The german russian x. Ray telescope rosita took off from by canoe or in the summer of 2019 for many scientists the launch was the fulfillment of a dream. Now comes the next successful step even zito is on track and training its 7 cameras on the cosmos. Over the next 4 years the telescope is to create a map of all the known galaxies researchers hope to find clues as to why our universe continues to expand. You. This is the world as we know us but as we zoom out the earth looks a lot smaller. Its just one of many planets that orbit the star at the center of our solar system the sun. And its just one of the 300000000000 stars that make up our galaxy the milky way luke imagine taking a galaxy the size of ours and shrinking it to the size of our friend isnt something cosmologist york invalid dreams about. Because the distances are unimaginable despite that we can look out so far with our telescopes that we are able to get a good idea of how the universe as a whole behaves and thats fascinating. In some ways the universe can be compared to a loaf of raisin bread. The raisins that contains. When you bake the dough to raise and start off close to each other. Then when the bread begins to rise in the oven the raisins start to drift apart the distance between them gets bigger. Its a similar story with our universe its expanding and at an ever increasing speed in the process hundreds of billions of galaxies are moving away from each other. And that poses an enigma what force is driving this expansion physicists call it dark energy it can be compared to the rising agent in our love of the universe and the agent that seems to be growing stronger. To shed light on the mass or cosmologists matter x. Radiation from distant galaxies but as even the glow of an entire galaxy can be too weak to detect they look at clusters. Lets think about this raisin as a galaxy again for us galaxies are like lighthouses we can observe them from incredible distances vic and with the help of galaxies we can to some degree measure the extent of the universe. A new instrument for detecting. Like those galaxies and if the evil telescope shown here shortly before it was launched. Instead of using lenses evos collect light via gold plated tubular mirrors. X. Rays coming from the side of the tube and they bounce about of this tube and so in this way they can be seen one points like a telescope through and so we build many many of these. We combine them together and this is our telescope that can see the distant universe and the distant 3 since. The challenge for its designers was to build an instrument thats tough enough to withstand the unshielded impact of cosmic rays yet still be incredibly precise and dependable even if both. Now one and a half 1000000 kilometers away from our earth its begun the task of mapping because mars in unprecedented detail. Even azita is part of the largest joint german russian scientific project to date pay to play deal is the mission scientific director we caught up with him via skype at his office in munich to ask him what have you learned from the 1st images sent back by the receipt or. Was what weve learned is that it is a lot better than anything previously available. I just have to post a bit. Why do you want to scan the entire sky. Just like we want to understand how nature works here on earth astrophysicists want to understand how the universe works. We dont know everything yet there are various methods that you can use to learn more and one is using an x. Ray telescope to look at the entire skies. Are you sleeping better now that even is it a has been successfully deployed. Well obviously i hope that those sleepless nights are now over and we can relax. But even once a telescope was in outer space you can still have things go wrong. Cosmic radiation can cause malfunctions you could even have a micrometeorite collide with a telescope and cause damage. You just never know. But i would assume that we have now overcome the biggest hurdles. Pay to pay dear thanks for talking to us. In the coming years even as these him may reveal some of the deepest secrets of the cosmos we can hardly wait. Nicholas casey when youre a viewer in zambia was wondering about another space secrets and sent in this question. To aliens exist. The night skies led the ancient greeks to philosophize about the existence of life elsewhere in the cosmos. The 16th century italian thinker Giordano Bruno postulated that the universe was infinite and full of life his many an orthodox views made him suspect and he was burned at the stake for heresy. Advances in science produce new theories about alien life forms perhaps they were intelligent civilizations with highly developed technology able to settle throughout her galaxy but if thats the case then where are they all that was the question posed by physicists enrico fermi in 1950 known as the family paradox it prompted a new push to clarify once and for all whether aliens exist 10 years later the search for extraterrestrial intelligence or seti got underway its search for radio transmissions from space efforts are continuing but so far without success. Some warn against seeking to make contact with alien life forms saying they might want to plunder earths Raw Materials in view of what we know so far thats unlikely. Highly sensitive telescopes have a best discovered only the Building Blocks of life and space. In the vicinity of young stars organic compounds have been found such as methanol and simple sugars along with more. Plex molecules that are important for the formation of proteins. Our galaxy alone is home to up to 300000000000 stars many are similar to our sun and our orbited by planets. Among them scientists have even identified earth like planets that could be habitable. In our solar system to there are places that could sustain life like on enceladus one of saturns moons its icy surface conceals an ocean that regularly shoots out plumes of water and space. There reminiscent of the hot springs in our oceans that maybe the sites where microscopic life originated and microbes are likely to be the 1st form of extraterrestrial life that we tracked down in space though it may take us a few more decades yet. Developed what is read why. Do you have a science question that youve always wanted oncet were happy to help out send it to us as a video text or voicemail if we answer it on the show well send you a little surprise as a thank you cannot and just ask. You to find us online at d w dot com slash science or get in touch on twitter or facebook. This is not a hike in the mountains its the funeral of a glacier and ice and. It was once a thick dome of ice now its almost all gone. As a melting all over the world theres been drastic lacelle retreat in the arctic the southern endings and alaska. Over a period of 55 years the world lost over 9000000000000 tonnes of glacier ice and the melting. Its accelerating in many places including the elms. Glaciers are an important source of water especially in long dry summers many rivers receive huge amounts of water from areas covered by. Water that allows river life to continue to flourish. And farmers to keep their crops irrigated. But the glaciers are steadily shrinking studies suggest that by the end of the century only a few could remain rivers would no longer benefit from their melt water in summer. An alarming prospect that prompted swiss glaciologist daniel father not to undertake a study thats got a lot of people talking. If they live in the future the glaciers wont be where they are now because theyre receding so in our study we placed a virtual dam at the point where the glacier currently ends its controversial and were not saying its necessarily a good idea we just wanted to find out whether this is an option that warrants further study. The dam reservoirs would basically mimic the glaciers. They would store up water in winter and spring and release it in summer when its needed. This is what the flow of water from glaciers in the alps looks like today. The amount of melt water reaches its peak in august. And this is how it would look by the end of the century if the glaciers are gone with more water than before in spring and less in summer. A damp could hold back the water earlier in the year and release it in the dryer months it could certainly benefit many. Firstly we humans would benefit the various economic entities that depend on water. Hydroelectric power farming except for a. But the big beneficiary that we were thinking of is the ecology of plants and animals. Plants that the. Dam walls in the alps could mean a 1000000000 cubic metres of water from melting snow being held back and then released in summer. The scientists calculated that a dozen such reservoirs would be needed in the european alps all the water from areas currently covered by glaciers could then be pumped to these areas it would change the landscape which the scientists agree is problematic and what of the ecological risks. Were talking about areas that are currently covered by glaciers. Once the glaciers are gone. There wont be that much biodiversity in these areas. So basically theyll just be rock lived. So our line of argumentation was that you would probably do less damage by flooding using areas then if you place the forest or some other area under water. Building reservoirs in europes alps a controversial part experiment on how to prevent summer droughts if the glaciers disappear. Ultimately were all likely to feel the effects of Climate Change no matter where we live. We asked you on facebook is Climate Change already apparent where you live and if so how. Soon marty from indonesia writes that the dry season seems much longer october is already over and it still hasnt rained. If there were reports that farmers in mexico are seeing far fewer insects and that its more difficult to predict the start and end of the rainy season. Henry a farmer in cameroon says people dont know when to plant their crops anymore hes 40 years old and thinking of going back to university for environmental studies good luck if you do so and thanks for writing. Could help to slow down Climate Change after all plants take up c o 2 from the air. But even if we plant trees now it will still take decades to remove significant amounts of c o 2 from the atmosphere. So the effects on the climate wont be felt. Directing ready but leaving plants can be beneficial in other ways especially in big cities ready. Greenery make cities more appealing but it also serves a practical purpose. Meteorologist and geographer you are in fall man is an expert on urban climate and air quality. Why misinterpret trees clearly play an Important Role in cities on the one hand they have a cooling effect its generally warmer in cities because there are more Paper Services and less evaporation are the trees have a cooling effect on their immediate surroundings because of the water that evaporates from them. And they also have a filtering effect due to particles collecting on their leaves. Trees turn c o 2 into oxygen through the process of photosynthesis. So trees can greatly benefit the urban climate thanks both to their cooling effect or thermal effect and the cause they improve air quality 23rd suspect. You are clean fall man and his colleagues that mines university have been examining the effect of trees on air quality in cities their computer simulations show that the impact is not always positive. Cinephile of course in terms of air quality its important to think carefully about which trains need to be planted where for example a sycamore isnt suited to busy streets because of the launch an arc sight produced by traffic the tree interacts with to produce ozone. But 2nd moores are common in german cities they cope well with dry weather in the summer and are low maintenance. So what other trees are beneficial to the local climate. Thats what scientists at the university of applied sciences in being and are trying to find out in the institutes rooftop garden. Theyre using a special gas measurement device to gauge how different plants alter air quality. Once the bell jar closes over the poppy plant the researchers can evaluate its potential. And heres what they discovered. The c. B. D. So cycles i can see there is a reduction in Carbon Dioxide concentration so underneath the glass dome the plant starts to photosynthesize very actively and c o 2 absorption is much higher than c o 2 emissions from the ground. In other words the party is compensating for emissions from the ground that means that the complex plant and substrate is protective rather than harmful to the environment. Poppies would seem to be a promising option. The scientists and begin are also investigating efficient Irrigation Systems even abundant greenery will die if it doesnt get enough water. Out here for our projects a design to show how little effort is required to ensure that a roof garden flourishes in the long term but the idea is for the plants to be environmentally beneficial low maintenance while also taking up a minimum of space. Constantino whom i work for the Bavarian Center for applied Energy Research inverts book which is developing new ideas about green 1st starts. Keeping the 1st start irrigated is a lot more complicated than watering balcony plants installing as in the 1st place is also hard. But they do have a range of benefits. And we can completely cover for sand with greenery even on Tall Buildings we can create a fully green surface on a tower block thats over 20 meters tall. Which is of of stopping and thats without taking up extra space in a dense urban environment does put in theres a lot of potential in germany. We have millions of square meters of building for sods that could be grained from the conditions for vertical greening are in place. But the costs involved post something of an obstacle. To make sure its worth the investment the scientists are documenting the potential benefits of Green Facades for buildings. Using a purpose built chamber they measure the relative advantages of the process for example could it which is heating costs. I know so its hard to speak with the greening system in itself has an insulating effect a combined effect of technology and substrates. Because the plants grow outwards they keep the wind off the building and that means theres an additional insulating effect hominids which its should go. So getting more green into our asphalt jungle is an investment in the future. The writing left behind by the ancient egyptians is still valuable today and readable written in stone then knowledge has lasted through the millennia one libraries also store ideas for the ages in the form of thirds knowledge is available to future generations. It was about digital data storage media they can store more information than ever before but theyre comparatively short lifespan is a problem. When you can no longer access important data its time to call the salvage experts today very told bush is working on an old data cartridge sent in by the Swiss Post Office its thought to contain the specs from a special edition stamp issued in 1996 theres more to drive still works but i cant say yet whether it will get any its that although im pretty optimistic though the thing to recover the data bush uses devices that belong to the collection of the enter Computer Museum in switzerland. It is who can accelerate that somehow if it doesnt work i have to reboot. Now i should be able to reject it. The computer expert began rescuing data from old systems 8 years ago and he knows more about discontinued systems than pretty much anyone else out there and i think whats on hold on there is working. On a log is really the best thought in all of the film always still have a film on them if theyve been stored properly. That it really or you know is magnetic not gets lost over time. And it trying to get data storage devices today are made to save things for the next 50 years out of the heart of. The evolution of Data Storage Technology has been accompanied by 2 opposing tendencies the older the data carrier the longer it will in general work but Storage Capacity in those devices is always relatively low. By contrast modern storage formats can pack a huge amount of data into a fraction of the space that data stored long term one flash drives or s. D. Cards generally corrupt within just a few years. The one thing you can count on in the computer industry is that yesterdays cutting edge product will tomorrow look like it came from the digital stone age. Were it not for dedicated collectors like felix cons old hardware like this would disappear pretty swiftly with disastrous consequences. Valuable data is irretrievable without the right systems. And usually. The data storage medium itself of course has to be intact. Then you need a device thats able to read that media. Person. Need an operating system that works with that device. Despite all these difficulties the team at the Computer Museum and generally able to reconstruct data believed to have been lost forever. Im placing the punched tape in the device every line is one byte on the one hand its printed out here on the other its being transferred onto a modern computer so that we can save it onto a u. S. B. Stick use of the. Cooption use of them or. For. The advantage is that the punched tape doesnt tear and the data will survive for hundreds of years and wont be automatically deleted. But if we wanted to save this entire memory stick on tape like this youd need approximately 320000. 00 rolls that would add up to 10 tons of paper and enormous amount. Of. Data salvage experts agree to a bush has now cracked his problem hes managed to reconstruct the historically valuable data about the swiss stamp and saved it on a modern computer much to the relief and satisfaction of his client its just got so often. How long will it be before the me tweet is growing in the lab. Next time well be looking at culture. Join us for that on tomorrow today tell them. Good. Player a defector from east germany who was caught and arrested. The bering border guard who did his duty. 30 years later the to meet again. A defector in a war and the border guard. Coming up on. The bus on from the middle ages. No its being built from the ground up with modern technology. Dozens of employees and sent hundreds of volunteers all booking on to get in on kaesong in france the biggest medieval reconstruction project in europe. Was find out on the boat. 30 minutes. Done. In a timeless way discover the vase of cups world starts nov 14th on t. W. 30 years after the fall of the berlin wall nov 9th w. You may write me down in history but you know im bitter twisted and. You may try me in the very dirt but still night. Did you want to see me broken out here. To live for. Me in the back. Grou