How a Passing Star Redirected Comets and Redefined Our Milky Way Map

WEBVTT

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Stuart Gary: This is space Time Series 29, episode

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81, for broadcast on the 8th of July,

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2026. Coming up on Space,

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how a passing star redirected comets to the

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inner solar system, a, uh, change in our map

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of the Milky Way galaxy, and evidence of

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vast hidden magma systems inside Mars.

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All that and more coming up on, uh, uh, Space

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Time. Welcome to Space

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Time with Stuart G.

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A new study has shown how a passing star

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redirected a stream of comets from the

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distant Oort Cloud to the inner solar system.

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Consequently, closer to Earth. And the

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cascade may not be over yet. The

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Oort Cloud is a collection of comets, frozen

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worlds and icy debris orbiting in the dark

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outer reaches of our solar system and

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extending more than a light year deep into

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interstellar space. The clouds, thought to

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include leftover objects from the formation

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of Our solar system 4.6 billion years ago, as

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well as interstellar objects that are tagging

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along after being captured by the Sun's

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gravitational field. About

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2.47 billion years ago, a spectral

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type G yellow dwarf star similar to and about

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1.07 times the mass of our sun, which is

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catalogued as HD7977,

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passed close to our solar system. But

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exactly how close is still a bit of a

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mystery. Today, HD

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7977 is located in the constellation

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Cassiopeia, about 246.9

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light years away. But during its close

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encounter with our solar system, calculations

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based on observations by the Gaia spacecraft

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suggest that it may have passed within the

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Oort Cloud, coming to within

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0.064 and

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0.4 light years from the Sun.

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Now, by comparison, the nearest star to us

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today is Proxima Centauri, which is 4.25

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light years away, which makes it eight or

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more times further than this closest

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approach. Now, uh, this new study by Nathan

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Cabe from the Planetary Science Institute and

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Sean Raymond from the University of Bordeaux,

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have further refined those distances,

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suggesting that HD7977's close

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encounter with our solar system could have

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been as near as 0.095 to

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0.185 light years from the Sun.

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Ah, at its nearest, that means it was just

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6,000 times further away from the sun than

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what the Earth is. Their research, which has

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been presented at the American Astronomical

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Society Division of Dynamical Astronomy,

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suggests that the gravitational perturbations

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triggered by such an encounter would have

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altered the orbits of some of the Oort Cloud

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objects, sending them cascading into the

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inner solar system. In other words, where the

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Earth is and they believe that we may still

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be feeling the effects of that passage today.

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The European Space Agency's Gaia mission was

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a, UH, telescope that precisely measured the

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changing positions and brightnesses of

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thousands of stars and other objects in our

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galaxy relative to background quasars and

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galaxies. Its combination of a

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spectrograph to measure motions towards and

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away from us and its high resolution cameras

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to measure proper motion across the sky has

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allowed three dimensional motions to be

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calculated for roughly 1% of the objects in

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ah, our galaxy, including the star HD

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7977. It allowed

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astronomers to understand the history of our

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solar system in new ways.

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Normally, the gravity of the galaxy's outer

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disc is the primary force causing icy objects

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in our solar system to change their orbits.

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This pull spreads out what was once a

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disc of material into what researchers

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calculate is currently a spherical shell of

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objects. This shell, the Oort Cloud, is

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named after its discoverer Jan Oort. And this

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same galactic tug should also dominate the

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orbits of new comets entering our solar

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system for the first time. And once it enters

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the solar system, the effects of the planets

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and its passage near the sun can radically

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change a comet's orbit. And these forces

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should leave a distinct signature in the

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direction that a comet orbits relative to our

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Milky Way's midplane. Now, uh, if

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HD7977 passed as near as Kabe

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and Rayman propose, its gravitational

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influence would temporarily dwarf that of the

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galaxy and the galactic signature should be

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absent from current comet orbits. And

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that's exactly what Cape and Raymond found

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when they analysed the orbits of several new

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comets. Cabe says the distribution of comet

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orbits suggests that we're living through an

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unusual time where HD7977

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has dominated the generation of new comets

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and not the larger gravitational field of the

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Milky Way as it usually would. This would

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also mean that we're living through the late

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stages of a pretty rare, powerful cometary

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shower. To test this

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idea, Cabe and Raymond ran a series of

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computer simulations to understand what

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comets would look like as a result of

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HD7977 passing at different distances.

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The computer models were then compared to the

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passage of 112 long period comets that have

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been observed since 1989, when professional

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surveys first made it possible to detect new

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comets in both hemispheres. By the way, long

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period comets are identified because they

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have highly elliptical orbits that typically

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take thousands to millions of years to

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complete. Brand new comets on their first

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passage to the inner solar system have

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orbital periods measured in millions of

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years, while older comets on Subsequent

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visits have much shorter periods due to their

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prior interactions with the planets and the

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Sun. The authors found the observed

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orbits of comets on their first passage into

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our solar systems. Inner regions matched

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HD7977, triggering a wave of long

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period comets to enter our solar system. All

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the comets on repeated passages are

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consistent with the galactic disc, pulling

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and clustering, creating their orbits. The

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authors say their predictions will be tested

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in the next six to 12 months. That's when the

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next data drop from Gaia is released.

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This is space time still to come.

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Changing our map of the Milky Way Galaxy and

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evidence of vast hidden magma systems deep

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below the surface of the Red Planet Mars.

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All that and more still to come on

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spacetime.

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Astronomers have redrawn our map of the Milky

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Way galaxy, moving its outer arms up to 10%

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further away than previous estimates. The

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revised picture is based on new data, uh,

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from both NASA's Chandra and the European

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Space Agency's XMM Newton X ray space

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telescopes. They were observing the aftermath

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of three bright explosions thrown out by

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three separate gamma ray bursts echoing

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through the outer spiral of the Milky Way

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galaxy. By measuring the distance to these

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echoes, astronomers were able to refine the

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distance to the outer arms. The thing

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is, we really don't know much about the

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structure of our galaxy's outer regions.

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That's because it's like looking at the

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forest through the trees. It's difficult to

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observe our galaxy from the inside. The

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solar system is well embedded inside its

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disc, preventing a bird's eye view. And as

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well as that, many regions are obscured by

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thick clouds of cosmic dust. But by

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using data from ESA's Gaia space telescope,

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it's allowed astronomers to gain a better

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perspective for mapping the Milky Way and

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doing so in more detail than ever before by

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measuring more precise distances to its

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stars. Before Gaia, astronomers weren't even

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sure if our galaxy had two or four spiral

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arms. We now know there are four.

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Beatriz Vallia from Italy's National

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Institute of Astrophysics says now another of

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ESA's missions has found a new way to map the

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extremities of our galaxy. Faias, uh, says

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astronomers usually model the Milky Way's

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outer arms indirectly based on what we know

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about how our galaxy rotates. But doing

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this leaves room for error. So instead,

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she looked at the aftermath of three cosmic

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explosions that took place far away in more

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distant galaxies. These explosions

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flung out X rays that echoed through several

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of the Milky Way's outer arms. And she

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measured the distances to these echoes

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directly. The X rays bounced around and

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were scattered by dust grains within the

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Milky Way spiral arms, forming bright rings

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that were then picked up by the xmm, Newton

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and Chandra space telescopes. By studying

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how these ring shaped echoes slowly expanded

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over time, Vaire and colleagues were able to

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pinpoint the distance to the scattering dust

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grains. As these grains lie within

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clouds within the arms of the galaxy, the

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authors were able to directly measure the

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distance to those arms. Besides

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confirming the known distance of the Perseus

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Arm, the authors also found that two of the

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Milky Way Galaxy's arms, the Artus Scutum

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Centaurus Arm and the Outer arm, are located

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up to 10% further away than

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previously thought. This is

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space time. Still to come. Evidence

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of vast hidden magma systems inside the Red

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planet Mars. And later in the Science

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report, a new study finds that your

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mental health might m well be impacted by the

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mental health of the people you went to

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school with. All that and more still to come

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on, uh, space time.

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A new study has uncovered that the Red planet

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Mars once hosted enormous Earth like

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magmatic systems deep beneath its surface.

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That's despite the planet lacking any plate

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tectonics, which was long thought necessary

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for this kind of geological complexity. The

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findings, reported in the journal Nature

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Astronomy, reveal fascinating new

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possibilities for how rocky planets could

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become habitable. Mars is often

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described as a stagnant lid planet.

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Unlike the Earth, its surface is not broken

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up into moving tectonic plates. Because

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plate tectonics drives volcanism, recycling

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and continent building on Earth, many

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scientists assumed Mars m lacked the

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conditions needed to produce similarly

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complex crust. However, this new study

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challenges that view, suggesting that Mars

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could have produced highly evolved crust

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through intense internal recycling. The

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findings are based on Data recorded by NASA's

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2018 InSight Lander Mission to the surface of

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the Red Planet. Insight investigated

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seismic waves from meteorite impacts and

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massquakes, the Martian equivalent of

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earthquakes. The authors used that data to

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investigate a mysterious boundary layer about

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24 kilometres beneath the Martian surface.

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Uh, now previous studies had identified this

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boundary, but no one knew what it really

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represented. To test the idea that

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this boundary may have marked a transition

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between two different rock types, the authors

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compared hundreds of possible rock

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compositions with the seismic data. Using

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thermodynamic modelling and statistical

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techniques, they found that while rocks above

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the 24 kilometre boundary appear to be MAFIC,

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that is they contained high proportions of

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silica. Rocks below the boundary seemed to be

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ultramafic, which means they're rich in iron

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and magma, but low in silica. The authors

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suggest this buried layer would have formed

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where molten rock pulled deep underground.

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And gradually separated into two distinct

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materials. This would leave behind a thick

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residue of dense crystals at the base of the

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crust, while lighter, uh, more evolved melts

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rose upwards. On Earth, similar

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processes occur beneath volcanic arcs and are

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linked to the formation of the continents.

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The study's lead author, Tobermori Mackie

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Champion from Oxford University says

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scientists have traditionally assumed that

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volcanism on Mars was relatively simple

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compared to that on the Earth. But this new

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discovery suggests Mars could sustain large

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long lived systems where molten rock evolved

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and reprocessed itself throughout the entire

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crust. The studies suggest that this layer,

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uh, may extend sideways for hundreds, even

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thousands of kilometres around the northern

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Martian hemisphere, indicating that the Red

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Planet once hosted enormous interconnected

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magmatic systems rather than simple isolated

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volcanoes. This phenomenon, known as

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transcrustal magmatism, was previously

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thought to be unique to Earth. These

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geological processes are closely linked to

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how planets develop atmospheres, oceans and

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potentially habitable environments. For

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instance, here on Earth, geological recycling

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helps regulate climate and supports long term

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cycling of water and other volatile elements.

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Scientists have often assumed um, plate

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tectonics were essential for creating these

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conditions. But the new findings suggest

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planets may not need Earth, uh, style

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tectonics to build complex crusts or sustain

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the conditions that support life.

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One of the big questions in science has

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always been whether planet Earth is unique.

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If Mars could develop this kind of complex

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crust without plate tectonics, then maybe the

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conditions needed for habitability could have

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emerged on more planets than just Earth, uh,

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including those previously dismissed based on

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their size or their apparent lack of tectonic

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activity. It's all just another part of the

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amazing treasure trove of Data coming from

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NASA's InSight mission on the Elysium

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Planitia region of the Red Planet.

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This report on INSIGHT from NASA tv

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Touchdown confirmed. INSIGHT is on. The

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surface of

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Bruce Bannert: INSIGHT has been fantastically successful.

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We've gotten more science than we had ever

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dreamed that we would get. During the course

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of the this mission. InSight's primary goal

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was to better understand how the

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terrestrial planets, the rocky planets, uh,

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formed and evolved.

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Mark Panning: First we landed an incredibly sensitive

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seismometer on the surface of Mars. And with

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that we were able to record over 1300

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marsquakes.

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Bruce Bannert: And these range all the way from tiny little

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templars that just barely go over the noise

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background to a handful of quakes that

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were larger than magnitude

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Kathy Ezamora Garcia: and feeling those vibrations. The scientists

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can actually take that information and use

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that to reconstruct all the material

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that those Mars quakes travelled through and

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thereby see the interior of the planet.

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Mark Panning: We looked at its core which is Big and

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not very dense. We looked at its mantle,

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which is not so hot, and we looked at its

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crust, which is not too

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thick and not too dense compared to some of

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our preferences.

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Bruce Bannert: By measuring the detailed

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structure of the inside of Mars, it gives us

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a snapshot of what the planet looked like

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four and a half billion years ago. The other

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thing that we've been able to do is make a

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very detailed record of the weather at

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Mars. We have a really good weather

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station which has allowed meteorologists to

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study the weather at the Insight landing site

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and relate that to the climate changes on

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Mars.

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Mark Panning: What we didn't do, unfortunately, was make

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the heat flow measurement we wanted to make.

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Our heat flow probe was supposed to get three

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to five metres down and we were

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unable to reach that depth.

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Kathy Ezamora Garcia: But we were able to get some of those

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measurements, such as the heat transfer

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amongst the soil.

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Mark Panning: Uh, it's left a permanent mark on me. I

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literally tattooed Insight onto my arm. I'll

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never let it go.

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Bruce Bannert: We've really rewritten sort of the

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chapter of the encyclopaedia on the interior

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of Mars. That was our last big

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hole in our understanding of the planet.

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Mark Panning: There's a lot of data that people are going

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to be looking at for decades to come.

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Kathy Ezamora Garcia: We accomplished so many of our science goals

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and we're going to have something to look

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back on and be proud.

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Stuart Gary: And, uh, in that report from NASA tv, we

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heard from INSIGHT Principal Investigator

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Bruce Bannert, Insight Project Scientist Mark

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Panning and INSIGHT Deputy Project Manager

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Kathy Ezamora Garcia.

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Uh, this is space, time.

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And time out of tech. Another brief look at

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00:16:13.880 --> 00:16:15.480
some of the other storeys making news in

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00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:18.360
Science this week with the Science Report. A

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00:16:18.360 --> 00:16:20.280
new study in Finland has shown that the

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mental health of your high school mates may

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00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:24.730
impact your own mental health. Uh, the

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findings reported in the Journal of the

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00:16:26.290 --> 00:16:28.530
American Medical association indicate that

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people who had high school peers with a

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genetic predisposition for mental health

387
00:16:32.010 --> 00:16:34.290
disorders or a diagnosis of a mental health

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disorder were also at an increased risk of

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00:16:36.570 --> 00:16:38.610
being diagnosed with a mental health disorder

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00:16:38.610 --> 00:16:41.570
themselves. The authors say having peers with

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diagnosed depression or anxiety may make

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teens more aware of symptoms, reduce stigma

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and encourage them to seek treatment.

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A large new study of over 120,000

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00:16:53.180 --> 00:16:55.420
kids has found no link between

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paracetamol use during pregnancy and the risk

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of autism or adhd. The, uh, study

398
00:17:01.020 --> 00:17:02.540
published in the Journal of the American

399
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Medical association, compared pairs of

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siblings to try and remove genetics and

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family environment from the equation. Because

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00:17:09.060 --> 00:17:11.660
both HDAD and autism have a strong

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00:17:11.660 --> 00:17:14.580
inherited component, the authors found no

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00:17:14.580 --> 00:17:17.340
link between paracetamol use in pregnancy and

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00:17:17.340 --> 00:17:19.780
increased risk of either autism or ADHD

406
00:17:19.780 --> 00:17:22.270
related Regardless of the timing pattern or

407
00:17:22.270 --> 00:17:24.150
dose of paracetamol use,

408
00:17:25.750 --> 00:17:28.550
a detailed study of a fossilised 113

409
00:17:28.550 --> 00:17:30.670
million year old pterosaur wing has found it

410
00:17:30.670 --> 00:17:32.870
was so well preserved in three dimensions

411
00:17:32.870 --> 00:17:35.390
that it even retained chemical traces hinting

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at its diet. The findings reported in the

413
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journal Eye Science, suggest the ancient

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flying reptile, which lived during the age of

415
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dinosaurs, had a diet rich in fish and squid.

416
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The authors were able to make that

417
00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:49.640
determination thanks to traces of steroids

418
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preserved in the remains, an unusual mix of

419
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special bacteria and a unique ancient marine

420
00:17:54.840 --> 00:17:56.800
environment, preserving not just the

421
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structure but even the subtle chemical traces

422
00:17:59.120 --> 00:18:02.000
of the animal's biology. The discovery

423
00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:03.600
highlights the growing potential for

424
00:18:03.600 --> 00:18:06.200
molecular palaeontology to unlock secrets

425
00:18:06.200 --> 00:18:07.280
from deep time.

426
00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:10.960
Scientists have found a new way to control

427
00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:13.000
quantum light sources, which is one of the

428
00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:14.880
key elements needed before quantum

429
00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:17.240
technologies can be used reliably in the real

430
00:18:17.240 --> 00:18:19.820
world world. The research reported in the

431
00:18:19.820 --> 00:18:21.980
journal Science Advances brings scientists a

432
00:18:21.980 --> 00:18:24.100
step closer to being used in practical

433
00:18:24.100 --> 00:18:27.020
quantum computing, secure communications and

434
00:18:27.020 --> 00:18:30.020
ultra high resolution sensing. The authors

435
00:18:30.020 --> 00:18:32.300
from the University of Technology Sydney say

436
00:18:32.300 --> 00:18:34.020
they were able to significantly shift the

437
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colour and wavelength of the light emitted.

438
00:18:36.460 --> 00:18:38.420
Unlike, um, many experiments where a device

439
00:18:38.420 --> 00:18:40.620
is made at one twist angle and left alone,

440
00:18:40.620 --> 00:18:42.580
the authors were able to pick up twist and

441
00:18:42.580 --> 00:18:45.340
restack hexagonal boron nitrate repeatedly

442
00:18:45.470 --> 00:18:47.670
and use that twist to modify the emitters,

443
00:18:47.670 --> 00:18:50.030
which you can't do with traditional materials

444
00:18:50.030 --> 00:18:52.550
like diamond or silicon carbide. These

445
00:18:52.550 --> 00:18:54.230
materials could eventually be used for

446
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applications such as healthcare cyber

447
00:18:56.110 --> 00:18:59.070
security and improved GPS and give more

448
00:18:59.070 --> 00:19:01.030
control over the building blocks needed to

449
00:19:01.030 --> 00:19:01.550
get there.

450
00:19:02.990 --> 00:19:04.950
Beta testers are uh, continuing to play

451
00:19:04.950 --> 00:19:07.430
around with Apple's new Siri AI ahead of this

452
00:19:07.430 --> 00:19:10.030
month's public beta launch. Among those

453
00:19:10.030 --> 00:19:11.990
testing the new Google Gemini based

454
00:19:11.990 --> 00:19:14.270
artificial intelligence is technology editor

455
00:19:14.270 --> 00:19:16.790
Alex Zaharov Vroith From Tech Advice Start

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00:19:16.790 --> 00:19:17.150
Life

457
00:19:17.450 --> 00:19:19.770
Jonathan Nally: at the worldwide Developer conference, Apple

458
00:19:19.770 --> 00:19:22.610
announced its long awaited upgrade to Siri.

459
00:19:22.610 --> 00:19:25.050
So it's now called Siri AI and although it's

460
00:19:25.050 --> 00:19:27.970
using the Gemini brains from Google,

461
00:19:27.970 --> 00:19:30.490
it's not just a uh, plugin. Apple's been

462
00:19:30.490 --> 00:19:32.810
training its own models with Google's models

463
00:19:32.810 --> 00:19:35.130
and they have a lot of where they can on

464
00:19:35.130 --> 00:19:37.930
device work and the private cloud compute

465
00:19:37.930 --> 00:19:39.970
work to make sure that your queries and as

466
00:19:39.970 --> 00:19:42.370
much of your activity remains as private as

467
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possible. And this has given Apple

468
00:19:45.370 --> 00:19:47.410
the AI the ability to have natural

469
00:19:47.410 --> 00:19:49.090
conversations, the same sort of things we see

470
00:19:49.090 --> 00:19:51.510
with Gemini and ChatGPT. You can now edit

471
00:19:51.510 --> 00:19:54.150
photos in a much more performant way, it can

472
00:19:54.310 --> 00:19:56.950
rewrite things more effectively, it has real

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00:19:56.950 --> 00:19:59.070
world knowledge. And look, at the moment it's

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00:19:59.070 --> 00:20:01.310
only available to beta testers and we just

475
00:20:01.310 --> 00:20:03.710
have the first and second developer betas.

476
00:20:03.710 --> 00:20:05.870
There will be a, uh, public beta sometime in

477
00:20:05.870 --> 00:20:07.710
July and the whole thing will be ready for

478
00:20:07.710 --> 00:20:10.310
the public in September when the new iPhones

479
00:20:10.310 --> 00:20:12.870
also launch. So unless you are a real tech

480
00:20:12.870 --> 00:20:14.910
head and you've got spare iPhones, I wouldn't

481
00:20:14.910 --> 00:20:17.830
be updating your primary device to these beta

482
00:20:17.830 --> 00:20:19.310
versions. Even when the public beta comes

483
00:20:19.310 --> 00:20:21.610
out, it's always a bit of a gamble as to

484
00:20:21.610 --> 00:20:24.570
whether you should because the um, beta

485
00:20:24.570 --> 00:20:26.610
version can have bugs. Now people have said

486
00:20:26.610 --> 00:20:28.370
these latest betas are very smooth, but you

487
00:20:28.370 --> 00:20:31.170
go to Reddit and you read the iOS beta forum

488
00:20:31.250 --> 00:20:34.250
and you know the litany of beta problems

489
00:20:34.250 --> 00:20:36.450
that people have every year when this happens

490
00:20:36.450 --> 00:20:38.650
are there for all to see. So not recommended

491
00:20:38.650 --> 00:20:40.830
for the general public. But, uh, all the, uh,

492
00:20:40.830 --> 00:20:42.770
app developers and you know, people with

493
00:20:42.770 --> 00:20:44.690
spare iPhones that love tinkering, they're

494
00:20:44.690 --> 00:20:45.370
well into it.

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00:20:45.370 --> 00:20:47.450
Stuart Gary: That's Alex Zaharov Vroit from TechAdvice

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00:20:47.450 --> 00:20:49.970
Start Life. And this is Space Time.

497
00:21:05.490 --> 00:21:08.330
And that's the show for now. Space Time

498
00:21:08.330 --> 00:21:10.450
is available every Monday, Wednesday and

499
00:21:10.450 --> 00:21:13.250
Friday through bytes.com, soundcloud,

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Space Time's also broadcast through the

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00:21:53.590 --> 00:21:56.070
with Stuart Gary. This has been another

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