Travelers in the Night Eps. 373 & 374: Plant Companionship & Earth's Pet Rock

0:00It's the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast, coming in 3, 2, 1. On Earth, human life is enabled by plants which provide us with calories, vitamins, fuel, medicines, and oxygen to breathe.

0:31In addition, recent scientific studies indicate that plant cultivation reduces anxiety and depression and has a positive influence on diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and longevity. Perhaps this is the reason that 80% of the cultivated plant species on planet Earth are not used for any food-related purpose. On long-duration space missions, astronauts live in close quarters isolated from the natural world where the basic activities like eating, sleeping, and attending to bodily functions are difficult and stress-producing.

1:08Recent research conducted on the International Space Station suggests that space gardening helps astronauts to cope with the sterile spacecraft interior, allows them to combat boredom, as well as some of the other negative physiological effects of their long period of confinement. Specific examples of International Space Station gardens include astronaut Scott Kelly's first zinead to bloom in space and astronaut Peggy Whitson's small crop of space soybeans.

1:40For many thousands of years, people making long journeys have taken plants for food and recreation with them. It is likely that when humans travel to Mars, they will continue this practice. The plants that Mars explorers take with them will provide a source of fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh air to breathe, and perhaps a psychological benefit that is crucial to the success of their mission. For Travelers in the Night, this is Dr. Al Grauer. Go to travelersinthenight.org program 407 for more information.

2:22On its gravitational leash, Earth's pet space rock, 2016 H03, accompanies us at a distance between 38 and 100 times the moon's distance from Earth as we both travel about the sun. As this tiny asteroid orbits the sun, it spends about half of its time inside the Earth's orbit, where it moves faster and passes ahead of us, and the other half of its yearly path outside of our orbit, which causes it to lag behind our home planet.

2:54Since its discovery, little has been known about Earth's pet space rock, leaving some to speculate that perhaps it is an old rocket booster or other piece of space junk. To answer this question, Dr. Vishnu Reddy of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory headed up a team of astronomers who use the University of Arizona's Large Binocular Telescope and the Discovery Channel's telescope to determine some of its properties. This team of researchers found that 2016 H03 is indeed a natural object about 100 to 300 feet in diameter,

3:33rotates once every 28 minutes, and is made of material similar to meteorites which have landed on the Earth. Our pet space rock, 2016 H03, has apparently been in its present relationship to Earth for 100 years and is likely to remain so for hundreds of years to come. Even though 2016 H03 is not gravitationally bound to Earth, the combination of the sun's and the Earth's gravitational pulls keeps it relatively near,

4:04making it easy to reach and thus an ideal candidate for visits by human or robotic spacecraft. For Travelers in the Night, this is Dr. Al Grauer. Go to travelersinthenight.org program 408 for more information. You are listening to the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast.

4:31Cool. The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. Audio post-production is by me, Richard Drumm. Project management is by Aviva Yamani. And hosting is donated by LibSyn.com. This content is released under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License.

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5:38With every new discovery from ground-based and space-based observatories and each milestone in space exploration, we come closer to understanding the cosmos and our place within it. Until next time, let the stars guide your curiosity.