welcome to tomorrow to day the science show on g.w. coming up. the hunt is on for dark energy we'll show you the 1st spectacular images from the space telescope. melting glaciers could building dams help cushion the effects of global warming. and the treasures of a computer museum a day to salvage experts revives obsolete storage media. 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 as eaters 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. leave this is there's the world as we know us but as we zoom out earth looks a lot smaller. it's just one of many planets that orbit the star at the center of our solar system the sun. is just one of the 300000000000 stars that make up our galaxy the milky way. imagine taking a galaxy the size of ours and shrinking it to the sides of a brazen something cosmologist york invented 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 that's fascinating. in some ways the universe can be compared to a loaf of raisin bread. the raisins it 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 so the distance between them gets bigger. it's a similar story with our universe it's expanding and at an ever a christening 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 loaf of the universe and the agent that seems to be growing stronger. to shed light on the mass or cosmologists measure x. ray radiation from distant galaxies but as even the glow of an entire galaxy can be too weak to detect they look at clusters. let's think about this raisin as a galaxy again for us galaxies are like lighthouses we can observe them from incredible distances. and with the help of galaxies we can to some degree measure the extent of the universe. a new instrument for detecting the light those galaxies in is the evos x. ray telescope shown here shortly before it was launched. instead of using lenses evos collect light by a gold plate should. come from the side of the tube and they bounce about of this tube and so in this way they can. one points like

a normal telescope through and so we've been to many many of these. we combine them together and this is our telescope that can see the. universe and the distant 3 since. the challenge for its designers was to build an instrument that's tough enough to withstand the unshielded impact of cosmic rays yet still be incredibly precise and dependable the rosita is both. now one and a half 1000000 kilometers away from earth it's begun the task of mapping the cause mouth 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 we've learned is that 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 don't 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 sky. are you sleeping better now that even is it or 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 caused damage. you just never know. but i would assume that we have now overcome the biggest hurdles. you go. pay to pay dear thanks for talking to us. in the coming years even as these he may reveal some of the deepest secrets of the cosmos we can hardly wait. nicholas casey when you're a viewer in zambia was wondering about another space secret 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 are more of the doc's views made him suspect and he was burned at the stake for heresy. advances in science produced new theories about alien life forms perhaps they were intelligent civilizations with highly developed technology able to settle throughout her galaxy but if that's 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 earth's raw materials in view of what we know so far that's

unlikely. highly sensitive telescopes have a best discovered only the building blocks of life in space. in the vicinity of young stars organic compounds have been found such as methanol and simple sugars along with mork. 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 too there are places that could sustain life like on enceladus one of saturn's moons its icy surface conceals an ocean that regularly shoots out plumes of water and space. they're 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 track down in space though it may take us a few more decades yet. development is right why are you going to. do you have a science question that you've always wanted oncet we're happy to help out send it to us as a video text ovoid smell if we answer it on the show we'll send you a little surprise as a thank you cannot just ask. you'll 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 it's the funeral of a glacier and ice and the glacier was once a thick dome of ice now it's almost all gone. as

a melting all over the world there's been drastic lacelle retreat in the arctic the southern and east and alaska over a period of 55 years the world lost over 9000000000 tons of glacier ice and the melting. his accent racing in many places including the elms. the glaciers are an important source of water especially in long dry summers many rivers receive huge amounts of water from areas covered by clay sure's. 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 glaciologists daniel fatty nati to undertake a study that's got a lot of people talking. to the fish in the future the glaciers won't be where they are now because they're receding so in our study we place the virtual dam at the point where the glacier currently ends it's controversial and we're not saying it's 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 it's 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. i dam 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 at 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. we're talking about

areas that are currently covered by glaciers. once the glaciers are gone so there won't be that much biodiversity in these areas. so basically they'll just be rock left. or so our line of argumentation was that you would probably do less damage by flooding music areas than if you place the forest or some other area under water. building reservoirs in europe a controversial thought experiment on how to prevent summer droughts if the glaciers disappear. actually we're 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. marty from indonesia writes that the dry season seems much longer october is already over and it still hasn't rained. in the rather reports that farmers in mexico are seeing far fewer insects and that it's more difficult to predict the start and end of the rainy season. henry a farmer in cameron says people don't know when to plant their crops anymore he is 40 years old and thinking of going back to university for environmental studies good luck if you do so and thanks for writing. good 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. ready though the effects on the climate won't be felt directly but even plants can be beneficial in other ways especially in big cities ready. greenery make fishies more appealing but it also serves a practical purpose. meteorologist geographer you are in fall man is an expert on urban climate and air quality. why misinterpreted trees clearly play an important role in cities on the one hand they have a cooling effect it is generally warmer in cities because there are more paper services and less of operationalize trees have a cooling effect on their immediate surroundings because of the water that liberates 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 to their cooling effect or thermal effect under cars they improve air quality suspect. you are in fall man and his colleagues that minds university have been examining the effect of trees on air quality in cities their computer simulations show that the impact is not always positive. in terms of air quality but it's important to think carefully about which trees need to be planted where for example a sycamore isn't suited to busy streets because of the luncheon oxide produced by traffic which the tree interacts with to produce ozone. but sycamores 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.

that is what scientists at the university of applied sciences in being are trying to find out in the institute's rooftop garden where. they're 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 here's what they discover it's. the c.b.d. so cycles i can see there's 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 doesn't get enough water. out here for our projects are designed 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 to low maintenance while also taking up a minimum of space. constantino whom our work for the variance 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. we can completely cover for signs with greenery even on tall buildings we can create a fully green surface on a tower block that's over 20 meters tall. it is of us on the can all stop and that's without taking up extra space in a dense urban environment just put in c. there's a lot of potential in germany. we have millions of square meters of building facades that could be grained from the conditions the vertical greening are in place. but the costs involved post something of an obstacle. to make sure it's 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 introduce heating costs. i know what it's hard to speak with the greening system 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 there's an additional insulating effect on minutes which it's 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 has lasted through the millennia what libraries also store ideas for the ages in the form of thugs knowledge is available to future

generations. that was about digital data storage media they can store more information than ever before but they're comparatively short lifespan is a problem. when you can no longer access important data it's time to call the salvage experts today great old bush is working on an old data cartridge sent in by the swiss post office it's thought to contain the specs from a special edition stamp issued in 1996 they all say these models to drive still works but i can't say yet whether it will get any it's that although i'm 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 doesn't work i have to reboot. just now

i should be able to eject 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. i think. hold on it is working. on a log is really the best thought in all of the film always still have a film on them if they've been stored properly. that it really or you know is magnetic and 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 is stored long term on flash drives or s.d. cards generally krups within just a few years. the one thing you can count on in the computer industry is that yesterday's cutting edge product will tomorrow look like it came from the digital stone age. were it not for dedicated collectors like felix couldn't old hardware like this would disappear pretty swiftly with disastrous consequences. valuable data is irretrievable without the right system. and usually. the data storage medium itself of course has to be intact.

then you need a device that's 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. i'm placing the punched tape in the device every line is one byte on the one hand it's printed out here on the other it's being transferred onto a modern computer so that we can save it onto a u.s.b. stick use of. the co-option yourselves the more. vantage is that the punched tape doesn't tear and the data will survive for

hundreds of years and won't be automatically deleted. but if we wanted to save this entire memory stick on tape like this you'd 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 he's managed to reconstruct the historically valuable data about the swiss and saved it on a modern computer much to the relief and satisfaction of his client. quotes on his office. how long will it be before the meat we eat is grown in the lab. next time we'll be looking at cultured meat join us for that on tomorrow today.

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a high carbon footprint that's reviving interest in traditional transportation methods is good but yes money changed arts with a small group of people who.