Europa's Water Plume Debate, Earth's Co-Orbital Mysteries, and ESA's Smile Mission Launch
5/27/202618 min
SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 63 *Questioning the existence of Europa’s vapor plumes A new study of Jupiter’s ice moon Europa is casting doubt of previous evidence showing possible vapor plumes ejecting into space. *Are Earth's co-orbitals stray asteroids or chunks of the Moon? As well as our Moon, planet Earth also has a group of asteroids orbiting around the Sun with it. But questions remain about their origins. *SMILE launches on a mission to study Earth’s shield against the solar wind The European space agency has successfully launched its SMILE spacecraft on an ambitious mission to better understand the interaction between Earth’s protective magnetosphere and the constant stream of charged particles flowing out from the Sun in the solar wind and space weather events such as solar and geomagnetic storms. *The Science Report High blood pressure now affects two in every five adult Australians. A new tectonic plate boundary could be forming in Zambia. Teens spend almost an hour of their sleep time on their phones instead. Alex on Tech Google IO 2026
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Speaker 20:25
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Speaker 30:50
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Stuart Gary· Host0:54
This is Space Time, Series 29, Episode 63, for broadcast on the 27th of May 2026. Coming up on Space Time, questioning the existence of the ice moon Europa's vapor plumes. A new study raises the questions of whether Earth's co-orbitals are stray asteroids or chunks of the Moon. And Europe's Smile spacecraft is launched on a mission to study Earth's shield against the solar wind. All that and more coming up on Space Time.
Speaker 31:23
Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Gary.