that
forty four percent of those surveyed think the government's hiding something.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
The survey poll carried out by a online TV theywork
called Newstation, another called to Season This. They found that
in April of this year of twenty twenty five, they
found that forty four percent of Americans think the government
is concealing information about unidentified flying objects. The interesting thing
because News Nation is a big promoter of UFO myths
and conspiracies, and it features the Australian journalist Ross Coulthard
(17:15):
who has this ongoing series of programs claiming that any
day now the proof is going to be revealed about
the UFOs. But anyway, so this audience from News Nation,
and I don't know how they did the survey, whether
it was sort of people just phoned in with their
views or whether they just surveyed their own audience somehow,
and their audience would tend to have a higher belief
in UFOs and things because that's the way the TV
(17:35):
program goes. Almost half of the people who are aged
under thirty says they believe the government was hiding something.
News Nation is big on conspiracy theories. People early forties,
et cetera. Much the same percentages, but only thirty four
percent of baby boomers there has been taught one between
forty six and sixty four said the same. It's almost
like a statistical issue. Forty four percent of Americans seek
the government sealing it, but only thirty four percent of
(17:56):
those who are over certain eight in their sixty seventies
eighties strongest amongst those with a high school diploma or less.
It's an education thing. It's lower thirty six percent among
Collie's graduates. Belief is higher among non white ethnic groups,
but that also might be associated with education background. Partially.
The thing is it's still high numbers. Thirty four percent
of the lowest number among BABY members think that the
(18:17):
government is covering up information. It's like it's a no
win situation. A third of people think there's a conspiracy.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Well, they're probably right.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
There is a conspiracy the government is covering up. But
it's not aliens from another planet. It's black projects by
the US military.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Yeah, I know, I know. The whole one about UFOs
is they're unidentified, so you can't jump to the fact
they say they're aliens. They're are identified. You don't know
what they are, so you can't really jump to say
they're identified, but I know what they are because you've
just identified them. Strange and normally, there that this belief
in things that we don't know exists that we have
never identified as subtly the subject of government conspiracies. Perhaps
that's why we don't know what they are, because the
(18:51):
governments covering them up. It's a too easy answer held
by a lot of people, especially in America, and this
particular news nation operation is very much pro and stuff,
so I would take what they say with a TV
grain of salt.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
That's timndum from Australian skeptics, and that's the show for now.
(19:24):
Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher,
Google Podcast poker 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
(19:46):
National Science Foundation, on Science zon Radio and on both
iHeartRadio and tune In Radio. And you can help to
support our show by visiting the space Time Store for
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(20:08):
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to space Time with Stewart Gary dot com for full details.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
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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