Dream Chaser, Uranus Aurora, and Ozone Hole Update | S26E138

This is Spacetime Series 26 episode 138 for broadcast on the 17th of November 2023.
Coming up on Spacetime, the first Dream Chaser Spaceplane delivered to NASA,
infrared aurora discovered on Uranus, and NASA's report on the 2023 Antarctic ozone hole.
All that and more coming up on Spacetime.
Welcome to Spacetime with Stuart Gary.
[Music]
Sierra Nevada's first operational Dream Chaser Spaceplane has left its production facility
in preparation for its first flight early next year.
The wing spacecraft, named Tenacity, was constructed at the company's Louisville Colorado facility.
When it does finally fly into space, the lightweight lifting-butter design will be launched
aboard the United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan Centaur rocket. Dream Chaser was designed to
carry a crew of up to seven astronauts, but will initially be used as an unmanned cargo ship.
It's been contracted by NASA for an initial seven supply emissions to the International Space Station,
joining SpaceX's Dragon and Northrop Grumman's signet's cargo ships, which are already under
taking commercial supply missions for the agency. The first Dream Chaser Spaceplane has been
transported to NASA's Neil Armstrong test facility in Ohio. They will undergo several
months of vigorous testing before being taken to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Tenacity is slated to be the certification to mission for the United Launch Alliance's Vulcan
Centaur rocket. The Vulcan Centaur's maiden flight, Certification 1, will fly the astrobatic Periguen
Lunar Lander to the Moon, possibly as early as December 24th. The new Vulcan Centaur is replacing
the United Launch Alliance's existing Atlas V and Delta IV family of rockets. Each 10 meter long
Dream Chaser Spaceplane will be capable of carrying five tons of cargo, and it will include a five meter
long expendable pressurized cargo module called the Shooting Star, which will be attached behind
the Spaceplane, and will add an additional four and a half tons of cargo capacity. Dream Chaser will
return to Earth landing conventionally on the former Kennedy Space Center Space Shuttle runway,
carrying 1,750 kilograms of returned experiments and equipment. The Jentler runway landing will allow
the return to Earth of more delicate technology, which could be damaged during a Ruffer High G Splashdown
landing. As well as tenacity, a second Dream Chaser is now currently under construction, while a third
was built as an engineering demonstrator on the ground and for flight verification and validation
tests. Each of the Dream Chasers will be able to fly at least 15 missions over a 10-year lifespan.
Sierra Nevada, now called Sierra Space, also plans to use Dream Chaser to launch and build its own
orbiting habitat in space, before NASA retires the International Space Station around 2030.
The Dream Chaser design goes back well over 60 years, with its origins in the planned United States Air
Force 1957 era X20 dinosaur manned spacecraft, launched on the top of a modified Titan III rocket.
NASA continued with its development in the 1960s and early 70s with a range of experimental spacecraft.
These included the Northrop M2, the Martin X-23 Prime, the Martin Marietta X-24, and the Northrop HL-10.
Then during the 1990s, NASA used the same basic lifting body design to develop the HL-20
experimental space plane, which eventually evolved into the X-38 emergency crew return vehicle.
It was to be used as an emergency escape pod, transported to the International Space Station in
the payload bay of the Space Shuttle and then docked to the orbiting outpost until needed.
However, that project was cancelled in 2002 following budget cuts.
This is Space Time. Still to come, an infrared aurora discovered on Uranus,
and NASA issues its report card on the 2023 Ad Arctic ozone hole.
All that and more still to come on Space Time.
[Music]
Astronomers have confirmed the presence of an infrared aurora on the cold ice giant Uranus.
The discovery reported in the journal Nature Astronomy could shed new light on the mysteries behind
the magnetic fields of the planets of our solar system and even on where the
distant worlds orbiting other stars could support life. While an ultraviolet aurora has been
observed around Uranus since 1986, no confirmation of an infrared aurora had been observed until now.
The ice giants Uranus and Neptune are unusual planets in our solar system.
That's because they both have magnetic fields which are misaligned with the axis of their spin.
Now the Earth's as well, but only by a few degrees, nothing like that which we find in Uranus and Neptune.
Well, scientists are yet to find an explanation for this, the clues may well lie in Uranus' aurora.
A aurora occurs by highly energetic charged particles which are funneled down a planet's
magnetic field lines and collide with molecules and atoms in a planet's atmosphere.
On Earth the most famous result of this process are the spectacular Northern and Southern
lights, the aurora borealis and aurora astralis. But on planets such as Uranus, where the atmosphere is
primarily a mix of hydrogen and helium, the auroras emitted outside the visible light part of the
spectrum and often in wavelengths such as the infrared. The authors may their discovery
using infrared auroral measurements taken by analyzing specific wavelengths of light emitted
by Uranus using the Keck II telescope upon monochew and Hawaii. From this they were able to analyze
the spectra of the emission lines from the planet. In the infrared spectrum, the lines emitted by
a charged particle and its hydrogen-3 were very in brightness depending on how hot or cold the particle is
and how dense this layer of the atmosphere is, hence the lines can act as a thermometer into the planet.
And the observations revealed distinct increases in hydrogen-3 density in Uranus' atmosphere
with little change in temperature, consistent with ionization caused by the presence of an infrared
aurora. Not only does this help us better understand the magnetic fields of the outer planets of
our own solar system, but it may also help in identifying exoplanets that are suitable for supporting life.
The studies lead author Amit Thomas from the University of Lister,
says the temperature of all the gas giant planets including Uranus are hundreds of degrees hotter than
what they should be, far above the sorts of temperatures being predicted by models where they
only being heated by the sun. And that leaves scientists with a big question of why these planets
are all so much hotter than expected. One theory suggested the energetic aurora could be the cause.
That's because they could be generating and pushing heat from the aurora down towards the
magnetic equator in the process heating the surrounding atmosphere. This space time still
to come. NASA's report on the 2023 Antarctic ozone hole and later in the science report
and you study shows that elderly women who look after the sick and frail tend to live longer.
All that and more still to come on space time.
You said light and high altitude balloon data by NASA and NOAA show that this year's
Antarctic ozone hole reached its maximum extent on September 21st.
On that day the hole reached a maximum size of 26 million square kilometers,
making it the 12th biggest since 1979. The ozone hole usually starts to form significant
structure between September 7th and October 13th, a period known as peak depletion.
And this year's peak depletion averaged around 23.1 million square kilometers. Now to put that
in perspective it's about the same size as all of the North American continent.
And that makes this year's ozone hole over Antarctica the 16th largest ever observed.
The head of NASA's ozone research team in chief of Earth Sciences Paul Newman from
NASA's Got Art Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland says this year's ozone hole was modest
and declining levels of human produced chlorine compounds along with help from active Antarctic
stratospheric weather all helped to improve ozone levels. Located in the stratosphere,
the ozone layer acts like Earth's natural sunscreen,
shirring the planet from the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation.
A thinnier ozone layer means less protection from ultraviolet rays, which can cause sunburns,
cataracts and skin cancer. Every September the ozone layer thins the form an ozone hole above
the Antarctic continent. Now calling it a hole is a bit of a misnomer, it's not a complete void of
ozone. Scientists use the term ozone hole as a metaphor for an area where the ozone concentrations
above Antarctica drop will below the historical threshold of 220 dobs and units.
Scientists first reported evidence of ozone depletion back in 1985.
There've been tracking ozone Antarctic levels every year since 1979.
The Antarctic ozone depletion occurs because human-made chemicals containing bromine and
chlorine rise into the stratosphere. These chemicals are broken down releasing their chlorine and bromine,
which then initiate chemical reactions that destroy the ozone molecules. The main ozone depletion
chemicals including chlorofluorocarbons were once widely used in aerosol sprays, foams, air conditioners,
fire suppressants and refrigerators. And the problem is chlorofluorocarbons of atmospheric
lifetimes of 50 to more than 100 years. The 1987 Montreal Protocol and subsequent amendments
have banned the production of chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone depletion chemicals worldwide
since 2010. The main ozone depletion chemical emissions since then have come from factories in China
which are ignoring the protocols. The reduction in emissions by the rest of the world has
seen a decline in ozone destroying chemicals and at least some signs of stratospheric ozone recovery.
NASA and NOAA monitor the ozone layer over the polling globally using instruments aboard a series
of satellites including NASA's Aura, the joint NOAA NASA Sonomy and the NOAA 20.
Aura's microwave limbsounder can also estimate levels of ozone depletion chlorine.
Scientists also attract the average amount of depletion by measuring the concentration of ozone
inside the hole. At NOAA's South Pole baseline atmospheric observatory,
scientists measure the layers thickness by releasing weather balloons carrying ozone sonodes
and by making ground-based measurements using a dobson spectrophotometer.
NOAA's measurements showed a low value of 111 dobson units over the South Pole on October 3rd.
NASA's measurements measured over a wider area recorded a low of 99 dobson units on the same date.
Back in 1979 the average concentration above Antarctica was more like 225 dobson units
as a long way to go. Although the total column volume of ozone never reaches zero,
in most years scientists do typically see zero ozone at some altitudes within the stratosphere,
especially directly over the South Pole. And this year there was a 95% depletion level where there's
often close to 100% ozone loss within the stratosphere. The Hunga Tonga Hunga Harpe volcano,
which violently erupted in January 2022 and blasted an enormous plume of water into the stratosphere,
also contributed to this year's ozone depletion. That water vapor enhanced ozone depletion reactions
over the Antarctic early in the season. Humans says that if Hunga Tonga didn't go off,
the ozone hole would likely have been a lot smaller this year.
This report from NASA TV.
Have you ever heard that something called the ozone layer is thinning or that your aerosol hairspray
is what's causing it? Or that it leads to more severe sunburns and UV rays? This is referring to
the ozone hole. But what exactly does it all mean? Welcome to ozone 101.
The ozone hole's proper name is actually the Antarctic ozone hole because when it forms,
it forms over Antarctica. But before we get into what that is, let's first talk about what ozone
itself is. Ozone is a gas comprised of three oxygen atoms. About 90% of the Earth's ozone exists
in the stratosphere. The layer of the atmosphere that extends from 8 to about 30 miles above the Earth's
surface. In fact, the stratosphere is often referred to as the ozone layer. Ozone acts as a sunscreen
around the Earth, filtering out harmful ultraviolet radiation or UV rays, which are mainly absorbed
in the stratosphere. Without an ozone layer, UV radiation would sterilize the Earth. With it damaged,
but still present ozone layer, there would be more sunburns, more skin cancer cases, increased cases
of eye damage, the wilting and loss of trees and plants, and significantly lessened crop yields.
Suffice it to say, ozone is pretty important for the planet. So what causes the ozone hole?
There are several major factors that together lead to the destruction of ozone,
thus creating the ozone hole. Those factors are, one, very strong winds around the South Pole,
or the polar vortex, two, the sun's rays, three, chlorine and bromine compounds from ozone-depleting
substances, and four, cold temperatures below negative 109 degrees Fahrenheit in the stratosphere,
which form a specific kind of cloud, polar stratosphere clouds. The polar vortex forms in the
southern hemisphere stratosphere during the winter as temperatures drop, and when sunlight returns
to an article in late winter and early spring, temperatures are still cold enough to form polar
stratosphere clouds, and now there's also sunlight. Chemical reactions take place on the cloud
particle surfaces, converting unreactive forms of chlorine and bromine into reactive chemicals.
The vortex acts as a sort of container, confining the contents of the anardic stratosphere within
its bounds, allowing the reactive chlorine and bromine compounds to destroy ozone molecules.
That's when depletion can occur on a large scale. With the presence of sunlight,
the reactive chlorine and bromine compounds produced during winter begin to deplete ozone molecules
by stealing one of their oxygen atoms, leaving just oxygen gas or O2 in its wake.
As long as the polar stratosphere clouds are present, these reactions will occur over and over again,
until the ozone is nearly gone. This forms what we call the ozone hole, but that's really a misnomer.
It's actually more of a thin layer. It mid to late spring, the vortex begins to break up,
and the polar air depleted of ozone is mixed back into the rest of the southern hemisphere.
The ozone hole is gone. Ozone depletion has still occurred. It's just no longer all concentrated in
one small area. It's spread around the atmosphere. So why is the ozone hole bigger and longer
lasting in certain years? Well, it all comes down to weather. Just like some winters are colder
and longer than others on the Earth's surface, the same goes for weather in the stratosphere.
If the anardic stratosphere stays cold, the polar vortex, and the ozone hole within it
will persist. And in years with cold springtime temperatures, the polar vortex and the ozone hole are large.
Make no mistake, ozone depletion is not a natural thing. It stems from human emissions of chemicals
called chlorofluoracarbons or CFCs. In the early 1900s, refrigerators used toxic gases like
ammonia and methyl chloride as refrigerants, unfortunately, this led to fatalities as the toxic
gases leaked out of the appliances. So the search began for a non-toxic and non-flammable chemical
that could be used as a refrigerant. Thus, the CFC was born. There are many types of CFCs,
but the two most common are CFC 11 and CFC 12. In the 1930s, the production and consumption
of CFCs began to skyrocket. By the early 1980s, over 300 million pounds of CFC 11 alone were being
released into the atmosphere each year. Then, in 1985, British researcher Joe Farman and his colleagues
published their research on large seasonal ozone losses over an article.
Thanks to the combined efforts of the quick-acting science community, industry, and policy makers,
the Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987, restricting the production and consumption of CFCs.
Every nation on Earth has now signed the Montreal Protocol. So, for the record, your hairspray
in aerosol deodorant hasn't been harming ozone since these laws went into effect in the 80s.
But why do we still see an ozone hole today? First, CFCs have lifetimes of 50 to 100 plus years,
and it will take some time for the concentration of CFCs in the atmosphere to drastically decline.
Second, there are still CFCs being released into the atmosphere today. For example, as an old refrigerator
or air conditioning unit deteriorates in a landfill, the CFCs within are slowly released.
From the time a CFC is released into the air, it takes about five years for its impact to be felt
over an article where depletion will occur. The CFCs emitted at the surface eventually rise into
the tropical stratosphere. The ozone in the stratosphere blocks most of the sun's UV radiation,
so the CFCs have to rise above most of the ozone layer before sunlight can then break them down.
Once they get high enough, solar radiation releases the chlorine, most of which eventually goes
into ozone-safe forms, like hydrochloric acid and chlorine nitrate. When these compounds make their
way to Antarctica, those chemical reactions start up, and if you're wondering why in Antarctica,
these reactions are unique to the polar regions because of their extreme low temperatures and
presence of polar stratosphere clouds. One chlorine atom can destroy thousands of ozone molecules,
and millions of tons of CFCs were pumped into the atmosphere from the 1920s through the early 1990s.
As CFC concentrations in the atmosphere continue to decline, the ozone hole is expected to
gradually become less severe, and scientists expect the Antarctic ozone to recover back to healthy
levels around the year 2070. This is Spacetime.
And Tom Mettaek, another brief look at some of the other stories making using science this week,
with a science report. And you studies found that the heart condition known as atrial
fibrillation is associated with a 45% higher risk of memory loss and other brain function decline.
Atrial fibrillation is the type of arrhythmia, which involves irregular and often fast heartbeat.
The findings reported in the journal GACC Heart Failure used UK health data from over 4.3
million people to look at the rate of mild cognitive impairment after atrial fibrillation diagnosis
and found an increased risk following the condition as well as increased risks related to depression,
stroke combined long term health conditions and socioeconomic deprivation.
The good news is there was no increased risk of mild cognitive impairment in patients who had
already received treatment for atrial fibrillation.
A new study has found there's a lot more that people could be doing in order to reduce the number
of marine animals being killed or injured after being hit by ships. A report in the journal
Nature has found that the current evidence shows that ship strikes could well be hoping to drive
declines in marine animal populations and as shipping networks continue to grow, so does the problem.
The researchers say there are simple steps that people could take to reduce the number of ship strikes,
starting with getting better data on where most of the animals are being hit.
From there, researchers say there's an opportunity to implement speed restrictions and route changes
in problem areas. A new study shows that all the women who take on the responsibility of helping sick
or frail friends or family members tend to live longer. The findings reported in the Journal
of the American Geoiatric Society recorded the self-reported caregiver status of nearly 160,000 women
aged between 50 and 79. The readings were taken from the mid-1990s through onto the mid-2000s,
and they then looked at the death rates of people within that group in 2019.
The authors found the rate of death of any cause was 9% lower among caregivers compared to those who
did not identify as caregivers. The researchers say the reason for this is unknown,
but they suggest healthier women may be more likely to take on a caregiver role,
and the role itself may encourage them to maintain their health better.
A new religious paper claims that despite popular belief, ghosts are not the spirits of the dead,
but rather, they're all demons. At least that's the view of Jean-Marie Cooper who holds a lie sentient
in canon law and is a consecrated virgin and canonist. To amend them from Australian skeptics says,
it can all be very confusing for us lay folk. It is very certainly not. I'm surprised you
will sort of even believe that that ghost art human spirit, they would be silly. No, they're demons.
So natural, natural, the church believes, or the Catholic church anyway. Our paper recently
they came out with saying that ghost don't exist. It goes against all the beliefs of the Catholic
church. Certainly there are people in purgatory who are waiting to go to heaven after a purification
if they need to go through, but they won't necessarily get there straight away. Are they people wondering
in spirit land who have not gone to heaven yet? No, according to this thing, they are actually all
paranormal activity. Paranormal ghostly activity is connected to demons or demonic activity. So you've
been possessed. So which rather sort of strikes me as ironic as someone who's saying stop paranormal
demons. It's falling towards that theory is moving from one supernatural to the other,
and of course the naturally they want to be. Wegeboards, sails, palm readings, tarot cards,
or psychic mediums as putting you in at risk of being put under demonic control. Well, that's
all straight out of the Bible. That is wegeboards, huh? No, but the whole idea of Suces and all that.
Yes, if you... Yes. Well, that's what they're quoting, the quote in the Bible about this,
I'm saying that it's biblical writ that you will be attacked by or taken over by demon. So it's not
ghost. They do have, though, the only real ghost is our blessed mother, Mary. That's the reason of Mary.
I know. It's a problem. You go through 2000 years of biblical dialectic and discussion and trying
to understand what the holy ghost is, whether it's a Trinity or it's all in one. It's all for the
theories about this. Yeah, I know. But basically, no, the only ghost worth putting the name on is
the visions of Mary, Atalora, and Fatima, and that sort of thing. That's Timendom from Australia,
and Skeptics.
And that's the show for now. Space time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple
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