Comet Births and Neptune’s Secrets

0:00This is Space Time Series 29 episode 109 for broadcast on September 11th, 2026. Coming up on Space Time. When this thing the birth of a comet. New mysteries about the moons of the planet Neptune. And NASA's Roman Space Telescope blasts off found for orbit beyond the moon. All that and more coming up on Space Time. More than 5 billion kilometers from Earth. An ancient ice object is slowly awakening. Astronomers are witnessing a distant frozen world known as a centaur in the process of transforming into an active comet. The discovery reported in the Planetary Science Journal is

1:01offering a rare look at how some comets are formed. Centaur is a small ice objects that typically orbit between Jupiter and Neptune in the outer solar system. They're thought to have originated beyond Neptune in the kuiper belt, a ring of frozen world circling the Sun. But as this particular centaur catalogued as 450 pilionios, drift slowly inwards, it's begun releasing gas and dust. And that's a behaviour normally associated with comets. The studies lead author Charles Shambho from the University of Central Florida. Says centaur is scientifically important because they're thought to be transitional objects that originated much further out of the solar system and are slowly evolving towards becoming Jupiter family comets. He says they provide a way to study relatively primitive material from the outer solar system while it's still only beginning to respond to stronger solar hating. Shambho and colleagues have been monitoring this distant object using the web-space telescope

2:01and the Gemini North Observatory in Hawaii. They have detected carbon dioxide gas, icy dust and signs of recent thermal activity surrounding the centaur. The authors believe that 450 pilionis began waking up following a close gravitational encounter with satin in 1992, which significantly altered its orbit. They found the interaction moved the centaur inwards from a more distant trajectory, bringing its pere helium that's the point of its orbit closest to the Sun closer to Jupiter. The authors observed the gret formation of a faint coma that's a cloud of gas and dust surrounding the nucleus commonly associated with cometry activity. Continued monitoring between 2019 and 2024 showed the coma becoming increasingly visible as the object's distance from the Sun decreased. Shambho says this increased solar heating can warm the surface and subsurface layers of the nucleus. And as these layers heat up, volatile ises or trapped gases can be released, which can drag away dust from the surface, producing a coma. One of the studies most significant discoveries

3:05came from the detection of carbon dioxide gas surrounding 450 pilionis at a distance where ordinary water ice would typically vaporize. They found strong evidence of carbon dioxide emissions, but no signs of water vapor or carbon monoxide, suggesting the carbon dioxide is likely driving the centaur's activity. The observations also revealed icy dust grains within the coma, including possible signs of crystalline water ice, mature that may well preserve evidence of the object's thermal evolution as it warms in its new orbit. Shambho says the carbon dioxide detections important because it directly identifies one of the gases likely driving the activity. At its current distance from the Sun, the nucleus is too cold for normal water ice sublimation to be the main activity source. So detecting carbon dioxide gives astronomers an important clue about what's powering the coma. The possible crystalline water ice is also interesting because it suggests that some of the ice in the coma's experienced heating or physical processing rather than remaining completely unchanged since formation. Only a relatively small fraction of known

4:11centaur's show visible activity, making objects like 450 piliotis especially valuable, studying how primitive icy bodies evolve over time. The research suggests the object's recent activity may be linked to warming beneath its surface. As buried amorphous ice, an irregular form of ice that traps gases inside its porous structure, warms and transforms into crystalline ice, it releases carbon dioxide gas into space, carrying dust with it and creating the coma. This process may explain how 450 piliotis became active after its orbital change and began receiving more sunlight. The release gas can escape through the porous nucleus and then lift dust grains into the surrounding coma. The findings are providing scientists with a better understanding of how distant icy bodies gradually evolve into active comets which periodically visit the inner solar system, coming closer to the Earth. This is space time. Still to come, new mysteries about the moons of

5:11Neptune and NASA's Roman space telescope blasts off bound for orbit beyond the moon. All that and more still to come. On space time. While we're dealing with the outer solar system, a new study has revealed that three of Neptune's inner moons may actually be the shattered remains of ancient icy worlds. The findings reported in the journal Science Advances show the composition of the Neptuneian moons Larissa, Galatir and Proteus are unique among outer solar system bodies. In 1989, the Voyager 2 mission discovered six new moons orbiting Neptune, including five tiny ones that orbit just inside the planet's main rings. Because of their small sizes and locations, they said lights have been difficult to study from Earth until now. But using NASA's web space telescope, scientists have not been able to observe Neptune's rings in some of these tiny moons in greater detail. The new study suggests there may

6:12have been an original moon system that was demolished when Triton Neptune's largest moon was likely captured by the planet's gravity after it formed elsewhere in the solar system, most likely is a hyperbilled object similar to Pluto with Sharon. The study's authors believe remnants left behind from this cosmic collision then created together to form the inner moons we see today. The study's lead author Rayleigh Davis from Caltech says that if Neptune once had a system of moons that looked something like what we see around Uranus today, it would have been completely destroyed as Triton got captured. Davis says something catastrophic happened at Neptune, which completely destroyed its original satellites and what's there now are the fingerprints left behind by that process. Neptune's a curious planet as it's the only one in the solar system that lacks a typical moon system of large-ordered satellites, meaning its evolutionary pathway might also be unique. In fact, another recent study suggests Neptune's moon No-Rid may be the sole surviving intact member of its original moon family. To look for more clues that could help

7:17reconstruct Neptune's history, Davis and colleagues examined the planet's inner moons. Until recently, no spectroscopic data existed for these moons. Spectrographs such as the need for an instrument on web split light into its many wavelengths will obtain information about the chemical makeup of astronomical targets thereby enabling scientists to identify the molecules present. And the authors were shocked to find magnesium-rich phylasylicates in the spectra of lyrissa, gallotia, and the Neptuneian rings. You see, these mineral clays only form in the presence of liquid water, and liquid water has never been detected anywhere in the outer solar system beyond Jupiter before. And yet no water ice is indicated by the spectra of any of the three moons studied or the rings for that matter. That means there must have come from objects that were much bigger than Neptune's small inner-ring moons. Davis says everything that far out is really icy. So the phylasylicates must have come from something deep inside something that was big enough to generate enough heat that it melted its original water ice. And the most likely place would have been an original system

8:23of icy moons, although it's a bit of a mystery as to where the ice may have gone. And don't forget, these phylasylicates weren't present on Prodeus, the largest of the small moons being investigated. That suggests it may have creeded from a different region of the debris disc, or alternatively undergone subsequent heating that destroyed any clay minerals present. The authors also found that each of the three moons have a collection of hydrated minerals that they're unable to identify. Davis says it means they're seeing something that doesn't look like anything that ever seen before, and it doesn't match anything in the spectral library. She's assuming it's some form of hydrated rock, but there's still a lot of mystery. While the author's favour of this primordial satellite destruction hypothesis, they point out that an alternative explanation involving tidal shredding can't be ruled out. Tidal shredding would involve a large differentiated copper-billed object, similar in size to say Pluto, that passed too close to Neptune, and was torn apart by the planet's gravity. Either way, Davis and colleagues are seeing something on these moons that had to have

9:26come from deep inside something much larger. It's a fascinating discovery. This is space time. Still to come, NASA's Roman Space Telescope blasts off bound for orbit beyond the moon, and later in the science report, a new study has found a link between flavoured chemicals and some vapes and problems with pregnancy. All that and more still to come, on space time. NASA's next great flagship cosmic observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, has successfully launched into space, bound for orbit on the dark side of the Earth beyond the moon. The spectacular lift-off took place aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Space in Florida. T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,

10:36ignition, and lift-off, go Falcon Heavy and go Roman Space Telescope. And lift-off of NASA's Roman Space Telescope on a mission to revolutionize our understanding of the Earth. Oh, and what deep temperatures are in our little. Falcon Heavy has cleared the tower, is on its way to the space. After separating from the core stage, the rocket's side boosters safely returned to the launch site for recovery and refurbishment. Side boosters separation confirmed. Stage separation, PY, Boosters, and Y Boosters start up. And there's confirmation of the Boosters start up on those two side core boosters. So at this point, both Falcon Heavy side boosters are performing their Boosters, which is the first of three burns. Each side booster will undergo on the way back to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Now, the primary objective of the Boosters is to quickly reorient the side boosters onto the required return trajectories. And this is required in the event of a return to a launch site as opposed to a drone ship ocean recovery. And today, they're headed towards landing zones two and 40 in Florida. Now, meanwhile, in the center core, the nine M1D engines are continuing

11:40to power Falcon Heavy on its nominal trajectory. They're set to burn for about another 12 seconds or so. And then they'll throttle down and we'll have our Miko, our main engine cutoff of that. And then we'll have stage separation of this center core and the second stage shortly thereafter. The main core and second stage separate from one another and we just heard that call out for second engine start up. Bearing separation confirmed, all vehicles are following nominal trajectories. Roman is now on a three month, one and a half million kilometer journey to the Lagrangian L2 position. A sort of gravitational well where it can maintain position relative to the earth without expanding a great deal of fuel. Once in position, Roman will begin its initial five-year mission to reveal some of the universe's darkest secrets, including new clues about the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. Unlike the Hubble and web space telescopes, which focus on individual objects in the sky, Roman will capture whole cosmic ecosystems, discovering things

12:40site us never even existed. Seven minutes after launch, mission control teams at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbought, Maryland began receiving telemetry data from the telescope. nominal orbit insertion Falcon Heavy rocket performed as expected, separating from the observatory 31 minutes into the flight. Few hours later, the observatory's solar panels and lower instrument sunshade were deployed, followed by its high gain antenna and visor-like deployable aperture cover. Mission managers then initiated the first of two mid-course corrections and the coronavirus instrument was also powered on. This instrument will demonstrate the sorts of technology that future missions like the Haberable Worlds Observatory can use to image Earth-like planets. Roman's coronagraph will take a giant step in that direction by snapping pictures of Jupiter-like planets. Next on the list, Roman's primary wide-thought instrument will activate. This 300-megapixel infrared camera has 18 4K detectors each about the size of a

13:41cracker. These detectors will collect photons that will be decoded into crisp cosmic panoramas. Throughout the rest of Roman's three-month commissioning period, scientists will run the instruments through a series of calibrations and tests. Daser anticipates releasing Roman's first images early next year. This report from Master TV. 16 years ago, the science community asked for an infrared survey telescope. And for the last 10 years, the best in the world have been building it. The pieces have come from all over. Small firms across the United States. Aerospace industry leaders. Research centers like JPL. They took shape and joined systems built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. One of the few facilities in the world, capable of handling a project of this magnitude. Here, the team assembled those pieces. The spacecraft bus,

14:42holding everything the observatory needs to thrive in space. The high-gain antenna system, communicating with Earth over a million miles away. The coronavirus performing magic with physics to see distant worlds, the wide field instrument, scanning the sky with a massive field of view, and the primary mirror assembly. The singular light-catching eye. They were joined with protective layers that shield them from the intense glare of the sun and generate all the power the observatory will ever need. Fully assembled, the observatory was subjected to another battery of tests. And then, prepared for careful transport to the Kennedy Space Center. The final work at Kennedy is done and the observatory is complete. This is space time.

15:48And time-medic, another brief look at some of the other stories making used in science this week with the science report. Siders have found a link between flavor chemicals in some vapes and pregnancy problems. A report in the journal Human Reproduction claims the chemical compound Vanilla, the primary organic ingredient responsible for the characteristic smell and taste of Vanilla in e-sigurettes, could be disrupting the normal development of embryos in pregnant women have vaped. The authors believe Vanilla might affect embryos through a receptor called TRPV4. Human embryonic stem cells expose to different concentrations of Vanilla in lab tests, as well as an antibody that stops Vanilla from binding to TRPV4 receptors and to various combinations of the two, found the TRPV4 channel was used by Vanilla to adversely impact the cells with high concentrations tending to kill them and lower concentrations causing the cells to lose their ability to develop into any other type of cell. A new study is confirmed that flight attendance and pilots have the highest risk of death from radiation-related cancers.

16:52The findings reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at oncology outcomes in over 500 occupations. They found that airline flight crew had an even higher risk of cancer than nuclear technologists. The authors say that pilots and flight attendants accrue an estimated 3-6 ms per year of cosmic radiation, roughly the equivalent to the radiation from 30-60 standard chest X-rays and far greater than the 0.4 ms you'd get from taking 10 cross-country roundtrip flights a year. A new study is found that a growing plant disease spreading across parts of Western Australia is linked to a habitat loss and less digging activity by native animals such as the Southern Brown Bandicoot. The new findings reported in the journal Austral ecology shows that fauna-thora dyeback is connected to a reduction in the habitat quality and digging activity of Southern Brown Bandicoots in Western Australia's priceless jaropharists. The authors found that compared with healthy forests dyeback-affected areas had 46% less low

17:56scrub cover, 45% fewer habitable grass trees and 40% more bare ground. They also found that Bandicoot digging activity was 33% lower in dyeback-infested areas. Scientists claim they're working on a tent that can supply its own electricity. A report in the journal matters claims the new tent harnesses energy from the environment around it and it could one day provide a more livable environment for people without homes. The tent uses a phenomenon called magnetoelasticity to convert movement in the tent material caused by outside influences including human activity, wind and rain into energy. The authors say the process can harness enough energy to power small electronic devices which could allow people living off grid or in tents as a form of temporary shelter to have a higher quality of life without relying on external power sources. Britain's sun newspaper has been trying to push a ghost story that will be more in home in a B-class movie. The sun claims it's the real thing but as the skeptics

18:58Tim Minden points out I pervola takes it all just a step or should there be a rather giant leap too far. This is a story from a recognized journal of note, the sun in the UK which strikes me as a poppable. This is about the most violent poltergeist ever seen. The story has children being choked and branded, their possessions and being thrown around the roof. I mean large possessions, furniture, chairs, big pots etc. Mad monks, flying eggs, blood-purdling screams and push chairs being launched downstairs. You name it, this particular story has it and the weirdest thing is that there are people who are in these houses where these things are happening. All the horrible things stay after that today and they stay there. A priest comes in to do this then they pre-stills and forget out the excess of stuff. Although this original story apparently happened in the mid-60s before the excess of birds so many things happening. The place in Yorkshire called Pontifracts in town and family with a couple of kids being harassed by this extremely violent hands-on ghost. Most ghosts don't do. They like the muffins over. What is it with ghosts?

19:58They are the ephemeral things that just go moving around through the walls etc. All of a push through the objects around like a petulant child. But this one is actually grabbing people, branding them, pushing them up and downstairs, knocking things over, trying to attack them. It's family who were there, sort of apparently just put up with this variety. And I sometimes wonder if this particular story was actually made up. I don't know. I don't know enough about it. Amityville Horror was made up. Yeah, what was the other one, the famous one in the UK, where the two daughters were in their voices and all sorts of stuff and there was obviously fake. Well, they actually made a play out of it in various TV programs. Yeah, this sounds like a, it's just too much of what this person is doing. It's just incident after incident after incident after incident after incident. And the summer trading is a real story. The summer trading is a real well. It's an urban story that's been going around. How much truth is any is in it? I don't know. This one just sounds so extreme. You wouldn't last day in the place of all these things were happening to you. All the one time been branded with a crucifix and dragged and throttled, choked, dragged up the stairs, dragged down the stairs. Things been thrown at you all the time. All sorts of things happening. I don't it sounds a bit exaggerated to me perhaps just some of the unenolved cynic. I don't know. Look, I have

21:02things smashed at my place all the time that's usually the cat. Well, I've got things to do with something like that. We won't go there. No, since there was some things that make me feel. That's the skeptics Tim Mendham. And this is Space Time. And that's the show for now. Space time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through at Bites.com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast download provider, and from Space Time with Stuart Gary.com. Space Times also broadcasts through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both I Heart Radio and Tune in Radio. And you can help to support our show by visiting the Space Time store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies or by becoming a Space Time patron, which gives you access to triple episode commercial free versions of the show,

22:04as well as lots of bonus audio content which doesn't go to air, access to our exclusive Facebook group and other rewards. Just go to Space Time with Stuart Gary.com for full details.