S26E72: Universal Evaporation // A Pile of Rubble // Trouble Plagued Starliner & Other Space News

This is Spacetime Series twenty six, episode seventy two for broadcast on the sixteenth of June twenty twenty three. Coming up on Spacetime, and new study claims everything in the universe will eventually evaporate, not only black holes. New evidence shows that the asteroid BNOU is nothing more than a pile of rubble, and Bolling's trouble plague starlight of spacecraft suffers yet more delays. All that and more coming up on Spacetime. Welcome to Spacetime with Stewart Gary You. Theoretical research has shown that Stephen Hawking may have been right about black holes evaporating over time, although not completely. The study supports the idea that Hawking radiation will cause black holes to eventually evaporate, But the event horizon the black holes point of no return, isn't this crucial to the issue it's previously thought. The new findings are reported in the journal Physical Review Letters, suggest that gravity and the very curvature of space time itself also caused the same radiation. This means that all large objects in the universe, like the remnants of stars, will eventually evaporate. So how does it all work? Well? On the quantum scale, the universe is filled with virtual particle pairs constantly popping into and out of existence from the quantum field. Each virtual particle pair consists of a matter and antimatter particle, and since matter and antimatter annihilate when they come into contact with each other, the virtual particle pairs their suppair again as soon as they're formed. We call these quantum fluctuations, and we're no they're real because they can be seen in things like the Casimir effect in quantum field theory. Casimir effect is a physical force acting on the macroscopic boundaries of a confined space, which rises from quantum fluctuations in the field. It's named after the Dutch physicist Henry Casimir, who predicted the effect for electromagnetic systems back in nineteen forty eight. Stephen Hawking used a clever combination of quantum physics and Einstein's theory of general relativity to argue that the spontaneous creation and annihilation of virtual particle pairs occurring near the event horizon of a black hole could cause the particle pairs to be separated before they can disappear again, with one half of the particle pairs falling into the black hole, forcing the other to become a real particle. According to Hawking, this would eventually result in the evaporation of black holes through Hawking radiation, though it would take trillions upon trillions of years. In this new study, Michael Wandrack Walter van Silo common here Falk from Right Bound University revisited the process and investigated whether or not the presence of an event horizon was frutual. They combine techniques from physics, astronomy, and mathematics to examine what happens when pairs of particles are created in the surroundings of a black hole, and they concluded that new particles could also be created far beyond the event horizon. The search suggested that in addition to the well known Hawking radiation, there's also a new form of radiation far beyond a black hole. The very curvature of space time plays a big role in creating this radiation, the authors say, particles who are already separated there by the tidal forces of the gravitational field. Whereas it was previously thought that no radiation was possible without the event horizon, they say this study shows that the event horizon isn't even necessary. That means that objects without an event horizon, such as the remnants of dead stars and other large mass objects in the universe, also have this sort of radiation, and after a very long period of time, that would lead to everything in the universe eventually evaporating, just like black holes. Now if correct, it all changes not only sciences understanding of Hawking radiation, but also our view of the universe and its future. This is spacetime still to come. The asteroid Bernou found to be just a pile of rubble, and Boeing's trouble plague style on a spacecraft suffers yet another setback. All that and more still to come on space time. Data from Massa's a Cyrus rex mission has confirmed that the asteroid Bnou isn't a solid rock, but composed mostly of piles of rubble loosely held together by gravity. The diamond shaped, half kilomedwide asteroid is covering gray, jagged boulders with sharp rocks and ridges, holes and craters. It's a wild, primitive world whose orbit brings it uncomfortably close to Earth at regular intervals, resulting in Benou being listed as a potentially hazardous near Earth object with the greatest risk of impact currently calculated for September the twenty fourth, eighty two. The Assiris REX mission arrived at Bernou on December the third, twenty eighteen, following a two year journey. It orbited the asteroid and map Benou's surface in great detail, seeking out potential sample collection sites. Analyzes from orbit allowed calculations of Bernou's mass and its distribution. In October twenty twenty, Assirus REX successfully touched down on the surface of Bernou and then collected a sample using an extendable robotic arm that was meant to be a simple touching goo maneuver. However, unexpectedly, the lack of any real surface cohesion meant the arm and the spacecraft itself for that matter, experienced no resistance at the surface, and so continued to descend for about half a meter below the ground before Osirius rex's rockets activated a preprogram burn to lift the spacecraft back up into orbit. Looking down as it departed, the spacecraft saw an elliptical crater some nine meters long, with some six tons of material blasted out of it. If the probe hadn't been pre programmed to lift itself back into orbit a few seconds after landing, the half kilometer wide asteroid would have swallowed it whole and May the tenth, twenty twenty one, Osiris Rex successfully completed its departure from Benou and began its journey back to Earth on September the twenty fourth. This year, a Cirius Rex's return capsule will re enter its atmosphere land under parachute in the US Air Forces Utah Test and Training Range, where it will be eagerly collected and quickly sent to NASSA Laboratories. Jonathan Nally, the editor of a Strand Sky in Telescope magazine, says, further analysis of Benou confirms there wasn't a cohesion or other forces holding the outer lays of Benou in place, except that is for the asteroids feeble gravity. Yeah, Cyrus Rex isn't a spacecraft went out to this asteroid Bnou, and the idea was that it was just very carefully, very slowly sidle up to this asteroid and stick out of robot arm and touch the surface of the asteroid of the robot arm and grab some samples of the sort of rocky, dusty stuff that was no doubt on the surface, scooped them up, stick them in a canister, and bring them back to Earth. And that's in fact exactly what it's done. It's it's done the sample collection. Now, So what happened when what happened when these spacecraft sidled up and stuck out its robot arm just down touch the surface. It had it's had a nitrogen gas system on the end of the arm which was designed to let out a puff of gas which would stir up some of the material from the surface and blow it into this collection scoop right, all good stuff. So what they weren't really expecting is that the surface its asteroid would be a loose rubble pile rather than fairly solid rock with just a loose or a thin covering of dusty rocky stuff. So it's long been pondered whether some asteroids, or maybe your majority of asteroids or all of them, are actual big solid lumps of rock or a loose rubble piles just barely held together by the very tiny gravity. So it turns out that the surface of Bnou is a loose rubble pile. And so when this nitrogen gas blast went out, it gouged a crater nine meters long and ejected about six thousand kilograms of dust and rock how to do space and the spacecraft instead of sort of hitting the surface and stopping it went in. The robot arm went in by about half a meter into the surface of this thing. And so if it had kept going, who knows what would have happened, whether it would have got stuck there or half got buried or something. But fortunately it didn't. It was able to back out. It's like a giant dust bunny or quicksandard, like sticking a hand in quicksand or something. It's so they were sort of lucky there. But look, this is good because they've learned something about this asteroid. And this is the whole point of doing this about this as we won't need Bruce Willis after all. I think I think we never did, to be honest, but look, you could be right. What was the name of that movie he was in, fact or the other one? Oh? No, it was one called Armageddon, wasn't it. Yeah? Yeah, the movie. I always forget to name that movie. But you know, so what if I can't remember? Armageddon? Not the end of the world, Thank you very much. I'm here all week. We're in a fascinating time when it comes to asteroid studies. Now it's not just smashing into an asteroid with the Dark mission. We've had a couple of Japanese missions, now the higher bus emissions study asteroids close up and personal, and now Cyrus Rex. Yeah. Look, and it's really remarkable that they're doing this, and it's just the most brilliant people to be able to devise these missions and get them out there and make them work and bring these samples back home. Because asteroids are in one sense thought to be sort of the builders rubble of the Solar system, that's sort of leftover bits from when everything formed in our solar systems. So by studying them, your study some of the most ancient, unchanged materials in the Solar system. So that's a great interest for scientists to work on their ideas of the formation of the Solar system and how everything is evolved. But the other thing, of course, is that if we ever do need Bruce willis, if you got one of these things coming towards us, then we really want to know is it one big solid rock? And if we go out and give it a nudge, it's just going to move away or is it a loose rubble pile, And if we go out and give it a nudge, is it just going to break up into lots of pieces and all those pieces that are coming towards us and we can't deal with it. So it really is important to know your enemy in this sense, or your potential enemy, which is why they're trying these different asteroids out there and trying to learn as much about them as possible. So it turns out that probably a lot of asteroids are big rubble piles, and if we ever do spot one coming towards us, hopefully we've got enough time and hopefully decade to go out and do a reconnaissance mission see what sort of asteroid it is, and whether we can afford to hit it with something and knock it off course, or whether we have to be a bit more judicious than what we do try some other methods. So it's both scientifically interesting and it could have a practical app occasion one day if we ever spot one coming towards us. It's exactly the same with comets we're finding now do the European Space Agencies Rose and Mission show that not all comets are dirty snowballs. Some of them are really solid chunks of rock. They are. Look, you go back to the nineteen eighties when Comet Halley came around and the Giotto Mission, the European Space Angry Geoto Mission, gave us our very first close up look at a comet, Comet Halley, the famous Comet Halley, and what they were not expecting that it was basically pitch black. It wasn't this bright, shiny thing made of ice at all. It was it was this tar covered black thing, quite large. And so we quickly went from the old idea of comets being dirty snowballs to comets actually being snowy dirt balls, which is probably more like it. You know, they're they're probably more substantial and then just covered with ices or mixed in with ices. And there's also this crossover between comets and asteroids. It used to be comets made of ice, asteroids made of rock, and now we know that there are sort of ones in the middle. And some times they discover something they think it's an asteroid, and then some time later, months or years later, all of a sudden, it's got a tail. I thought was a commet after all, and vice versa. So it's interesting we're learning more and more and more about what's out there. That's Jonathan Ally, the editor of Australian Sky and Telescope magazine. And this space time still to come. Boeing's Troubled Plague starline of spacecraft stuffers more delays and later in the science report, and new study warns that warming temperatures will see eighty percent of the world's coral reefs stye within the next eighty years. All that and more still to come on space time. The planned launch of Boeing's Trouble Plague Starline A spacecraft has been postponed again, this time following new problems which officials say should have been much earlier. The mission, carrying two crew members to the International Space Station was slated for July the twenty first, but final reviews have found issues with parachute lines that don't meet safety standards, and other problems, including why harnesses wrapped in white tape to protect them against scuffing, which apparently are using blue that's flammable. Now, these were issues that were already known about and present in last year's unmanned test flight to the space station, and they should have been caught years earlier. Now, Boeing project manager Mark Nappie it's refusing to give a revised launch date for the spacecraft, saying he hopes it will take place before the end of the year. NASA contracted Boeing and SpaceX to carry crews to the International Space Station following the earlier retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet in twenty eleven. SpaceX has now undertaken ten manned flights aboard their Falcon Dragons, while Boeing, on the other hand, had to repeat its twenty nineteen unmanned styline at test flight after software problems prevented the spacecraft from reaching the station, and additional software issues almost destroyed the spacecraft during its atmospheric reentry phase. This is space time, and time that to take another brief look at some of the other stories making news in science this week With the Science Report, a new study warns that warming temperatures will see nearly eighty percent of corals die in the next eighty years. The findings were reported in the journal Ecology Letters, based on studies by scientists from the University of New South Wales who analyzed one hundred and eight studies of coral health the coral reefs was surveyed for disease symptoms. They then linked the disease surveys to ocean sea surface temperature records understand how climate change, specifically ocean warming influenced coral disas the prevalence worldwide, and then before modeling the forecast disease under future warming scenarios. The study shares the extent to which coral health will suffer under climate change, which threatens to wipe out entire if habitats and devastate coastal communities. Paleontologists have confirmed that one hundred and seven million year old terrasaur burns, discovered more than thirty years ago, are the oldest of their kind ever found in Australia. The findings, reported in the journal Historical Biology, provide a rare glimpse into the life of these powerful flying reptiles that lived among the dinosaurs during thetatious period. The fossils include a partial pelvis bone and a small wing bone discovered a dinosaur cove in the late nineteen eighties. The authors found the burns belong to two different terrasaur individuals. The partial pelvis belonged to a terrasaur with a wingspan exceeding two meters and the smaller wingbone belonged to a juvenile terrasaur, the first ever reported in Australia. During the Cretaceous between one hundred and forty five and sixty six million years ago, Australia was further south than where it is today, and the state of Victoria was within the polar circle and covered in darkness for weeks on entering winter. Despite these seasonally harsh conditions, it's now clear that terrasas not only found a way to survive, but even thrive. A new study has found that drinking a light to moderate amount of alcohol could reduce your risk of a stress related heart attack, but the findings are reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, suggests it's probably still not the best way to manage this risk. Brain activity caused by chronic stress is known to be associated with heart attacks, so scientists looked at the brain activity drinking habits in the rate of heart attacks amongst a group of fifty thousand people. They found that drinking a light to moderate amount of alcohol was associated with a lower risk of heart attack, which could in part be explained by the art helping to reduce stress. However, given the numerous other health risks alcohol carries, the researchers warned that people should really be looking for other things to help them reduce stress rather than rely on grog and time. Now for the silliest story of the week, and it seems a real estate agent in California has sold the mansion where Michael Jackson overdosed and passed away. Using an unusual sales pitch, he claimed the famous moonwalker's spirit was still haunting the place. However, he admits the only evidence that Jackson's spirit was haunting the old house were some open windows, the lingering sounds of distant music playing, and broken chandelier, although when you think about it, that could have been liberati tamentum from a strange skeptic says it's far more likely the housekeepers simply forgot to close the windows and turn the radio off. But it was a great sales pitch and it does fit right in with the mentality of the Hollywood set. Michael Jackson was a famous pop singer that was before my time. Michael Jackson famous probably I'm one of the most famous things in the world. Once described as the second most famous face in the world after Muhammad Ali, believe it or not, in a survey done there ahead of many parents into a survey down across the especially is so well countried, all right, Yeah, but Muhammad Ali was the most famous face and it was sort of taken over by Michael Jackson. Depends on which face he had at the time. Occur. Yeah, I think he should have stopped after Thriller, I think so. Yeah, looking good there. He died rather prematurely. His mansion was for sale, and the agent, necessarily looking after a high press season property, et cetera, would go there every day and he said that sometime he saw the spirit of Michael Jackson was there because there were some open windows and he could hear music. And they noticed on one visit that the chandelier was broken, and we don't know how how broken, and the weather was one little glass crystal has fallen off, or whether the whole thing was falling out of the ceiling. And that's the evidence, and that's the evidence he says for the the house being occupied by Michael Jackson's spirit. Now, if you're selling an expensive house, you might want a part of the fact was Michael Jackson you might want an extra little gimmick to raise interest in the place. And he referred to this house in a book he wrote actually about his experience as a real estate agent, which must be some one of the most exciting books a thinker. They sold his place for eighteen million US. Anyway, so the new owners thought there was an interesting idea to have Michael Jackson's ghost. There absolutely no evidence whatsoever, one that Michael Jackson has a ghost, has a spirit, two that it was in this house that he used to own, and three that he was actually doing this stuff opening windows. Good heavens, maybe the real estate agents they got to close the window. Heaven forbid that. Real estate agents as highly reliable people. Of course you can trust them absolutely totally. Why would Michael Jackson need a window to be open to enter the house, Well, exactly, he'd pass right through the wall, wouldn't he. Why why would you open the window? Would open all the windows. There's a few holes in the story. So yeah, this is this is one of those strange stories that might just be a sales pitch amendum from Australian skeptics. And that's the show for now. Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Google podcast pocket Casts, Spotify, Acast, Amazon, Music, bytes dot Com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast download provider, and from Spacetime with Stewart Gary dot com. Spacetime's also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone 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 burnus audio content which doesn't go to war, access to our exclusive Facebook group, and other rewards. Just go to Spacetime with Stewart gary dot com for full details. And if you want more Spacetime, 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 of videos and things on the whereby find interesting or amusing. Just go to Spacetime with Stewart Gary dot Tumbler dot com. That's all one word, and that's Tumbler without the E. You can also follow us through at Stewart Garry on Twitter, at Spacetime with Stewart Garry, on Instagram, through our Spacetime YouTube channel, and on Facebook. Just go to Facebook dot com forward slash Spacetime with Stewart Gary and Spacetime is brought to you in collaboration with Australian Sky Telescope magazine. Your Window on the Universe. You've been listening to Spacetime with Stewart Gary. This has been another quality podcast production from bytes dot com.