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Bridge of stray stars reveals active merger of two galaxy clusters

Using one of the most detailed sets of observations ever of a galaxy cluster 700 million light-years from Earth, astronomers have captured the faint glow of stray stars in the process of being ripped from their home galaxy and absorbed into another. The ‘bridge’ of diffuse light — spanning roughly a million light years between two galaxies in the cluster Abell 3667 — is the first direct evidence that the two brightest galaxies in the cluster are actively merging. 

The findings also imply, the researchers say, that Abell 3667 formed from two smaller clusters, which had themselves merged around a billion years ago. 

“This is the first time a feature of this scale and size has been found in a local galaxy cluster,” said Anthony Englert, a Ph.D. candidate at Brown University and lead author of a study describing the findings. “We knew that it was possible for a bridge like this to form between two galaxies, but it hadn’t been documented anywhere before now. It was a huge surprise that we were able to image such a faint feature.”

The new images of Abell 3667 were made using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Englert and two colleagues — Ian Dell’Antonio, a professor of physics at Brown, and Mireia Montes, a research fellow at the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona, Spain — stitched together a record-breaking 28 hours of observations taken over a span of years by DECam. The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal. 

“Because Blanco has been imaging with DECam for the past decade, there is a ton of archival data available,” Englert said. “It was just a happy coincidence that so many people had imaged Abell 3667 over the years, and we were able to stack all of those observations together.”

That extensive observation time is what made it possible to image the dim light of stray stars within the cluster. This type of diffuse light, known as intracluster light or ICL, offers a treasure trove of information about the history of Abell 3667 and the gravitational dance of the galaxies within it. 

The ICL imaged by Englert and his colleagues revealed a special type of galactic merger happening in Abell 3667. Normally, Englert says, mergers that involve the largest galaxy in a cluster, called the brightest cluster galaxy or BCG, occur gradually as it steals stars from many smaller galaxies that surround it. But this new research shows something different happening in this case. Abell 3667 is actually made of two galaxy clusters, each with its own BCG, that are now merging together. The ICL bridge discovered by the researchers suggests that the larger BCG is stealing stars from the smaller one — an event known as a rapid or aggressive merger. As the two BCGs merge, so too do the smaller galaxies that surround them, making Abell 3667 the product of two merging clusters. Data from X-ray and radio frequency observations had suggested a rapid merger in Abell 3667, but this is the first optical evidence to back it up. 

The appearance of intracluster light in these new images offers a tantalizing preview of what’s to come when the Vera C. Rubin Observatory becomes fully operational later this year or early next. Using a telescope twice the size of Blanco and the largest camera ever built, the Rubin telescope will perform a 10-year scan deep into the entire southern sky, a project called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time.

“Rubin is going to be able to image ICL in much the same way as we did here, but it’s going to do it for every single local galaxy cluster in the southern sky,” Englert said. “What we did is just a small sliver of what Rubin is going to be able to do. It’s really going to blow the study of the ICL wide open.”

That will be a scientific bonanza for astronomers and astrophysicists. In addition to revealing the history of galaxy clusters, the ICL holds clues to some of the most fundamental mysteries of the universe, particularly dark matter — the mysterious, invisible stuff thought to account for most of the universe’s mass.

“ICL is quite important for cosmology,” Dell’Antonio said. “The distribution of this light should mirror the distribution of dark matter, so it provides an indirect way to ‘see’ the dark matter.”

Seeing the unseeable — that’s a powerful telescope. 

IMAGE: The faint glow of individual stars stretching between two bright galaxies indicates that the galaxies are actively merging while the galaxy clusters that surround them merge as well. The image was assembled from a total of 28 hours of observations with the 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. Credit CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

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A unique Martian mineral offers fresh clues about planet’s past

The discovery adds new insight into how heat, water, and chemical reactions shape the Martian surface

New research published in Nature Communications identifies an iron sulfate on Mars that may represent a brand-new mineral. Sulfur is common on Mars and combines with other elements to form minerals, especially sulfates. While most sulfates are highly soluble and readily dissolve on Earth during rainfall, on the dry surface of Mars these minerals can survive for billions of years and preserve important clues on the planet’s early history. Each mineral has a unique crystal structure and properties, including the common minerals gypsum and hematite. Scientists rely on data collected by Mars orbiters to identify minerals on the surface and obtain information about former martian environments that would have enabled the formation of these minerals. For nearly 20 years, researchers have been puzzled by unusual, layered iron sulfates with a unique spectral signature. Now, a study led by Dr. Janice Bishop, senior research scientist at the SETI Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, has identified and characterized an uncommon ferric hydroxysulfate phase by combining laboratory experiments with Mars orbital observations. The discovery adds new insight into how heat, water, and chemical reactions shape the martian surface.

“We investigated two sulfate-bearing sites near the vast Valles Marineris canyon system that included mysterious spectral bands seen from orbital data, as well as layered sulfates and intriguing geology,” said Bishop.

The study included a region called Aram Chaos, located northeast of Valles Marineris where ancient water drained away toward lower regions in the north, and also the plateau above Juventae Chasma, a 5-km-deep canyon located just north of Valles Marineris (Figure 1).

Juventae Plateau (above Juventae Chasma):

Near the cliffs of Valles Marineris, this area holds clues to Mars's wetter past. There are signs of ancient water channels across the landscape, but scientists found sulfates in just one small, low-lying spot, likely left behind when pools of sulfate-rich water slowly dried up, forming hydrated ferrous sulfates. These minerals, including ferric hydroxysulfate, appear as thin meter-thick layers occurring both above and beneath basaltic materials (Figure 2), suggesting they were heated from lava or ash after formation.

“Investigation of the morphologies and stratigraphies of these four compositional units allowed us to determine the age and formation relationships among the different units,” said Dr. Catherine Weitz, a co-author on the study and Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute.

Aram Chaos:

Researchers have observed sulfate minerals throughout the Valles Marineris region, including in the rugged landscapes known as chaotic terrains—areas they believe were carved and shaped by powerful floods in the past. As water gradually dried up, it left behind layered deposits of iron and magnesium sulfates, subtle but powerful clues that Mars was once much wetter. In one chaos terrain that formed within a former impact crater, the upper layers contain polyhydrated sulfates, while monohydrated and ferric hydroxysulfate layers lie beneath (Figure 3).

Each of these three sulfates has distinct spectral signatures that can be identified from orbit using the CRISM instrument (Figure 4). While the stratigraphy of these three sulfates was initially puzzling, lab tests showed that heating polyhydrated sulfates to 50°C produces monohydrated forms, and heating above 100°C produces ferric hydroxysulfate, supporting the idea that geothermal heat caused the minerals to transform. Monohydrated and polyhydrated sulfates occur across broad regions (green and blue in Figure 4, respectively), while ferric hydroxysulfate is limited to only a few small regions (red in Figure 4). The warmest geothermal sources likely sat beneath the sites where ferric hydroxysulfate appears today, although more may lie buried under monohydrated sulfates.

Researchers at the SETI Institute and NASA Ames conducted lab experiments to determine how these sulfates transformed—from rozenite (Fe²⁺SO₄·4H₂O) with four water molecules per unit cell, to szomolnokite (Fe²⁺SO₄·H₂O) with one, and finally to ferric hydroxysulfate, which contains OH instead of H₂O in its structure.

“Our experiments suggest that this ferric hydroxysulfate only forms when hydrated ferrous sulfates are heated in the presence of oxygen,” said postdoctoral researcher Dr. Johannes Meusburger at NASA Ames. “While the changes in the atomic structure are very small, this reaction drastically alters the way these minerals absorb infrared light, which allowed identification of this new mineral on Mars using CRISM (Figure 4).”

The reaction requires oxygen gas and produces water (Equation 1). Today, Mars has a thin atmosphere mostly consisting of CO2, but still has enough oxygen for this reaction to proceed and for oxidation of other forms of iron as well.

Equation 1:  4 Fe2+SO4·H2O + O2 à 4 Fe3+SO4OH + 2H2O

“The material formed in these lab experiments is likely a new mineral due to its unique crystal structure and thermal stability,” said Bishop. “However, scientists must also find it on Earth to officially recognize it as a new mineral.”

Interestingly, this new ferric hydroxysulfate appears structurally similar to szomolnokite, a monohydrated ferrous sulfate mineral, but ferric hydroxysulfate forms more easily from rozenite, a tetrahydrated mineral.

This transformation from hydrated ferrous sulfates to ferric hydroxysulfate only happens at temperatures above 100°C, much hotter than what Mars usually experiences at the surface. The sulfates at Aram Chaos and Juventae, including the ferric hydroxysulfate, likely formed more recently than the terrain in which they occur, possibly during the Amazonian period (<3 billion years ago).

This study reveals that heat from both volcanic activity at the Juventae Plateau and geothermal energy below Aram Chaos can transform common hydrated sulfates into ferric hydroxysulfate. The findings suggest parts of Mars have been chemically and thermally active more recently than scientists once believed—offering new insight into the planet's dynamic surface and its potential to have supported life.

TOP IMAGE: Aram Chaos CreditNASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

CENTRE IMAGE: Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) map of Valles Marineris region with higher elevations in red and lower elevations in yellow, green and then blue tones. Credit Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA)

LOWER IMAGE: A view of the plateau above Juventae Chasma with compositional units from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument showing a lower basalt unit in cyan (basalt-1), polyhydrated sulfates in blue, the ferric hydroxysulfate phase in red, and a different basalt unit on top (basalt-2) in medium green over a High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) DTM (5x vertical exaggeration). Credit Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) and High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)

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Pure quantum state without the need for cooling

Three nano glass spheres cling to one another. They form a tower-like cluster, similar to when you pile three scoops of ice cream on top of one another – only much smaller. The diameter of the nano cluster is ten times smaller than that of a human hair. With the help of an optical device and laser beams, researchers at ETH Zurich have succeeded in keeping such objects almost completely motionless in levitation. This is significant when it comes to the future development of quantum sensors, which, together with quantum computers, constitute the most promising applications of quantum research.

As part of their levitation experiment, the researchers, led by adjunct professor of photonics Martin Frimmer, were able to eliminate the gravitational force acting on the glass spheres. However, the elongated nano object still trembled, similar to how the needle on a compass moves when settling into position. In the case of the nano cluster, the trembling motion was very fast but weak: the object made around one million deflections per second, each measuring only a few thousandths of a degree. This tiny rotational oscillation is a fundamental quantum motion exhibited by all objects and which physicists call zero-point fluctuation. “According to the principles of quantum mechanics, no object can ever remain perfectly still,” explains Lorenzo Dania, a postdoc in Frimmer’s group and first author of the study. “The larger an object is, the smaller these zero-point fluctuations are and the more difficult it is to observe them.”

Multiple records

To date, no one has been successful in detecting these tiny movements for an object of this size as precisely as the ETH researchers have now done. They achieved this because they were able to largely eliminate all motions that originate from the field of classical physics and obscure the observation of quantum movements. The ETH researchers attribute 92 percent of the cluster’s movements in their experiment to quantum physics and 8 percent to classical physics; they therefore refer to a high level of quantum purity. “Beforehand, we didn’t expect to achieve such a high level of quantum purity,” explains Dania.

And the records do not stop there: the researchers accomplished all of this at room temperature. Quantum researchers usually have to cool their objects to a temperature close to absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius) using special equipment. This was not required here. Frimmer draws an analogy: “It’s like we’ve built a new vehicle that transports more cargo than traditional lorries and at the same time consumes less fuel.”

Tiny and enormous at the same time

While many researchers investigate quantum effects in individual or small groups of atoms, Frimmer and his group are among those working with relatively large objects. Their nanosphere cluster may be tiny in everyday terms, but it consists of several hundred million atoms, making it enormous from a quantum physicist’s perspective. The interest in objects of this size is partly driven by hopes for future quantum technology applications, for example. Such applications require larger systems to be controlled using the principles of quantum mechanics.

The researchers were able to levitate their nano particles using what is known as an optical tweezer. In this process, the particle is placed in a vacuum in a transparent container. A lens is used to focus polarised laser light at a point inside this container. At this focal point, the particle aligns with the electric field of the polarised laser and thus remains stable.

“A perfect start”

“What we’ve achieved is a perfect start for further research that one day could feed into applications,” says Frimmer. For such applications, you first need a system with high quantum purity in which all external interference can be successfully suppressed and movements controlled in the manner desired, he states, adding that this has now been achieved. It would then be possible to detect quantum mechanical effects, to measure these and to use the system for quantum technological applications.

Possible applications include basic research in physics to design experiments to investigate the relationship between gravity and quantum mechanics. The development of sensors to measure tiny forces such as those of gas molecules or even elementary particles that act on the sensor is also conceivable. This would be useful in the search for dark matter. “We now have a system that is relatively simple, cost-effective and well-suited for this purpose,” says Frimmer.

Applications in navigation and medicine

In the distant future, quantum sensors could also be used in medical imaging. It is hoped that they will be able to detect weak signals in environments where measuring devices otherwise mainly pick up background noise. Another potential application could be motion sensors that could facilitate vehicle navigation even when there is no contact with a GPS satellite.

For the majority of these applications, the quantum system would need to be miniaturised. According to the ETH researchers, this is possible in principle. In any case, they have found a way to achieve the desired controllable quantum state without time-consuming, costly and energy-intensive cooling.

IMAGE: ETH Zurich researchers captured a nano-object (centre of the image) using a laser trap. The laser light, which is focused with a lens, is shown in red. Credit Lorenzo Dania / ETH Zurich

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Researchers discover universal laws of quantum entanglement across all dimensions

A team of theoretical researchers used thermal effective theory to demonstrate that quantum entanglement follows universal rules across all dimensions. Their study was published online on August 5, in Physical Review Letters as an Editors’ Suggestion.

“This study is the first example of applying thermal effective theory to quantum information. The results of this study demonstrate the usefulness of this approach, and we hope to further develop this approach to gain a deeper understanding of quantum entanglement structures,” said lead author and Kyushu University Institute for Advanced Study Associate Professor Yuya Kusuki.

In classical physics, two particles that are far apart behave independently. However, in quantum physics, two particles can exhibit strong correlations regardless of the distance between them. This quantum correlation is known as quantum entanglement. Quantum entanglement is a fundamental phenomenon underlying quantum technologies such as quantum computation and quantum communication, and understanding its structure is important both theoretically and practically. One of the key measures used to quantify quantum entanglement is the Rényi entropy. Rényi entropy quantifies the complexity of quantum states and the distribution of information, and plays a crucial role in the classification of quantum states and in assessing the feasibility of simulating quantum many-body systems. Moreover, Rényi entropy serves as a powerful tool in theoretical investigations of the black hole information loss problem, and frequently appears in the context of quantum gravity.

But uncovering the structure of quantum entanglement is a challenge for both theoretical physics and quantum information theory. However, most studies to date have been limited to (1+1)-dimensional systems, or 1 spatial dimension plus time dimension. In higher dimensions, analyzing the structure of quantum entanglement becomes significantly more difficult (Figure 1).

A research group led by Kusuki, The University of Tokyo Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Professor Hirosi Ooguri, and Caltech researcher Sridip Pal, has shown the universal features of quantum entanglement structures in higher dimensions by applying theoretical techniques developed in the field of particle physics to quantum information theory.

The research team focused on the thermal effective theory, which has recently led to major advances in the analysis of higher-dimensional theories in particle physics. This is a theoretical framework designed to extract universal behavior from complex systems, based on the idea that observable quantities can often be characterized by only a small number of parameters. By introducing this framework into quantum information theory, the team analyzed the behavior of Rényi entropy in higher-dimensional quantum systems. Rényi entropy is characterized by a parameter known as the replica number. The team demonstrated that, in the regime of small replica number, the behavior of the Rényi entropy is universally governed by only a few parameters, such as the Casimir energy, a key physical quantity within the theory. Furthermore, by leveraging this result, the team clarified the behavior of the entanglement spectrum in the region where its eigenvalues are large. They also investigated how universal behavior changes depending on the method used to evaluate the Rényi entropy. These findings hold not only in (1+1) dimensions, but in arbitrary spacetime dimensions, marking a significant step forward in the understanding of quantum entanglement structures in higher dimensions.

The next step for the researchers is to further generalize and refine this framework. This work represents the first demonstration that thermal effective theory can be effectively applied to the study of quantum entanglement structures in higher dimensions, and there remains ample room to further develop this approach. By improving the thermal effective theory with quantum information applications in mind, researchers could gain a deeper understanding of quantum entanglement structures in higher-dimensional systems.

On the applied side, the theoretical insights gained from this research may lead to improvements in numerical simulation methods for higher-dimensional quantum systems, propose new principles for classifying quantum many-body states, and contribute to a quantum-information-theoretic understanding of quantum gravity. These developments hold promise for broad and impactful future applications.

TOP IMAGE: Quantum entanglement in 1+1 and 2+1 dimensions  Credit : Yuya Kusuki

LOWER IMAGE: Looking a quantum entanglement in a quantum many-body system using thermal effective theory, which uncovers universal features of quantum entanglement Credit Yuya Kusuki

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Ultraviolet light reveals the aftermath of rare star collision

A hot white dwarf merger remnant revealed by an ultraviolet detection of carbon

University of Warwick astronomers have uncovered compelling evidence that a nearby white dwarf is in fact the remnant of two stars merging — a rare stellar discovery revealed through Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet observations of carbon in the star’s hot atmosphere. 

White dwarfs are the dense cores left behind when stars exhaust their fuel and collapse. They are Earth-sized stellar embers weighing typically half as much as the Sun, made up of carbon-oxygen cores with surface layers of helium and hydrogen. While white dwarfs are common in the universe, those with exceptionally high mass (weighing more than the Sun) are rare and enigmatic. 

In a paper published today in Nature Astronomy, Warwick astronomers report on their investigations of a known high-mass white dwarf 130 light-years away, called WD 0525+526. With a mass 20% larger than our Sun, WD 0525+526 is considered "ultra-massive", and how this star came to be is not fully understood. 

Such a white dwarf could form from the collapse of a massive star. However, ultraviolet data from the Hubble Space Telescope revealed WD 0525+526 to have small amounts of carbon rising from its core into its hydrogen-rich atmosphere — suggesting this white dwarf did not originate from a single massive star. 

“In optical light (the kind of light we see with our eyes), WD 0525+526 looks like a heavy but otherwise ordinary white dwarf,” said first author Dr Snehalata Sahu, Research Fellow at the University of Warwick. “However, through ultraviolet observations obtained with Hubble, we were able to detect faint carbon signatures that were not visible to optical telescopes. 

“Finding small amounts of carbon in the atmosphere is a telltale sign that this massive white dwarf is likely to be a be the remnant of a merger between two stars colliding. It also tells us there may be many more merger remnants like this masquerading as common pure-hydrogen atmosphere white dwarfs. Only ultraviolet observations would be able to reveal them to us.” 

Normally, hydrogen and helium form a thick barrier-like envelope around a white dwarf core, keeping elements like carbon hidden. In a merger of two stars, the hydrogen and helium layers can burn off almost completely as the stars combine. The resulting single star has a very thin envelope that no longer prevents carbon from reaching the surface — this is exactly what is found on WD 0525+526. 

Antoine Bédard, Warwick Prize Fellow in the Astronomy and Astrophysics group at Warwick and co-first author said, “We measured the hydrogen and helium layers to be ten-billion times thinner than in typical white dwarfs. We think these layers were stripped away in the merger, and this is what now allows carbon to appear on the surface.  

“But this remnant is also unusual: it has about 100,000 times less carbon on its surface compared to other merger remnants. The low carbon level, together with the star’s high temperature (nearly four times hotter than the Sun), tells us WD 0525+526 is much earlier in its post-merger evolution than those previously found. This discovery helps us build a better understand the fate of binary star systems, which is critical for related phenomena like supernova explosions.”  

Adding to the mystery is how carbon reaches the surface at all in this much hotter star. The other merger remnants are later in their evolution and cool enough for convection to bring carbon to the surface. But WD 0525+526 is far too hot for that process. Instead, the team identified a subtler form of mixing called semi-convection, seen here for the first time in a white dwarf. This process allows small amounts of carbon to slowly rise into the star’s hydrogen-rich atmosphere. 

“Finding clear evidence of mergers in individual white dwarfs is rare,” added Professor Boris Gänsicke, Department of Physics, University of Warwick, who obtained the Hubble data for this study. “But ultraviolet spectroscopy gives us the ability to detect these signs early, when the carbon is still invisible at optical wavelengths. Because the Earth’s atmosphere blocks ultraviolet light, these observations must be carried out from space, and currently only Hubble can do this job.  

“Hubble just turned 35 years old, and while still going strong, it is very important that we start planning for a new space telescope that will eventually replace it.”  

 As WD 0525+526 continues to evolve and cool, it is expected that more carbon will emerge at its surface over time. For now, its ultraviolet glow offers a rare glimpse into the earliest stage of a stellar merger’s aftermath — and a new benchmark for how binary stars end their lives. 

TOP IMAGE: Illustration depicting the hot stellar merger that formed the ultra-massive white dwarf -WD 0525+526.  Credit Dr. Snehalata Sahu/University of Warwick

LOWER IMAGE: This illustration shows the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in its high orbit 600 kilometres above Earth.  Credit European Space Agency

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Monday SpaceTime 20250804 Series 28 Episode 93

Australia’s first orbital rocket launch fails seconds after liftoff

The say space is hard and Gilmour Space have just learnt that lesson with their ERIS one orbital rocket test launch crashing back to the ground just seconds after liftoff.

The evolution of life may have its origins in outer space

Astronomers have found complex organic molecules which are precursors to the sugars and amino acids essential for life in a planet-forming disk.

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft delayed until 2026

NASA says Boeing trouble plagued Starliner spacecraft will be delayed until at least 2026 and may not carry humans when it does finally return to the skies.

The Science Report

Study warns that you may be breathing in tens of thousands of microplastic particles every day.

How fake images are being used to influence your opinion

The biggest lightning flash ever recorded.

SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences.

The show is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through your favourite podcast download provider or from www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com

SpaceTime is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

SpaceTime daily news blog: http://spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com/

SpaceTime facebook: www.facebook.com/spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime Instagram @spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime twitter feed @stuartgary

SpaceTime YouTube: @SpaceTimewithStuartGary

SpaceTime -- A brief history

SpaceTime is Australia’s most popular and respected astronomy and space science news program – averaging over two million downloads every year. We’re also number five in the United States.  The show reports on the latest stories and discoveries making news in astronomy, space flight, and science.  SpaceTime features weekly interviews with leading Australian scientists about their research.  The show began life in 1995 as ‘StarStuff’ on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) NewsRadio network.  Award winning investigative reporter Stuart Gary created the program during more than fifteen years as NewsRadio’s evening anchor and Science Editor.  Gary’s always loved science. He was the dorky school kid who spent his weekends at the Australian Museum. Gary studied astronomy at university and was invited to undertake a PHD in astrophysics, but instead focused on a career in journalism and radio broadcasting. His radio career stretches back some 34 years including 26 at the ABC. Gary’s first gigs were spent as an announcer and music DJ in commercial radio, before becoming a journalist, and eventually joining ABC News and Current Affairs. He was part of the team that set up ABC NewsRadio and became one of its first on air presenters. When asked to put his science background to use, Gary was appointed Science Editor and quickly developed the StarStuff Astronomy show, which he wrote, produced, and hosted. The program proved extremely popular, consistently achieving 9 per cent of the national Australian radio audience -- based on the ABC’s Nielsen ratings survey figures for the five major Australian metro markets: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. That compares to the ABC’s overall radio listenership of 5.6 per cent. The StarStuff podcast was published on line by ABC Science -- achieving over 1.3 million downloads annually.  However, after some 20 years, the show finally wrapped up in December 2015 following ABC funding cuts, and a redirection of available finances to increase sports and horse racing coverage.  Rather than continue with the ABC, Gary resigned so that he could keep the show going independently.  StarStuff was rebranded as “SpaceTime”, with the first episode broadcast in February 2016.  Over the years, SpaceTime has grown, more than doubling its former ABC audience numbers and expanding to include new segments such as the Science Report -- which provides a wrap of general science news, weekly skeptical science features, special reports looking at the latest computer and technology news, and Skywatch – which provides a monthly guide to the night skies. The show is published three times a week (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and it’s available from the United States National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio, and through both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

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Monday SpaceTime 20250804 Series 28 Episode 93

Australia’s first orbital rocket launch fails seconds after liftoff

The say space is hard and Gilmour Space have just learnt that lesson with their ERIS one orbital rocket test launch crashing back to the ground just seconds after liftoff.

The evolution of life may have its origins in outer space

Astronomers have found complex organic molecules which are precursors to the sugars and amino acids essential for life in a planet-forming disk.

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft delayed until 2026

NASA says Boeing trouble plagued Starliner spacecraft will be delayed until at least 2026 and may not carry humans when it does finally return to the skies.

The Science Report

Study warns that you may be breathing in tens of thousands of microplastic particles every day.

How fake images are being used to influence your opinion

The biggest lightning flash ever recorded.

SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences.

The show is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through your favourite podcast download provider or from www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com

SpaceTime is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

SpaceTime daily news blog: http://spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com/

SpaceTime facebook: www.facebook.com/spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime Instagram @spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime twitter feed @stuartgary

SpaceTime YouTube: @SpaceTimewithStuartGary

SpaceTime -- A brief history

SpaceTime is Australia’s most popular and respected astronomy and space science news program – averaging over two million downloads every year. We’re also number five in the United States.  The show reports on the latest stories and discoveries making news in astronomy, space flight, and science.  SpaceTime features weekly interviews with leading Australian scientists about their research.  The show began life in 1995 as ‘StarStuff’ on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) NewsRadio network.  Award winning investigative reporter Stuart Gary created the program during more than fifteen years as NewsRadio’s evening anchor and Science Editor.  Gary’s always loved science. He was the dorky school kid who spent his weekends at the Australian Museum. Gary studied astronomy at university and was invited to undertake a PHD in astrophysics, but instead focused on a career in journalism and radio broadcasting. His radio career stretches back some 34 years including 26 at the ABC. Gary’s first gigs were spent as an announcer and music DJ in commercial radio, before becoming a journalist, and eventually joining ABC News and Current Affairs. He was part of the team that set up ABC NewsRadio and became one of its first on air presenters. When asked to put his science background to use, Gary was appointed Science Editor and quickly developed the StarStuff Astronomy show, which he wrote, produced, and hosted. The program proved extremely popular, consistently achieving 9 per cent of the national Australian radio audience -- based on the ABC’s Nielsen ratings survey figures for the five major Australian metro markets: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. That compares to the ABC’s overall radio listenership of 5.6 per cent. The StarStuff podcast was published on line by ABC Science -- achieving over 1.3 million downloads annually.  However, after some 20 years, the show finally wrapped up in December 2015 following ABC funding cuts, and a redirection of available finances to increase sports and horse racing coverage.  Rather than continue with the ABC, Gary resigned so that he could keep the show going independently.  StarStuff was rebranded as “SpaceTime”, with the first episode broadcast in February 2016.  Over the years, SpaceTime has grown, more than doubling its former ABC audience numbers and expanding to include new segments such as the Science Report -- which provides a wrap of general science news, weekly skeptical science features, special reports looking at the latest computer and technology news, and Skywatch – which provides a monthly guide to the night skies. The show is published three times a week (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and it’s available from the United States National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio, and through both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

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Made a short for today's Rocket Lab Electron launch! My first Electron short.

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ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY August 06, 2025 What's that green streak in front of the Andromeda galaxy? A meteor. While photographing the Andromeda galaxy in 2016, near the peak of the PerseidMeteorShower, a small pebble from deep space crossed right in front of our Milky Way Galaxy's far-distant companion. The small meteor took only a fraction of a second to pass through this 10-degree field. The meteor flared several times while braking violently upon entering Earth's atmosphere. The green color was created, at least in part, by the meteor's gas glowing as it vaporized. Although the exposure was timed to catch a Perseid meteor, the orientation of the imaged streak seems a better match to a meteor from the Southern Delta Aquariids, a meteor shower that peaked a few weeks earlier. Not coincidentally, the Perseid Meteor Shower peaks next week, although this year the meteors will have to outshine a sky brightened by a nearly full moon. Image: https://ift.tt/va2BXGC via NASA https://ift.tt/zqKYICV APOD --> https://ift.tt/qnc0zx8

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CMB Dipole: Speeding Through the Universe

Credits: DMR, COBE, NASA

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Hale-Bopp from Indian Cove - August 6th, 1997.

"Good cameras were able to obtain impressive photographs of Comet Hale-Bopp when at its brightest earlier in 1997. In the above photograph taken on April 5th, 1997, Comet Hale-Bopp was imaged from the Indian Cove Campground in the Joshua Tree National Forest in California, USA. A flashlight was used to momentarily illuminate foreground rocks in this 30 second exposure. Comet Hale-Bopp was visible to the unaided eye in Earth's southern hemisphere, with observers there reporting it to be about 4th magnitude. The comet was passing nearly in front of the star Sirius, and showed only a slight dust tail."