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New SpaceTime out Monday

SpaceTime 20241125 Series 27 Episode 142

How Mars got its moons

A new study suggests Mars got its two moons Phobos and Demos after a passing asteroid was ripped apart by the red planet’s gravity.

Starship Test Flight 6 full report

SpaceX has undertaken a successful sixth test flight of its Starship mega-rocket with United States President-elect Donald Trump joining SpaceX boss Elon Musk to witness the spectacular launch first hand.

A billion-year shift in the formation of the planet’s largest ore deposits

A new study has found that the Earth’s largest iron ore deposits – which are found in the Western Australian Pilbara -- are about one billion years younger than previously thought.

The Science Report

How an hour long daily walk could extend your life.

Global plastic waste to double by the middle of the century.

A new study shows that switching to a vegan diet could lower your food costs by 19%.

Skeptics guide to the Bent Spoon award.

SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences.

The show is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts (itunes), Stitcher, Google Podcast, Pocketcasts, SoundCloud, Bitez.com, YouTube, your favourite podcast download provider, and 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 studied astronomy at university and was invited to undertake a PHD in astrophysics, but instead focused on his career in journalism and radio broadcasting. Gary’s radio career stretches back some 34 years including 26 at the ABC. He worked 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 developed StarStuff which he wrote, produced and hosted, 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.  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 being 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 weekly (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and 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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Still learning how to use my Unistellar telescope (it has a digital sensor with built-in stacking). A few highlights:

Clouds on the horizon meant no comet, and I don't think the northern lights got down to southern California today, although that was an awfully pink sky just after sunset (traffic from Orange County was horrendous so I only got to the cabin at seven). but there's always something to see, even if you have to restrict your viewing to dark patches overhead..

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by Kyle Bonallo (ig: @kylebonallo)

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(via Instagram)

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Morning meditation — When we understand the Buddhist teachings.

Morning meditation — When we understand the Buddhist teachings. https://wp.me/pFy3u-9lN

‘When we understand the Buddhist teachings, it is the same whether we meet with good fortune or with bad.’ Everyday Buddhism Pink rose in the dark. On our Twitter account, Buddhism Now @Buddhism_Now, most mornings we post a ‘morning meditation’ like the one above. On the net, of course, it’s morning, afternoon, evening, or night-time 😀 somewhere. Click here to read more Morning Meditation…

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A Black Hole in M87?

Credits: JHU, StScI, ARC, NASA

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Adhesives are everywhere, from the tape used in households to the bonding materials in vehicles and electronics. The search for stronger, more adaptable adhesives is ongoing and may come down to adding a dash of salt to two special polymer ingredients known as polyzwitterions, or PZIs. New research from a FAMU-FSU College of Engineering team led by Hoyong Chung, an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, shows a new way to create adhesives by using the natural attraction between positively and negatively charged materials. The work was recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

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Los Angeles CA (SPX) Nov 22, 2024

Sidus Space (NASDAQ: SIDU) has entered a pivotal partnership with Reflex Aerospace, a European satellite manufacturing startup, to advance the development of dual-use satellite platforms. Announced at Space Tech Expo Europe, this collaboration combines Sidus Space’s expertise in satellite manufacturing and mission operations with Reflex Aerospace’s specialization in rapid, custom satellite desig

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Milky Way Over Easter Island

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New theory reveals the shape of a single photon 

A new theory, that explains how light and matter interact at the quantum level has enabled researchers to define for the first time the precise shape of a single photon. 

Research at the University of Birmingham, published in Physical Review Letters, explores the nature of photons (individual particles of light) in unprecedented detail to show how they are emitted by atoms or molecules and shaped by their environment. 

The nature of this interaction leads to infinite possibilities for light to exist and propagate, or travel, through its surrounding environment. This limitless possibility, however, makes the interactions exceptionally hard to model, and is a challenge that quantum physicists have been working to address for several decades. 

By grouping these possibilities into distinct sets, the Birmingham team were able to produce a model that describes not only the interactions between the photon and the emitter, but also how the energy from that interaction travels into the distant ‘far field’. 

At the same time, they were able to use their calculations to produce a visualisation of the photon itself. 

First author Dr Benjamin Yuen, in the University’s School of Physics, explained: “Our calculations enabled us to convert a seemingly insolvable problem into something that can be computed. And, almost as a bi-product of the model, we were able to produce this image of a photon, something that hasn’t been seen before in physics.” 

The work is important because it opens up new avenues of research for quantum physicists and material science. By being able to precisely define how a photon interacts with matter and with other elements of its environment, scientists can design new nanophotonic technologies that could change the way we communicate securely, detect pathogens, or control chemical reactions at a molecular level for example. 

Co-author, Professor Angela Demetriadou, also at the University of Birmingham, said: “The geometry and optical properties of the environment has profound consequences for how photons are emitted, including defining the photons shape, colour, and even how likely it is to exist.” 

Dr Benjamin Yuen, added: “This work helps us to increase our understanding of the energy exchange between light and matter, and secondly to better understand how light radiates into its nearby and distant surroundings. Lots of this information had previously been thought of as just ‘noise’ - but there’s so much information within it that we can now make sense of, and make use of. By understanding this, we set the foundations to be able to engineer light-matter interactions for future applications, such as better sensors, improved photovoltaic energy cells, or quantum computing.” 

IMAGE: A new theory, that explains how light and matter interact at the quantum level has enabled researchers to define for the first time the precise shape of a single photon. Credit Dr Benjamin Yuen

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Rho Ophiuchi - Antares region © Jeff Bottman

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"Nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded"

Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia, during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.

Founder of Buddhism: Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the Buddha, founded Buddhism, one of the world's major religions, based on his teachings about overcoming suffering and achieving enlightenment.

Born as a Prince: He was born in Lumbini (modern-day Nepal) as a prince of the Shakya clan around the 5th to 6th century BCE, shielded from the hardships of the world.

The Four Sights: At age 29, he left his palace and encountered "The Four Sights"—an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a wandering ascetic—which inspired him to seek answers to life's suffering.

Attained Enlightenment: After years of ascetic practices, he meditated under the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya and achieved enlightenment, becoming "the Buddha," or "the Awakened One.

"Teachings of the Middle Way: Buddha advocated the "Middle Way," avoiding extremes of indulgence and self-denial, and shared the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path as the foundation of his teachings.

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The Solar System's little pocket of the Milky Way is, interestingly enough, exactly that. Our star resides in an unusually hot, low-density compartment in the galaxy's skirts, known as the Local Hot Bubble (LHB). Why it's not called the Local Hot Pocket is anyone's guess; but, because it's an anomaly, scientists want to know why the region exists. Now a team of astronomers has mapped the bubble, revealing not just a strange asymmetry in the pocket's shape and temperature gradient, but the presence of a mysterious tunnel pointing towards the constellation Centaurus. The new data about the shape and heat of the bubble supports a previous interpretation that the LHB was excavated by exploding supernovae that expanded and heated the structure, while the tunnel suggests that it may be connected to another low-density bubble nearby.

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