ALIEN OCEANS: Scientists Discover a Strange New Liquid Planet 🌌🪐

Well, hello, explorer. What a joy it is that you've popped along. You've joined me on an awesome adventure through the universe

We are discovering secrets. No one could dream of my name is Dan and it's a brand new science quest

This week on the smartest show in the solar system. We're looking at your skeleton. You are carrying 206 bones in your body every day

But have you ever wondered why?

Bones themselves aren't just scaffolding. They're also really important to our function

So it's all in the core of bones

There's the what's known as the bone marrow and that's a really important site of a process called

hematopoetus or a blood cell production

Also thinking of bones

We're looking at a creature that uses its ribs as a weapon and

And we're exploring a science that tackles one of the biggest questions of all is their life elsewhere in the universe

I'd really like to know

What it looks like underneath the ice of the icy moon of Saturn called Enceladus

I would like to know what the ocean floor looks like and whether or not there's any life there

It's all on the way in a brand new science quest

Let's start with your science in the news then not a brilliant one to kick us off because the Earth's climate is more out of balance than at any other time in recorded history

That's what the world meteorological organization has said

They've warned that our planet is gaining much more heat energy than it can release

Mainly caused by gases that trap the heat and this excessive energy

It's heating the oceans to new heights, and it's still melting the planet's polar caps now

This is not new to us. We've always heard about the ice caps melting the oceans levels rising

But it's still quite important for us to hear that the climate is out of balance

That the levels of energy aren't equal and everything that we can do to

Recycle to cut down on our emissions really helps the planet try and get itself back into order

Also this week some timber found in the ground near Gloucester in the UK

It's been revealed as a rare glimpse into life in the Bronze Age

Archaeologists have found this wooden timber structure built more than

3500 years ago. They've discovered that it was used for collecting water

Now it's rare to find wood it can quite often break down and they've used this to understand why villages were building these wooden

Constructions near sources of rivers and that what happened a period of weather warming has caused more rivers and streams there

Which has helped keep the timber in such good condition?

So that's pretty amazing

They would have used this back in the day to find water that maybe wasn't

Immediately accessible, but because of loads more water it's helped to preserve it and our final story this week

Astronomers have identified a planet made of molten lava

It could mean the existence of an entirely new type of planet one made of liquid

Let's find out more with Harrison Nichols an astronomer from the University of Oxford

Harrison thanks so much for joining us

What were the signs that led astronomers to think?

This might be made of lava

Well, thank you Dan for having me

There's a couple signs that this planet could have been made of lava and it wasn't clear before our study

What was planet really what and this planet is a part of a new category of planets?

It was about a few hundred of them. We know of

Cool supers and what this means is there was lots to learn about we don't really know what the insides of these planets look like

However, what's interesting about this planet?

particular is it's when we know it's size and we know how heavy it is

We can put this together to know how dense it is and what that suggested

From these measurements previously is that this planet had a very low density and what this means is it's very gassy

Do you think about gas is much much much less dense than then rock for example because it's gassy

This means it's got a very big atmosphere and the atmosphere

means that the

Inside of the planet could potentially be hot. However, this was just a suggestion and

We showed this in our paper in our in our study

We discovered that this planet is indeed molten inside and we also explained lots of other properties using the observations from the telescopes that we have

So you've got these ideas that because it's less dense that there's not much stuff in it as other planets of that size

You think well, that might mean it's liquid. There's a lot of gas. So maybe that means that liquid is hot

Yeah, you've kind of figured out that it is molten lava. What were you using computers to really decide this?

Yeah, so that's really the key

methodology used in our in our work here

So we previously to this work we had observations from the ground from

Space-based telescopes like James Webb Space Telescope

But really these

Measurements don't tell us anything unless we can interpret them and as we can understand them

I'm really that's what we did in our study. We put these data together to explain what happened

To this planet over its entire lifetimes five billion year lifetime and to do that we use computer simulations

Which basically we considered a range?

This this these computer simulations are a bit like by the forecasting where you sort of simulate what's going to happen in the future

Except rather than the future we consider how this planet starts out and then a range of different initial

potential starting points and

Ran all of these forward like a sort of five billion year forecast for this planet up to the present day and then compared those with the

Observations and the ones which

Match the observations are the ones that tell us that this planet was molten

So an entire planet made of molten lava and as I say this could mean the

Existence of an entirely new type of planet. What does this mean for our understanding of the universe around us?

The important thing to note is that the idea of a lava planet or a magma oceans as a sort of an ocean of magma

It's not is not new to this study. This has been an established idea for a while and it's important because the

Earth for example would have started molten all planets starting a molten state

Except this planet is interesting because it is a planet which we can show a state molten and

It's stayed molten because of its big atmosphere and that means that we can look at these planets and use them to study

The early earth for example, so earth started molten and we see a planet that the state molten

We can effectively get a window into what the early earth might have looked like and therefore we can you know in future studies

Use this sort of analysis to learn about for example the ocean of life on earth

So there's lots of ways in which we can take this forward using these magma oceans as a sort of window into the past

Well, it's been a real joy to learn all about this very strange planet l98-59d

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it doesn't have a great name in the it's someone needs to name this planet

Well, we've got something to work with now

Listen, thank you so much Harrison Nichols. Thank you for joining us. Thank you

All right, then it's time for your questions if you ever have anything

Sciencey that you want answered on this show whether it's about molten lava planets

Whether it's about the climate or strange

Constructions from the Bronze Age make sure you leave it as a voice note for me on the free fun kids app

You can do that at funkidslive.com to really easy. There's a big red button click that

Let me know who you are what you're up to and also any brilliant science question that you've got lurking around in that brain of yours

Send over free fun kids app first question this week a message from Toby who wants to know

How do the northern lights happen? Have you ever seen these?

Normally around the polar regions of our earth so the north and south pole sometimes they creep a little bit outside of that though

It's where the night sky can be filled with waves of these bright colors

They look magical hanging shimmering through our air

Well, it all happens through the Sun even though the Sun is 93 million miles away. It has an effect on everything

Storms on the Sun they send the gusts of charged solar

Particles bits of energy they send it hurtling across space if earth

Is in the path of these particles they hit our planet's magnetic field and they react those charged particles

They excite the molecules in our atmosphere and they excite them so much that they light up

They light up because the electrons they move further away from the nucleus of the atom little atoms in every single thing

And then they move back towards it

So these electrons are going in and out and in and out and when that happens it releases energy it releases photons of light

It works a bit like a neon sign that you might have seen

Advertising things near where you live

Electricity excites the atoms in the neon gases, which cause a light

That's pretty much what's happening in our sky the different gases in the sky give off different colors

Oxygen causes the greens nitrogen the blues and the reds

So it's all happening because of these storms that are taking place 93 million miles away on the Sun

Toby, thank you so much for the question. Let's get on another one brilliant. It's a voice note from Rocco

Rocco, thank you so much for your question. It's amazing isn't it because well we have bones

But what a brilliant thing to to wonder I've never considered why we actually have them and could we have anything else are they all bones?

Should we find out doctor Scott Abbott Patterson is an anatomist from the University of Bristol and joins us

Scott, thank you so much for being there. You know all about anatomy. So why do people have bones?

Thank you. What a great question. So I think

Bones make up our skeleton and so that's really important in terms really of giving us structure because without them

Really, we wouldn't have any shape or form. We just kind of be a bit of a blob of organs and tissues really

What so they give us form there Scott, but do we have other things apart from bones?

Absolutely, so first of all they give us that structure they give us that bone and

For us that's that's what we call an endoscalerton

So it means that our bones are inside our body and that's different from some insects where they have what we call an exoscalerton

So they have that structure really on the outside of the body

But it's not just about that kind of structure

It's also really about movement and what we call locomotions movement of the body

We move by muscles attaching to the bones

So if you slightly bend your elbow and you you press on the front just in that just in the middle of the sort of the crease of your elbow

You'll maybe feel a sort of cylinder of quite solid tissue at the end of your muscle

That's that's attending that attaches the muscles of your arm

Into your forearm into that bit between your elbow and your hand

And so when we flex our elbow, we sort of hold our arms up to show off our biceps

What's happening is the muscle they are

It's attaching above the elbow but also attaching below is pulling on those bones

And then those bones are acting like a lever and that's how we move our body

And that's happening across joints all over our body and so that we can combine those muscles with our skeleton

To allow us to move and interact with the world

It's amazing to think about when you say it like that because we are moving bones all the time

And and I never stopped to actually think about

How many times our bones must move every single day Scott

Absolutely and something like the hand where you've got so many little bones

Just picking up a pencil, taping on a keyboard, something like that

You're using muscles and you know moving all of those joints all the time

So all of that is thanks to those bones and say our body

And they're not just there as a skeleton and to move

bone to pretty remarkable things because I know that they're really strong Scott and also

Isn't there something really special inside a bone which helps everything else in our system

The thing that it's easy to think about bones is just being the scaffolding

You know as you mentioned they're really strong

And so we think about them all sort of offering that protective function

You know we think about our skull being a little bit like almost a helmet for our brain

You know it keeps keep the internal brain safe and the ribs keep the

The heart and the lungs and those organs inside safe

But actually yes, you're right bones themselves aren't just scaffolding

They're also really important to our function

So so in the core of bones there's the what's known as the bone marrow

And that's a really important site of a process called

hematopoetis or or blood cell production and what's happening there is

That the body is producing new red blood cells new white blood cells

You platelets and those are really important for our function. So they are

The red blood cells are important and encouraging oxygen around the body

And the white blood cells important in our immune system and fighting infection

And then the platelets helping us clot our blood so that if we do cut ourselves it's it stops the stops as bleeding

In my mind that process the bone marrow. It's like a little tube inside our bones

If you imagine the wheel around your your your your the tire around your bike wheel

And then you've got an inner tube. Is it quite that simple? Is it a bit more

fancy and smart than just one tube inside a bit of bone casing?

I like to think of born be a little bit like um a chocolate bar that sort of

Solid chocolate on the outside and then a sort of honeycomb center

But the bone marrow then is a more of a gap thing within the very core of that bone

And so bones are very complex in that they do have their own blood supply and that blood supply

Get smaller and smaller as it branches out into the various parts

Of the of the bone of the tissue and the cells that are contained within there kind of nourished by that

But so it's it's it's complex and that there's

branching into the core of the bone

But you're you know you're you're an allergy. There's not far from from the truth really

Well, there you go Rocco. That's why we have bones and that's why they're so important

Not just to to hold your body together Dr. Scott Abbott Patterson. Thank you for joining us. No problem at all. Thank you

Rocco, thank you so much for your question. Thank you so much for Dr. Scott Patterson for coming on the show

Talking all about the bones in our body and how they are so useful to not just how you look

But how you move and how you keep yourself healthy if you have a question that you'd love to hear answered on the podcast

Make sure you leave as a voice note for me on the free fun kids app. You can do that fun kids live.com too

It's time for this week's dangerous Dan where we search for the most weird strange

Unique and brilliantly deadly things in the universe and this week

It's another one of our awesome amphibians. We're traveling to Spain and Morocco. We're meeting the Spanish ribbed new

It's like a real-life superhero or maybe a supervillain actually if you're in the animal kingdom because when most creatures run away and hide when they're scared

This new turns itself into a living pin cushion

The Spanish ribbed new is dark brownish in color. It's got orange warts lining their body

They're really important. They can grow quite long up to a foot

So they're giants of the new world down there similar to most amphibians

Spanish ribbed newts they are born in water. They breathe through their gills when they start to grow up

They they grow limbs than they lose their gills and they gain the ability to survive on land as well as in water

And they've got a hidden power. It's like something from a yeah like a superhero movie

When a hungry bird or snake tries to grab them this newt pushes its own sharp pointy ribs

Right through their skin those orange warts that I mentioned they slightly tear apart their ribs stick through it

And they are tiny they are covered in venom like little toxic spears

Just imagine if your ribs could pop out of your sides to protect you

Something's trying to eat the newts

These ribs they jut out and they do the work. What a dangerous deterrent warning them don't come near me because these are toxic

And I will use them to spike and I will go for the kill

Now it sounds painful if it would happen to you with your ribs jutting out

But for a new it's no big deal because their skin is amazing at healing. They don't get permanent scars

And actually it's not just that that's brilliant at healing

They can regrow parts of their heart and even their own brain

Which is why this awesome Spanish ribbed newt goes straight on to our dangerous Dan list

It's time for this week's battle of the sciences where we try to discover the greatest science in the history of the universe

And the universe is billions of years old so there's a lot to crack through

Who's fighting for their field today? Well, Dr. Vic Pearson is from the open university

We're discussing astrobiology

Taking us into space I would think let's find out Vic you have one minute to tell us why astrobiology is the greatest science of them all that minutes starts in three two one go

Well the universe is a really huge place

It's not only billions of years old, but it's vast

The earth is the only place in that vastness that we know that it has that has life

And we're looking for life in other parts of our solar system and other parts of the universe

Because we haven't found it yet

So that's what astrobiology is all about

So what we do is we look for things that life might need like water or elements and energy

And look for environments where we think might life might might once have been present

All that where life might be today

And that includes things like the oceans

The lakes on Mars that are preserved in the rocks

Or even the ocean floors of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn where life may even be present today

And if we find life elsewhere in the universe it would be a massive result

Because it wouldn't only blow our minds

But it will also mean that we're no longer alone that we've got neighbors

And that we should be considerate of them

So that means taking care of the planets in the moons if we go to visit them

Vic, there's your minute it's up

Uh, but

So here's what boggles my mind about astrobiology in particular

Biology down here on Earth we can study the soil

We can study rivers that are right there

Yet you're looking for signs of life

Life years away

Uh, and across the solar system too

How on earth can you tell if there might be life

In a frozen lake in Mars where no human is ever set foot

So we can get information that comes from spacecraft

And that spacecraft can either be orbiting around another body

Or we can send spacecraft that land onto the surface of other

Other bodies like Mars

And on board thought that spacecraft that carry instruments

That are able to determine what the rocks might be made of

Or if water might be present

And the things that we're looking for are elements that are important to life

Like every everybody on earth

Every organism is made of carbon

Nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus, and a whole load of other elements

So we're really interested in finding places that might

Contend those elements

And of course we all need water

Our bodies are predominantly made of water

So anywhere that might once have had liquid water

Like a lake in ancient Mars or an ocean of an icy moon

Is a good target to find to possibly find life in the future

So we're reliant at the moment on getting data from spacecraft

But of course in the future

We actually hope that we'd be able to send humans to other planetary bodies

We've obviously only visited the moon so far

And hopefully there'll be some humans stepping foot on the moon again

In the next couple of years

But we haven't sent humans anywhere else in the solar system

But perhaps in the future when we're able to visit Mars

Then they might be able to go and study the environments in much more detail

And that will mean that we'll get first-hand evidence of whether or not there has been life there

Is there a lot of waiting around twiddling your thumbs before the Mars rover sends back

Samples of a rock?

So for astrobiologists we can be waiting years for information that might come from spacecraft

Some spacecraft that are going to the outer edges of the solar system

Or to the icy moons of the giant gas planets

Can take several years to get there

But meanwhile we can do plenty by studying either within our laboratories here on Earth

Or by going to places on Earth that have got quite similar environments to the places that we're interested in

So that could be a straight forward

Is visiting somewhere that's got an acidic river here in the UK

Or going to places like Iceland

To study whether or not there might be life in really extreme cold environments

Or we could even recreate some of the environments from the

Elsewhere in the solar system here in our laboratories

And that's something that we do here at the open university

So we don't sit in twiddler thumbs

We keep ourselves quite busy

I always finish these chats in exactly the same way

Vic, tell us at the end of your career in astrobiology

What's the one thing you want to discover? What do you want to know about your field?

I'd really like to know what it looks like

Underneath the ice of the icy moon of Saturn called Enceladus

I would like to know what the ocean floor looks like

And whether or not there's any life there

Wow, have you any idea what it might look like?

We think it might be a little bit like the what we call the mid-ocean ridge

That runs in the middle of the Atlantic ocean

Where there is on the earth where there are vents

That come up from the ocean floor and bubble hot water out into the ocean

We think that there might be similar environments to that on Enceladus

And on earth those environments are actually a really attractive place

For organisms to live

So if those do occur on Enceladus

They're a good place where we might be able to find life

Wow, it's been amazing to talk to the universe

With you Dr. Vic Pearson, thanks for joining us

You're welcome

Now in our questions earlier on we answered Rocco's question

Didn't we all about the bones in your body

All about our skeleton and we can dive in a bit more with that now

Catching up with one of our favourite geniuses

Professor Halux, who knows everything about how your body works

And why it does what it does

At this week Halux has invented a new and improved skeleton

It is called the Turbo Titan Skeletronoptic 5000

It's a grand title isn't it Halux?

Now it might look good but can it do all the jobs that our bones do

And what are those jobs? Let's find out

Halux is physiology fix up

Finally, you're putting up those shelves we need

No, making some improvements to this skeleton

Really? What's wrong with skeletons the way they are?

I can't believe no one's thought of it before

Look at it, all those white lumpy bones

Skinny and nobly and white

Like my granddad on the beach

So what precisely are you proposing?

This

A titanium skeletal structure with carbon fiber into locking joints

I've called it the Turbo Titan Skeletronoptic 5000

Finished in a number of high-gloss, fashion-forward shades

You chow's those colours?

Of course, we have a viola pink, umbilisous grey

And my personal favourite, carbuncle green

Very, um, carbuncular

I'm not sure your turbo titanium skeleton is going to be able to do all the jobs that bones have to do

Jobs? What? Like Lollipop Lady, Zookeeper, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Professor, you know what I mean

Only joking? As a matter of fact, I do

Organes and systems in our bodies have a number of jobs to do

They're able to do these jobs because of the way they're constructed

And the way they work with other parts of the body

Shall we see if your new and improved skeleton makes the bride?

Floating Physiology File

Bones and skeletons do many important jobs in human bodies

Job 1, support, holding bodies upright

The Turbo Titan Skeletronoptic 5000 should ace this one

That metal is five times the strength of bone

Physiology, ha, ha

See?

Job 2, protection

Bones and skeletons structures protect squishy bits in the body

For example, the ribcage protects the heart and lungs

Physiology, ha

I think this is looking promising nanobot

Job 3, movement, bones and joints allow movement in all the ways needed

Physiology, bail

Not so promising now, that metal skeleton would take a lot of energy to move around

Bones do a great job because they are strong but very light

Unlike that stack of metal

Job 4, storage, bone store, important fats and minerals including calcium

Physiology, bail

Your stack of metal doesn't store anything?

Although you could store a few bikes on that massive metal ribcage

Ha, very funny

Look, this one job left, everything to play for

Job 5, production of blood cells

Blood cells are made in the bone marrow inside bones

Physiology, bail

Well, it's only a prototype

Noise-try-professor

Physiology is fundamental

It not only helps us understand the job's parts of the body have to do and how they do them

It also means we can understand the effect

Other things have on our bodies, like the effect of aging

Can you wheel that door, nanobot?

Physiologists have observed that the more bones work, the more weight they bear

And the more exercise they do, the more they produce cells

Which rebuild the very bones themselves

Your grandad was known for his beach limbo

But many old people aren't as active as younger people

We can predict that older people may have weaker bones

Knowing this helps us to encourage people to stay active

For as long as possible

Which means stronger bones and...

More beach limbo?

Exactly

Right, back to the drawing board

Now, surely there's a better way to build a heart, you know?

Have you seen a heart?

It's a big, globy mess

Uh-oh, just don't make it carbon-cooled grain

Alex is Physiology Fixer

With support from the Physiological Society

Find out more at folkitslive.com

Slash-Hallux

Thank you so much to Alex for a genius

You can learn loads more with him all about

What your body does, why it does the things that it does

Uh, wherever you've got this podcast, brilliant episodes from him loads more

Two that take you through the universe, take you time-traveling

And take you inside your favorite stories

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at funkidslive.com

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