Axiom Mission Delays, Cosmic Clouds Unveiled, and Mars' Terraforming Blueprint

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Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source for the latest news from

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the cosmos. I'm your host Anna, and I'm

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thrilled to guide you through today's fascinating stories.

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We've got a jam packed episode lined up for you. We'll

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be diving into everything from yet another delay to the

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Axiom mission due to an air leak on the iss

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to a giant cosmic cloud that's baffling scientists

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and even a plan to terraform Mars.

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So buckle up and let's explore the universe together.

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Alright, first up, NASA and Axiom Space

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are putting the brakes on the axe 4 private

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astronaut mission to the International Space Station.

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Yeah, apparently there's a bit of a hiccup with an air

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leak in the Russian Zvezda module.

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This leak which they actually spotted back in 2019.

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It's been a headache for Roscosmos, but now

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NASA says they've detected a new pressure signature

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in the module. So to give everyone

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a bit more time to investigate and figure out what's going

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on, they've decided to delay the mission

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indefinitely. Roscosmos is doing

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their thing, inspecting the module, sealing

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off different areas and trying to keep the pressure stable.

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The mission was supposed to launch shortly, but has been delayed to

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allow further analysis of the situation.

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Now switching gears a little bit with a quick update. The

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FAA has officially closed its investigation into

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the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 mishap.

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The culprit, a hardware failure in one of the

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engines apparently. But the good news is

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SpaceX has taken some corrective actions to prevent

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this from happening again. And the faa,

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they've gone ahead and verified that those actions were

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implemented before The Starship Flight 9 mission just last

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month.

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Alright, next up in the news, astronomers

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have stumbled upon something truly gigantic and kind of

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mind bending. They've discovered this

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massive cloud of energetic particles. And

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when I say massive, I mean massive. This thing is

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wrapped around a galaxy cluster and stretches out for about

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20 million light years. To put that

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in perspective, our entire Milky Way galaxy

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is only about 100,000 light years across.

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So yeah, this cloud is huge. Now what's really

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interesting is that this discovery is kind of messing with our current

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theories about how these particles manage to stay

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energised or over such insane distances.

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It's like we thought we had things figured out and then the

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universe throws us a curveball. It's pretty cool stuff.

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M switching gears now, let's talk about something

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a little closer to home. Well, our

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celestial home, that is the Moon.

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Remember those Apollo missions? Well,

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apart from the iconic footprints and moon rocks, the

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Astronauts found something pretty special.

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Tiny brilliant orange glass beads scattered, scattered

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across the lunar surface. And get this,

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these little beads, each smaller than a grain of

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sand, are actually ancient time capsules.

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They were formed during volcanic eruptions on the moon

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billions of years ago. New research is

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using advanced microscopic techniques to analyse these

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beads. And they're revealing all sorts of info about the

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moon's volcanic past. It's like reading the diary of

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a lunar volcano, only instead of words, the story is

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written in tiny glass beads. Pretty neat, huh? Huh?

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Now for a discovery that sounds like something straight out of a sci

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fi movie. Astronomers have found what they're calling

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a missing link in the world of dead stars.

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It's a white dwarf named

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Gaia22ayj. And it's been

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dubbed a teenage vampire because it's actively feeding on

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plasma from a nearby companion star. I know,

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sounds kind of wild, right? This white dwarf is basically sucking the

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life force or stellar material from its

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neighbourhood. And this vampiric behaviour is giving astronomers

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some major clues about the life cycle of white dwarf

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pulsars. See, stars like our sun eventually turn

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into these things called white dwarfs after

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they've used up all their fuel. Sometimes, if

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they have a companion star nearby, they can get a second

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wind, a second chance at life by stealing material

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from that companion. Gaia22AYJ

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is special because it's caught in the act of this mass transfer, this

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vampiric feeding process. It's like finding a

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missing puzzle piece that helps us understand how these white dwarf

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pulsars evolve and how binary star

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systems, where two stars orbit each other,

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change over time. So a teenage vampire

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star. Who knew? The universe is full of surprises, folks.

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The universe is full.

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Okay, so now let's travel to Mars, because

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scientists have actually outlined a three phase plan to

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terraform the red planet. Yeah, you heard that right.

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Terraforming. Using the latest in climate modelling,

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space tech, and even synthetic biology, they're

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envisioning a future where Mars could actually be habitable.

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The first phase, warming up the planet. I mean, Mars is

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pretty chilly, right? So they're talking about using things

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like solar mirrors and engineered aerosols to trap more

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heat and get the temperatures up. Phase

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two is all about building an alien ecosystem.

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And that's where it gets really interesting. M

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scientists want to introduce specially engineered organisms,

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extremophiles that can withstand the harsh conditions

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on Mars. These little guys would start to transform

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the planet's chemistry, maybe even produce oxygen.

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And the third phase focuses on technologies that could also

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benefit Earth. So things like crops that

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can resist drought and better ways to understand and

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model our own ecosystems. I mean it sounds like a

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win win situation, right? Terraforming Mars

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while learning how to better take care of our own planet. It's a long

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term vision for sure, taking potentially hundreds of years,

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but it's pretty cool to think about the possibility of a

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greener, more Earth like Mars in the

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distant future.

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And with that idea out there, it's time to say that's

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all for today's Astronomy Daily. Thanks for

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listening. This episode was hosted by me, anna.

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Visit astronomydaily.IO to sign up for our

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you get your podcasts. Until next time. You know what to

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do. Keep looking up. Our universe is an

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extraordinary place and you never know what you might see.

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Bye