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The Spacetime Series twenty nine, episode sixty, for broadcast on the twentieth of May twenty twenty six. Coming up on Space Time, the Solar System's passage through an interstellar cloud. The ramsays missioned a study that once considered doomsday, asteroid Apophus, and is volcanic ash reshaping the Martian surface. All that and more coming up on space Time. Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary. A new study of cosmic dust found in Antarctic eye samples has revealed our Solar System's journey through the local interstellar cloud. Now, this local interstellar cloud is a nearby region of highly diluted gas and dust between the stars in our local neighborhood of the Milky Way Galaxy. As it travels on a two hundred and fifty or so million year orbit around the galactic center, our Solar System, including the Earth, continuously accumulates material from the environments that's passing through. And this includes a rare radioactive isotope of iron called iron sixty, which is produced in stellar explosions. Now, scientists have identified iron sixty in I samples from Antarctica dating back tens of thousands of years. A report in the journal Physical Review Letters claims the steady but time varying influx of this isotobe has allowed the authors to trace our Solar System's passage through the local interstellar cloud. Iron sixty is formed in the interiors of massive stars, and it's ejected into space when these stars go supernova. Geological archives show our Solar system was hit twice by iron sixty from supernova millions of years ago. In more recent times, however, there have been no nearby stellar explosions and thus no direct supply of iron sixty. However, the discovery a few years ago of iron sixty in Antarctic surface snow less than twenty years old has raised questions about its origin. One of the studies authors, Dominic Coal from the Helmholm Centrum Dresden Rosendorf, says it's likely that the local interstellar cloud contains iron sixty, and as the Solar System moves through this cloud, Earth is collecting material from it. Now. To prove this hypothesis, colon colleagues analyzed additional samples, including deep sea sentiments up to thirty thousand years old, where the iron sixty was also found, but competing hypotheses remained, forcing the authors to go back and collect new Antarctic eye samples dating back even further between forty and eighty thousand years ago, and then new analysis supports the idea that our local interstellar cloud is the likely source for this iron sixty coll says, it means the clouds surrounding our solar system are linked to a supernover explosion, and for the first time, these ice cores samples are giving astronomers an opportunity to investigate the origin of the clouds. Our solar system entered the local interstellar clouds several tens of thousands of years ago, and we'll leave it in a few thousand years time. Right now, we're near its edge now. For this study, the authors analyzed an ice core from the period around the suspected entry to the cloud. By comparing the iron sixty content with earlier deep sea and snow samples, it showed that between forty thousand and eighty thousand years ago, less iron sixty reached Earth than today any more recent times, and this suggests that we must have previously been in a medium with lower iron sixty content, or alternatively, at the cloud itself is exhibiting strong density variations the fact that the iron sixty signals changing over just a few tens of thousands of years is remarkably fast on cosmic timescales. With this insight, the authors were able to rule out alternative explanations for the source of the iron sixty in flux, such as the gradual fading of a million year old stellar explosions. Now for their measurements, the authors transported around three hundred kilograms of ice from AWI in Bremenhaven to Dresden, where it was then chemically processed, a lengthy procedure that autumnately left only a few hundred milligrams of dust. Step by step, they isolated the iron sixty, taking great care to avoid losses at every stage. For their final measurement, the authors turned to the Heavy Iron Accelerator facility at the Australian National University in Canberra that's currently the only laboratory in the world capable of detecting such tiny quantities of iron sixty. Using electric and magnetic filters, they separated unwanted atoms according to their mass, until only a handful of iron sixty atoms remained out of an initial ten trillion atoms. It confirms that as our Solar System and the Earth passed through this cloud. The levels of iron sixty rose dramatically, a sure sign that the cloud is the result of a supernova explosion. This is space time still to come the Ramsey's mission to study what once was considered a doomsday asteroid and why is volcanic ash reshaping the Martian surface. All that and more still to come on space time. The European Space Agency has confirmed that their Ramsey's mission to study the asteroid Apophus will launch in about two years from now April twenty twenty eight, in order to meet the half kilometa white space rock PRY to its close flyby over the Earth, which will happen on Friday the thirteenth of April twenty twenty nine. Now ASA and the Japanese era Space Exploration Agency JACKSON have signed a new memorandum of cooperation to deepen their collaboration in tanatry defense, including working together on the Ramsey's mission. The Rapid Apofice Mission for Space Safe or RAMSES, will rendezvous with an explorer POFUS, studying the asteroid and observing how it's close encarta with Earth will affect both it and its orbit through space. Ramses will launch aboard a Jackson H three rocket from the Tanakashima space at at South Tokyo. Jackson will also supply one of the spacecraft's thermal imaging instruments and its solar arrays. Ramseys will ride chair with Jackson's Destiny plus mission, which is targeting the rock comet Phaton, the source of the gibbet its meteor shower. Unlike most meteor showers, which are caused by the Earth passing through the debris trails left by comets, Paton is thought to be an asteroid which just happens to be on a comet like orbit around the Sun. That suggests Paton may have well started out its life as a comet, the last most of its icy materials over the eons, and now looks more like an asteroid. But before heading towards its encounter with Phaton, Destiny plus will fly by and imagere poffas Apoffus is named after the Egyptian god of Kaos. When first discovered back in June two thousand and four, initial calculations based on very limited orbital data indicated the asteroid would pass just thirty one thousand, six hundred kilometers above the Earth's surface as close to the many satellites it would swoop over Europe, the Middle East, Southern Central Asia, and Japan. Now it won't hit the Earth in twenty twenty nine, but it will come awfully close, and based on those initial observations and depending on the gravitational perturbations caused by Earth during that close encounter, a Poffice could pass through a sort of gravitational keyhole, which, according to the earlier observations, would put it on an impacting course with Earth exactly seven years later on Easter Sunday, April thirteenth, twenty thirty six. In fact, it had the highest probability of an impact with the Earth of any asteroid ever calculated, hence its title is the Doomsday asteroid, and it quickly triggered global efforts by astronomers to more accurately determine the asteroid's exact trajectory. The impact on Earth of a half kilometa white asteroid likeop Office could trigger earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and firestorms from burning debris or resulting in widespread devastation and destruction over hundreds of square kilometers, but thankfully. As more and more observations came in over the following months, the likelihood of a collision with Earth became smaller and smaller, till eventually it reached a negligible level. But it was a wake up call to the very real dangers out there. And the thing you need to remember at this point is not whether there'll be another asteroid impact with Earth, but when. So. NASA and ASA and other leading space agencies are all developing a range of planetary defense contingency plans for a future impact event, and like NASA's DART and isa's heir emission to redirect an asteroid, Ramsey's is part of that response. RAMSES will accompany APO off US throughout its flyby observing how Earth's gravity alters its shape at its motion. By comparing before and after measurements, SIDUS will gain you insight in asteroid structure, composition, and behavior. It'll be important for any future defection efforts. This report from East. TV Friday, the thirteenth of April twenty twenty nine will be Humankind's lucky day. A poffice will safely pass Earth at a distance of less than thirty two thousand kilometers. An asteroid this large passes this close to Earth once every roughly seven thousand years, and the European Space Agency will have a front row seed meet Ramseys. ESA's Space Safety program is sending Ramseys to rendezvous with the Poffice and study the asteroid up close as it is pulled and stretched by Earth's gravity. Ramseys will deploy two smaller spacecraft to help it record any changes to the asteroid's orbit, rotation, surface, and interior. With Ramseys, ISA is capitalizing on a uni nique opportunity to learn how asteroids react to strong forces and how we could push one off of a collision course if we are not so lucky. Next time, when the world looks up to see a Poffice passing overhead, Ramses will be flying alongside, providing close up images and learning how to keep Earth safe. This is space time still to calm. Why is volcanic ash reshaping the mash and surface? And Later in the science report, a new study reports that ocean temperatures are now edging towards record highs, suggesting a super powerful El Nino is coming. All that and more still to come on space time, Astronomers of witness a noticeable change on the surface of the red planet Mars with a dark blanket of volcanic ash deposits slowly creeping across the Martian surface over the past fifty years. Now, planetary scale changes like those now being observed on Mars usually occur over millions of years, not in just half a century. The new observations are based on fresh images of the Utopia Planetia region by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft and its high resolution stereo camera, which shows the red planet's bright ochre colored dust and broken up rocks and sands butting up against dark deposits of volcanic ash, and when compared to the same region imaged in nineteen seventy six by NASA's Viking orbitters, the spread of the volcanic ash is quite apparent. The thing is Mars is supposed to be almost geologically dead. Certainly, it shouldn't be any volcanic activity happening there. That's not to say Mars doesn't have a history of volcanic activity. There are several extinct volcanoes easily identified from space on Mars, including, of course, Olympus Monds, the largest volcano in the Solar System, which is some six hundred kilometres wide and twenty six kilometers high. That's more than twice as big as Earth's largest volcano, Monar Chaou in Hawaii, but like all the other volcanoes on Mars Olympus, Monds is extinct. The dark color of the Martian volcanic ash is caused by material rich in Mafrick minerals, such as olivin and pyroxene, which form at high temperatures. So if the spirit of the ash hasn't been caused by volcanic eruptions, what's behind it. Astronomers think the likely cause is that the ash is either being picked up and moved about by Martian winds, or the ochi dust that previously cover the dark ash is being blown away by those same winds, or possibly it's a combination of birth. Uterpia Planeta is an ancient basin with the diameter of around three thy three hundred kilometers, making it almost twice the size of earth Sahara Desert. It's thought to have once hosted a giant ocean billions of years ago. When mass are warm or wet a world. Today, the red planets are freeze dried desert full of rocks and sand, but it still holds lots of water beneath its surface in the form of ice, and there are many features across the landscape that still show signs that water once flowed there. These include vaguely rounded pits in where the edges, known as scallop depressions. They indicate that the region's periglacial meaning on the fringes of glaciers undergoing cycles of freezing and thawing, and typically featuring lots of buried ice see Scalp depressions form as ice below the surface melts or escapes into the air, causing the overlying ground to become unstable and collapse. These features don't occur in isolation, but rather merge to form larger areas that can be observed from orbit. Utopia. Plnetia also features a series of shadowy ditches around twenty kilometers long and two kilometers wide, which stretch out across the surface. These ditches are grabon are formed when the surface cracks, either because layers are wet, sediments from weak points, or because of tectonic activity. It's a fascinating new look. One of the most studied regions of the Russian landscape. This is space time and time out of Take another brief look at some of the other stories making using science this week with a science report. A new study claims that adding more soil legumes to your diet may help lower your risk of high blood pressure. A report in the British Medical Journal analyzed twelve previous studies, finding that compared with those with the lower intake of legumes, those with a high intake were sixteen percent less likely to develop high blood pressure. The authors also found that those with the high intake of soy foods were nineteen percent less likely to develop hypertension compared to those with a lower intake. Study found that the optimal daily intake was around one hundred and seventy grams of legumes and sixty to ninety grams of soi. Now, while these studies don't establish cause and effect, the authors say soiin legumes are high in potassium, magnesium, and dietary fiber, all of which are known for their blood pressure lowering properties. The European Union's Climate Monitor says that ocean temperatures are now edging towards record highs as conditions shift to a potentially super powerful El Nina weather pattern. The European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting says sea surface temperatures are now just shy of the all time highs of twenty twenty four, and this month looks at to break that record. The Copernicus Climate Chain Service says daily sea surface temperatures in April gradually inched towards near record highs, reflecting the transition from La Nina to El Nino, and last month the Ward Meteorological Organization warned that El Nina conditions were expected to develop in coming weeks. El Nino Isish for little boy. The term was coined by Peruvian fishermen who noticed the drop off in their catch of anchovies as sea surface temperatures rose. The Nina weather patterns featured warmer than aviadge sea surface temperatures in the eastern Central Pacific ocean drop conditions across Australia, and wetter than usual weather in the Americas. The last Del Nino helped make twenty twenty three twenty four the two hottest years on record, and some weather forecasters are predicting that this coming event could be the biggest in three decades, potentially raising the chance of twenty twenty seven becoming the hottest jear ever recorded. Eighty years after the Trinity nuclear test in New Mexico, scientists have identified a new crystal formed in the blast. A report in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences PNAS claims this newly identified form of trinita is another example of what happens when minerals are headed to extreme temperatures and placed under extreme pressures. These super intense conditions, followed by a rapid cool process, fused together particles from the Trinity site's test tower, its copper infrastructure, and large volumes of the surrounding New Mexico desert sands, producing a range of glassy material collectively referred to as trinotide. Most trinotite appears green in color, but there is another rarer form called red trinotite, which is enriched with materials that came from the vaporized tower, coaxial cables, and recording instruments near the blast site. The newly identify crystal compound is made up of silicon, calcium, copper, and a small amount of iron. The authors identified a small amount of clathrate, a crystal compound consisting of a lattice that traps and contains guest molecules within cage like structures. The clathrate was discovered within a copper rich metal droplet within the trinotite. Google has just unveiled its new Google Book, which the company claims will reshape the future of laptops. With the details, we're joined by technology editor Alex Saharovroyd from Tech Advice, Start life it. This is a new updated version of the Chrome Book from Google that is a whole new line. I mean, chromebooks won't go anywhere the or continue being updated until twenty thirty four. But this is a premium device that is merging Android the phones operating system, and Chromos with more premium hardware and a bunch of Google Intelligence features which hams to be like Apple Intelligence. They could have called it Android Intelligence, which would have kept the AI acronym, but of course, Google being Google is Google Intelligence. And these laptops are thin and light, they're premium, they're from the affected PC manufacturers, and they have this little glowbar on the back, so instead of a logo of a company, it's this little glowing rainbow style logo. But it does various things like you can get your pointer and shake it over anything that's on the screen, and you can ask it to compare or create something. With Gemini, it's sort of like an updated version of the right masse VENU, but it will contexturally offer things for you to do. You can select several pictures together. An example on the page here is combined these images to make a band poster from a file. You can create custom widgets. So let's say we've got a trip coming up to a different country, and this custom widget will then tell you how many days the trip's going to be, what time you've got to depart, confirmation under the flight number where you're looking into sort of able to create a widget that you might not have from any of your apps, but you can make your own, and let's getting the information from your Gmail from the Google calendar. I mean, it's also able to run all your Android apps on your screen, and it's just copying to some degree some of the features that Apple users have enjoyed with their iPhones and their maps for many years. But clearly to have it in a computer, I mean, if you're already in the Android and Google ecosystem, well you want those features too, you know, you can quickly access all the files on your phone through desktop Google version of the file manager as if they were living on your laptop as opposed to just being on your phone and you then needing to have some sort of special app. It's Google's answer to what is happening with co Pilot on Windows pieces and everything that Apple will presumably be announcing in early June at the Worldwide develop A Conference with mac Os twenty seven and all of the intelligence features that they will have massively upgraded, partly thanks to their purchase of the Google White label back end for the Gemini that will form part of what's happening in Syria. And you know, Apple's going to talk about you being able to use any of the various assistants out there all of the same time, I guess if you want Whilst Google is going to obviously focus on what it's doing with Gemini, which it's calling this Google Intelligence, but they're doing more than just laptops. For example, if you have Android Auto in your car, then you'll get an upgraded experience. You'll be able to see more immersive maps with overparsses and underpasses, and be able to talk to Gemini within the Google Maps experience, just by voice to tell it what you need to do, where you need to go, where you need to achieve, and it will do that. And that's something that you can actually activate in car play if you use in Google Maps on iPhones and Apple devices. So the way that we're using technology is going to improve. I mean, the right mass menu was developed a decade ago, ground books of it around for fifteen years. But the way that we're going to interact with our phones computers, it's not going to change. With a keyboard of mouse that will still be there for quite some time. But the ability for us to actually talk to these devices like they are a person, get us to do things based on what you are thinking about, as opposed to what the limitations are of the operating system and the buttons you normally have to taple click on. It's going to change. I mean in Star Trek, you know, yes, they had control panels which they tapped on various things, but they could just talk to the computer and get it to do things for you. And you know, we've seen that the beginnings of that with CHATJVT and Claude and Gemini. But this is all going to morph into the next level, and the convening experience that we'll all be enjoying over the next couple of years is going to have that leap. I mean, a similar leap was when we went from chext on the screen, the command line interface or typing things in basic on earlier computers before even DOS, and then we went to the graphical user interface. I mean, it's that level of jump. But of course with all of the sophisticated artificial intelligence that is now a normal part for many of our lives that we still really haven't really seen on phones and computers that we are now seeing the beginnings of. And now this year is going to be a seminal year for that and Jenagan continue getting better and better over the months and years ahead. That's Alex Saharavroyt from Take Advice, Start Live and this is space Time, and that's the show for now. Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through at bytes dot com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast download provider, and from space Time with Stuart Gary dot com. Space Time is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Own Radio and on both iHeartRadio and tune In Radio, and you can help to support our show by visiting the space Time 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 burnus audio content which doesn't go to weir, access to our exclusive Facebook group, and other rewards. Just go to space Time with Stewart Gary dot com for full details. You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Gary. This has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com.