May 12, 2026

Mercury's Sulphur Secrets, Jupiter's Slimmer Profile, and NASA's Launch Tower Setback

Show Notes
Transcript

SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 57 *How the strange magmas on Mercury shaped the planet differently to Earth A new study has found that the sulphur rich magmas on the planet Mercury reshaped the tortured world’s interior evolution and crustal formation very differently compared to the Earth. *Confirmation of a slimmer Jupiter Astronomers have revised sciences understanding of the size of the solar system’s largest planet – the gas giant Jupiter -- finding it’s some 8 kilometres narrower at the equator and 24 kilometres flatter at the poles. *Work on NASA’s Launch Tower Two formally halted NASA has issued a formal stop work order on construction of its second Mobile Launch Tower at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. *The Science Report Warnings the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu can spread to humans in several different ways. Why some astronauts are at higher risk of spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome. A new study claims celebrity worship says a lot about your self-worth. Alex on Tech: warnings about streaming scams. Our Guests This Week: Associate Professor Ben Montet from the University of New South Wales Bepi Columbo mission MIXS principle investigator Emma Bunce University of Leicester Bepi Columbo mission SIMBIO-SYS principle investigator Gabriele Cremonese Bepi Columbo mission MPO-MAG investigator Daniel Heyner Technical University of Braunschweig And our regular guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics 🌏 Get Our Exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ www.bitesz.com/nordvpn . The discounts and bonuses are incredible! And it’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! ✌ If you’d like to support the podcast and gain access to bonus content by becoming a SpaceTime crew member, you can do just that through premium versions on Patreon, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Details on the Support page on our website https://www.bitesz.com/show/spacetime/support/

The Astronomy, Space, Technology & Science News Podcast.

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Versus Spacetime Series twenty nine, episode fifty seven, for broadcast

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in the thirteenth of May twenty six. Coming up on

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space Time, how the strange magmas on Mercury shaped the

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planet differently to the Earth, confirmation of a slimmer Jupiter,

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and work on NASA's launch tower too at the Kennedy

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Space Center has been formally halted. All that and more

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coming up on space Time.

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Welcome to space Time with Stewart Gary.

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A new study has found that sulfur rich magmas on

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the planet Mercury have reshaped the tortured world's interior, revolution

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and crustal formation very differently compared to that on Earth.

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Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun. It's a small,

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rocky world about which scientists still know very little. Two

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missions to the planet have revealed that Mercury is covered

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by an iron pore and sulfur rich crust. Importantly, it's

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also reduced. That's a chemical state in which the substances

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have gained electrons. In fact, it's the most reduced planet

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in the Solar System. One of the studies authors, Regip

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de Scupta from the Rice Space Institute, says mercury surface

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looks completely different to that of the Earth, so scientists

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couldn't study its magmatic evolution using assumptions built on our

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understanding of the Earth. But a key to better understanding

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this distant world might come from a meteorite called indract,

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which crashed to the ground in Azerbaijan back in eighteen

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ninety one. Indract looks very similar to the chemical composition

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of mercury, and so the authors realize they could use

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it to study how mercury's unique chemical makeup shape the planet.

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That's because indract is as chemically reduced as the rocks

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on mercury. In fact, there's speculation that it may well

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have originated there. So during colleagues devolved a model melt

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composition of indract to cook their own mercury rocks in

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a high pressure, high temperature oven. The process is really

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fairly simple. Makes interacts chemical ingredients together in a small

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glass vial, change the settings in the facility to match

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the conditions on mercury, add the chemicals, and cook. This

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process of cooking a rock can show what happens chemically

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inside mercury by using the temperature, pressure, and chemical constraints

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derived both from spacecraft observations and from computer simulations. The

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authors were able to create what they believe are mercury

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like conditions in order to understand how magma's foreman evolve. There,

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they found that sulfur lowers the temperature at which these

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reduced melted rocks begin to crystallize. That means sulfur rich

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magmas on Mercury may stay molten at lower temperatures, and

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similar magmas here on Earth. Mercury's unique chemical composition, its

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low iron content, high sulfur content, and the chemically reduced

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state it's in is the reason for the significantly did

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increased crystallization temperature. Sulfur is I guess you'd call it

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a promiscuous element. It likes to be bound to other elements,

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usually iron. Iron rich planets like Mars and the Earth

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have most of their sulfur bound to iron, but Mercury's

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low iron content means its sulfur needed to find a

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different binding partner. Specifically, it could bind to major rock

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forming elements like magnesium and calcium. On Earth, these rock

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forming elements would typically bind to oxygen, resulting in a

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stable structure called a silicon network made up of silicon, oxygen,

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and rock forming elements. When sulfur replaces oxygen, however, that

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network becomes weaker and crystallizes at lower temperatures. The research

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suggests that sulfur occupies a similar structural position on Mercury

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as oxygen does on Earth, and that fundamentally changes how

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the planet's mattle solidified. There are still many questions about

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Mercury which remain to be answered, and the Joint European

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Space Agency Japan aerospacex Peration Agency BIPPI Columbo mission will

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hope to answer those when it arrives at Mercury later

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this year. This report from EAS TV.

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With a thin crust of rocks surrounding a dense iron core.

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There's more to Mercury than the first appears. Temperatures on

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the heavily cratered surface range from around four hundred and

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fifty degrees celsius down to minus one hundred and eighty,

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and there are signs of past volcanic activity. Mercury has

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been visited twice, first in nineteen seventy four by NASA's

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Mariner ten probe, and some forty years later by Messenger,

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which spent four years in orbit. Messenger mapped the surface

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and even discovered strong evidence for water ice in shaded craters.

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But the mission also raised new questions about this mysterious planet,

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questions that BEPI Columbo arbiters will be trying to answer.

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The big step forward for BEPY Columbo is the fact

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that we have two spacecraft, the European Space Agency spacecraft

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which is designed to look at the surface of the

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planet and to study the planet in detail, and the

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second spacecraft is designed to look at the environment. And

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so having two spacecraft will enable us to do a

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great deal of new science compared to the previous.

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Missions protected by the multi layered insulation, handstitched thermal blankets

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and a radiator to dissipate heat. Isa's Mercury Planetary Orbiter

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carries eleven science instruments. It will focus on studying the

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surface and internal composition of the planet.

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We will provide the three D images of the entire

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surface of Mercury and then there will be a global

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mapping with a spectrograph for the composition. It means that

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we will provide the composition within the specta range covered

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by our instrument of the entire surface of Madcur.

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A primary objective of the Japanese Mercury magnetospheric orbiters. Five

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instruments will be to study the planet's magnetic field. To

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combine data from the orbiters will enable scientists to build

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up a picture of the magnetic bubble or magnetosphere surrounding

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the planet and the influence of charged particles from the

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Sun known as the solar wind.

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With Epical on board. With a two satellite approach, we

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have one satellite, the MMO, sitting in the solar wind

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and the other one is inside the mimetosphere, so we

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can see what is coming towards the magnetosphere and what

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is driving changes within the magnetosphere.

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In that report from mes TV, we'd from Bibyklimber Mission

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scientists Emma Bunds from the University of Lister, Gabriel Criminees

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and Daniel Hayna from the Technical University of branchwag this

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space time still to came, confirmation of a slightly slimmer Jupiter,

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and Nessa formerly orders a Holt to all work and

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launch tower too at the Kennedy All that and more

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still the calm on space time well. As we reported earlier,

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a new study has now revised science as understanding of

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the size of the Solar System's largest planet, the gas

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giant Jupiter, finding it some eight kilometers narrow at the

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equator and twenty four kilometers flatter at the poles. The

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new confirmation, reported in the journal Nature Astronomy, measured Jupiter's

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dimensions with unprecedented precision. For more than fifty years, astronomers

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thought they knew the size and shape of Jupiter based

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on six measurements made by NASA's Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft.

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The studies lead author Eli Glente from Israel's Weismann Institutes

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is These original measurements were based on radio signals sent

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from the spacecraft back to Earth. Glenty says those missions

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provided a foundation, but now scientists can use data from

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as many as twenty six measurements made thanks to NASA's

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Juno spacecraft. Just by knowing the distance to Jupiter and

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watching how it rotates allows scientists to figure out roughly

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its shape and size, but making really accurate measurements calls

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for far more sophisticated methods. Launched in twenty eleven and

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orbiting Jupiter since twenty sixteen, Juno has been sending streams

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of raw data back to Earth. When NASA extended the

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mission in twenty twenty one, the spacecraft was able to

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keep studying Jupiter and its moons more closely, and juno's

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new expanded path placed the spacecraft in an orbit that

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allowed it to pass behind Jupiter from Earth's point of view,

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something its earlier orbit couldn't do, and JUNO passing behind

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Jupiter provides an opportunity for use science objectives. When the

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spacecraft passes behind the planet, its radio communications signal is

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blocked and bent by Jupiter's atmosphere. Juno's principal investigator, Scott

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Bolton from the Southwest Resil Institute in San Antonio, Texas,

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says this enables a more accurate measurement of Jupiter size.

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The JUNO team at the Weisman Institute seized on the

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new opportunity and tracked how the radio signals bent as

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they passed through Jupiter's atmosphere. This allowed the authors to

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translate this information into detailed maps of Jupiter's temperature and density,

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producing the clearest picture yet of the giant planet size

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and shape. The new findings show the King of Planets

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is far more flattened that the poles compared to previous estimates,

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and Galati says those few kilometers matter because shifting the

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radius by just a little let's models of Jupiter's interior

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fit both the gravity data and atmospheric measurements far better.

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This implication was then tested using models for the interior

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density structure of Jupiter to show that the refined shape

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helps bridge the gap between the models and the measurements.

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The study also has broader implications for understanding the structure

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of gas planets in general. That's because Jupiter serves as

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a standard reference for the study of gas giants both

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within our Solar System and beyond, and the earlier measurements

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didn't account for Jupiter's powerful winds. By including these extreme

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winds in their calculations, the authors cleared up some long

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standing discrepancies in earlier measurements. It's difficult to see what's

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happening beneath those swirling clouds of Jupiter, but the radio

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data is giving scientists to window into the depth of

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Jupiter' zonal winds and powerful hurricanes, and the work on

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the winds ties in with a recent study of Jupiter's

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vast polar cyclones. That research used generous measurements of these

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cyclones motions to predict how deep into the interior they extend. Overall,

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and improved understanding of Jupiter's winds enabled scientists to better

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understand the relationship between the planet's atmosphere and its deep interior.

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This space time still to come. NASAs issued a formal

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stop work order on construction of its second mobile launched tower,

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and later in the science report warnings the deadly H

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five and one strand of bird flu has found new

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ways to infect humans. All that and more still to

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come on space time, NASA is issued a formal stop

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work order on construction of its second mobile launch tower

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at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The move comes

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in the wake of the agency's decision to continue with

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the existing Space Launch System SOLS rocket in only its

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current Block one form rather than proceed with a larger

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Block one B in Block two versions. The second mobile

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launch tower would have been needed to handle the taller

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SLS Block one B in Block two, which would have

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used the bigger four engine Exploration upper stage rather than

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the single engine interim cryogenic propulsion stage which is used

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on the SOLS Block one. The interim cryogenic propulsion stage,

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which was only ever intended for use in the Atomus one, two,

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and three missions, was based on the second stage of

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the Narra tired Delta four rocket, and so production has

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been shut down. The original plans called for Atoms four

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onwards to use the more powerful Specially develop Exploration upper stage,

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but with that program canceled allegedly to standardize the SLS design,

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NASA will now instead switched to a two engine cent

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or five upper stage based on that currently used on

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the United launch a lines Vulcan rocket, as well as

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being two meters taller and fitted with repositioned umbilicals for

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the expiration upper stage. The second mobile launch tower is

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also structurally stiffer and more than three meters wider in

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order to handle the bigger loads which were planned for

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the now defunct Block one B and Block two versions.

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NASA says it will now start stripping parts off the

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second launch tower for use of spares on Tower one.

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The agency says the second mobile launch tower was too heavy,

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it was years late, and it was pushing close to

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a billion US dollars in costs. This is base time

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and Time Out of Tech. Another brief look at some

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of the other stories making news in Science this week

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with a science report. A new study has shown how

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the deadly H five N one strand of bird flu

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can spread between dairy cattle and humans using several different paths,

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not just through exposure to contaminated milk. The findings, reported

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in the journal Plus Biology, based on air, farm water,

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and milk samples from fourteen dairy farms, which all tested

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positive for H five one across two regions of California.

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The authors detected the virus in the air from the

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ex hooured breadth of infected cows in milking sheds, as

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well as in wastewater from those sheds, and they also

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found many cows that tested positive for H five N

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one despite not showing any symptoms. The findings highlight the

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sheer matter of the virus now circulating on infected farms

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and the range of ways in which H five H

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one infection can spread between cows and people. The authors

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say providing cleaner air in milking sheds and ensuring any

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milk from infected animals is properly disposed of could cut

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the risk of this deadly bird flues spreading. Scientists have

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used data from the lifetime surveillance of Astronaut Health Program,

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together with measurements of vision and eye health both before

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and after spaceflight to determine which astronauts are most likely

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to develop spaceflight associated neuro ocular syndrome. The condition includes

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changes in both long and short sightedness, the loss of

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the eyes around shape at the back, the development of

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wrinkles or lines at the very back of the eye,

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and optic disc edema, where the spot at the back

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of the eye where the optic nerve connects squells up.

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A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association

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found body mass index was the strongest predictor of whether

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an astronaut will experience this problem, and those carrying more

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weight were at greater risk. Now this may be because

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weightlessness changes the amount of pressure in the eye, and

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these effects are therefore more pronounced among people who are heavier.

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A new study claims celebrity worship says a lot about

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a person's self worth. In today celebrity and influencer driven culture,

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psychologists are increasingly interested in why people form strong emotional

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connections with certain famous figures. The new research, reported in

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the journal Personality and Individual Differences, suggest that celebrity admiration

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is closely linked to how clearly people understand themselves. The study,

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led by scientists from Flinders University, suggests that people who

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feel less certain about who they are may be looking

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at celebrities to try and help find their own identity.

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There are new warnings out today about streaming scams, which

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are sending malicious programs hidden inside infected data. With the details,

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we're joined by technology editor Alex harrav Royt from tech

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advice Start Life.

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The latest scam is to do with live streaming. Now,

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streaming has obviously become a common way for any of

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us to stay connected, whether it's graduation ceremonies or community events,

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I mean funerals. There's also virtual events and milestones. But

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regardless of the occasion, scammers are finding ways to take advantage.

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No surprise, right, and they're exploiting these live stream links

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and they're using these moments to catch people off guard

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and carry out cyber crimes. So I've seen people trying

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to watch boxing matches on pirate streams and I'm telling them, all,

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you don't do this, but they're doing it, and all

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of a sudden, they are Internet security software. In this case,

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I remember it being Norton was popping up every few

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seconds that was blocking some sort of a scam, you know,

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some sort of vulnerability. So you've got to watch out

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these days for fake event links to private or exclusive

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streams for concerts or sports or other events. You've got

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aid fakes, which is using celebrities or CEOs or people

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that you'd think like Elon must for example, and they're

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inevitably sprooking some sort of cryptocurrency or surveys opportunities to

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make money. And then of course you've got public funeral

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notices or social media posts to create fake live stream

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pages that might even charge you to watch. And of

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course these people are just ripping you off. And also

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bots are inflating the viewership of various accounts so incredibly.

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You know, people are falling to this, and it's there's

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a sting in the tail.

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I'm surprised that that's happening in this day and age.

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We're so careful about what we download, what we see

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because we're assuming almost everything's AI these days, it's still happening.

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Well, nobody's really thinking that a live screen for some

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event is going to be fraudulent. Obviously, if you're trying

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to catch a boxing match or some sort of a

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thoughts event, and may're not paying for it through the

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traditional streaming service. If you don't expect there's going to

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be some sort of scamming, you're living in some sort

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of fantasy world. But you know, let's imagine some important

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celebrity is killed or just dive dantural courses, whatever it is,

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and suddenly on your social media feed just say, ah,

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here's a stream to watch the funeral or watch the

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recording of the live screen. And people don't immediately think

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that there's something bad about that, so they click. But

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in that stream could be software that's targeting vulnerabilities for

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an out of date Prome browser or out of date

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operating system version, and it's coming through a browser. So

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this is just one of the ways that people are

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catching regular surfers unaware, and they're trying to figure back

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on that and then infect you in some way and

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get you involved at your community to be doing cryptocurrency

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mining in the background or whatever the scams are. But

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it's just one of the latest things. Actually, this actually

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came from gen which is the new name for the

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parent company of Norton. They've got a fourth quarter threat report,

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so This is the biggest finding from their threat report.

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The dangerous thing is what if there's some sort of

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a vulnerability that the internet security software can't block.

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Well, they're always zero day vulnerabilities, oren't they.

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00:18:39.519 --> 00:18:41.799
Well that's exactly right. And look the site that I

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00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:46.240
write for besides by own, is called it wire dot com.

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And there was a c panel vulnerability, a zero DA

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c panel vulnerability, and people were being advised to urgently

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update their sea panel software. And there were hosting companies

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00:18:56.119 --> 00:18:58.400
that were blocking access to sea panel. Now, the hosting

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00:18:58.440 --> 00:19:01.599
company we used didn't do that. Hire it website was white,

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00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:03.519
and up in the top left tank corner was a

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00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:07.680
notification for a cryptocurrency payment of zero point one bitcoin,

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00:19:07.759 --> 00:19:10.200
which is about seven and a half thousand US dollars

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00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:12.640
or about ten thousand Australian dollars. They wanted the receipt

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00:19:12.759 --> 00:19:15.000
for some sort of proof of payment to be tweeted

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00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:17.440
to a particular addresses they'd given, and then they had

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00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:19.519
sort of will help you get your site back. But

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00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:22.039
these were just opportunistic scameras. I'm sure if we'd paid

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00:19:22.079 --> 00:19:24.279
the money, which we didn't, nothing would have happened. Because

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00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:27.000
it's not the traditional ransomware where everything was encrypted, the

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00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:29.480
whole thing was white. Now we had backups, and in fact,

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00:19:29.480 --> 00:19:33.319
we decided to use an AI driven system to create

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00:19:33.359 --> 00:19:37.119
a whole new site, not running on Joomler or WordPress

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00:19:37.160 --> 00:19:39.519
or anything like that. And now us up is fresh

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00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:42.440
and modern, looks fantastic, and we were able to rebuild

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00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:44.680
it within just two or three days and download all

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00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:46.640
of the data. Had we tried to restore the site

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00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:48.400
from backups, I mean it was an older version of

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00:19:48.440 --> 00:19:51.319
jumas that needed updating anyway, and you know, you don't

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00:19:51.319 --> 00:19:53.440
know whether things are corrupted, but we were able to

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00:19:53.480 --> 00:19:57.000
get all of the data from the phpre database, all

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00:19:57.039 --> 00:19:59.759
the articles, and we've slowly been uploading it. So if

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00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:01.920
you got have a look at ity dot com, if

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00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:04.079
you've been there before, you'll notice all it looks modern

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00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:06.880
and new. And we were attacked by as zero day

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00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:10.240
vulnerability for which there was no known fix. You had

340
00:20:10.279 --> 00:20:13.200
to well, the patch came out after the zero day

341
00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:16.240
of vulnerability had spread, so you know, instead of writing

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00:20:16.279 --> 00:20:18.680
about the news, our site became the news. But we

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00:20:18.680 --> 00:20:21.599
were able to recover it very quickly, far faster than

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00:20:21.640 --> 00:20:24.240
the posting company was able to allow us to download

345
00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:26.279
all the data because there were tens of thousands of

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00:20:26.279 --> 00:20:28.519
customers all trying to download their backups at the same time.

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00:20:28.599 --> 00:20:30.839
It was downloading very slowly. But we've got good people

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00:20:30.839 --> 00:20:32.920
on our team and we were able to actually rise

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00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:34.920
like a feeding from the ashes. But a lot of people,

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00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:37.519
if they are not prepared with backups and haven't got

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00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:40.200
the latest versions of operating systems on their computers, they

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00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:42.160
may lose everything. And you know, if it can happen

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00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:43.559
to das, it can happen to anybody.

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That's Alexaharavrouyt from Take Advice, Start Life, and this is

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00:20:47.960 --> 00:21:07.039
space Time, and that's the show for now. Spacetime is

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00:21:07.079 --> 00:21:12.559
available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through at bytes dot com, SoundCloud, YouTube,

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00:21:12.680 --> 00:21:16.119
your favorite podcast download provider, and from space Time with

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00:21:16.240 --> 00:21:20.079
Stuart Gary dot com. Space Time's also broadcast through the

359
00:21:20.119 --> 00:21:23.640
National Science Foundation, on Science Own Radio and on both

360
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iHeartRadio and tune In Radio. And you can help to

361
00:21:27.160 --> 00:21:30.160
support our show by visiting the Spacetime Store for a

362
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range of promotional merchandising goodies, or by becoming a Spacetime Patron,

363
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:38.160
which gives you access to triple episode commercial free versions

364
00:21:38.200 --> 00:21:40.519
of the show as well as lots of bonnus audio

365
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content which doesn't go to air, access to our exclusive

366
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Facebook group, and other rewards. Just go to space Time

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00:21:47.279 --> 00:21:49.839
with Stuart Gary dot com for full details.

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00:21:50.640 --> 00:21:53.160
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary.

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00:21:53.799 --> 00:21:57.279
This has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot

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com

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