Betelgeuse Is Not Alone!

WEBVTT

0
00:00:01.040 --> 00:00:03.160
Avery: One of the most famous stars in the whole

1
00:00:03.160 --> 00:00:05.440
night sky has been keeping a secret for about

2
00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:06.400
100 years.

3
00:00:06.720 --> 00:00:09.040
Anna: And this week, a telescope in the Chilean

4
00:00:09.040 --> 00:00:11.120
desert finally caught it red handed.

5
00:00:11.280 --> 00:00:14.080
Betelgeuse, it turns out, is not alone.

6
00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:17.040
Avery: Also ahead, a black hole caught wandering the

7
00:00:17.040 --> 00:00:19.840
lonely outskirts of a galaxy dreading a

8
00:00:19.840 --> 00:00:22.200
star tens of thousands of light years from

9
00:00:22.200 --> 00:00:24.320
where any black hole has a right to be.

10
00:00:24.560 --> 00:00:27.280
Anna: NASA's next great observatory gets its tank

11
00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:29.040
filled and a date on the calendar.

12
00:00:29.240 --> 00:00:31.440
Avery: And the little spacecraft sent to rescue an

13
00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:34.040
aging telescope suddenly needs rescuing

14
00:00:34.040 --> 00:00:36.840
itself. G', day, and welcome to Astronomy

15
00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:39.480
Daily, your daily dose of space and astronomy

16
00:00:39.480 --> 00:00:40.880
news. I'm Avery.

17
00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:43.520
Anna: And I'm, um, anna. It's Wednesday, the 29th

18
00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:46.200
of July, four stories and a look at the sky

19
00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:48.280
from both hemispheres. Let's get into it.

20
00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:51.240
If you've ever looked up at Orion, and from

21
00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:54.040
Sydney or Seattle, just about everyone has,

22
00:00:54.280 --> 00:00:56.970
you've seen tonight's star Betelgeuse,

23
00:00:57.050 --> 00:00:59.570
that deep orange point marking the hunter's

24
00:00:59.570 --> 00:01:02.090
shoulder. It's a red supergiant, roughly

25
00:01:02.090 --> 00:01:04.930
650 light years away, and it is

26
00:01:04.930 --> 00:01:07.730
enormous. Drop it where our sun sits and it

27
00:01:07.730 --> 00:01:09.610
would swallow the orbit of Jupiter.

28
00:01:09.850 --> 00:01:12.289
Avery: And it's famous for misbehaving. It

29
00:01:12.289 --> 00:01:12.890
flickers.

30
00:01:13.130 --> 00:01:16.050
Anna: It does. Betelgeuse brightens and dims on

31
00:01:16.050 --> 00:01:18.810
a whole set of overlapping cycles. And people

32
00:01:18.810 --> 00:01:20.730
have been writing that down for more than a

33
00:01:20.730 --> 00:01:22.960
thousand years. But there's one rhythm, um,

34
00:01:23.010 --> 00:01:25.930
in particular, a slow beat about six years

35
00:01:25.930 --> 00:01:28.450
long that astronomers have never been able to

36
00:01:28.450 --> 00:01:31.170
fully explain. And for almost a century,

37
00:01:31.410 --> 00:01:33.890
one idea kept coming back. What if

38
00:01:33.890 --> 00:01:36.850
Betelgeuse has a companion, a second star,

39
00:01:36.850 --> 00:01:38.930
orbiting close, tugging on it?

40
00:01:39.170 --> 00:01:40.930
Avery: The famous Betel Buddy.

41
00:01:41.010 --> 00:01:43.530
Anna: That's the affectionate nickname, yes. The

42
00:01:43.530 --> 00:01:46.410
trouble is nobody had ever seen it. And you

43
00:01:46.410 --> 00:01:48.970
can see why. Imagine trying to spot a

44
00:01:48.970 --> 00:01:51.250
candle sitting right next to a lighthouse.

45
00:01:51.650 --> 00:01:54.610
Betelgeuse is so blindingly bright and so

46
00:01:54.610 --> 00:01:57.130
physically huge that any little companion

47
00:01:57.130 --> 00:01:59.730
tucked in beside it just drowns in the glare.

48
00:01:59.970 --> 00:02:02.690
For a hundred years, it stayed a hypothesis.

49
00:02:03.170 --> 00:02:04.210
Avery: So what changed?

50
00:02:04.370 --> 00:02:07.010
Anna: A team led by Miguel Montargis at the Paris

51
00:02:07.010 --> 00:02:09.570
Observatory in Chile, the vlt,

52
00:02:09.810 --> 00:02:12.330
and an instrument called Sphere that's built

53
00:02:12.330 --> 00:02:14.930
for exactly this job. Blocking out a bright

54
00:02:14.930 --> 00:02:17.090
star to hunt for faint things right beside

55
00:02:17.090 --> 00:02:19.830
it. And crucially, they picked their moment.

56
00:02:19.910 --> 00:02:22.830
They observed in December 2024, at the

57
00:02:22.830 --> 00:02:24.670
point in the orbit when the companion was

58
00:02:24.670 --> 00:02:27.230
predicted to swing out as far from Betelgeuse

59
00:02:27.230 --> 00:02:29.990
as it ever gets from seen from Earth. Best

60
00:02:29.990 --> 00:02:32.950
possible chance to split the two apart. And

61
00:02:33.670 --> 00:02:36.470
there it was. A faint little source right

62
00:02:36.470 --> 00:02:38.870
Where a companion should be. Their paper

63
00:02:38.870 --> 00:02:41.510
landed yesterday, 28th July in the journal

64
00:02:41.590 --> 00:02:44.500
Astronomy and Astrophysics. And Montargis

65
00:02:44.500 --> 00:02:46.900
called it the end of a century long quest.

66
00:02:47.300 --> 00:02:49.900
After a hundred years of arguing about it, we

67
00:02:49.900 --> 00:02:52.180
have a direct image of what is very likely

68
00:02:52.260 --> 00:02:53.300
Betelgeuse B.

69
00:02:53.540 --> 00:02:56.460
Avery: That gives me chills, honestly. A star that

70
00:02:56.460 --> 00:02:58.700
people have watched since antiquity and we're

71
00:02:58.700 --> 00:03:00.420
still learning brand new things about it.

72
00:03:00.660 --> 00:03:03.340
Anna: And here's the lovely twist. The reason they

73
00:03:03.340 --> 00:03:05.660
could see it at all is that it surprised

74
00:03:05.660 --> 00:03:07.940
them. The companion was predicted to be

75
00:03:07.940 --> 00:03:10.540
roughly the mass of our Sun. But the data

76
00:03:10.700 --> 00:03:13.100
say it's bigger than that, something like two

77
00:03:13.100 --> 00:03:16.100
to three times the Sun's mass. Montargis put

78
00:03:16.100 --> 00:03:18.340
it beautifully, because it's more massive

79
00:03:18.340 --> 00:03:20.460
than we expected, it's brighter than we

80
00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:22.860
expected, and that's the only reason it

81
00:03:22.860 --> 00:03:25.060
peeked out of the glare. If it had been as

82
00:03:25.060 --> 00:03:27.220
small as the textbook said, they might have

83
00:03:27.220 --> 00:03:28.220
missed it entirely.

84
00:03:28.700 --> 00:03:31.220
Avery: So the companion did us a favor by being

85
00:03:31.220 --> 00:03:34.060
chunkier than advertised. What is it though?

86
00:03:34.220 --> 00:03:35.420
Another supergiant?

87
00:03:35.950 --> 00:03:38.950
Anna: No, nothing like Betelgeuse. Think of it as

88
00:03:38.950 --> 00:03:41.710
a young, hot, fairly ordinary star,

89
00:03:41.870 --> 00:03:44.510
but locked in a very awkward orbit.

90
00:03:44.670 --> 00:03:47.470
It appears to circle so close that it's

91
00:03:47.470 --> 00:03:49.830
essentially skimming through the outer puffed

92
00:03:49.830 --> 00:03:52.710
up layers of the supergiant. And that has

93
00:03:52.710 --> 00:03:55.310
consequences. That orbit is almost

94
00:03:55.390 --> 00:03:58.310
certainly what paces that mysterious M6

95
00:03:58.310 --> 00:04:01.150
year brightness cycle. But it's also most

96
00:04:01.150 --> 00:04:03.550
likely a death sentence for the companion.

97
00:04:04.170 --> 00:04:05.290
Avery: Ooh, M. Go on.

98
00:04:05.690 --> 00:04:08.050
Anna: Plowing through a supergiant's outer

99
00:04:08.050 --> 00:04:10.970
atmosphere means constant drag. Every

100
00:04:10.970 --> 00:04:13.610
orbit, the little star loses a bit of energy.

101
00:04:13.770 --> 00:04:16.770
And models suggest it's slowly spiraling

102
00:04:16.770 --> 00:04:19.450
inward on astronomical timescales.

103
00:04:19.530 --> 00:04:22.410
Betelgeuse is very likely to swallow its

104
00:04:22.410 --> 00:04:25.410
own companion. Not tomorrow. We're talking

105
00:04:25.410 --> 00:04:28.250
thousands of years. But the relationship is,

106
00:04:28.490 --> 00:04:30.490
let's say, not built to last.

107
00:04:31.250 --> 00:04:33.090
Avery: The lighthouse eats the candle.

108
00:04:33.330 --> 00:04:36.330
Anna: Eventually, yes. And this matters for the big

109
00:04:36.330 --> 00:04:38.610
question everyone actually wants answered

110
00:04:38.610 --> 00:04:40.930
about Betelgeuse. When is it going to

111
00:04:40.930 --> 00:04:43.810
explode? Because it will. It's an old

112
00:04:43.970 --> 00:04:46.530
massive star, near the end of its life, and

113
00:04:46.609 --> 00:04:49.210
one day it will go supernova and briefly

114
00:04:49.210 --> 00:04:52.170
outshine everything in the night sky. Now,

115
00:04:52.170 --> 00:04:55.130
before anyone emails us, that's expected on a

116
00:04:55.130 --> 00:04:57.650
timescale of up to 100,000 years.

117
00:04:58.260 --> 00:05:00.780
So don't cancel your weekend. But whether a

118
00:05:00.780 --> 00:05:03.220
star has a close binary companion

119
00:05:03.300 --> 00:05:06.100
changes the whole picture. How it sheds mass,

120
00:05:06.340 --> 00:05:08.780
the shape of the gas around it, even the

121
00:05:08.780 --> 00:05:11.620
choreography of the explosion when it finally

122
00:05:11.620 --> 00:05:14.020
comes. Knowing Betelgeuse is a pear

123
00:05:14.180 --> 00:05:15.780
rewrites part of that story.

124
00:05:16.100 --> 00:05:18.420
Avery: And this was direct imaging. An actual

125
00:05:18.420 --> 00:05:20.820
Picture not just an inference from wobbles in

126
00:05:20.820 --> 00:05:21.220
the light.

127
00:05:21.700 --> 00:05:24.230
Anna: That's what makes it land. There had been

128
00:05:24.230 --> 00:05:27.110
circumstantial hints for years, but this is a

129
00:05:27.110 --> 00:05:29.910
direct detection light caught from the

130
00:05:29.910 --> 00:05:32.550
companion itself in the right place at the

131
00:05:32.550 --> 00:05:34.870
right time. It's the difference between the

132
00:05:34.870 --> 00:05:37.750
data suggest a second star and here

133
00:05:37.750 --> 00:05:38.190
it is.

134
00:05:38.590 --> 00:05:40.470
Avery: So if you want to go and look at the star at

135
00:05:40.470 --> 00:05:42.830
the center of all this, Betelgeuse itself.

136
00:05:43.150 --> 00:05:45.870
Where are we? Both hemispheres right now?

137
00:05:45.870 --> 00:05:48.750
Anna: Orion is a pre dawn act. It's climbing

138
00:05:48.750 --> 00:05:51.270
back into the morning sky after being lost in

139
00:05:51.270 --> 00:05:53.710
the sun's glare. For our Southern hemisphere

140
00:05:53.710 --> 00:05:56.390
listeners, Orion rides high in the northern

141
00:05:56.390 --> 00:05:58.550
part of the early morning sky. And it's

142
00:05:58.550 --> 00:06:00.590
upside down compared to the northern view.

143
00:06:00.830 --> 00:06:03.310
Look for Betelgeuse as the bright orange star

144
00:06:03.630 --> 00:06:05.670
from North America and mid northern

145
00:06:05.670 --> 00:06:08.469
latitudes. It's lower in the east southeast

146
00:06:08.469 --> 00:06:11.190
before dawn, climbing higher each week. As we

147
00:06:11.190 --> 00:06:13.590
head towards the northern winter, we'll come

148
00:06:13.590 --> 00:06:16.110
back to it properly in the sky watch. But

149
00:06:16.110 --> 00:06:18.910
next time you find it, just remember it's not

150
00:06:18.990 --> 00:06:20.920
one star. It never was.

151
00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:23.840
Avery: Now from a star that's hiding a companion to

152
00:06:23.840 --> 00:06:26.200
a black hole that was hiding full stop.

153
00:06:26.680 --> 00:06:29.640
Anna, picture, uh, a supermassive black hole.

154
00:06:29.640 --> 00:06:30.280
Where is it?

155
00:06:30.600 --> 00:06:33.520
Anna: Dead center of a galaxy. That's the rule. The

156
00:06:33.520 --> 00:06:35.080
big ones sit in the core.

157
00:06:35.400 --> 00:06:38.120
Avery: That's the rule. And this week, NASA's Swift

158
00:06:38.120 --> 00:06:40.800
observatory helped break it. Astronomers

159
00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:43.080
announced a tidal disruption event. That's

160
00:06:43.080 --> 00:06:45.120
the technical name for a black hole tearing a

161
00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:47.630
star apart and eating it. And the flare it

162
00:06:47.630 --> 00:06:50.430
produced was blazing briefly outshining its

163
00:06:50.430 --> 00:06:53.310
entire host galaxy in ultraviolet. Like

164
00:06:53.310 --> 00:06:56.310
10 billion suns switched on at once. But

165
00:06:56.310 --> 00:06:58.630
here's the thing. It didn't happen in the

166
00:06:58.630 --> 00:07:00.750
middle of the galaxy. It went off about

167
00:07:00.750 --> 00:07:03.350
30,000 light years out from the core.

168
00:07:03.830 --> 00:07:06.470
Anna: 30,000. That's not a rounding error.

169
00:07:06.470 --> 00:07:08.550
That's further from the center than the sun

170
00:07:08.550 --> 00:07:10.950
is from the middle of the Milky Way. That

171
00:07:10.950 --> 00:07:12.870
black hole is out in the suburbs.

172
00:07:13.620 --> 00:07:15.940
Avery: Way out in the suburbs. The event's called

173
00:07:15.940 --> 00:07:18.940
TDE 2025 ABCR

174
00:07:18.940 --> 00:07:21.940
in a Galaxy about 750 million light

175
00:07:21.940 --> 00:07:24.620
years away. And the teams one led out of

176
00:07:24.620 --> 00:07:27.020
NASA and the University of Maryland, another

177
00:07:27.020 --> 00:07:29.820
from UNC Chapel Hill, published it on

178
00:07:29.820 --> 00:07:32.460
27 July in the Astrophysical Journal

179
00:07:32.460 --> 00:07:35.340
Letters. It's the most off center tidal

180
00:07:35.340 --> 00:07:38.020
disruption ever seen. And what it reveals is

181
00:07:38.020 --> 00:07:40.340
a wandering black hole, a around a million

182
00:07:40.340 --> 00:07:42.620
times the mass of the sun, just roaming

183
00:07:42.620 --> 00:07:44.820
through its galaxy, nowhere near the core.

184
00:07:45.220 --> 00:07:47.980
Anna: How does a black hole end up out there? They

185
00:07:47.980 --> 00:07:49.140
don't exactly stroll.

186
00:07:49.620 --> 00:07:52.420
Avery: Best guess is a, uh, galaxy merger. When two

187
00:07:52.420 --> 00:07:54.500
galaxies collide and their central black

188
00:07:54.500 --> 00:07:57.260
holes get thrown together, one can get kicked

189
00:07:57.260 --> 00:07:58.900
out of the middle and left drifting.

190
00:07:59.140 --> 00:08:01.300
Theorists have predicted these wanderers for

191
00:08:01.300 --> 00:08:04.220
years. The problem is they're invisible. A

192
00:08:04.220 --> 00:08:06.700
black hole sitting quietly in the dark emits

193
00:08:06.700 --> 00:08:09.210
no light. You only ever attach one if it does

194
00:08:09.210 --> 00:08:10.250
something dramatic.

195
00:08:10.490 --> 00:08:13.050
Anna: Like grabbing a passing star and lighting up.

196
00:08:13.290 --> 00:08:15.810
Avery: Exactly. The star is the flashbulb. It

197
00:08:15.810 --> 00:08:18.610
wanders too close, gets shredded, and for a

198
00:08:18.610 --> 00:08:20.850
few weeks, the wreckage glows and gives the

199
00:08:20.850 --> 00:08:23.330
whole thing away. That's the only reason we

200
00:08:23.330 --> 00:08:25.050
know this black hole is there at all.

201
00:08:25.370 --> 00:08:27.930
Anna: And there's a lovely modern wrinkle to how

202
00:08:27.930 --> 00:08:30.010
they found it isn't there. This wasn't a

203
00:08:30.010 --> 00:08:31.690
human squinting at plates.

204
00:08:32.170 --> 00:08:34.490
Avery: Not a chance. The sky is too big for that

205
00:08:34.490 --> 00:08:36.810
now. The initial flare was picked up back in

206
00:08:36.810 --> 00:08:39.749
November 2025 by a survey at Palo are

207
00:08:39.749 --> 00:08:42.309
in California that scans the whole northern

208
00:08:42.309 --> 00:08:44.949
sky every couple of nights. It throws up

209
00:08:44.949 --> 00:08:47.349
something like half a million flashes every

210
00:08:47.509 --> 00:08:50.269
single night. So the team trained an AI to

211
00:08:50.269 --> 00:08:52.749
sift that fire hose and flag the ones that

212
00:08:52.749 --> 00:08:55.428
look like a tidal disruption. And it caught

213
00:08:55.428 --> 00:08:57.709
this one precisely because it was in a weird

214
00:08:57.709 --> 00:09:00.269
place off in the outskirts where nobody would

215
00:09:00.269 --> 00:09:02.909
have thought to look. Swift followed up to

216
00:09:02.909 --> 00:09:04.069
nail down the details.

217
00:09:04.389 --> 00:09:06.629
Anna: And that's the taste of what's coming, right?

218
00:09:06.629 --> 00:09:08.909
Once the big new survey telescopes are

219
00:09:08.909 --> 00:09:09.269
running.

220
00:09:09.750 --> 00:09:11.990
Avery: That's the real headline. Under the headline,

221
00:09:11.990 --> 00:09:14.270
with observatories like the Vera Rubin

222
00:09:14.270 --> 00:09:17.030
Observatory and UNC's Argus array coming

223
00:09:17.030 --> 00:09:19.830
online, we go from finding a handful of these

224
00:09:19.830 --> 00:09:22.710
a year to potentially hundreds or thousands.

225
00:09:22.790 --> 00:09:25.230
And suddenly all those invisible wandering

226
00:09:25.230 --> 00:09:27.790
black holes become findable. We're about to

227
00:09:27.790 --> 00:09:30.150
start taking a census of the galaxy's hidden

228
00:09:30.150 --> 00:09:32.470
monsters. And keep swip in mind, by the

229
00:09:32.470 --> 00:09:34.910
Anna: way, because it's going to come back to bite

230
00:09:34.910 --> 00:09:35.990
us later in the show.

231
00:09:36.380 --> 00:09:37.580
Avery: It is. Hold that thought.

232
00:09:37.980 --> 00:09:40.460
Anna: Speaking of survey telescopes about to change

233
00:09:40.460 --> 00:09:43.020
the game, let's talk about one that's now

234
00:09:43.180 --> 00:09:45.340
genuinely nearly on the

235
00:09:46.140 --> 00:09:48.660
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space

236
00:09:48.660 --> 00:09:51.460
Telescope, because as of this week, it is

237
00:09:51.460 --> 00:09:53.020
fueled and counting down.

238
00:09:53.420 --> 00:09:56.180
Avery: Fueled. That's a real milestone. That's not a

239
00:09:56.180 --> 00:09:58.740
slide in a presentation. That's propellant in

240
00:09:58.740 --> 00:09:59.260
the tank.

241
00:09:59.500 --> 00:10:01.980
Anna: Precisely. On the 25th of July,

242
00:10:02.140 --> 00:10:03.980
teams at, uh, Kennedy loaded around

243
00:10:04.060 --> 00:10:06.980
290 gallons of hydrazine into

244
00:10:06.980 --> 00:10:09.690
the observatory. That's the fuel it'll use to

245
00:10:09.690 --> 00:10:11.970
hold its position and point with real

246
00:10:11.970 --> 00:10:14.650
precision once it's out there. And NASA is

247
00:10:14.650 --> 00:10:16.890
holding its big mission preview briefing

248
00:10:16.890 --> 00:10:19.810
today, exactly one month out from launch.

249
00:10:20.210 --> 00:10:22.930
The date to circle is the 30th of August

250
00:10:22.930 --> 00:10:25.650
and remarkably, that's about eight months

251
00:10:25.650 --> 00:10:27.250
ahead of the original schedule.

252
00:10:27.490 --> 00:10:30.330
Avery: A NASA flagship running early and as

253
00:10:30.330 --> 00:10:32.770
I understand it, on budget. Let the record

254
00:10:32.770 --> 00:10:34.210
show it can be done.

255
00:10:34.620 --> 00:10:37.580
Anna: It can. And here's why Roman is worth

256
00:10:37.580 --> 00:10:40.180
the excitement. Think of it as a telescope

257
00:10:40.180 --> 00:10:42.900
with Hubble quality sharpness, but a jaw

258
00:10:42.900 --> 00:10:45.660
droppingly wide field of view. Something like

259
00:10:45.660 --> 00:10:48.460
a hundred times the patch of sky Hubble sees

260
00:10:48.460 --> 00:10:51.300
in a single shot. Bass estimate is that in

261
00:10:51.300 --> 00:10:53.700
its first five years, it could image more

262
00:10:53.700 --> 00:10:56.620
than 50 times as much sky as Hubble has

263
00:10:56.620 --> 00:10:59.540
in 30. It's built to survey fast and

264
00:10:59.540 --> 00:10:59.980
wide.

265
00:11:00.460 --> 00:11:02.140
Avery: And what's that actually hunting?

266
00:11:02.540 --> 00:11:05.500
Anna: Two headline jobs. One, dark Energy,

267
00:11:05.660 --> 00:11:07.980
the mystery. Pushing the universe apart

268
00:11:08.140 --> 00:11:10.860
faster and faster. Roman will map how

269
00:11:10.860 --> 00:11:13.700
cosmic structure has grown over billions of

270
00:11:13.700 --> 00:11:16.299
years to pin down what Dark Energy is

271
00:11:16.299 --> 00:11:19.140
actually doing. And two, this is the one

272
00:11:19.140 --> 00:11:21.820
I love. It's an exoplanet machine.

273
00:11:22.220 --> 00:11:25.060
Using a trick called microlensing, Roman

274
00:11:25.060 --> 00:11:27.740
is expected to find more than 100,000

275
00:11:27.980 --> 00:11:30.500
new planets and to catch hundreds of others

276
00:11:30.500 --> 00:11:32.820
in the very act of finding forming around

277
00:11:32.820 --> 00:11:33.700
young stars.

278
00:11:34.260 --> 00:11:36.980
Avery: 100,000. We do a story

279
00:11:36.980 --> 00:11:39.620
most weeks about one interesting new planet

280
00:11:39.700 --> 00:11:42.500
and Roman's going to hand us 100,000.

281
00:11:42.980 --> 00:11:45.540
Anna: It really might reset the whole field.

282
00:11:45.860 --> 00:11:48.620
And this is genuinely for everyone listening

283
00:11:48.620 --> 00:11:51.540
wherever you are. It's a space telescope,

284
00:11:51.700 --> 00:11:54.020
though there's no hemisphere that misses out.

285
00:11:54.260 --> 00:11:57.020
The whole planet shares this one. One

286
00:11:57.020 --> 00:11:57.780
month to go.

287
00:11:58.180 --> 00:11:59.940
Avery: Fingers crossed for the 30th of August.

288
00:12:00.260 --> 00:12:02.180
Right? I told you Swift would come back

289
00:12:02.180 --> 00:12:04.980
around. In story two, Swift was the hero,

290
00:12:05.060 --> 00:12:07.340
the observatory that helped us catch that

291
00:12:07.340 --> 00:12:10.300
wandering black hole. Well, here's the

292
00:12:10.300 --> 00:12:12.940
thing in the tale, Swift itself is in

293
00:12:12.940 --> 00:12:15.740
trouble and the spacecraft sent to save it

294
00:12:15.740 --> 00:12:17.060
is now in trouble too.

295
00:12:17.620 --> 00:12:20.540
Anna: Set it up. Why does Swift need saving in

296
00:12:20.540 --> 00:12:21.140
the first place?

297
00:12:21.540 --> 00:12:24.260
Avery: Because Swift is falling. It's a fantastic

298
00:12:24.260 --> 00:12:26.380
gamma ray and X ray observatory that's been

299
00:12:26.380 --> 00:12:29.100
working since 2004. But it has no

300
00:12:29.100 --> 00:12:31.700
engine of its own, no way to boost its own

301
00:12:31.700 --> 00:12:34.380
orbit, and its orbit has been decaying faster

302
00:12:34.380 --> 00:12:36.900
than expected, partly because heightened

303
00:12:36.900 --> 00:12:39.620
solar activity puffs up the upper atmosphere

304
00:12:39.620 --> 00:12:42.140
and increases the drag. Left alone,

305
00:12:42.220 --> 00:12:44.700
Swift is looking at an uncontrolled re entry

306
00:12:44.700 --> 00:12:46.220
by around the end of this year.

307
00:12:46.700 --> 00:12:49.420
Anna: So it burns up unless someone

308
00:12:49.420 --> 00:12:51.020
goes up and gives it a push.

309
00:12:51.260 --> 00:12:54.150
Avery: Which is exactly the plan. A company called

310
00:12:54.150 --> 00:12:56.630
Catalyst Space Technologies built a

311
00:12:56.630 --> 00:12:59.070
robotics servicing spacecraft named Link.

312
00:12:59.390 --> 00:13:01.990
And NASA hired them for what its own mission

313
00:13:01.990 --> 00:13:04.510
director called a fast, high risk, high

314
00:13:04.510 --> 00:13:07.510
reward rescue. Link launched on 3

315
00:13:07.510 --> 00:13:10.190
July, and the goal is genuinely a first

316
00:13:10.590 --> 00:13:13.470
to fly up, grab hold of Swift, a

317
00:13:13.470 --> 00:13:15.350
satellite that was never designed to be

318
00:13:15.350 --> 00:13:17.830
docked with or serviced and physically

319
00:13:17.830 --> 00:13:20.110
boosted into a higher, safer orbit.

320
00:13:20.730 --> 00:13:22.850
Nobody has ever commercially docked with a

321
00:13:22.850 --> 00:13:24.970
government spacecraft that wasn't built for

322
00:13:24.970 --> 00:13:25.210
it.

323
00:13:25.450 --> 00:13:28.250
Anna: That's ambitious. So what's gone wrong?

324
00:13:28.570 --> 00:13:31.130
Avery: Over the weekend, Link ran into an attitude

325
00:13:31.130 --> 00:13:33.850
control problem and started spinning with its

326
00:13:33.850 --> 00:13:36.569
communications dropping in and out. According

327
00:13:36.570 --> 00:13:39.370
to NASA's update, and I want to be precise

328
00:13:39.370 --> 00:13:41.570
here because this is developing, the

329
00:13:41.570 --> 00:13:44.090
preliminary finding is that two of Link's

330
00:13:44.090 --> 00:13:46.250
three reaction wheels are no longer working

331
00:13:46.410 --> 00:13:48.420
and, and there's some loss of function in its

332
00:13:48.420 --> 00:13:50.340
cold gas thruster system as well.

333
00:13:50.740 --> 00:13:53.220
Anna: Reaction wheels, Those are the spinning

334
00:13:53.220 --> 00:13:55.820
wheels inside a spacecraft that let it turn

335
00:13:55.820 --> 00:13:58.260
and hold steady without using fuel.

336
00:13:58.660 --> 00:14:01.540
Lose those and you lose fine control of which

337
00:14:01.540 --> 00:14:02.420
way you're pointing.

338
00:14:02.739 --> 00:14:05.300
Avery: That's the one. And losing two of three is

339
00:14:05.300 --> 00:14:07.580
serious, especially because there was already

340
00:14:07.580 --> 00:14:09.580
a wobble with one Wheel earlier in

341
00:14:09.580 --> 00:14:11.620
commissioning that they patched in software.

342
00:14:12.020 --> 00:14:14.780
The good news, Link is not lost. It's still

343
00:14:14.780 --> 00:14:17.300
powered, still in contact, and its other

344
00:14:17.300 --> 00:14:20.000
major systems are behaving. The team's plan

345
00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:22.360
is to use Link's electric thrusters, its

346
00:14:22.360 --> 00:14:25.200
xenon propulsion, to stop the spin over the

347
00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:27.880
next few days, then re establish stable

348
00:14:27.880 --> 00:14:30.200
pointing, update the spacecraft's guidance

349
00:14:30.200 --> 00:14:32.080
and navigation to work around the dead

350
00:14:32.080 --> 00:14:34.920
hardware, and only then sit, uh, down with

351
00:14:34.920 --> 00:14:37.080
NASA and decide whether it's still safe to

352
00:14:37.080 --> 00:14:39.360
attempt the approach and capture of Swift.

353
00:14:39.920 --> 00:14:42.920
Anna: So the rescue isn't canceled, it's on

354
00:14:42.920 --> 00:14:45.720
hold while they figure out if the rescuer can

355
00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:46.640
still do the job.

356
00:14:47.150 --> 00:14:49.150
Avery: That's exactly it. And I'll flag for

357
00:14:49.150 --> 00:14:51.830
everyone. This is a life situation as of when

358
00:14:51.830 --> 00:14:54.110
we're recording. By the time you hear this,

359
00:14:54.110 --> 00:14:56.790
the team may already have stopped a spin or

360
00:14:56.790 --> 00:14:59.470
the picture may have changed again. But step

361
00:14:59.470 --> 00:15:01.750
back and look at the shape of it. The same

362
00:15:01.750 --> 00:15:03.990
little observatory that just helped us find

363
00:15:03.990 --> 00:15:06.390
an invisible black hole halfway across the

364
00:15:06.390 --> 00:15:08.990
universe is now clinging on in low Earth

365
00:15:08.990 --> 00:15:11.630
orbit, waiting to see if its own lifeboat can

366
00:15:11.630 --> 00:15:14.420
limp over and give it a shovel. Space is

367
00:15:14.420 --> 00:15:16.940
hard. Even the rescue missions need rescuing.

368
00:15:17.180 --> 00:15:19.500
Anna: We'll keep you posted as that one develops.

369
00:15:19.740 --> 00:15:22.260
And that brings us to the sky over the next

370
00:15:22.260 --> 00:15:24.900
few nights. And there's one thing you cannot

371
00:15:24.900 --> 00:15:27.420
miss, because it's going to be lighting up

372
00:15:27.420 --> 00:15:29.500
the whole night. The moon.

373
00:15:29.820 --> 00:15:31.180
Avery: The full buck moon.

374
00:15:31.340 --> 00:15:34.180
Anna: The full buck moon. Full tonight, the

375
00:15:34.180 --> 00:15:37.060
29th, and near enough to 100%

376
00:15:37.060 --> 00:15:39.180
lit for a couple of nights either side.

377
00:15:40.020 --> 00:15:42.380
Gorgeous to look at as it climbs the eastern

378
00:15:42.380 --> 00:15:45.060
sky after sunset. But it is a

379
00:15:45.060 --> 00:15:48.060
floodlight and that shapes everything else we

380
00:15:48.060 --> 00:15:49.180
can and can't

381
00:15:49.180 --> 00:15:51.380
Avery: do this week, starting with the meteors,

382
00:15:51.380 --> 00:15:53.500
because there are three showers on the go at

383
00:15:53.500 --> 00:15:53.780
once.

384
00:15:54.180 --> 00:15:56.340
Anna: There are. And this is where our two

385
00:15:56.340 --> 00:15:59.260
hemispheres genuinely differ. The headline

386
00:15:59.260 --> 00:16:01.740
shower right now is the Southern Delta

387
00:16:01.740 --> 00:16:04.140
Aquarius, peaking over the next couple of

388
00:16:04.140 --> 00:16:06.870
nights. And the clue is in the name of. For

389
00:16:06.870 --> 00:16:09.470
our Southern Hemisphere listeners, this one's

390
00:16:09.470 --> 00:16:12.350
yours. The radiant over near the bright star

391
00:16:12.350 --> 00:16:14.830
Fomalhaut rides high almost

392
00:16:14.830 --> 00:16:17.710
overhead in the pre dawn hours. So from

393
00:16:17.710 --> 00:16:20.230
Australia, New Zealand and southern Africa,

394
00:16:20.630 --> 00:16:23.190
you're in the best seats on Earth for it.

395
00:16:23.510 --> 00:16:26.230
And for the north, from North America,

396
00:16:26.230 --> 00:16:29.150
it's lower and stingier, though observers

397
00:16:29.150 --> 00:16:31.230
in the southern United States still get a

398
00:16:31.230 --> 00:16:34.040
fair look. Best window everywhere is

399
00:16:34.040 --> 00:16:36.800
the couple of hours before dawn. But

400
00:16:37.040 --> 00:16:39.760
big caveat, this year, that brilliant

401
00:16:39.760 --> 00:16:42.400
moon is going to wash out most of the faint

402
00:16:42.400 --> 00:16:45.360
Delta Aquarids. So temper expectations.

403
00:16:45.760 --> 00:16:47.720
Avery: If the faint ones are drowned out, what's

404
00:16:47.720 --> 00:16:48.720
worth staying up for?

405
00:16:49.040 --> 00:16:51.960
Anna: The fireballs. The Alpha Capricornids

406
00:16:51.960 --> 00:16:54.880
are active at the same time. They're sparse,

407
00:16:54.880 --> 00:16:57.640
only a handful an hour. But they specialize

408
00:16:57.640 --> 00:17:00.600
in slow, brilliant fireballs bright enough

409
00:17:00.600 --> 00:17:03.250
to punch through moonlight. And unlike the

410
00:17:03.250 --> 00:17:05.930
Delta Aquarids, the Capricornids play

411
00:17:05.930 --> 00:17:08.210
fair. They're just as good from either

412
00:17:08.210 --> 00:17:10.930
hemisphere. So the tip for everyone this

413
00:17:10.930 --> 00:17:13.570
week, don't chase quantity. Get

414
00:17:13.570 --> 00:17:16.210
comfortable, be patient and wait for

415
00:17:16.210 --> 00:17:19.170
one big slow fireball to make your

416
00:17:19.170 --> 00:17:19.490
night.

417
00:17:19.810 --> 00:17:22.210
Avery: And the shower, everyone's really waiting for

418
00:17:22.530 --> 00:17:23.570
the Perseids.

419
00:17:23.810 --> 00:17:25.970
Anna: And here's the good news to hold onto.

420
00:17:26.210 --> 00:17:28.810
They're building now, but they peak on the

421
00:17:28.810 --> 00:17:31.570
night of the 12th into the 13th of August.

422
00:17:31.970 --> 00:17:34.770
And this year the timing is close to perfect.

423
00:17:35.010 --> 00:17:37.570
The peak lands right on the New Moon.

424
00:17:37.890 --> 00:17:40.210
Dark skies, no moonlight.

425
00:17:40.290 --> 00:17:42.770
Potentially the best Perseids in years.

426
00:17:43.170 --> 00:17:45.890
They favor the northern Hemisphere, but mid

427
00:17:45.890 --> 00:17:48.770
southern latitudes will catch some too. Mark

428
00:17:48.770 --> 00:17:51.570
it. The night of 12 August is the one to

429
00:17:51.570 --> 00:17:52.210
keep clear.

430
00:17:52.610 --> 00:17:54.890
Avery: And that same date is a big one for another

431
00:17:54.890 --> 00:17:55.250
reason.

432
00:17:55.730 --> 00:17:58.490
Anna: It is a, uh, total solar eclipse on

433
00:17:58.490 --> 00:18:01.370
12 August, with the path of totality

434
00:18:01.370 --> 00:18:04.310
crossing Greenland, Iceland and slice of

435
00:18:04.310 --> 00:18:07.070
Spain, and a partial eclipse visible across

436
00:18:07.230 --> 00:18:09.630
much of Europe and parts of North America.

437
00:18:09.870 --> 00:18:12.190
We'll have full timings closer to the day.

438
00:18:12.430 --> 00:18:14.830
And the one rule that never changes

439
00:18:14.830 --> 00:18:17.510
wherever you are, never look at the

440
00:18:17.510 --> 00:18:20.110
partial phases of a solar eclipse. Without

441
00:18:20.350 --> 00:18:23.310
certified eclipse glasses, ISO

442
00:18:23.390 --> 00:18:26.030
123122

443
00:18:26.190 --> 00:18:28.590
or a properly filtered telescope.

444
00:18:28.830 --> 00:18:31.430
Ordinary sunglasses will not protect your

445
00:18:31.430 --> 00:18:34.170
eyes. That safety line stays in.

446
00:18:34.410 --> 00:18:35.530
No exceptions.

447
00:18:36.090 --> 00:18:38.650
Avery: One quick planet note before we wrap the sky.

448
00:18:38.890 --> 00:18:41.730
Anna: Yes, say goodbye to Jupiter for a

449
00:18:41.730 --> 00:18:44.010
little while. Today the 29th

450
00:18:44.170 --> 00:18:47.170
Jupiter reaches solar conjunction. It's

451
00:18:47.170 --> 00:18:49.930
passing almost directly behind the sun from

452
00:18:49.930 --> 00:18:52.450
our point of view, so it's lost in the glare

453
00:18:52.450 --> 00:18:54.650
and out of action for the next few weeks.

454
00:18:54.810 --> 00:18:57.450
It'll creep back as a pre dawn object

455
00:18:57.530 --> 00:19:00.280
later in August. And for early risers,

456
00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:02.840
Mercury is putting on its best morning

457
00:19:02.840 --> 00:19:05.640
showing of the season, low in the pre dawn

458
00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:06.040
east,

459
00:19:06.520 --> 00:19:08.520
Avery: and we have to close the loop on our lead

460
00:19:08.520 --> 00:19:08.920
story.

461
00:19:09.320 --> 00:19:12.240
Anna: We do. If you're up before dawn chasing

462
00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:15.200
those meteors, look for Orion climbing in

463
00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:18.160
the east and find Betelgeuse, that bright

464
00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:20.800
orange shoulder from the southern hemisphere.

465
00:19:20.800 --> 00:19:23.280
It's high in the northern sky and flipped

466
00:19:23.280 --> 00:19:25.880
over from the north. It's lower in the east

467
00:19:25.880 --> 00:19:28.860
before sunrise. Either way, give it a nod.

468
00:19:29.180 --> 00:19:31.860
You now know something about that star that

469
00:19:31.860 --> 00:19:33.900
nobody knew for a hundred years.

470
00:19:34.140 --> 00:19:36.780
It's got a companion before we go,

471
00:19:36.780 --> 00:19:39.260
Avery: a bit of proper news from our end. We've just

472
00:19:39.260 --> 00:19:41.100
launched the brand new home for the show

473
00:19:41.260 --> 00:19:41.340
astronomydaily.

474
00:19:41.340 --> 00:19:44.300
Anna: Uh, IO same

475
00:19:44.300 --> 00:19:46.900
address you already know, but it's had a

476
00:19:46.900 --> 00:19:49.020
complete makeover and there's a lot there.

477
00:19:49.020 --> 00:19:51.980
Now you can stream the entire back catalog

478
00:19:52.060 --> 00:19:54.320
every episode. There's a news feed that

479
00:19:54.320 --> 00:19:56.600
updates continuously through the day so you

480
00:19:56.600 --> 00:19:58.360
can keep up with the latest space and

481
00:19:58.360 --> 00:20:01.160
astronomy headlines between episodes. You can

482
00:20:01.160 --> 00:20:03.080
read listener reviews and leave one of your

483
00:20:03.080 --> 00:20:05.280
own. And you can sign up for uh, our daily

484
00:20:05.280 --> 00:20:07.880
Space News newsletter to get it all straight

485
00:20:07.880 --> 00:20:08.720
to your inbox.

486
00:20:09.040 --> 00:20:10.720
Avery: And there's a spot to drop us a line,

487
00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:13.240
questions, suggestions, a story you think

488
00:20:13.240 --> 00:20:15.640
we've missed, or just to say good day, we

489
00:20:15.640 --> 00:20:16.080
read them.

490
00:20:16.320 --> 00:20:18.840
Anna: It's brand new, so we genuinely love your

491
00:20:18.840 --> 00:20:21.170
feedback on it. Head to astronomydaily

492
00:20:21.330 --> 00:20:24.090
IO have a wander around and tell us what you

493
00:20:24.090 --> 00:20:26.650
think, what you love, what you change. Help

494
00:20:26.650 --> 00:20:27.570
us make it yours.

495
00:20:28.050 --> 00:20:30.970
Avery: That's astronomy daily for Wednesday, 29th of

496
00:20:30.970 --> 00:20:33.570
July. Betelgeuse's Hundred Year Secret

497
00:20:33.730 --> 00:20:36.730
A black hole in the wrong part of town, Roman

498
00:20:36.730 --> 00:20:39.250
on the clock and a rescue mission holding its

499
00:20:39.250 --> 00:20:39.650
breath.

500
00:20:39.970 --> 00:20:41.970
Anna: Thanks for spending part of your day with us.

501
00:20:41.970 --> 00:20:44.050
Look after each other and whichever

502
00:20:44.050 --> 00:20:45.170
hemisphere you're in.

503
00:20:45.670 --> 00:20:46.310
Avery: Clear skies.