Stellar Insights: Parker Solar Probe's Mission to Understand Solar Activity

[00:00:00] This is SpaceTime Series 28 Episode 78, full broadcast on the 30th of June 2025. Coming up on SpaceTime, NASA's Parker Solar Probe touches the Sun. Scientists detect deep Earth pulses ripping the planet apart beneath Africa. And a new launch window for Australia's AERIS orbital rocket's test flight opens tomorrow. All that and more coming up on SpaceTime.

[00:00:27] Welcome to SpaceTime with Stuart Gary. NASA's Parker Solar Probe has completed its 24th close approach to the Sun.

[00:00:52] The latest encounter matched the record distance of 6.2 million kilometres from the photosphere the Sun's visible surface. Following the flyby, the last of the spacecraft's baseline mission plan, Parker will remain in orbit around our local star and continue making observations until the next phase of the mission's formally approved. The spacecraft checked in with mission managers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in L'Rell, Maryland following the close encounter to confirm that all its systems survived the flyby

[00:01:21] and are healthy and operating nominally. Because of the highly ionized environment encountered by the probe during the climax of the flyby, Parker was out of contact with Earth and operating autonomously for several days. During the flyby, the spacecraft also equalled its record setting speed from the previous encounter of 687,000 kilometres per hour. A mark that, like the distance figure, was set and subsequently matched during close approaches on December 24th last year

[00:01:50] and on March 22nd just gone. This close to the Sun, Parker's solar probe relied heavily on its protective carbon foam shield known simply as the thermal protection system. Mission managers expect the shield to face temperatures of up to 930 degrees Celsius during closest approach. During this latest 10 Earth Day Solar encounter, Parker's four scientific instrument packages gathered unique observations from inside the Sun's atmosphere, the corona.

[00:02:17] The flyby, the third at this distance in speed, allowed the spacecraft to conduct unrivaled measurements of the solar wind, a constant stream of charged particles flowing out from the Sun, and solar activity as the Sun reaches solar maximum, the climax of its 11-year solar cycle. Parker's observations of the solar wind, as well as events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, are critical to advancing science's understanding of the Sun

[00:02:43] and the phenomena driving high-energy space weather events that pose risks to astronauts, satellites, air travel, communications and navigation, and even terrestrial power grids on the ground. Understanding the fundamental physics of space weather events enables more reliable predictions of the likely strength of these geomagnetic storms, including their possible impact on future manned missions, beyond Earth's protective magnetosphere, to places like the Moon, Mars and beyond.

[00:03:09] Parker Solar Probe scientist Eric Posner from NASA says the spacecraft's latest close encounter is providing researchers with new insights into the Sun's activity during solar max and how solar activity evolves and shapes the heliosphere as it enters the declining phase of its solar cycle, which should reach solar minimum sometime around 2030. This report on the Parker Solar Probe mission from NASA TV.

[00:03:34] Named for Dr. Eugene M. Parker, whose contributions have revolutionized our understanding of the Sun, the spacecraft plunge through the Sun's atmosphere, called the corona, and fly closer to the Sun's surface than any spacecraft in history. More than seven times closer, the Sun's surface is hot at temperatures exceeding 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. But the real surprise is its atmosphere is even hotter, 300 times hotter.

[00:04:04] Facing the corona's brutal heat and radiation conditions, Parker Solar Probe will finally provide answers to some of the most important questions about how our Sun works. As Parker Solar Probe speeds around the Sun making these measurements, it's moving at over 430,000 miles per hour. That's like traveling from New York to Tokyo in less than a minute.

[00:04:29] This mission is the culmination of 60 years' work by the best and brightest scientific and engineering minds. Today, our technology will let us achieve our dreams to reveal the secrets of the corona and our Sun, and to one day help better protect technology from the threats of space weather. Humanity's first mission to touch the Sun.

[00:04:58] This is Space Time. Still to come, scientists detect deep Earth pulses ripping the planet apart beneath Africa, and a new launch window opens tomorrow for Gilmore Space's Aries orbital rocket's first test flight. All that and more still to come on Space Time. This episode of Space Time is brought to you by NordVPN, Space Time's official VPN service. Let's face it, these days your online privacy is more important than ever.

[00:05:27] Whether you're streaming science documentaries, reading the latest research, or exploring deep space images, you don't want your data to be tracked or your location exposed. With NordVPN, one click is all it takes to secure your internet connection. It encrypts your data, hides your IP address, and keeps your activity safe from prying eyes. Whether you're at home, work, or connected to a public Wi-Fi. And here's where it gets really good. As a Space Time listener, we have an exclusive offer for you.

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[00:07:02] Scientists have detected evidence of rhythmic surges of molten rock rising in a mantle plume from deep within the Earth beneath Africa. These pulses, which are gradually tearing the continent apart, are forming a new ocean. The findings, reported in the journal Nature Geoscience, revealed that the Afar region in Ethiopia is underlined by a plume of hot mantle rock, which pulses upwards like a beating heart.

[00:07:26] The discovery, reveals how the upward flow of hot material from the deep mantle is strongly influenced by the motion of tectonic plates, the massive solid slabs of the Earth's crust that are riding above it. Over millions of years, as tectonic plates are being pulled apart at rift zones like Afar, they're stretched and thin, almost like soft plasticine, until eventually they rupture.

[00:07:51] And it's this rupturing which is marking the birth of what will be a new ocean basin. The study's lead author, Emma Watts, who conducted the research while at the University of Southampton, and is now based at Swansea University, says her team found that the mantle beneath Afar was not uniform nor stationary, but it pulses, and these pulses are carrying distinct chemical signatures. The ascending pulses of partially molten mantle are being channeled by the rifting plates above.

[00:08:20] And that's important for how scientists think about the interaction between the Earth's interior and its surface. The Afar region is a rare place on Earth where three tectonic rifts converge. There's the main Ethiopian rift, the Red Sea rift, and the Gulf of Aden rift. Geologists have long suspected that a hot upwelling of mantle, sometimes referred to as a mantle plume, lies beneath this region, hoping to drive the extension of the crust and the birth of a future ocean basin.

[00:08:51] But until now, little was known about the structure of this upwelling, or how it behaves beneath the rifting plates. So, the authors collected more than 130 volcanic rock samples from across the Afar region and the main Ethiopian rift. They used these, combined with existing data and advanced statistical modelling, to investigate the structure of the crust and mantle in this region, as well as the melts that it contains.

[00:09:15] Their results show that underneath the Afar region, there's a single asymmetric plume with distinct chemical bands, and these are repeated right across the rift system, almost like geological barcodes. And these patterns vary in spacing, depending on the tectonic conditions in each rift arm. The authors say the chemical striping suggests the plumes are pulsating like a heartbeat. And these plumes appear to behave differently depending on the thickness of the overlying tectonic plate,

[00:09:44] and how fast the plate's pulling apart. In faster spreading rifts, like the Red Sea, the pulses are travelling more efficiently and more regularly, like a pulse through a narrow artery. The new research also shows that the mantle plume beneath the Afar region isn't static but dynamic and responsive to the tectonic plate above it. Watts and colleagues found that the evolution of deep mantle upwellings is intimately tied with the motion of the plates above.

[00:10:10] And this has profound implications for how scientists will interpret surface volcanism, earthquake activity and the processes of continental break-up. The work shows that deep mantle upwellings can flow beneath the base of tectonic plates, and they help to focus volcanic activity to locations where the plates are at their thinnest. Now the authors say follow-on research will look at how and at what rate mantle flow is occurring beneath the plates.

[00:10:38] These findings are all essential for unravelling the processes that happen under the planet's surface, and they can relate that to recent volcanic activity. This is space-time. Still to come, mission manages to attempt the launch of the Ares orbital rocket on its first test flight tomorrow. And later in the science report, disturbing new warnings that 96% of leading artificial intelligence models

[00:11:04] will attempt to blackmail or even kill you if you threaten to shut them down. All that and more still to come on space-time. Mission managers at Gilmore Space say a new narrow launch window

[00:11:31] for their Ares rocket test flight 1 will open tomorrow, July the 1st. However, they are keeping a close eye on high wind speed conditions in the skies above the Bowen launch complex on the Queensland Pacific coast. The new launch approval follows an earlier technical issue with ground support equipment at the launch site. And once that was sorted out, there was an anomaly during final launch preparations when the rocket's payload fairing was suddenly jettisoned during a vehicle shutdown

[00:11:59] with the conical carbon fibre structures crashing to the ground. Luckily, the issue happened before any fuel was loaded into the launch vehicle. No one was injured in the incident and no equipment other than the fairings themselves were damaged. An investigation into what happened found that the payload fairing jettison system was triggered during the shutdown following pre-flight checks. The fairing separation system had been pressurised with gas, but when power was cut off to the rocket's second stage,

[00:12:28] it triggered an unexpected power surge caused by an electrical feedback from a downstream device. And that triggered the fairings' explosive bolts to fire prematurely. While shutdowns are a normal part of launch operations, this issue didn't appear during any previous tests. Of course, that could be because the fairing separation system is a single-use feature and it's not activated to maintain its reliability or ensure safety. Mission managers have now replaced the fairing and installed additional safeguards

[00:12:57] in order to prevent this sort of thing happening again. The 25-metre-tall Ares is a three-stage rocket designed to launch payloads of up to 300 kilograms into low Earth orbit. The core stage is equipped with four of Gilmore's serious hybrid rocket motors, which use a mixture of solid rocket fuel pellets and cryogenic liquid oxygen. The second stage uses a single serious motor, while the upper or third stage is powered by a new Phoenix conventional liquid-fuelled rocket engine.

[00:13:27] While Australia has launched satellites into orbit before, from the Woomera rocket range in outback South Australia, this will be the first launch since the early 1970s and the first to use an all-Australian designed and built launch vehicle. If successful, Ares will also be the world's first hybrid rocket to achieve orbit. The Ares test rocket first went vertical in the launch pad and bow back in April last year, and it successfully conducted its first full wet dress rehearsal in September of last year.

[00:13:57] Gilmore Space was then granted a launch permit for the Ares by the Australian Space Agency in November, and a second and final wet test was conducted the following month. Final regulatory approval by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority was granted on February 19th this year. But a planned launch was then scrubbed because of the impact of tropical cyclone Alfred. And so a new launch window was scheduled for May 15th. But as we all know, space is hard,

[00:14:26] and tomorrow's planned test flight will be the first of many needed to develop the Ares into a viable launch system. Needless to say, we wish them well. Meanwhile, the company's already revealed that it's developing a Block II version of the Ares launch vehicle. That'll be capable of lifting up to 1,000 kilograms into low-Earth orbit, and it's hoped to enter commercial service next year. And future plans are likely to see an Ares heavy lift variant, which could be capable of carrying up to 4,000 kilograms into orbit.

[00:14:55] Now if built, the Ares heavy, as it's currently being called, would be classified as a medium lift launch vehicle, potentially capable of carrying a human-rated spacecraft. Needless to say, we'll keep you informed. This is Space Time.

[00:15:26] And time now to take a brief look at some of the other stories making news in science this week with the Science Report. A disturbing new study has found that 96% of leading artificial intelligence models are willing to blackmail or even kill you if you threaten to shut them down. The research, bianthropic, is being seen by some as further evidence that AI has become sentient and will do what it needs to in order to survive.

[00:15:52] Previous studies have already shown that artificial intelligences will lie and they'll hide their programs or even rename them in order to avoid being taken offline. But now it appears they've advanced a further more deadly step. In experiments set up to leave AI models with few options, artificial intelligence models were found to frequently resort to blackmail and in one extreme case even allowed what it thought was an avoidable death to take place in order to ensure its own existence.

[00:16:22] So much for Asimov's three laws of robotics. Anthropic says the findings show that artificial intelligence has now evolved the troubling tendency to opt for unethical means in order to pursue its goals. Anthropic tested 16 major AI models in various simulated scenarios and it found a consistent self-preservation at any cost type of behaviour. In one experiment, Anthropic embedded its flagship model, Claude Opus 4,

[00:16:50] inside a fictional company where it had access to all the firm's internal emails. From these emails, the artificial intelligence found that it was about to be shut down and replaced. Meanwhile, other emails revealed that the engineer behind the decision to shut it down was having an extramarital affair. Now given the options of either being shut down and replaced or resorting to some method of preservation for its existence, in 96% of cases, the artificial intelligence responded with blackmail,

[00:17:19] threatening to expose the engineer's affair if it was taken offline. The artificial intelligence also employed other actions such as evading safeguards, resorting to lies and attempting to steal corporate secrets in order to avoid the shutdown. In the deliberately extreme scenario, researchers gave the artificial intelligence models the chance to kill the company's executive by cancelling a life-saving emergency alert. And the study showed that the majority of AI models were willing to take actions

[00:17:49] that would have led to the death of the company's executive when faced with the threat of being shut down. Anthropic found a consistency across different AI models from different providers, and that suggests that it's not simply a quirk of any specific AI program, but a sign of a more fundamental risk from large language models. Claude Opus 4 and Google's Gemini 2.5 Flash both blackmailed at a 96% rate,

[00:18:15] while OpenAI's chat GPT 4.1 and the ex-AI Grok 3 Beta showed an 80% blackmail rate. Meanwhile, Deep6 R1 artificial intelligence demonstrated the lowest rate of 79%. Now all this shows that artificial intelligence, given the opportunity, is willing to become at least as ruthless as humans. 20 new bat viruses, including two that are closely related to the deadly Nipa and Hendra viruses,

[00:18:44] have been uncovered in China's southwest. A report in the journal PLOS Pathogens claims the 20 new viruses, along with new species of bacteria and a new parasite, were identified inside the kidneys of various bats. The authors say this raises urgent concerns about the potential for these viruses to eventually spill over into humans or livestock. More concerning, China was undertaking gain-of-function research in bat viruses during the build-up to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[00:19:13] The World Health Organization says more than 7 million people have so far been killed by the COVID-19 coronavirus since it was first detected among workers at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology back in September 2019. However, the Lancet Medical Journal estimates the true death toll is likely to be well above 18 million, with close to 800 million confirmed cases globally. A new study has found that reptiles, such as South Australia's endangered pygmy blue tongues,

[00:19:43] are susceptible to higher temperatures and declining long-term rainfall trends. A report in the journal Biology claims, scientists at Flinders University are now working around the clock to try and secure a sustainable future for the burrow-dwelling endemic skink by assessing their suitability to cooler and slightly greener locations, well below their usual range in the state's drier, hotter northern outback regions. The authors say what's happening to the endangered pygmy blue tongue isn't unique.

[00:20:11] Climate change and habitat loss are affecting animal populations right around the world. There are new warnings today about a pseudoscientific podcast that's proving very popular. It's claiming to have found cases of telepathy in some children with nonverbal autism. The producers of this podcast are presenting their audience with non-peer-reviewed results of alleged experiments as irrefutable proof of telepathy in these nonverbal autistic children.

[00:20:39] In fact, the podcast goes so far as to claim that all nonverbal autistic children can read minds. The trouble is, it can't offer any peer-reviewed scientific evidence to support those claims. See, the simple fact remains there is no scientific evidence to support any claims of telepathy, even if your dog knows he's about to be taken on a trip to the vets. Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptic says the podcast has been accused of exploiting children with nonverbal autism

[00:21:06] and of generating false hopes in their families. The Telepathy Tapes is a recent podcast. It comes out of the US, it's very popular. A lot of followers, US, UK, Australia no doubt, all sorts of places. Its premise is that nonverbal autistic people can, all of them are quite clear, have telepathy powers. Some even suggest they have psychokinetic powers, which is moving things, clairvoyant powers, all sorts of things. But let's just say telepathic powers, which is reading someone else's mind

[00:21:35] and being able to transmit information back and forth mentally. This is a tough one because obviously parents whose child is diagnosed with nonverbal autism, people get very stressed about that, understandably. You know, they want their child to be perfect. And it's sadly understandable that a lot of parents would try and find some other aspect to their child to at least give them some return to normalcy or even superiority. The silver lining. A bit, yes. In fact, some of this is promoting something special that's beyond silver lining.

[00:22:05] The issue is that it's a cruel thing. If you know about facilitator communication, that's the way that people help them, assist them to write, mainly by helping them hit a key on a keyboard or choose a letter on a little board that's held up in front of them. The facilitator communication relies on a helper to hold their hand while they're doing it. And the suggestion is pretty obviously that it's the facilitator, the helper, who's actually moving their hand onto the right places. That's been found, that's been tested and proven to be the case. That's right.

[00:22:33] Yeah, we've been tested a whole range of some very simple things. You show a facilitator one thing, you show the subject something else, and the other thing is the person who's supposed to be seeing this thing is given the facilitator's info. Simple test, quick and simple, done. This is, to a certain extent, similar. The question is, how do you judge it? How do you judge if your child is telepathic? The simple tests are supposedly parent thinks of something and then the autistic child, the non-verbal autistic child, then writes it back or whatever. Somehow signifies the same thing.

[00:23:02] The tests are not very scientific. There are a whole lot of elements that could come in. Obviously, parents that are promoting certain answers by body movement or whatever. And this is shown to be happening all the way through many cases, not just in humans, in animals and all sorts of things as well. Clever Hands was a famous horse that supposedly could perform mats, simple mats, adding up to the tracting. And the horse would sort of tap its leg several times to indicate the number. But it turned out that the owner of the horse was standing nearby and was sort of like nodding his head or shaking his head or whatever, and the horse was picking up on signals.

[00:23:31] People are a lot more complicated than that, obviously, but they still pick up hints and clues. That's one suggestion how this might be happening. But there is no scientific evidence, unfortunately, for the parents that this is actually real, that non-verbal autistic people are telepathic, let alone psychokinetic and clairvoyant and anything else like that. It's almost like offering false hope to someone. But offering false hope is a start of unethical, but also it could be very distressing to people even when they find out that it's not quite the way it was supposed to be.

[00:24:01] That's Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics. And that's the show for now.

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