Aug. 16, 2021

Mars Rover Comes up Empty Handed

The Astronomy, Technology, and Space Science News Podcast.
SpaceTime Series 24 Episode 94
*Mars rover comes up empty after first sample collection attempt
NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover mission managers are working out what to do next after their...

The Astronomy, Technology, and Space Science News Podcast.
SpaceTime Series 24 Episode 94
*Mars rover comes up empty after first sample collection attempt
NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover mission managers are working out what to do next after their first attempt to collect a rock and regolith drill sample failed to get anything in to the sample tube.
*Earliest moments of supernova explosion captured for the first time
Astronomers have for the first time captured the first moments of a supernova – the explosive death of stars.
*SpaceX build the world’s biggest rocket -- briefly
SpaceX has briefly assembled the largest rocket ever made placing the SN20 Starship spacecraft on top of its super heavy booster – in the process creating a giant 122 metre tall launch vehicle – 13 metres higher than NASA’s mighty Saturn V Apollo moon rocket.
*Long distance Pizza delivery to the Space Station
The Cygnus NG-16 cargo ship has successfully docked onto the International Space Station carrying a precious cargo of pizza.
*The Science Report
Global warming reaches 1.1 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
Sicily have recorded what may be the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe.
Former COVID-19 patients given Pfizer get better antibody response.
Australia’s largest flying reptile.
The oldest known example of applied geometry.
Skeptic's guide to how underlying beliefs affect your judgement
For more SpaceTime and show links: https://linktr.ee/biteszHQ

Your support is needed...
SpaceTime is an independently produced podcast (we are not funded by any government grants, big organisations or companies), and we’re working towards becoming a completely listener supported show...meaning we can do away with the commercials and sponsors. We figure the time can be much better spent on researching and producing stories for you, rather than having to chase sponsors to help us pay the bills.
That's where you come in....help us reach our first 1,000 subscribers...at that level the show becomes financially viable and bills can be paid without us breaking into a sweat every month. Every little bit helps...even if you could contribute just $1 per month. It all adds up.
By signing up and becoming a supporter at the $5 or more level, you get immediate access to over 230 commercial-free, double, and triple episode editions of SpaceTime plus extended interview bonus content. You also receive all new episodes on a Monday rather than having to wait the week out. Subscribe via Patreon or Supercast....and share in the rewards. Details at Patreon www.patreon.com/spacetimewithstuartgary or Supercast - https://bitesznetwork.supercast.tech/
Details at https://spacetimewithstuartgary.com or www.bitesz.com

Sponsor Details:
This episode is brought to you with the support of NameCheap…cheap domain names is just the beginning of your own online presence. We use them and we love them. Get our special deal…just visit: https://spacetimewithstuartgary.com/namecheap and help support the show.

The Astronomy, Space, Technology & Science News Podcast.

Transcript

SpaceTime Series 24 Episode 94 AI Transcript

[00:00:00] Guest: This is space time series 24 episode 94, 4 broadcast on the 16th of August, 2021. Coming up on space time. Nurse's Mars Rover comes up empty after its first sample collection attempt. The earliest moments of a supernova captured for the first time and space X builds the world's biggest rocket, all that, and more coming up on space time.

[00:00:27] VO Guy: Welcome to space time with Stuart Gary

[00:00:47] Stuart: NASA's Mars, perseverance Rover mission managers are working out what to do next. After their first attempt to collect rocks and regular drill samples failed to get anything into the collection tube, perseverance would [00:01:00] he's exploring Jethro crater is supposed to collect 43 samples from different areas, which would be placed in a special seal titanium sample tubes for eventual return to work.

[00:01:10] Guest: Perseverance is sampling and caching system uses a holler coring bit. Amper Cassie drill at the end of its two meter long robotic arm to extract samples, telemetry from the Rover indicate there during the first coring attempt, the drill and bit were engaged as planned and perse scoring. The sample Jew was processed as intended, but it was.

[00:01:32] Guest: Images from the borehole showed the drill Richards play at eight centimeters, but it encountered extremely Perry material suggesting the rock was simply too soft. Of course, none of this is new previous smiles missions have also encountered surprising rock and regular properties during sample collection temps back in 2008, the mass Phoenix mission sampled saw that was sticky and difficult to move into the onboard science instrument.

[00:01:58] Guest: That resulted in moddable [00:02:00] attempts needed before it achieving any success. And even perseverance is near identical. Twin curiosity is drilled into rocks that turned out to be harder and more brittle than expected, or recently the heat probe on the Mars inside a mission known as the mall was unable to penetrate the marsh and surfaces.

[00:02:18] Guest: Planned perseverance is currently exploring two geologic units containing Jethro, craters, deepest, and most ancient lays of exposed. The first unit known as the credit for fractured rough is the actual floor of Jethro. The adjacent unit named SITA, which means emits the sand in Navajo as both Mars bedrock, as well as ridges, layered rock and sand dunes.

[00:02:42] Guest: Recently, the perseverance science team began using color images from the ingenuity Mars helicopter to help them Scot out areas of potential science interest and look for potential hazard. In fact ingenuity has just completed its 11th flight traveling some 380 meters down range of its current location [00:03:00] to provide some aerial reconnaissance south of the SITA area of the six wheeled car size Rover's initial science foray, which he slated to span hundreds of marsh and days, or souls will be complete when perseverance returns to its landing site.

[00:03:14] Guest: At that point, perseverance will have traveled somewhere between two and a half and five kilometers. And hopefully we'll have filled up to eight of its sample tubes. Next perseverance will travel north then west to the location of its second science campaign, Jethro craters, ancient river Delta region.

[00:03:32] Guest: The Delta other fan shape remains of the confluence of an ancient river and a lake with ingest row crater. And it's a region which might be especially rich in carbonate minerals. And that's significant because on earth, these men Ruskin contained fossilized signs of ancient microscopic life and are usually associated with biological processes.

[00:03:52] Guest: And of course, a key objective of the perseverance mission to Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient [00:04:00] microbial alive. The Rover will also characterize the regions, geology and its past climate, helping to pave the way for ultimate human exploration of the read plan. And it will hopefully be the first mission to collect in cash marsh and rock and regular samples.

[00:04:16] Guest: The subsequent joint NASA European space agency mission. We'll send a spacecraft to Mars to collect the samples and then return them to worth for in-depth analysis. This is space-time still the calm, the earliest moments of a supernova explosion captured for the first time and space X builds the world's biggest rocket, all that and more stores.

[00:04:39] Guest: On space time,

[00:04:56] Guest: astronomers have for the first time captured the first moments [00:05:00] of a supernova, the explosive death of a staff. The never before seen observations reported in the monthly notices, the Royal astronomical society I've recorded the initial burst of light scene as the first shock waves travel through the stab before it explodes, supernova are among the brightest, the most powerful cataclysmic events in the universe.

[00:05:22] Guest: They mark the death of stars and briefly out shine and entire galaxy. Between them stars and supernovas create almost oil elements on the periodic table, making them crucial for the evolution of the universe and ultimately life itself. The observations were originally captured by an SS Kepler space telescope.

[00:05:43] Guest: Back in 2017, they show how the brightness of the light changes over time. Prior to the explosion, this event is known as the shock cooling curve, and it provides clues about what type of star caused the black. It caused the initial stage of a supernova [00:06:00] happened so quickly. It's usually really hard for most telescopes to record this phenomenon until now the data was incomplete and only included the dimming of the shock cooling curve.

[00:06:09] Guest: And of course the subsequent explosion, but never the bright burst of light at the very start of the supernova, the new observations give astronomers the data. They need to identify the types of stars that have produced other supernova, even after they've exploded. Astronomers were able to test the data against a number of existing star models and based on their modeling strong in Israel with the determined that the star, which caused this supernova was most likely a bloated out yellow supergiant, more than a hundred times bigger than the sun.

[00:06:40] Guest: One of the study's authors, Brad Tucker from the Australian national university says the data confirm that a specific, still a model known as SW 17, most accurately predicts, which types of stars result in what types of supernova. He says the findings mean astronomers will no longer need to test moddable models [00:07:00] to see which fits the observations best SW 17 resolves the question.

[00:07:05] Guest: Yeah, this is the really cool thing because you're actually talking about a process has happened rapidly over a short period of time, and it's actually starting to become the mechanism of the explosion. What we call the core collapse, literally the core collapsing. You start to create such a dense amount of material.

[00:07:22] Guest: That ultimately the pressure that props up the star can no longer balance out the gravity pulling inward. You have this battle between outward pressure and inward gravity. It no longer can stand the gravity because it has so much mass building up. Doing much, you therefore then start to build up too much gravity, therefore causing the rest of the star to implode.

[00:07:45] Guest: And that's really where the action starts. You start squeezing and collapsing the inside and to a very super dense object, something be called a neutron star, but at one point it can not even collapse anymore. It can't create any [00:08:00] more neutron squeeze, any more neutrons, create any more dense of an object.

[00:08:04] Guest: Point this breaking point where you just released all of that built up energy as a shockwave that then traveled through the rest of this star. And that's actually what causes the star to ignite. So the end of the star is the birth of the neutron star all within a short time period. Equilibrium spacing.

[00:08:25] Guest: You've got gravity winning out. The star starts to collapse under its own mass and eventually electron degeneracy reaches a breaking point. It literally can't crush anymore electrons and protons together. And that causes. A ricochet, I bounce back and that is the supernova explosion and it's, and it's that bounce back what we called the shockwave that calls it the star tick night and seeing that shockwave is what we've seen with the discovery and led us to understanding the actual progenitor, because that's the exciting thing.

[00:08:58] Guest: Not only just seeing [00:09:00] this awesome shockwave, which quite literally happens in the scale of minutes to hours travel through the store, but the length and the brightness of the shockwave. Big or how bright the shockwave is and how long it lasts is proportionate to the size and mass of the star. You know, how much pressure you build up is released by how much stuff is in there on the inside.

[00:09:21] Guest: And it allows you to directly measure what we call it, the progenitor star, what is the actual star that exploded, which is a really big effort now in supernova, what are the exact stars causing the exact explosion? And this has never been seen before. This is the first time this has been. So, so we've seen part of it before and what we call the shock breakout when the initial flash of the shock wave goes through.

[00:09:44] Guest: What we haven't seen in this case is the full shockwave traveling through everything. Because again, once it releases, it travels through the star and then the whole star ignites in that shockwave actually goes off into space. And so we've seen little bits of it before we haven't seen the complete.[00:10:00]

[00:10:00] Guest: Pictures go together. And this is what's happened now. So led by my PhD student Patrick Armstrong using the Kepler space telescope, telescope, famous for finding planets around other stars. Well, it takes a picture every 30 minutes. Now that's good for finding planets transiting or going in front of their star.

[00:10:18] Guest: But in this case, it's good for seeing supernova. Moments of a supernova. So using the Kepler space telescope, back in 2017, we monitored tens of thousands of galaxies waiting for stars to explode, knowing that we would only capture a handful, but those handful we would capture in the first minute. And we'd be able to see, hopefully this process unfolding in the right star.

[00:10:40] Guest: This is exactly what Patrick got.

[00:10:48] Guest: That's, this is also one of the important bits. We've had lots of models of what is the exact process that unfolds based on the size of the star, how much stuff is there, then master that density and how [00:11:00] quickly the shockwave moves and. Previously supernova would only been caught maybe a day or two after explosion, if we're lucky and we'd only monitor a supernova every day or two again, because we're looking from the ground, you know, we can't see it continuously, if you have the day and night cycle and things move and our earth move.

[00:11:18] Guest: But because Kepler was staring continuously, we are able to see. From within 30 minutes of detonation or that shockwave going through the star thing, the whole unprocessed fold for 80 days. And every moment for every 80 days, we're able to say, yep, this is exactly what happens. This is exact model that predicts or matches what we see because it's kind of fun, ambiguous with us.

[00:11:40] Guest: So much data. And this is the process and unfold. So now not only is it exciting to understand what happened to this particular store, but now when scientists go and find other stars, they won't have the same data. Really Kepler does well, they'll say, okay, well, we don't need to bother trying to figure other models.

[00:11:55] Guest: We know this is the one that works. We're going to use that one and it should give us a pretty accurate [00:12:00] measurement. The case that this model works only for certain types of supernova. So, yeah, so this really works on what we call the core collapse, these big, massive stars, eight or more times, the mass of our sun collapsing.

[00:12:13] Guest: And depending on the exact type of star, you'd have to tweak a little bit of the model because the red super giant is slightly different in terms of its size and density to a yellow super giant than one we saw here. But still we can then say, all right, well, we just need to adjust the parameters for a red.

[00:12:29] Guest: If we expect it to be that type of supernova. So we kind of know, and we're starting to match the star that explode and what their light curves or their explosion over time looks like playing that matching game and therefore use the correct model and physical measurement of this star ticket, the right property.

[00:12:48] Guest: So really it's kind of this big game of what do we see? What does it look like? What do we need to measure the star? And then what does it tell us ultimately about the life cycle? The [00:13:00] progenitor, what do we know about it? In this case? We do know that it was a yellow super giant. So this is a star that started to rapidly expand the outer shell of the cold, or the photosphere is really big.

[00:13:12] Guest: It's really puffed out. So it's a very. White star. Let's say if that's the correct way of thinking it, but also it is much heavier than the sun in this case is yellow. Super giant was anywhere between 10 and 14 times the mass of our sun, the radius, or the width of the star, um, was anywhere between 50 and 300 times the radius of our sun.

[00:13:36] Guest: So there's a bit of uncertainty there, but we kind of know it has to be within that range. So we're talking about something that is much wider than this. And quite a bit heavier how far away was this stuff? So this star was almost the Redshift to 0.07, which is about a billion light years away. So this is actually with a relatively faint supernova and it was on the boundary of the limits of what Kepler could [00:14:00] successfully detected measure.

[00:14:01] Guest: So this is actually quite a, what was exciting is it was at the limits of what we could measure with Kepler, but it was still big enough and broad enough that we were able to see all this detail and in a pretty great amount of detail. So, yeah, so it was a, one of the more distant stars that we've detected with Kepler com.

[00:14:18] Guest: The other supernova have been in the four to five to 600 million, like your range. This was just slightly over a billion light years away being a yellow supergiant. That's different from a red, super John or an orange super giant. What makes, so just as stars or nighttime sky have different colors. It's all about the temperature, how hot they're burning and really.

[00:14:39] Guest: Their burnings related to their age and how much gas or material the star has fusing Adams together. Creating that energy, that energy comes out as heat or temperature, and that temperature glows a color just like in the flame of a fire. The red flame is a bit cooler than the blue. Same with stars. Red supergiants are cooler than yellow, super giant, [00:15:00] which are even cooler than blue, super giant.

[00:15:02] Guest: And all of those stars we do now know can explode as supernova, but they all produce slightly different explosions because of how much energy and how bright they can be. So, because this was a yellow supergiant, as opposed to a red, super giant like St. Bentyl girls, the characteristics which led to its explosion would have been slightly.

[00:15:21] Guest: I think that's exactly right. So the characteristics would have been slightly different. Therefore the shock wave would be slightly different and then the corresponding light curve or the way we see the explosion happened over the consequential days a week looks different as well. And again, this is one of the keys.

[00:15:37] Guest: Pinpoint exactly what are those initial circumstances that actually happen? And what is the best model that describes what happened? We can then apply this to a whole bunch of other supernova and understand in the future, what actually is happening when these stars explode. And this is kind of the really cool thing, you know, just 20 years ago, there was a lot of uncertainty and knowledge about we see all these explosions.

[00:15:59] Guest: What [00:16:00] are the progenitors stars? What are the stars that are causing these explodes? But in the past 10 to 20 years, we've now seen a few different techniques. This one being the one, another one being, we just directly image a galaxy, see the individual stars and then go back and look when a supernova happens and see what star was present at that location.

[00:16:18] Guest: We're now being able to match up what happens in the actual star and then how it explodes putting together this complete picture of the lifecycle, Taka and astronomer with the Australian national university. And this is space time still the comm space expos, the world's biggest rocket, although only very briefly and the long distance pizza delivery to the international space station.

[00:16:45] Guest: All wider, more still to come on. Space time.[00:17:00]

[00:17:04] Guest: Well, it was only done to make sure everything fits, but space X is briefly assembled. What is the world's largest ever rocket placing the SN 20 stash ship spacecraft on top of its super heavy booster in the process, creating a giant 120 Timmy. The total launch vehicle, 13 meters taller the neces mighty sat and five Apollo Moonrise.

[00:17:26] Guest: The two segments were connected for about an hour at space X as research and development facility at Berkeley checker in Texas, before the two spacecraft was separated. Again, space X plans to send the SN 20 ship test article into orbit, aboard the super heavy on a test flight. In coming months, both segments will be ditched into the ocean following this test flight, but in the long-term the company plans to develop both vehicles to be reusable.

[00:17:51] Guest: The first so-called revenue run for star ship will be a private space tourism flight to the moon. And back that slated for 2023. [00:18:00] Meanwhile, Aluna Lander version of Starship will be used by NASA to transport crew and supplies between the gateway space station and the moon surface as part of the items missions from 2024.

[00:18:12] Guest: Space X boss, Elon Musk, the Volpe stat ship is a fully reusable, super heavy live spacecraft, capable of carrying 150 tons of people in cargo into orbit and a hundred tons. Our missions to the moon, Mars and interplanetary journeys across the solar system. Musk says he sees star ship very much as the colonial transport system.

[00:18:34] Guest: Ultimately it'll replace the company's existing Falcon nine and Falcon heavy loan systems as well as its dragon capsule. The one in 2010 upper Starship stage of the launch system is 50 meters long, nine meters wide and powered by six liquid methane and oxygen propellant wrapped a rocket engines, three designed for atmospheric flight and three for the vacuum of space, they'll deliver approximately 12 mega [00:19:00] Newtons or 2.6 million pounds of thrust.

[00:19:03] Guest: And Starship will be equipped with its own retractable landing gear, allowing rocket assisted vertical. Lanning's just like the Falcon nine does now. Meanwhile, the 230 ton booster or first aid or the super-heavy is 68 meters long and powered by 37 liquid methane and oxygen propelled wrap the rocket engines providing 72 Meghan Newtons or 16 million pounds of thrust.

[00:19:27] Guest: Musk says he's also planning, refueling tanker and satellite payload versions of the upper stage resulting in the supply of a complete family of lawn system. This is space time still, the calm matters, long distance pizza delivery to the international space station. And later in the science report, global warming riches, 1.1 degrees above pre-industrial levels, all that and more store to cart.

[00:19:53] Guest: Um, spacetime[00:20:00]

[00:20:10] Guest: Northrop Grumman sickness, G 16 cargo ship as successfully docked under the international space station, carrying a precious cargo of pizza. The spacecraft loaded with 3,723 kilograms of food and other supplies at launch two days earlier, a border Northrop Grumman, Antares rocket from masses wallop silent flight facility on the Virginia Mid-Atlantic coast.

[00:20:34] Guest: 3 2 1,

[00:20:42] Guest: and we have

[00:20:49] Guest: 100% of them. The S S Ellison owned Zucca now on its way to the international space station to deliver more than. 1,200 pounds of [00:21:00] cargo. Good. First stage performance. So far power offices. Balloons are nominal that 100% duration of stage one burn is approximately three minutes and 18 seconds passing through 40,000 feet passing max queue for stage now passing through the area of maximum dynamic pressure.

[00:21:21] Guest: Again, this first stage will burn for about three minutes and 18 seconds until main engine cutoff. Subsystems continue to perform as expected passing 70,000 feet engines continue at 100% or pressures nominal all vehicles, subsystems nominal passing 120,000 feet attitude nominal all GNC performance as expected throttled down to 80% throttling down three minutes into flight main engine cutoff coming soon.

[00:21:48] Guest: Throttled down to 55% all systems now. Stage one Mico. We have main engine cutoff and Terry's entering into a coast stage standing by for stage one separation [00:22:00] stage two ignition stage one separation confirmed in terms of in coast phase attitude. Nominals fairing separation, separation confirmed. And we have stage two ignition stage two will burn for roughly two minutes and 30 seconds.

[00:22:16] Guest: All systems continue nominal stage two

ignition

[00:22:19] Guest: is confirmed a stage two is that solid rocket fuel that will burn for about two minutes and 45 seconds. Burnout will come at six minutes and 52 seconds into the flight today. Altitude approaching 140 kilometers. Now five minutes into flight. Everything proceeding smoothly.

[00:22:36] Guest: Burn continues. All systems, nominal altitude, 170 kilometers all systems to continue to perform as expected stage to burnout. All systems nominal and stage two burnout is confirmed. Areas will coast for approximately two minutes. Still spacecrafts separation and terrace is an orbit altitude, nearly 180 kilometer.[00:23:00]

[00:23:00] Guest: Attitude nominal and various continues to orient and prepare for spacecraft separation altitude, 179 kilometers, roughly 30 seconds to spacecraft separation standing by for spacecraft separation. And we have spacecraft separation, spacecraft separation confirmed, and sickness has separated from the second stage.

[00:23:21] Guest: The space station crew use the opening up purse, robotic arm to capture the sickness during rendezvous and made it to the earth facing their deep. OneAmerica is unity module included in the manifest a 1,396 kilograms of food and crew supplies, including fresh apples, tomatoes, and Kiwi fruit. Along with us all important pizzas and a cheese smorgasbord.

[00:23:44] Guest: Also a board of 48 kilograms of unpressurized cargo, 15 kilograms of space, walking equipment, 44 kilograms of computer resources and 1037 kilograms of vehicle hardware, including new mounting brackets for new solar arrays, [00:24:00] which will be delivered next year. And you come the oxide scrubber and you air filtration unit and a prototype infrared missile tracking system.

[00:24:08] Guest: Sickness was also carrying 1064 kilograms of scientific equipment and supplies, including materials, simulating moon, dust, and dirt, which will be used to create items from the space stations, 3d printer, hopefully leading the way to eventually using local resources on the moon and Mars as building materials.

[00:24:26] Guest: There's also an experiment to identify drugs, to treat muscle wastage equipment, demonstrating a new two phase thermal management system for long duration space flight, a new thermal protection system for spacecraft atmospheric, the entry and the blob, a slide or experiment for friends school kids. The sickness will remain dark to the space station until November.

[00:24:48] Guest: What did the parts it's SIOP Slingshot deployment system will be used to deliver a number of key sets into orbit before the singers itself deal butts and burns up in the atmosphere. This is [00:25:00] space, time

[00:25:10] Guest: and time to take a brief look at some of the other stories making using signs this week with the signs. The latest report from the intergovernmental panel on climate change, warns that global warming has now reached 1.1 degrees above pre-industrial levels, cheer to the continuing use of fossil fuels.

[00:25:28] Guest: The report found that in Australia, the average temperature increase was even worse. At 1.4 degrees Celsius. The IPC report based on over 14,000 separate scientific studies says the planet remains on track to increase global warming by 1.5 degrees within the next two decades. And probably as soon as 2030, it confirmed that the change is now being observed in the planet's climate are unprecedented in thousands.

[00:25:56] Guest: If not hundreds of thousands of years. It provided evidence [00:26:00] showing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. And now the highest they've been in more than 2 million years, the level of glacier retreat is unmatched in the past 2000 years. The last decade has been the warmest for some 125,000 years. Sea levels are now rising faster than at any time.

[00:26:16] Guest: The last 3000 years, some are Arctic ice cap, which is now lower than at any time of the past thousand years. The oceans are warming faster than at any time since the end of the last ice age. Ocean acidification is now at its highest level in 26,000 years. And weather extremes one's considered rarer and precedented.

[00:26:36] Guest: I becoming more common, a trend that is now destined to continue. Even if the word limits global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The studies also confirm their heat waves, which used to only happen once every 50 years or so. And now happening roughly once every decade, tropical cyclers are getting stronger.

[00:26:55] Guest: Most land areas are seeing more rain or snow fall in a year. Severe droughts are [00:27:00] happening. 1.7 times as often, and fire seasons are getting both the longer and more intense. Now for Australia, it means events such as last year's black. Some Bush fires will become more frequent with major outbreaks occurring more often, and fire seasons lasting longer, heavy rainfall and river floodings predicted to worse than across Australia with drier winters and fewer days of rain in the east, but heavier more intense falls when it does rain.

[00:27:27] Guest: As global warming riches, two degrees Celsius it'll cause increased drought conditions in Eastern Australia and the drought periods already prevalent in Southern Australia will get worse and local C-levels, which have already risen higher than the global average will continue to rise causing increased coastal erosion.

[00:27:46] Guest: The study also found that China remains the world's biggest single polluter pumping out more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere annually than all the OACD countries combined. Beijing remains committed to increasing its coal industry while the rest of the [00:28:00] world looks at deductions. It's now home to half of the world's coal fired power stations with new plants or the construction and more in the planning.

[00:28:08] Guest: According to the Institute of public affairs, China now produces as much carbon dioxide in 16 days as Australia does in an entire year. And under the Paris agreements, China will continue increasing its greenhouse gas emissions until at least 2030. At the moment China's increasing the amount of greenhouse gases.

[00:28:26] Guest: It produces every year by an amount or really greater than Australia's total yearly output. Meanwhile, authorities in Sicily have seen what may be the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe. 48.8 degrees Celsius. It's 120 degrees Fahrenheit on the old scale. Now, if confirmed, it would break the OD record of 48.5 degrees also set in Sicily.

[00:28:49] Guest: Similar temperatures have been recorded in Greece, Tunisia and Libya as a Mediterranean heat dome named Lucifer continues to bake the region, triggering some of the areas worst wildfires [00:29:00] in recorded history. It follows similar extreme heat waves across the Western United States and Canada last month.

[00:29:06] Guest: And in Australia in the Southern hemisphere summer, which saw temperatures in the Australian Outback reach 48 degrees Celsius. A new study finds that people who have already been infected with the COVID-19 Corona virus and are then given a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine, tend to produce higher antibody levels.

[00:29:24] Guest: And those have never been infected and get two jabs. The findings reported in the journal of the American medical association also showed that previously infected people with a good immune response. After the first dose, didn't get any additional immune response from a second day. The finding suggests that for people who've already had, COVID-19 a single vaccine dose may be enough.

[00:29:47] Guest: The world health organization estimates that more than 8 million people have been killed by the COVID-19 Corona virus with over 4.4 million confirmed fatalities and more than 205 million people infected since the deadly [00:30:00] disease was first spread from warhead in China. Paleontologist have discovered what might've been Australia's largest ever flying reptile.

[00:30:09] Guest: An ancient terrorist saw that once sewed like a dragon above a vast inland sea, which once covered much of Outback Queensland. The discovery report in the journal, vertebrate paleontology has been named terrorem Gaga. Sure. I, the pterosaur which flew the ancient Australian skies, some 110 million years ago had a meter long skull with a spare light mouth containing some 40 teeth, a Burnie crest on its lower jaw and a wingspan of around seven meters.

[00:30:38] Guest: Its fossils were uncovered in a quarry near Richmond in Northwestern Queensland. Cite as that discovered the oldest known example of applied geometry, a report in the journal foundations of science says that 3,700 year old Babylonian clay tablet known as SSI 4 27 a piece to provide the legal and geometric details of a [00:31:00] field that was splitting two.

[00:31:01] Guest: After part of it was sold off by its Babylon earner. The surveys used what are now known as per thuggery and triples to make accurate right angles and the fire, the new land boundaries. The tablet was originally discovered by a French archeological expedition in central ORAC back in 1894, that was simply cataloged and stored with our artifacts.

[00:31:23] Guest: Its true significance was eventually uncovered by a mathematician, Daniel Mansfield from the university of new south Wales. Well, it seems obvious, but a new study from the Netherlands has shown that despite how analytical you may try to be your underlying beliefs will still service to . The findings have explained things like noble disease, the hypothesized affliction, that results in some Nobel prize winners embracing strange and scientifically unsound ideas.

[00:31:52] Guest: Usually later in life. Tim Mendham from Australian skeptics is the study reported in the skeptics magazine helps explain why [00:32:00] even the most intelligent people can still choose to believe nonsense. There are suggestions as to why people believe certain things. And some of the stuff in this, I mean, I, I was looking closely at this paper from, uh, from the Netherlands and I think it's the university of Amsterdam or something like that.

[00:32:14] Guest: And really some of the things that we're saying was pretty amazing, quite frankly. I mean, yeah, there's different motivations for why. Believe different things and yeah, really, uh, you know, that they have political motivations for believing some stuff and there's religious motivations for believing in other things.

[00:32:28] Guest: And the suggestion is that why aren't people following the science it's because of these underlying motivations, which are not necessarily scientific. For instance, I was saying that spirituality. Why would you say that mean religiosity, but they mean sort of, really kind of almost like belief it woo. As we say, in the paranormal or hippie them or new ageism or belief systems anyway, they're not necessarily strike religion, beliefs.

[00:32:48] Guest: They would have a higher rejection of scientific evidence, then some who are less spiritual. But to me, that's almost stating the obvious that people who reject science resist. Yep. Yep. [00:33:00] Yep. Okay. I can accept that. Why do they reject science? Because some people just believe scientists as one radio reporter once said to me on the ABC accident.

[00:33:09] Guest: And, uh, they say to me that scientists are evil because they invented the bomb. And then I, it that, well, my scientists didn't actually amend the bone. In fact, the vast majority of scientists on the bumper.

[00:33:23] Guest: Very much a hippie hippie, like sort of response, someone who's spiritual paying for that person to actually work there. Their ID, um, whales are more intelligent then people, when they say invent the boat mother, Believes that a pretty sort of superficial.

[00:33:49] Guest: Yeah. I mean, some of the reasons why people believe many and varied, depending on the belief and some of the stuff that was in this paper was to me a bit light on, but yeah, I mean, you can say quite, quite readily, there are different reasons for different [00:34:00] people's beliefs. Religion comes into it. Politics comes into it.

[00:34:02] Guest: Spirituality. Preferences for lifestyle preferences for what you want to do and what you want to be true. And all the reasons behind those things are all influences on, on how much you believe science apart from pure evidence. Obviously skeptics would like to say their beliefs are all based on pure reason and logic and whatever, but I mean, everybody is biased one way or another, and everybody, even the most scientific.

[00:34:29] Guest: Learning how to distinguish facts from bias and then focusing on the facts only isn't that? What, well, isn't that what, that's, what it should be all about. Critical thinking. That's the term for you just using your brain to actually look at the evidence or whatever, or the claims or the portfolio from is as independent, the point of view as you can, but.

[00:34:49] Guest: Maybe a journalist or having a supposedly analytical mind or being a scientist is not a guarantee you might be trying to be not biased in your science and [00:35:00] even scientists themselves can have strange beliefs in other areas. From Australian skeptics

[00:35:22] Guest: and that's the shut for now. Space-time is available every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday through apple podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Google podcast, pocket casts, Spotify ICAST Amazon music bites.com SoundCloud YouTube favorite podcast, download 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.

[00:35:52] Guest: 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 [00:36:00] space-time patron, which gives you access to triple episode commercial free versions of the show, as well as lots of Burness audio content, which doesn't go to where access to our exclusive Facebook group and other rewards.

[00:36:12] Guest: 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.

[00:36:32] Guest: 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 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.

[00:36:54] VO Guy: Your window on the universe. You've been listening to space-time with Stuart Gary. This has [00:37:00] been another quality podcast production from bitesz.com

 

Tim MendhamProfile Photo

Tim Mendham

Editor

Editor with Australian Skeptics