May 5, 2026

Uranus' Ring Revelations, Africa's Rapid Rift, and Eris Rocket Mishap

Show Notes
Transcript

SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 54 *The two outer rings of the ice giant Uranus show starkly different origins Astronomers have discovered that two of the planet Uranus’s outer rings have very different compositions and so must have come from different origins. *Africa breaking apart faster than thought A new study claims Africa is much closer to being physically torn apart into two separate continents than previously thought – possibly in just a few million years from now. *Engine issues blamed for the failure of the maiden flight of the Eris rocket The investigation into the failure of the maiden flight of the Eris rocket last year has traced the problem to two of the launch vehicles hybrid rocket engines. *The Science Report Scientists have discovered a new way for some coronaviruses to infect humans. The Australian Army to get 268 more Bushmaster infantry mobility vehicles. Study warns most teens are sent sexting messages from strangers. Alex on Tech: Bad Samsung update.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-with-stuart-gary--2458531/support.

The Astronomy, Space, Technology & Science News Podcast.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.319
This is Spacetime Series twenty nine, episode fifty four, for

2
00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:07.080
broadcast on the sixth of May twenty twenty six. Coming

3
00:00:07.160 --> 00:00:10.279
up on space Time, new evidence shows that the two

4
00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:14.679
outer rings of the ice giant Uranus have starkly different origins.

5
00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:18.960
Scientists warned that the African continent is now breaking apart

6
00:00:19.160 --> 00:00:23.239
much faster than previously thought, and rocket engine issues have

7
00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:26.120
been blamed for the failure of the maiden flight of

8
00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:30.399
Gilmore Space's EIRIS rocket. All that and more Coming up

9
00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:32.119
on space Time.

10
00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:36.399
Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.

11
00:00:52.600 --> 00:00:55.679
Astronomers have discovered that two of the planet Uranus's outer

12
00:00:55.799 --> 00:00:59.320
rings at very different compositions and so must have come

13
00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:03.039
from completely the different origins. The findings, reported in the

14
00:01:03.119 --> 00:01:06.599
journal Geophysical Research Planets, show that the epsilon and the

15
00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:09.840
U rings have different colors and are reflecting light differently.

16
00:01:10.519 --> 00:01:14.239
The discovery is based on new spectroscopical observations by the

17
00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:17.079
Keck Observatory on Monarch Kayu and Hawaii, and by the

18
00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:22.239
Hubble and webspased telescopes. These two rings are peculiar because

19
00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:25.799
they're extremely faint and orbit within the planet's crowded system

20
00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:29.879
of fourteen inner moons. By decoding the light from these rings,

21
00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:34.239
astronomers can trace both their particle size distribution and their composition,

22
00:01:34.519 --> 00:01:37.439
and that in turn sheds light on their origins, offering

23
00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:40.359
new insights into how the Uranian system and other ice

24
00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:44.159
giant planets like it formed and evolved. The studies lead

25
00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:47.680
author M. Kidpata from the University of California, Berkeley, says

26
00:01:47.719 --> 00:01:51.760
the findings point to very different origin stories. Though they

27
00:01:51.799 --> 00:01:55.319
allbit the same planet, Uranus's epsilon and new rings are

28
00:01:55.359 --> 00:01:59.439
fundamentally different. Prior observations with Keke and Hubble showed to

29
00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:03.439
the eppsiloon ring appeared blue, a signature characteristic of extremely

30
00:02:03.480 --> 00:02:06.760
small particles, while the anew ring's reddish hue points to

31
00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:10.840
a more typical dusty origin. However, exactly why the rings

32
00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:14.080
were so different as remained a mystery. But then when

33
00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:17.240
the web Space Telescope came online and observed Uranus, the

34
00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:20.400
authors used all its data taken at different wavelengths, in

35
00:02:20.439 --> 00:02:23.199
combination with the Keck and Hubble data to construct a

36
00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:27.719
new complete spectrum from visible through to infrared. By analyzing

37
00:02:27.719 --> 00:02:30.680
how sunlight reflects off the rings, the authors identified a

38
00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:34.280
strong absorption feature near a wavelength of three microns three

39
00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:36.639
millions of a meter, and it was visible in the

40
00:02:36.680 --> 00:02:40.960
infrared for both rings. Beyond that shed feature, the differences

41
00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.360
became clear when simulating the detailed spectra. The epsilon ring

42
00:02:45.479 --> 00:02:48.639
closely matches the spectral signature for water ice or the

43
00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:51.919
new ring is clearly composed of rocky material mixed with

44
00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:55.560
approximately ten to fifteen percent carbon rich organic compounds, which

45
00:02:55.560 --> 00:02:58.919
are commonly found in the Outer Solar System. The epsilon

46
00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:01.639
ring appears to be made up of tiny ice greens

47
00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:04.800
knocked off the planet's small, twelve kilometer wide moon MAB

48
00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:09.360
as a result of micro meteorite impacts. Interestingly, the icy

49
00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:12.319
composition of the epsilon ring also confirms that the moon

50
00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:16.479
mab is also composed mostly of water ice. The patter says,

51
00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:19.199
in contrast, the a new ring material is sourced from

52
00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:23.599
micrometeorite impacts and collisions between unseen rocky bodies rich in

53
00:03:23.719 --> 00:03:27.159
organic materials, which must be in orbit between some of

54
00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:31.560
Uranus's known moons. One interesting question is why the parent

55
00:03:31.639 --> 00:03:36.759
bodies sourcing these rings so different in composition. Uranus's rings

56
00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:40.360
were first discovered back in nineteen seventy seven, when astronomers

57
00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:43.759
observed to star dim several times as the planet passed

58
00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:47.599
in front or occulted it, indicating a surrounding ring system.

59
00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:50.919
At that time, only Satin was known to have rings,

60
00:03:51.080 --> 00:03:53.719
making Urinus only the second known ring planet in our

61
00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:57.639
Solar system. Since then, we've discovered that all the giants

62
00:03:57.719 --> 00:04:02.919
have rings, Jupiter, Satin, Urineae, and Neptune, But unlike Satin's bright,

63
00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:07.000
easily visible rings, those on the other giants, including Urinus's rings,

64
00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:10.240
are faint and narrow, making them far more difficult to study.

65
00:04:10.840 --> 00:04:14.159
Over the decades, additional rings have been identified using NASA's

66
00:04:14.199 --> 00:04:18.199
voy T two spacecraft and Hubble observations, gradually revealing a

67
00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:22.199
far more complex system. The giant ten meter Keck telescopes,

68
00:04:22.279 --> 00:04:25.439
together with Hubble, a key role in science is understanding

69
00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:29.240
of the Uranian system. Hubble's observations between two thousand and

70
00:04:29.319 --> 00:04:31.800
three and twenty oh five to the discovery of the

71
00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:35.560
epsilon and a new rings, and Keck helped characterize them,

72
00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:38.519
including providing the first evidence that the epsilon ring is

73
00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:42.720
blue whereas the ANW ring appears red. These color differences

74
00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:46.240
hinted at fundamental variations in particle size and composition, but

75
00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:49.439
the data was limited at the time. The only ring

76
00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:52.439
in our Solar System that was blue was Satin's E ring,

77
00:04:53.079 --> 00:04:55.800
and this ring is produced by geyser activity on the

78
00:04:55.800 --> 00:04:59.079
Saturnian Iceman and Solidus, which orbits Satin in the E

79
00:04:59.279 --> 00:05:02.639
ring and its that spew out tiny icy grains from

80
00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:06.759
the Moon's south polt tiger stripes. These grains originate in

81
00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:12.199
a global subsurface ocean beneath Enceladus's frozen crust. But Uranus's

82
00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:16.680
MAB appears too small to be cryo volcanically active, and

83
00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:20.000
so the new results raise an interesting question. Why is

84
00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:22.439
MAB the source of the epsilon ring and why is

85
00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:26.680
it so different to Urinus's other rockia inner Moon's. Needless

86
00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:29.360
to say, ongoing studies of the system will play a

87
00:05:29.399 --> 00:05:33.079
crucial role in answering this mystery. This report on the

88
00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:35.360
Many Mysteries of Uranus from massatv.

89
00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:38.480
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and the

90
00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:42.680
third largest planet in the Solar System. It also may

91
00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:46.000
have the coldest interior, emitting far less heat and its

92
00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:50.600
counterparts Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. It is known as an

93
00:05:50.600 --> 00:05:54.959
ice giant because it contains more ices, including water, methane,

94
00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:59.519
and ammonia than Jupiter or Saturn, and while NASA's learned

95
00:05:59.519 --> 00:06:02.279
a great view about this planet over the last three decades,

96
00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:06.639
there's a lot more waiting to be discovered. Back in

97
00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:10.879
nineteen eighty six, NASA's Voyager II spacecraft flew by Uranus,

98
00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:14.040
making it the first and only spacecraft to visit this

99
00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:19.279
distant planet. Previous observations showed that Uranus has a unique

100
00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:22.199
tilt of its axis, so it rotates almost on its side,

101
00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:25.480
causing its poles to actually face the Sun. No other

102
00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:29.720
planet in our Solar System has this feature. In its

103
00:06:29.800 --> 00:06:33.600
quick sprint past Uranus, Voyager discovered ten new moons orbiting

104
00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:36.040
the planet that had not been seen before, and in

105
00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:40.279
the decades since, even more have been found. During its encounter,

106
00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:44.920
Voyager also saw new faint rings and explored the complex magnetosphere.

107
00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:54.040
Voyager only briefly viewed the planet's five major moons, Aerial, Miranda, Titanium, Oberon,

108
00:06:54.240 --> 00:06:57.800
and Umbrio. These moons have a wide variety of terrains

109
00:06:57.800 --> 00:07:04.120
and geological features to indicate possible subsurface oceans. Small Miranda

110
00:07:04.199 --> 00:07:07.920
has chaotic terrain with deep canyons and tall mountains, but

111
00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:11.600
is likely now frozen solid. An Aerial appears to have

112
00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:15.560
the youngest surface with few impact craters, while Titania has

113
00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:18.319
a very old surface. The lack of large craters and

114
00:07:18.399 --> 00:07:22.360
presence of a large canyon system may indicate ancient resurfacing.

115
00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:25.839
Oberon is also covered with craters and has valleys in

116
00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:30.240
large mountains. Umbril surface is the darkest of the Iranian

117
00:07:30.279 --> 00:07:34.279
moons and it sports a strange polar ring. The origin

118
00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:37.279
of this ring is still a mystery, but scientists believed

119
00:07:37.319 --> 00:07:39.600
that it may have been formed by an icy impact.

120
00:07:41.800 --> 00:07:45.800
Since Voyager, ground based telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope

121
00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:48.680
have played the leading role in our understanding of Uranus

122
00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:52.800
since nineteen ninety two. Hubble has watched the slowly changing

123
00:07:52.959 --> 00:07:57.120
Uranian seasons, including changes in its unusual pale blue colour

124
00:07:57.199 --> 00:08:01.439
and polar hazes. Telescopes have also revealed that Uranus has

125
00:08:01.480 --> 00:08:04.839
a complex weather system, with massive storms that can last

126
00:08:04.839 --> 00:08:08.000
for months or even years, with wind speeds over five

127
00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:13.800
hundred miles per hour. The ongoing search for ocean worlds

128
00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:16.959
and life beyond Earth makes Uranus an exciting target for

129
00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:21.079
the James Webb Space Telescope and for future up close exploration.

130
00:08:22.439 --> 00:08:25.199
New data will help scientists to understand the formation and

131
00:08:25.240 --> 00:08:28.199
evolution of Uranus, as well as its moons and rings,

132
00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:31.279
and provide clues as to whether liquid water may reside

133
00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:36.279
beneath their icy crusts. If the fascinating properties of this

134
00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:39.159
planet discovered in just the span of a few decades

135
00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:42.879
reveal that unlocking mysteries here can help scientists learn even

136
00:08:42.919 --> 00:08:45.480
more about our Solar System and our place in it.

137
00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:51.679
This space time still to come. New evidence show that

138
00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:54.679
Africa is breaking apart much faster than side is the

139
00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:58.039
previously thought. An engine failure has been blamed for the

140
00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:01.120
loss of the Ares rocket on its maiden flight from

141
00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:04.320
North Queensland. All that and more still to come on

142
00:09:04.559 --> 00:09:23.919
space time. A new study claims Africa is much closer

143
00:09:23.960 --> 00:09:27.120
to being physically torn apart into two separate continents than

144
00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:30.279
previously thought, possibly as soon as a few million years

145
00:09:30.279 --> 00:09:33.440
from now. The findings are reported in the journal Nature.

146
00:09:33.639 --> 00:09:36.720
Show part of the Great East African Rift valley system,

147
00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:40.039
known as the Tacana Rift, is far thinner than scientists

148
00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:43.960
had previously understood. The Tacana Rift is a five hundred

149
00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:48.080
kilometer wide, low lying region that spans Kenure in Ethiopia,

150
00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:50.279
which is splitting apart at a rate of about four

151
00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:54.240
point seven millimeters a year, causing the underlying planetary crust

152
00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:58.799
to thin significantly. The Great East African rift system runs

153
00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:03.080
from the Afarda pressure in northeastern Ethiopia down to Mozambique

154
00:10:03.080 --> 00:10:05.919
in the south, with the African Nubian tectonic plan on

155
00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:08.840
one side and the Arabian and Somali plates on the other.

156
00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:13.039
Along the rift's axis. The crust, the rocky outermost layer

157
00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:15.480
of the planet, which rests on the earth shifting mantle,

158
00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:20.039
is just thirteen kilometres thick. That's significantly thinner compared to

159
00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:23.159
the more than thirty five kilometa thick crust further away

160
00:10:23.159 --> 00:10:26.200
from the rift center, and is a telltale sign of

161
00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:30.120
a processed geologist called necking. Scitists believe that a Kanna

162
00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:33.519
rift began pulling apart about forty five million years ago,

163
00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:37.039
and it's coursing the Earth's crust to stretch horizontally, resulting

164
00:10:37.080 --> 00:10:40.320
in it buckling and fracturing, releasing magma from deep below.

165
00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:44.720
The author's estimate that the necking started after widespread volcanic

166
00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:48.360
eruptions around four million years ago, they say, maybe just

167
00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:52.840
several million years before the next phase, known as oceanization begins.

168
00:10:53.519 --> 00:10:56.200
At that stage, magma will rise through the fractures to

169
00:10:56.279 --> 00:10:59.000
form new seafloor, and water from the Indian Ocean to

170
00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:02.720
the north will flow in. The authors also uncovered science

171
00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:05.360
of an earlier rifting episode that didn't lead to a

172
00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:09.600
full continental split. However, instead it left the crust thinner

173
00:11:09.639 --> 00:11:12.480
and weaker, and that set the stage for the current

174
00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:17.000
face of activity. This is space time still to come.

175
00:11:17.240 --> 00:11:19.960
Engine issues blamed for the failure of the maiden flight

176
00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.799
of the area's rocket, and later in the science report,

177
00:11:23.480 --> 00:11:27.000
scientists have discovered a new way for some coronaviruses to

178
00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:31.240
infect humans. All that and more coming up on space time.

179
00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:49.639
The investigation into the failure of the maiden flight of

180
00:11:49.679 --> 00:11:52.639
the AIS rocket last year has traced the problem to

181
00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:56.679
two of the launch vehicle's hybrid rocket engines. The ARES

182
00:11:56.799 --> 00:11:59.399
one launched from the Bow and Spaceport on the Queensland

183
00:11:59.399 --> 00:12:02.919
Pacific back on July the thirtieth last year, marking what

184
00:12:03.080 --> 00:12:06.480
should have been Australia's first orbital rocket launch since flights

185
00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:09.200
from the Woma Rocket Range in out back South Australia

186
00:12:09.320 --> 00:12:13.480
ended in the early nineteen seventies. The investigation by Gilmore's

187
00:12:13.480 --> 00:12:17.159
Space included that the vehicle experienced an inflight anomaly with

188
00:12:17.240 --> 00:12:20.279
one of its full first stage rocket engines, which last

189
00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:24.360
thrust just nine seconds after liftoff. Then a second rocket

190
00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:28.399
engine exhibited a similar problem at around T plus seventeen seconds.

191
00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:32.879
The combination dramatically reduced vehicle performance, bringing the mission to

192
00:12:32.919 --> 00:12:37.320
an early end. Investigators say they've identified two independent failure

193
00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:42.080
modes originating from the oxidizer pump subsystem. Electrical and thermal

194
00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:45.840
faults were observed in the electric pump morders and associated inverters,

195
00:12:45.879 --> 00:12:50.279
indicating component source from an external supplier. Mission managers say

196
00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:53.960
the findings provide a clearer understanding of the underlying causes.

197
00:12:54.519 --> 00:12:57.799
They say that based on the findings of the investigation, design,

198
00:12:57.919 --> 00:13:02.480
qualification and process improvements are now being evaluated and implemented.

199
00:13:03.080 --> 00:13:05.919
As with all first test flights, the Area's one mission

200
00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:09.240
was designed to generate flight data and uncovered conditions which

201
00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:13.240
can be fully replicated in ground testing. Data from Flight

202
00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:16.759
Test one will provide updates to vehicle design and operations

203
00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:19.759
as Gilmore Space prepares for a second areas test flight

204
00:13:19.960 --> 00:13:23.519
sometime later this year. A final report based on the

205
00:13:23.559 --> 00:13:26.879
investigations findings has now been submitted to the Australian Space

206
00:13:26.919 --> 00:13:30.360
Agency in coordination with the Office of the Space Regulator.

207
00:13:31.039 --> 00:13:49.519
This is space time, and time now to take another

208
00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:51.399
brief look at some of the other stories making us

209
00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:54.879
in science this week. With a science report, scientists have

210
00:13:54.919 --> 00:13:58.480
discovered a new way for some coronaviruses to infect humans.

211
00:13:59.080 --> 00:14:01.639
The findings, report in the journal Nature, could be a

212
00:14:01.639 --> 00:14:05.279
potential new threat to human health. Of all the types

213
00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:09.559
of coronaviruses, scientists know the most about how beta coronaviruses

214
00:14:09.559 --> 00:14:13.120
into human cells. That's the same group that Chinese government

215
00:14:13.240 --> 00:14:18.159
scientists genetically engineered, resulting in the COVID nineteen pandemic. However,

216
00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:22.639
researchers know far less about alpha coronaviruses, although both rely

217
00:14:22.759 --> 00:14:26.519
on spike proteins to get into human cells. The authors

218
00:14:26.559 --> 00:14:29.679
were testing a variety of alpha coronaviruses and found that

219
00:14:29.720 --> 00:14:32.879
one virus spike protein from a virus isolated from hart

220
00:14:32.919 --> 00:14:35.759
nosed bats in Kenya, could enter human cells using a

221
00:14:35.799 --> 00:14:40.799
receptor in the human cells called CACAM six. Related to

222
00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:44.679
alpha coronaviruses from Africa, Europe and East Asia also used

223
00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:48.120
the same receptor. While blood samples from people living near

224
00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:51.240
the bat sampling site showed no evidence of widespread infection,

225
00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:54.639
the authors say these findings do identify a potential threat

226
00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:57.039
to human health, as well as identifying one of the

227
00:14:57.080 --> 00:15:03.000
details needed to enhance pandemic preparedness and prevention efforts. The

228
00:15:03.039 --> 00:15:06.120
Australian Armies acquiring an additional two hundred and sixty eight

229
00:15:06.200 --> 00:15:09.519
bush Master infantry mobility vehicles under a new one point

230
00:15:09.559 --> 00:15:13.440
two billion dollar contract. The armored troop transports, which are

231
00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:16.039
built in the Victorian town of Bendigo, will be equipped

232
00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:19.279
with directed energy weapons, in other words, laser cannons, and

233
00:15:19.320 --> 00:15:22.320
they'll have more powerful engines compared to earlier versions of

234
00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:25.360
these vehicles, which were highly successful in Australian Defense Force

235
00:15:25.399 --> 00:15:29.000
operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan thanks to their ability

236
00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:33.200
to survive land mines in AEDs. More than thirteen hundred

237
00:15:33.240 --> 00:15:36.639
bush Masters are already deployed with the Australian Defense Force.

238
00:15:37.159 --> 00:15:39.840
They're fitted with a range of weapons ranging from turret

239
00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:43.559
mounted machine guns to rocket missile launchers. The vehicles are

240
00:15:43.559 --> 00:15:46.480
also used by the defense forces of Britain, the Netherlands,

241
00:15:46.519 --> 00:15:51.600
New Zealand, the Ukraine, Fiji, Japan, Indonesia and Jamaica. The

242
00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:54.799
new deal will also see the Australian Army purchase additional

243
00:15:54.840 --> 00:15:59.320
Hawkeye light protection mobility vehicles. There are eleven hundred Hawkeyes

244
00:15:59.399 --> 00:16:03.720
already in ADF service. While at fifteen ton bush Masters

245
00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:06.759
designed to carry ten troops, the much smaller sevent on

246
00:16:06.879 --> 00:16:10.440
Hawkeye carries four and is also designed to withstand land

247
00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:15.039
mines and AEDs. A new study has found that most

248
00:16:15.080 --> 00:16:19.080
teenagers aged sixteen and eighteen have been sent texting messages,

249
00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:23.519
often from strangers. The findings, reported in the journal's Sexual Behavior,

250
00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:26.600
were part of a long term Norwegian study involving seven

251
00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:30.360
hundred and forty three teens. Subjects were first asked how

252
00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:33.440
often they had sent intimate images or videos of themselves

253
00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:37.039
in which they were undressed and exposed their breasts of genitalia.

254
00:16:37.679 --> 00:16:40.759
The authors found that around eight percent of fourteen year olds,

255
00:16:40.919 --> 00:16:43.720
thirty one percent of sixteen year olds, and thirty nine

256
00:16:43.720 --> 00:16:47.000
percent of eighteen year olds had engaged in such texting,

257
00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:51.480
usually to a romantic acquaintance. Most teens sexted on their

258
00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:56.000
preferred social media platforms, such as Snapchat or Instagram. But

259
00:16:56.039 --> 00:16:58.440
the study also found it was far more common for

260
00:16:58.519 --> 00:17:01.879
teens to receive sexting d messages, with thirty nine percent

261
00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:04.880
of fourteen year olds and seventy percent of sixteen and

262
00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:08.039
eighteen year olds having been sent such messages, and these

263
00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:11.720
mostly came from strangers. The authors say girls were far

264
00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:15.279
more likely to receive texting messages from strangers, well, boys

265
00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:19.599
were more likely to get them from friends. Samsung are

266
00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:22.720
urgently trying to fix a bad update that's affecting millions

267
00:17:22.759 --> 00:17:26.039
of Samsung cell phones, causing their batteries to drain quickly.

268
00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:29.440
With the reports, the batteries in some ferns are also overheating.

269
00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:32.920
With the details, we're joined by technology editor Alex Sahara

270
00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:34.960
Rout from Tech Advice Start Life.

271
00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:36.920
Yeah, this is what the Samsung goal is. The S

272
00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:39.200
twenty four and S twenty five, and there was an

273
00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:42.799
April update that had forty seven five patches and fixtures inside.

274
00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:45.440
You know it's important to install updates. Well, this particular

275
00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:48.880
one is causing the battery to drain thirty to sixty

276
00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:50.960
percent in just a few hours, and the phone is getting,

277
00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:54.079
according to people who've got it, noticeably warmer. Samsung has

278
00:17:54.119 --> 00:17:57.880
sadly had battery problems before with the Note seven series,

279
00:17:57.880 --> 00:18:01.319
which they had to recall because was exploding. Literally, that's

280
00:18:01.319 --> 00:18:03.480
not something we hear about too much with phones anymore.

281
00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:05.400
I mean, there's been no major scandal since. We do

282
00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:09.079
hear a lot about exploding batteries in the scooters, and

283
00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:11.519
you know it can be the case when an electric

284
00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:14.160
vehicle crashes. If the battery gets damaged, it can cause

285
00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:17.839
a runaway thermal reaction that emits chemicals like a jet.

286
00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:20.400
That's not happening here with this update. There will obviously

287
00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:21.960
be a fix at some point. But if you've got

288
00:18:21.960 --> 00:18:25.000
a Samsung Galaxy S twenty fours twenty five and you

289
00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:28.480
have installed the update and the battery is draining really fast,

290
00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:31.240
you're not imagining it. It's something that's really happening and

291
00:18:31.640 --> 00:18:33.240
the users just have to wait for the fix.

292
00:18:33.559 --> 00:18:36.839
That's a scary thing. The battery is overheating, there's always

293
00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:38.640
the potential of failure. Yeah.

294
00:18:38.680 --> 00:18:40.640
Heat is the enemy of batteries. That's why you shouldn't

295
00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:44.160
leave any devices that batteries in a hot card during summer,

296
00:18:44.200 --> 00:18:47.079
for example. So battery technology is one of those things

297
00:18:47.079 --> 00:18:50.799
where the processing power of chips and the amount of

298
00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:54.319
port the transistors that chip has, according to Moore's law,

299
00:18:54.440 --> 00:18:57.799
doubles every eighteen months. I was in at an Intel

300
00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:01.039
events in two thousand and seven in Beijing, a session

301
00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:03.759
there on batteries. I mean, this is nearly twenty years

302
00:19:03.799 --> 00:19:06.000
ago now that we're talking at the time about using

303
00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:09.640
silver in batteries. The silver could be recycled and reused

304
00:19:09.640 --> 00:19:12.079
once the battery had gone through enough charging cycles. And

305
00:19:12.119 --> 00:19:14.920
what struck me was that they said that battery technology

306
00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:19.160
doubles in its performance and capability every eighteen years. And

307
00:19:19.240 --> 00:19:21.960
of course today's batteries are far more advanced, but what

308
00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:25.519
we really need to see is a change in battery chemistry.

309
00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:29.200
Lysium titan eight is an alternative to lithium ion that

310
00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:32.680
can have tens of thousands of recharge cycles. It can

311
00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:35.720
operate in much colder and hotter temperatures, and if it's damaged,

312
00:19:35.799 --> 00:19:39.160
it does not explode. There's also technologies like sodium ion,

313
00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:41.240
which is being used in home batteries, and it too

314
00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:44.480
is effectively impervious to this sort of destruction. So we're

315
00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:48.079
in a time where lysium ion is more widely used

316
00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:51.960
than ever, but it can be extremely dangerous, and thankfully,

317
00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:54.319
over the next decade or so, we're going to start

318
00:19:54.359 --> 00:19:58.119
seeing lithium on being phased out and these other better

319
00:19:58.279 --> 00:20:00.279
battery technologies being intured.

320
00:20:00.279 --> 00:20:02.000
And they're already being used in the military.

321
00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:04.640
Well yeah, I mean, lithium partner had actually been used

322
00:20:04.680 --> 00:20:07.160
in the military four decades, but it was just not

323
00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:10.440
commercially viable to be used in phones at the time,

324
00:20:10.519 --> 00:20:13.160
and people were using it in the military because it

325
00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:16.519
wouldn't easily be an internal ballm if it was damaged.

326
00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:19.799
If military equipment was being powered by lythium tid nite batteries,

327
00:20:19.799 --> 00:20:22.640
it was much safer. But now that has changed, we're

328
00:20:22.680 --> 00:20:26.039
going to be seeing home appliances that use luthium tid

329
00:20:26.119 --> 00:20:26.759
nape batteries.

330
00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:30.960
That's Alex saharav Rout from Take Advice, Start Life, and

331
00:20:31.160 --> 00:20:49.480
this is space Time, and that's the show for now.

332
00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:53.400
Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through

333
00:20:53.440 --> 00:20:58.559
at fyites dot com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast download provider,

334
00:20:58.759 --> 00:21:02.359
and from space Time with Stewart Gary dot com. Space

335
00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:05.799
Time's also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science

336
00:21:05.880 --> 00:21:09.640
Own Radio and on both iHeartRadio and tune In Radio.

337
00:21:10.200 --> 00:21:12.559
And you can help to support our show by visiting

338
00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:16.200
the Spacetime Store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies,

339
00:21:16.680 --> 00:21:19.880
or by becoming a Spacetime Patron, which gives you access

340
00:21:19.920 --> 00:21:22.839
to triple episode commercial free versions of the show, as

341
00:21:22.839 --> 00:21:25.359
well as lots of burnus audio content which doesn't go

342
00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:29.480
to weir, access to our exclusive Facebook group, and other rewards.

343
00:21:30.119 --> 00:21:32.519
Just go to space Time with Stewart Gary dot com

344
00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:33.640
for full details.

345
00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:37.640
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary. This

346
00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:44.279
has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com.

Uranus' Ring Revelations, Africa's Rapid Rift, and Eris Rocket Mishap

Listen On

Featured Episodes

Recent Episodes

Support On

Uranus' Ring Revelations, Africa's Rapid Rift, and Eris Rocket Mishap

Astronomy Daily Newsletter

Thank you!

Listen On

Featured Episodes

Recent Episodes

Support On