Wednesday 3 March started just like every other day in 2021. We were working from home. But by mid-afternoon, our colleague Luke had told us to pack our bags and fill our petrol tanks, just in case we got the OK to go on a meteorite hunt.
Four days earlier, a fireball had been spotted flying through the skies in the south of England. The flash had been captured on local people’s doorbell video cameras. It was particularly bright – a sign that meteorites might be waiting to be found.
A piece of rock flying through space is called a meteoroid. When it enters Earth’s atmosphere, causing a flash, what you see is a meteor. If any of the rock makes its way to Earth’s surface, then it becomes a meteorite.
A 'Relic of The Early Solar System' Was Just Found on a Driveway in England
NICOLETTA LANESE, LIVE SCIENCE
9 MARCH 2021
A meteorite found in the UK contains an extremely rare combination of minerals that could give scientists a glimpse into how the Solar System formed and even how life emerged on Earth.
The meteorite tumbled to Earth on February 28, when a dazzling fireball zoomed over southwest England, Live Science previously reported. At the time, scientists suspected that quite a few fragments of the space rock likely reached the ground.
One such fragment landed on a driveway in Winchcombe, a town in Gloucestershire, according to a statement from the Natural History Museum in London.
It looks like a broken barbeque brickette, but the newfound meteorite is a capsule of the Solar System's history that could reveal the secrets of the origin of life.
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Experts say a rare chunk of space rock, believed to contain the most primitive material in the solar system, is in such good shape that it's comparable to samples returned...
As people in the UK were settling down to watch the late evening news on February 28, a fresh news story, quite literally, appeared in the night sky. A large and very bright fireball was seen over southern England and northern France at 21:54 GMT. It was recorded by many doorbell webcams, so it was a very well-observed fireball. More importantly, it was also captured by the automated cameras of the UK Meteor Observation Network and similar networks.
Working with colleagues in France and Australia, the meteor-watchers worked out the fireball’s trajectory and determined where the meteorite pieces could be located, just north of Cheltenham in the UK. Based on their calculations, Ashley King, a specialist in meteorites at the Natural History Museum in London, made an appeal on local TV and radio stations for information about any unusual black rocks seen to have fallen from the sky.
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Care for a slice of Mars? You can now bid on rare meteorites and gems from outer space
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Care for a slice of Mars? You can now bid on rare meteorites and gems from outer spaceBy
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Christie’s 'Deep Impact: Martian Lunar and Other Rare Meteorites' is an online-only sale of rare meteorites.
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Included in Deep Impact are a meteorite that contains the oldest matter mankind can touch and another that contains the raw ingredients of our planets.
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It’s time to get out of this world quite literally with an auction that is putting rare meteorites and gems from outer space on sale.
https://www.afinalwarning.com/494684.html (Natural News) A new study published in the journal
Science Advances shows that high heat and pressures are not enough to produce diamonds – these majestic crystals may also need small electric fields to crystallize.
As part of their study, German and Russian researchers mimicked conditions in the mantle, the layer beneath Earth’s crust where most diamonds are thought to form. By doing so, they found that diamonds grew only when exposed to an electric field.
“Our results clearly show that electric fields should be considered as an important additional factor that influences the crystallization of diamonds,” Yuri Palyanov, a Russian diamond specialist and the lead researcher of the study, said in a statement.
Analysis by UChicago scientists reverses earlier findings, suggests large temperature swings
A new analysis of ceramic chips embedded in meteorites suggests the formation of our solar system was not as quiet and orderly as we once thought.
A new study from University of Chicago scientists builds evidence that the baby solar system likely witnessed wild temperature swings and changing conditions—contradicting the decades-old theory that the solar system had gradually and steadily cooled following the formation of the Sun.
Published Jan. 6 in
Science Advances, the study finds its answers in gifts from outer space. Because rocks on Earth are constantly pulled under tectonic plates, melted and reformed, they don’t offer much evidence for what our solar system looked like four and half billion years ago. Instead, scientists look to meteorites.
Public feels regarding these ongoing protests N.P.R.'s Emily Fang Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led a weekly cabinet meeting yesterday his 1st thing being indicted on charges of bribery fraud and breach of trust N.P.R.'s Daniel Estrin reports it on Yahoo is accused of abusing his power to help wealthy businessmen and media moguls in exchange for cigars champagne and positive press Natanya who says he did nothing wrong and will not resign many senior members of Netanyahu is right wing Likud Party are staying silent about the indictment but some Likud lawmakers are calling for party leadership primaries one of them don't Sar demands primaries be held within the next 2 weeks he wants to unseat Netanyahu as head of the Likud Party and then try to form a coalition government with centrist Benny Gantz if a government isn't formed within several weeks Israel will hold new national elections for the 3rd time in a year Daniel Estrin n.p.r. News Jerusalem this is n.p.r. . Security forces opened fire on protesters in Baghdad and several other Iraqi cities yesterday police and medical sources say at least 9 people were killed at least 339 people have been dyad been killed since the anti-government protests began early last month mostly young people are taking to the streets demanding jobs better government services and an end to corruption the u.s. And the u.n. Are denouncing the use of force against peaceful demonstrators heavy rain has pummeled southern France over the weekend causing widespread flooding and at least 3 deaths N.P.R.'s Eleanor Beardsley reports. Queer speak that with these old all scenes of destruction flooded the nightly news raging rivers that had burst their banks people and animals being rescued by helicopter aseptic generic and a retired couple are still missing after the weekend of torrential rains electricity has been cut to thousands of homes in the town of blue Johns The river rose 21 feet above its bed and water flowed through houses and restaurants firefighters initiated more than 2000 rescue operations in the worst flooding since 1940 the French interior minister visited rescuers and victims in the region Sunday Eleanor Beardsley n.p.r. News Paris officials in northwestern Kenya say at least 56 people have died in floods and mudslides since Friday several villages are inaccessible by road after bridges were swept away scientists say warming oceans are causing unpredictable weather patterns in East Africa I'm nor rom n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the vital projects fund supporting the Museum of Modern Art moma has reopened with expanded galleries and new spaces for a live performance making art and conversation more info at Moma dot org. Thanks very much indeed for the latest news there from the b.b.c. News room it's Ben James with you on this edition of. In Hong Kong 5 past 4 in the afternoon Lawrence is in London bringing you the stories of the moment from around the world but here in Hong Kong it's all about the election number of people took part in this city this territory on Sunday 71 percent. Cast their vote for District Council election that's normally not so much prominence but this time around it was seen as. Recent times the last 6 months government process of response from the government to those protests the police there's been. 347 out of 452 councilors elected a pro democracy candidates around 3 quarters of those elected it means they went 1718 counts. Unprecedented We're talking through these results with you as a journalist in chip a columnist and commentator a. Very close to a carrier the chief executive has. She's the leader of this territory what the district council. Of power do they have all these new pro-democracy Representatives . Local issues like. In building positions. Really important people. Necessarily always be seen as having lots of power but we heard just talking about there's a way of building a platform for. I mean you have. To give a bit of a performance. Now. Politically sensitive. Like I don't know whether you've heard of a couple who is very. Educated in the West in the West now we have. Been. Losing their job opportunities in the Hong Kong because of political sense. They don't even get a chance to be invited. In the street during the Chinese New Year or festivals or whatever so on a local level new district could invite them. Back they were coming back because if the city councils occupy or dominated by Democrats they've got the resources allocated to them from the governments that's one really interesting example of how change things in this city we're talking about a political divide here aren't we in Hong Kong which can run deep as we've been finding out we can run 3 groups of friends 3 families as well so we wanted to find out about what sort of impact that might be having in people's homes so I want to play a conversation I had with someone we're going to call Samantha it's not her real name she's 30 years old and she wanted her identity to be protected Deb when we went over to the apartment she shares with her now a mom was out working the phones for a pro Beijing candidate in the council elections some months is on the other side she supports the protests. She told us it's led to some difficult mother daughter conversations my mom always say that protester they are actually making a great fun of themselves because they make Hong Kong worse in the. Past that all the arguments get hit because at the end of the day shows that you have no chance to win the Communist Party let's stop here if you know that you have no chance to win why do all the fuss. Do you ever think. Mainland China the Communist party that runs it it's huge it's very very powerful she might be thinking that that's the programmatic view that in the end mainland China will hold sway we have to voice l. We need to tell the world that we do not like this kind of ruling instead of like accepting it quietly. Why do you think you have a different view to your mom and maybe more of her generation what is it about your upbringing that has led you to different points of view she is that new immigrant from the eighty's from China she came to Hong Kong because at that time Hong Kong has more job opportunities she always thing that work will bring better life to her family she's actually a blue collar worker but I myself is a white collar University graduate so tell her that our society is not improving at all but she still host a view that in Annie so sad to see how work pays off it's not about the government it's only about our willingness to be hard working enough or not not to overspend not to travel a lot so I think her experience and my education actually divide our views a lot what do you want from the future then how do you see Hong Kong in the future developing in a way that you would want it to develop. Them and really listen to his people that this responsibility is people more than the central government I will say that Hong Kong now is in the situation worse than and the city of China Hong Kong we 150 Chinese immigrants to Hong Kong every day and we Hong Kong government do not have the approval right to dose 150 immigrants to Hong Kong it's all from China the approval. So that's putting pressure on Hong Kong you feel and also is it changing the character of Hong Kong maybe in your opinion yeah I would say so because they have a different a bringing from us they will have different political view and they still have to voting rights like us so if more and more people come and to dilute our local people I think the place you know will become more prone to the central government so it is why at this point of time we have to fight we have to tell the world that we do not want to be just. Because we are called this special and illustrated region so we should have some special rate. That's the sake of a vote we're calling her and also a little window into some of the disagreement she's had with her mom or pick up on some of those themes about the relationships that people have here what the conversations have been within families and groups of friends when we come back to Hong Kong a bit later on. 14 minutes past the hour now to an extraordinary route that's broken out in the upper echelons of the u.s. Military the secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer has gone or has been asked to go it's just the latest twist in the case you may remember of a Special Forces officer tried recently for war crimes Edward Gallagher Navy Seal much decorated was accused of war crimes in Iraq in a very high profile case he was acquitted of all charges except posing with a corpse for which he was demoted president all Trump wanted his rank restored and tweeted to that effect the military hierarchy wanted to do it their way with boards of inquiry and so on and the secretary of the Navy Spencer was caught up in trying to broker deals behind the scenes sort of basically square the circle now Gallagher himself the Navy Seal claimed that the president's tweet was an order because after all the president is the commander in chief the military top brass weren't quite so sure and now it ended up costing secretary of the Navy His job is being covered in depth by Navy Times an independent news outfit I asked editor Carl Prine what was behind all this the admirals in this have pushed this moment as we see it what's their motivation they seem to have wanted to showdown with the president they wanted to show for their own internal disciplinary reasons that they were going to get tough on insubordination within the ranks which makes this a difficult moment right because in the United States the president's the commander in chief so are you also being insubordinate to the president the president has tweeted a wish the department offenses not sure if it's an order but he has tweeted a wish commander's intent and in this case his intent was that they would lay off it Gallagher these trend review boards are seen as really clear if they're widely seen within the ranks being a punitive measure so they don't like it so so by sympathizing with Gallagher and against these boards once again the president is coming out in effect on behalf of the order. Guy the remark an ordinary guy in many interpretations but the lowish Well ma'am I think that's the reason why sailors have done such delight out of the story is because it is because they see this man swooping down from the very highest echelons of the White House and he intervenes in this case why this case is still a puzzle but he intervenes in this case not him in the other tens of thousands of cases they go on in the military or every time he has intervened it's been very good for any Gallagher as it turns out the court martial of a delegate collapsed for a lot of different reasons in fact the Navy put a tracking beacon into our e-mail server at maybe times to find out who or sources were so this isn't a big scandal in United States oh wow there's been a lot of things that have gone on here. At some point the gods go to war and that's what's happened here you have head and you have the God who is the the president and you have the God who is the secular the Navy knew of the God who is the secretary of defense secretary the Navy is the 3rd most powerful god in this picture and he's the one who's out tonight and what do the rank and file think therefore what do they think about the Gallagher thing to they think that it was a witch hunt or did they think that it was a reasonable sort of interpretation of military standards so I think there's a lot of support for the court martial itself at least the idea was we were going to find out during the court martial What were the real facts in this case so that's interesting so so it's not a simple kind of like protect the boys kind of thing it was already more sophisticated than that the impression always was that the president was simplifying it into let's defend our American Boy it wasn't that simple no it never is right I mean this is a war crimes trial so there are hard feelings on sides Gallagher always said he was innocent of these charges and in fact the panel agreed with them except for one thing he did pose with a body of a dead detainee he didn't murder the detainee as people at 1st said well indeed and the end result is what when the dust settles and we look at the relations between Trump and the military with an election on the way as well what's the result of this in a dirty compound outside morsel in Iraq 2 years ago something happened person dies we have different claims about how he died but in the end a court marshal collapses in a man who's free from all of that from what happened in that compound we have watched chaos descend on the Navy we have a navy that has sent tracking spyware to defense attorneys into Navy Times we have admirals who have forced a showdown with the secretary the Navy and the secure the fence and the president and then we've lost the secretary the Navy and we're getting a new one so out of all of these things that happened in Iraq 2 years ago we have this. Terrible fallout and this crisis in traditional civil military relations in the United States it's been an extraordinary extraordinary week Navy Times and it's a col prime Navy Times is should say Well as you heard there an independent news outfit covering Navy a famous. You're listening to news day on the b.b.c. World Service with Ben James here in Hong Kong Lawrence poll Art in London our top story is from the b.b.c. Needs 3 more on Hong Kong their chief executive here Kerry Lamb has said she'll listen to public views after pro-democracy groups swept the floor in local elections there Matthew Kenyon has the sports headlines Matthew when I went to bed here in Hong Kong last night Sheffield United were to know that. Didn't quite finish that bet no indeed it was a remarkable game in the English Premier League on Sunday Sheffield united against Manchester United finished 33 because after Ben went to bed United scored 3 times as Manchester United scored 3 times and then the final minute Sheffield United got an equaliser early going to sell shares verdict after that game his team had learned a valuable lesson and he said Last season they probably have lost it one game in the English Premier League tonight to Aston Villa against Newcastle United Newcastle boss Steve Bruce returning develop park for the 1st time since he was sacked by them the last time he was there indeed somebody threw a cabbage at him tens maybe hundreds of thousands of flamenco fans were on the streets of Rio de Janeiro on Sunday to celebrate their victory in the copper liberty to Doris there was some violence at the end of the day actually they were also celebrating sealing the domestic title in Brazil without playing a notable weekend all round for Flamengo Palmer's got beaten by Grammy and that means that flamenco can't be caught at the top and a Superman performance from Raf on the down according to one of his teammates the great Spaniard closed out the win for his country in the Davis Cup on home court in Madrid on Sunday against Canada 25000 people including the king in the stadium where 20 past the hour thank you Matthew off air I've been getting a little lesson in takeovers from Matt because it's his subject today it's very interesting actually he's going to share the public side of the story because there's a $33000000000.00 takeover between 2 well tech stalwarts I suppose are they still 0 h.p. So tell us more well I think I'll still text thoughts this is an offer. Xerox made for h.p. Last week of $33000000000.00 and the board of h.p. Rejected it so is Iraq said fine we'll take it to your shareholders and that's where a bid becomes what we call hostile h.p. Is basically the old printer in p.c. Business of what used to be called Hewlett Packard and of course Xerox can trace its roots back more than 100 years but h.p. Is at least twice as big as Xerox and sees this takeover and as a bit of an insult the words aggressive and opportunistic were used in its rejection statement here's a technology analyst Chris Green Xerox paying more than he's been and Xerox their hopes because the larger business has involvement in a number of other marketplaces not just imaging it's also divest itself of other challenging businesses such as enterprise software on which it's farmed off as part of Haiti enterprise a couple of years ago so it's in better shape but it is also still struggling with the fact that the way the people use computers the way the people use printers and other things is evolving and there is hitting its traditional markets Xerox on the other hand is a much smaller company you know it's struggled to reinvent itself through innovation so it's looking at potentially doing it through acquisition but it is a significant acquisition to make and it's going to have to take on significant debt to do it that's the tech analyst Chris Green but the outcome of all this could lie with just one man the billionaire investor car I can he owns 4 percent of h.p. And more than 10 percent of Xerox and he's very keen that this corporate marriage goes ahead and one quick extra business headline for you more takeover news the luxury goods giant l b m h makers of Mowbray champagne and Louis Vuitton handbags has reached an agreement to buy the jeweler Tiffany for just over $16000000000.00 And that is a corporate wedding reception that you. Rather like to go to yes a nice Christmas present for someone as well thank you very much indeed they were the business 23 minutes past the hour now let's talk about Michael Bloomberg rebranded Mike man of the people Bloomberg because he's just confirmed he's going to spend an awful lot of his billions in trying to become the Democratic candidate in next year's presidential election he was the former Republican mayor of New York he's one of the richest men in the u.s. And the world but he wants to take on President Trump calling him an existential threat to the u.s. And its values for a bit more of the background on this I've been asking Natasha back of Fortune magazine what he gets for his money so as you may know in the u.s. Money buys a lot particularly in politics I think in the case of Bloomberg he has reported to divide up his money or his spending in a couple of different areas Internet ads that will aim to attack. A massive voter registration drive throughout the country and then the 'd last will apparently be on television ads so the huge amount of money gets him a campaign what does the money not buy what will that campaign still like so Interestingly there have been reports that Bloomberg does not plan to accept any campaign donations which means unlike any other billionaire in the race Tom Styer who has been accused of using his money to buy campaign donations and therefore get on the debate stage because Bloomberg will not be doing that it means that he will likely not appear in any of the subsequent Democratic debates which means that he may not have the same airtime as many of his other fellow Democratic candidates does that put him at a huge disadvantage is he going to end up being a kind of like a 3rd party vote split or even though he's pretending to be a Democrat I think the approach of not appearing in the debates will be an interesting one it's hard to say how much it will matter there is. Many people in the country who do know him and know him as the former mayor of New York City but he also does not have the same name recognition as some of these other candidates particularly ones who have been in the race for a long time it may well be a disadvantage also people a poor ring over whether this candidate has appealed to this demographic so terribly granular whether women like so and so are fricken Americans like so and so who doesn't like Bloomberg then do we think so I think interestingly going back to your previous question about splitting the vote and this is Bloomberg hope there are some people who may support someone more like Biden or put it out who are seen as more center left who would instead turn to Bloomberg and those are the types of people I think he's going after there are on the other hand a lot of more progressive Democrats those who historically would be supporters of someone like let's both Warner Bernie Sanders who are not likely to support his candidacy and in terms of the president himself does he welcome this is he pleased or furious that Bloomberg is taking part. Well interestingly Trump's adviser Kellyanne Conway said earlier today that she basically welcomed this so we'll see I think there's going to be an amount of respect that trump Mason show for Bloomberg that he might not the others because of course money and wealth is very important to this president and Bloomberg is far wealthier than he does so we will see the touch of a Fortune magazine and she was reminding us as well that no one since wrong Reagan has entered a contest this late actually won the nomination so thank you Natasha part of Fortune magazine. Newsday on the b.b.c. World Service live in Hong Kong today and London where Laurence we're talking around this table about those election results which pro-democracy candidates did extreme. Verney used to with this chip Chow still with us as well very You want to make a point about the I suppose the context of how China has dealt with all of us the Chinese government that's right. China in the position has been made earlier. The end of a key party communists meeting called The 4th pm at the end of October it has already made clear if Hong Kong policy that it would tighten up its governance of Hong Kong through stepped up control through the government and its pledge to empower the security. And 4th trying to soften te Chinese security is Hong Kong responsibility to pass legislation to protect the national security so. Again the background today is the stuff about foreign influence the meddling so. We should understand the whole thing from the the background that China has where it come from and we know today reports on the Charlie Sheen war news agency are on the election in Hong Kong it doesn't mention the results at all the report says social instability seriously interrupted the election progress what clues what signs are you looking for very quickly as we come up with the end of the program about what happens next I mean is that typical example the boxed in mindset of many . This is how the emperor and his law. Buz. Be How. The rest. Brit. Distribution of the b.b.c. . Is made. Public. Support for the open source. On the next morning edition Why is the flu vaccine ineffective for those who are overweight scientists try to find out and one of my favorite. Also in a new book Detroit residents try to survive the city's bankruptcy everybody that I follow. Their neighborhoods and listen for all kinds of stories on the next Morning Edition from n.p.r. News join us for Morning Edition Monday from wake up till 990.3. The Apollo space missions brought back a total of 382 kilograms of moon rock Catherine Joyce has spent many years studying these. Beautifully colored rocks that contain vital clues about the early history of the solar system going back 4000000000 years she's also spent a lot of time in Antarctica hunting for meteorites moon rock that has landed here on Earth join me to hear Catherine Joy's life scientific discovery after the news from the b.b.c. . B.b.c. News with Tom Watts Hong Kong's chief executive Kerry says her government will respect the results of the local elections and listen to the views of the public with an open mind pro-democracy candidates made unprecedented gains in Sunday's district council elections the pro-democracy activists Joshua Wong said they would now be for able to transform the district council into a platform of democracy and freedom the United States Navy secretary has been fired over the handling of the case of a Navy Seal who had been accused of war crimes Richard Spencer had been at odds with President Trump over how to deal with the case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher Australian intelligence officials have confirmed they are investigating allegations of a plot to plant a Chinese spy in Parliament media reports allege that Chinese agents offered money to Nick Jr a Chinese Australian to run as a candidate in the general election in May Mr Jadwin formed the Australian Government but was found dead in March the inventor of the World Wide Web pursued Tim Berners Lee is to launch a contract for the web today in a bid to improve the way the online world functions so Tim hopes to bring governments companies and individuals together to look at ways of dealing with its misuse more than a 1000000 students in Britain face disruption from today when university lecturers and support staff begin an 8 day strike over pay pensions and working conditions universities say they will do everything they can to minimize the impact of the action and official survey in India says only 71 percent of rural households have access to toilets dismissing claims by the government that the country is free of open deaf occasion soon after he came to power in 2014 the prime minister Narendra Modi had promised to improve sanitation across the country it was in October this year he declared India free of open deaf occasion b.b.c. News. This is discovery from the b.b.c. r M g Mark illegally and today I'm talking to a leading scientist about their life and work Welcome to the life scientific 29 team marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing my guest has been at the forefront of the 2nd wave of lunar exploration it began at the dawn of the 21st century and continues to this day Europe India Japan and China have sent missions to the moon Katherine Joy knows more about moon rock than most people she studied remote sensing data sent back by successive space missions and has spent a lot of time looking for moon rock that has landed here on Earth meteorites she's even studied meteorites that have landed on the moon the point of it all to understand how our solar system came to be the way it is today Dr Katherine Joy welcome to the live scientific thank you very much for having me here now I'm going to start with a heretical question if I may apart from the challenge of getting there why are you interested in the moon are the moon is an amazing object is being Earth sister body through space and time it was created at the same point that the earth was and yet it has a much more ancient surface than the Earth it's not being changed by geological processes it's sort of remained intact and therefore we can ask all sorts of incredibly interesting questions and it helps us to move our understanding of our own place within the universe further forward. I get that but I mean you know I think for many people me included it's a relatively an exciting place compared to some of the other places in the solar system yet most astronomers tell me that mostly the moon interferes with their rational collapse of ations and the more I think several of them are not particularly keen on as an object I do I find it quite tangible as you say you can see it whereas with most most of the other planets it becomes incredibly difficult to kind of make that link between you and the body that you're studying it might be great in relatively boring upon 1st appearance and. Buzz Aldrin used the word Magnificent Desolation to describe the surface but when you start looking closely at it is actually a colorful place there oranges and browns and when you start slicing the rocks open and looking inside them there's all sorts of treasures hidden within. The rocks that we have kind of the gifts that keep on giving So although we've been studying them nearly for 50 years now as new techniques come online we're learning more and more interesting things and we can ask different questions and so you know that the archive that collection is still uncovering trees of the rock present day back by the Apollo astronauts Yeah exactly we have about 382 kilograms of them in the collection we have about another $300.00 ragged. Like most geologists you require excess baggage to get things back when you go on a yacht your expeditions and we have this amazing new collection of lunar meteorites which are pieces of the moon that we actually find here on Earth and of the collection of samples that we have particularly the Apollo ones we've looked at most of them but some We've never actually opened and so there is a real kind of initiative now to actually go back to that collection and reopen samples that were sealed in preserved from the time of Apollo but using modern day techniques and so we're currently in documents of the next wave of lunar sand what them was that got you 1st interested in moon rock Yes So I remember at school I think I had to project about space exploration and I studied how the space shuttle was kind of put together and I'm a checking out Helen Charmian's autobiography of the library and I think I kept it checked out for about a year and a half so for of course is Britain's 1st astronaut Britain's 1st national And so I sort of so I think oh my goodness could this be something you know I could I could do I seem put that plan to rest but thought more practically about what I wanted to study at university and I went off and did geology as a degree but it was I sort of I guess I got interested in studying lunar geology as a research pathway when I spotted a Ph d. Advertised just. The internet I was surfing around during a summer job at a geo physics company which I wasn't very good at got lucky spotted a Ph d. Being advertised with Professor in Crawford in London and sent him an exploratory e-mail going Hello this is me I'm pretty interested and the next thing I knew I got a phone call saying would you like to come in for an interview and I was offered the ph d. So I'd signed up for a research pathway involving studying spacecraft data from a European space agency mission called smart one which was Europe's 1st ever mission to the moon and it was sort of part of this new space exploration initiative to go back to the moon with spacecraft that was 200-003-2003 that's so that's when you start to do what your peers does most of them apparently said this instrument had been built by this one her team of people the rather for doctrine of our tree and I was being brought on board to help interpret the chemistry data so the spacecraft launched just before I started my Ph d. Who went to watch the launch on a big screen in Oxfordshire at the launch was actually from French Guiana from the European Space Agency launch site thinking oh my goodness if this thing blows up on the launch pad. For the next part of my Ph d. But fortunately it launched and we knew that it was going to actually be a very long transits the moon so smart one was testing technology and it had an eye on engine rather than a kind of traditional chemical burning engine which meant rather than the 3 and a half to 5 days you normally take to get to the moon we actually took 18 months so it was a long old you know put it in 1st gear and go type of new technology just meant it didn't go so far exactly so slight boosts increasing speed increasing speed until you get captured by the means gravity and then it decreased speed What was it hoping to achieve I mean this was the start of the 2nd wave of moon missions after the Apollo you know decades later what was it that he wanted to learn so specifically our instrument was interested in mapping the chemistry of the surface of the moon there were other instruments onboard the spacecraft looking at the mineralogy and for taking photographs but it low is a scientifically driven mission it was designed to get Europe kind of in the. Space exploration game so the insurance that we built was later taken revised and be flown on an Indian space mission called Changi and one which then went back to the moon a few years later so that technology has been passed down and we have heritage and other flight scenarios but small one itself it's after conducting its experiments it was crash landed into the moon and then as it did it was just all the thing around it was all the sitting around them and yeah it didn't actually land there was no robotic lander involved with that particular mission that's come as no one on it later should you know. It was unmanned Yeah it was a snowball mission. And so at the end of its mission all the data comes back what did you learn so unfortunately one of the things that was a bit of an issue with our particular experiment and this is in part because we spent so long getting to the moon was that our detectors wear a little bit damaged in a way that we weren't really expecting so rather than getting some clear cut data about the chemistry of the surface we still had to infer a little bit about the different chemical variations but that's Ok that's how you know unexpected consequences of different missions and different scenarios most of it disappointing that I mean you're doing your ph d. And you're waiting on with this data and then not getting yet so that's much as you'd hope for anybody going into a Ph d. If you think on day one your ph d. Is set in stone think again and certainly from my own experience and I've learned you have to be pretty adaptable in terms of where you end up at the end of your 3 or 3 and a half years rather than where you started. 3 enjoyed the early days of Moon geology relied on lunar samples that been brought back to Earth on the Apollo missions then as we're seeing later these missions like smart ones sent back remote sensing data the only other way to learn more about lunar rocks is to look for bits of the moon that had made their way down to earth by themselves meteorites Yabsley So we have quite a large number of me trust in the collection every year there seems to want 2 new Luna's that get discovered and most of the ones we find come out of hot desert environment such as the Sahara in Morocco and we had some from Amman. As of yet we haven't got a European lunar meet you're right but I still keep my fingers crossed and as of yet we've never seen a lunar meter at full so we've never seen a Feibel from a lunar event and gone out and picked up a piece of moon rock as a consequence all the me trips we have in the moon are ones that we've found through and I was search missions now you've spent a lot of time looking for lumps of space rock that have landed on Earth how did you 1st get involved in meteorite hunting Yes so I have there are several people in the u.k. Who have been in meat poultry meter hunting who had spoken to various conferences a member chatting to them sort of go against the sounds like an amazing experience you know you spend all your time looking for space rocks here on Earth and they'd encourage me to apply to an American program quit and go down to Antarctica each year and I think I sense the investigator who runs a program 5 letters over 7 years sort of going hello I'd love to come to Antarctica you know I study space rocks I think this would be a really good thing for me to understand more about the collection process I think I'm pretty agreeable and can get on with people living in a small remote environment please take me please take me and every year I kept writing and it didn't happen it didn't happen then after 7 years of this effort I finally was asked to go I think somebody must have put in a good word and reassured that you didn't give up I think you sound like the sort of person doesn't take no for an hour here I really wanted to go and spend my our Christmas holidays in or in the middle of Antarctica I mean she later they accepted me and I was able to go twice on the American program down on top to go was it everything you'd hoped for the 1st time you went to Antarctica Yeah it was magic it was such a wonderful way of life you know you're 500 kilometers away from other human beings you're in a tent with a small team of peoples the 1st time I went there was 8 people the 2nd time I went there was 4 people and see this is when they become your family in the field and you start have this quite intense experience and you are just in this beautiful landscape you're in the mountain ranges in the trans Antarctic so high altitude about 3000 metres and every day you get up and your offer. This is Antarctica so you go out and you jump on your skidoo and you drive around on these ice fields and looking for space rocks it sounds completely surreal and it is surreal but you know I mean this is Christmas time it's summer time in Antarctica but it's still a bit chilly but how did you cope with the cold pretty well I have the warm warm sleep in a warm person you do you wear a lot of clothes I mean I do remember a couple of occasions where I went out in some of the worst storms we had and we did have some very bad weather on set in the 2nd field season I was there and I kept toes was so cold I mean you wear all this protective equipment you get taught to you know keep an eye out for frostbite from snip they clothe you incredibly well but even so you know just pop in to go to a different tents that's only 30 seconds away if you not quite prepared you get cold incredibly quickly and I remember having to warm my toes up over the stove to sort of get life back into them I think a lot of listeners who want to know why you need to go all the way to Antarctica to look for meteorites when presumably they're just as likely to land in your backyard Yeah that's that's a good point it's not just going after the beauty of the place that So meter is do fall all over the earth we currently have about 60 odd thousands that being recovered from you know what is environment. Atacama Morocco these sorts of places but those that fall in Antarctica are really special because there's no rain there's no contamination by fluids moving through them such as you find in other environments and you can only go to Antarctica to recover them if you're a scientist so you're not in competition with people that go to recover meteorites for commercial purposes as you would in other places and presumably their dark rocks against the white tie so it makes them easier to spot it does indeed Yeah it makes air hell of a lot easier so we try to go meter hunting in France. Prowling around in some heathlands getting scratched up by brambles and I do not want to do that in comparison and to. Arctic is pretty straightforward I'm sure is no such thing as a typical day when you're out in Antarctica but on average how many meteorites might you expect to find it really depends on where you go in the conditions of that particular ice field some days we wouldn't find any which were pretty dreadful . If your tent in the evenings feeling really low that you've not recovered any and then other days you might find 20 to 30 and I know that some other teams have found an amazingly high number like 50 to 60 per day so it's entirely dependent pretty serendipitous and you know you as an individual are wanting to recover more meteorites when you when you get out there and you want the team in total to get them and quite competitive who's going to ask you that I mean if you're on an expedition and use bots I mean sure do you sort of want to you know craftily. I'm thinking about you know my kids when they go on Easter egg hunts if you see one there are no one else spots that are warmer air there are quiet are you sort of trying to follow strict rules that near given a line to follow and by golly if somebody comes into your line that's incredibly irritating so you know if you sort of keep an eye on the patch that you are looking at in the hope that nobody else is going to poach to me but it does happen and you see it over there creates actually you can sort of see a huge rocks you know in front of me that you have to hold off that temptation to drive really fast or does it and this sort of you know recovering the treasure of thing we found we had about $300.00 in 2 on the 1st trip I was on and about 60 on the 2nd trip I was on that then gave me that experience to think Ok you know Newquay we should we should really be doing that's a given rise to a new projects that I'm involved with a little bit more now about you k. Me tracts and you're leading this mission running so yeah so my part of the team is to was to go down there and find the places where we could go in deploy this technology was incredibly nervous though you know so much of a bigger sense of responsibility when you're leading the mission that it's actually get some results actually get some sense of the project is called the lost meteorites of Antarctica most of all I was 10. If I that actually the meter it would stay lost and we wouldn't find any so we we picked these places and then with the British Antarctic Survey I deployed with our field guide Julie Barr who is one of their amazing woman he switched Antarctica for a few years and the 2 of us headed out to a part of Antarctica that never been searched before and we set up camp in a remote environment and this team of 2 women and then we operated in the field for about 4 weeks where we worked hard and we recovered meteorites so on about day 2 we found our 1st one and let me tell you that sense of relief was huge I think I gave Julie a huge hug that sense of a whole thing of the Mark this is going to be Ok is a poster with into combat when nothing was palpable but I'm from there on in we we were able to find a lot more and you have found quite a few We found $36.00 in total which is you know for 2 of us going to new places is a pretty pretty good number feeling very proud as well as studying meteorites have landed on earth you studied meteorites that have landed on the moon how do you do that yes some of the Apollo samples that were collected early on there were little pieces of metal found than them that people suggested came from asteroid or planetary cools that crashed on to the moon there were some small Me trip fragments and been found within Apollo soil samples so that the pilot landing site in the Apollo 15 landing site so people sort of knew there was some treasure to be found but nobody had really done a systematic search trying to tie to gather when different me trucks were hitting the moon at different points and heart of these are lumps of rock on the moon surface that came from somewhere else one of the other likely other planets exactly one or one of the other asteroid or bodies when things hit the moon at an incredibly high velocities or asteroid or comet b. Whatever type of impact or they are mostly obliterated then mostly by prized chemically desegregated and there's actually very small pieces that survive and so finding things things are rare and I spent an awful long time looking through. A lot of lunar rock samples trying to find mineral fragments and chunks of rock that were not actually the moon and it's it's quite boring but it's quite tedious and it's quite serendipitous when you find one so eventually you know when you when you get that measurements that sort of tells you this thing is where it's this is not Moon This is from somewhere else that's an amazing day we kind of you know into a bit of a fist pump and you can say I kept finally found what you look for but it took an awful lot of searching given that we can find meteorites here on earth why were you so interested to study those meteorites that had landed on the moon most of the matrix we find here on Earth probably only were delivered within the last couple of 1000000 years in the case of those that we find in Antarctica maybe within the last 10000000 years or so for those that we can find in places like Chile in the Atacama desert but on the moon we can actually look back much much further into the past so millions to billions of years ago as they provide us with a much longer term record than the present day terrestrial meter recollection why the Earth has had this active recycling that really crosses subsequently been eroded in destroyed by plate tectonic action where is the moon's crust is kind of set in stone it's sort of not really changed very much that's what's so fantastic about the moon isn't it as you say it's preserved in all the craters in the record of the crates of the moon tell us this whole history of the service of going back to when the moon 1st formed what 4100000000 years ago in a way that the Earth can't anymore because the earth is dynamic and oceans in a gram a sphere and you've got Plate Tectonics volcanoes everything just gets lost that all this interesting thing messing up our I don't know I mean you know that the moon is this time capsule it potentially if we're smart about how we go in some place and where we go to some place we can really tackle these big planetary scale questions and that's what I like about lunar science it's not you know not just about the body in which you're picking the rocks up from but thinking about these big ideas and thinking about how. Bosco consequences of these big purchases would have acted all the innocent law system not just the moon and the earth because a lot of people might imagine that the entire solar system the sun the planets everything else all formed at the same time for half woman 6000000000 years ago and that it formed in the state that we see today when in fact it is an ongoing process with some quite fairly dramatic twists and turns and the story of the solar system is ultimately what you're trying to understand by looking at these rocks Yes exactly that but analyzing the rocks we can try and provide chemical constraints for those people that do the big theoretical models so you know where they're the outers ice giant planets next in your in a swapped around in their orbits and disturbing the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn at about 3900000000 years ago this is referred to as the nice model which is where we think these big orbital resonances to forward in possibly swept through the asteroid belt throwing a lotta material into the inner solar system colliding with not just the moon but the air and Mars as well at that particular point so this is the nice model you mentioned named after the there's a French city in southern France it's a computer model right so it makes theoretical predictions about the dynamics of the so does Exactly and you're looking for the the evidence that it's the jihad to get right story Yeah exactly so if you're exactly that so we precisely so we're trying to get that story correct and it can only be made better and refined by constraining the j. Chemistry and from the samples we have on the moon because it makes these radical predictions about what happened in the early service system that Neptune in your Innes yet in all bits and so on in the movements of the pushing the it the planets closer to the sun and all that stuff Exactly and that model has been developed partly to explain why we have an enhanced ages of rocks that were collected by the Apollo national So when when the Apollo samples were water returned to Earth we get a state those rocks Alibre trees and they seem to imply that a lot of the Big Bang. Thousands that we have on the moon were all generated at the same point in time the moon and other in a planets were bombarded very heavily at about 3800000000 is 3900000000 years ago and we call this the late heavy bombardment model it is interesting that scientists sometimes get accused of coming up with the very complicated jargon naming things there's nothing complicated about the meaning of the late heavy bombardment it was a period in the early sort of system and there's a lot of stuff raining down you know it's late the object exactly so it's referred to as late because it's about 600000000 years after the start of the solar system it's not in the earliest phase it's later on so that's the late 3900000000 rather than 4500000000 and it's heavy because we got absolutely whacked is the general idea you know all those big basins on the moon we think formed in this interval big basins would be forming on the earth as well and the consequences for the earth if there was a lot heavy bombardment would have been extreme it would have affected the atmosphere it would have changed any water on the Earth's surface it would have vaporized that water and released it to space it would reset the early forming crust on the earth it could have been delivering essential materials that could have provided the starting blocks for life because we know that life on Earth started not long after it's at about 3500000000 years ago so there's lots of questions we have for you know how these sort of big scale prices are affects nearly Earth we can ask questions for terrestrial rocks to find out if that timing actually makes sense which is why we look to the moon things like that and as you say them because the moon has this record of really heavy bombardment then that might help us answer questions of course the Earth would have been subject to this yeah as well yeah that yes the earth would've been subjected to probably much more than the moon so the earth's gravity is bigger it would have attracted more material we think the effects of if there was a late heavy bombardment would have been probably 15 to 20 times more than ever was on the moon so it would have had a significant impact on development of a geological surface a high just spit in an atmosphere as well. And you know that's a fundamental point in time that we really would love to understand just as life was potentially starting and your career Katharine seems to have sort of run in parallel with this 2nd phase of lunar missions you know you starting your ph d. When the smart one mission is going out there and it's now I said to say in full swing because there are so many space missions planned lots of different countries are planning missions to go over the moon yeah the moon is becoming this this proving ground for new space faring technologies and countries that are coming on board as its success it was quite easy to get to and this next phase of lunar exploration is exciting as there is this light geo political angle to it in terms of being able to do something new something different that other nations are not done before in fact China have for the 1st time this year landed this lander and rover on the far side of the moon the Chinese exploration efforts a hugely impressive this is the Chang is how is it pronounced the Chinese there is a mission and this is the 1st time since 976 when the last Russian missions were on the moon we have the ability on the moon again as to lunar rovers up there one of which is operating on the far side the Chinese are bringing us samples back at the end of this year from the near side of the moon and then the plan is to go to the far side of the moon to get samples where you get to study these are we willing collaboration with our Chinese colleagues so we've developed some very good collaboration with Chinese chemistry Liberty's to work on these types of questions together which is hugely exciting and we're also planning with us to go back to the moon to sample robotically and putting in proposals to try and do reporting sample return and as well with the European Space Agency we're working with Russia there is a space mission going to land a robot at the south pole of the moon and to deploy a u.k. Bill instruments to the volatile signature of the moon as well so there's lots of things happening and then everything changed very recently when the Donald Trump administration announced that they were going to send crew back to the moon by 2024 . Which is very ambitious potentially hugely exciting and I think a challenge for a lot of people about how this is going to happen but it certainly holds up a challenge to think about how we would sing crew back to the moon and if that happens where we were to go so other sort of groups of scientists of collaboration that around the world who have their favorite parts of the moon they really think sure are the most important places to go to everybody has their own favorite places to go to so what's yours that's the $1000000.00 question is that it depends on no I think there's there's a real opportunity for going to the far side of the moon to study an enormous impact basin called the South Park in Basin which is the biggest impact base in the solar system is 2 and a half 1000 promises in diameter it punched through the means crust to excavate into the moon's mantle and it's the oldest impact basin on the moon to could really help to test some of this question and this is heavy We'll talk about the far side of the moon this is the site of the moon that we never see from Earth because that the moon is always has one of its faces pointing towards of it's always locked away but it is accessible by spacecraft so although we can't see it with our own eyes our missions for that mission center so I think I think that would be a phenomenally exciting thing to do but I suspect that the 1st crude missions back to the moon will probably be on the near side because of safety considerations communication ease with the earth but there's lots of interesting places we can go to there to test different questions having heard how keen you were to to go to Antarctica to look for meteorites there would you be keen to go to the moon. It would go meteorite hunting. I imagine yeah I would I mean I would love to love to think that I'm capable of becoming a national But I think I think I get terribly travel sick suspect I spent 3 and a half days vomiting my way to the moon is sort of the the South you know I suspect that I probably wouldn't make the selection criteria but I'm very happy says think that I could be involved in some way in terms of the scientific planning and the scientific. Exploitation of samples the return hit back to earth and planning for how we interrogate those samples to understand our newest bodies are still somehow reckon you might be tempted to try probably to really give it a crack but I'm not too sure how far I'd get through the. Well as your life scientific has shown this plenty of Moon work left to be done here on Earth Catherine Joy thank you very much for sharing a life scientific thank you very much for having me support for Gazey you come from se $41.00 furniture offering natural sleep solutions designed to provide a comfortable unrestored of sleep including individual tailored mattresses that support each body type dual sided mattresses and the oxygen pillow details at se 41 dot com. Next time on the world where you are the role the investigative journalist or Mr mushing go Mr. Shank goes name kept coming up in the impeachment hearings go is reported to go after a truck campaign official. Who was just reporting on corruption in his native Ukraine he talks about that and efforts to draw him into the impeachment drama on the world join us but the world Monday evening at 6 o'clock a 90.3 Kate easy you from California State University Monterey Bay This is member funded 90.3 k. a Z u Pacific Grove Monterey Salinas and Santa Cruz n.p.r. For the Monterey Bay area. Coming up after the news on the b.b.c. World Service it's hard to talk with me Stephen Sackur Zimbabwe in the post Mugabi era is wrestling with economic crisis endemic corruption and widespread poverty which leaves Zimbabweans extremely vulnerable in the face of prolonged drought crops of failed hydro power is down taps of run dry also at risk is imbibe ways wildlife populations animals and people are now in a desperate competition for resources My guest is Environment Minister mangle isso and low who does his government have a plan to avert disaster we have a very ambitious forestation started next year alone we plan to plant not just than $20000000.00 trees just as measures to cope with clementines that's Mangal ysu and Lou on hard talk after the news. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm nor Rahm pro-democracy supporters in Hong Kong made major gains yesterday in an election local reporters say they won 17 out of 18 local district councils it's the 1st electoral test in Hong Kong since the protest movement began in June N.P.R.'s Julie McCarthy reports the people of Hong Kong have spoken and loudly rejected at the leadership of chief executive Kerry Lam a probe ageing stalwart lamb was not on the ballot rather these were elections for District councillors the 1st tier of government that handles neighborhood issues the power they wield is small but the symbolism of this balloting where people queued in lines that snaked around buildings was huge sustained antigovernment protests thrust the election into global prominence in preliminary counts voters through their support behind the pro-democracy movement and have swept aside the pro establishment camp Beijing will intensely watch the results in its semi autonomous region which on Sunday signaled a desire to safeguard its autonomy Julie McCarthy n.p.r. News defense secretary Mark esper fire the Navy's top official yesterday saying he had lost the trust and confidence in Richard Spencer he said Spencer had gone behind his back to talk to the White House about the future of a Navy Seal the Navy was considering whether Edward Gallagher should be ousted from the elite force N.P.R.'s Tom Bowman has more secretary of defense Mark esper contacted the Navy secretary Richard Spencer and basically said you know it's time for you to go and again the Navy secretary Spencer said Ok I'll write a letter to the president it was a simple as that N.P.R.'s Tom Bowman president says he intends to name retired rear admiral Kenneth Braithwaite to replace him Southern Calif.