How and When the Milky Way Came Together

SpaceTime S24E62 AI Transcript

[00:00:00] This is space-time series 24, episode 62 for broadcast on the 2nd of June, 2021, coming up on space-time new evidence of how and when the Milky way came together, 10 years of space station research on anti-matter and cosmic rays and Virgin galactic undertakes its first successful test flight from New Mexico, all that and more coming up.

On space time. Welcome to space time with steward, Gary

A new study. It shows that our Milky way galaxy already had a significant Stella population of its own. When it collided with an orbiting satellite galaxy known as Guiren sellers or [00:01:00] the Gaia sausage about 10 billion years ago, the findings reported in the journal nature. Astronomy are providing scientists with a new picture of the early history and evolution of our own galaxy.

The study's lead author, Josefina Michael Bond from the university of Birmingham says the merging event with Garen syllabus is thought of being one of the most important in the Milky ways. History shaping how we observe it today. The new data suggested the Milky way had already formed a large population of its own stars.

When the Garran syllabus merger occurred. The authors reached their conclusions after detailed studies over an a hundred red giant stars, determining their age, chemical composition and kind of magic. So motion across the sky. The authors use Astro seismology, this study oscillations in the stars. These by sound waves, rippling through a stars, internal structure, and it provided a very precise age for each of the stars in the study.

By calculating the age of the stars, your [00:02:00] authors are also able to determine for the first time that the stars captured from Gaia and Solidus have very similar or slightly younger ages compared to the majority of stars that were born inside the Milky way. Many of those Milkyway red giant stars in them up in what's known as the galaxies thick disk or those captured from the Gaia sausage.

And now in the Milky ways out of halo. The results also show that gravitational perturbations caused by the merger changed the orbits of stars already in our galaxy, making them more eccentric, or those from Garen Solidus move very differently. And as you'd expect, the chemical composition of the two stellar populations is also very different.

The study is the spectroscopic survey called Apogee, which provides the chemical composition of stars. It further aid and confirming their ages. The authors are now looking at a larger sample of stars and want to include even more subtle features such as frequency spectra. This will eventually lead to a much sharper view of the Milky ways, assembly, history, and evolution, [00:03:00] creating a timeline of how our galaxy developed.

This is space time still the calm 10 years of space station research into Addy matter and cosmic rays and Virgin galactic are the takes. Its first successful test flight from New Mexico, all that and much more store to come on. Space time.

Okay. Let's take a break from our show now for a word from our sponsor, Nord VPN, you know, protecting your data and enjoying the internet without restrictions is something we all crave, no big tech companies telling you what to do, no hackers or government agencies spying on your every move, which let's face it.

That's pretty creepy. The answer involves using a good virtual private network service. And that's where Nord [00:04:00] VPN comes in. It gives you complete anonymity online, protecting you from snoopers and hackers, and you can use it on any device, including your mobile tablets, laptops, or desktop computers. With Nord VPN, you can bypass censorship filters and you get access to websites that had GA blocked.

By using Nord VPN, you'll be able to stream videos without buffering, both at home and abroad and Nord VPN lets you enjoy unlimited bandwidth for all your devices. So you don't have to worry about running out of data. Again, Nord VPN lets you protect yourself from cyber attacks by encrypting sensitive information like banking, passwords and credit card numbers.

That means hackers. Won't be able to see what's inside your messages. If they're decepted. In fact Nord VPN is simply the world's best virtual private network service. You really need Nord VPN. And to help you get started, we have a special offer for you through spacetime. Just go to [00:05:00] Nordvpn.com/StuartGary, or use the coupon code Stuart Gary.

They get a two year plan plus one additional month at a huge discount. That URL again is nordvpn.com/stuartgary, or use the coupon code StuartGary at the checkout, and you'll find the URL details in the show notes and on the space-time website, that's Nordvpn.com/StuartGary. And now it's back to our show.

This is space time with Stuart, Gary. Nash's anti-matter and cosmic gray detector aboard the international space station is past the major milestone celebrating 10 years in orbit, the alpha magnetic spectrometer or AMS. Technically the AMS two, which is matter on an external trust of the orbiting.

Outpost is a key instrument in science's ongoing search to understand the mysterious invisible substance known as dark matter dark matter is really important. Makes up over [00:06:00] 80% of all the matter of the universe yet scientists have no idea what it is. They know it exists because they can see its gravitational impact on normal matter, such as holding galaxies together as they rotate.

Brought up to the space station. One of the final space shuttle flights, the alpha magnetic spectrometer two was installed on may the 19th, 2011 for an initially planned mission of just three years observing cosmic Ray particles and the anti-medic counterparts as they bombard the earth. Data from those observations of scientists, understand if cosmic dark matter and antimatter potentially exist in the universe in large quantities, as well as understanding the origin and propagation of cosmic grade particles across the Milky way.

Galaxy these data may also help scientists better understand radiation risks for future crew missions, both to the moon and Mars. As these cosmic rays can be harmful to humans. Led by Nobel Laureate, Samuel tink from the Massachusetts Institute of [00:07:00] technology, the AMS collaboration involves some 600 physicists, engineers and technicians from 60 nations AMS to a server.

I collected data from over 175 billion cosmic Ray events, masses AMS, project magic. Ken bolweg says data from the Amish two is rigorously filtered, keeping less than one in the thousand events initially recorded. As cosmic rays enter the AMS too. Not all of them travel through each of the instruments, nine unique detectors.

And if a cosmic Ray particle fell through measured by all nine detectors it's data isn't stored even with its robust filtering, AMS collects and stores data from over 16 billion cosmic Ravens annually, Boeing says AMS is also looking for anti-matter at unprecedented accuracies of parts per billion. Uh, massive experiments detected anti matter in the form of Eddy protons and positrons Addy protons are the negative recharged anti-medic counterparts to positively [00:08:00] charged protons.

While posse trans are the positively charged. Eddie had counterparts 10 negatively charged electrons. Amos two is allowed scientists that determined the different types of astrophysical sources, such as dark matter and cosmic Ray collisions produce high energy positrons as opposed to those which produce high energy electrons, providing insights into the origins of these opposite particles.

Other AMS to research has looked at the unique differences in positron and electron activity at different energy levels. The findings have already led to the publication of more than 17 scientific papers, which themselves have been referenced by literally hundreds of other papers and scientific research articles.

This report from NASA TV, humans have observed many wonders across the cosmos. Yet much of our universe is still shrouded in mystery. Among those mysteries is the formation of our [00:09:00] universe, which should have resulted in a balance of matter. And its corresponding counterparts anti-matter much of that matter is thought to exist in the form of dark matter, which can't be directly observed.

Much of the anti-matter can't be found at all. Studying fundamental particles, originating from sources up to billions of light years away may hold the key to understanding both the composition and history of our universe. Welcome to the world of particle physics. Currently being explored from low earth orbit by the alpha magnetic spectrometer installed on the international space station or ism.

Yes,

planets stars, interstellar gas dust, but we're able to observe across the universe comprises less than 5% of the total content found throughout the universe. The other 95% is dark, [00:10:00] dark matter, as well as dark energy, dark matter doesn't interact with or produce light. As far as we know. It doesn't consist of normal matter or matter that can be observed directly.

So how do you improve understanding of something that can't be observed one way is to look for evidence of its interactions. Kurt Castello, the ISS program, chief scientist at Johnson space center explains how the giant magnet of AMS OTU is working to help scientists test and modify their theories.

Scientists are using AMS. So to look at cosmic rays charged particles that travel near the speed of light AMS. So two categorizes each cosmic Ray, looking at a high energy range to see whether that's stellar phenomenon that we can measure can account for all of the cosmic rays we're seeing. But if you see something in the spectrum that [00:11:00] doesn't fit, then this could be evidence of dark matter interactions.

By studying cosmic rays, scientists are also able to search for anti-matter. The big bang theory of the universe's origin requires a 50 50 ratio of matter to anti matter. But to date, the amount of anti-matter found doesn't come close to matching the amount of matter known to exist. Costello says one of the goals of the mission is to detect anti-matter and see if there are any large collections of it out there somewhere.

When particles pass through the strong magnetic field produced by AMS to their paths, bent anti-matter particles stand out because their paths bend in the opposite direction compared to matter particles, the instrument searches for anti matter with the sensitivity three orders of magnitude greater than the original AMS, which flew in space in June of 1998, aboard the space shuttle [00:12:00] discovery.

This could support the discovery of anti-matter pools that were previously undetectable. A key factor in our ability to get the most out of AMS SOTU is time originally expected to have a life span of three years. The instrument has continued to perform into its eighth year of operation aboard the orbiting laboratory.

In late 20, 19 and early 2020 astronauts conducted a series of spacewalks to replace AMS  cooling pumps, which were failing. Extending the life of the instrument will provide scientists more time in their quest to unveil some of the universe's greatest mysteries. This is space-time still the comm Virgin galactic undertakes its first successful test flight from New Mexico and China launches a new ocean monitoring satellite.

Oh, that is more still to come on space.

[00:13:00] Virgin galactic is undertaken its first successful. How that you'd test flight in more than two years climbing to an altitude of 89 kilometers above the New Mexico desert. The flight comes after Virgin's last attempt ended abruptly the spacecraft's hybrid rocket engines suddenly shut down just a second into the burn.

Following a computer glitch caused by electromagnetic interference. And it said the company's testing regime backed by several months, the new test, why it was the latest in Virgin Galactic's efforts to create a space tourism program. The Bertrude 10 skilled, competent spelt spaceship. Two VSS unity was carried to an altitude of around 44,000 feet by its white Knight to mothership.

The VMs Eve is a weird-looking aircraft consisting of two fuselages. Matt had side by side, between [00:14:00] which is the Manny assembly in which the spaceship two is fitted. The mothership with unity attached took off horizontally from a conventional runway. Once it altitude unity was dropped, launched, and then quickly accelerated to more than three times the speed of sound on a suborbital trajectory.

Bye.

Thanks.

Okay. That'd be a decrease in pitch. That was a great barn, not faced other fully deployed point. Charlie complete. So cool. Yup. There's the sea of Cortez over there. I can see the peninsula right there is Apogee. Silence of space. Yeah. Amazing colors, resetting and tree trim [00:15:00] now. That's fantastic.

the wing space play enriched an outer Jude of just over 89.2 kilometers. That's 11 kilometers short of the Canon line. The internationally recognized official style space. But it's good enough for Virgin galactic, which insists on calling any flight above 80 kilometers of space flight using the lower American definition.

This test flight assessed upgrades to the spacecrafts horizontal stabilizes its flight control system. During the boost phase of the ascent live streaming capabilities from the spaceship to the ground, and it evaluated various elements within the cabin. As well as the two pilots, the mission also carried three research payloads for NASA flight opportunities program and experimental space-based surgical system.

The collide dust experiment and the [00:16:00] genus electromagnetic field measurement payload. After reaching its Apogee, unity began gliding back to earth, eventually making it a perfect conventional runway landing. Virgin galactic says its next test flight will carry six crew members for the first time. As well as the two pilots, there'll be four mission specialists to check out what an operational flight would be alike.

Virgin will also shortly begin testing its new third space plane. The first of its new spaceship three series, the fear says, imagine, meanwhile, construction of a fourth space play in the VSS inspire is continuing in California. Of course Virgin's first space playing the Veritas enterprise was destroyed during a fatal test flight back in 2014 in the Mojave desert.

The company says that eventually hopes to be undertaking around 400 suborbital space, tourism flights every year. It says it's already got more than 600 reservations with space tourism tickets selling for around a quarter of a million dollars per seat. And the first flights expected to begin [00:17:00] next year.

Meanwhile Virgin Galactic's primary suborbital space tourism, competitive blue origin will carry its first space tourist. The bullet's new Shepard spacecraft on July the 20th. This year marking the data. They stark Apollo 11, man moon landing. You ship it, which uses a separate booster launch vehicle and capsule as already undertaken 12 unmanned test flights to altitudes of above a hundred kilometers.

This is space time still to come. China launches the new ocean monitoring satellite and later in the science report, Pfizer and Medina vaccines, both fad offer immunity against subtypes of COVID-19. Now appearing in India. Oh, that is much more still to come on. Space, time

[00:18:00] as launched a new earth observation, satellite designed to study oceanography. The high two 2d was launched a board along March four bay rocket from the Shaquan satellite launch center in the Gobi desert region of Northwestern. China's in a Mongolia, the 1,575 kilogram spacecraft or work with its two predecessors.

They high Ang to be, and to see the former space-based network monitoring the dynamic Marine environment around the clock. The spacecraft features, color, ocean scanners and CCD cameras capable of monitoring chlorophyll concentrations, sea surface, temperatures and pollution levels. The high  was launched back in October, 2018 on the long match for B rocket, the tie you and satellite launch center in jazzy province, or the high on two C was launched in September last year, but the same type of rocket from the Shea Kwan launch center.

This space time

[00:19:00] and Tom Metta, take another brief. Look at some of the other stories making, using science this week with a science report. And you study suggest both the Pfizer and Medina M RNA vaccines offer immunity against the subtype of the SAS. Coby two variant known as B one six 17 one, which is currently tearing its way through India.

However, the findings by scientists at Emory university, one that the subtype might be more resistant to antibodies and other forms of the virus. The subtypes B one six 17 one and be one six 17, two, have both been detected with increasing frequency in India over the past few months and both carry T mutations linked to increased transmissibility because of their quick spread Citus originally tried the determined variations of these types.

Undermine COVID-19 vaccines. The world health organization. Now estimates up to 8 million people have been killed by the COVID-19 Corona virus with over three and a [00:20:00] half million confirmed fatalities and more than 170 million people infected since the deadly disease for spread out a word in China and you study claims Steve capabilities of cancer cells may be the result of reactivating pre-existing dormant genes in normal cells.

A report in the journal. Bio essay suggests cancer occurs through my whole steps that resurrect agents cellular functions. These ancient functions are retained by evolution for specific purposes, such as embryo development and wound healing, and a usually turned off in the adult form of complex organisms.

But these all genes can be turned back on often through damage to the systems that kept them turned off. The authors say the resulting resurrection steps or activistic reversions give cancer cells, the ability to survive proliferate resist therapy and metastasis size. And you study it, Sharon, that Exxon mobile's public messaging on climate [00:21:00] change has been similar to the historical tactics used by the tobacco industry.

And they're all fed at attempt to hide the link between smoking and cancer. The findings by scientists from Harvard university used artificial intelligence to analyze internal company documents, peer reviewed publications, and advertorials placed in the New York times from as far back as 1972, their report in the journal one earth found that by the mid two thousands, the company's public communications had shifted from explicit doubt about climate change to one of framing it as a risk, rather than a reality, which downplays the seriousness of climate change.

Like big tobacco's documented strategies. The Exxon mobile adverts, they analyze shifted responsibility for global warming away from the fossil fuel industry and onto consumers. And you study has found that night owls tend to send out more negative tweets than early birds. The findings reported in the journal of the Royal society.

Open science [00:22:00] show that positive and negative emotion shared in tweets, often follow daily and weekly patterns. Researchers looked at around 7 million tweets where the authors mentioned themselves and some 18 million tweets about other topics they found negative emotions were least mentioned around eight o'clock in the morning and increased steadily during the day until midnight, when using emojis in their tweets, people were more likely to use them to portray negative emotions during the middle of the week and least likely on Sundays.

The authors say that understanding these patterns could help design session technical based systems to support the emotional wellbeing of individuals through social media. You research is that a record number of Australians have moved to very high speed NBN plans of 250 megabits per second and upwards.

With the details on this story and more joined by technology editor, Alex Howard  from ity.com. Original intent of the NBN was to give people originally back in [00:23:00] 2007, a 12 megabit connection. But the government at the time realized I was a bit slow in the moves up to a hundred megabits. But at the time there were places like Japan and Hong Kong and parts of the U S that were able to get.

Gigabit connections, 1000 megabits and people are using this because they have many people in the family that are watching 4k, Netflix streams. They are updating multiple computers at the same time, they are uploading backups. You know, the amount of data we need for all the connected devices in our home.

Growing you're playing games as well, downloading updates. So those games that can be, you know, hundreds of gigabytes, if not more in, and, um, with the gigabit connections, you normally need some sort of a fiber to the home type of service. And in Australia, many people have been surviving on 25 megabits or 50 megabits.

And in fact, the, I will save the Australian competition and consumer commission tell side. There are many people who are surviving very happily on 50 megabits. So even slower pace. But the fact is that people taking up the 250 megabit, 500 megabit and one gigabit, 1000 megabit [00:24:00] plans has grown tremendously.

If you have a look at the amount of people that were on 250 megabits plans in December, 2020, there was 11,136. In March, 2021, when we're talking just three months, that is grind 490,000, just under half a million. So the huge growth there, because people want it to take up those particular plants to get even more speed.

And then when we're talking about the ultra fast connections from 500 megabits to a thousand megabits, so that one gigabit speed that grew from just under 10,000 to almost 83,000 in the same period. So there's definitely a hunger out there for people wanting, ever faster internet. And as we spoke about in the previous show, The NBN co has expanded the number of suburbs around Australia in different cities where you can now get five to connect to directly to your home rather than to the curb, which is no down the street.

Apple is launched new updates for their new operating system. Yeah. Look, we're going to find out about Iowa 16 later this year, it'll launch in September, but just now we've had Iowa 14.6 [00:25:00] launch for the iPad and CVO S we have. 14.6. So they were partying systems as well. And for the watch, we have 7.5 from Mecca west.

We have big Sur 11.4 as usual. There's a litany of security vulnerabilities that have been patched in the macro is one of those prevent hackers from being able to take photos of you through your webcam, on your Mac without the little green light coming on. So apple has closed that particular hole and that's, it is important that if you're running all the versions of the Mac iOS, you should upgrade.

And if you have all the computers that are too old to be updated, Time to stop using them. And speaking of updates, uh, Apple's new M one powered 5g. iPad will update you without even needing one. Yes, if you want to update most of your devices, you need to be connected to wifi, but with the advent of 5g and the super-fast speeds and also ever larger data plan, it's great to say that the 5g iPad pros only available on the iPad pro at the moment with the new M one chip.

Sit you'll fight to usage to a high-cost mode, as opposed to a low data mode. You can actually choose blood daughter if you want, but if [00:26:00] you set it to the high data mode, then you can download what are often gigabytes plus update your iPad through the 5g network. Now this doesn't yet work on the 5g powered iPhone 12.

I tried, uh, but it probably will come in iOS 15, along with other features and benefits. And it just goes to show that your device is really. Uh, dandelion devices. I shouldn't have to connect to a computer to be updated unless you still want to do it that way.  from ity.com

and that's the show for now. Space-time is available every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday through apple podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Google podcasts. PocketCasts Spotify outcast, Amazon music bites.com. SoundCloud YouTube favorite podcasts [00:27:00] downloaded provider. And from space-time with Stewart, gary.com space times also broadcast through the national science foundation on science own radio and on both iHeart, radio and tune in radio.

And you can help to support our show by visiting the space time store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies, or by becoming a space-time patron, which gives you access to the triple episode, commercial free versions of the show, as well as lots of Burness audio content, which doesn't go away access to our exclusive Facebook group and other rewards.

Just go to space time with Stuart, gary.com for full details. And if you want more space time, please check out our blog where you'll find all the stuff we couldn't fit in the show, as well as heaps of images, new stories, loads, videos, and things on the web. I find interesting or amusing, just go to space-time with Stuart, gary.tumbler.com.

That's all one word and that's tumbler without the aid. You can also follow us through at Stuart, Gary on Twitter at space-time with [00:28:00] Stuart Gary on Instagram. Through our space-time YouTube channel and on Facebook, just go to facebook.com forward slash space time with Stuart, Gary and space-time is brought to you in collaboration with Australian sky and telescope magazine.

Your window on the universe. You've been listening to space-time with Stewart, Gary. This has been another quality podcast production from bitesz.com.