Detecting Invisible Monsters Floating Unseen In Space

Stuart: This is Spacetime Series 25, episode 69 for broadcast on the 24 June 2022 coming up on Spacetime detecting invisible monsters floating unseen in space NASA Loses uses two hurricane monitoring satellites during launch and Iran breaches more nuclear agreements as it prepares for yet another missile test. All that and more coming up on Space Time.

Speaker B: Welcome to Space Time with Stewart Gary.

Stuart: Astronomers may have discovered what appears to be the first free floating black hole in the Milky Way Galaxy. This black hole would act like an invisible monster hiding in plain sight and then devouring anything that gets too close. The discovery, reported in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, are based on a technique called gravitational microlensing. Now, if astronomers believe the death of massive stars leaves behind black holes, there could be or more likely should be hundreds of millions of these stellar ghosts scattered throughout the Milky Way. Of course, the problem is isolated black holes are invisible. So you'll never know, uh, you're getting too close to one until it's too late. However, by observing the effect these invisible monsters have on the space around them astronomers may have, for the first time discover what appears to be a free floating black hole by seeing its immense gravity bend and distort the light coming from a far more distant background star uh, causing that star to suddenly brighten a process called gravitational microlensing first predicted by Albert Einstein. The studies authors Casey Lamb and Jessica Liu from the University of California, Berkeley estimate that the mass of this invisible, compact object is somewhere between 1.6 and 4.4 times that of the sun. Um, now, it's an interesting size range because astronomers believe the leftover rim, that of a dead star, must be at least 2.2 solar masses in order to collapse down to form a stellar mass black hole. In other words, at the lower end of the estimation, this object may not be a black hole after all, but a neutron star. Uh, while black holes are the densest, most exotic objects in the universe neutron stars aren't far behind. They're also very dense and highly compact. But their gravity is balanced by internal neutron pressure which prevents them from further collapse into a black hole. Whether a black hole or neutron star, the subject is the first stark stellar remnant or stellar ghost discovered wandering through the galaxy unpaired with another star. The microlensing technique will allow the astronomers to probe these compact objects uh, determining their mass and open a new window on something which simply can't be seen any other way. By finding more of them and ultimately determining how many of these compact objects populate the Milky Way Galaxy astronomers will better understand the evolution of stars in particular, how they die. The study's author's analysis included four other microlensing events, but they eventually determined that these were not caused by black holes though two were likely caused by either white dwarfs or neutron stars. Based on these observations, the authors think the likely population of black holes in our galaxy could be as high as 200 million and that agrees with what most theorists have predicted. Meanwhile, another team this one from the Space Telescope Sites Institute in Baltimore, Maryland have analyzed the same microlensing event and they've come up with a different conclusion. Their report in the Astrophysical Journal suggested the object is a far greater mass close to seven one solar masses and so indisputably is a black hole. The contradiction is interesting considering both teams are using the same data photometric measurements of the distant star's brightening as its light was distorted or lens by the supercompact object and astrometric measurements of the shifting of the distant star's location in the sky as a result of the gravitational distortion of the lensing object. The photometric data came from two microlensing surveys the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment using the one three minute telescope in Chile that's operated by the University of Warsaw and the Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics Experiment mounted on a one eight meter telescope in New Zealand and operated by Osaka University. Meanwhile, the astrometric data came from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. While surveys like these discover about 20 stars brightened by microlensing each year in the Milky Way Galaxy the addition of astrometric data is what's allowed the two teams to determine the mass of the compact object and therefore, its distance from Earth. The University of California, Berkeley team estimates that it lies between 286 260 lightyears away in the direction of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy and near the large bulge that surrounds the galaxy's central massive black hole. On the other hand, the Space Telescope Science Institute group estimates that it lies around 553 lay years away. Lewin Lam suspect that the different conclusions of the two teams are due to the fact that the astrometric and photometric data are giving different measurements of the relative motions of the foreground and background objects. To date, dollar mass black holes have only ever been seen in binary systems. There they're detected through their Xrays released by material being destroyed in the accretion disks surrounding the black hole's event horizon a sort of point of no return beyond which matter falls forever into the black hole's singularity. Now, alternatively, they could also be detected through their gravitational waves emitted as a stellar mass black hole merges with another black hole or the neutron star. When Lam and Lou analyzed their data for the five microlensing events they observed they were surprised that one cataloged as OB 11046 two had the characteristics of an extreme compact object. The lensing object seemed to be dark and thus not a star. Still uprightening lasted for a long time nearly 300 days and the distortion of the background star's position also lasted a long time. Lam says the length of the lensing event was the main tip off. You see, only 1% of detectable microlensing events are likely to be caused by black holes so looking at all the events would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. But they calculated that around 40% of microlensing events lasting more than 120 days are likely to be caused by black holes. And the gravitational influence of OB 1142 on the light of, um, the background star was amazingly long. In fact, it took about a year for the start of Brighton to its peak in 2011, and then another year to dim back down to normal. Additional astrometric data from Hubble last October shows that the apparent change in the position of the star as a result of the gravitational field of the lensing object is still observable ten years after the event. And that confirms that OB 1462 is likely to be a black hole or very large neutron star. Uh, the astrometric data also differs between the two teams with respect to the velocity of the super compact lensing object. Low and Lamb have found a relatively sedate speed of less than 30 km/second. But the Space Telescope Science Institute team have found an unusually large velocity of 45 km s, which it's interpreted as the result of an extra kick that the purported black hole got from the supernova generated. And that in itself is troubling. You see, Lou interprets her team's low velocity estimates as potentially supporting a new theory, theory which I happen to agree with as well, by the way, that black holes don't generate supernovae when they're born because all the energy material from the blast is immediately sucked into the forming black hole. So there's no light, and in this case, no kick. It's a fascinating observation. This is space time. Still to come, NASA loses two hurricane monitoring satellites during launch. And Iran breaches more nuclear agreements as it prepares for another missile test. All that and more still to come on Space Time.

Speaker B: Um.

Stuart: Two small NASA satellites designed to study hurricane development have been destroyed after their Astra rocket three three launch vehicle failed to reach orbit during its ascent from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida, following, uh, what appeared to be a successful launch. The first stage of the Astra rocket performed nominally before managing cutoff or Miko, and stage separation on 87654.

Speaker B: Chamber pressure is nominal.

Speaker C: Our next objective is Max Q, which is the period of maximum dynamic pressure on the first stage structure during flight, which is coming up. Our next milestone briefly coast. We will then signal to pop open the bearings and allow those to fall away from the vehicle. The first stage will then release upper stage for the final segment of our flight.

Speaker D: Two and a half minutes in the flight. Again coming up on main engine cough at just about T plus three minutes. Everything looking good so far.

Speaker B: Flight mythical options confirmed.

Stuart: Options received.

Speaker D: Payload fairing separation. And there's stage separation and ether ignition. Upper stage ignition.

Stuart: The upper stage then ignited as planned, but then suddenly shut down 70 seconds early.

Speaker D: Now, the upper stage will burn for just about five minutes on its way to low Earth orbit. Again, everything looking good so far. The vehicle is actually already in space. However, it has to get that horizontal velocity needed to stay in space via achieving low Earth orbit. So we're going to be watching that velocity marker performance in the flight. Everything is looking good so far. The path of the rocket has traced so far on its trajectory, pretty much do east, right down the center of that corridor. Five minutes on the flight. Everything looking good. We're going to expect this bird to continue until about eight and a half minutes after lift off.

Speaker C: Yes, the eight and a half minute mark. That's when we will receive the second engine cut off, and at that point will be payload deployment.

Speaker D: The teams that allow me to watch on as the flight progresses. Again, the flight going well so far. Six minutes into flight at altitude, you racket already over 510 km in altitude. Again, the target orbit for today is at 550 km in altitude velocity. Continuing to climb towards orbital velocity, of course, which is good. Seven minutes in the flight. Just a little over a minute left in the planned upper stage burn.

Speaker C: We had a nominal first stage flight. However, the upper stage engine did shut down early and we did not deliver our payloads to orbit.

Stuart: A Federal Aviation Administration investigation into the failure has now been launched. The Tropics One CubeSats were part of a constellation of what would eventually be six shoebox sized CubeSat satellites designed to study the formation and development of tropical cyclones from space, making observations more often than what's possible with conventional weather satellites. The six spacecraft were being launched in three missions, each carrying two CubeSats. Astra finding out space is hard, and the uh companies had a string of failures back in February during another NASA CubeSat mission, astra also suffered a second stage failure that was put down to the payload fairings, failing to separate and jettison as planned. The Astra rocket three. Three is a two stage, eleven six meter tour launch vehicle capable of carrying payloads of 150 kg into 500 km high sunsynchronous orbits. The first stage of the rocket is powered by five electric pump fed, liquid fueled Delfean engines, while the upper stage uses a single pressure fed, liquid fueled Aether engine. This is spacetime. Still to come, Iran breaches more nuclear agreements as it prepares for yet another missile test. And later in the Science report, a new study says the Black Death may have originated in what is now modern day Kyrgyzstan. All that and more still to come on Space um time. Iran has confirmed that it is gearing up for more missile tests, despite United Nations resolutions agreed to by the Islamic Republic preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons or their delivery systems. Iran says it's planning at least two test flights of its Zor Jahan rocket after satellite reconnaissance exposed uh, preparations at a secret desert launch pad. Uh, the 25 and a half meter tall three stage missile uses identical solid rocket engine for its first and second stages, together with a liquid fuel Sofia missile for its third stage. The Sofia is based on the North Korean Nodong horseong, uh, seven, basically an old Soviet Union era SS One Scud missile. The latest developments come as tensions continue to escalate following Iran's decision to turn off and remove 27 International Atomic Energy Agency surveillance cameras designed to monitor Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program. The UN. Nuclear watchdog says the Islamic Republic now has an enriched uranium stockpile some 18 times above its 2015 Vienna agreements. The International Atomic Energy Agency says Tehran's nuclear program is now more advanced than at any time in its past. Satellite images taken by Maxi Technologies show what are clearly uh, preparations at a launch pad at the Imam Khameni missile range in Iran Semnan province, just east of the capital. The initial images showed a missile on a transporter preparing to be lifted and put on the launch tower, while later images showed the same missile erected on the tower. The launch facility is the same pad used for the failed August 2019 launch attempt, which saw the missile explode on the ground. U. S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price says Washington is urging Iran to deescalate the situation. Price says Iran has consistently chosen to escalate tensions. It is Iran which has consistently chosen to take provocative actions. Iran has repeatedly undertaken illegal ballistic, uh, missile tests using the pretext that they're not missiles, but orbital launch vehicles that put satellites into orbit. It's exactly the same game plan which is used by Iran's nuclear technology. Part of North Korea, when Pyongyang began developing its own nuclear weapons delivery system, and once it perfected its missile delivery system, all of a sudden Pyongyang space program stopped. Like North Korea, Iran did send several shortlived mini satellites into orbit. Tehran's actions are the latest in a growing list of broken agreements by the Islamic Republic, which have so far included refusing access to International Atomic Energy Agency weapons inspectors and disclosing the location of key nuclear weapons components in its possession. The agency says Iran began using advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium in September 2019, far beyond its requirements for a domestic nuclear reactor program. Then, in February 2021, the UN. Nuclear Watchdog found Iran had started producing uranium metal. This is a technology only used in nuclear weapons. In April 2021, both the German and Swedish intelligence agencies began warning of growing efforts by Iran to obtain nuclear weapons technologies. Meanwhile, a report last month by the International Atomic Energy Agency warned to announce serious questions about traces of enriched uranium found at three sites named as Maravan, Varromin and Tagusabad, which Iran had failed to declare as having hosted nuclear activities. Meanwhile, the old rich nation insists its nuclear program is for peaceful power generation only. And time now to take another brief look at, uh, some of the other stories making news in Science this week with a science report. A new study has confirmed the presence of microplastic pollution in Antarctica's Ross Island region. The findings, reported in the journal Cryosphere, are based on an analysis of fresh snow from 19 sites in the region, finding an average concentration of 29 microplastic particles per liter of melted snow. These micro plastics most likely came from plastic products used at the local scientific research stations. However, the team's modeling also suggests their origin could have been up to six 0. DNA analysis of seven people who died in the 14th century suggests that the Black Death may have originated in diverse communities in modernday Kyrgyzstan and then spread through their trade activities with regions across Eurasia. Archeologists examined cemeteries in the Chew Valley, binding a disproportionately high number of burials between 1338 and 1339, with many tombstones saying that people died of pestilence. A report in the journal Nature says an analysis found traces of plagued bacterium in three of the DNA samples. Using genetic data combined with historical information and artifacts such as tombstone inscriptions and coin hordes, the authors suggest the area played an important role in the epidemic. The bubonic plague pandemic spread across Afroeurasia from Central Asia between 1346 uh and 1353, making its first definitive appearance in Crimea in 1347. It remains the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the death of between 75 and 200 million people. Bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium Eosinop pestis, which is spread by fleas, but it can also take a secondary form where it spread person to person through aerosols, causing septicemic or pneumonic plagues. A new study has found that as well as sending your cat's nuts, catnip also keeps insects away. The findings, reported in the journal Science suggests that other than getting kitty spaced out, your cat's love of catnip or its Asian counterparts silver vine could be because it's giving them the added benefit of an insect repellent. The studies authors found that the more pussy rubs or chews on catnip, the more they release a strong insect repellent from the plants. A little known self promoting filmmaker has offered a million bucks to anyone who can show that if the shroud of Chariza forgery, how was it done? First mentioned in 1054, the shroud, which is claimed by some to be the death shroud of Jesus Christ, was denounced in 1389 by the local Bishop of Trois as a fake. The shroud has been kept in the Royal Chapel in the Cathedral of Turin in northern Italy since 1578. In 1988, radiocarbon dating established that the shroud was from the Middle Ages. Between the years 1260 and 1390, all hypotheses put forward to try and challenge the radiocarbon dating evidence have been scientifically refuted, including the medieval repair hypothesis, the biocontamination idea and a carbon monoxide claim. Tim Mendel from australian skeptic says the science shows the final chapter in the story has already been written. But demanding you disprove a negative is a new angle to prove a negative. Yes.

Speaker B: It's basically impossible to show me there's no, um, elephant in the room. Prove it. This is sort of obviously something from a believer who wants to debunk the science. And the science which is debunked the Shroud. And as you say, the shroud is a real shroud. It's not a forgery, it's a real thing. But it probably is not dated from the time of Jesus, but 1000 years afterwards or so, perhaps even more. The image, it's a real image, but it's an image which looks to be painted on. And that's where people have tried to find suggestions of how it actually has occurred on there. And most people say it was a statue or something. Someone may put a clock over it, wipe it down like you'd be rubbing coins.

Stuart: DA Vinci explanation that he was experimenting with an, uh, early type of pinhole camera and he made this image. That's just one of the Gazillion theories.

Speaker B: There's, uh, all sorts of theories, but I think actually the shroud is supposed to date for a little bit earlier than the Leonardo. But anyway but that's one thing. No, the image might not. Yeah, I mean, it can be replicated and people have replicated it using a variety of techniques. Right. That's the technique that works, but that's the one that was used, et cetera. It's been hard to do that, but a lot of the evidence just say, just look at the clock, just look at the image, just measure the forearms. For a startup, part of the, um, figure on this route is amazingly long for a human being. But never mind about that. Well, yes, from outer space. Yes. But there's a lot of suggestions, uh, on how it should be done. And certainly the explanation for the shadow being real, normally put forward by most believers, is that there was a burst of radiation when Jesus was resurrected. He was taken up in the hip, et cetera. Right? And at that time, Zappo, there was this huge sort of radiation, whether it's heat or whatever, and it put his finger on the Shroud. And the shroud is just that, um, he laid down flat areas back and then flipped over and, uh, put over his front. Therefore, then you can see the front and the back. The burst of radiation theory is being pretty much debunked. Totally right. Because it's actually a bit weird, shocking. Anyway. So there's no evidence for it. And then others have suggested how the forgery should be done, or the Shroud. It is a forgery. Of course, if you're pretending it's Jesus, right? If you're not saying it's Jesus, it's just a picture on a bit of cloth, then that's not a forgery. But that's okay. How it's done? It has been explained, this million bucks to say, show how it was done definitively, probably never will be, because we weren't there when it was done. The British Museum, which was involved in the original tests, the radio carbon tested, the dating, uh, of the Shroud has said, we've been there, done that, really do have to go through it again. There were several labs involved in doing the radio carbon dioxide at the same time, three or four at least, who all came back with much the same result. It was 13th century, 14th century fake, right? And therefore we know when the Shroud was existing, how old it is, and therefore the image would be about the same time. So trying to prove the Shroud how it was done is going to be impossible, but we really don't need to, because we know the Shroud is not the real Shroud of Jesus.

Stuart: That's timendum from Australian Skeptics, uh, and that's the show for now. Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcast, itunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, uh, Spotify, Acast, Amazon Music Bytes.com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast download provider, and from Spacetime with Stuart Gary.com. Spacetime is also broadcasts through the National Science Foundation on Scienceoned Radio, and on both iHeartRadio and Tune In Radio. And you can help to support our show by visiting the Spacetime Store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies. Or by becoming a Spacetime patron, which gives you access to triple episode, commercial free versions of the show, as well as lots of bonus audio content which doesn't go to Air, access to our exclusive Facebook group, and other rewards. Just go to spacetimewithscuitgary.com for full details. And if you want more space time, please check out our blog, where you'll find all the stuff we couldn't fit in the show, as well as heaps of images, news stories, loads, videos, and things on the Web I find interesting or amusing. Just go to spacetimewithstewardgarry. Tumblr.com. That's all one word, and that's tumblr without the e. You can also follow us through at stuartgarry, on Twitter, at FaceTime with Stuart Gary, uh, on Instagram, through our Spacetime YouTube channel and on Facebook. Just go to Facebook.com spacetime with, um, Stewart Gary. And Space Time is brought to you in collaboration with Australian Sky and Telescope magazine, Your Window in the Universe. You've been listening to Space Time with Stuart Gary. This has been another quality podcast production from Bites.com.