TYB
Sols 4329-4330: Continuing Downhill
Oct 11, 2024
Curiosity is continuing to make good progress downhill along the western edge of the Gediz Vallis channel, allowing us to take another look from a different perspective at this area we've spent many months exploring.
The drive from Monday's plan executed as expected, positioning us about 30 meters (about 98 feet) north of our last location.
Unfortunately, the rover parked with its right front wheel atop an unstable-looking rock, so we decided to keep the arm stowed rather than risk having the wheel slip with the arm unstowed.
As a consequence, our plan today is all remote sensing, kicking off with a LIBS activity on a bedrock target “Sapphire Lake” and long distance RMI mosaics of “Pinnacle Ridge,” which avid readers may remember was a focus of an imaging campaign while we were still in the channel.
Mastcam gets its turn on both Sapphire Lake and Pinnacle Ridge, as well as a Mastcam-exclusive target, “Wuksachi,” to document some rover-disturbed regolith and a wheel-scuffed rock surface.
This plan's drive is also in the first sol, which will hopefully bring us nearly 40 meters (about 131 feet) further north, closer to our eventual exit from Gediz Vallis.
The first sol also sees a small collection of environmental science observations, including Navcam images to monitor dust and sand on the rover deck as well as a Navcam movie looking out over the northern horizon to look for clouds.
We haven't been seeing many clouds lately, but we are rapidly approaching the end of the current Mars Year, and the end of the dusty season.
(The new year, numbered 38, begins Nov. 12; a Martian year is much longer than one on Earth, taking 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun.)
Though the cloudy season won't really pick up steam until February, the “noctilucent cloud season” will be taking place in December and January, which has produced some spectacular images in the past.
Today's plan also features an “UltraSPENDI,” or “Shunt Prevention ENV Navcam Drop-In.”
This activity takes 18 cloud movies and dust devil movies over three hours and serves to prevent the rover's batteries from remaining fully charged for an extended period of time, which would hurt their long-term health.
The second sol of this plan is pretty simple, featuring a Mastcam tau to measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere, a ChemCam AEGIS activity, some more Navcam deck monitoring, and a 360-degree Navcam survey for dust devils around the rover.
As always, REMS, RAD, and DAN will be continuing with their usual activities.
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4329-4330-continuing-downhill/
FAA clears SpaceX to resume Falcon 9 rocket launches
October 12, 2024
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket a green light to return to flight.
The Falcon 9 had been grounded since Sept. 28, when the rocket suffered an issue with its upper stage during the launch of the Crew-9 astronaut mission for NASA.
(A Falcon 9 did launch Europe's Hera asteroid-inspection probe on Oct. 7, but that was a one-time exception granted by the FAA.)
"The FAA notified SpaceX on Oct. 11 that the Falcon 9 vehicle is authorized to return to regular flight operations," agency officials said in an emailed statement on Friday afternoon. "The FAA reviewed and accepted the SpaceX-led investigation findings and corrective actions for the mishap that occurred with the Crew-9 mission (Sept. 28)."
The Crew-9 incident — which did not affect mission success but did result in the upper stage falling back to Earth outside its planned disposal area — was the third Falcon 9 issue in less than three months.
The first occurred on July 11, when an upper-stage propellant leak led to the loss of 20 of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites.
The Falcon 9 was grounded for about two weeks as a result. Then, on Aug. 28, a Falcon 9 first stage failed to land safely after a successful Starlink launch.
The rocket was flying again just three days later.
In its statement on Friday, the FAA said that it has "closed the SpaceX-led investigations for the Falcon 9 mishaps that occurred" on those two missions.
SpaceX is still waiting for FAA approval for the fifth test flight of its Starship megarocket, the giant vehicle the company is developing to help humanity settle the moon and Mars.
Elon Musk's company hopes to launch the Starship mission on Sunday (Oct. 13) and is confident that will happen.
"We expect regulatory approval in time to fly on October 13," SpaceX said in a Friday post on X.
https://www.space.com/faa-clears-spacex-resume-falcon-9-rocket-launches-october-2024
The key ingredients for life on Earth came from space, new evidence suggests
October 11, 2024
New evidence has emerged suggesting that the building blocks of life were delivered to the primordial Earth from space by meteorites, a finding that could help scientists hunt for alien life.
These meteorites would have been the fractured remains of early "unmelted asteroids," a type of planetesimal.
Planetesimals are small rocky bodies that served as the main building blocks of the solar system's rocky planets, including Earth.
They were formed around 4.6 billion years ago in the disk of dust and gas around the infant sun as particles around our young star began to stick together, accreting more mass and making progressively larger bodies.
A team of researchers tracked the chemical element zinc in meteorites to determine the origin of Earth's "volatiles."
These are elements or compounds that change into vapor at relatively low temperatures.
They are important because they include six common chemicals vital for living things, including water.
"One of the most fundamental questions on the origin of life is where the materials we need for life to evolve came from," study team leader Rayssa Martins, from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge in England, said in a statement.
"If we can understand how these materials came to be on Earth, it might give us clues to how life originated here and how it might emerge elsewhere," Martins added.
Follow the zinc
Martins and colleagues from Cambridge and Imperial College London chose zinc because, when it is formed in meteorites, it has a unique composition that can be used to identify the origins of volatiles.
The team previously found that Earth's zinc seems to have originated from different regions of the solar system.
Around half came from the inner region of the solar system, close to our planet and the other rocky worlds by the sun.
However, the other half seems to have originated from out beyond the fifth planet from the sun, the gas giant Jupiter.
This is possible to gauge because planetesimals aren't all the same.
The planetesimals that formed in the earliest era of the solar system were exposed to high levels of radiation from the infant sun.
This caused them to melt, thus easily losing volatiles through vaporization.
Planetesimals that came together later in the solar system's formative years weren't exposed to as much radiation, meaning they didn't experience as much melting and were able to hold on to more of their volatiles.
The team looked at zinc in a large sample of meteorites that originate from different planetesimals.
They then traced the arrival of different types of zinc over the tens of millions of years that our planet was accreting material.
They found that melted planetesimals accounted for around 70% of our planet's total mass but only delivered about 10% of its zinc content.
That means 90% of Earth's zinc originated from "unmelted" planetesimals with higher amounts of intact volatiles.
The consequence is that these unmelted space rocks must have also delivered a lot of volatiles to the forming Earth, too.
"We know that the distance between a planet and its star is a determining factor in establishing the necessary conditions for that planet to sustain liquid water on its surface," Martins added.
"But our results show that there’s no guarantee that planets incorporate the right materials to have enough water and other volatiles in the first place — regardless of their physical state."
The research conducted by Martins and colleagues may have implications far beyond the reaches of our planet, assisting in the ongoing search for life elsewhere in the cosmos.
"Similar conditions and processes are also likely in other young planetary systems," Martins concluded.
"The roles these different materials play in supplying volatiles is something we should keep in mind when looking for habitable planets elsewhere."
The team's research was published on Friday (Oct. 11) in the journal Science Advances.
https://www.space.com/ingredients-for-life-came-from-space-new-study
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ado4121
Putin wants to cut off the global Internet: NASA already planning how to divert it into space
10/12/2024
In today’s world, people feel that the Internet is an abstraction that does not exist in a physical form. However, the reality is starkly different.
The Internet is supported by an unstable web of submarine cables that handle around 95% of all interconnects.
They consist of about 200 cables that cross oceans to provide important communication and financial transactions, amounting to approximately $10 trillion daily.
They are now often depicted as a physically weak nation, especially given the escalating tensions between countries such as Russia, China, and North Korea.
Recent underwater cable incidents show how fragile global communication is
New events have demonstrated that these cables are very vulnerable.
For instance, in October 2022, the electricity cable linking the Shetland Islands experienced two breaks shortly after a Russian research vessel passed close to the area.
While the intentionality of disruption is often not easy to establish—most disruptions result from accidental or natural causes—the timing has increased the alertness of Western security organizations.
Moreover, the retreat of the major Chinese telecommunication companies from the undersea cable system suggests a shift in confidence in the global information technology industry.
NATO’s new strategy: What to know about their plan to redirect internet traffic via satellites
Given all these threats, NATO is funding a project to redirect internet traffic via satellite links in case of a cable cut.
The organization’s Science for Peace and Security Programme has endorsed a grant of up to $433,600 for the $2.5m project to create continuity from cable infrastructure to space technology in emergencies.
The current study involves researchers from the US, Iceland, Sweden, and Switzerland, all of whom have come together to identify how the Internet can be kept up during calamities.
Such solutions are now more necessary than ever. In March 2023, there were significant disruptions in West and Central Africa through cable breaks, showing that the disruption of these networks puts other consequences into motion.
One of the significant sub-goals is to improve the identification of threats to undersea cables.
Currently, mobile operators can detect interference from as far as a kilometer away; the goal is to detect it from a meter away.
This increase in precision should also allow for a faster reaction to possible threats, whether from sabotage or a natural catastrophe.
Global partnerships to strengthen the future of underwater infrastructure protection
NATO’s initiative is not coming out of the blue, as there is a growing awareness among different actors globally on the importance of protecting undersea infrastructure.
The European Commission has also sounded the alarm over the security of these cables, fearing that tension might affect their security and urging improvement in resilience mechanisms.
NATO has already launched a center to focus on the best practices for the protection of underwater critical infrastructure, especially after the September 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Despite the scope, it can be a high-stakes project, given that the legal status of satellite communications and maritime zones is complicated by international law.
Scientists will take about two years to conduct feedback sessions with prototypes and assess the differences in national laws.
This is true considering industry players like Viasat Inc., whose satellite internet system was targeted by cyberattacks when Russia invaded Ukraine, space tech firm Sierra Space Corp., and cybersecurity firm Syndis of Iceland.
It will equally likely act as a dominant model of how nations can unite to protect their digital structures as the project progresses.
In an ever-globalizing economy, the importance of the Internet cannot be overemphasized. Losing connection means that more than economic losses, political and cultural relations can break down between nations.
https://www.ecoticias.com/en/russia-internet-nasa-space/7274/
Nearby exoplanet is a 1st-of-its-kind 'steam world,’ James Webb Space Telescope finds
October 11, 2024
A nearby alien planet is the first of its kind, new observations by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) suggest.
Located around 100 light-years away from Earth, the exoplanet is shrouded in a thick envelope of steam.
This world, designated GJ 9827 d, is around twice the size of Earth, three times more massive than our planet, and has an atmosphere almost entirely composed of water vapor.
"This is the first time we're ever seeing something like this," team member and former University of Michigan undergraduate student Eshan Raul, currently at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in a statement.
"The planet appears to be made mostly of hot water vapor, making it something we're calling a 'steam world.'
To be clear, this planet isn't hospitable to at least the types of life that we're familiar with on Earth."
Astronomers have long speculated that "steam worlds" like GJ 9827 d could exist, but this is the first time such an exoplanet has been observed.
As Raul points out, this planet is unlikely to support life, at least as we understand it, but it could help astronomers study other small exoplanets between the size of Earth and Neptune that are habitable.
The study team, led by Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb from the University of Montréal's Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets, discovered GJ 9827 d's steamy nature using a technique called "transmission spectroscopy."
Transmission spectroscopy is based on the fact that elements and the chemicals they make up absorb and emit light at characteristic electromagnetic wavelengths.
When light from a star shines through the atmosphere of a planet, the elements in that atmosphere absorb certain wavelengths, leaving "gaps" in the light spectrum.
These gaps are the "fingerprints" of specific elements and molecules in that atmosphere.
Thus far, the majority of exoplanets that astronomers have investigated using this method have possessed atmospheres dominated by the universe's two lightest and most common elements, hydrogen and helium.
That is similar to the atmospheres of the solar system gas giants Jupiter and Saturn but markedly different from the complex atmosphere of Earth and from the atmospheres that would be needed to support life as we know it.
"GJ 9827 d is the first planet where we detect an atmosphere rich in heavy molecules like the terrestrial planets of the solar system," Piaulet-Ghorayeb said in the statement. "This is a huge step."
GJ 9827 d was first discovered by the Kepler space telescope in 2017.
The exoplanet is located just 5.2 million miles (8.4 million kilometers) from its host star, GJ 9827, which is around 6% of the distance between Earth and the sun.
That proximity means GJ 9827 d completes an orbit in just over six Earth days. It is the third of three known exoplanets found around this star.
In 2023, the Hubble Space Telescope found the first tantalizing hints of water vapor in the atmosphere of GJ 9827 d.
The sensitivity of JWST and its Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument allowed the study team to discover that this exoplanet doesn't just have hints of water vapor; it is metaphorically drowning in it!
"It was a very surreal moment," said Raul. "We were searching specifically for water worlds because it was hypothesized that they could exist.
If these are real, it really makes you wonder what else could be out there."
The team thinks there are many more worlds like GJ 9827 d to be discovered, suggesting that steam planets and water worlds could turn out to be very common.
"Being able to work with the data at this point in my career from what's literally the most powerful telescope that's ever been made," Raul concluded.
"I believe it goes to show there's never been a better time for young people to get into astronomy."
https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-steam-exoplanet
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ad6f00
https://news.umich.edu/jwst-finds-first-exotic-steam-world-shrouded-in-water-vapor/
James Webb Space Telescope spies 'inside-out' star formation in ancient galaxy
October 11, 2024
Galaxies in the universe today have come a long way from the first structures that emerged after the Big Bang.
Galaxies like our own Milky Way are composed of hundreds of billions of stars these days, but things weren't always like this.
Now, researchers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have peered back deep into our cosmic history, just 700 million years after the Big Bang, which occurred about 13.8 billion years ago.
They studied an infant galaxy from that epoch to see how star formation differs from that of galaxies in the universe today.
The galaxy was observed as part of the JWST Advanced Extragalactic Survey (JADES) collaboration, and it was seen to be actively forming stars.
Interestingly, this early-universe galaxy has a very dense core, with star concentrations in its center similar to that of galaxies in the universe today (which are composed of roughly 1,000 times more stars).
However, astronomers noticed that star formation was happening farther away from the core, with formation activity gradually rising toward the outskirts of the galaxy as it grew in size.
Astronomers had previously predicted this "inside-out" star growth dynamic in galaxies this age with theoretical models, but now they have the observations to confirm their hypothesis.
"One of the many reasons that Webb is so transformational to us as astronomers is that we’re now able to observe what had previously been predicted through modeling," study co-author William Baker, a PhD student at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in England, said in a statement.
"It’s like being able to check your homework."
Using Webb's data, the researchers were able to estimate the ratio of young stars to older stars, which they then converted into an average stellar mass and formation rate.
Stellar population modeling revealed older stars in the core of the galaxy.
But the surrounding disc of gas and dust was undergoing very active star formation, doubling stellar mass in the outskirts roughly every 10 million years.
The newborn stars likely then migrate toward the center of the galaxy, similar to how an ice skater brings their arms in to rotate faster.
"Therefore, we speculate that the following two scenarios are possible to build up this core.
The first is continuous inside-out growth, where early disc formation took place in a very compact disc, forming the currently observed core," the authors explained in the paper, which was published online today (Oct. 11) in the journal Nature Astronomy.
"An alternative is that the disc formed first, suffered an infall of gas into the center due to compaction (possibly caused by instability triggered by the clump, which then forms the core.
The disc would then re-form via new accretion of gas," they added.
Study lead author Sandro Tacchella says the team wants to observe more galaxies at a similar time in the early universe to see if they share these star formation dynamics.
By investigating galaxies across time, astronomers will gain a better understanding of how galaxies grow and evolve to become the bustling behemoths we see today.
https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-inside-out-star-formation-early-universe
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1060556
Boeing plans more commercial crew charges
October 12, 2024
Boeing expects to take up to several hundred million dollars in additional charges against earnings for its CST-100 Starliner commercial crew program in the third quarter.
In a statement late Oct. 11, Boeing said it expects to report pre-tax earnings charges of $2 billion on four programs, including Starliner, in its Defense, Space & Security (BDS) business when it reports its third quarter financial results Oct. 23.
Of that $2 billion, $1.6 billion will be charged against two military aircraft programs, the T-7A and KC-46A.
That leaves $400 million for Starliner and the MQ-25 drone, but the statement did not mention the charges for each of those programs.
Boeing has already recorded about $1.6 billion in charges over the life of the program, including $125 million in the second quarter.
That number was certain to grow because of problems Starliner suffered on its first crewed flight this summer that led NASA to bring the spacecraft back uncrewed.
At the Aug. 24 briefing where NASA announced it would return Starliner uncrewed, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said he had been assured by Boeing’s new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, that the company would remain committed to the program.
“He expressed to me an intention that they will continue to work the problems once Starliner is back safely,” Nelson said, but added there had been no discussion about whether Boeing would be willing to shoulder the costs of an additional test flight to certify the vehicle for carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Starliner is one of several fixed-price programs that Boeing has struggled with.
“In BDS, our performance on fixed-price development programs is simply not where it needs to be,” Ortberg said in a message to employees Oct. 11.
“I will be providing additional oversight of this business and these programs.”
Ortberg also announced in the memo that Boeing would be laying off 10% of its workforce, or about 17,000 employees, as it grapples with both the problems at BDS as well as a strike affecting its commercial aviation business.
The company did not disclose how specific parts of the company, including its space businesses, would be affected.
https://spacenews.com/boeing-plans-more-commercial-crew-charges/
https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2024-10-11-Boeing-CEO-Message-to-Employees-on-Positioning-for-the-Future
https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2024-10-11-Boeing-Reports-Preliminary-Third-Quarter-Results
Congress plans UFO hearings for November
Oct 11, 2024 / 05:51 PM CDT
When Congress returns to Washington, D.C., after the presidential election, lawmakers plan on taking on the bipartisan issue of UFOs.
There are many pressing matters on Congress’ plate, but one issue on the agenda is holding hearings on UFOs, or as the government prefers to call them, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs).
Both the House and Senate plan to hold UAP hearings, with the House hearing run by the House Oversight Committee, which also held a public UAP hearing last year.
That hearing featured whistleblower David Grusch, a former Air Force intelligence officer who first came forward on NewsNation with allegations the Pentagon was operating a secret UFO retrieval program.
Many of the same lawmakers will be involved in the upcoming hearing, which will be led by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and is tentatively set for Nov. 13.
Mace told NewsNation there are still some witnesses the committee wants to pin down, but the committee isn’t identifying them yet out of fear they could be intimidated out of testifying.
One piece of information that may be part of the upcoming hearing is independent journalist Michael Shellenberger’s reporting on a whistleblower who came forward to Congress and revealed what they say is the existence of an illegal and classified program known as “Immaculate Constellation.”
Shellenberger said the whistleblower claims the program is currently being run and is designed to reverse-engineer UAPs.
“Whether or not you think there are extraterrestrial or nonhuman intelligence, even if you think that all of this is just some sort of advanced craft, the allegation here by a new whistleblower, verified by other sources in a position to know, is that the Defense Department has kept secret this information from Congress, which is a violation of the Constitution,” he told NewsNation’s Ross Coulthart.
The Pentagon has denied the program exists and says they have no record of ever having any program with that name.
https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/congress-ufo-hearings-november/
https://newparadigminstitute.org/learn/library/congress-preps-for-new-ufo-hearings-after-election/
Hollywood Horror Director John Carpenter Compares Trump to Brainwashing Aliens from ‘They Live’
11 Oct 2024
Host Seth Abramovitch claimed that Trump “fits right into the They Live world” in which an alien race moves silently among humans, controlling how they think by manipulating the mass media. Carpenter, 76, replied, “Of course it does. It makes total sense.”
It remains unclear why Carpenter believes Trump controls people via the mass media since the media is almost entirely against him.
If anything, it is his opponent Kamala Harris who exerts mind control through her party’s domination of the mainstream news media, the vast majority of Silicon Valley, and higher education — all of them keeping in political lockstep with the left.
Carpenter then resurrected a hoary Democratic talking point — Trump equals racism.
“There’s so much of what we’ve turned into as a country that just makes me heartsick,” he later added.
“This return of racism and xenophobia. Oh, God — that’s awful, awful stuff.
“I grew up in the South, and I know Jim Crow South really well. And I knew that never ended.
I know that no matter what law you passed, in the hearts of many Southerners — not all, but many — those sentiments remain.
“But now it’s been brought back by Trump, I think. And it’s horrible. The world is just horrible,” Carpenter said.
Neither Carpenter nor his podcast host bothered to note that Trump is gaining ground with minorities in recent polls, including among black and Latino voters.
https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2024/10/11/hollywood-horror-director-john-carpenter-compares-trump-to-brainwashing-aliens-from-they-live/
Son accused of murdering 'alien' mother had a number of 'bizarre' beliefs
17:00, 11 OCT 2024
The man accused of murdering his mum outside their home had unusual beliefs about her and the world - even when he was not taking illegal drugs - a court had heard.
Gregor Bauld was captured on CCTV repeatedly stabbing Tina on the street outside their home in Burbage, near Hinckley, having taken LSD, ketamine and other drugs.
Bauld, 22, has already pleaded guilty to Tina's manslaughter but denies her murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Both the prosecution and the defence accept Bauld is schizophrenic but disagree on whether his illness amounted to diminished responsibility.
The prosecution argue the fatal attack on Sunday, March 3 this year was prompted mainly by Bauld's anger towards his mother.
They also argue his own decision to consume illegal drugs in the time leading up to the attack prompted the stabbing.
At Leicester Crown Court on Friday (October 11), the jury heard from Dr Gareth Garrett, who treated Bauld, including during the time he was in prison after his arrest.
He said that at the time of the killing Bauld "was unable to form rational judgements", which supported the defence argument of diminished responsibility.
Questioned by defence barrister Mary Prior KC, he said Bauld had "severe schizophrenia" with "episodes of acute psychosis".
The jurors heard that earlier this year, when Bauld was in custody and not taking any illegal drugs - verified by urine tests - he still had various "abnormal delusions" about his mother and a "secret war", Dr Garrett said.
The delusions included the belief that Tina had been a telepath who abused him and that other telepaths in the prison were plotting to sexually assault him.
Bauld also "believed he was living in a war" and described a headache that he believed was "tearing his flesh" apart, the jury heard.
Previous hearings before the trial had deemed Bauld fit to stand trial, but consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Garrett said that process - which he had an input into - had found Bauld to be "borderline fit to plead".
The jury also heard more about the years before the killing from Dr Garrett.
They heard how Bauld, who started taking drugs when he was 13, made two suicide attempts at about the age of 16.
Dr Garrett said there was then a deterioration in Bauld's mental state in 2021 when he started hearing a voice in his head while working at Triumph near Hinckley and had to be sent home.
In December 2021 he started making threats to kill his mother.
On one occasion in December 2021 his parents barricaded themselves in their kitchen and had to call the police.
Bauld had been telling them he could see inside their heads and was verbally abusive towards his mother every time she entered a room he was in, the jury heard.
Bauld's father moved him out to the guest wing of the house and took his car keys from him at around that point. Bauld saw his GP and told the doctor he believed his mother was an alien.
He was put on powerful anti-depressants. But Dr Garrett said that, with hindsight, Bauld was suffering from psychosis, not anxiety or depression.
He said Bauld had "bizarre paranoid ideas" that were evidence of a "psychotic illness".
A few months later in May 2022 he stopped taking his medication and during a consultation with his doctor was "laughing and giggling".
Dr Garrett said: "His mental state is more abnormal - definitely worse."
The following month Bauld was sectioned for a short period of time.
At first he was diagnosed with "drug-induced psychosis" but Dr Garrett said the psychosis was a part of his life-long schizophrenia and not a temporary psychosis caused by him taking illicit drugs.
Dr Garrett added that it wasn't clear whether or not the long-term condition of schizophrenia was initially caused by Bauld's drug use from the age of 13.
But he observed that there was a "family history of severe mental illness".
Dr Garrett said: "Some of these episodes are triggered by drugs. He has those symptoms whether he takes drugs or not."
He said Bauld had told him that he took drugs to "dull the voices" in his head. He said he believed the schizophrenia, rather than the drugs, were the more "significant" reason for the killing in March.
Regarding the fatal stabbing, Dr Garrett said: "Drugs were involved, but it's part of what will now be a life-long illness for this young man."
Mrs Prior asked Dr Garrett: "Does he understand that he's killed his mother?" Dr Garrett replied: "He does understand that, yes."
He added: "He thought she was a paedophile, he thought she was an alien, that she had sexually abused him and that she was a danger to the world.
His judgement in killing her was weighed heavily on those beliefs."
The trial continues.
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/son-accused-murdering-alien-mother-9624433