Latest / Space News Today / Gamma Ray Revolution: The Longest Burst and Cosmic Mysteries Unveiled
Transcript
- 0:00This is Spacetime Series 28, episode 147
- 0:04for broadcast on the 17th of December
- 0:062025.
- 0:08Coming up on Spaceime, discovery of the
- 0:10longest gammaray burst ever detected. An
- 0:13elemental bounty discovered in a
- 0:15supernova remnant. And for the first
- 0:18time, the International Space Station is
- 0:20full up with no spare parking spaces
- 0:22available. All that and more coming up
- 0:25on Spaceime.
- 0:28Welcome to Spaceime with Stuart Garry.
- 0:47Astronomers have discovered the longest
- 0:49gammaray burst ever detected, lasting
- 0:52over 7 hours, and in the process
- 0:54changing science's understanding about
- 0:56the death of the most massive stars.
- 0:59Astronomers have been trying to work out
- 1:01exactly what was responsible for this
- 1:03extraordinary cosmic explosion ever
- 1:05since it was first detected on July the
- 1:072nd. The initial observations have been
- 1:10reported in the monthly notices of the
- 1:12Royal Astronomical Society and in the
- 1:14Astrophysical Journal letters. Gammaray
- 1:17bursts are incredibly rare. Put simply,
- 1:20they're the most powerful explosions
- 1:22since the big bang of creation 13.8
- 1:25billion years ago. And they come in two
- 1:28broad types. There are short period
- 1:30gammaray bursts which last just a few
- 1:32seconds and are thought to be caused by
- 1:34the merger of two neutron stars forming
- 1:35a black hole or by the merger of a
- 1:38neutron star into a black hole. Then
- 1:40there are long period gammaray bursts.
- 1:43They can last for more than 10 seconds
- 1:45and are thought to be caused by the
- 1:46explosive supernova deaths of the most
- 1:48massive stars, turning them into black
- 1:51holes. This specific gammaray burst
- 1:54named GRB250702b
- 1:57continued not for hours but days and is
- 2:00now thought to have herald a new kind of
- 2:02stellar explosion.
- 2:04Astronomers still think the best
- 2:06explanation for this outburst is a black
- 2:08hole consuming a star, but they disagree
- 2:11on exactly how this would have happened.
- 2:13Possibilities include a black hole
- 2:15weighing a few thousand times the mass
- 2:17of our sun shredding a star that passed
- 2:19too close or alternatively a much
- 2:22smaller black hole merging with and
- 2:24consuming its stellar companion. One of
- 2:27the study's authors, Eliza Knights from
- 2:29George Washington University in NASA's
- 2:30Godard Space Flight Center in Green
- 2:32Belt, Maryland, says the initial wave of
- 2:34gamma rays lasted at least 7 hours, and
- 2:37that's nearly twice the duration of the
- 2:39longest gammaray bursts previously seen.
- 2:42It was unlike anything observed in the
- 2:44last half century, and it had some
- 2:46really unusual properties. On average, a
- 2:49gammaray burst is detected somewhere in
- 2:52the universe at least once a day. They
- 2:54can appear anywhere in the sky without
- 2:56warning. Usually, they're very distant
- 2:59events with even the closest known
- 3:01example erupting more than 100 million
- 3:03lighty years away. But the record
- 3:05setting duration of the July burst
- 3:07places it in a class by itself. Of the
- 3:10roughly 15,000 gammaray bursts observed
- 3:13since the phenomenon was first
- 3:14recognized back in 1973, none have been
- 3:17as long and only around half a dozen
- 3:19have even come close. Because
- 3:21opportunities to study such events are
- 3:23so rare and because many reveal new ways
- 3:26to create gammaray bursts, astronomers
- 3:28are especially excited about the July
- 3:30event. All gammaray bursts are thought
- 3:33to be generated by matter falling into a
- 3:35black hole. But not all the matter
- 3:37falling into a black hole is immediately
- 3:39consumed. Most of it first forms an
- 3:42accretion disc around the black hole.
- 3:45There it's crushed and torn apart at the
- 3:47subatomic level. Most will pass beyond
- 3:50the point of no return called the event
- 3:52horizon after which it falls forever
- 3:54into the black hole singularity. But
- 3:57black holes are messy eaters and some of
- 4:00the material is caught up in magnetic
- 4:02fields which channels the matter into
- 4:04tight jets of particles that stream out
- 4:06across the universe at almost the speed
- 4:08of light in the process creating gamma
- 4:11rays as they go. The thing is none of
- 4:14this is thought to be able to readily
- 4:15create jets able to keep firing for days
- 4:17on end. And that's why 2550702b
- 4:21poses such a unique puzzle. The gammaray
- 4:24burst monitor on NASA's Fermy gammaray
- 4:27space telescope discovered the burst and
- 4:29triggered multiple times over the course
- 4:31of 3 hours. It was also detected by the
- 4:34burst alert telescope on NASA's swift
- 4:36space telescope, the Russian Kronos
- 4:38instrument on NASA's wind mission, the
- 4:40gammaray and neutron spectrometer on the
- 4:42psyche spacecraft. That's the NASA
- 4:44mission currently on its way to the
- 4:46asteroid 16 psyche and by Japan's
- 4:49monitor of all sky x-ray image
- 4:50instrument aboard the international
- 4:52space station. The thing is this burst
- 4:55went on for so long that no high energy
- 4:58monitor in space was equipped to fully
- 5:00observe it and so it took the combined
- 5:02power of instruments on multiple
- 5:04spacecraft to better understand the
- 5:06event. The Whitefield X-ray telescope on
- 5:09China's Einstein probe also detected the
- 5:11burst in X-rays and showed that a signal
- 5:14was already present the previous day.
- 5:16The first precise location came early
- 5:18July 3rd when Swift's X-ray telescope
- 5:20imaged the burst in the constellation
- 5:22Scootum. That's near the crowded dusty
- 5:25plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Now given
- 5:28this location and the day earlier X-ray
- 5:30detection, astronomers initially
- 5:32wondered whether this might be a
- 5:34different type of outburst from
- 5:35somewhere within our own Milky Way
- 5:37galaxy. But images from some of the
- 5:39largest telescopes on Earth, including
- 5:41those at the KEK and Gemini
- 5:43Observatories in Hawaii and the European
- 5:45Southern Observatory's VT or Very Large
- 5:47Telescope in Chile, indicated that there
- 5:50was a galaxy at those coordinates. And
- 5:53so astronomers turn to NASA's Hubble
- 5:55Space Telescope for a clearer view.
- 5:58Andrew Lean from Redbound University in
- 6:00the Netherlands says it definitely is
- 6:01another galaxy, proving that it was a
- 6:04distant and powerful explosion, but he
- 6:06admits it was a very strange looking
- 6:08one. He says the Hubble data is a bit
- 6:10ambiguous. It shows either two galaxies
- 6:13merging or one galaxy with a dark band
- 6:16of dust splitting the core into two
- 6:18pieces. And more recent images captured
- 6:21by NASA's web space telescope strongly
- 6:23support Leven's interpretation. The web
- 6:26observations clearly show the gammaray
- 6:28burst shining through this dust lane
- 6:30spilling across the galaxy. In late
- 6:33August, astronomers using web and the
- 6:35very large telescope to determine the
- 6:37galaxy's distance and other properties
- 6:39concluded that the burst was remarkably
- 6:41powerful, erupting with the equivalent
- 6:43energy emitted by a thousand suns
- 6:46shining for 10 billion years. Amazingly,
- 6:49this galaxy so far away that light from
- 6:51this explosion began racing outward some
- 6:548 billion years ago, long before our sun
- 6:56and solar system had even begun to form.
- 6:59A comprehensive study of the X-ray light
- 7:01following the main burst used
- 7:02observations from Swift, NASA's Chandra
- 7:05X-ray Observatory and the AY's Newar
- 7:07Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
- 7:09mission. The Swift and Newar data
- 7:12revealed rapid flares occurring up to 2
- 7:14days after the burst discovery. The
- 7:17continued accretion of matter by the
- 7:19black hole powered an outflow that
- 7:20produced these flares. But the process
- 7:23continued for far longer than possible
- 7:24in standard gamay burst models. The late
- 7:27X-ray flares showed that the blast power
- 7:30source simply refused to shut off which
- 7:32means the black hole kept feeding for at
- 7:34least a few days after the initial
- 7:36eruption. A firmian swift data indicate
- 7:39a typical if unusually long gammaray
- 7:41burst. But spectroscopic web
- 7:44observations didn't find a supernova
- 7:46explosion, which typically follows a
- 7:48stellar collapse gammaray burst,
- 7:50although it may have been obscured by
- 7:52its dust and distance. The Einstein
- 7:54probe saw X-rays a day before the burst,
- 7:57while New star tracked the X-ray flares
- 7:59up to 2 days after it, but neither was
- 8:01typical for gammaray bursts. In
- 8:03addition, a detailed study shows that
- 8:06the host galaxy appears to be very
- 8:08different from the typically small
- 8:09galaxies that host most stellar collapse
- 8:12gammaray bursts. It turns out this
- 8:14galaxy surprisingly large with more than
- 8:16twice the mass of our own Milky Way.
- 8:19Now, in both the two scenarios we've
- 8:21discussed here, the black hole should
- 8:23have consumed the star in about a day.
- 8:25The first involves an intermediate mass
- 8:27black hole, one with a few thousand
- 8:29solar masses and an event horizon a few
- 8:31times larger than the Earth. As a star
- 8:34wanders too close, it becomes stretched,
- 8:37spaghettified, if you will, along its
- 8:38orbit by gravitational forces from the
- 8:40black hole and is then rapidly consumed.
- 8:44This describes what astronomers call a
- 8:46tidal disruption event, but one caused
- 8:48by a rarely observed middleweight black
- 8:50hole with a mass much greater than those
- 8:52born in stellar collapses and much
- 8:55smaller than the behemoth super massive
- 8:57black holes found at the centers of
- 8:58galaxies. Right now, the Gammaray team
- 9:01are favoring a different scenario
- 9:03because if this burst is like the
- 9:04others, the black holes mass must be
- 9:06more similar to that of our sun. Their
- 9:09model envisions a black hole with about
- 9:11three solar masses with an event horizon
- 9:13just 18 km across orbiting and then
- 9:16merging with a companion star. The star
- 9:19would be of similar mass to the black
- 9:20hole but much smaller than the sun.
- 9:23That's because its hydrogen atmosphere
- 9:25has already been mostly stripped away
- 9:27leaving just a dense helium core forming
- 9:30an object which astronomers call a
- 9:32helium star. Now in both cases, matter
- 9:34from the star first flows towards the
- 9:36black hole, then collects into a vast
- 9:38accretion disc from which material makes
- 9:40its final plunge into the black hole. At
- 9:43some point in this process, the system
- 9:45begins to shine bright in X-rays. Then,
- 9:48as the black hole rapidly consumes the
- 9:50stars matter, gammaray jets are blasted
- 9:52outwards. But notably, the helium star
- 9:55merger model makes a unique prediction.
- 9:58Once the black hole is totally immersed
- 10:00within the main body of the star,
- 10:02feasting on it from the inside, if you
- 10:04will, the energy it releases explodes
- 10:06the star and powers a supernova.
- 10:09Unfortunately, this explosion occurs
- 10:10behind enormous clouds of dust and gas,
- 10:13meaning even the power of the web space
- 10:15telescope wouldn't be enough to see the
- 10:17expected supernova.
- 10:19While the smoking gun evidence to
- 10:22explain exactly what happened on July
- 10:23the 2nd will have to wait for future
- 10:25events, GB250702b
- 10:29has already provided new insights into
- 10:31what is now the longest gammaray burst
- 10:33ever seen.
- 10:35This is spaceime still to come.
- 10:38Astronomers have for the first time
- 10:40detected the elements chlorine and
- 10:42potassium in a supernova remnant. And
- 10:44the International Space Station's been
- 10:46forced to put out the fully occupied
- 10:48sign for the first time with all eight
- 10:50of its docking ports now in use. All
- 10:52that and more still to come on Spaceime.
- 11:11Astronomers have for the first time ever
- 11:13detected the elements chlorine and
- 11:15potassium in a supernova remnant. The
- 11:18discovery reported in the journal Nature
- 11:20Astronomy was made using Chrysom, the
- 11:22X-ray imaging and spectroscopic mission
- 11:24spacecraft. Chrysen observed the
- 11:27elements in the supernova remnant Casia
- 11:29A, which is the remains of a star that
- 11:31exploded some 340 years ago. This
- 11:34expanding cloud of debris is located
- 11:36some 11,000 lighty years away in the
- 11:39northern constellation Cassiopia and is
- 11:41now some 10 lighty years across. Other
- 11:44than hydrogen and helium which were
- 11:46produced in the big bang 13.8 billion
- 11:48years ago, all the elements in our
- 11:50universe are manufactured in stars
- 11:53either during their lives or when they
- 11:55die. This includes the iron in your
- 11:57blood, the calcium in your bones. Heat
- 12:01and pressure fuse lighter elements like
- 12:03carbon and oxygen into progressively
- 12:05heavier ones like neon and ion, creating
- 12:08onion-like layers of materials inside
- 12:10stars. But nuclear reactions also take
- 12:13place during explosive events like
- 12:15supernova, which occur when a star runs
- 12:17out of fuel and collapses and explodes.
- 12:20Elemental abundances and different
- 12:22locations in a stellar wreckage can tell
- 12:24astronomers a lot about the progenitor
- 12:26star and its explosion, even after
- 12:28hundreds or thousands of years. Some
- 12:31elements like oxygen, carbon, and neon
- 12:33are more common than others and are
- 12:35therefore easier to detect and trace
- 12:37back to a particular part of a star's
- 12:39life. But other elements like chlorine
- 12:41and potassium are far more elusive.
- 12:44Since scientists have less data about
- 12:45them, it's more difficult to model where
- 12:48in the star they formed. But these rarer
- 12:50elements still play important roles in
- 12:53life on Earth. Potassium, for example,
- 12:56helps cells and muscles function, and so
- 12:58astronomers are interested in tracing
- 13:00its cosmic origins. This study's lead
- 13:02author, Tashiki Sato from Menai
- 13:05University in Tokyo says the discovery
- 13:07helps illustrate how the deaths of stars
- 13:09and life on Earth are fundamentally
- 13:12intertwined.
- 13:13As Carl Sean once said, we are all
- 13:16stardust. Now, thanks to Chrysom,
- 13:18astronomers have a better idea of when
- 13:20and how stars might make crucial yet
- 13:22harder to find elements. The roughly
- 13:25circular Cassia supernova remnant has a
- 13:28super dense neutron star at its center,
- 13:30the remains of the progenitor stars
- 13:32original core. Astronomers using NASA's
- 13:35Changer X-ray observatory had previously
- 13:37identified signatures for iron, silicon,
- 13:39sulfur, and other elements within
- 13:41Cassiopia. In the hunt for other
- 13:43elements, the authors used Chrysom to
- 13:45look at the remnant in December of 2023,
- 13:48and they were able to pick out the
- 13:49signatures for chlorine potassium,
- 13:51determining that the remnant contains
- 13:53much higher ratios than expected. They
- 13:56also detected a possible indication of
- 13:58phosphorus, which had previously already
- 14:00been discovered in Cassopia A through
- 14:02infrared observations. The study's
- 14:04authors think stellar activity could
- 14:06have disrupted the layers of nuclear
- 14:08fusion inside the star before it
- 14:10exploded. That kind of upheaval may have
- 14:13led to persistent large-scale churning
- 14:15of material inside the star that created
- 14:17the sorts of conditions where chlorine
- 14:19potassium formed in abundance. The
- 14:22authors also combined their crisis
- 14:23observations with those from the Chandra
- 14:25Earth orbiting X-ray telescope, showing
- 14:27that the elements were concentrated in
- 14:29the southeastern and northern parts of
- 14:31the remnant. This lopsided distribution
- 14:34may mean the star itself had undergone
- 14:37asymmetries before it exploded.
- 14:39Something that the Chandra data had
- 14:41previously suggested. The authors had
- 14:43always suspected that a key part might
- 14:45be asymmetry. And now they have more
- 14:47evidence to support that hypothesis. But
- 14:50there's still a lot they don't
- 14:51understand about how stars explode and
- 14:54how they distribute all their elements
- 14:55across the cosmos. Being able to make
- 14:58measurements with good statistical
- 15:00precision of these rarer elements allows
- 15:02astronomers to develop a better
- 15:04understanding of the nuclear fusion
- 15:05process going on inside stars before and
- 15:08during their supernova explosions and
- 15:11spacecraft like Chrysom helps to
- 15:12accelerate that understanding. This
- 15:15report from NASA TV.
- 15:17>> Krism is our newest X-ray telescope in
- 15:20space. It's a Jackson NASA collaborative
- 15:23mission with ISSA participation and will
- 15:26revolutionize X-ray observations of the
- 15:28universe.
- 15:31It does this with a one-of-a-kind sensor
- 15:33that captures data with 36 super cooled
- 15:36pixels.
- 15:38Yes, you heard that right. This
- 15:41groundbreaking detector isn't measured
- 15:43in megapixels. It's a 6x6 grid of 36
- 15:47pixels. But they're unlike any others.
- 15:52Although this detector called Resolve
- 15:54can create lowresolution X-ray images,
- 15:57that is not what makes it unique. Each
- 16:01pixel in Resolve is a microc
- 16:03calorimeter, so it can measure tiny
- 16:05amounts of heat. A six-stage system
- 16:08cools it to 50 ml or a fraction of a
- 16:12degree above absolute zero. This extreme
- 16:15low temperature allows Resolve to
- 16:17measure how much a pixel warms when it
- 16:19absorbs a single X-ray and therefore
- 16:23measure the energy of that one particle
- 16:25of light. It's basically a precise way
- 16:28of measuring the X-ray's color.
- 16:31As a result, Krism can create the most
- 16:34detailed X-ray spectrum ever for distant
- 16:37objects. This spectrum can give a great
- 16:40deal of useful information like
- 16:42temperature, what elements are present
- 16:44and in what quantities, and how fast an
- 16:47object is moving towards or away from
- 16:49us, even if we can only see it as a dot
- 16:51in the sky too distant to resolve
- 16:54details.
- 16:55This would be a revolutionary
- 16:57achievement for a detector with a single
- 16:59pixel, but Resolve has 36. This allows
- 17:03Chrysom to observe extended objects that
- 17:05aren't point source dots and create
- 17:08spectrum maps of their different regions
- 17:10that can reveal speed and temperature
- 17:13differences in extremely hot gases.
- 17:16Using that information, scientists can
- 17:18determine how nebula and galaxy clusters
- 17:21have evolved and interacted over time.
- 17:24The resolve detector was invented and
- 17:27built at NASA's Gddard Space Flight
- 17:29Center. The detector success in Crism
- 17:32will enable Goddard to further the
- 17:34design and follow up with X-ray microc
- 17:36calorimeters with hundreds or even
- 17:39thousands of pixels.
- 17:41So while it may not sound as impressive
- 17:44as 4K or 50 megapixels, the resolve
- 17:47detector on Chrism will be
- 17:48revolutionizing our understanding of the
- 17:51large scale high energy universe. And
- 17:54that's pretty amazing for a mere three
- 17:56dozen pixels. This is spacetime. Still
- 18:00to come, the International Space Station
- 18:02puts out the full up sign with no spare
- 18:04parking spaces available. And later in
- 18:06the science report, a new study claims
- 18:09flavoroids may help improve insulin
- 18:11resistance. All that and more still to
- 18:13come on Spaceime.
- 18:31For the first time in its history, the
- 18:33International Space Station is fully
- 18:35occupied with all eight of its docking
- 18:37ports now in use. The houseful sign went
- 18:40up following the redocking of the
- 18:41Northrrook Grumman Signis cargo ship
- 18:43under the Earth-facing port of the Unity
- 18:45module. The orbiting outpost is
- 18:47currently playing host to a pair of
- 18:49SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, the Signis
- 18:51cargo ship we just mentioned, Jax's
- 18:53HTVX1
- 18:55cargo ship, two Roscosmos Soyuse
- 18:57capsules, and two Roscosmos Progress
- 19:00cargo ships. The Signis is flying
- 19:02Northrup Grman's 23rd commercial
- 19:04resupply mission for NASA and was
- 19:06repositioned using the station's Canada
- 19:08arm 2 robotic arm. NASA Northrup Grman
- 19:11and Ros Cosmos jointly planned the move
- 19:14to clear the way for the arrival of the
- 19:15soy MS28 spacecraft late last month and
- 19:18its new threeperson crew. The signis is
- 19:21expected to remain docked until March
- 19:23when it will depart loaded with up to
- 19:2511,000 lbs of trash and excess gear and
- 19:27then re-enter Earth's atmosphere where
- 19:29it will burn up. Meanwhile, the 10
- 19:31member expedition 7374 crew are about to
- 19:35drop down to seven with the scheduled
- 19:37departure of the Soyuse MS-27 spacecraft
- 19:39and its threeperson crew slated to
- 19:42undock from the PAL module and return to
- 19:44Earth landing in Kazakhstan.
- 19:47This is spaceime
- 20:04And time now to take another brief look
- 20:06at some of the other stories making news
- 20:07in science this week with the science
- 20:09report. A new study claims flavoronoids,
- 20:12chemicals found in dark colored fruits,
- 20:15orange, citrus tea, white wine, and dark
- 20:17chocolate may help improve insulin
- 20:19resistance. Previous research has linked
- 20:22flavonoid intake with benefits for
- 20:24cancer and blood pressure. Now, a report
- 20:26in the journal plus one examined data
- 20:29from Australian health and nutrition
- 20:30surveys showing a link between the
- 20:33intake of these foods and lower insulin
- 20:35resistance, a condition that can lead to
- 20:37type 2 diabetes and other metabolic
- 20:39events. Now, this type of study can't
- 20:42prove flavoronoids are the reason for
- 20:44the link, but the authors say their lab
- 20:46tests were able to show evidence of
- 20:48flavoronoids affecting insulin
- 20:50resistance in cells.
- 20:53The Israeli Defense Forces banned
- 20:55Chinese vehicles from their bases and
- 20:57production facilities, issuing blanket
- 20:59orders that any military personnel or
- 21:01civilian employees who own Chinese-made
- 21:03cars must park them well away from
- 21:05bases. The new IDF regulations are based
- 21:08on security concerns about data leaks
- 21:11from built-in cameras, GPS technology,
- 21:13and other sensors which are fitted to
- 21:15these vehicles and which can be remotely
- 21:17controlled and monitored from China. The
- 21:19fear is images, audio, or other data
- 21:21collected by these devices is being sent
- 21:24back to China and then handed over to
- 21:26Chinese intelligence agencies. Earlier
- 21:29this year, the United Kingdom imposed a
- 21:31similar ban on parking electric vehicles
- 21:33built with Chinese manufactured parts
- 21:35near British military bases because of
- 21:37their own espionage fears. Concerns were
- 21:40also recently raised in Australia about
- 21:42Chinese manufactured solar panels,
- 21:44batteries, and inverters, which are
- 21:46equipped with unexplained additional
- 21:47communications technology, allowing
- 21:49Beijing to remotely control them and
- 21:51change their settings or turn them off
- 21:54without any local approval. And concerns
- 21:56about Chinese spying don't end there. In
- 21:592023, the Australian government began
- 22:02removing cameras made by Chinese
- 22:03companies from government facilities,
- 22:05also on the grounds of security.
- 22:08A new study suggests that over the past
- 22:1150 years, top hit songs have grown to
- 22:13become simpler, more negative, and to
- 22:15contain more stress related words. The
- 22:18finding published in the journal
- 22:20Scientific Reports analyze song lyrics
- 22:22from the Billboard Hot 100 charts
- 22:24between 1973 and 2023. Now, that's some
- 22:282,186
- 22:30songs and have found that these changes
- 22:32in the lyrics coincided with increasing
- 22:34rates of depression and anxiety and also
- 22:37with increased levels of negativity in
- 22:39the news media and literature. The
- 22:41authors also looked at major events and
- 22:43they found that the Islamic terrorist
- 22:45attacks of September the 11, 2001 and
- 22:48the beginning of the CO 19 pandemic in
- 22:502019 were associated with lyrics
- 22:52becoming more complex and positive and
- 22:54containing fewer stress words, which the
- 22:56authors say might signify some form of
- 22:59escapism during stressful periods.
- 23:02After just a week, it's already clear
- 23:05that kids across Australia are easily
- 23:07getting around the federal government's
- 23:09social media ban for under 16s. The ban,
- 23:12which affects some 2 million children,
- 23:14was designed to protect them from cyber
- 23:16bullying and inappropriate material
- 23:17online. But it was hardly selective in
- 23:20nature, not including gaming chat rooms
- 23:22or left-wing social media platforms like
- 23:24Blue Sky. But as forecast, kids are
- 23:27fighting back. Kids are easily getting
- 23:29around the restrictions by simply
- 23:31switching to a range of other platforms
- 23:33like Lemonade, Yelope, WhatsApp, and
- 23:35Coverstar, or by simply scanning an
- 23:37older friend's face, by using VPNs, or
- 23:40by using their parents' social media
- 23:42accounts. And the age verification
- 23:45technology itself has also turned out to
- 23:47be fairly poor with many under
- 23:4916year-olds being judged as over 16 by
- 23:51the software. Technology editor Alex
- 23:54Harov Royo from Tech Advice Start Life
- 23:56says all of these workarounds were
- 23:58always going to happen.
- 23:59>> Well, I mean that was already known
- 24:01before the ban came into place. There
- 24:02were stories of teenagers finding out
- 24:04how. as Tohea Field on X who's a
- 24:07commentator and was showing lots of
- 24:09information about voting and how to vote
- 24:11your preferences in the last federal
- 24:13election in Australia. He said look
- 24:14parents have an obligation to show and
- 24:16teach their children because if get
- 24:17around the social media banned and they
- 24:19can't talk to their parents because
- 24:20somebody has subjected them to online
- 24:22harm which honestly we should teach the
- 24:24children how to deal with if they've
- 24:25been subjected to something and well
- 24:27they can't talk to the teachers or the
- 24:28government about it because it's against
- 24:29the law. The only people they have left
- 24:30they can trust are their parents. If the
- 24:32children know how to get online safely
- 24:34and they can talk to their parents about
- 24:35it, we have some trust there. Then not
- 24:37worried that your kids are going to be
- 24:38doing this thing behind your back, which
- 24:40is what the government rules have
- 24:41created this this reality. So, um, yeah,
- 24:44week one, it's chaos already. And of
- 24:46course, Albo, our prime minister, has
- 24:48said it's the finest thing he's done.
- 24:49All throughout history, I've seen this
- 24:50on X under Elon Musk and other people
- 24:52posting the same thing, but the people
- 24:53trying to censor speech are never the
- 24:55good guys. And that's really what it
- 24:58comes down to.
- 24:58>> Now, you're a multiple award winner.
- 25:00You've won in creative writing and uh
- 25:01this time you've won for controversy.
- 25:03>> Ah yes. Well, there's the consensus
- 25:05group awards. They've been giving awards
- 25:06for over 20 years mainly to companies
- 25:08for their innovations in software,
- 25:11agricultural technology, medical
- 25:12technology, hardware. It's a business
- 25:14awards, but they also have an IT writers
- 25:16award which you know going for just
- 25:18about as long. Well, it's the most
- 25:20controversial writer award, and it's an
- 25:22article I wrote about Telstra and their
- 25:24$10 a month discount, which removed a
- 25:26Wi-Fi 7 router that cost several hundred
- 25:28to buy if you bought it separately. It
- 25:30removes the 4G 5G SIM card backup in
- 25:33case your wide connection goes down. If
- 25:35you were to have one of those from
- 25:36Telstra, it would cost you a lot more
- 25:38than $10 a month. You also miss out on
- 25:39the AI fix for any Wi-Fi problems that
- 25:41you have. And really, the this discount
- 25:43makes it easy for Telstra not to serve
- 25:45you as a customer properly. and all for
- 25:47you to save whopping 32.9 a day. So I
- 25:50just said this was a terrible discount
- 25:51and it was Telster was playing a joke on
- 25:54all of us to offer this and their PR
- 25:55people said oh it's competitive with the
- 25:57market. I said well it's still bad and
- 25:59here I am a few months later winning an
- 26:01award for pointing that out and I did
- 26:03tell Telster about it but I've heard
- 26:04nothing back.
- 26:05>> That's Alex Harro from tick advice.life.
- 26:07life.
- 26:23And that's the show for now. Spacetime
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- 27:10>> You've been listening to Spacetime with
- 27:12Stewartgary. This has been another
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