Aug. 19, 2025

Comet 3I Atlas - The Interstellar Voyager Unveiled

Show Notes
Transcript

In this episode of SpaceTime, we explore the latest revelations from the cosmos, featuring the intriguing interstellar comet 3I Atlas, a groundbreaking theory about our place in the universe, and the safe return of SpaceX Crew 10.
The Enigmatic Comet 3I Atlas
Astronomers utilizing NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have captured the sharpest images yet of the interstellar comet 3I Atlas, revealing a solid icy nucleus estimated to measure between 320 meters and 5.6 kilometers in diameter. This comet, traveling at a staggering 209,000 kilometers per hour, is believed to have been journeying through interstellar space for approximately 7 billion years. Observations from multiple telescopes are enhancing our understanding of this ancient visitor, including its size, chemical makeup, and physical properties. With a dust plume and tail reminiscent of solar system comets, 3I Atlas offers a unique glimpse into the history of our galaxy as it approaches the sun.
Earth's Position in a Cosmic Void
A new hypothesis suggests that Earth and the Milky Way may reside in a vast cosmic void rather than along a filament of the universe's cosmic web. This idea could help resolve the Hubble tension, a discrepancy in the rate of the universe's expansion. The study, presented at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Conference, posits that our galaxy might be near the center of a local void, influencing the observed expansion rate of the universe. This intriguing concept challenges existing cosmological models and could reshape our understanding of cosmic structure.
Safe Return of SpaceX Crew 10
After five months aboard the International Space Station, SpaceX Crew 10 has safely returned to Earth. Their Dragon capsule splashed down in the North Pacific Ocean, marking the end of a mission that contributed to over 200 scientific experiments, ranging from plant growth studies to the effects of microgravity on human physiology. The crew's successful return paves the way for their replacements, Crew 11, to continue vital research in low Earth orbit.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Astrophysical Journal Letters
https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2041-8205
Royal Astronomical Society
https://ras.ac.uk/
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-space-astronomy--2458531/support.

The Astronomy, Space, Technology & Science News Podcast.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:03.359
This is Spacetime Series twenty eight, episode one hundred, for

2
00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:07.040
broadcast on the twentieth of August twenty twenty five. Coming

3
00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:11.439
up on Spacetime, new details about our latest interstellar visitor,

4
00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:15.240
three Eye Atlas, a new theory suggesting Earth in the

5
00:00:15.279 --> 00:00:19.640
Milky Way galaxy may be located deep inside a cosmic void,

6
00:00:20.359 --> 00:00:24.640
and Space Station Crew ten returned safely to Earth. All

7
00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:27.359
that and more coming up on space Time.

8
00:00:28.879 --> 00:00:38.200
Welcome to space Time with Stewart Gary.

9
00:00:48.200 --> 00:00:52.039
Astronomers using Nassas Hubble Space Telescope have taken the sharpest

10
00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:56.200
observation jet of our latest interstellar visitor, the comet three

11
00:00:56.200 --> 00:00:59.920
Eye Outlas. The new data, reported in the Astrophysical Journal

12
00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:03.920
let have provided the best images yet of this mysterious object.

13
00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:08.439
Astronomers say that, based on their observations, three I Atlas

14
00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:11.840
has a soldid icy nucleus which is somewhere between three

15
00:01:11.879 --> 00:01:15.280
hundred and twenty meters and five point six kilometers in diameter.

16
00:01:15.879 --> 00:01:19.000
The exact size is somewhat open to interpretation because the

17
00:01:19.079 --> 00:01:22.760
nucleus is surrounded by a thick, dusty COMA. Hubble is

18
00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:25.319
one of numerous observatories either in orbit or on the

19
00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:30.120
ground intensely studding this comet. Observations from other NAS emissions,

20
00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:34.680
including the web Space Telescope, a Transiting Exoplanet Survey, satellite tests,

21
00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:37.439
and the Swift Space Telescope, as well as ground based

22
00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:40.760
observatories like the ten meter KECTWINS in Hawaii, will help

23
00:01:40.840 --> 00:01:44.480
to further refine sciences understanding about the comet, including its

24
00:01:44.519 --> 00:01:49.840
exact size, chemical makeup, and physical properties. Hubbles also capture

25
00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:52.200
a dust plue ejected from the sunwarm side of the

26
00:01:52.239 --> 00:01:54.959
comet and the hint of a dust tail streaming away

27
00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:58.879
from the nucleus. Hubble datas yielding a dust loss rate

28
00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:01.799
which is consistent with Solar System comets when they're first

29
00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:04.760
detected around four hundred and eighty million kilometers from the Sun.

30
00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:06.439
So this behavior is.

31
00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:09.599
Very much like the signature of previously seen sunbound comets

32
00:02:09.639 --> 00:02:12.879
originating from within our Solar System. Of course, the big

33
00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:16.719
difference is that this interstellar visitor originated from another star

34
00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:20.680
system somewhere else in the galaxy three I outlets, is

35
00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:23.319
traveling through our Solar System at a staggering two hundred

36
00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:26.680
and nine thousand kilometters per hour. That's the highest velocity

37
00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:30.919
ever recorded for any interstellar visitor. It's breathtaking velocity. It's

38
00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:33.599
evidence that the comet's been traveling through interstellar space for

39
00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:37.479
many billions of years. Current estimates suggest that it could

40
00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:41.800
be seven billion years old. The gravitational slingshot effect from

41
00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:45.159
innumerable stars and nebuly encountered by the comet during its

42
00:02:45.240 --> 00:02:48.879
journey has added momentum ratcheting up at speed, and the

43
00:02:48.919 --> 00:02:51.560
longer three eye outlasts was out there in space, the

44
00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:56.120
higher at speed grew. Science team leader for Hubble observations,

45
00:02:56.199 --> 00:02:59.560
David Jewett from the University of California, Los Angeles, no

46
00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:02.800
one knows for sure exactly where this comet came from.

47
00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:05.400
He says, it's a bit like glimpsing a rifle bullet

48
00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:08.199
in flight for just a thousandth of a second. You

49
00:03:08.280 --> 00:03:10.919
simply can't project that object back with any degree of

50
00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:14.000
accuracy to figure out exactly where it started.

51
00:03:13.639 --> 00:03:14.319
On its path.

52
00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:17.479
The comet will remain visible to ground based telescopes for

53
00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:20.159
the rest of this month and through September, after which

54
00:03:20.199 --> 00:03:21.960
time it will pass too close to the Sun to

55
00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:24.520
be observed, but is expected to reappear on the other

56
00:03:24.599 --> 00:03:28.919
side of the Sun by early December. This report from Nasstva.

57
00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:34.639
Using NASA's Hubble Space telescope, a team of astronomers captured

58
00:03:34.680 --> 00:03:38.520
the clearest image to date of the unexpected interstellar commet

59
00:03:38.840 --> 00:03:43.520
three I Atlasts. Astronomers are now able to more precisely

60
00:03:43.639 --> 00:03:48.080
estimate the size of the comet's solid icy nucleus. Its

61
00:03:48.199 --> 00:03:52.479
estimated diameter is no bigger than three point five miles across,

62
00:03:52.680 --> 00:03:57.319
but potentially as small as one thousand feet across. Hubble

63
00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:00.520
captured a dust plume ejected from the sun worn side

64
00:04:00.520 --> 00:04:02.800
of the comet and the hint of a tear drop

65
00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:07.520
shaped dust tail streaming away from the nucleus. This behavior

66
00:04:07.639 --> 00:04:11.520
is similar to that of previously seen sunbound comets originating

67
00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:15.159
within our Solar System. The big difference is that this

68
00:04:15.240 --> 00:04:18.800
mysterious visitor came from an ancient and unknown realm of

69
00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:23.199
our Milky Way, launching from an undetermined star system long

70
00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:26.959
ago and far away. In what may be the final

71
00:04:27.079 --> 00:04:30.800
chapter in its space odyssey, three I Atlas is plunging

72
00:04:30.839 --> 00:04:33.759
towards the Sun at a staggering one hundred and thirty

73
00:04:33.879 --> 00:04:38.040
thousand miles per hour. This is the highest velocity ever

74
00:04:38.079 --> 00:04:43.079
recorded for a Solar System visitor. The comet's astonishing speed

75
00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:47.360
suggests it has traversed interstellar space for billions of years.

76
00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:51.959
The comet gained speed due to the gravitational slingshot effect

77
00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:55.519
of the stars and other objects it encountered. The longer

78
00:04:55.560 --> 00:04:59.720
three Iatlists traveled through interstellar space, the faster it moved.

79
00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:05.639
Hubble observations suggest that Commet three Iatlists was likely expelled

80
00:05:05.639 --> 00:05:10.040
from a developing planetary system. This occurred as icy bodies

81
00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:13.720
aggregated within an outer disc or ring surrounding a star,

82
00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:17.680
further supporting the idea that such outer belts are common

83
00:05:17.720 --> 00:05:23.000
in planet forming systems. Another possibility is that three iat

84
00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:26.279
Lists is just a fragment of a small icy planet

85
00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:30.160
that came too close to a white dwarf star, disintegrated

86
00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:34.120
under the stress of gravity and scentence, shards cannon balling

87
00:05:34.199 --> 00:05:38.560
back into space. Three Iatlis is an icy fossil from

88
00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:43.000
a time perhaps before Earth even existed. If three iAtlas

89
00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:45.720
has wandered among the stars for nearly half of the

90
00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:49.439
Milky Way's age, it provide insights into the history of

91
00:05:49.480 --> 00:05:53.759
our galaxy and the processes behind our solar system's formation.

92
00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:58.120
Comet three Iatlists will make its closest approach to the

93
00:05:58.199 --> 00:06:01.600
Sun in October twenty twenty five, but don't worry, it

94
00:06:01.639 --> 00:06:06.680
won't be anywhere near Earth. NASA's assets, including Hubble, the

95
00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:11.560
James Webb Space Telescope, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, and

96
00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:15.639
the Swift Observatory, will closely monitor the commet to measure

97
00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:20.079
its chemical composition as the Sun's heat further sublimates its ices.

98
00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:24.199
Should it survive the perilous journey near the Sun, the

99
00:06:24.360 --> 00:06:28.079
chances of three I Atlas experiencing another close encounter with

100
00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:32.600
a star are incredibly remote. It's also possible that three

101
00:06:32.639 --> 00:06:36.639
I Atlas, like many fragile commet nuclei, approaching the Sun,

102
00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:41.079
could break apart or disintegrate into dust, bringing its existence

103
00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:45.879
to an end. Each new discovery offers astronomers valuable insights

104
00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:49.319
into both our own Solar System and the distant universe

105
00:06:49.399 --> 00:06:50.199
beyond Tree.

106
00:06:50.199 --> 00:06:53.680
I Atlas is only the third interstellar object ever observed

107
00:06:53.680 --> 00:06:56.319
to be traveling through our Solar System. There have a

108
00:06:56.439 --> 00:06:59.000
dadly been others, are there only three we know about

109
00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:01.879
for sure. The first was a mal Maur, which was

110
00:07:01.879 --> 00:07:05.920
discovered back on October the nineteenth, twenty seventeen, approximately forty

111
00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:08.519
days after it passed its closest point to the Sun

112
00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:12.000
on September the ninth. When it was first observed, mail

113
00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:14.839
Mao was around thirty three million kilometers from Earth and

114
00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:18.439
already heading out of the Solar System. It's estimated to

115
00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:21.279
be between one hundred and one thousand kilometers in length,

116
00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:24.360
with a width and thickness estimated to be between thirty

117
00:07:24.360 --> 00:07:26.199
five and one hundred and sixty seven meters.

118
00:07:26.920 --> 00:07:28.360
Interestingly, it has a.

119
00:07:28.240 --> 00:07:31.279
Reddish color similar to objects from the outer Solar System.

120
00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:34.759
Even more fascinating, despite its close approach to the Sun,

121
00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:37.560
it showed no signs of having a coma, the usual

122
00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:40.399
nebulau seen around comets, which is formed as they passed

123
00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:43.319
near the Sun and are heated up, allowing volatile gases

124
00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:47.040
to expand an escape. Also, a mal Maour appears to

125
00:07:47.079 --> 00:07:51.439
be tumbling rather than spinning as it moves. Interestingly, it

126
00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:54.720
exhibited a sudden non gravitational acceleration as it left the

127
00:07:54.759 --> 00:07:58.480
Solar System, possibly either due to outgassing or a push.

128
00:07:58.199 --> 00:07:59.759
From solar radiation pressure.

129
00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:02.759
As best as we can tell, a mal Mara apiece

130
00:08:02.800 --> 00:08:05.000
to have come from roughly the direction of Vega in

131
00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:08.600
the constellation Lyra It entered our Solar System from the

132
00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:10.839
north of the plan of the Ecliptic on a strongly

133
00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:14.959
hyperbolic trajectory. The Sun's gravity then bent its orbit in

134
00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:18.040
a sharp turn again northwards, and it's now heading away

135
00:08:18.040 --> 00:08:23.040
from the Sun towards the constellation Pegasus. The second confirmed

136
00:08:23.079 --> 00:08:26.800
interstellar visitor was the comet two I Borisov, which was

137
00:08:26.839 --> 00:08:30.959
first observed on August the twenty ninth, twenty nineteen. Borisov

138
00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:33.080
passed through the ecliptic of the Solar System at the

139
00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:36.200
end of October twenty nineteen, and that its closest approach

140
00:08:36.200 --> 00:08:38.440
to the Sun on December the eighth of that year.

141
00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:42.120
Early estimates suggested the nucleus of the comet is somewhere

142
00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:45.759
between one point four and sixteen kilometers wide, and unlike

143
00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:50.960
Solar System comets, Borisov noticeably shrunk during its Solar System flyby,

144
00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:53.799
losing at least zero point four percent of its mass

145
00:08:53.840 --> 00:08:58.559
before perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, Borisov entered

146
00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:01.399
our Solar system from the direction of Cassiopea in the

147
00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:05.480
border with Perseus, on an extremely hyperbolic trajectory. Now this

148
00:09:05.559 --> 00:09:09.519
direction indicates it probably originated from the galactic plane rather

149
00:09:09.559 --> 00:09:12.960
than the galactic halo. It's leaving our Solar System in

150
00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:18.559
the direction of the constellation Teroscopium. This space time. Still

151
00:09:18.600 --> 00:09:21.080
to come is planet Earth, and for that matter, the

152
00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:24.960
Milky Way in a cosmic void, and four SpaceX crew

153
00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:28.200
teen astronauts have returned safely to Earth after spending five

154
00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:31.559
months aboard the International Space Station. All that and more

155
00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:51.720
still to come on space time observations to astronomers that

156
00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:54.799
the large scale structure of the universe is shaped sort

157
00:09:54.840 --> 00:09:58.840
of like a giant cosmic web, comprising filaments of galaxies,

158
00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:02.879
galaxy clusters, and superclusters spread around the edges of giant,

159
00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:07.200
near empty voids. Now, a new hypothesis has revived the

160
00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:09.799
idea that planet Earth, and for that matter, our entire

161
00:10:09.879 --> 00:10:12.720
Milky Way galaxy, may not be residing along one of

162
00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:16.080
the filaments of the cosmic web, but rather inside one

163
00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:20.080
of the giant voids, and that's making the universe expand

164
00:10:20.159 --> 00:10:22.360
faster here than in neighboring.

165
00:10:21.960 --> 00:10:23.200
Regions of the cosmos.

166
00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:27.000
The idea is a potential solution to the Hubble tension,

167
00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:29.960
and it could help confirm the true age of our universe,

168
00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:32.840
which is currently estimated to be around thirteen point eight

169
00:10:32.840 --> 00:10:36.360
two billion years. The new research provided of the Royal

170
00:10:36.360 --> 00:10:40.440
Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Conference in Durham shows that pressure

171
00:10:40.440 --> 00:10:43.360
waves from the early universe, essentially the sound ways from

172
00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:47.600
the Big Bang, support this idea. The Hubble constant, first

173
00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:50.639
proposed by Edwin Hubble in nineteen twenty nine, is designed

174
00:10:50.679 --> 00:10:53.799
to express the rate at which the universe is expanding.

175
00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:57.120
It can be measured by observing the distance of celestial

176
00:10:57.159 --> 00:11:00.679
objects and how fast they're moving away from us. The

177
00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:04.440
stumbling block, however, is that extrapolating measurements of the distance

178
00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:07.799
of the early universe to today using the standard cosmological

179
00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:10.840
model predicts a slower rate of expansion. The measurements of

180
00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:15.399
the nearby, more recent universe indicate this is the Hubble tension.

181
00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:19.000
The Steadies, lead author in Grenelled Banning from the University

182
00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:22.559
of Portsmouth, says a potential solution of this inconsistency is

183
00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:25.519
that the Milky Way galaxy that includes the Earth may

184
00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:28.320
be close to the center of a large local void.

185
00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:31.559
Bannick says that would cause matter to be pulled by

186
00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:35.240
gravity towards the higher density exterior regions of the void

187
00:11:35.399 --> 00:11:38.799
where the filaments are leading to the void becoming emptier

188
00:11:38.840 --> 00:11:42.799
with time. As the voids emptying out, the velocity objects

189
00:11:42.840 --> 00:11:45.120
away from us would be larger than if the void

190
00:11:45.159 --> 00:11:48.600
simply wasn't there. This therefore gives the appearance of a

191
00:11:48.679 --> 00:11:53.519
faster local expansion rate even explained dark energy. Bannik says

192
00:11:53.639 --> 00:11:57.159
that would mean the Hubble tension is largely a local phenomenon,

193
00:11:57.320 --> 00:12:01.120
with little evidence that the expansion rate disagrees with expectations

194
00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:05.279
in the standard cosmology further back in time. So a

195
00:12:05.320 --> 00:12:08.639
local solution like a local void is a promising way

196
00:12:08.679 --> 00:12:11.519
to go about solving the problem. But for the idea

197
00:12:11.559 --> 00:12:14.240
to stand up, planet Earth in our Solar system would

198
00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:16.120
need to be near the very center of the void,

199
00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:18.720
about a billion light years in radius and with a

200
00:12:18.759 --> 00:12:21.440
density about twenty percent below the average for the rest

201
00:12:21.440 --> 00:12:25.159
of the universe as a whole. Now directly counting galaxies

202
00:12:25.240 --> 00:12:28.840
does support this theory. That's because the number density in

203
00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:32.679
our local universe is lower than in neighboring regions. However,

204
00:12:32.879 --> 00:12:36.159
it doesn't mesh particularly well with the standard model of cosmology,

205
00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:39.320
which suggests that matter today should be more uniformly spread

206
00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:43.200
out on such large scales. Despite this, the new data

207
00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:46.720
shows that baryon acoustic oscillations pressure wasts from the Big

208
00:12:46.759 --> 00:12:50.360
Bang do support the idea of a local void. These

209
00:12:50.360 --> 00:12:53.200
waves traveled for any short period of time before becoming

210
00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:56.360
frozen in place once the universe cooled enough for neutral

211
00:12:56.399 --> 00:13:00.559
atoms to form. They act as a standard cosmic ruler

212
00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:03.360
whose angular size can be used to chart the cosmic

213
00:13:03.399 --> 00:13:08.159
expansion history. A local void slightly distorts the relation between

214
00:13:08.200 --> 00:13:11.840
the baryon acoustic oscillation's angular scale and the red shift

215
00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:15.200
how far the universe has expanded simply by the stretching

216
00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:18.840
of space time. That's because the velocity is induced by

217
00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:22.320
a local void and its gravitational effect slightly increase the

218
00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:25.200
red shift on top of that due to cosmic expansion.

219
00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:29.919
By considering all available baryonic acoustic ossolation measurements over the

220
00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:32.840
last twenty years, the authors have shown that AVOID model

221
00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:35.679
is about one hundred million times more likely than AVOID

222
00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:39.399
free model with parameters designed to fit the cosmic microwave

223
00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:43.080
background observations taken by the Plank satellite, the so called

224
00:13:43.240 --> 00:13:48.480
homogeneous Plank cosmology. The cosmic microwave background is a relic

225
00:13:48.639 --> 00:13:52.720
radiation that fills all space time and the observable universe.

226
00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:56.480
It occurred about three hundred and eighty thousand years after

227
00:13:56.519 --> 00:13:59.840
the Big Bang, when subatomic particles in the quak glue

228
00:13:59.879 --> 00:14:02.919
on plasma cooled enough to come together to form the

229
00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:06.720
first atoms, and its remnants are still there, filling the

230
00:14:06.840 --> 00:14:09.960
entire universe that now cooled down to just two point

231
00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:13.399
seven degrees above absolute zero. In fact, if you have

232
00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:16.440
an old analog radio or TV, you can actually see

233
00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:19.600
and hear the cosmic microwave background as the white noise

234
00:14:19.639 --> 00:14:24.679
static you get between channels. This is space time still

235
00:14:24.679 --> 00:14:28.240
to come. Another crew from the International Space Station returned

236
00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:31.639
safely to Earth, and later in the Science report, researchers

237
00:14:31.639 --> 00:14:35.120
develop a new brain interface computer that can read your

238
00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:39.200
mind with a seventy four percent accuracy rate. All that

239
00:14:39.240 --> 00:14:58.320
and more still to come on space time. Four SpaceX

240
00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:01.279
crew ten astronauts have returned safe back to Earth after

241
00:15:01.320 --> 00:15:05.759
spending five months aboard the International Space Station. Their drag

242
00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:09.159
and capsule Endurance splashed down in the North Pacific Ocean

243
00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:12.519
off the California coast, just six hours after undugging from

244
00:15:12.519 --> 00:15:16.480
the orbiting outpost. They've been replaced by four SpaceX crew

245
00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:20.440
eleven team members who arrived on station last week. During

246
00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:23.039
their stay on station, the team contributed to more than

247
00:15:23.080 --> 00:15:27.720
two hundred scientific experiments, including studying plank growth, house cells

248
00:15:27.759 --> 00:15:30.919
interact to gravity, and the effect of micro gravity on

249
00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:50.759
the human eye. This is Space Time and time out

250
00:15:50.759 --> 00:15:52.240
to take another brief look at some of the other

251
00:15:52.279 --> 00:15:55.480
stories making use in science this week with a science report.

252
00:15:56.240 --> 00:15:59.639
A new study suggest a Mediterranean style diet may help

253
00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:03.440
slow down cognitive decline. A report in the Journal of

254
00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:08.159
the American Medical Association measured hippocampal sclerosis, a severe decline

255
00:16:08.159 --> 00:16:10.799
in brain cells and processes in areas of the brain

256
00:16:10.919 --> 00:16:14.759
linked with dementia in Alzheimer's. The stud involved eight hundred

257
00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:18.080
and nine people for whom dietary information and brain autopsies

258
00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:22.000
were available. They found those on diets which combine elements

259
00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:25.720
of a Mediterranean diet and dietary approaches to stop hypertension

260
00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:28.720
were less likely to have signs of hyppocampal sclerosis in

261
00:16:28.759 --> 00:16:32.480
their brains. You authors say the finding suggests that sticking

262
00:16:32.519 --> 00:16:35.559
to a Mediterranean diet may well help reduce the risk

263
00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:41.320
of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Scientists have discovered fossil evidence

264
00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:44.960
of a new species of ancient whale on Victoria's surf coast.

265
00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:49.240
The findings, reported in the Zoological Journal of the Linum Society,

266
00:16:49.360 --> 00:16:52.120
claims the twenty six million year old dolphin cy citation

267
00:16:52.399 --> 00:16:56.480
and Jenesustis dallati, is based on the partial skull and earburns,

268
00:16:56.480 --> 00:17:00.200
as well as teeth. First uncovered in twenty nineteen, it

269
00:17:00.279 --> 00:17:04.119
featured a short snout, large forward facing eyes, razor sharp

270
00:17:04.200 --> 00:17:07.240
slicing teeth, and a compact body built for hunting.

271
00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:09.200
The study, which is thought to have a bit of a.

272
00:17:09.240 --> 00:17:13.799
Juvenile, offers remarkable insights into the early evolution of baileen whales,

273
00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:19.279
the filter feeding giants now cruising our oceans. Scientists have

274
00:17:19.319 --> 00:17:22.480
developed a new brain computer interface that can read your

275
00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:26.319
mind with a seventy four percent accuracy level. A report

276
00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:29.160
in the journal Cell claims the device could even decode

277
00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:33.039
your inmost thoughts. The authors measured brand activity in four

278
00:17:33.079 --> 00:17:36.119
people who had SEV paralysis from murder, neurine disease, or

279
00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:40.359
brainstem stroke, recording their inner speech data. They then trained

280
00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:43.839
an artificial intelligence model to interpret the imagined words.

281
00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:45.480
The AI was.

282
00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:47.960
Able to decode sentences from a vocabulary of up to

283
00:17:47.960 --> 00:17:50.640
one hundred and twenty five thousand words with an accuracy

284
00:17:50.720 --> 00:17:54.319
level of seventy four percent. They also demonstrated that it

285
00:17:54.319 --> 00:17:57.480
could use a password to start the system decoding, such

286
00:17:57.480 --> 00:17:59.640
as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which it was able to

287
00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:03.359
wreckon with ninety eight percent accuracy. Also say the new

288
00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:06.880
findings could help people communicate even if they're unable to

289
00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:11.279
audibly speak. All the final countdowns now on the way

290
00:18:11.319 --> 00:18:14.720
to tomorrow's launch of the latest Google Pixel Tense smartphones.

291
00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:18.000
Rumors suggests the new phone will include a Tensor G

292
00:18:18.119 --> 00:18:21.640
five chip, higher spec cameras, a new range of colors,

293
00:18:21.799 --> 00:18:25.680
battery upgrades, and the ability to work with megasef accessories

294
00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:29.160
just like Apple. With the details, we're joined by technology

295
00:18:29.240 --> 00:18:31.720
editor Alex saharov Roy from Tech Advice.

296
00:18:31.839 --> 00:18:34.720
Start life to the Tense generation of Google's phones, and

297
00:18:34.759 --> 00:18:37.440
currently they have the regular model, they have two pro

298
00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:39.359
models or a smaller one and a large one, and

299
00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:42.359
they have the folding phone as well. So there's going

300
00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:45.799
to be faster processes, better cameras, more AI and they're

301
00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:48.400
going to really give a challenge to what Apple is

302
00:18:48.440 --> 00:18:50.440
doing because Apple is behind.

303
00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:52.920
They're late birth with a folding phone and also with

304
00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:54.039
their AI as well.

305
00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:57.319
Yeah, Apple has been working on having a folding phone

306
00:18:57.319 --> 00:18:59.680
with no creature in the screen, and the screen supplier

307
00:18:59.720 --> 00:19:03.519
is Samsung. Earlier this year did show off a folding

308
00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:06.640
screen technology that had no crease. But obviously it takes

309
00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:08.359
time to go from a model that you show at

310
00:19:08.359 --> 00:19:10.000
a trade show to a model that is able to

311
00:19:10.039 --> 00:19:12.599
be produced at the scale thatt both Samsung requires for

312
00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:14.519
its own devices, and of course at the scale that

313
00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:17.720
Apple requires, which is in theory many orders of magnitude

314
00:19:17.880 --> 00:19:21.440
more because of course Apple sells for most phones compared

315
00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:24.359
to anybody else. Now, Apple has been working very hard

316
00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:27.519
on AI, but it's had a number of its staff

317
00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:32.119
stolen effectively hied away by Open AI or most notably Meta.

318
00:19:32.119 --> 00:19:34.720
I mean Meta, which is the company behind Facebook, is

319
00:19:34.720 --> 00:19:37.599
wanting to pay one research in particular a quarter of

320
00:19:37.640 --> 00:19:40.640
a billion dollars. I mean that's serious money to steal

321
00:19:40.680 --> 00:19:43.640
somebody away from Google, or from Apple or from anybody else.

322
00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:45.480
That reports have come out in the last week or

323
00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:47.119
so that Apple is going to have not only a

324
00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:50.200
much smartest serie, but robots that are one is like

325
00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:52.240
a Pixar style lamb. It's a robot that can sit

326
00:19:52.279 --> 00:19:53.920
on a table and it can talk to you and

327
00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:56.759
do various things. They're talking about humanoid robots as well.

328
00:19:56.799 --> 00:19:59.240
And look, you know, some of these things are plans

329
00:19:59.279 --> 00:20:01.759
that will change by the time you know, anything comes

330
00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:04.000
to fruition. And some of this is just simply Apple's

331
00:20:04.039 --> 00:20:06.039
way to say, look, we're doing stuff too. And the

332
00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:09.200
big theme of twenty twenty five is agentic AI, where

333
00:20:09.359 --> 00:20:12.759
AI is not simply answering questions anymore about anything that

334
00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:14.920
you ask it, but can now do things for you,

335
00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:19.079
call people, search things, give you reports, give you recommendations.

336
00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:21.119
And this is what the sci fi robots of the

337
00:20:21.160 --> 00:20:24.519
future have been portrayed as doing for decades to come true.

338
00:20:24.720 --> 00:20:24.920
Too.

339
00:20:25.119 --> 00:20:28.480
Was the year that George Jetson was meant to be born, Yes,

340
00:20:28.640 --> 00:20:31.799
twenty sixty two, that was when the Jetsons were set.

341
00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:35.200
Yeah, I mean, we still don't have George Jetson car

342
00:20:35.240 --> 00:20:37.839
that can shrink down into the size of a briefcase

343
00:20:37.960 --> 00:20:41.079
reality and all the job yet. Yeah, that's right, I'm

344
00:20:41.079 --> 00:20:42.960
looking forward to that happening one day. I mean, of course,

345
00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:45.799
basically these Brockets did have Zoom predicted. We do, of course,

346
00:20:45.839 --> 00:20:48.759
have all sorts of robots vacuums. Well, we have all

347
00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:51.839
sorts of a robot vacuum cleaners. It's a no brainer

348
00:20:51.880 --> 00:20:54.359
that we're going to have home robots in the style

349
00:20:54.359 --> 00:20:57.039
of Optimus, in the style of a humanoid android that

350
00:20:57.079 --> 00:21:00.519
will be able to have multiple tasks within.

351
00:21:00.359 --> 00:21:02.400
The next five years. They're talking about that, and they

352
00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:03.400
won't be that expensive.

353
00:21:03.480 --> 00:21:06.440
Yeah, that's the beginning. Obviously. We want robots to effectively

354
00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:09.440
become as affordable as a good smartphone is.

355
00:21:09.480 --> 00:21:09.799
Today.

356
00:21:09.960 --> 00:21:28.799
That's alex ohrrol Royd from Tech Advice, Start Life, and

357
00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:32.759
that's the show for now. Spacetime is available every Monday,

358
00:21:32.839 --> 00:21:37.680
Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Google podcast,

359
00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:42.920
pocker Casts, Spotify a Cast, Amazon Music, bytes dot Com,

360
00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:47.839
SoundCloud YouTube, your favorite podcast download provider, and from space

361
00:21:47.920 --> 00:21:51.839
Time with Stuart Gary dot com. Space Time's also broadcast

362
00:21:51.880 --> 00:21:55.160
through the National Science Foundation, on Science Owe Radio and

363
00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:58.880
on both iHeartRadio and tune In Radio. And you can

364
00:21:58.880 --> 00:22:01.880
help to support our show by visiting the Spacetime Store

365
00:22:01.960 --> 00:22:05.680
for a range of promotional merchandising goodies, or by becoming

366
00:22:05.720 --> 00:22:09.000
a Spacetime Patron, which gives you access to triple episode

367
00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:11.680
commercial free versions of the show, as well as lots

368
00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:14.720
of burnus audio content which doesn't go to air, access

369
00:22:14.759 --> 00:22:18.559
to our exclusive Facebook group, and other rewards. Just go

370
00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:21.880
to space Time with Stewart Gary dot com for full details.

371
00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:25.920
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary. This

372
00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:32.400
has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com.