This is Spacetime Series twenty six, Episode fifty six, for broadcast on the tenth of May twenty twenty three. Coming up on Spacetime, studying powerful stellar eruptions called super flares. Europe announces plans to build a nuclear powered rocket, and we look at the work done by the European space agencies. Are matter of satellites undertaking air quality missions. All that and more coming up on Spacetime.
Welcome to Spacetime with Stewart Garry. Astronomers using a combination of space and ground based observations have captured one of the most complete pictures yet of a super flare erupt from a distant star. The findings are reported in the Estrophysical Journal, describes a very massive, high velocity prominence eruption lasting out from the binary star V thirteen fifty five arianis located some four hundred light years away in the
constellation O Ryan. The study is important because many stars are observed releasing super flares, which can be over ten times larger than the largest solar flares ever seen erupting from the Sun, and it raises the possibility of whether or not the Sun could release such flares as well. Hot ironized gas released by the Sun. Solar flares can have a major influence on the environment around the Earth, referred to a space whether a solar flare or chronal mass ejection, can
cause Earth's atmosphere to wobble like a jellyfish. It triggers spectacular Aurora light displays, the Northern and Southern lights, the Aurora borealis and Aurora Estrallas, which are the displays we've been had over the past few weeks. But it can also damage spacecraft, frying their electrical circuits and cause them to use up more fuel in order to maintain operational orbits as the atmosphere around them expands and contracts,
increasing atmospheric drag and consequently orbital decay. The radiation from these flares can also damage life, affecting astronauts aboard the International Space Station and on deep space missions. It can disrupt navigation and communication systems, and even affect power grids on Earth, causing widespread blackouts by overloading circuits. And they're just the big ones from the Sun we know about. Could out Sun produce flares ten times
bigger, flares big enough to irradiate the planet and destroy life. The star V thirteen fifty five Orionus is known to frequently release large scales super flares. However, the details of how super flares and prominence eruptions on stars occur is
still claire. Now, a team of scientists led by shouldn't inu from Kiota University have used the three point eight meter semi telescope in Japan and NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey satellite tests to monitor the V thirteen fifty five Ranus binary system, and the team succeeded in capturing a super flare with continuous high temporal resolution observations. The data analyzes shows that the super flare originated with a phenomenon known as
a prominence eruption. Now, calculating the velocity of the eruption requires making some assumptions about aspects that aren't directly observable, but even the most conservative estimates far exceeded three hundred forty seven kilometer per second escape velocity of the star, and that indicates that the prominence eruption was capable of breaking free of the star's gravity and developing into a chronal mass ejection. The prominence eruption was also one of
the most massive ever observed carrying trillions of tons of men material. Over All, the observations of providing astronomers with a better idea of how super flares and still a prominence eruptions can occur. This is spacetime still to come. Europe announcers plans to follow in the footsteps of the United States and develop a nuclear
powered rocket. And we look at the work done by the European space agencies constellation of airmachoring spacecraft, the Copernicus Sentinel program, all that and more still to come on spacetime. The European Space Agency has announced plans to follow in
the footsteps of NASA and develop nuclear powered rockets for deep space exploration. Spacecraft currently use a variety of chemical rockets or electric ion propulsion systems, usually powered by solar arrays, and of course there are also lots of solar serial experiments
continuing as a third potential option for the future. But NASCY began looking at the idea of nuclear powered rockets back in the nineteen sixties under what was called projector Ryan, but it was dropped due to funding constraints and the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. The problem is conventional space propulsion methods and now reaching their physical
limits. One of the original ideas involved nuclear impulse detonation systems, where small atomic bombs would be ejected behind the rear of the spacecraft, ignited, and the shockwaves from the nuclear blast then used to push the spacecraft forward. Likely, they're no longer being considered as an option. Instead, scientists are looking at nuclear based electrical propulsion systems, like the electric ion propulsion systems on which
they're based. Nuclear electric propulsion systems used propel much more efficiently than chemical rockets, but provide far lower amounts of thrust. They would use a nuclear reactor to generate electricity that positively charges gas propellants like zeon or crypton, pushing the ions through a thruster, which then drives the spacecraft forward. Conventional iron propulsion systems do the same thing, but use solar erase to generate the electricity.
Using low thrust. Efficiently, nuclear electric propulsion systems could accelerate spacecraft for extended periods of time, propelling a vehicle and emission to say Mars, in just a fraction of the time and for a fraction of the propellant of a high thrust chemical system. Another idea being examined is nuclear, a thermal propulsion technology. It provides high thrust and twice the propellant efficiency of any chemical rocket system
yet developed. It works by transferring heat from a nuclear reactor to a liquid propellant, such as liquified hydrogen, which is being pumped through the reactor core. This rapidly heats up, expanding to a gas which is then forced out of the rocket nozzle, creating high thrust and accelerating the spacecraft rapidly forward. The advantage of nuclear thermal propulsion is that it cannot only shorten travel times,
but also deliver vi graded payloads. For example, a trip to Mars could be reduced by a quarter, cutting a six month one way trip down to a list than five months. And of course, reducing flight times would be especially important for a man mission, as the short travel times would reduce the amount of exposure to harmful cosmic radiation that a crew would be exposed to. NASA began its latest nuclear propulsion research program last year in collaboration with the Pentagon's
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DAPPER. They plan on developing a nuclear thermal propulsion engine by twenty twenty seven. Esabes. It could have its system operational by twenty thirty five. This space time still to come. Take a look at the European Space enci's efforts to fight air pollution using a fleet of Copernicus satellites, and later in the science report any study shows that open ais chat GPT four can answer medical questions better than most doctors. All that and more still
to come on spacetime. Air pollution has become a serious global problem. According to the World Health Organization, seven million premature deaths each year are linked to air pollution. The European space edencies Copernicus atmosphere monitoring services provide key information about air quality around the globe, helping sitists understand how people can keep the planet
breathable. Using the European Space ensies constantly of Earth observation satellites, it provides constant, quality controlled information in relation to air pollution and health, solar energy, greenhouse gases, and climate across the globe. Over the past year alone, East's Sentinel satellite constellation has been monitoring Sahara desert dust storms, crossing the
Iberian Peninsula and then continuing across France towards northern and Central Europe. The networks also observed large scale smoke blooms generated by devastating wildfires in central and southern Chilee that was back in February, which then spread over the Pacific Ocean. They followed even more extreme wildfires back in December, which burnt across Europe and the
Americas. The sentinel's atmospheric monitoring systems tracked devastating wildfire emissions around the globe, and it monitored as European wildfire emissions reached their highest levels in fifteen years. Copernicus also studied persistent Atarctic ozone holes in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, and twenty twenty two, which included some unusual behavior. Not only did the closure of the ozone whole last year take longer than usual, but it was
also relatively large. The constellation also kept a close siye on the evolution of Monoloa's volcanic eruption in Hawaii, which wound up spewing out a huge plume of soph of the oxide, and it issued early warnings about spring dust, air pollution and pollen outbreaks across Central Europe, and thanks to Copernicus, scientists are now predicting further very high levels of surface ozone pollution across large areas of Europe.
It's temperature starts saw again this report from a TV. The atmosphere crucial for life on Earth. It makes our planet habitable. However, air pollution has become a serious problem. Human activities are altering our atmosphere at an unprecedented scale. This has an impact on air quality is affecting people's health all around the globe. Studies even show that in the urbanized regions of Europe, ninety
percent of the population is exposed to harmful levels of air pollution. According to the World Earth Organization, adverse equality is responsible of seven million premature of death on a global scale. In Europe, the Environment Agency is estimate to four hundred to five hundred thousand premature death occurring. So this is a very real problem. Air Quality affects our health in many ways, from causing heart and
respiratory disease, to exacerbating asthma and even impacting cognitive abilities. Recent studies have also shown that even relatively low levels of air pollution can affect people's health. In order to better understand this problem and find solutions, scientists need reliable data
on where and how the air is being polluted and how it spreads. This can be done locally by taking in situ measurements, but with satellite data this can be achieved at a larger scale across regions and countries, thus tracking pollution as it's spread by the wind. Over the last two decades, the European Space Agency launched a number of satellites the to observe our atmosphere the measure air pollutants. ESA is involved in the air quality measurements by providing space measurements satellites
that have the capability to measure air pollution trace causes. We started on this during ninety five by putting Come in space this instrumentation. This capability has then been improved step by step by follow on instruments like Eskimaki two or OMI and now with the Copernicus mission Sentinel five precursor, we have clover coverage within one day and this allows for the first time to use this space based measurements to
be implemented in operational services for air quality monitoring but also for forecasting. The Copernicus program, with its Sentinels satellites, has bridged the gap between research and operational services. Using both satellite and institution measurements, the Copernica's atmosphere monitoring services provides information about air composition and quality across the globe at the European level. It's almost like a weather forecast. This information is picked up by media and
smartphone applications, warning the public on poor air quality in their region. With Copernica's Sentinel five P launched in twenty seventeen, which carries a novel instrument called Tropome, a big step was taken to observe sources of air pollution. Now pollution hotspots are clearly visible. This increased spatial resolution comes from Sentinel five P
spectrometer the Tropom instrument. The Tropome instrument is really a big step forward in what we hear, what we can do, and that's for different reasons. I think maybe the most striking when you look at the data is the very good space or resolution. So it can measure with a ground resolution of about three and a half by seven kilometers, which is more an effector of ten
better than what we can that previous instruments had. With its Tropome instrument, Copernicus Sentinel five P is showing how important it is by delivering operational data on air quality every day within the Kaupernicus program, ESA and the EU are already preparing new missions to monitor our atmosphere. For example, one of the potential
future Sentinel missions has been proposed to monitor emissions of carbon dioxide. Our atmosphere is precious, but polluting emissions are both responsible for poor air quality as well as adding to the greenhouse effect driving climate change. By monitoring emissions and understanding how they spread, we might find solutions to keep our planet breathable unsustainable.
And in that report from ESA TV, we heard from Vincent Unripew ahead of Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Services, Sentinel five piece mission manager at ESA, Klaus Zena, and Peepin Vifkin, one of the principal investigators with the Sentinel five P mission. This space 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 is found that sticking to a specific type of Mediterranean diet
known as a mind diet may help reduce dementia risk. Mind diet stands for Mediterranean dietary approaches to stop hypertension intervention for neurodegenerative delay. The findings were ordered in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Looked at two hundred thousand people, finding that those who stuck to the diet had a seventeen percent lower risk
of dementia. The study showed that this type of diet emphasizes natural protein based foods, limits the intake of animal foods and foods high and saturated fats, and uniquely encourages people to eat berries and green leafy vegetables rich in vitaments and antioxidants. Paleontologists have found that, just like modern day elephants, male wooly
mammoths underwent musks, which are testosterone driven changes during the mating season. A report of the journal Nature claims scientists detected hormone fluctuations in the dentine of male mammoth tasks estimated to be roughly thirty nine to thirty three thousand years old, and there were similar to hormonal patterns seen in the tusks of modern day male African elephants and whatever. Scientists say the hormone spikes were smaller in the mammoths
because the mammoth tusks they tested had degraded over thousands of years. But they also tested female mammoth tusks aged around six thousand years old and found no fluctuation in testosterone levels. The findings of the first evidence of must in mammoths based on hormonal data, demonstrating the potential of teeth and tusks for shitting new light
on the live history of events in extinct animals. A new study has shown that chat gpt is capable of answering questions about medical advice at a standard that's often higher than what a doctor can provide, assuming, of course, the AIS being honest. The findings are reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggest that AIS could play a role in helping overwarm doctors draft better,
quicker responses to questions. The authors simply asked the chat gpt to answer questions submitted to Reddit's ask stocks that have already been answered by verified doctors, and the team of licensed health professionals then judged the response to determine which had
the better quality of information and better bedside manner. The authors found that the chat GPT's response turned out being better for seventy eight point six percent of the questions answered Now, of course it read it threads, not the same as a doctor's office, but the results do show that AIS could help doctors deliver
information in the best easiest way possible in the future. Now, while we're on the subject of artificial intelligence, Jeffrey Hinton, the man widely seen as the father of artificial intelligence, has Quitty's job with Google, warning about the growing dangers from developments in AI. The seventy five year old announced his resignation in the statement to The New York Times, saying he now regretted his work, and later telling the BBC that the dangers of AI chatbots are quite scary.
Hinton's pioneering research on deep learning in neural networks pave the way for today's AI systems like chat GPT four. Hitton's major AI breakthrough came back in twenty twelve when his team successfully created an algorithm which could analyze images in the process
identifying common elements such as people, dogs, or cars. Now, that was only a rudimentary algorithm, but it would eventually lead to today's current level of AIS like open AI, chat, GPT four and Google's bad Hitten warns that AIS will soon be more intelligent than humans if they aren't already and they're already eclipsing humans in the amount of general knowledge they hold. Hitten's fees also worker those expressed in a public letter earlier this year by more than a thousand
other tech leaders, including Elon Musk and Steve Wasn't the act. They called for a six month halt in AI development because of concerns over its use. Hitten says he's especially worried about bad actors like Russian president that to me Putin, who could use AI for bad things, such as getting more power. Technology editor alexaharav Royt from Take Advice, Start Life says his actions are significance. It's interesting that someone says that they regret their life's work. I mean,
that's a pretty amazing statement. He did get his PhD and artificial intelligence forty five years ago, so human kind has been thinking about this for a long long time. Originally just something that was science fiction, but here nearly fifty years later, and it's becoming true. And he did say that he consoles himself with a normal excuse. If he hadn't done it, he says, somebody else would have it. It's hard to see how he can prevent
bad actors from using it for bad things. What's he scared of? Is it the Skynet thing? Look, I think that's a worried go on the track. But at the moment he fears that the Internet could be flooded with misinformation. Come on, that's the ABC and CNN's job. Sure well, we haven't had fake news for quite some time without the power of AI. We've had that through organic intelligence. But Hinton was concerned that we just won't
know what's true. We have had the case just in the last couple of weeks where a German magazine called The Actuel published a world first interview with Michael Schumacher and hinted that it was deceptively real. And it turns out when people read the actual interview that the whole thing was generated by something from character dot AI, which allows you to talk to famous people who are either no longer with us or, in Michael Schumacher's case, are obviously not able to speak
anymore. He said in the New York Times article that everyone's been quoting. He says, the idea that this stuff could actually gets smarter than people. A few people believed that, he says, but most people thought it was way off, and I thought it was way off. I thought it was thirty to fifty years or even longer away. Obviously, he says, I no longer think that. And in fact, the article seemed to imply that
Hinton left Google so that he could criticize Google. But he said in the tweet that he left so that he could talk about the dangers of AI without considering how this impacts Google. He reckons at Google has acted very responsibly. Now. The thing is that AI has already gone mad in certain circumstances. Microsoft has had to put the brakes on its own version of chat GBT for the Big AI. It's also become woken politically biased. That's all down other
people who are of course programming. Yeah, absolutely absolutely. I mean this is where individuals and companies are going to have to end up with their own systems, their own AI systems that can be filled with the information that you have read it. I mean, already Samsung has banned its staff from using
chat GPT. Samsung had discovered that some of its staff had been putting sensitive information about unreleased products and also into chat tiput and also asking it to provide summaries of meetings where sensitive topics were discussed, and this information is being used by chat GPT without chat tiputs knowledge that Samsung will necessarily put it in there, but it's just being used to train the system and could easily be regurgitated
in answers that it gives to other people, because that's how these chatbots work. They are incredibly proficient aggregation and regurgitation machines. They give the appearance of being intelligent because they've got so much information at their disposal that they know what, in theory the correct things are to say in regards saying response, But again it all depends what has been input into the system. And another concern
is that now we've got AI systems which can even read your mind. Yeah, they're getting individuals to train themselves on a system that can analyze the patterns of their brain and then they can take this analysis run it through a GPT. It's a version one GPT, not the three point four or five years today, and the GPTs results or responses Hugh very closely to what it is that they say they were thinking about all what they were seeing in a video.
So this is the beginning of actually being able to have technology read your mind and give out results. The great minds that Apple and Google have come together and they've discovered whoop you do? People don't like being tracked? Why did it attack them so long? It's not that people didn't like tracking.
I mean you were able to track your friends on iPhones. Using to Find my Friends, you could switch on the ability to share your location for an hour or for the rest of the day, or even on an ongoing basis. Arents use these tracking features. Let me ask you a question here, do you really if your tracker on or do you turn it off like I
turn off? I turn it off. But if I'm going to a friends place, for example, and then I might turn it on for the hour so they can see how long I'm going to be, that can actually tell the distance I am away. I use this with my sister the other day.
She was coming to visit with her boyfriend, and I told her, you know, turn your tracking on for the next hour, because they were about narrow way and it was really cool to be able to see ow they're ten minutes away, they're outside, and you know, you could sort of not have to worry about where they were. Now. The problem is when people have been using the Tile and the Apple trackers to track people, to
track ex partners, to track cars, to store people. And Apple has been the only company that actually alerts you to the fact that you have a tracker that is not one of your trackers, that seems to be staying with you, is in your area. The Tile tracker doesn't do that. Other trackers haven't done that, and so Apple has actually been responsible in this area by alerting people though even delivered an app that Android users can install to see
if there's any Apple trackers around them. But Apple and Google have jointless submitted a proposed industry specification. This is to help combat the misuse of Bluetooth location tracking devices to unwanted tracking. And that's the first of us kind specification. That's Alexahara Royd from Tech Advice, Start Live, and that's the show for
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