S26E09: Most Distant Stars in Our Galaxy // Enceladus Update // Starship Ready

1 00:00:00,170 --> 00:00:06,894 This is Spacetime Series 26, episode nine, for broadcast on the 20 January 2023. 2 00:00:07,092 --> 00:00:12,650 Coming up on Space Time, astronomers find the most distant star in our galaxy. 3 00:00:12,810 --> 00:00:16,910 New evidence for the potential habitability of Enceladus's oceans. 4 00:00:17,410 --> 00:00:22,080 And Elon Musk says starship could be flying in a matter of weeks. 5 00:00:22,530 --> 00:00:25,910 All that and more, coming up on Spacetime. 6 00:00:27,050 --> 00:00:30,630 Welcome to Spacetime with Stuart Gary. 7 00:00:46,430 --> 00:01:00,526 A new study shows that the furthest reaches of our Milky Way galaxy, a region known as the galactic halo, is so far away it almost touches the halo of our nearest big galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, M 31. 8 00:01:00,708 --> 00:01:08,914 Astronomers reach their conclusions after discovering more than 200 distant variable stars known as Rrlira stars in the Milky Way. 9 00:01:08,952 --> 00:01:14,558 Stellar halo, the most distant of these stars, is more than a million light years from Earth. 10 00:01:14,654 --> 00:01:20,678 That's almost half the distance to a neighboring galaxy andrometer which is about 2.5 million light years away. 11 00:01:20,844 --> 00:01:29,090 The characteristic pulsations and brightness of our Alira stars makes them ideal standard candles for measuring cosmic distances. 12 00:01:29,250 --> 00:01:32,346 Of course, the sky is full of stars, some brighter than others. 13 00:01:32,448 --> 00:01:37,642 But a star may look bright either because it's very luminous or because it's very close. 14 00:01:37,776 --> 00:01:41,134 And even for astronomers it's hard to tell the difference. 15 00:01:41,332 --> 00:01:46,750 But astronomers can identify our lyric stars by their characteristic pulsations. 16 00:01:47,330 --> 00:01:52,366 They can then use their observed brightness to calculate how far away they really are. 17 00:01:52,548 --> 00:01:58,110 These new findings are helping redefine what constitutes the outer limits of our galaxy. 18 00:01:58,270 --> 00:02:03,602 It turns out the Milky Way and Andrometer are so big there's hardly any space between them. 19 00:02:03,736 --> 00:02:10,920 The still a halo component of our galaxy is much bigger than the galactic disc, which is about 100,000 litres across. 20 00:02:11,370 --> 00:02:15,286 Our solar system resides in one of the spiral arms of the disc. 21 00:02:15,388 --> 00:02:18,806 About 27,000 lite is out from the galactic center. 22 00:02:18,988 --> 00:02:27,670 The middle of the disc is a central bulge and surrounding it is the halo, a sphere containing some of the oldest stars in the galaxy. 23 00:02:27,830 --> 00:02:32,790 And this extends for hundreds of thousands of layers in every direction. 24 00:02:32,950 --> 00:02:45,918 The problem is the halo is the hardest part of the galaxy to study because its outer limits are so far away and the stars there are very sparse compared to the high stellar densities sit in the galactic disc and bulge. 25 00:02:46,094 --> 00:02:55,118 But the galactic halo is important because astronomers believe it's dominated by dark matter and so it actually contains most of the mess of the galaxy. 26 00:02:55,294 --> 00:03:06,402 The study's lead author, Yue Tang Feng from the University of California, Santa Cruz, says previous modeling had suggested that the stellar halos should extend out to around 300 kiloparsecs. 27 00:03:06,546 --> 00:03:09,834 That's roughly a million light years from the galactic center. 28 00:03:10,032 --> 00:03:18,390 Astronomers like to measure galactic distances in kiloparsecs with one kiloparsec equivalent to 3260 light ears. 29 00:03:18,550 --> 00:03:26,762 The 208 Rlira stars detected by Feng and colleagues ranged in distance from about 200 to 320 kiloparsecs. 30 00:03:26,906 --> 00:03:32,458 And they were able to use these variable stars as reliable traces to pin down distances. 31 00:03:32,634 --> 00:03:37,278 The observations confirmed the theoretical estimates of the size of the halo. 32 00:03:37,454 --> 00:03:48,038 The findings were based on data from the next generation Virgo Cluster Survey, a program using the Canada France Hawaii Telescope to study a cluster of galaxies well beyond the Milky Way. 33 00:03:48,124 --> 00:03:50,162 Known as the Virgo Cluster. 34 00:03:50,306 --> 00:04:00,054 The Virgo Cluster is one of the great galactic nodes in the large scale structure of the universe, and it includes the giant elliptical galaxy M 87. 35 00:04:00,252 --> 00:04:08,282 Fing says to get a deep exposure of M 87 and the galaxies around it, the telescope also captured the foreground stars in the same field. 36 00:04:08,416 --> 00:04:12,494 And that was the data which they were then able to use for their halo study. 37 00:04:12,692 --> 00:04:14,270 This is spacetime. 38 00:04:14,610 --> 00:04:19,946 Still to come, new evidence for the potential habitability of insolatus's oceans. 39 00:04:20,138 --> 00:04:24,770 And Elon Musk says starship could be flying in a matter of weeks. 40 00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:28,340 All that and more still to come on Space Time. 41 00:04:43,850 --> 00:04:49,266 Okay, let's take a short break from our show for a word from our sponsor, NordVPN. 42 00:04:49,458 --> 00:04:55,690 You know, you really should be worried about your online privacy and that of your family as well. 43 00:04:55,840 --> 00:05:03,214 After all, who wants some bad actor prying on your kids while they're online? 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It's just a few clicks away, and it's a really great deal. 57 00:06:30,864 --> 00:06:36,220 And, of course, as always, you'll find the URL details in the show notes and on our website. 58 00:06:36,830 --> 00:06:39,718 And now it's back to our show. 59 00:06:39,904 --> 00:06:57,094 You're listening to Spacetime with Stuart gary the search for extraterrestrial life just got a whole lot more interesting following the discovery of new evidence for tiny building blocks of life in the subsurface oceans of Saturn's iceman encoladus. 60 00:06:57,242 --> 00:07:00,110 The new modeling, reported in the journal PNAS. 61 00:07:00,190 --> 00:07:10,534 The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates that the insolidian ocean could be relatively rich in dissolved phosphorus, an essential ingredient for life. 62 00:07:10,732 --> 00:07:22,426 One of the study's authors, Christopher Glenn from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, says Enceladus is one of the prime targets in humanity's search for life in our solar system. 63 00:07:22,608 --> 00:07:38,810 It was NASA's Cassini spacecraft which first discovered that Enceladus had a global subsurface liquid water ocean after detecting plumes of ice grains and water vapor erupting into space from geysers the icy moon's south pole tiger stripes. 64 00:07:38,970 --> 00:07:44,794 And Glenn says that these plumes contain almost all the basic requirements for life as we know it. 65 00:07:44,932 --> 00:07:55,230 He says while the bio essential element, phosphorus, is yet to be identified directly, his team have detected evidence of its availability in the ocean beneath the moon's icy craft. 66 00:07:55,390 --> 00:08:05,894 One of the most profound discoveries in planetary science over the past 25 years is that worlds with oceans beneath a surface layer of ice are common in our solar system. 67 00:08:06,092 --> 00:08:15,590 These worlds include the tiny icy moons of the giant planets like Europa, Titan and Enceladus, as well as more distant bodies like Pluto. 68 00:08:15,750 --> 00:08:31,850 Worlds like the Earth with surface oceans need to reside within a narrow range of distances from their host stars what we call the habitable zone, where it's not too hot and not too cold for water to remain in a liquid state central for life as we know it on a planet's surface. 69 00:08:32,010 --> 00:08:41,902 But subsurface water worlds can occur over a much wider range of distances, thereby greatly expanding the number of habitable worlds likely to exist across a galaxy. 70 00:08:42,046 --> 00:08:47,640 Glenn says the quest for extraterrestrial habitability in the solar system has thus shifted focus. 71 00:08:48,090 --> 00:08:52,310 Scientists are now looking for the building blocks of life in different places. 72 00:08:52,650 --> 00:09:01,578 These building blocks include organic molecules, ammonias, sulfur bearing compounds, as well as the chemical energy needed to support life. 73 00:09:01,744 --> 00:09:12,094 Glenn says phosphorus presents an interesting case because previous works suggest that it might be scarce in the oceans of Enciliaders and that would have been dim for the prospects of life. 74 00:09:12,292 --> 00:09:17,534 Phosphorus in the form of phosphates are essential for all life on Earth as we know it. 75 00:09:17,652 --> 00:09:28,350 It's essential for the creation of DNA and RNA energy carrying molecules, cell membranes, bones and teeth in animals and even in the seized microbiome of plankton. 76 00:09:28,510 --> 00:09:40,614 Glenn says the underlying geochemistry has a look at simplicity that makes the presence of dissolved phosphorus inevitable, reaching levels close to or even higher than those found in modern Earth sea water. 77 00:09:40,812 --> 00:09:43,286 According to Glenn, the next step's clear. 78 00:09:43,468 --> 00:09:49,270 We need to get back to Enceladus to see if a habitable ocean is actually inhabited. 79 00:09:49,430 --> 00:10:01,418 Now, this all comes about because five years ago, NASA's Cassini spacecraft discovered hydrogen in a plume of gas and icy particles spraying out from Enceladus's south pole tiger stripes. 80 00:10:01,594 --> 00:10:09,678 That discovery meant the icy moon had a source of chemical energy that could be useful for microbes if any exist there. 81 00:10:09,844 --> 00:10:18,318 The finding also provides further evidence that warm, mineral laden water is pouring into the ocean from deep sea vents on Earth. 82 00:10:18,414 --> 00:10:25,598 These sort of hydrothermal vents support thriving communities of life in complete isolation from sunlight. 83 00:10:25,774 --> 00:10:45,830 The Ion and neutral mass spectrometer instrument team lead hunter Wait from the Southwest Research institute, says Enceladus now appears to have all three of the ingredients scientists think life needs liquid water, source of energy, and the right chemical ingredients like carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and now phosphorus. 84 00:10:45,910 --> 00:10:54,510 The instrument acts like a human nose, analyzing the smell, so to speak, or the composition of the gases in the environment. 85 00:10:54,930 --> 00:10:58,490 There was a significant amount of molecular hydrogen. 86 00:10:58,650 --> 00:11:06,478 The existence of molecular hydrogen, at least within the Earth's ocean system, is like a food source. 87 00:11:06,574 --> 00:11:08,510 It's candy for microbes. 88 00:11:08,590 --> 00:11:11,838 They eat the hydrogen, they turn it into methane. 89 00:11:12,014 --> 00:11:25,990 And with our findings, we were able to not only find out that there was h two in the system, but to examine the chemistry that's associated with that process of taking hydrogen and turning it into methane. 90 00:11:34,350 --> 00:11:47,230 Here on Earth, the hydrothermal systems, known as white smokers, have water rock interactions that lead to the release of molecular hydrogen in a similar fashion to, apparently what's going on in Enceladus. 91 00:11:54,790 --> 00:12:10,370 This is just the final step that shows that there's molecular hydrogen being produced by these same hydrothermal processes and that molecular hydrogen has the chemical energy to support microbial systems in the interior ocean. 92 00:12:10,530 --> 00:12:19,910 It's not demonstration of finding life, but it shows the potential for the existence of life in this interior ocean. 93 00:12:22,010 --> 00:12:32,858 Of course, the wolf of discoveries now coming from Enceladus were only ever possible because of Cassini's detection of strange magnetic anomalies in the ice moon's vicinity. 94 00:12:33,034 --> 00:12:39,866 But it took a series of close flybys of Enceladus that had take the icy plumes and understand what they meant. 95 00:12:40,058 --> 00:12:42,510 This report from NASA TV. 96 00:12:48,710 --> 00:12:57,510 In February 2005, we had our first close flyby of Enceladus, and the magnetometer signal saw something unusual. 97 00:12:57,930 --> 00:13:03,858 What a magnetometer does is it measures the magnetic field in the vicinity of the instrument. 98 00:13:04,034 --> 00:13:06,866 We had to look at the wiggles, and they looked strange. 99 00:13:06,978 --> 00:13:16,010 The magnetic field of Saturn is moving towards it, and it couldn't penetrate down onto the surface, which was pointing to an atmospheric signature of some kind. 100 00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:18,970 Here it looked like it had a tiny atmosphere. 101 00:13:21,490 --> 00:13:26,990 In March, we came even closer looking for that same strain signal. 102 00:13:27,410 --> 00:13:34,670 What it showed was that the signature, the atmospheric signature we were seeing, was focused at the south pole. 103 00:13:35,090 --> 00:13:40,366 It was almost like there was a cometary plume of water vapor coming off from the south pole. 104 00:13:40,478 --> 00:13:43,006 People were saying, it's got to be jets, it's got to be jets. 105 00:13:43,038 --> 00:13:46,754 And the imaging team was saying, no, no, we don't want to say that until we're sure. 106 00:13:46,952 --> 00:13:48,226 So we went closer. 107 00:13:48,258 --> 00:13:51,762 We came within 175 enceladus. 108 00:13:51,906 --> 00:13:55,570 Then we got the data back, and it was spectacular. 109 00:13:55,650 --> 00:14:03,046 And then we found the evidence geysers coming out of the South Pole with water vapor and water ice particles. 110 00:14:03,158 --> 00:14:06,982 They were active geysers at the South Pole of Enceladus. 111 00:14:07,126 --> 00:14:12,730 Because we were so close, all of the other instruments were able to take really good data. 112 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:14,702 And we put together all of this data. 113 00:14:14,756 --> 00:14:17,962 We saw the cracks, the tiger stripes of the South Pole. 114 00:14:18,026 --> 00:14:21,322 We saw heat leaking out from these tiger stripes. 115 00:14:21,466 --> 00:14:27,970 On subsequent flybys, we found organic material, dust, water vapor coming out of the plume. 116 00:14:28,310 --> 00:14:39,794 The Cassini discoveries in the first three flybys were so amazing, we changed our focus and added 20 more flybys of Enceladus, including seven through the icy jets. 117 00:14:39,922 --> 00:14:47,350 The surprising magnetometer reading led us to the liquid water ocean underneath Enceladus's icy crust. 118 00:14:56,830 --> 00:15:04,894 After over a decade of research with Cassini, we now know there's a potential for the ocean on Enceladus to support life. 119 00:15:05,092 --> 00:15:13,150 And that has altered the way we think about where life might be found in our own solar system and in the world's beyond. 120 00:15:16,130 --> 00:15:25,358 And in that report from NASA TV, we heard from Cassini project scientist Linda Spilker and Cassini magna tomato principal investigator Michelle Doherty. 121 00:15:25,534 --> 00:15:27,140 This is space time. 122 00:15:27,450 --> 00:15:37,794 Still to come, SpaceX Boss Elon Musk says the first flight of the world's largest rocket, Starship, could take place either late February or early March. 123 00:15:37,922 --> 00:15:45,666 And later in the science report, uncovering 29,000 years of aboriginal history in the South Australian Riverlands. 124 00:15:45,778 --> 00:15:49,320 All that and more still to come on Space Time. 125 00:16:05,270 --> 00:16:14,798 SpaceX boss Elon Musk says the first orbital flight of Starship, the world's largest rocket, could take place either late in February or early March. 126 00:16:14,974 --> 00:16:27,122 The 120 metre tall Starship mega rocket towers over NASA's Artemis Orion SLS Space launch system, as well as its predecessor, the mighty Apollo Saturn five moon rocket. 127 00:16:27,266 --> 00:16:34,140 When it launches, Starship will become the largest and most powerful man made rocket ever flown into space. 128 00:16:34,510 --> 00:16:42,266 In fact, with over £17 million of thrust, the Starship super heavy booster will produce nearly double the power of the SLS. 129 00:16:42,458 --> 00:16:53,182 It appears SpaceX have selected prototype Super Heavy booster Seven and Starship variant 24 for the historic test flight, with both stages subjected to a series of tests. 130 00:16:53,246 --> 00:16:56,878 At SpaceX's Starbased Facility in Southern Texas. 131 00:16:57,054 --> 00:17:04,302 Both Super Heavy booster Seven and Starship 24 have already performed static fire tests of their Raptor engines. 132 00:17:04,446 --> 00:17:14,722 While Starship 24 lit up all six of its Raptor engines simultaneously, super Heavy Booster Seven only triggered 14 of its 33 engines in a single burn. 133 00:17:14,866 --> 00:17:20,410 That means additional ground testing will still be needed before any maiden flight can be considered. 134 00:17:20,750 --> 00:17:33,610 So when it does get off the ground, what will this monster rocket's mission look like? Well, the orbital test flight would see Super Heavy booster Seven carry Starship 24 to an altitude of about 65 km. 135 00:17:34,030 --> 00:17:43,258 Then, following man engine cut off and stage separation, the booster will return to Earth, splashing down the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Texas. 136 00:17:43,434 --> 00:17:54,402 However, the ultimate plan will see the super heavy booster undertake an orientation flip, then a boost back burn, guided by nitrogen jets and aerodynamic fins, back towards the launch site. 137 00:17:54,536 --> 00:18:05,458 An entry burn will then slow Super Heavy down for a controlled descent before a landing burn will see the booster touch down vertically back on the launch pad, caught by a pair of mechanical arms. 138 00:18:05,634 --> 00:18:16,566 Meanwhile, during this test flight, the Starship 24 upper stage will complete one full orbit around the planet before reentry and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii. 139 00:18:16,758 --> 00:18:20,838 Eventually, Starship will also land vertically back on the ground. 140 00:18:21,014 --> 00:18:25,966 The orbital trial will be the system's first test flight since May 5, 2021. 141 00:18:26,068 --> 00:18:38,638 That's when Starship prototype SN 15 launched from Starbase, climbing to an altitude of 10 km on three Raptor engines and undertaking a series of aerial maneuvers before landing back at Starbase. 142 00:18:38,814 --> 00:18:43,150 So far, all flight tests have only involved Starship prototypes. 143 00:18:43,230 --> 00:18:45,990 The Super Heavy boosters are yet to fly. 144 00:18:46,730 --> 00:18:52,422 So what SpaceX's Starship program all about? Well, there are two parts to it. 145 00:18:52,556 --> 00:18:55,890 There's the starship itself and the super heavy booster. 146 00:18:56,050 --> 00:19:02,918 The 120 ton, 50 meters tall Starship is 9 meters in diameter and constructed out of stainless steel. 147 00:19:03,094 --> 00:19:11,660 It's powered by six liquid methane and oxygen fueled Raptor rocket engines, three configured for atmospheric flight and three for the vacuum of space. 148 00:19:12,030 --> 00:19:19,578 Starship's 70 meters long, nine meter diameter, 230 tonne super Heavy Booster is also constructed out of stainless steel. 149 00:19:19,674 --> 00:19:24,862 And it's equipped with some 33 Raptor engines, all configured for atmospheric flight. 150 00:19:25,006 --> 00:19:35,778 Elon Musk sees Starship as an interplanetary colonial transport system designed to establish and then supply human settlements on the Moon, Mars and across the solar system. 151 00:19:35,944 --> 00:19:42,082 It will be fully reusable equipped with a belly heat shield at its own retractable vertical landing gear. 152 00:19:42,146 --> 00:19:46,402 And it can be refueled in space using unmanned versions of Starship. 153 00:19:46,546 --> 00:19:51,590 Another version will be equipped with a large payload bay for the deployment of satellites. 154 00:19:51,750 --> 00:20:03,280 Further in the future, Starship may even host point to point flights around the Earth for people, allowing you to pretty well reach any destination on the planet or at least a nearby hub in under 90 minutes. 155 00:20:03,650 --> 00:20:20,526 Starship's first mission is to provide the Starship Lunar Landing System, or HLS, a reusable shuttle for NASA to transport people up to 100 tons of cargo between the lunar surface and orbiting spacecraft such as Orion capsules and the Lunar Gateway Space Station. 156 00:20:20,718 --> 00:20:30,882 SpaceX planned to eventually use Starship to replace all the company's existing spacecraft, including Dragon capsules, and both the Falcon Nine and Falcon Heavy launch systems. 157 00:20:31,026 --> 00:20:36,520 It's all an ambitious plan right now, but SpaceX does have a proven track record. 158 00:20:37,290 --> 00:20:49,270 Meanwhile, SpaceX has launched another 40 broadband Internet satellites for rival company One Web aboard its Falcon Nine rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida. 159 00:20:49,430 --> 00:20:57,534 With some 542 satellites now in orbit, one Web is over 80% of its first generation constellation complete. 160 00:20:57,732 --> 00:21:12,370 These satellites were originally meant to fly aboard Russian Soyuz rockets, but the European Union's ban on using Russian rockets following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine means Onewebs transferred its launch manifest to SpaceX and India. 161 00:21:12,870 --> 00:21:25,458 The OneWeb launch was followed just days later by the safe return to Earth of a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship loaded with two tons of completed scientific experiments and equipment from the International Space Station. 162 00:21:25,634 --> 00:21:35,894 The Dragons splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, completing the CRS 26 mission, which had launched from the Kennedy Space Center just six weeks earlier. 163 00:21:36,022 --> 00:21:50,362 The equipment, brought back to Earth included hardware used to grow plants in microgravity, a bioprospecting experiment that roundabouts the space station, and the Astro Rad Vest, which was designed to help protect people from radiation exposure. 164 00:21:50,506 --> 00:22:02,482 Crew members on station took turns in wearing the vest during their day to day operations and then report on how comfortable it was or wasn't, and how easy it was to carry out their day to day working duties while wearing it. 165 00:22:24,190 --> 00:22:30,060 and time now, to take another brief look at some of the other stories making use in science this week with a science report. 166 00:22:30,670 --> 00:22:43,310 A new highresolution global climate model is warning that a warming climate will increase the number and intensity of tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic Ocean, potentially creating more and stronger hurricanes. 167 00:22:43,470 --> 00:22:51,202 The findings, reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, is based on work by scientists at Iowa State University and the US. 168 00:22:51,256 --> 00:22:52,414 Department of Energy's. 169 00:22:52,462 --> 00:22:54,750 Lawrence berkeley National Laboratory. 170 00:22:54,910 --> 00:23:02,306 The models show Atlantic hurricane seasons will become more active in the future and hurricanes will become even more intense. 171 00:23:02,498 --> 00:23:17,142 The authors ran climate simulations using the Department of Energy's Energy Extrascale Earth Systems model, finding that tropical cyclone frequency could increase by 66% during active North Atlantic hurricane seasons by the end of the century. 172 00:23:17,286 --> 00:23:29,274 Now, these seasons are typically characterized by La Nina conditions, meaning unusually cool surface water in the northern and tropical Pacific Ocean and warmer surface temperatures in the northern tropical Atlantic Ocean. 173 00:23:29,402 --> 00:23:39,950 The model projected that the number of tropical cyclones could also increase by 34% during inactive North Atlantic hurricane seasons, which generally occur during El Nino conditions. 174 00:23:40,110 --> 00:23:47,990 That's when you have warmer surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean and cooler surface temperatures in the northern tropical Atlantic. 175 00:23:49,050 --> 00:24:03,638 A new study has shown that people who suffer chronic pain at the age of 44 are far more likely to report pain, poor general health, poor mental health outcomes, and joblessness in their fifty s and sixty s, according to international researchers. 176 00:24:03,814 --> 00:24:19,358 The findings, reported in the journal Plus One is based on data from 12,037 people enrolled in the UK's National Child Development Survey, with the main data taken in 2003, where most of the respondents were aged 44. 177 00:24:19,524 --> 00:24:27,982 The study pinpointed multiple factors predicting pain at that age, including a person's father's, social class at birth, as well as pain in childhood. 178 00:24:28,126 --> 00:24:47,350 The team also found unsurprisingly that chronic pain was associated with lower life satisfaction, pessimism about the future, and poor sleep at age 55, as well as a higher risk of COVID-19 infection at age 62, which suggests that pain is also associated with other health vulnerabilities. 179 00:24:48,810 --> 00:24:55,318 Archaeologists have uncovered 290 years of Aboriginal history in South Australia's Riverland. 180 00:24:55,494 --> 00:25:07,850 The findings, reported in the journal Australian Archaeology, used radiocarbon dating to analyze river muscle shells from a midden site overlooking the Pike River floodplain downstream from the town of Renmark. 181 00:25:08,010 --> 00:25:18,706 The research by Flinders University is the first comprehensive survey of one of the oldest indigenous sites along the two and a half thousand kilometer long Murray Darling river system. 182 00:25:18,888 --> 00:25:32,360 The results include the first pre Last Glacial Maximum Ages returned for the River Murray in South Australia and extend the known First Nations occupation of the riverland area by approximately 22,000 years. 183 00:25:33,610 --> 00:25:39,190 Well, in case you haven't noticed it, ghost hunting programs are making a big comeback on cable TV. 184 00:25:39,610 --> 00:25:44,090 A lot of people, both true believers and non believers alike, enjoy them. 185 00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:46,710 After all, we all like getting a good scare. 186 00:25:46,870 --> 00:25:57,130 But it seems these new reality TV programs are getting so bad now that people who really are ghost hunters are now starting to complain that they're making their profession look like a joke. 187 00:25:57,290 --> 00:26:12,302 Notice how I said all that with a straight face? Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics says so called real paranormal investigators are upset because a lot of what's being seen in these reality TV shows is clearly scripted and using fake special effects. 188 00:26:12,366 --> 00:26:20,130 I find most of them very unintertaining personally, not just because they're obviously sort of picking up on things that might not be there, but also, just for me, great TV. 189 00:26:20,210 --> 00:26:21,586 They try and make it great TV. 190 00:26:21,618 --> 00:26:22,982 And that's the problem, actually. 191 00:26:23,036 --> 00:26:24,358 There's a lot of issues. 192 00:26:24,444 --> 00:26:34,406 This person who is a ghost hunter, pointing out white TV shows that have people hunting ghosts, and they've always got the man, the woman, the skeptic, whatever, all wearing their camouflage suit. 193 00:26:34,438 --> 00:26:37,514 It's all that Finding Bigfoot formula, isn't it? It is. 194 00:26:37,552 --> 00:26:38,646 It's the same as finding bigfoot. 195 00:26:38,678 --> 00:26:50,890 I don't know why you have to wear camouflage when you're looking for ghosts, but anyway, they've always got a team going into this haunted house with all their little equipment, their machines and things that go ping and suddenly getting messages from beyond the grave, et cetera. 196 00:26:50,970 --> 00:26:54,746 Why is this person here? And strange things out of the corner of their eye, et cetera. 197 00:26:54,778 --> 00:26:59,134 Now, this person has written an article suggesting there's various reasons why you can spot how they cheat. 198 00:26:59,182 --> 00:27:02,510 One is that the noises and things I get are easy to fake and fabricate. 199 00:27:02,590 --> 00:27:06,718 Machinery they use is very prone to interference from anything else, including mobile phones. 200 00:27:06,734 --> 00:27:09,102 A machine ping is not necessarily proof. 201 00:27:09,166 --> 00:27:13,506 Other things they talk to some of the classic this person talked about the classic sort of ghost hunters. 202 00:27:13,538 --> 00:27:18,882 There was a couple called Ed and Lorraine Warren whose exploits have been made into the conjuring films. 203 00:27:18,946 --> 00:27:20,814 I said they were real hitmith. 204 00:27:20,882 --> 00:27:28,602 Weren't they also the people behind their houses? Yeah, they were behind the Amityville haunting, et cetera, or curse, whatever it was. 205 00:27:28,656 --> 00:27:32,346 And they were real endorsers of all this sort of stuff, because it may make good sense to them. 206 00:27:32,368 --> 00:27:33,914 They both passed on to the other world. 207 00:27:33,952 --> 00:27:35,742 Maybe we can go and check them in the haunted house. 208 00:27:35,796 --> 00:27:43,386 But they were so many conflicting accounts from various sources as to what they were finding and what they were saying and everything this article suggested. 209 00:27:43,418 --> 00:27:49,006 They were sort of conscious huxters, con artists anyway, because in the TV shows they go into this haunted house. 210 00:27:49,028 --> 00:27:50,030 From there they find a ghost. 211 00:27:50,110 --> 00:27:53,714 In reality, as ghost hunters will tell you, it's a bit more hit and miss than that. 212 00:27:53,752 --> 00:27:55,458 You're really not sure you're going to find something. 213 00:27:55,544 --> 00:28:01,026 One issue is, of course, is that people often research beforehand that they find a house that is supposed to be haunted. 214 00:28:01,058 --> 00:28:06,454 Then they go in knowing what they're expecting to find, and they do find it, surprisingly so, really. 215 00:28:06,572 --> 00:28:10,966 People should go in their site unseen if they can use that for ghosts and check it out. 216 00:28:10,988 --> 00:28:13,130 But these ghost hunters are already done their research. 217 00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:17,274 They probably check through the thousands of potential places and they choose the particular ones. 218 00:28:17,312 --> 00:28:18,666 They think they're going to get a result. 219 00:28:18,768 --> 00:28:23,546 And what ends up doing is that they make taking money out of people for doing it. 220 00:28:23,568 --> 00:28:24,826 And people then believe in the ghost. 221 00:28:24,858 --> 00:28:30,078 And that sets up the whole market for ghost hunting and talking to the dead and all sorts of things like that. 222 00:28:30,164 --> 00:28:37,678 And finally, these articles suggest that really, if you find a ghost, there's no definitive way to tell what the ghost wants or why they've stuck around. 223 00:28:37,764 --> 00:28:38,986 That's assuming there is a ghost. 224 00:28:39,018 --> 00:28:41,146 Of course, some people believe it and a lot of people don't. 225 00:28:41,178 --> 00:28:45,734 But if you want to find a ghost, you will find a ghost, and this is all the ways to attempt to do it. 226 00:28:45,772 --> 00:28:48,440 How do you know your house is haunted? It's not. 227 00:28:48,890 --> 00:28:50,306 That was Jimmy Cars response. 228 00:28:50,338 --> 00:28:52,006 Jimmy cars responded at TV pro. 229 00:28:52,028 --> 00:28:57,350 How do you know your house is haunted? That's timingham from Australian Skeptics. 230 00:29:12,690 --> 00:29:14,766 And that's the show for now. 231 00:29:14,948 --> 00:29:34,194 Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, itunes, Stitcher, Google Podcast, PocketCasts, Spotify, Acast, Amazon, Music Bites.com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast download provider, and From Spacetime with Stuartgarry.com. 232 00:29:34,392 --> 00:29:42,402 Spacetime is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science own radio, and on both iHeartRadio and Tune in radio. 233 00:29:42,546 --> 00:29:48,834 And you can help to support our show by visiting the Spacetime store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies. 234 00:29:48,962 --> 00:30:02,010 Or by becoming a Spacetime patron, which gives you access to triple episode, commercial free versions of the show, as well as lots of bonus audio content which doesn't go to air, access to our exclusive Facebook group and other rewards. 235 00:30:02,350 --> 00:30:06,342 Just go to Spacetime with Stuartgarry.com for full details. 236 00:30:06,486 --> 00:30:18,286 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, news stories, loads of videos and things on the web I find interesting or amusing. 237 00:30:18,398 --> 00:30:22,146 Just go to spacetimewithstewartgary tumblr.com. 238 00:30:22,328 --> 00:30:25,842 That's all one word and that's tumblr without the e. 239 00:30:25,976 --> 00:30:35,170 You can also follow us through at stuartgarry, on Twitter, at Spacetime with Stuartgarry, on Instagram, through our Spacetime YouTube channel and on Facebook. 240 00:30:35,250 --> 00:30:46,498 Just go to facebook.com spacetime with Stuartgarry and Spacetime is brought to you in collaboration with Australian Sky Telescope magazine, Your Window on the Universe. 241 00:30:46,674 --> 00:30:53,580 You've been listening to Space time with Stuart Gary? 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