BepiColombo's Mercury Milestone: Navigating to the Solar System's Smallest Planet, Solar Secrets Unveiled

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Stuart Gary: This is space Time Series 29, Episode

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77 for broadcast on 29

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June 2026. Coming up on space

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time, the BepiColombo mission finally

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reaches Mercury. Space. Is our sun

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changing? There's growing evidence suggesting

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that it might be. And a strange new

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type of X ray flare detected in deep space.

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All that and more coming up on UH Space Time.

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Stuart Gary: Welcome to Space Time with Stuart

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G.

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Stuart Gary: After eight years of powered flight towards

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the planet Mercury, mission managers have

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finally turned off the BepiClimber

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spacecraft's propulsion engines in

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preparation for planetary orbit. Insertion

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engine cutoff marks the end of the joint

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European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace

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Exploration Agency probe's long cruise phase

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and the beginning of its arrival at Mercury.

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Since its launch way back in October 2018,

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the BepiColombo spacecraft has been propelled

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by four electric propulsion thrusters located

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on its Mercury Transfer Module. The thrusters

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use electricity generated by the spacecraft's

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solar arrays from sunlight to ionise Xeon

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gas and then shoot it out the rear of the

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engines, providing a key continuous glowing

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blue thrust. The mission's complicated flight

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path included a, uh, gravity assist manoeuvre

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swing around the Earth and two past Venus, as

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well as six loops around Mercury to slow down

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enough to be captured by the rock nearest the

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sun's gravity. As

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BepiColombo draws closer to Mercury, this

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iron propulsion system, which is effective

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for long range flight, no longer offers the

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braking force needed to slow the spacecraft

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down and enter orbit around the planet. It

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leaves BepiColombo on a ballistic trajectory

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towards Mercury, reaching a point suitable

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for the first chemical propulsion manoeuvre

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aimed at orbital insertion in late November.

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BepiColombo is the first mission to study

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Mercury using three spacecraft at the same

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time. There's the Mercury Transfer Module,

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which is equipped with the ion propulsion

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system used to propel the mission during its

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cruise phase. Mind you, things didn't always

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go smoothly. A thruster glitch saw the

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mission slowed down by 11 months, with

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arrival at Mercury now slated for November

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21st. Then there's the European Space

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Agency's Mercury Planetary Orbiter. It'll

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circle close to the planet, providing

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scientists with a precise map of Mercury's

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surface, detailing its composition, how it

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formed, how it's changed over time and what

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temperature it is. The Mercury Planetary

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Orbiter will also fly over uh, Mercury's

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poles, allowing the spacecraft to peer deep

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into permanently shadowed craters in order to

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see the any water there. Then there's the

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Japanese Exploration Agency's Mercury

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Magnetospheric Orbiter. It'll take a larger

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elliptical orbit around the planet, studying

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the interaction between the planet's magnetic

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field and the solar wind. It'll also observe

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plasma and energetic particles in the

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magnetosphere, providing an analysis of

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electric fields, plasma waves and radio

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waves. It'll measure the abundance,

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distribution and dynamics of sodium in

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Mercury's exosphere, and investigate the

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distribution of interplanetary dust in

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Mercury's orbit. Bippi Colombo

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is humanity's third mission to the planet

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Mercury, and it follows in the path of two

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NASA missions, the 1973 Mariner 10

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flight and the 2004 MESSENGER mission.

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Astronomers know very little about Mercury

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because it's so close to the sun. That means

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spacecraft need to avoid being trapped by the

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massive gravity of Earth's nearest star,

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which makes navigation and ongoing operations

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complicated. And once a spacecraft reaches

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Mercury, temperatures are fierce, even

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hundreds of kilometres above the planet's

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surface. It's also hard to observe with

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telescopes because the sun's powerful glare

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can damage sensitive optics. The

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spacecraft carries multiple instruments,

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including one from the UK Space Agency.

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Speaker C: Firstly, it's a very difficult thing to do,

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and it's something that we know very little

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about. There's been very few spacecraft that

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have visited Mercury in the past,

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so just finding out about how the

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planet is made and how it interacts with our

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sun will tell us a lot about the formation of

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our solar system and our place in the solar

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system as well. The UK has invested

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6.8 million pounds in this mission,

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and this has mostly gone to the University of

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Leicester to build the MIX instrument.

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The MIX instrument is going to be dedicated

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to space, studying the planet itself. So

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we're going to be looking at the surface of

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Mercury and what that tells us about the

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formation of Mercury and its history, how

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its surface has evolved over time. The

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other aspect of the mixed science is that

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we're going to be able to look at how Mercury

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interacts with its surrounding magnetic

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environment. We're going to be able to see

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how the sun interacts with Mercury

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directly using our instrument.

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Stuart Gary: As a volcanologist, one thing that intrigues

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me about Mercury is the causes and the

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nature of the volcanic explosions. There's

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impact craters everywhere, but some of them

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have holes in their floors which have been

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blasted out by volcanic explosions.

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Um, and some of these volcanic

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explosions are not that ancient. Most of

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Mercury's surface is 2 or 3 billion years

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old, but the explosive volcanic activity

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has continued into at least the last billion

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years. So there's something going on there.

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BepiColombo's got two spacecraft, the

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European one and the Japanese one. We'll

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measure what's going on in the magnetic field

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in two different places at the same time?

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That's never been done anywhere except for

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the Earth. Ah, we're going to learn so much

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from BepiColombo.

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Stuart Gary: And in that report, we heard from UK Space

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Agency programme manager Rosemary Young, the

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principal investigator for the MIX

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instrument, Emma Bruce from Leicester

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University, and planetary scientist David

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Rothbury from the Open University. This

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is space time still to come.

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Is our sun changing? There's growing evidence

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suggesting that it might be, and discovery of

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a strange new type of X ray flare detected

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in deep space. All that and more still to

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come on, um, spacetime.

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A new study claims the sun has been

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mysteriously changing over the last 40 years.

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Listening to tiny sound waves inside the star

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has led scientists to discover that it may be

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entering a new, different mode of behaviour.

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The findings, reported in the Monthly Notices

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of the Royal Astronomical Society, are of

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special significance for space weather

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events. And astronomers now need to explore

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what this all means. The sun's

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activity rises and falls in 11 year

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cycles, in the process producing increasing

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and decreasing amounts of solar flares and

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coronal mass ejections, spewing highly

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charged particles that give rise to

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geomagnetic storms and aurorae. This

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activity and its cyclic variation has its

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origins in the sun's interior, in processes

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that regenerate and reorganise the sun's

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magnetic field. Every solar minimum,

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the last was in 2019 and the next will be in

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2030. The sun's magnetic field flips

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polarity. North pole becomes south and south

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pole north. Understanding what drives this

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cycle is therefore crucial for making

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predictions about space weather and how it

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affects the Earth. Space weather events can

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damage or destroy satellites, disrupt

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communications and navigation systems,

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blackout power grids on the Earth and

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increase radiation dosage for astronauts in

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space and people on high flying aircraft.

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Traditional measures of solar activity track

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these emissions and other surface phenomena

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like sunspots, but they don't look deep under

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the solar surface. However, by

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listening to tiny sound waves inside the sun,

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a technique known as helioseismology, it's

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possible to do just that by tracking

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changes in the otherwise hidden solar

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interior, the study's authors found a

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different picture emerged of the sun's

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activity over the past few solar cycles.

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Using almost 40 years of helioseismic data,

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uh, collected by six telescopes around the

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world in the Birmingham Solar Oscillations

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Network, or bison, the authors uncovered a

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gradual change in structure just beneath the

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sun's visible surface. That change has

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spanned multiple cycles, with the current

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solar cycle 25 showing especially strong

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signatures of these changes. The authors

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discovered that solar magnetic activity is

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being squeezed into an increasingly shallow

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layer just below the visible surface,

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signposting long term changes to the sun's

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active behaviour. The study's lead author,

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Bill Chaplin from the University of

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Birmingham, says the sun has its own active

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biorhythm, creating rising and falling

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magnetic activity that shapes space weather.

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However, traditional surface measurements

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don't capture the full storey that the sun

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may be entering a different mode of behaviour

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unfolding over decades. Chaplin and

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colleagues uncovered evidence of systematic

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changes in the sun's activity cycle.

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Crucially, magnetic activity is becoming more

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tightly confined near the surface with each

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cycle. The authors analysed P mode

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oscillations formed by global sound waves

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inside the sun, whose frequencies shift in

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response to solar magnetic activity. They

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allowed them to determine how the sun's

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internal structure changed across solar

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cycles 23, 25 between

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1987 and 2025.

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They grouped the oscillations into low,

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medium and high frequency bands to probe

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different depths beneath the solar surface.

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They then compared these frequency shifts

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with traditional measures of solar activity

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and they found evidence of changing

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behaviour. The link between oscillation

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frequencies and traditional activity measures

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has shifted significantly since cycle 23,

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indicating long term evolution in the sun's

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internal processes. They also found

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surface confinement of structural changes.

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The combined behaviour of low, mid and high

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frequency modes showed that the solar cycle

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driven structural changes are uh, becoming

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increasingly confined to just the shallow

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layers within 1,000 kilometres of the sun's

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surface. And by reinterpreting the strength

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of the later solar cycle, cycle 25 appears to

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be weaker in traditional surface indicators,

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but comparably strong when seen in high

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frequency helioseismic data. The

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thing is, this trend can't be simply

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explained by weaker magnetic fields.

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Instead it indicates a structural

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reorganisation of how the sun's magnetic

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activity is stored beneath the surface.

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Ongoing collection and analysis of Bison

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solar data over what remains of cycle 25

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and for the upcoming cycle 26 will be crucial

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in determining whether the changes discovered

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in the sun's activity are pointing to a

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sustained systematic change in solar magnetic

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behaviour. And we then need to work out how

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that's going to affect the Earth. This is

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space time. Still to come, a

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strange new type of X ray flare detected in

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deep space. And later in the Science Report,

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special coverage of the latest bombshell

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developments in the case of the COVID 19

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pandemic. All that and more still to come on

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space time.

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Astronomers have detected a mysterious, never

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00:11:52.060 --> 00:11:54.500
before seen new type of X ray flare in the

269
00:11:54.500 --> 00:11:56.910
skies. Of the Southern Hemisphere. The

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00:11:56.910 --> 00:11:58.910
discovery, reported in the Journal of the

271
00:11:58.910 --> 00:12:00.750
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical

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00:12:00.750 --> 00:12:03.270
Society, was made by the Wide Field X Ray

273
00:12:03.270 --> 00:12:05.310
Telescope aboard the Einstein Probe

274
00:12:05.310 --> 00:12:08.270
spacecraft. No previous X ray source had

275
00:12:08.270 --> 00:12:09.950
ever been detected at the location of the

276
00:12:09.950 --> 00:12:11.910
flare, which is now being catalogued as

277
00:12:11.910 --> 00:12:14.630
EP24 0305A.

278
00:12:15.190 --> 00:12:18.070
Its light curve comprised two brief, powerful

279
00:12:18.070 --> 00:12:20.750
X ray flares, one right after the other, and

280
00:12:20.750 --> 00:12:23.510
the two separated by about 200 seconds of

281
00:12:23.510 --> 00:12:26.360
quiet. Additional observations were carried

282
00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:28.880
out using further X ray observatories as well

283
00:12:28.880 --> 00:12:31.720
as infrared, optical and radio telescopes,

284
00:12:31.960 --> 00:12:34.080
confirming that this new discovery doesn't

285
00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:36.760
fit any known class of cosmic explosion.

286
00:12:37.640 --> 00:12:39.760
The authors found that the X rays faded

287
00:12:39.760 --> 00:12:42.160
rapidly over the following days, while radio

288
00:12:42.160 --> 00:12:44.560
observations faded much more slowly over

289
00:12:44.560 --> 00:12:47.480
weeks, revealing evidence of an evolving jet.

290
00:12:48.040 --> 00:12:50.800
A faint fading near infrared source was also

291
00:12:50.800 --> 00:12:53.230
detected at the same location, but

292
00:12:53.230 --> 00:12:55.070
interestingly, there was no detection of

293
00:12:55.070 --> 00:12:58.070
anything at optical wavelengths. To try

294
00:12:58.070 --> 00:13:00.070
and determine what's going on, the authors

295
00:13:00.070 --> 00:13:02.350
compared their observations to other known

296
00:13:02.350 --> 00:13:05.110
events. These included a jetted tidal

297
00:13:05.110 --> 00:13:07.070
disruption event caused by a star being

298
00:13:07.070 --> 00:13:09.870
shredded by a black hole, or an X ray binary

299
00:13:09.870 --> 00:13:12.030
outburst from a neutron star or black hole

300
00:13:12.030 --> 00:13:13.870
feeding on a stellar companion which then

301
00:13:13.870 --> 00:13:16.230
suddenly flares up. But both of these were

302
00:13:16.230 --> 00:13:17.870
ruled out because they'd take weeks or months

303
00:13:17.870 --> 00:13:18.790
to fade, whereas

304
00:13:18.790 --> 00:13:21.590
EP24305A faded in

305
00:13:21.590 --> 00:13:24.580
just days. A thermonuclear burst on a

306
00:13:24.580 --> 00:13:26.820
neutron star surface was also ruled out

307
00:13:26.820 --> 00:13:28.780
because the measured temperature was simply

308
00:13:28.780 --> 00:13:31.700
too low and its radio signal lasted far too

309
00:13:31.700 --> 00:13:34.700
long. A giant magnetar flare wouldn't work

310
00:13:34.700 --> 00:13:36.700
either, because they fared in less than a

311
00:13:36.700 --> 00:13:39.300
second, and a stellar flare was also

312
00:13:39.300 --> 00:13:42.060
ruled out because the radio signal lasted far

313
00:13:42.060 --> 00:13:44.140
too long compared with typical stellar

314
00:13:44.140 --> 00:13:47.140
flares. Now, interestingly, this

315
00:13:47.140 --> 00:13:49.740
mysterious blast's properties did line up

316
00:13:49.740 --> 00:13:52.260
with several features of gamma ray bursts.

317
00:13:53.760 --> 00:13:55.800
The double flash pattern resembles a known

318
00:13:55.800 --> 00:13:57.960
feature seen in some gamma ray bursts known

319
00:13:57.960 --> 00:14:00.760
as double bursts, and both the X ray

320
00:14:00.760 --> 00:14:03.240
luminosity and radio pattern emissions match

321
00:14:03.240 --> 00:14:06.160
that expected from a gamma ray burst. The

322
00:14:06.160 --> 00:14:07.920
problem here is there was no actual gamma

323
00:14:07.920 --> 00:14:10.440
rays detected from the event. The authors

324
00:14:10.440 --> 00:14:12.480
think the lack or weakness of gamma ray

325
00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:14.040
emissions from this event could have been

326
00:14:14.040 --> 00:14:16.520
caused by the jet pointing slightly off axis

327
00:14:16.520 --> 00:14:19.080
as seen from Earth. Or the jet simply could

328
00:14:19.080 --> 00:14:20.800
have failed to fully break through its

329
00:14:20.800 --> 00:14:23.130
surrounding material. Or the jet may have

330
00:14:23.130 --> 00:14:25.250
been loaded with extra material, dampening

331
00:14:25.250 --> 00:14:28.130
its gamma ray output. Needless to say, the

332
00:14:28.130 --> 00:14:30.690
search is now on for more such objects, and a

333
00:14:30.690 --> 00:14:32.770
close eye will be kept on the location of

334
00:14:32.770 --> 00:14:33.290
this one.

335
00:14:33.850 --> 00:14:35.290
This is space, time,

336
00:14:40.890 --> 00:14:43.890
And time now for the Science report Today, a

337
00:14:43.890 --> 00:14:45.650
special report looking at the latest

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00:14:45.650 --> 00:14:48.650
bombshell developments in the ongoing saga of

339
00:14:48.650 --> 00:14:51.590
the COVID 19 pandemic. The

340
00:14:51.590 --> 00:14:53.390
United States Office of the Director of

341
00:14:53.390 --> 00:14:55.310
National Intelligence has released new

342
00:14:55.310 --> 00:14:57.310
documents claiming that former National

343
00:14:57.310 --> 00:14:59.390
Institute of Health Director and Chief

344
00:14:59.390 --> 00:15:01.870
Presidential medical Advisor Anthony Fauci

345
00:15:01.870 --> 00:15:03.870
was involved in manipulating intelligence

346
00:15:03.870 --> 00:15:06.709
assessments in order to cover up that China's

347
00:15:06.709 --> 00:15:09.150
Institute of Virology was the real source of

348
00:15:09.150 --> 00:15:11.710
the COVID 19 pandemic. The

349
00:15:11.710 --> 00:15:14.310
outgoing director, Tulsi Gabbard has accused

350
00:15:14.310 --> 00:15:16.430
Fauci of politicising leadership within the

351
00:15:16.430 --> 00:15:18.670
intelligence community in order to suppress

352
00:15:18.670 --> 00:15:21.310
information regarding the origins of COVID 19

353
00:15:21.550 --> 00:15:23.930
and American and funding of gain of function

354
00:15:23.930 --> 00:15:26.450
research on bat coronaviruses prior to the

355
00:15:26.450 --> 00:15:29.090
outbreak of the pandemic. Gabbards also

356
00:15:29.090 --> 00:15:31.370
accused Fauci of lying under oath to Congress

357
00:15:31.370 --> 00:15:34.170
in 2024 by denying that he had knowledge of

358
00:15:34.170 --> 00:15:36.010
or participated in discussions with

359
00:15:36.010 --> 00:15:37.930
intelligence officials about the research.

360
00:15:39.370 --> 00:15:42.010
So what are we dealing with here? Well, COVID

361
00:15:42.090 --> 00:15:44.570
19 is 96.4%

362
00:15:44.650 --> 00:15:47.290
identical to the RATG 13 bat

363
00:15:47.290 --> 00:15:50.240
virus. The problem is, no confirmed

364
00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:52.880
direct animal to human sources for COVID 19

365
00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:55.880
have ever been identified. The

366
00:15:55.880 --> 00:15:58.720
first confirmed cases of COVID originated in

367
00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:01.160
three lab assistants working at the Wuhan

368
00:16:01.160 --> 00:16:03.320
Institute of Virology in September or early

369
00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:06.280
October of 2019 in what's suspected to

370
00:16:06.280 --> 00:16:08.600
have been an accidental lab leak during an

371
00:16:08.600 --> 00:16:11.400
experiment. Coincidentally, on

372
00:16:11.400 --> 00:16:14.120
September 12, 2019, the Wuhan Institute of

373
00:16:14.120 --> 00:16:16.600
Virology suddenly decided to, uh, erase all

374
00:16:16.600 --> 00:16:18.520
computed data on its research into

375
00:16:18.520 --> 00:16:21.220
coronaviruses, destroy all existing

376
00:16:21.220 --> 00:16:24.220
samples. Now, uh, this is unprecedented.

377
00:16:24.300 --> 00:16:26.820
It's never been done in any laboratory and it

378
00:16:26.820 --> 00:16:29.100
goes against everything science stands for.

379
00:16:29.740 --> 00:16:32.060
At the same time, the lab ordered new air

380
00:16:32.060 --> 00:16:34.700
filtration equipment for its facilities and

381
00:16:34.700 --> 00:16:37.460
it purchased PCR equipment to test for SARS

382
00:16:37.460 --> 00:16:40.360
CoV2. By late October

383
00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:42.620
2019, people in the surrounding Wuhan

384
00:16:42.620 --> 00:16:44.820
district began raising the alarm about a

385
00:16:44.820 --> 00:16:47.460
deadly new flu like virus rapidly spreading

386
00:16:47.460 --> 00:16:49.640
through the city. At the same time,

387
00:16:49.640 --> 00:16:52.280
truckloads of extra body bags were seen being

388
00:16:52.280 --> 00:16:54.200
delivered to local hospitals and morgues in

389
00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:56.760
the area. And while all this was going on,

390
00:16:56.760 --> 00:16:59.000
Chinese embassy employees around the world

391
00:16:59.160 --> 00:17:01.640
began visiting local medical suppliers and

392
00:17:01.640 --> 00:17:03.240
pharmacies in the countries therein,

393
00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:05.840
including Australia, purchasing as many face

394
00:17:05.840 --> 00:17:07.840
masks, personal protective equipment,

395
00:17:07.840 --> 00:17:10.720
antiviral medications and PCR tests for

396
00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:13.320
SARS CoV2 as they could, literally

397
00:17:13.320 --> 00:17:16.290
hoarding global stocks. As

398
00:17:16.290 --> 00:17:18.930
concern spread, numerous doctors, scientists,

399
00:17:18.930 --> 00:17:20.890
medical staff and journalists in China

400
00:17:21.050 --> 00:17:22.970
investigating or speaking out about the

401
00:17:22.970 --> 00:17:24.730
growing outbreak were suddenly being

402
00:17:24.730 --> 00:17:27.170
arrested. And many simply disappeared,

403
00:17:27.170 --> 00:17:29.370
forever, never to be heard from again.

404
00:17:30.490 --> 00:17:32.330
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation

405
00:17:32.490 --> 00:17:34.570
repeatedly denied there was any sort of

406
00:17:34.570 --> 00:17:37.210
Global China flu pandemic developing. At

407
00:17:37.210 --> 00:17:39.210
least that was until the death toll began to

408
00:17:39.210 --> 00:17:41.170
climb into the tens of thousands around the

409
00:17:41.170 --> 00:17:44.120
world, leaving the WHO with no choice but to

410
00:17:44.120 --> 00:17:47.040
finally admit there was a problem. Uh, it's

411
00:17:47.040 --> 00:17:49.040
worth noting at this point that the Director

412
00:17:49.040 --> 00:17:50.560
General of the World Health Organisation,

413
00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:53.360
Tedros Adiom Ghebriash, was appointed to his

414
00:17:53.360 --> 00:17:54.880
position at the World Health Organisation

415
00:17:54.960 --> 00:17:56.880
with the strong support and backing of

416
00:17:56.880 --> 00:17:59.760
Beijing. China has repeatedly

417
00:17:59.760 --> 00:18:01.560
blocked or interfered with attempts to

418
00:18:01.560 --> 00:18:03.800
conduct independent investigations into the

419
00:18:03.800 --> 00:18:06.520
source of the outbreak, instead insisting

420
00:18:06.520 --> 00:18:07.960
there was nothing to worry about, or when

421
00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:09.870
they couldn't say that anymore, claiming it

422
00:18:09.870 --> 00:18:12.230
emerged from outside China, possibly from

423
00:18:12.230 --> 00:18:14.310
Europe, but more likely through American

424
00:18:14.390 --> 00:18:17.030
troops. As the pandemic

425
00:18:17.110 --> 00:18:18.950
continued to spread, documents began

426
00:18:18.950 --> 00:18:21.070
appearing which confirmed reports that the

427
00:18:21.070 --> 00:18:23.910
Wuhan Institute of Virology was indeed ground

428
00:18:23.910 --> 00:18:26.830
zero. The laboratory had participated in gain

429
00:18:26.830 --> 00:18:29.150
of function research to genetically engineer

430
00:18:29.150 --> 00:18:31.990
coronaviruses. The Washington Post reported

431
00:18:32.070 --> 00:18:34.190
that US State Department inspections of the

432
00:18:34.190 --> 00:18:36.870
Wuhan lab in 2018 had already sent two

433
00:18:36.870 --> 00:18:39.150
official warnings back to America that they

434
00:18:39.150 --> 00:18:41.890
had found insufficient safety cautions at the

435
00:18:41.890 --> 00:18:44.890
facility. As the pandemic grew,

436
00:18:44.890 --> 00:18:46.890
the U.S. department of Energy, which is

437
00:18:46.890 --> 00:18:49.170
responsible for America's nuclear arsenal and

438
00:18:49.170 --> 00:18:51.210
is expert in weapons of mass destruction,

439
00:18:51.210 --> 00:18:53.410
undertook its own investigation into the

440
00:18:53.410 --> 00:18:56.290
origins of the virus. Finding COVID 19 did

441
00:18:56.290 --> 00:18:58.450
likely arise from a laboratory leak at the

442
00:18:58.450 --> 00:19:01.370
Wuhan Institute of Virology. The findings,

443
00:19:01.370 --> 00:19:03.170
first reported by the Wall Street Journal,

444
00:19:03.170 --> 00:19:05.530
were based on an updated classified national

445
00:19:05.530 --> 00:19:07.490
intelligence report provided to the White

446
00:19:07.490 --> 00:19:09.090
House and key members of Congress.

447
00:19:10.660 --> 00:19:12.900
Now, the then FBI Director, Christopher Wray,

448
00:19:12.900 --> 00:19:14.580
had previously said that the agency had

449
00:19:14.580 --> 00:19:16.620
already assessed that a leak from the Wuhan

450
00:19:16.620 --> 00:19:19.620
lab was the cause of the COVID 19 pandemic.

451
00:19:20.420 --> 00:19:22.340
US officials said that while the Department

452
00:19:22.340 --> 00:19:24.780
of Energy and the FBI both claimed the source

453
00:19:24.780 --> 00:19:27.180
was an unintended lab leak, they arrived at

454
00:19:27.180 --> 00:19:29.540
the conclusions through different independent

455
00:19:29.540 --> 00:19:32.340
sources. It's, uh, worth noting at this

456
00:19:32.340 --> 00:19:35.180
Stage, a previous August 2021 report by the

457
00:19:35.180 --> 00:19:36.460
Office of the Director of National

458
00:19:36.460 --> 00:19:38.820
Intelligence had already stated that the SARS

459
00:19:38.820 --> 00:19:41.760
CoV2 virus which caused COVID19 most likely

460
00:19:41.760 --> 00:19:43.600
originated through gain of function

461
00:19:43.600 --> 00:19:45.800
experiments at China's Wuhan Institute of

462
00:19:45.800 --> 00:19:48.480
virology sometime before September 2019.

463
00:19:49.680 --> 00:19:51.640
The United States House Oversight and

464
00:19:51.640 --> 00:19:54.040
Accountability Committee's COVID 19 panel

465
00:19:54.040 --> 00:19:56.560
later concluded that a lab related incident

466
00:19:56.640 --> 00:19:58.840
involving gain of function research at the

467
00:19:58.840 --> 00:20:00.960
Wuhan Institute of Virology was the most

468
00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:03.760
likely origin of the COVID 19 pandemic.

469
00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:06.880
Its highly detailed 520 page report

470
00:20:07.120 --> 00:20:09.280
found the weight of evidence increasingly

471
00:20:09.280 --> 00:20:12.150
supports the lab leak hypothesis. It

472
00:20:12.150 --> 00:20:14.150
followed two years of intense investigations

473
00:20:14.310 --> 00:20:16.550
and ridiculed suggestions that the virus

474
00:20:16.550 --> 00:20:18.790
emerged in nature and then jumped from

475
00:20:18.790 --> 00:20:21.390
animals to people. The House report also

476
00:20:21.390 --> 00:20:23.790
found that Wuhan is the home of China's

477
00:20:23.790 --> 00:20:26.310
former SARS research lab, which has a long

478
00:20:26.310 --> 00:20:28.030
history of conducting gain of function

479
00:20:28.030 --> 00:20:30.950
research under inadequate biosafety levels.

480
00:20:31.430 --> 00:20:33.710
It confirmed that researchers at the Wuhan

481
00:20:33.710 --> 00:20:35.670
Institute of Virology were infected with

482
00:20:35.670 --> 00:20:38.070
COVID 19 during the fall of 2019,

483
00:20:38.700 --> 00:20:40.300
months before it was discovered in a local

484
00:20:40.300 --> 00:20:42.980
wet market in December of that year. This

485
00:20:42.980 --> 00:20:45.540
report also slammed the New York non profit

486
00:20:45.540 --> 00:20:47.660
Eco Health alliance for using American

487
00:20:47.740 --> 00:20:50.020
taxpayer dollars to facilitate gain of

488
00:20:50.020 --> 00:20:52.500
function research at the Wuhan lab and the

489
00:20:52.500 --> 00:20:54.499
Biden administration for deliberately

490
00:20:54.499 --> 00:20:57.380
spreading COVID 19 misinformation by wrongly

491
00:20:57.380 --> 00:20:59.060
claiming that the lab leak was just a

492
00:20:59.060 --> 00:21:01.940
conspiracy theory. Now, EcoHealth

493
00:21:01.940 --> 00:21:03.900
Alliance President Peter Daszak would later

494
00:21:03.900 --> 00:21:06.140
be one of the so called international experts

495
00:21:06.140 --> 00:21:08.370
selected by the World Health Organisation to

496
00:21:08.370 --> 00:21:10.890
travel to China in January 2021 to

497
00:21:10.890 --> 00:21:13.010
investigate the origins of the COVID 19

498
00:21:13.170 --> 00:21:16.050
pandemic. The 14 member team spent

499
00:21:16.050 --> 00:21:18.370
weeks reviewing data, interviewing government

500
00:21:18.370 --> 00:21:20.650
approved Chinese researchers and visiting

501
00:21:20.650 --> 00:21:23.090
specially prepared sites including the Wuhan

502
00:21:23.090 --> 00:21:25.530
Institute of Virology and the Hunan Seafood

503
00:21:25.530 --> 00:21:28.170
Market. They concluded that a zoonotic

504
00:21:28.170 --> 00:21:30.330
spillover through an intermediary host animal

505
00:21:30.330 --> 00:21:32.690
was the most likely pathway and that a

506
00:21:32.690 --> 00:21:35.410
laboratory origin was extremely unlikely.

507
00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:37.880
The problem is that finding has been widely

508
00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:39.960
criticised, as Daszak's inclusion on the

509
00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:42.240
panel was a clear and deliberate conflict of

510
00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:44.800
interest. So instead of ending debate, it

511
00:21:44.800 --> 00:21:46.800
sparked significant scrutiny and pushback

512
00:21:46.800 --> 00:21:49.040
from the scientific community. Even the media

513
00:21:49.040 --> 00:21:51.720
was forced to take a second look. Later,

514
00:21:51.720 --> 00:21:53.480
congressional investigations and Federal

515
00:21:53.480 --> 00:21:55.800
audits revealed EcoHealth had failed to

516
00:21:55.800 --> 00:21:58.320
properly report or oversee its risky gain of

517
00:21:58.320 --> 00:22:00.560
function experiments conducted at Wuhan with

518
00:22:00.560 --> 00:22:03.480
their Chinese partners. And it's not just

519
00:22:03.480 --> 00:22:06.360
the Americans who express concern. In

520
00:22:06.360 --> 00:22:08.720
2020, Germany's foreign intelligence service,

521
00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:11.240
the BDN, provided its own intelligence to

522
00:22:11.240 --> 00:22:13.320
then German Chancellor Angela Merkel,

523
00:22:13.400 --> 00:22:15.640
indicating that the Coronavirus behind the

524
00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:18.400
COVID 19 pandemic was accidentally released

525
00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:20.760
from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology.

526
00:22:21.320 --> 00:22:23.520
According uh to a joint report by the Zeit

527
00:22:23.520 --> 00:22:25.920
and Zu Deutsche Zeitung, Germany's spy agency

528
00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:27.600
had indicated that the Institute had

529
00:22:27.600 --> 00:22:29.560
conducted gain of function experiments in

530
00:22:29.560 --> 00:22:31.680
which viruses were modified to become more

531
00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:33.470
transmissible to humans for research

532
00:22:33.550 --> 00:22:36.550
purposes. These assessments were based on an

533
00:22:36.550 --> 00:22:38.950
intelligence operation codenamed Zarimar, as

534
00:22:38.950 --> 00:22:40.590
well as through publicly available data.

535
00:22:41.710 --> 00:22:44.070
Leaked official documents also show that the

536
00:22:44.070 --> 00:22:46.030
former head of the UK's foreign intelligence

537
00:22:46.030 --> 00:22:48.749
agency M MI6 told then British Prime Minister

538
00:22:48.749 --> 00:22:51.576
Boris Johnson in early 2020 that the COVID

539
00:22:51.644 --> 00:22:54.030
19 virus escaped from the Wuhan lab

540
00:22:54.910 --> 00:22:56.910
Meanwhile, a Central Intelligence Agency

541
00:22:56.910 --> 00:22:58.470
assessment prepared during the Biden

542
00:22:58.470 --> 00:23:01.390
administration admitted COVID 19 was more

543
00:23:01.390 --> 00:23:03.470
likely to have originated from a laboratory

544
00:23:03.470 --> 00:23:05.980
leak at Wuhan, but the agency went to pains

545
00:23:05.980 --> 00:23:08.420
to stress its assessment had only a low level

546
00:23:08.420 --> 00:23:11.340
of confidence. That CIA UH assessment

547
00:23:11.340 --> 00:23:13.220
was based on analysis of existing

548
00:23:13.220 --> 00:23:14.860
intelligence related to the virus's

549
00:23:14.860 --> 00:23:17.340
characteristics, its initial spread and the

550
00:23:17.340 --> 00:23:19.380
working conditions in the virology lab,

551
00:23:19.460 --> 00:23:21.010
leading to the conclusion that a UH

552
00:23:21.060 --> 00:23:23.340
laboratory origin was more likely than a

553
00:23:23.340 --> 00:23:24.980
natural origin based on the available

554
00:23:25.060 --> 00:23:27.900
information. However, it is also known that

555
00:23:27.900 --> 00:23:30.420
the CIA supported the Wuhan SARS research

556
00:23:30.420 --> 00:23:32.700
through Black Ops funding in order to keep a

557
00:23:32.700 --> 00:23:34.820
close eye on China's biological weapons

558
00:23:34.820 --> 00:23:37.240
programme, how advanced it was and in which

559
00:23:37.240 --> 00:23:40.040
direction it was heading. This included some

560
00:23:40.040 --> 00:23:42.664
US$53 million given to EcoHealth

561
00:23:42.776 --> 00:23:45.680
alliance through USAID. In

562
00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:48.440
March 2020 we reported the original Nature

563
00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:50.720
Medicine Journal storey the proximal origin

564
00:23:50.720 --> 00:23:53.360
of SARS cov2 on um, the Space Time Science

565
00:23:53.360 --> 00:23:55.280
report which looked at the origins of the

566
00:23:55.280 --> 00:23:58.040
COVID 19 virus. The nature study

567
00:23:58.040 --> 00:24:00.240
concluded the virus resulted from natural

568
00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:02.160
evolution rather than laboratory

569
00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:04.940
manipulation. That study found the spike

570
00:24:04.940 --> 00:24:07.260
protein's receptor binding domain and the

571
00:24:07.260 --> 00:24:09.700
virus's overall molecular structure strongly

572
00:24:09.700 --> 00:24:11.740
suggested natural selection, contradicting

573
00:24:11.740 --> 00:24:13.500
theories of an engineered laboratory

574
00:24:13.500 --> 00:24:15.980
construct. The authors proposed two

575
00:24:15.980 --> 00:24:18.380
scenarios that could plausibly explain the

576
00:24:18.380 --> 00:24:21.020
origins of SARS COV2 either

577
00:24:21.020 --> 00:24:23.020
natural selection in the animal host before

578
00:24:23.020 --> 00:24:25.540
zoonotic transfer, or natural selection in a

579
00:24:25.540 --> 00:24:27.540
human host following zoonotic transfer.

580
00:24:28.750 --> 00:24:30.670
But since its original publication, the

581
00:24:30.670 --> 00:24:33.310
Nature article has been strongly criticised.

582
00:24:33.870 --> 00:24:35.870
Virologists, biological researchers and

583
00:24:35.870 --> 00:24:37.990
experts in genetic engineering argue the

584
00:24:37.990 --> 00:24:40.310
conclusion was premature and lacked

585
00:24:40.310 --> 00:24:42.710
definitive empirical evidence at the time, as

586
00:24:42.710 --> 00:24:44.789
the natural zoonotic spillover pathway

587
00:24:44.789 --> 00:24:47.230
remained unproven. Then there were

588
00:24:47.230 --> 00:24:49.310
uncovered emails and Freedom of Information

589
00:24:49.470 --> 00:24:51.590
release communications which revealed that

590
00:24:51.590 --> 00:24:53.870
while drafting the Nature paper, the authors

591
00:24:53.870 --> 00:24:55.890
privately expressed significant concerns that

592
00:24:56.120 --> 00:24:58.160
that the virus's genome did have features

593
00:24:58.160 --> 00:25:00.120
potentially indicative of laboratory

594
00:25:00.120 --> 00:25:02.200
engineering, such as the fur and cleavage

595
00:25:02.200 --> 00:25:04.800
sites. Critics argue they failed to

596
00:25:04.800 --> 00:25:07.520
disclose these key misgivings in the final

597
00:25:07.520 --> 00:25:10.200
published text. Many observers and

598
00:25:10.200 --> 00:25:12.400
scientists accuse the authors of using their

599
00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:14.720
Nature article to prematurely steer the

600
00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:17.480
public, the media and policymaker attention

601
00:25:17.560 --> 00:25:19.840
away from legitimate investigations into

602
00:25:19.840 --> 00:25:22.160
research related origins, potentially to

603
00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:23.760
protect the scientific community from

604
00:25:23.760 --> 00:25:25.650
political scrutiny or to prevent any

605
00:25:25.650 --> 00:25:28.650
restriction of research funding. Importantly,

606
00:25:28.650 --> 00:25:30.810
while the Nature authors claim the virus's

607
00:25:30.810 --> 00:25:33.250
unique fur and cleavage site was the result

608
00:25:33.250 --> 00:25:35.570
of natural selection, critics and virologists

609
00:25:35.570 --> 00:25:37.730
have argued that this specific feature is

610
00:25:37.730 --> 00:25:39.570
highly uncharacteristic of naturally

611
00:25:39.570 --> 00:25:42.290
occurring SARS related coronaviruses and

612
00:25:42.290 --> 00:25:44.450
remains a structural element highly

613
00:25:44.450 --> 00:25:46.530
compatible with laboratory manipulation.

614
00:25:47.410 --> 00:25:49.650
And finally there's the issue of the missing

615
00:25:49.650 --> 00:25:52.430
intermediate hosts. Despite the paper's

616
00:25:52.430 --> 00:25:54.430
advocacy for natural selection either in

617
00:25:54.430 --> 00:25:56.950
animals before or in humans after transfer,

618
00:25:57.030 --> 00:25:59.390
years and years of extensive sampling have

619
00:25:59.390 --> 00:26:01.310
still not identified a direct animal

620
00:26:01.310 --> 00:26:03.030
reservoir OR intermediate host.

621
00:26:04.070 --> 00:26:06.550
Gabbard's documents allege that US money

622
00:26:06.550 --> 00:26:08.750
funnelled through the EcoHealth alliance to

623
00:26:08.750 --> 00:26:11.070
the Wuhan Institute of Virology sparked a

624
00:26:11.070 --> 00:26:13.230
pandemic accusing Fauci of deliberately

625
00:26:13.230 --> 00:26:15.070
manipulating intelligence assessments and

626
00:26:15.070 --> 00:26:17.370
lying to Congress to cover up the financing.

627
00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:20.280
The declassified information also outlined

628
00:26:20.280 --> 00:26:22.560
the US government's support for more than 120

629
00:26:22.560 --> 00:26:25.120
biological laboratories operating across 30

630
00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:27.760
foreign countries. Gabbard's accused

631
00:26:27.760 --> 00:26:30.000
Fauci of orchestrating a deliberate attempt

632
00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:32.160
to cover up the truth, during which she

633
00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:34.640
claimed that he pushed lies, disinformation

634
00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:37.560
and censorship. Gabbard stated that her

635
00:26:37.560 --> 00:26:39.600
office received testimony from whistleblowers

636
00:26:39.600 --> 00:26:41.360
within the intelligence community who've

637
00:26:41.360 --> 00:26:43.600
reportedly faced threats in retaliation for

638
00:26:43.600 --> 00:26:46.050
challenging the narrative put forth by Fauci.

639
00:26:46.680 --> 00:26:48.760
The release has prompted fresh questions

640
00:26:48.760 --> 00:26:51.280
about congressional testimony, whistleblower

641
00:26:51.280 --> 00:26:53.400
claims and the scope of, uh, former President

642
00:26:53.400 --> 00:26:56.240
Joe Biden's preemptive auto pen pardon for

643
00:26:56.240 --> 00:26:58.600
Fauci. You see, historically,

644
00:26:58.680 --> 00:27:00.840
presidential pardons involve specific

645
00:27:00.840 --> 00:27:03.120
charges, specific conduct or

646
00:27:03.120 --> 00:27:05.840
identifiable offences. Now, that

647
00:27:05.840 --> 00:27:08.720
didn't happen in Fauci's case. The

648
00:27:08.720 --> 00:27:11.440
World Health Organisation says over 7.1

649
00:27:11.440 --> 00:27:13.520
million people have now been killed by the

650
00:27:13.520 --> 00:27:16.000
COVID19 coronavirus since it was first

651
00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:18.620
detected among those workers at China's Wuhan

652
00:27:18.620 --> 00:27:20.900
Institute of Virology way back in September

653
00:27:20.900 --> 00:27:23.780
2019. The Lancet Medical Journal

654
00:27:23.780 --> 00:27:26.140
estimates the true global death toll is

655
00:27:26.140 --> 00:27:28.580
likely to be more than 18 million, with well

656
00:27:28.580 --> 00:27:30.900
over three quarters of a billion confirmed

657
00:27:30.900 --> 00:27:33.780
cases globally. Even if you hadn't had

658
00:27:33.780 --> 00:27:36.180
Covid, you probably know someone who has.

659
00:27:36.980 --> 00:27:38.420
This is Space Time,

660
00:27:53.890 --> 00:27:56.810
And that's the show for now. Space Time is

661
00:27:56.810 --> 00:27:58.930
available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday

662
00:27:58.930 --> 00:28:01.490
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00:28:01.570 --> 00:28:03.890
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664
00:28:03.890 --> 00:28:05.090
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665
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spacetime's also broadcast through the

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00:28:14.510 --> 00:28:17.430
TuneIn radio. And you can help to support our

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spacetimewithstuartgarry.com for full

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details.

680
00:28:40.300 --> 00:28:42.060
Stuart Gary: You've been listening to Space time with

681
00:28:42.060 --> 00:28:44.860
Stuart Gary. This has been another quality

682
00:28:44.860 --> 00:28:47.260
podcast production from bytes.com.