NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex Spacecraft Recycled | S26E153

This is Spacetime Series twenty six, Episode one hundred and fifty three, for broadcast on the twenty second of December twenty twenty three. Coming up on Spacetime, a new mission for NASA's a Cyrus Rex spacecraft, the discovery of a planet too big for its son, and Hallie's comment reaches its Aphelian. All that and more coming up on Spacetime Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary. After completing its initial seven years sample return mission to the asteroid Banu, NASA's A Cyrus Rex spacecraft is moving on with a new mission to study the asteroid Apophus. Now renamed a Cyrus Apofus Explorer or a Cyrus APEX for short, a spacecraft will intercept the Pofae in five and a half years from now. The half a kilometer white asteroid nine nine nine forty two Apofas has long been a posted job for hazardous near Earth objects, and appropriately so. The name Apofus was that of the ancient Egyptian god of chaos. In fact, NASA once classified Apofus as the potential Earth impact. That was until more detailed observations of its orbit was able to rule that out. Still on April thirteenth, twenty twenty nine, Apofus will swoop past the Earth at some seven point four to two kilomets per second. Now, it won't impact our planet, but it will get awfully close, skimming just thirty five thousand, seven hundred kilometers above the ground. Now, to put that in perspective, that's closer than the orbits of many satellites. In fact, during the twenty twenty nine close approach, the mountain sized space rock will be visible to observers in Europe, Africa, and Western Asia without the need of a telescope of binoculars. It will be the closest encounter of an asteroid of this size in recorded history. It'll be as bright as magnitude three point one and easily visible with the unaided eye from rural and darker suburban areas. Calculations suggest that were it to directly impact the Earth, the released energy would equate to about one thousand, seven hundred and seventeen megatons of TNT. Now by comparison the impact that created Meteor Crater in Arizona fifty thousand years ago and the Tunguska of Vet in Siberia in nineteen oh eight were each estimated to have only been between three and ten megatons, and the biggest hydrogen bomb ever exploded, the Soviet Union's Bomber, was some fifty seven megatons. The shockwave from that blast circled the Earth at least three times. The exact effects of any impact with Apophus will be based on the asteroid's composition and its location and angle of impact. Still, it's safe to say that any impact would decimate an area thousands of square kilometis cross, creating an impact crater or and five kilometers wide, and triggering major tsunamis, seismic activity, volcanic activity, and major climate changing debris clouds. It wouldn't be enough to destroy the planet, but it could destroy a small country. The earthquake within a radius of ten kilometers of ground zero could reach six point five on the Richter scale, with wind speeds exceeding seven hundred and ninety meters per second. And although an impact in twenty twenty nine has now been ruled out, Apofus will have other close encounters with the Earth, and each of those encounters will change the asteroid's trajectory ever so slightly. So it's important for astronomers to study Apofus and know as much about it as possible, and so, just twenty minutes after dropping off its BNUS sample return capsule above Earth the atmosphere on September the twenty fourth, is Cyrus Rex spacecraft fired up its thrusters to place it on a new course to rendezvous with Apofus in twenty twenty nine, just as the Pofus makes its own close approach to Earth. A Cyrus Rex deputy principle, investigated Delachastina from the University of Arizona, who is now the principal investigator for the Asius APEX mission, says that by April the second, twenty twenty nine, the spacecraft's cameras will begin collecting data as it approaches the Apopus asteroid. Of course, the asteroid will also be closely observed by Earth based telescopes, but in the hours following closest approach, Apofus will appear too near the Sun in the sky to be observed by Earth based optical telescopes. This means that any changes triggered by its close encounter with the Earth will be best detected by a spacecraft, and that's where Asius Rex now a cyrus Apex comes in. The spacecraft will catch up with the asteroid on April thirteenth, just as Apofas swips past the Earth. Scientists will then spend the next eighteen months studding the asteroid in detail. They will also disturb material on the asteroid's surface with the spacecraft in order to reveal what lies underneath. Delaicastina says that even after the chance of a twenty twenty nine impact with Earth was finally ruled, there was still the possibility that the encounter with the Earth could change the asteroid's trajectory, placing it on a collision course with the planet exactly seven years later in twenty thirty six. Luckily, following further observations combined with new computer modeling, a p office now doesn't appear to pose a significant risk to Earth, at least not for the next one hundred years or so. So what do we know about the asteroids so far? Well, it's Estonia or S type asteroid, made up of silicate materials and nickel iron, and that makes it different from the C type asteroid. A cyrus Rex first targeted with Bernu, which is rich in carbonaceous material Apofus was likely formed following the collision of its parent body with another asteroid, in the main asteroid built between Mars and Jupiter. The twenty twenty nine close approach allows scientists to study Apothas's interactions with near Earth gravitational forces, specifically tidal forces, which could disturb the surface to reveal what lies beneath. De la Gastinas says Apoffas gets close enough to the Earth so that the planet's gravitational tidal forces will impact the asteroid, causing some surface activities such as landslides or particle ejections, which could create a comet like tail. Also, we know that tidal forces and the accumulation of rubble pile material are foundational processes which could play a role in the formation of new planets, and so these observations could inform planetary scientists how we get from debris in the early Solar System to full blown planets. Science's best guess for now is that Apofus is just a rubble pile asteroid. Ultimately, the team helps to understand the asteroids evolution and characteristics, including Apotheser's material strength and density. What they learn will help inform planetary defense researchers, especially because most of the potentially hazardous asteroids near the Earth are also S types, just like apophas. Scientists have learned a lot about C type asteroids like banub thanks to the asiris Rex mission, and now as the cyrus Apex, the spacecraft will answer even more questions about S type asteroids. Getting up close and personal with these asteroids provides unique opportunities for planetary scientists. Currently, scientific understanding of our solar system's formation is heavily informed by meteorites, which are pieces of other celestial bodies that have fallen onto the Earth. Asteroids are the primary parent bodies of meteorites, but are usually observed from so far away they appear only as points of light in the sky that reveal little about their global properties or surface variability. The assyris Rex Science Instruments package were specifically designed to connect our understanding of meteorites to their parent asteroids or comets by placing meteorite scale rocks into geological context. And of course, there are a lot of these vagabonds floating around in space, be they meteoroids, asteroids, or comets. As this report from Massa TV explains what's the difference between asteroids, commas, and meteors. They're all planetary objects orbiting the Sun. An asteroid is a small, rocky object, and when seen in a telescope, it appears as a point of light. Most asteroids are found in a ring between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter called the asteroid belt. Some asteroids are around, some are elongated, and some even have a satellite. A comet also orbits the Sun, but unlike an asteroid, is composed of ice and dust, so when a comet gets closed to the Sun, it's ice and dust content start to favorize, so when seeing a telescope, a comet appears fuzzy and or has a tail. So what's a meteor Well, let's start with a meteoroid. A meteoroid is a small piece of asteroid or a comet, typically peppal size, but could be a little smaller or a little larger, and often created from a collision. When a meteoroid gets close to the Earth, an enersty or atmosphere is called the meteor and a media enersty or the atmosphere at a very high speed, so it burns up and produces a streak of light called a shooting star. So if you have seen a shooting star, you like this on meteor and if a meteor survives to burn and lands on the ground, it's called a meteorite. So what's the difference between ask for is commerce and meteors? Well, asers are rocketing, commerce are icing, and medeas are much smaller and our thet shooting starts to see up in the sky. And in that report from NASA TV, we're from NASA JPL scientist Ryan Park This space time still to come, discovery of a planet that's too big for its own sun and Hallie's comet reaches a pilion in its journey through the Solar System. All that and more still to come on space time. Astronomers have discovered a planet that appears to be far too massive for its host. The findings, reported in the journal Science, calls into question what was previously understood about planetary formation. The planet, which has some thirteen point two times the mass of the Earth, which makes it a Neptune size object, is on a tight three point seven earth day orbit around a spectrol type M red dwarf star cataloged as LHS thirty one fifty four, which is about nine times less massive than our Sun. The system is located some fifty one light years away. The mass ratio of the newly formed planet with its host star is more than one hundred times higher than the ratio of the Earth compared to the Sun. The finding has revealed what is now the most massive planet known to orbit close around a red dwarf star, the least massive and coolest of all stars. The discovery goes against what current theories would predict from planetary formation around small stars and marks the first time of planet with such a high mass has been detected at orbiting around such a low mass star. One of the studies authors, silver Raf Mahadevan from Penn State University, says the discovery really drives home the point of just how little science understands about the universe. Ahavan says stars are formed from large class of molecular gas and dust. After the stars formed, gas and dust remains as discs of material orbiting around the newborn star, and this material can automately coaliesce to form planets. He says, the planet forming disc around the low mass star LHS thirty one fifty four wasn't expected to have enough material in it to form a planet, but it's clearly out there, and that calls for a reexamination of sciences understanding of how planets and stars form. The authors say the heavy planetary core inferred by other team's measurements would require a larger amount of solid material in the planet forming disc and what current models predict. The study also raises questions about prior understandings to the formation of stars, as the dust to mass and dust to gas ratio of the disc surrounding stars like LHS thirty one fifty four when they were very young and newly formed would need to be ten times higher than what was observed in order to form a planet as massive as the one the team discovered this space time still to come, the famous Halley's comet reaches Perihelion in its orbit around the Sun, and later in the science report, archaeologists have uncovered the oldest known fortified prehistoric settlement in the world. All that and more still to come on space time. On Saturday December, the ninth comet P one Halley reached a Philion, its most distant orbital position from the Sun. The moment of Aphelian placed the fifteen kilometer wide mountain of rock and ice, some five point three billion kilometers or thirty five point one four astronomical units from the Sun and deep within the Kaiper Belt, the ring of comets, frozen worlds, and icy debris which circles the Sun beyond the orbit of neptuneeromical unit is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun around one hundred and fifty million kilometers or eight point three light minutes. Halley's comet is now traveling at its slowest orbital velocity about zero point nine to one kilometres per second relative to the Sun, and it's moving in the direction of the southern constellation of Hydra, the sea serpents. The event marks the midpoint for the famous comet's eternal journey through the Solar System, completing each lap around the Sun in seventy five earth years. The European Southern Observatory's very large telescope last image Comet hal It back in two thousand and three. Back then, it was at a distance of twenty eight astronomical units. Now, having passed Aphilion, it's slowly heading back towards the Sun and the warmth of the inner Solar System. Its last encarnter with the inner planets was way back in nineteen eighty six, and its next won't be until twenty sixty one, thirty eight years from now. It's named after Sir Edmund Howey, who first predicted that it was a periodic comet sixteen ninety after linking a series of cometary sidings in the same part of the sky every seventy five to seventy nine years. Chinese astronomers had recorded the same comet a guest star, as they had described it back in four sixty seven BC. Another appearance of the comet in ten sixty six was widely seen as a portent of doom Yeoman, apparently proving correct when King Harold Second was killed in the Battle of Hastings that same year, and that, of course led to the ascension of William the Conqueror to the throne of England. The comet was even betrayed on the Baya Tapestry, which records the entire accession to the throne by William the Conqueror. For posterity, Halley successfully predicted the return of the comet that now bears his name in seventeen fifty eight, though he didn't live long enough to see it. The designation one P on the comet's name indicates that Hallis was the first periodic comet discovered. Periodic comets have all but shorter than two hundred years. So far, some four hundred and seventy two have been a SA. Unfortunately, the nineteen eighty six appearance of Halley's was a complete dumper for a general public eager to see the much anticipated event. It wound up appearing very low in the south at dawn, quickly disappearing in the glare of the Sun. But both the annual Eta Acurates meteor shower in April and May and the orionids in October are generated as the Earth passes through the debrisch rail left behind by the passage of Haley's comet, a tatalizing taste of the event. As for Comet Halley itself, well, it's spending the next few decades in the direction of the constellations Hydra and later Canis Minor, and in twenty fifty it'll appear to pass in front of the bright star Procion. It will reach Perihelion, its closest orbital position to the Sun, on July the twenty eighth, twenty sixty one. And it may even break negative magnitudes in brightness is seen from the Earth over the following months, appearing low in the northwestern sky after dusk for northern hemisphere observers. This is spaced time and time out to take another brief look at some of the other stories making news in science this week with a science report. A new study has confirmed that diet and air pollution remain among the biggest contributors globally to heart disease. A report on the Global burden of heart disease shows that some nineteen point eight million people died around the world as a result of heart disease last year. The report breaks down death and disability trends from heart disease worldwide, regionally, and nationally, and compare statistics from twenty twenty two to how Things worth thirty years ago. A report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology claims the schemic heart disease is the leading cause of heart disease related death and high blood pressures the most impact on day to day quality of life. The researchers say the number one contributed to heart disease related lower quality of life is poor diet, while the number one environmental contributor is ambient particular matter air pollution. Archaeologists have uncovered the oldest known fortified prehistoric settlement in the world. Scientists from the Free University of Berlin made the discovery in a remote region of Siberia, saying the complex defense structures were built by hunter gatherers around their settlements some eight thousand years ago. The findings were reported in the journal Antiquity Reshaped Sciences Understanding of Early human Societies. It charges the idea that only with the advent of agriculture would people who started building permanent settlements with monumental architecture and of complex social structures. The structures concentrated around the settlement of Amna are now acknowledged as the northernmost Stone Age fort in Eurasia. Researchers used radiocarbon dating to establish the air of the site as the oldest known fort in the world. The prehistoric inhabitants of the area caught fish from the nearby Amna River, and they hunted elk and reindeer using bone and stone tip spears. To preserve their surplus fish, oil and meat, they crafted elaborately decorated pottery so far ten Stone edge footified sites have been discovered, each with pit houses and surrounded by earthen walls and wooden palisades, suggesting advanced agricultural and defensive capabilities. The discovery challenges the traditional view that permanent settlements accompanied by defensive structures only emerged with farming societies, thus disproving the notion that agriculture and animal husbandry were prerequisites for societal complexity. A new study is found that cats loved to play fetch with their owners, especially if they're in charge. The findings published of the journal's Scientific Reports, are based on a survey of one thousand catterners as cats like to play fetch in order to find out more about feline behavior. The researchers say less than forty percent of the cat's favorite objects to play fetch with were actually cat toys, with a majority preferring random household objects such as crumpled paper and hairtyes. They say the cats were also more likely to keep playing longer if they were the ones who initiated the play with their owners. They say, responding to your cat's attempts to play fetch with you could help the two of you bond. Meg and Michael's been spotted wearing a new bit of pseudoscience, an anti stress patch. Although at first glance it appears to look like a sticker attached to her wrist, it has since been revealed to be a four dollar gadget designed to send calming signals to her brain. The forty three year old Duchess of Drama raised eyebrows when pictured near Mighty Seat her home wearing the mysterious blue patch. The company that make the so called biosignal processing disc claims its products are clinically proven to reduce stress and improve sleep, but Tim Mindhem from a Strange Skeptic, says there's actually no real scientific proof to support that claim. There's been photographs around of her having a little sticker, if you like, stuck with her arm. I think it was in her particular case. Basically, it's a what's called a biosignal processing disc. That sounds yeah, it was a clinically proven to reduce stress and improved sleep. Whenever people say clinically proven, you have to say where and are they? And I approached many people selling little products like this to say, you say it's clinical proven, can you supply the results? Or where was it proven, and they rarely can. It's a term that just used trial results then often no results because no clinical trials, but they say it is, and clinically proven sounds like a good thing you said in ads all the time. Clinically proven. Be very careful about clinically proven. Okay, everything's supposed to give you the equivalent of two hours restless sleep in twenty minutes, just by having this sticker on you, which includes I think has includes a Tesla coil and all the usual sort of energy distributing products, et cetera that are supposed to sort of improve your actually make you relax more than take away the stress. I'm sure Magan Michael's understoding a lot of stress lately. It sounds like something when a writer should be selling. I really don't know why people see celebrities as the arbiter of good sense when it comes to medical treatment. So it's anything probably why someone who's just famous for being famous should be a particular guide in your lifestyle. And I'm not quite sure what Megan Michael's qualifications for saying that's certainly no scientific qualifications. Is an actress not to put actresses down the probably they do their job, but she's only a second tier actors. Then you get a sportsman like Novak Djokovic who has a range of products that he actually half owns the company manufacturing, which he has spouses, and he's got things. He's seen to have things stuck to his chest, et cetera. Again which create energy and send energy through your body, but in his case that makes him more sprightly rather than makeson got to sleep. So Brock do the same thing in Australia years ago with some sort of catalytic energizer in his car. Racing car driver had a polarizer, that's it, which was supposed to stick to the fuel line and improve your fuel the energy coming out of the fuel. It didn't. It was quite a sad situation for someone who fall with this sort of thing. He definitely went into a New age belief system. But he claimed that anyone else who tested it didn't do it properly, that it had to be fitted by him with a little little box with nothing in it. Really. Yeah, they just planted around your fuel line and were supposed to improve the if it's a full efficiency, there's no indication that it did that, and people who tested it anyway. So sports, yeah, I know that Jacob keeps pushing particular treatments like this, the sort of magical stickers and things. And they've been around. I mean they used to have the wrist bands, you know, the power balance with too, where you'd see these big lotches on them. You've still seen cupping around and are still sort of used, and they believe that actually was a big health to them. I mean, sports people aren't superstitious. So a lot of superstitions are wear the right color underwear. But that's not looking at technology they can sell. Okay, it's their habits and if it makes them feel good, fine, it makes them more comfortable and more confident, they can relax, et cetera. Fine, but they're not selling a product of sticker that does nothing. And these things do nothing. They use a lot of gibberish, a lot of science is sounding words, and these things can cost hundreds and thousands of dollars. I mean, they don't come cheap, and of course the old beliefs have the more a cost, the better it must be. But it doesn't work that way with these particular things. Production of energy and a tiny tesla coil to produce certain frequencies, and they throw in lots of medical terminology, the particular products gamma iman a good triic acid. It does sound scientific, so that must be true. Science must be right. And people go that's as far as they go in the investigations of these things, and say will sound science, And Megan Markele wears it, so it must be working, and we need to get a story. You're always going to get some scientists who will endorse it, and other scientists are says rubbish. But I mean you've got to just be very careful as who is endorsing it. From a health point of view, maybe there's a placebo effect. Maybe that does make you feel better if you stick it on, if you're so influenced by it, it's not going to do any proper medical treatments. It's not going to necessarily improve your play outside of your own confident. That's timendum from Australian Skeptics, and that's the show for now. 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