Eris Rocket Launch Delays, Venus’s Tectonic Secrets, and Scotland’s Billion-Year-Old Impact
This episode of SpaceTime covers a range of exciting topics, including the delayed launch of Gilmour Space's Eris rocket, groundbreaking discoveries on Venus, and a billion-year-old asteroid impact in Scotland that raises new questions about the evolution of life on Earth.
Eris Rocket Launch Delayed
Gilmour Space has postponed the maiden launch of its Eris orbital rocket due to technical issues encountered during pre-flight checks. The rocket, designed to carry small satellite payloads, will now face a delay of at least three weeks as the company investigates the unexpected deployment of the launch vehicle's nosecone fairings. We discuss the implications of this delay and what it means for future commercial launches.
Tectonic Activity on Venus
In a fascinating discovery, scientists have identified possible tectonic activity on Venus, based on data from NASA's Magellan mission. Researchers found evidence of unique geological features known as coronae, which may indicate ongoing deformation of the planet's surface due to molten material from below. This research not only enhances our understanding of Venus but also offers insights into Earth's geological history.
Ancient Asteroid Impact in Scotland
A recent study has revealed that a massive asteroid impact in Scotland occurred 990 million years ago, much later than previously thought. This discovery, based on dating tiny zircon crystals, suggests a connection between this impact event and the emergence of early freshwater eukaryotes on land. We delve into the implications of this revised timeline for our understanding of life on Earth and the environmental changes triggered by such impacts.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com (
https://www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com/)
✍️ Episode References
Science Advances
https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv
(
https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv)
Journal of Geology
https://www.geosociety.org/publications/gsa/geo.asp
(
https://www.geosociety.org/publications/gsa/geo.asp)
Become a supporter of this podcast:
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.
00:00 This is Space Time Series 28, Episode 60 for broadcast on 19 May 2025
00:54 Gilmour Space's Eris rocket launch delayed
10:15 Possible tectonic activity discovered on Venus
18:45 Billion-year-old asteroid impact in Scotland raises questions about early life on Earth
25:00 Science report: Unexplained communications equipment found in Chinese-made solar panel inverters
Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/27196201?utm_source=youtube
00:00 - This is Space Time Series 28, Episode 60 for broadcast on 19 May 2025
00:54 - Gilmour Space’s Eris rocket launch delayed
10:15 - Possible tectonic activity discovered on Venus
18:45 - Billion-year-old asteroid impact in Scotland raises questions about early life on Earth
25:00 - Science report: Unexplained communications equipment found in Chinese-made solar panel inverters
Kind: captions
Language: en
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:03.190
This is Spacetime series 28 episode 60
00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:05.789
for broadcast on the 19th of May
00:00:05.799 --> 00:00:09.430
2025. Coming up on Spaceime, Gilmore
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Spac's Aerys orbital rocket launch
00:00:11.440 --> 00:00:13.749
delayed, the discovery of possible
00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:16.870
tectonic activity on Venus and a
00:00:16.880 --> 00:00:18.950
billion-year-old asteroid impact in
00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:21.590
Scotland sparks fresh questions about
00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:24.470
life on Earth. All that and more coming
00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:27.670
up on Spaceime.
00:00:27.680 --> 00:00:31.730
Welcome to Space Time with Stuart
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[Music]
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Garry. Gilmore Space has scrubbed the
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maiden launch of its Aerys rocket by
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several weeks following a series of
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technical issues. The test flight, which
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was to take place last Thursday, was
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initially postponed for a day following
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the discovery on Wednesday of a ground
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systems glitch with an external power
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supply on the launchpad. The company
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spokesperson, communication chief
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Michelle Gilmore, says the issue was
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detected during pre-flight systems
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checks. She says the cause was
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identified, but mission managers ran out
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of time to implement the fix and fuel
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the rocket in time to meet the Thursday
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morning launch window. that forced the
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scrub and the plan's second launch
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attempt the following morning. But then
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on Thursday evening, an unexpected issue
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during final testing triggered the
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system that jettisonens the launch
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vehicle's nose cone fairings, which then
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fell to the ground. Company CEO Adam
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Gilmore says no one was injured in the
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incident, and initial checks have found
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no damage to either the rocket or the
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launchpad. A replacement set of nose
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cone fairings are now being transported
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to the Bow and Launch facility on the
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northern Queensland coast from the
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company's Gold Coast factory. Gilmore
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says a full investigation into the cause
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of the unexpected deployments now
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underway and that could take up to 2
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weeks, meaning the next launch attempt
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is at least 3 weeks away. The 23 m tall
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three-stage AIS rocket is designed to
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launch small satellite payloads up to
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200 kg into low Earth orbit. But the
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maiden flight's only payload will be a
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jar of the popular Australian toast
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spread vegite. The 30tonon Aerys launch
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vehicle uses a unique hybrid propulsion
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system comprising a solid inert fuel and
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a liquid oxidizer to provide oxygen for
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the burn. Gilmore says the company hopes
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to start commercial launches late next
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year or early in
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2027. Needless to say, we'll keep you
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informed. This is spaceime.
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Still to come, the discovery of possible
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tectonic activity on the planet Venus
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and the billion-year-old asteroid impact
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in Scotland that spark new questions
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about life on Earth. All that and more
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still to come on Spaceime.
00:02:55.110 --> 00:03:03.910
[Music]
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A new study claims that mysterious giant
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quasy circular features on the surface
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of the planet Venus may be evidence of a
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new type of tectonic activity not found
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on Earth. The findings reported in the
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journal Science Advances are based on
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archival data from NASA's Mellan mission
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which launched to map Venus back in
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1989. The authors say this ongoing
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tectonic activity may still be deforming
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the planet's surface
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today. On Earth, the planet's surface is
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continually being renewed by the
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constant shifting and recycling of
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massive sections of crust known as
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tectonic plates. These float on top of a
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partly molten convecting viscous mantle.
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Venus doesn't have tectonic plates to
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allow heat from deep inside the planet
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to escape, but its surface is still
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being deformed by molten material from
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below. Seeking to better understand the
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underlying processes driving these
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defamations, scientists studied a type
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of feature seen on Venus and not seen on
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Earth known as corona. Ranging in size
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from dozens to hundreds of kilometers
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across, a corona is most often thought
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to be the location where a plume of hot
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buoyant material from the planet's deep
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mantle is rising up and pushing against
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the lithosphere above. The lithosphere
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includes the planet's crust and the
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uppermost part of its mantle. These
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corona structures are usually oval with
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a concentric fracture system surrounding
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them and hundreds of corona are known to
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exist on Venus. The new study details
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recently discovered signs of activity
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either at or beneath the surface which
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is shaping many of Venus's corona
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features that may not only provide a
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unique window into Venus but also the
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Earth's past. You see, Venus is often
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described as Earth's sister planet.
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They're both about the same age and
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size. They were both formed at the same
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time in the same part of the solar
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system and out of the same materials
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under similar conditions. But whereas
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Earth was able to evolve into an oasis
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where life could exist, Venus developed
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a runaway greenhouse effect. It has
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surface temperatures of over 460° C.
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That's hot enough to melt lead.
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Atmospheric pressures on Venus are 100
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times higher than what they are on
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Earth. And the atmosphere is a thick
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poisonous carbon dioxide mixture pushed
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down under a thick planetwide cloud
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cover that acts as a pressure cooker.
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And those clouds rain sulfuric acid onto
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the ground. Now, there is what looks
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like snow on Venusian mountaintops. But
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that snow isn't ice. It's metallic.
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Venus rotates slowly backwards compared
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to most other planets in the solar
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system with the sun rising in the west
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and setting in the east. And at 245
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Earth days, a Venian day is 20 Earth
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days longer than a Venetian year. The
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study's authors found their evidence for
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Venus's weird tectonic activity within
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data gathered by NASA's Mellan mission,
00:06:01.039 --> 00:06:03.510
which orbited Venus during the 1990s and
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gathered the most detailed gravity and
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topography data on the planet available.
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The study's lead author, Gal Casioli
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from the University of Maryland and
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NASA's Godard Space Flight Center in
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Green Belt, Maryland, says Karna are not
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found on Earth today. However, they may
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have existed on our planet when it was a
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lot younger, a time before plate
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tectonics became established here. She
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says by combining gravity and topography
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data, this research has provided a new
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insight into the possible subsurface
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processes which are currently shaping
00:06:33.039 --> 00:06:35.430
the surface of Venus. As members of
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NASA's upcoming Venus Veritas mission,
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Ciolian colleagues are especially
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interested in the highresolution gravity
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data the spacecraft will provide. Mellin
00:06:44.639 --> 00:06:46.629
used its radar system to see through
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Venus's thick cloud cover, mapping the
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topography of its mountains and plains.
00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:53.510
And of the multitude of fascinating
00:06:53.520 --> 00:06:55.430
geological features the spacecraft
00:06:55.440 --> 00:06:57.790
mapped, corona were perhaps the most
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enigmatic. Back then, it wasn't clear
00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:02.629
how they formed. In the years since,
00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:04.150
however, scientists have found many
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crona in locations where the planet's
00:07:06.080 --> 00:07:08.469
lithosphere is especially thin and heat
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flow is high. Over the years, people
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have proposed different hypotheses to
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try and explain how they formed. The
00:07:15.280 --> 00:07:16.790
authors of this study developed a
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sophisticated three-dimensional
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geodnamic model to demonstrate various
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formation scenarios for plume induced
00:07:22.880 --> 00:07:24.870
crona and they then compared them with
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the combined gravity topography data
00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:29.430
from Melon. And the gravity data proved
00:07:29.440 --> 00:07:31.830
crucial in helping detect less dense hot
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and buoyant plumes under the surface.
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Information that couldn't be discerned
00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:38.870
from topography data alone. Of the 75
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cron studied, 52 appear to have buoyant
00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:43.350
mantal material beneath them that's
00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:46.390
likely driving tectonic processes. One
00:07:46.400 --> 00:07:49.350
key process is subduction. On Earth, it
00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:50.950
happens when the edge of one tectonic
00:07:50.960 --> 00:07:52.950
plate is driven beneath an adjacent
00:07:52.960 --> 00:07:55.270
plate. Friction between the plates can
00:07:55.280 --> 00:07:57.270
generate earthquakes. And as the old
00:07:57.280 --> 00:07:59.749
rocky material from one plate dives back
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down into the hot mantle, that rock
00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:03.749
melts and is then recycled back to the
00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:06.309
surface through volcanic vents. But on
00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:08.230
Venus, a different type of subduction is
00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:10.230
thought to occur around the perimeter of
00:08:10.240 --> 00:08:13.189
some Corona. In this scenario, as a
00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:15.350
buoyant plume of hot rock in the mantle
00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:17.189
pushes upwards into the lithosphere,
00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:19.189
surface material rises and spreads
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outwards, colliding with surrounding
00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:22.869
surface material and pushing that
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material back down into the mantle.
00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:26.950
Another tectonic process known as
00:08:26.960 --> 00:08:28.790
lithospheric dripping could also be
00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:30.629
present. This involves dense
00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:32.469
accumulations of comparatively cool
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material which sinks from the
00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:36.550
lithosphere down into the hotter mantle.
00:08:36.560 --> 00:08:38.469
The authors also identified several
00:08:38.479 --> 00:08:40.310
places where a third process could be
00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:42.790
taking place where a plume of hot mantle
00:08:42.800 --> 00:08:44.070
rock beneath a thicker part of the
00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:46.070
lithosphere is potentially driving the
00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:48.710
volcanism above it. The research marks
00:08:48.720 --> 00:08:50.630
the most recent instance of scientists
00:08:50.640 --> 00:08:52.790
returning to Mellan data to find that
00:08:52.800 --> 00:08:54.949
Venus exhibits geological processes that
00:08:54.959 --> 00:08:56.550
are more earthlike than originally
00:08:56.560 --> 00:08:58.710
thought. Recently, scientists were able
00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:01.110
to spot erupting volcanoes on Venus,
00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:03.350
including vast lava flows that vented
00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:06.949
from Matt Mons, Cifmons, and Steio in
00:09:06.959 --> 00:09:09.430
radar images from the orbiter. While
00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:11.350
those images provided direct evidence of
00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:13.350
volcanic action on Venus, the authors of
00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:14.949
this new study will need sharper
00:09:14.959 --> 00:09:16.710
resolution in order to draw a more
00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:18.550
complete picture about the tectonic
00:09:18.560 --> 00:09:21.430
processes driving corona formation. And
00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:23.750
the Veritas gravity maps of Venus will
00:09:23.760 --> 00:09:25.750
boost that resolution by at least a
00:09:25.760 --> 00:09:27.790
factor of two to four depending on the
00:09:27.800 --> 00:09:30.389
location. That's a level of detail which
00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:31.910
could revolutionize science's
00:09:31.920 --> 00:09:34.150
understanding of Venus's geology and the
00:09:34.160 --> 00:09:37.829
implications it has for early Earth.
00:09:37.839 --> 00:09:41.350
This is spacetime. Still to come, the
00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:43.190
billion-year-old asteroid impact in
00:09:43.200 --> 00:09:45.030
Scotland which has sparked new questions
00:09:45.040 --> 00:09:47.269
about life on Earth. And later in the
00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:49.990
science report, discovery of unexplained
00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:52.550
communications equipment in Chinese-made
00:09:52.560 --> 00:09:55.190
power inverters used in solar panels and
00:09:55.200 --> 00:09:57.350
wind turbines. All that and more still
00:09:57.360 --> 00:10:01.840
to come on Spaceime.
00:10:01.850 --> 00:10:14.790
[Music]
00:10:14.800 --> 00:10:16.790
Scientists dating a massive asteroid
00:10:16.800 --> 00:10:18.870
impact zone in northwestern Scotland
00:10:18.880 --> 00:10:20.550
have discovered that it actually struck
00:10:20.560 --> 00:10:22.550
the Earth some 200 million years later
00:10:22.560 --> 00:10:24.710
than what was originally thought. The
00:10:24.720 --> 00:10:26.310
discovery reported in the journal
00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:28.470
Geology not only rewrite Scotland's
00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:30.630
geological history, but also alters
00:10:30.640 --> 00:10:32.630
science's understanding of the evolution
00:10:32.640 --> 00:10:35.190
of life on Earth. Previously believed to
00:10:35.200 --> 00:10:37.350
have occurred 1.2 Two billion years ago,
00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:39.509
the impact created the stack fat member,
00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:41.590
a layer of rock that holds vital clues
00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:43.750
about Earth's ancient past, including
00:10:43.760 --> 00:10:46.230
how meteor and asteroid impacts may have
00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:48.069
influenced the planet's environment and
00:10:48.079 --> 00:10:50.310
life. The study's lead author Chris
00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:52.389
Kirkland from Curtain University says
00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:55.190
the key lay in tiny zirkon crystals
00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:57.670
which acted as geological clocks.
00:10:57.680 --> 00:10:59.110
Kirkland and colleagues were able to
00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:01.990
more accurately date the impact to 990
00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:04.310
million years ago. He says these
00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:07.030
microscopic zirkon crystals recorded the
00:11:07.040 --> 00:11:09.350
exact moment of impact with some even
00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:10.949
transforming into an incredibly rare
00:11:10.959 --> 00:11:13.110
mineral called reedite which only forms
00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:15.750
under extreme pressures. Kirkland says
00:11:15.760 --> 00:11:17.990
it provides undeniable proof that a
00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:20.389
meteor strike did cause the stack far to
00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:22.790
deposit. See when a meteor hits the
00:11:22.800 --> 00:11:25.110
surface it potentially resets the atomic
00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:27.750
clocks inside the ziron crystals. And
00:11:27.760 --> 00:11:29.509
these broken time pieces are often
00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:31.910
unable to be dated. But Kirtland and
00:11:31.920 --> 00:11:33.350
colleagues developed a new model to
00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:34.790
reconstruct when the disturbance
00:11:34.800 --> 00:11:37.590
occurred, confirming the impact was 990
00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:40.230
million years ago. And this revised
00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:42.470
impact date occurred at around the same
00:11:42.480 --> 00:11:44.790
time some of the earliest freshwater
00:11:44.800 --> 00:11:47.430
ukariots began to appear on land.
00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:49.670
Ukariats are the ancient ancestors of
00:11:49.680 --> 00:11:52.470
today's plants, animals, and fungi. And
00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:54.550
so it's raising fascinating questions
00:11:54.560 --> 00:11:56.310
about whether large impacts may have
00:11:56.320 --> 00:11:57.990
influenced environmental conditions on
00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:00.430
Earth in ways that affected early
00:12:00.440 --> 00:12:02.710
ecosystems. See, understanding when
00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:04.790
meteor impacts occur helps scientists
00:12:04.800 --> 00:12:06.470
explore the potential influence on
00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:08.710
Earth's environment and the expansion of
00:12:08.720 --> 00:12:11.269
life beyond the oceans. Kirkland says
00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:13.269
while the impact crater itself is yet to
00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:14.949
be found, this study has collected
00:12:14.959 --> 00:12:17.110
further clues that could finally reveal
00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:18.949
its location. We don't know where the
00:12:18.959 --> 00:12:20.629
crater itself is, but we've got these
00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:23.030
fantastic sequence of rocks that tell us
00:12:23.040 --> 00:12:24.069
about the impact, but we don't know
00:12:24.079 --> 00:12:25.590
where the exact crater itself is.
00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:27.430
There's this classic sequence of geology
00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:29.829
in Scotland known as the Toridan, and it
00:12:29.839 --> 00:12:31.910
has this unit called the Spack Fat,
00:12:31.920 --> 00:12:33.750
which is an impact deposit, and it
00:12:33.760 --> 00:12:35.590
contain shots minerals. So, we
00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:37.190
definitely know it's formed by a big
00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:38.790
impact. Unfortunately, we don't know
00:12:38.800 --> 00:12:40.949
where the crater is yet. But the
00:12:40.959 --> 00:12:42.790
sequence of rocks is really interesting
00:12:42.800 --> 00:12:45.110
because it contains early ukarotes. So
00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:47.590
those are early fossils of land life.
00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:49.350
Some of the first evidence of life on
00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:51.030
the land out of the ocean. These are
00:12:51.040 --> 00:12:53.030
cells that have got individual parts to
00:12:53.040 --> 00:12:54.550
them. Yeah, that's absolutely right. So
00:12:54.560 --> 00:12:55.990
what they look like in the rock record
00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:57.910
are these kind of crusty surfaces within
00:12:57.920 --> 00:12:59.269
the rock. So they're quite distinctive
00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:00.710
and they've been recognized for a long
00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:03.190
time. And because the impact is in the
00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:04.710
sequence that contains these fossils.
00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:06.790
The impact has been used as a marker bed
00:13:06.800 --> 00:13:09.190
to define the age of these fossils. But
00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:11.269
by um using some new techniques here at
00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:13.269
Curtain, we've redated the impact
00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:15.829
deposit and shifted its age by uh 200
00:13:15.839 --> 00:13:17.509
million years. So it's a it's a billion
00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:19.750
year old impact now. And that really
00:13:19.760 --> 00:13:22.310
helps us understand Scottish geology a
00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:23.910
lot better, but also understand the
00:13:23.920 --> 00:13:26.150
relationship potentially um how this
00:13:26.160 --> 00:13:28.790
ancient ecosystem responded to a large
00:13:28.800 --> 00:13:30.389
impact event and then and the
00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:31.910
development of these fossils. Is this
00:13:31.920 --> 00:13:34.230
telling us that this impact may have
00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:36.230
allowed the acceleration of the spread
00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:38.550
of ukarots because these are the uh life
00:13:38.560 --> 00:13:40.949
forms that eventually led to animals and
00:13:40.959 --> 00:13:42.790
plants and fungi. Yeah, that's exactly
00:13:42.800 --> 00:13:45.269
right. Yeah, you know, we do find right
00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:47.509
underneath where the impact deposit is,
00:13:47.519 --> 00:13:49.350
there is some early kind of traces of
00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:52.710
ukarotes. Um but after the impact
00:13:52.720 --> 00:13:54.750
deposit, we find more evidence of these
00:13:54.760 --> 00:13:57.670
ukarotes. Um, the reason this sequence
00:13:57.680 --> 00:13:59.590
of rocks is so interesting is it's some
00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:02.069
of the oldest unmet metamorphosed, so
00:14:02.079 --> 00:14:05.110
uncooked rocks of this age that contain
00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:07.590
these fossils on the planet. And the
00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:09.670
other interesting um thing about these
00:14:09.680 --> 00:14:11.750
rocks is they're an old sequence of
00:14:11.760 --> 00:14:13.670
rivers and lakes. So this impact came
00:14:13.680 --> 00:14:15.750
into this ecosystem, brought a lot of
00:14:15.760 --> 00:14:17.829
energy with it, fractured the rock, set
00:14:17.839 --> 00:14:19.990
up a whole load of chemical reactions,
00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:21.590
and then we've got this lovely record of
00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:23.269
it preserved in Scotland of all those
00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:25.269
processes happening. Without an impact
00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:27.189
crater, how do you know that what you're
00:14:27.199 --> 00:14:29.269
seeing was caused by a meteor impact?
00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:31.509
Yeah, that's a great question. So by
00:14:31.519 --> 00:14:33.430
looking carefully at the rocks and the
00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:35.750
minerals they contain. So the sequence
00:14:35.760 --> 00:14:37.990
of rocks within it contains some
00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:39.750
diagnostic minerals within the
00:14:39.760 --> 00:14:41.670
geologist's favorite mineral zirkon. So,
00:14:41.680 --> 00:14:43.430
we love zirkon because we can date it.
00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:44.790
And we'll get to how we do that in a
00:14:44.800 --> 00:14:46.389
minute. But the crystals themselves have
00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:48.629
been fractured and broken and
00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:50.470
crystallize this new mineral called
00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:52.150
reite. And the only way you can really
00:14:52.160 --> 00:14:54.629
form reite is under extreme pressure
00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:56.710
wave. So, it's pretty diagnostic of
00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:58.710
having an extreme impact event. Both
00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:00.470
raising the temperature and
00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:02.870
recristallizing the existing material
00:15:02.880 --> 00:15:05.110
that's there, but also developing these
00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:07.030
shock features within the crystal. And
00:15:07.040 --> 00:15:08.790
it's those individual little shock
00:15:08.800 --> 00:15:11.189
features that we can date by using an
00:15:11.199 --> 00:15:13.750
ion beam beam of oxygen ions and picking
00:15:13.760 --> 00:15:15.509
out these individual little features
00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:17.189
that are um you know smaller than the
00:15:17.199 --> 00:15:18.790
width of a human hair. And those are the
00:15:18.800 --> 00:15:20.470
individual features we can do it which
00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:22.629
allows us to kind of refine the age and
00:15:22.639 --> 00:15:24.790
hone right in on this 1 billiony old
00:15:24.800 --> 00:15:26.790
impact. Zirkons have been wonderful for
00:15:26.800 --> 00:15:28.949
geologists and astronomers and planetary
00:15:28.959 --> 00:15:31.189
scientists because of how accurately
00:15:31.199 --> 00:15:33.750
they're able to date events. What is it
00:15:33.760 --> 00:15:35.430
about these zirkon crystals that make
00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:37.350
them such good timekeepers? Yeah, so
00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:40.069
it's a fantastic mineral. So zirkon when
00:15:40.079 --> 00:15:42.550
it grows, it likes to incorporate a
00:15:42.560 --> 00:15:45.269
little bit of uranium and uranium over
00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:47.189
time changes to lead. So if we measure
00:15:47.199 --> 00:15:49.189
the ratio of uranium to lead, that means
00:15:49.199 --> 00:15:51.189
we've got this inbuilt stopwatch because
00:15:51.199 --> 00:15:53.030
we know the conversion rate. Um the
00:15:53.040 --> 00:15:54.790
other important point is when the
00:15:54.800 --> 00:15:57.110
crystal grows, it doesn't like to
00:15:57.120 --> 00:15:59.350
incorporate any lead to begin with. So
00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:02.069
that means any lead that's present today
00:16:02.079 --> 00:16:04.069
has come from the decay of uranium. So
00:16:04.079 --> 00:16:06.470
that gives us our stopwatch, our clock.
00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:10.069
So if our zirkon gets modified, reset,
00:16:10.079 --> 00:16:12.470
redrone during the impact event, that
00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:14.230
then allows us to make this direct
00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:16.629
connection between a mineral timekeeper
00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:18.870
and a mineral stopwatch and that actual
00:16:18.880 --> 00:16:20.230
process that caused the shock
00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:21.910
metamorphis and the shock deformation.
00:16:21.920 --> 00:16:23.430
And then we can link the two things. And
00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:25.990
I take it zirkon's not easy to destroy
00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:27.910
geologically. So, it's got to be a
00:16:27.920 --> 00:16:29.910
really high pressure, high temperature
00:16:29.920 --> 00:16:31.430
event to do that. Yeah, that's right.
00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:33.269
It's one of these wonderful minerals.
00:16:33.279 --> 00:16:34.870
You know, we can go to the outback of
00:16:34.880 --> 00:16:36.470
Australia and look right back into the
00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:38.069
deep time history of our planet using
00:16:38.079 --> 00:16:39.910
the exact same crystal. These zirkon
00:16:39.920 --> 00:16:41.670
crystals extend all the way back to tell
00:16:41.680 --> 00:16:43.509
us about the form formative history of
00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:45.670
our planet. But they also under extreme
00:16:45.680 --> 00:16:47.829
events do change and do get modified.
00:16:47.839 --> 00:16:49.590
And those extreme events such as impact
00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:51.350
we can date as well. So, we can date the
00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:52.949
formation of the grain, but we can also
00:16:52.959 --> 00:16:54.790
get extreme disturbance to the grain and
00:16:54.800 --> 00:16:56.470
that's what makes it so useful. the fact
00:16:56.480 --> 00:16:58.230
that you haven't found the impact crater
00:16:58.240 --> 00:16:59.910
yet. What's that telling you? Yeah, I
00:16:59.920 --> 00:17:01.110
think I think it's telling us something.
00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:02.389
I think it's probably telling us that if
00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:03.670
we want to find the crater, we might
00:17:03.680 --> 00:17:05.990
need to get our scuba gear on and go off
00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:08.150
into the North Atlantic and look
00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:11.429
underwater. Um, it isn't in the exposed
00:17:11.439 --> 00:17:13.909
crust of Scotland as we know it today.
00:17:13.919 --> 00:17:15.590
It's probably somewhere offshore. And
00:17:15.600 --> 00:17:17.350
there's been various suggestions about
00:17:17.360 --> 00:17:19.669
somewhere in the water off to the west
00:17:19.679 --> 00:17:21.909
of the Toridan, which is this beautiful
00:17:21.919 --> 00:17:23.990
area. It's kind of a fantastic area to
00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:25.350
go hill walking in. So, it's a real
00:17:25.360 --> 00:17:26.789
pleasure to go there and do field work.
00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:28.710
How do you actually determine the zirkon
00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:30.950
crystals age? I'm not talking about the
00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:32.710
uranium to lead ratios. I'm talking
00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:34.950
about the equipment used to to achieve
00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:36.549
that. It starts off going in the field
00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:39.270
and finding rocks and their relationship
00:17:39.280 --> 00:17:41.110
through the geography and taking a
00:17:41.120 --> 00:17:42.390
sample of rock and bringing it back to
00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:43.830
the lab. And then that's when the the
00:17:43.840 --> 00:17:45.430
hard work really begins. So, you got
00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:46.630
your piece of rock and you need to get
00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:48.230
your individual mineral grains out of
00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:49.669
it. So, how do you do that? The
00:17:49.679 --> 00:17:51.270
traditional way was to basically put
00:17:51.280 --> 00:17:53.190
your rock in a big vice and crush it and
00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:55.350
split out the grains. That doesn't work
00:17:55.360 --> 00:17:58.310
too well for our um impact deformed
00:17:58.320 --> 00:17:59.590
zircon because we want to be a little
00:17:59.600 --> 00:18:01.430
bit more delicate with it. So um we've
00:18:01.440 --> 00:18:02.870
got this technique where we basically
00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:05.590
fire a lightning bolt at the rock and it
00:18:05.600 --> 00:18:07.510
kind of breaks it along grain boundary.
00:18:07.520 --> 00:18:09.190
So you've got this rock and then you you
00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:10.710
push a button and it basically lightning
00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:13.110
bolt hits the rock and it turns to sand
00:18:13.120 --> 00:18:14.549
essentially. Then you take that sand and
00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:16.230
you put it into a heavy liquid. So in
00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:17.909
the heavy liquid, the dense minerals
00:18:17.919 --> 00:18:20.150
will um sink and the lighter minerals
00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:21.669
will float. And that then gives us the
00:18:21.679 --> 00:18:23.590
ability to individually pick using a
00:18:23.600 --> 00:18:25.590
pair of tweezers the um the grains out.
00:18:25.600 --> 00:18:26.710
So you make sure you haven't drunk
00:18:26.720 --> 00:18:28.549
coffee for several weeks beforehand and
00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:29.990
you're sitting with a microscope and a
00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:31.430
pair of tweezers picking out these
00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:33.430
individual grains probably up to about
00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:35.430
200 microns in length. um you put them
00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:37.350
into epoxy resin and then you polish the
00:18:37.360 --> 00:18:39.190
epoxy resin and that gives us like a
00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:40.630
cross-section through the grain and they
00:18:40.640 --> 00:18:42.470
have these beautiful internal textures
00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:44.150
like tree rings and those are the
00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:45.909
textures that we can look at to
00:18:45.919 --> 00:18:48.150
determine their growth process and then
00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:50.390
we fire our ion beams and our laser
00:18:50.400 --> 00:18:52.230
beams at the polished surface of these
00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:53.590
individual little crystals. So that
00:18:53.600 --> 00:18:54.870
that's the full technique. It's a
00:18:54.880 --> 00:18:57.270
painstaking effort. It is. But um it's
00:18:57.280 --> 00:18:59.430
so powerful because you know this this
00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:00.950
same technique is the same technique we
00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:03.029
use to understand the age of or deposit.
00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:04.870
It's the same technique that we use to
00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:07.990
understand the generation of large
00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:10.070
volumes of continental crust. It's the
00:19:10.080 --> 00:19:12.310
same technique we use to date
00:19:12.320 --> 00:19:14.789
archaeological artifacts. So, it's got a
00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:16.549
whole range of different uses. And
00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:18.150
really, by linking these individual
00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:20.549
textures within the grains to geological
00:19:20.559 --> 00:19:22.950
process, we can link it into the bigger
00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:24.750
scientific picture of
00:19:24.760 --> 00:19:27.669
processes related to meteorite impacts
00:19:27.679 --> 00:19:29.750
and the well potentially even the
00:19:29.760 --> 00:19:32.230
evolution of of life. So it's um it's
00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:33.669
very powerful tool. Where does this
00:19:33.679 --> 00:19:36.470
research go now? So I think a really
00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:38.390
interesting thing that we've seen
00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:40.230
recently, you know, we've dated a number
00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:41.830
of different impact deposits. We've
00:19:41.840 --> 00:19:43.830
dated some of the oldest impact deposits
00:19:43.840 --> 00:19:45.909
in the Pilbur here in Western Australia
00:19:45.919 --> 00:19:47.990
where we stretching all the way back to
00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:50.150
about 3.5 billion years old. And now
00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:51.750
we're looking at a much younger impact
00:19:51.760 --> 00:19:53.350
in Scotland at 1 billion years. They
00:19:53.360 --> 00:19:56.230
seem to be related to big changes in
00:19:56.240 --> 00:19:58.230
Earth's evolution, not only the
00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:00.310
biosphere, but also the atmosphere and
00:20:00.320 --> 00:20:02.390
changing big climatic conditions as
00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:04.549
well. What would be interesting is to
00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:07.510
get much more accurate ages on craters
00:20:07.520 --> 00:20:09.669
from around Earth, maybe even on the
00:20:09.679 --> 00:20:11.830
moon and see if there's a periodicity or
00:20:11.840 --> 00:20:14.390
a pattern to the frequency of when
00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:16.710
impacts occur. I think that's important
00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:18.470
because it provides a means of linking
00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:20.870
geology to astrophysic. Um, so we then
00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:22.150
would have a mechanism of, you know,
00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:24.070
linking these two sciences that look at
00:20:24.080 --> 00:20:25.909
things on very different scales and kind
00:20:25.919 --> 00:20:27.350
of joining them together and getting a
00:20:27.360 --> 00:20:29.270
better holistic understanding of of our
00:20:29.280 --> 00:20:30.950
planet, but also our planet's place
00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:33.270
within the Milky Way itself. Have you
00:20:33.280 --> 00:20:35.669
found any bits of the meteorite? Uh, no.
00:20:35.679 --> 00:20:37.430
No, we haven't. The closest we've
00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:40.149
basically got a shock deformed zircon
00:20:40.159 --> 00:20:42.149
grains that link us back to that high
00:20:42.159 --> 00:20:43.909
pressure shock wave and that extreme
00:20:43.919 --> 00:20:45.830
that extreme temperature. Um, the
00:20:45.840 --> 00:20:47.669
reality with most impactors is they're
00:20:47.679 --> 00:20:49.510
completely vaporized. So the amount of
00:20:49.520 --> 00:20:51.430
material remaining from them is so
00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:53.430
small. It makes it really challenging to
00:20:53.440 --> 00:20:55.270
find that. If you get lucky, you might
00:20:55.280 --> 00:20:57.110
find a chemical signature, but it's it's
00:20:57.120 --> 00:20:59.029
very challenging to do that. You say you
00:20:59.039 --> 00:21:01.350
were able to work out whether ukariots
00:21:01.360 --> 00:21:03.750
were were you able to see individual you
00:21:03.760 --> 00:21:05.190
well not individual you were able to see
00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:08.390
individual mats of ukariots. Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:10.870
And um we haven't but there has been
00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:12.549
other paleontologists who have actually
00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:14.390
you know done a lot of detailed work and
00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:15.909
gone all the way down to the individual
00:21:15.919 --> 00:21:17.830
cell level. just being in the field, you
00:21:17.840 --> 00:21:19.669
could actually see these these mats. So,
00:21:19.679 --> 00:21:21.510
as a someone who likes doing field
00:21:21.520 --> 00:21:23.270
geology and looking at rocks, um yeah,
00:21:23.280 --> 00:21:24.789
you can see the stuff in the field, but
00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:26.630
when you get back to the laboratory, you
00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:28.149
know, that's when you can really start
00:21:28.159 --> 00:21:29.669
taking it apart. And that's the
00:21:29.679 --> 00:21:31.669
beautiful thing with geology and using
00:21:31.679 --> 00:21:33.669
geocchemistry with that. You can link
00:21:33.679 --> 00:21:35.750
observations on a whole range of scales,
00:21:35.760 --> 00:21:37.350
right? from, you know, the chemical and
00:21:37.360 --> 00:21:39.669
isotopic side down to the elemental
00:21:39.679 --> 00:21:41.510
scale all the way up through to the
00:21:41.520 --> 00:21:43.430
crystal scale, the size of an impact,
00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:45.430
but also then it's really nice to think
00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:47.430
about the big picture like thinking
00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:49.430
about impact events and if they're
00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:51.029
periodic and that takes us back to, you
00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:52.470
know, the size of the Milky Way and the
00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:55.270
solar system. That's what I like. That's
00:21:55.280 --> 00:21:57.630
Professor Chris Kirkland from Curtain
00:21:57.640 --> 00:22:02.860
University and this is Spacetime.
00:22:02.870 --> 00:22:16.230
[Music]
00:22:16.240 --> 00:22:17.990
And time now to take a brief look at
00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:19.590
some of the other stories making news in
00:22:19.600 --> 00:22:22.710
science this week with a science report.
00:22:22.720 --> 00:22:24.310
American energy officials have
00:22:24.320 --> 00:22:26.149
discovered unexplained communications
00:22:26.159 --> 00:22:28.710
equipment inside Chinese-made solar
00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:31.430
panel and wind turbine power converters.
00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:33.669
The undocumented communications devices
00:22:33.679 --> 00:22:35.750
were also found in Chinese inverters
00:22:35.760 --> 00:22:37.669
used for batteries, for heat pumps,
00:22:37.679 --> 00:22:39.750
cellular radios, and even electric
00:22:39.760 --> 00:22:42.230
vehicle charges. Now, while inverters
00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:44.310
are built with communications devices to
00:22:44.320 --> 00:22:46.149
allow remote access for updates and
00:22:46.159 --> 00:22:47.830
maintenance, power companies usually
00:22:47.840 --> 00:22:49.750
install firewalls to prevent direct
00:22:49.760 --> 00:22:52.630
communications back to China. China
00:22:52.640 --> 00:22:55.110
dominates the world renewables market
00:22:55.120 --> 00:22:57.190
and the rogue communications devices
00:22:57.200 --> 00:22:58.710
which are not listed in the product
00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:00.789
documents could be used to bypass
00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:02.789
firewalls and change the settings of an
00:23:02.799 --> 00:23:04.549
inverter remotely. It could switch
00:23:04.559 --> 00:23:07.270
inverters off to destabilize power grids
00:23:07.280 --> 00:23:09.590
and even damage energy infrastructure
00:23:09.600 --> 00:23:12.149
triggering widespread blackouts. An
00:23:12.159 --> 00:23:13.990
ability that would be very useful for
00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:17.029
Beijing in time of war. The Chinese
00:23:17.039 --> 00:23:18.470
company Huawei, which is one of the
00:23:18.480 --> 00:23:20.310
world's largest suppliers of inverters,
00:23:20.320 --> 00:23:22.149
has already been banned from supplying
00:23:22.159 --> 00:23:23.750
equipment to Australia's national
00:23:23.760 --> 00:23:25.830
broadband network. And the United States
00:23:25.840 --> 00:23:28.070
has restricted Huawei's access to US
00:23:28.080 --> 00:23:30.549
technology, including its 5G network,
00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:32.230
accusing the company of activities
00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:34.510
contrary to national
00:23:34.520 --> 00:23:36.710
security. Scientists have for the first
00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:38.430
time found the genes linked to
00:23:38.440 --> 00:23:41.669
obsessivempulsive disorder, OCD. The
00:23:41.679 --> 00:23:43.590
findings reported in the journal Nature
00:23:43.600 --> 00:23:46.070
Genetics identified 30 regions on the
00:23:46.080 --> 00:23:47.830
human genome which are associated with
00:23:47.840 --> 00:23:49.270
this debilitating yet often
00:23:49.280 --> 00:23:51.750
misunderstood mental health condition.
00:23:51.760 --> 00:23:54.149
The research involved more than 50,000
00:23:54.159 --> 00:23:56.710
people with OCD and 2 million people who
00:23:56.720 --> 00:23:58.630
didn't have the condition. The authors
00:23:58.640 --> 00:24:00.950
were able to pinpoint approximately 250
00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:03.350
genes which all played a role linked to
00:24:03.360 --> 00:24:05.669
OCD.
00:24:05.679 --> 00:24:07.590
A new study has found that the origin of
00:24:07.600 --> 00:24:10.070
reptiles may be up to 40 million years
00:24:10.080 --> 00:24:12.630
earlier than previously thought. The
00:24:12.640 --> 00:24:14.630
findings reported in the journal Nature
00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:16.870
are based on fossilized tracks uncovered
00:24:16.880 --> 00:24:19.269
at an Australian fossil site. The
00:24:19.279 --> 00:24:21.110
footprints belong to an amnia with
00:24:21.120 --> 00:24:23.110
clawed feet, most probably a reptile
00:24:23.120 --> 00:24:25.430
dating back around 350 million years
00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:27.510
ago.
00:24:27.520 --> 00:24:29.430
A scientist in Canada with an interest
00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:31.350
in the supernatural claims to have
00:24:31.360 --> 00:24:33.669
uncovered parts of the brain that act as
00:24:33.679 --> 00:24:36.070
some sort of psychic inhibitor which he
00:24:36.080 --> 00:24:38.390
claims suppresses a person's natural
00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:40.510
psychic telepathic and clairvoyant
00:24:40.520 --> 00:24:43.110
abilities. But Tim Menum from Australian
00:24:43.120 --> 00:24:45.830
Skeptics says this amazing discovery if
00:24:45.840 --> 00:24:48.310
true has so far failed to find any
00:24:48.320 --> 00:24:50.230
support in the wider scientific
00:24:50.240 --> 00:24:52.310
community. It's a story by researchers
00:24:52.320 --> 00:24:54.549
in New Toronto who are looking into a
00:24:54.559 --> 00:24:56.149
suggestion that something in the frontal
00:24:56.159 --> 00:24:58.630
lobe actually blocks intuitive thinking
00:24:58.640 --> 00:25:00.310
and that if they zap it through
00:25:00.320 --> 00:25:02.630
something called repetitive transcranial
00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:04.950
magnetic stimulation it will unblock the
00:25:04.960 --> 00:25:06.789
blocker. it will sort of stop the block
00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:08.070
of doing its job and therefore people
00:25:08.080 --> 00:25:10.149
will be able to oh suddenly have the
00:25:10.159 --> 00:25:12.149
sigh psychic abilities that they've
00:25:12.159 --> 00:25:14.070
always had unleashed and then they can
00:25:14.080 --> 00:25:15.909
start doing telekinetic things which is
00:25:15.919 --> 00:25:17.110
moving stuff and the stuff they're
00:25:17.120 --> 00:25:18.710
talking about moving is a random number
00:25:18.720 --> 00:25:20.230
generator on a computer which is
00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:21.110
interesting I don't know how you
00:25:21.120 --> 00:25:22.470
actually physically interact with that
00:25:22.480 --> 00:25:24.070
but never mind I can imagine doing a
00:25:24.080 --> 00:25:25.990
dial a physical analog dial but I don't
00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:27.350
know how you interfere with a digital
00:25:27.360 --> 00:25:28.950
thing with your psychic abilities
00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:30.870
problem is with this story if it was
00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:32.630
interesting it' be great it it would be
00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:34.390
fantastic a real breakthrough if it was
00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:35.750
true it would be a real breakthrough The
00:25:35.760 --> 00:25:37.110
trouble is, is it true? The only place
00:25:37.120 --> 00:25:39.269
I've seen this reported is in a paper in
00:25:39.279 --> 00:25:41.350
a publication that's one of those pay to
00:25:41.360 --> 00:25:42.870
publish sort of journals. You give us, I
00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:45.269
think, $35,000 US and we'll publish your
00:25:45.279 --> 00:25:46.549
paper. We'll review it, of course, and
00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:48.070
review the check. But we'll review the
00:25:48.080 --> 00:25:49.909
paper and you'll get it in the magazine.
00:25:49.919 --> 00:25:51.430
So, that's the only place I've seen this
00:25:51.440 --> 00:25:52.390
thing. Now, this should be a
00:25:52.400 --> 00:25:53.909
breakthrough. This should be everywhere.
00:25:53.919 --> 00:25:55.669
And I've been asking, I'm in Australia,
00:25:55.679 --> 00:25:57.669
so asking people in the US and in Canada
00:25:57.679 --> 00:25:58.870
what this is about. And they're having
00:25:58.880 --> 00:26:00.070
trouble finding this one down and
00:26:00.080 --> 00:26:01.590
locating any more information about
00:26:01.600 --> 00:26:03.190
this. Now I believe that the institution
00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:05.590
where the main researcher is located is
00:26:05.600 --> 00:26:08.230
called the Bayest Health Sciences. It's
00:26:08.240 --> 00:26:09.669
part of a university I think which I
00:26:09.679 --> 00:26:11.669
believe is true. It exists. The main
00:26:11.679 --> 00:26:13.669
doctor is known for having leanings
00:26:13.679 --> 00:26:16.149
towards the sort of psychic abilities
00:26:16.159 --> 00:26:18.549
and stuff. So it's probably not new to
00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:20.149
him. You've got to prove first of all
00:26:20.159 --> 00:26:22.549
that such abilities exist. That's been a
00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:25.350
very difficult thing to do convincingly.
00:26:25.360 --> 00:26:28.310
Been proven even though the skeptics
00:26:28.320 --> 00:26:30.310
have huge rewards out anyone who can.
00:26:30.320 --> 00:26:31.669
Yeah. One stage of skeptics had about
00:26:31.679 --> 00:26:33.909
$2.5 million going to anyone who can
00:26:33.919 --> 00:26:35.590
prove her psychic ability and no one
00:26:35.600 --> 00:26:37.190
has. The Australian skeptics have got
00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:38.950
$100,000. The Americans have got
00:26:38.960 --> 00:26:41.029
$500,000 US. So there's a lot of money
00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:42.630
out there that someone with true psychic
00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:44.310
ability could then go and claim and then
00:26:44.320 --> 00:26:45.909
they get the impromattor as a skeptic
00:26:45.919 --> 00:26:47.510
but they haven't done it. Psychics are
00:26:47.520 --> 00:26:49.029
actually very shy coming forward. Funny
00:26:49.039 --> 00:26:50.310
enough, a lot of other people do
00:26:50.320 --> 00:26:51.830
probably who definitely believe they can
00:26:51.840 --> 00:26:53.990
do what they say. A lot of psychics,
00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:55.590
people who come to me seem to definitely
00:26:55.600 --> 00:26:57.110
believe they have this psychic ability.
00:26:57.120 --> 00:26:58.950
that anyone under test so far under
00:26:58.960 --> 00:27:00.630
proper tests scientifically controlled
00:27:00.640 --> 00:27:01.909
tests no one's been able to win the
00:27:01.919 --> 00:27:03.510
money from us or from any other
00:27:03.520 --> 00:27:05.190
skeptical group it hasn't happened they
00:27:05.200 --> 00:27:06.870
haven't been able to prove beyond doubt
00:27:06.880 --> 00:27:08.870
that that they can actually do this even
00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:10.870
close to doubt so yeah this person has
00:27:10.880 --> 00:27:12.789
learned to or show that they can unlock
00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:14.390
this ability in people and that people
00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:16.470
can then use their psychic ability to
00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:18.789
move a random number generator that
00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:20.470
therefore that they prove it so all you
00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:23.350
have to do is zap everybody with RTMS I
00:27:23.360 --> 00:27:24.950
think it is with this particular
00:27:24.960 --> 00:27:26.789
treatment and you'll all be psychic if
00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:28.549
That was true. If this could be done,
00:27:28.559 --> 00:27:30.470
the world will be different. It would be
00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:32.070
a funny place. If you could really
00:27:32.080 --> 00:27:34.230
literally unleash the psychic ability of
00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:35.590
people, it would be a very interesting
00:27:35.600 --> 00:27:37.350
world. If the only thing they can do is
00:27:37.360 --> 00:27:39.669
is affect a digital random number
00:27:39.679 --> 00:27:41.269
generator, you wonder how useful it's
00:27:41.279 --> 00:27:42.549
going to be. And it's only it's only a
00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:44.430
zero and a one that they're looking
00:27:44.440 --> 00:27:46.549
at% chance anyway. Yeah. Yeah, that's
00:27:46.559 --> 00:27:48.390
right. But if you get an 80%, you know,
00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:50.390
success rate, 90% rate where they all
00:27:50.400 --> 00:27:52.070
come out zero. They all come out once or
00:27:52.080 --> 00:27:53.430
they all come out as you want them to
00:27:53.440 --> 00:27:55.190
come out. And as you said before, I want
00:27:55.200 --> 00:27:56.950
this to be a one. Comes up a one.
00:27:56.960 --> 00:27:59.110
There's a lot of tests for a 50% result
00:27:59.120 --> 00:28:00.710
by chance to try and make sure it's not
00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:03.029
chance. Just because you may have gotten
00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:05.430
five ones in a row doesn't mean it's
00:28:05.440 --> 00:28:08.549
100%. It it still means a 50/50 chance,
00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:10.149
just that it's happened five times.
00:28:10.159 --> 00:28:11.590
That's right. This is called the Monte
00:28:11.600 --> 00:28:13.350
Carlo effect. Yes. Where people believe
00:28:13.360 --> 00:28:15.110
that if you go to a roulette wheel and
00:28:15.120 --> 00:28:17.190
it comes out red five times in a row or
00:28:17.200 --> 00:28:18.630
10 times in a row, it's going to be
00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:20.549
black the next time. Not necessarily cuz
00:28:20.559 --> 00:28:22.230
each turn of the dial is exactly has the
00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:23.990
same odds to get that many together.
00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:25.350
Yes, it's unusual but it's not an
00:28:25.360 --> 00:28:26.389
indication that things are going to
00:28:26.399 --> 00:28:28.230
change. So you the Monte Carlo effect is
00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:29.510
a common thing, a common issue with
00:28:29.520 --> 00:28:30.789
gamblers. You think, well, it must
00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:32.230
change. My luck must change. You know,
00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:33.830
the turnouts can't be this way. Well,
00:28:33.840 --> 00:28:35.590
they can be because if one roll of the
00:28:35.600 --> 00:28:37.590
dice 50/50 chance, the next roll of the
00:28:37.600 --> 00:28:39.830
dice is also a 50/50 chance. Each one is
00:28:39.840 --> 00:28:41.110
independent. They don't affect each
00:28:41.120 --> 00:28:42.710
other. And that's what the Monte Carlo
00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:44.149
effect is supposed to be. Previous
00:28:44.159 --> 00:28:46.470
events are influencing future events.
00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:47.990
Doesn't happen. Certainly not in
00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:49.190
gambling. Probably won't happen with a
00:28:49.200 --> 00:28:50.950
random number generator either. That's
00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:55.220
Tim Mindum from Australian
00:28:55.230 --> 00:29:08.110
[Music]
00:29:08.120 --> 00:29:11.430
Skeptics. And that's the show for now.
00:29:11.440 --> 00:29:13.350
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