Lunar Volcanic Activity Lasted Longer Than Thought

SpaceTime Series 24 Episode 121 AI Transcript

[00:00:00] Stuart: This is space-time series 24, episode 1 21 for broadcast and the 25th of October, 2021 coming up on space time. A new study shows Luna volcanic activity lasted longer than previously thought. More evidence of water reaching the surface of the Jovian Iseman Europa and the international space station destabilized again, because of a faulty Russian engine. All that and more coming up on space time.

[00:00:31] VO Guy: Welcome to SpaceTime with Stuart Gary.

[00:00:51] Stuart: a new study shows the moon may have been volcanic active far longer than previously. A series of reports in the journal, science and nature shares lunar irregular collected by China's Chani five sample return mission are providing evidence of volcanic activity 800 to 900 million years longer than earlier.

Estimates. The findings are based on analyses of basalt rock samples, which are formed through volcanic activity. Finding that the samples were dated to around 2 billion years ago. One of the study's authors professor Alexander Amgen from Curtin university says these are the youngest volcanic rocks identified on the moon.

So far the findings extend sciences, understanding of the period of lunar volcanic activity, which was previously thought to have ended around 2.8 billion years ago. The new studies also analyze the water content and heat producing elements within the rock. Finding that the moon surface became dehydrated due to prolonged volcanic activity and cooled off more slowly than previously thought.

The new studies also suggested the moon remained volcanically active for up to 900 million years longer than previous estimates. Cheney fives, mission returned the first lunar samples since the Apollo and lunar missions, which ended way back in the 1970s. And these were the first samples from a previously unvisited Marais.

Bassel the researchers aged 47 Bassett fragments with radiometric dating, finding that they were form roughly 2.03 billion years ago. The Apollo and lunar radio age samples were used to calibrate another aging method called crater, counting chronology and approach used to estimate the age of a planet surface based on the number of nesting of crater impact.

The moon's create a countering chronology suggest volcanic activity as recently as a billion years ago, that creates a gap of 2 billion years between that suggestion and the age of the samples. And while the new samples have helped fill some of the gap of magmatic knowledge, they may also have introduced a new mystery.

You see the previous besotted samples were all found to be made from a magnet rich in a unique opposition of potassium, rare earth elements and phosphorus electively known as creep, which can produce heat and was like a key player in the moon's magmatic evolution problem is the new samples don't have the same composition levels.

See the Creek would have provided the heat. This is stain longevity for yang mag. However these new results dispute the hypothesis, meaning scientists will now need to do a rethink of the mechanisms underlying the longevity of younger and a magnetic activity. Name. Chin says the new findings website as they identify new age dating calibration points.

The task. We'll now turn to finding a mechanism that will help explain how this relatively recent heating of the moon may have supported the formation of basaltic magmas with temperatures exceeding a thousand degrees Celsius and ultimately help researchers improve age dating for the entire solar system.

[00:03:53] Guest: Similar to what we see on there. Pretty much the only difference they come from the room I've been looking at for the last 10 years or so. Not the samples and then told samples by Soviet missions back in seventies. Now we started looking at Chinese

[00:04:11] Stuart: samples as well. How do you get the Chinese samples? Do you, do you go over to China?

Do they provide them to you or do you have to do the research there and then bring the data back for analysis?

[00:04:21] Guest: Normally unwritten rule that we have run the mission usually has the priority to analyze. So six months or so kind of between all agencies, China at the moment doing the same thing, Chinese scientists got priority for analysis, but we've got this whole good relationships with one of the groups when China started a couple of decades ago and they'd go to et cetera.

So everything goes on a license in China, we connect to the labs over there and then. We look at the samples and try to analyze them over into

[00:04:55] Stuart: the salting samples.

[00:04:57] Guest: Yes, we, we started because the main aim of the mission was to bring young bustles. They expected to see based on remote sensing. So we started with baffled.

Uh, components in the soil. Of course there is a mix of everything in the area, but

[00:05:21] Stuart: it's

[00:05:21] Guest: significantly to the other lending sites. So it's completely new, right. Significantly. Several kinds of kilometers to try to land on the so yes, of course, but, uh, yeah, ideally you want request for reasonably flat area to avoid any potential problems with winding because of really slow. Uh, very small, the number of crisis.

It's a bit easier.

[00:05:55] Stuart: And that's one of the interesting points is that this is the youngest rock so far dated from the moon. And that tells you something about when the event, which caused these rocks to. Yeah. Yeah, of

[00:06:07] Guest: course everybody wants it. Usually use what is called cratering chronology, where you can count number of craters and then tell the H any surface, if you go in and look at Mars, North Korea.

Small wounds, rotating around some of these planets. If the surface has smaller number of craters, if y'all can get them the one next to it, that there's a larger number of crisis. And then, so this type of relative chronologies developed many, many years ago, but lunar samples give us a chance to put it on the hips with scale.

We've got this possible dealing with, from the moon belt, by all these different patients, and you can determine agents have them in the laboratory, and then you can relate number of craters to specific. And then some sort of relationships between actual number of craters and you can use it today.

Surfaces you don't have samples, any other planet. And then, so this young battle isn't as important simply because we never had any rocks. The relationship was always. And then now we've got, we can extend their ability to go to different planetary bodies. The surfaces, I guess

[00:07:22] Stuart: the idea is on the moon, you haven't got a Rojan and wind and water and things like that to change the surface, to modify the surface.

So you've got to sort of guide by crate and numbers instead. Yeah. The

[00:07:35] Guest: different techniques. Uh, yes, obviously. Uh, because there is no atmosphere, there is a clock. So for small micrometeorites and things like that, they changed the surface a bit, but not, not to the extent like surface is changing constantly, uh, more or less, uh, uh, yes, we, we can apply all these techniques, craters, degrade, even on the surface of the moon a little bit.

And then. Thinking about blind type of approach, you see great. Or it's very sharp. And then, then it's probably much younger. And then anytime you lose the sharpness again, you can play with ideas. I've never done that. Kind of much more sophisticated and probably better way of

[00:08:23] Stuart: dealing with it. The same impacts, which make the moon regular so fine.

And powdery is also affecting larger structures as well, like craters.

[00:08:32] Guest: Yeah, of course. It's a quite complex system. So a lot of conclusions, well, they not necessarily precise because their understanding of the processes kind of. We always work in progress. It's simple, a status approach we use for a lot of samples, even a sample to realize some uranium decaying into inside.

So you can measure uranium in the rock or any sample, uh, in blood in the same. And then, then looking at the proportion, this proportion is always linked to the time that sample well, yeah, uh, uh, application interest samples in, uh, lunar samples. Uh, there are other minerals present, but not in bottles that contain other similar minerals that.

Concentrate uranium a little bit like phosphates, for example, and on some other zirconium reach phases is another coordinate mineral that is used, uh, today. Uh, so, so, uh,

[00:09:49] Stuart: And how do you know that the, uh, the minerals you're looking at are part of the lunar surface and up out of the impact?

[00:09:55] Guest: Uh, yeah. In most of the cases, this minerals, uh, do not necessarily find, uh, in miniaturized it can potentially impact, uh, winter surface. Uh, so they, they are not really present in impacters.

Uh, and then. Uh, cause it's not just chronology. You're looking at the samples themselves. You can assess what this particular minerals represent and you can work out that they are parts of crystallization of self, rather than coming from. Uh, to me most important part is that we managed to bring this decentralization group collective differ to some extent, diplomacy by science, so to speak.

And then this is, to me, it's most important parts of this whole thing. We are working together on a project that is interesting.

[00:10:59] Stuart: Science trumps the politics.

That's professor Alexander named shin from Curtin university. This is time. And just a quick reminder, if you want more space time, don't forget to check out our blog where you'll find all this stuff, which we couldn't fit in the show, as well as loads of images, new stories, videos, and things on the web. I find interesting or amusing.

Just go to space time with Stewart, gary.tumbler.com. That's all one word and in lower case and that's tumbler without the, still the camera. More evidence of water on the surface of the Jovian Iseman Europa. And another 40 Russian engine burn destabilizes the international space station, all that and more store to come of.

Space-time

Your observations by an SS Hubble space telescope have found fresh evidence of persistent water vapor on the Jovian Iceman Europa, but the findings reported in the journal. Geophysical research letters. Mysteriously only show the water vapor being detected in one hemisphere, Europa harbors, a vast global subsurface liquid water ocean deep beneath its icy crown.

This huge ocean, which contains more water than all the assertions combined might offer conditions, capable of supporting life. Previous observations of water vapor on Europa. I've always been associated with plumes erupting through the eyes, sort of analogist to guises on earth, but shooting up hundreds of kilometers in space.

These produced transient blobs of water vapor in your rope as excess fear, which is only about a billionth of surface pressure, earth atmosphere. The new Hubble observation spanning 1999 through to 2015 shows, similar amounts of water vapor spanning over a huge area of Europa's trailing hemisphere. As it orbits around Jupiter.

The course of this asymmetry between the leading and trailing hemispheres, isn't fully understood that discovery was gleaned from a new analysis of hobble, archival images and spectra. You see a technique that recently it resulted in the discovery of water vapor in the atmosphere of Jupiter's giant moon Ghana.

The discovery of water vapor on Ganny made on the trailing side of Europa advances sciences, understanding of the atmospheres of these icy moons. However, the detection of a stable water abundance on Europa is far more surprising. The water wasn't Ganni made it's because Europa's surface, temperatures are lower than Ganni means.

C Europa's white icy surface reflects a lot more sunlight than gani made surface does. And that keeps surface temperatures. Some 15 degrees Celsius cooler than a Ganni made. It means a daytime high on Europa of minus 162 degrees Celsius. Yeah. Even at the lower temperatures, the new observation suggests water ice is still sublimating in a space that is transforming directly from solid to vapor without a liquid phase off Europa's surface, just like an Ganni made this detection paves the way for in-depth studies of Europa by feature probes, including NASA's Europa clipper mission and the European space agencies, Jupiter icy moons Explorer.

And of course understanding the formation and evolution of Jupiter and its moons also helps the astronomers gained fresh insights into Jovian like planets around other stars. This space-time space-time is designed to provide accurate educational science, news, and information accessible to everyone.

You can help support our work by becoming a space-time patron, which gives you access to triple episode commercial free versions of the show, as well as lots of Burness audio content, which doesn't go away access to our exclusive Facebook group and other awards. Just go to space time with steward gallery.com.

Click on the support space-time button, still the. Russia is again, destabilize the international space station with another faulty engine burn. And later in the science report, a new study shows more than half of people who get COVID 19 end up with long COVID or that a more store to come on. Space time.

Russia have a gain destabilize the international space station to a faulty engine burn. The latest incident occurred during tests of the engines of the so's MSA 10 spacecraft, which would let it be used to return a Russian film crew to earth after shooting 40 minutes of footage for a feature film, a boat, the Albany per.

NASA says the soil is thrust. The firing unexpectedly continued after the end of the test window resulting in a loss of attitude control for the space station. It's understood the crew couldn't shut the engines down and they only stop firing when they ran out of fuel. This engine burned tilt of the space station, some 57 degrees out of its normal orientation.

And all that's critical because unless the space station is pointed in the right direction, it's solar raised. Don't receive the charge. They need to keep the space station systems running flight controllers took half an hour to regain attitude control of the space station and return it to a stable configuration.

Your buddy, our post has experienced a number of problems in the Russian segment in recent times with numerous air leaks. And of course, that major orbital destabilization back in July, when the thrusters about the newly dark Naoko science module suddenly fired up by themselves, spitting the space station, some 540 degrees out of alignment.

That incident was later trace to a computer problem. The Russian federal space agency, Ross cosmos says it's investigating the slightest incident. This is space time. And don't forget if you're looking for a last minute Christmas gift or a stocking filler, you can help support our show by visiting the space-time store for a huge range of promotional merchandising goodies.

There are jumpers t-shirts caps and other clothing, apparel caps, coffee, mug stickers, and coasters, NIC chains. Carings bags of water bottles, and heaps more. Just go to space time with Stuart gallery.com and click on the shop

[00:17:36] VO Guy: button.

[00:17:53] Stuart: and Tom medal, take a brief look at some of the stories making, using science this week with a science. You researchers confirm that people who are overweight or obese are more likely to have harsh and longer-lasting symptoms of COVID-19 even if they only get a mild infection, the findings report in the journal influenza and other respiratory viruses, uh, based on global studies, comparing people who tested positive for COVID-19 to their body mass index.

Researchers found there were significantly more likely to have a cough shortness of breath and a loss of taste or smell once their BMI was above 35. Meanwhile, a summary of people diagnosed with COVID-19 has confirmed that more than half of all people who catch the disease end up with long COVID and have still not returned to normal baseline levels.

Six months after diagnosis. The world health organization says more than 8 million people have been killed by the COVID-19 coronavirus with almost 5 million confirmed fatalities. And at quarter of a billion people infected since the deadly disease was first spread out a whanau China, the United States is warning that Iran is making alarming progress in developing its nuclear capacity.

What's intense concerns. Follow a strongly worded report by the international atomic energy agency. Wanting that Iran has seriously undermine nuclear non-proliferation efforts by the United nations nuclear watchdog by suspending some nuclear inspections. It says tech transactions are preventing the agency's verification and monitoring activities.

It comes at a crucial time with the Islamic Republic, continuing to stockpile, enriched uranium, well above the levels that agreed to in the 2015 Vienna records. However, the international atomic energy agency says it's verified that the Islamic Republic stockpile of enriched uranium now stands at over 3,241 kilograms or than 16 times the limit laid down in the 2015 United nations.

The origination nation insist its nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful power generation purposes. Only a study of ancient human excrement has found that people who lived during the iron age enjoyed a diet, which included blue cheese and beer. The findings reported in the journal. Current biology, uh, based on a feces sample showing primitive poop was found to have two cans of fungi used to make blue cheese and bear.

The findings represent the first molecular evidence for blue cheese in B consumption, dating back some 2,700 years, a range of feces samples from the INH through to the 18th century, uh, showing a plant heavy diet for people, meaning they had gotten microbiomes more akin to modern non westernized people.

Nominations of open for this year's Australian skeptics, Spence Spooner war. The award is presented annually to the perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or scientific. Say Mendham from Australian skeptic says Ross cool Todd and the 70 V network together with Peter Ryde a former professor of physics and head of the Marine Geoff physical laboratory James Cook university, or among this year's nominees.

[00:21:17] Tim Mendham: Uh, sometimes nine, just that right to site and feel sometimes just stupid. Right. Despite them. And it has been going every year and I think it was 1988. It wasn't issued, but there's been some famous people who have received it, including the IBSA several times, including SBS, at least one. Certainly one of probably been nominated more often than that.

The only person who one or twice is our favorite non-celebrity. Uh, perennial candidate in the last five or so years, but he's actually won a twice and it was a Hamsterdam choice by the time. So nominations are open the bend spoons awarded at our annual convention, which this year is November, 2021. And it is an online convention.

So anyone can attend at a very reasonable price. You don't have to come to Sydney. It there's a joint venture actually between Australia and New Zealand, by the way. So both groups, Australian skeptics, and New Zealand skeptics, supplying speakers, and it will be an online event. Uh, announced at the annual

[00:22:09] Stuart: convention.

Well, the

[00:22:12] Tim Mendham: nominees, Russ scorecard and the seven network for putting

in your area too. It's about astronomy, UFO. Isn't that sort of stuff. Ross puts out. They used the little, little documentaries every few years and was basically just reactions frogs in one new one. They occasionally no more accurate name or sort of definitive proof than the previous one for. There's another fellow named Peter Reed who was actually making statements that the coral reef, the great barrier reef is actually doing pretty good.

Thank you very much. He had a run in with his university. He'd been not necessarily over those coral reef statements. They're more about the way he was interacting with other statements about Carl and Colonel increasing and improving over the years and never having suffered from climate change.

[00:22:59] Stuart: He's been saying, oh, well, if you look at the Southern coral reef, it's bigger than it ever was growing well, but what does that say about the risks then? If he's any narrowing it down to the Southern one-third and he's

[00:23:09] Tim Mendham: narrowing it down to regions and also narrowing it down to

[00:23:12] Stuart: years

[00:23:14] Tim Mendham: better than the previous year.

So it's nowhere near its previous record highs. It hasn't been for the last 35 years anyway, so he's been nominated and, but the really. Candida, I think would have to be Kelly and Claude, Tom generally sort of raising all sorts of theater amongst people about vaccinations, which has some serious implications.

So we look forward to the announcements, but we'll also look forward to more nominees. People can go to our website with these skeptics.com dot a year ago. Nomination story and actually nominates the least exciting person to win this award, which is one of the least sought after skeptical grilled. So any world actually for that amount of tickets are available at, uh, at $40 for the entire weekend.

If you want to go to the skeptic on, which is the name of the convention, it's K E P T I C O M. Skeptic on. Okay, can you take us there? Or you can get them through the normal skeptics website.

[00:24:05] Stuart: That's to Mendham from Australian skeptics.

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