Primordial Black Holes and Saturn's Ring Origins: Unveiling Cosmic Mysteries

This is Spacetime Series twenty nine, episode twenty two for broadcasts in the twentieth February twenty twenty six. Coming up on space Time, Could the first black holes in the universe have formed within seconds of the Big Bang? A possible origin for Satin's iconic rings, and NASA getting ready for another Otamus two man moonlaunch attempt. All that and more coming up on space Time. Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary. A new study claims that some of the universe's most exotic stuff, things like cannibal stars, black holes, and boson stars, could have formed within the first seconds of the birth of the cosmos in the Big Bang thirteen point eight billion years ago. The findings, reported in the journal Physical Review D suggest that before the first atoms came together less than a second after the Big Bang, subatomic particles might have condensed to form what they call halos of matter. These halos might then have collapsed, creating the first black holes, objects called boson stars, and even more exotic objects called cannibal stars. The studies authors from the International School of Advanced Studies based their work on the hypothesis proposed in some cosmological models, namely that the earliest phases of the universe's existence after the Big Bang saw what was a brief early matter dominated era, So the authors investigated how particles might have interacted with each other during this period. They discovered that such interactions could give rise to a surprising variety of extremely exotic cosmic objects, some of which we know and a lot which we don't. The study suggests that even during the very first instances of the Big Bang, the universe could have already been a stage for rich, complex physical phenomena. Recent advances in cosmology have made it possible to reconstruct in detail the history of the universe from its rapid initial expansion known as inflation, to primordial nucleosynthesis, the formation of the first atomic nuclei heavier than hydrogen, which occurred between ten seconds and twenty minutes after the Big Bang. The immediate period, however, remains largely unexplored. An intriguing possibility during this interval was that matta temporarily dominated the universe. In this scenario, mata halos can naturally be formed, and if these particles could interact with one another, then the interactions could lead to a gravitherrmal collapse. Resulting in compact objects such as black holes and other exotic cosmic structures. Among these compact objects, the author suggests that cannibal stars could have been formed. Now. A cannibal star is similar to a traditional star, except that its particles self annihilate instead of causing the nuclear fusion that powers normal stars. At the same time, the authors also suggest circulled boson stars may have formed. These involved the quantum nature of particles supporting the star itself. Now, these stars may all have populated the newborn universe for only a few seconds before collapsing further the form primordial black holes. Now. Alternatively, the primordial black holes could have formed directly from the collapse of the matter halos now. According to the study, the haloes formed during an early matter dominated era had relatively small masses smaller than around ten to the power of twenty eight grams, and following grabo thermal collapse could have generated even smaller primordial black holes. Now. Using a simplified theoretical model, the authors showed that in some cases primordial black holes might have overproduced, violating observational constraints. In others, asteroid sized primordial black holes could have formed potentially accounting for all the dark matter in the universe today. Finally, some primordial black calls might have evaporated really quickly, disappearing before primordial nuclear synthesis could have taken place, that is, before the formation of light atoms such as hydrogen and helium. The authors say it'd be interesting to explore the formation of Cannibal stars and Boson stars in the present day universe through the collapse of self interacting dark matter halos and more. Speculative studying star formation and accretion in simple particle models could provide new insights into the complex astrophysical processes that shape our universe today. This is space time, still become a possible origin for Satin's iconic rings, and getting ready for another Artemis to Man moon launch attempt. All that and more still to come on space time. A new study suggests that Saturn's largest moon, Titan, could have formed from a collision between two older moons, and this event may also have been linked to the formation of Satin's iconic rings. The thirteen year mission of NASA's Cassini spacecraft and its European Space Agency Huygen's lander expanded science's understanding of the Saturnian System and some of its many moons, including Titan, where Huygens landed. Among those discoveries was the young age of Satin's spectacular ring system and the detection of Titan's rapidly shifting orbit. Now, a new study reported in the Plunetry Science Journal and on the pre press physics website archive dot org proposes a new explanation linking the formation of the Saturnian moons and rings, centering on the possibility that Titan is the product of a moon merger. Near the end of its mission, Gassini measured Satin's internal mass distribution, which governs the planet's slow spin axis wobble, or procession. For decades, scientists thought Saturn's processional period matched that of Neptune, enabling the two planets gravitational interactions to gradually tilt Satin, which lets us clearly see its rings. Later, as Jupiter and Saturn migrated out to the current orbital positions, their gravitational perturbations caused Neptune to be flung out of its original orbit and moved beyond Uranus into its current Arter Solar System position. Gassini's final trajectory showed Saturn's mass is slightly more concentrated at its center than what was expected, but that changes its precession rate, so it no longer matches that of Neptune now. To explain this, Situs proposed that Satin once had an extra moon, which was ejected after a close encounter with Titan and eventually broke up, forming Saturn's spectacular ring system. The study, led by the SETI Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, used computer simulations that determine if an extra moon could get close enough to Satin to form the rings, but the models showed the most likely outcome was a collision of this extra moon with Titan. Now, Satin's small misshape and constantly tumbling moon, Hyperion has its orbit locked with that of Titan. The studies lead author match A. Cook from the City Institute, says Hyperion, the smallest among Satin's major moons, provided the most important clue about the history of the system. Cook says that in computer simulations where the extra moon became unstable, Hyperion was often lost, surviving only in rare cases. Cook and colleagues recognized that the Titan Hyperion lock is relatively young. Only a few hundred million years old, and this states to around the same period as when the extra moon would have disappeared. Perhaps Hyperion didn't survive this upheaval, but instead resulted from it. See if the extra moon merged with Titan, then it would likely have produced fragments knee Titan's orbit, and that's exactly where hyperion would have formed, and this provided the most important clue. The new model suggests that Titan form from a merger between two earlier moons, a sort of Prototitan nearly as large as Titan itself today, and a smaller proton Hyperion. Now this merger could well explain Titan's few impact craters, which would have been erased during the process, and Titan's eccentric orbit, which is now quickly becoming rounder suggest a recent disturbance from a possible proto hyperion. Before merging, Prototitan probably resembled Jupiter's Callisto, a created surface and lacking any atmosphere. The authors also found that before its disappearance, Proto Hyperion tilted the orbit of Saturn's distant moon Lapidus, solving another long standing mystery. Now, if the Titan we know today was formed through a merger. Where did the rings of Saturn come from? For earlier studies had suggested the rings were debris from collisions between medium sized moons luser into satin. That idea was later supported by simulations from the University of Edinburgh and NASA's Aims Research Center. They showed that most debris would reassemble into moons, but a fraction of debris would have been scaled it inwards, forming Saturn's rings. For years, it was thought that this inner moon collision was triggered by the Sun, but the new research finds that it was a further result from the Titan merger. See Titan's eccentric orbit would have destabilized the inner moons, a situation known as orbital resonance, where orbits a lion and gravitational influences increase. Titans expanding orbit sometimes creates these ratios, and the results for affected small emoons would be catastrophic. Their orbits would elongate, sending them towards collisions with their neighbors. While the timing of the second cataclysm is unclear, it must have occurred after Titan's merger, which is consistent with the rings estimated age of around one hundred million years this report from MAstV. Titan is surrounded by a partially transparent brown haze. Dark regions along Titan's equator are mostly dune fields. Brighter regions are highlands a few hundred meters high. Images taken from the Huygens probe show Titan's surface in more detail. The probe had spectrometers that measured small variations in the color of Titan's surface. Most of Titan's surface is brown. North of the landing site, a pair of parallel dark dunes stretch east west. A large highland of triangular shape lies to the northwest. Dark canyons a complicated network of channels where rivers of methane flowed at some time in the past. To the east of the landing site is a system of bright ridges standing out above the dark, dry lake bed. The ridges have intricate structures that tell stories about their past. The Huygens probe descended toward one of these ridges. Some regions were imaged with high resolution just before Huygens landed on Titan, especially the area to the west of the landing site. Most of Titan's surface is covered by dark organics that are produced in the atmosphere and slowly settled down. Bright spots may be exposed patches of water ice. While the probe rotated during the descent, its orientation after landing had the camera looking to the south. The camera saw a field of pebbles that were carried around by a river of methane in the past. Some pebbles are larger than a human hand. The descent immager spectral radiometer illuminated the surface, allowing spectral analysis. The lamp's spotlight stands out brightly. Since days on Titan are even darker than cloudy days on Earth, a little sunlight reaches Titan's surface due to its thick haze and large distance from the Sun. This is space time, still the calm getting ready for another possible launch of nassas Ittemis to man Moon mission, and later in the science report and you study shows that apes, just like people, have imaginations. Oh that and more still the calm on space time well in the work of last week scrubbing of the Artomus two man moon mission launched following hydrogen leaks discovered during a wet dress rehearsal at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA engineers have now replaced two seals in the tail service massed umbilical area of the mobile launcher, the location where the elevated hydrogen concentrations were detected during tanking. After draining the ninety eight meter tall Space Launch System SOLS rocket's cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants, technicians separated the rocket to ground interface plates and inspected the fueling lines before installing the new seals. Now, the same issue had developed during the Space Launch System's countdown for the unmanned Artomus I mission, which went round the Moon and back to Earth in twenty twenty two. The removed hardware from Artemis two is now being analyzed and additional testing will be conducted at NASA's Stenna Space Center in order to validate the repairs. NASA expects to reconnect the interfaces to the launch pad in the next few days. Changes planned for the next wet dress rehearsal, we'll see the Orion spacecraft's crew hatch closed prior to the test. A faulty valve and the hatch pressurization system was one of the other issues that came up during the test. That valve was replaced prior to the test. And it had to be retalked, adding additional time to the test, so the launch day closeout crew will not deploy to the pad and the crew axis arm will remain extended during the wet test. Also, two planned countdown holds, each gaining in additional thirty minutes, will be added to the pre launch rundown, providing more troubleshooting time and cleaner engineering data. NASA says none of these adjustments will affect launch day crew operations. Mission managers are now looking at other launch attempts in March, with five launch windows available during the month on the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and eleventh. If the mission can't make any of those dates, another launch window opens on April the first, with alternatives between April the third and the sixth, and again on April the thirtieth. Now, this wet dress rehearsal they're all working towards involves leading two point sixty five million liters of cryogetically cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the rocket and then proceed with mimicking the final stages of the actual countdown, with automated systems taking control of countdown operations. Final checks of flight computers, engine bleed systems becoming operational ground support equipment all running, and the rocket itself transitioning to internal power with a countdown, then proceeding towards a simulated engine start. NASA last sent astronauts to the Moon during the Apollo era back in the nineteen sixties and seventies. The last humans to walk on the Moon were back in nineteen seventy two from the Apollo seventeen mission. The Artemis program aims to set the stage for returning humans to the Moon and providing a permanent presence on the lunar surface, including a new space station in cislunar orbit for the Lunar Gateway. Eventually, ittemists will send humans on longer missions to marsen Beyond. When it does finally launch, Ittemis two will test key systems aboard the rine SP basecraft, including its maneuverability and docking ability, its life support and radiation protection systems, its navigation systems, and its avionics. A number of experiments and the deployment of five satellites will also take place during the flight, which itself will travel more than six and a half thousand kilometers beyond the Moon, making it the furthest humans have ever traveled from Earth. Splashdown will be in the North Pacific Ocean off the California coast. Itemis two will be followed by the Artemis three mission, which will return humans to the lunar surface, landing near the moon South Pole. This report from NASSATV. With Artemis three planning to return humans to the Moon for the first time since nineteen seventy two, NASA and its commercial partners continue to develop the systems needed to land. Crew safely on the lunar surface. SpaceX will provide and operate a moon lander for NASA's Artemis three mission, called Starship Human Landing System or HLS. During Artemis three, space launch System rocket will launch four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft for their multi day journey to lunar orbit. The Starship HLS, powered by two variants of SpaceX's Raptor engines, will launch uncrewed on a super heavy booster to lunar orbit to pick up the crew. Once on board the HLS, two crew members will head to the surface of the Moon, where they will live and work for about a week, collecting samples and performing science experiments. Once they're done, they'll get back into starship, to the orbiting orion. And return to Earth. This is space time and time out of Take another brief look at some of the other stories making using science this week with a science report. A new study has shown that rates of schizophrenia or other pschotic disorder are on the increase among younger people. The findings are reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal Examine Diagnosis Rates for psychotic disorders between nineteen ninety two and twenty twenty three among more than twelve million people. The authors found that the annual rate of diagnoses increased by sixty percent over the study period for people aged fourteen to twenty, but remained stable or even dropped for those ages twenty one to fifty. They say they could find no clear reason of why this was the case, but drug use, cesioeconomic stress, and older parental age could potentially be contributing factors. A new study has shown that apes, just like people, have imaginations. The findings, reported in the journal Science, show the capacity to pretend is not uniquely human. In a series of tea party experiments, search is demonstrate for the first time that apes can use their imagination and play pretend and ability thought to have been uniquely human consistently across the three experiments, Bernobo engaged with cups of imaginary juice and bowls of pretend grapes. The finding suggest that the capacity to understand pretend objects is within the cognitive potential of at least an in cultured a and likely dates back six to nine million years to our common evolutionary ancestors. By the age of two, Human kids do engage in pretend scenarios like tea parties, and previously, young female chimpanzees in the wild have been observed carrying and playing with sticks, holding them just like their mothers would with a young infant. In other words, that chips were playing Dolly in an experiment and deadly. Inspired by the work of Nicola Tesla, scientists have successfully transmitted electricity through the air using ultrasonic sound waves and laser beams. Finish researchers from the University of Helsinki and the University of Ulu have been undertaking the work, which could eventually move electricity without the need of physical cables. The Lettuce tests involve high intensity ULTRASI waves creating an invisible pathway through the air, effectively guarding electrical sparks along a controlled route called an acoustic wire. Other researchers focused on leveraging light and radio frequencies that utilize high powered lasers to transmit electricity to remote receivers, providing critical galvanic isolation for hazardous environments like nuclear power plants and high voltage power stations. The technology could eventually enable contactless electrical connections and smart interfaces that function entirely without the need of plugs or traditional wiring. In what appears to be a terrible indictment of the Russian education system, a new study claims a fifth of all Russians believe the Sun revolves around the Earth. The survey found that some sixty two percent of Russians never or almost never looked for news about scientific achievements, forty three percent never discussed them, and only twelve percent can name one contemporary Russian scientist of a world level. The greatest decline in knowledge was when it came to disciplines such as chemistry, materials, science, mathematics, and engineering technologies. While older Russian generations were more interested in scientific news, it seems younger Russians are more likely to believe in the paranormal. In fact, today twenty percent of Russians are convinced the Sun revolves around the Earth, while back in twenty twenty two that figure was fourteen percent. Sixteen percent of Russians believe people lived at the same time as dinosaurs, and among young people aged eighteen to twenty four, that figure rich is eighteen percent. At the same time, thirty nine percent believe in sorcerers and thirty four percent believe in the ability of psychics to predict the future. The Skeptics timendum says it all indicates a sharp decline in scientific literacy and arise in the belief of pseudos sciences. One in five Russians believe that geocentric universe, that the Earth is at the center of the Solar system and that the Sun moves around it like the old ras used to be, and that sort of it's not true that the Sun revolves around the Earth. But never mind the suggesting that it's more common with younger people in Russia. It's that some people believe in dinosaurs that living at the same time as people, and as higher amongst young people than it is among older people. Thirty nine percent believe in sorcerers. Thirty four percent believe in the ability of psychics to predict the future. And that's what we justify it in other countries as well. This survey actually came through the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service, so you just wonder it might be a case of trying to undermine people's attitudes towards Russians. I don't know what the story is in other countries. Other Russians less scientific than anyone else. You know. That's the skeptics timendum. And this is space Time, and that's the show for now. Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through at fyites dot com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast download provider, and from space Time with Stuart Gary dot com. Space Time's also broadcast through the National Science Foundation, on Science Own Radio and on both iHeartRadio and tune In Radio. And you can help to support our show by visiting the Spacetime Store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies, or by becoming a Spacetime Patron, which gives you access to triple episode commercial free versions of the show, as well as lots of burnus audio content which doesn't go to weir access to our exclusive Facebook group and other rewards. Just go to space Time with Stewart Gary dot com for full details. You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary. This has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com