Comet Encounters, Early Universe Revelations, and Solar Rain Secrets

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Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm Avery. It's great to have you with us

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for your essential daily update on everything

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happening in the cosmos. We've got a packed

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show for you today.

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Anna: Indeed, we'll be talking about exciting

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comets, including an interstellar visitor.

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We'll delve into surprising findings about

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the early universe, uncover why it rains on

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the sun, and catch up on the latest rocket

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launches.

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Avery: Absolutely, Anna.

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Uh, let's kick things off with Comet C by

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2025. A6lem this

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comet is putting on an encore appearance at

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dusk this October, joining Comet R2

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Swan in what promises to be a

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fantastic show for observers.

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Anna: Asics LEMMON slides past Earth at about twice

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the distance of R2 Swan just 24 hours

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later. Both are currently fine objects for

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binoculars or a small telescope vying for top

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spot at around magnitude

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6A6 LEMMON was.

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Avery: Discovered by astronomer D. Carson Fuls

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during the Mount Lemmon Sky Survey back on

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January 3rd. It's proven to be a

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dependable performer. Crossing from the

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constellation Leominer into Ursa

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Major recently just below the famous Big.

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Anna: Dipper A6 LEMMON is on a roughly

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1350 year inbound orbit. Its path

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will be slightly tweaked by Jupiter. It

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reaches its closest point to the sun or

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perihelion at Ah, 0.53

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astronomical units from the sun on November

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8th.

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Avery: Then it's off to a chilly aphelion beyond the

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main kuiper belt at uh, 219 AU

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from the sun around 3175 AD.

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Anna: Good news is a 6 lemon seems to be

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brightening slightly ahead of predictions. It

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maxes out in northern declination on October

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10th and actually goes circumpolar for

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observers north of the 50th parallel,

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roughly above London and Vancouver around the

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same date.

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Avery: From mid latitude Northern Hemisphere

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observers, it's transitioning to the evening

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sky. By mid month a 6 lemon will

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hug the western horizon, never getting much

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higher than 20 degrees an hour after sunset.

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Unlike R2 Swan, we can always hope.

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Anna: For an outburst to enhance its visibility.

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Remember, comet magnitudes can deceive.

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A comet's light gets smeared out, often

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needing to be around third magnitude to be

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seen without binoculars.

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Avery: To actually look like a comet with a fuzzy

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head and a tail, it needs to be even brighter

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around first magnitude or better. But

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don't let this deter you from your cometary

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quest.

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Anna: Both Artoo Swan and Asics LEMMON should make

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excellent binocular objects right around

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Halloween. Asics LEMMON then starts to

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head southward and will favor the Northern

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Hemisphere into November as it continues its

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long journey out of the solar system.

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Avery: And for those with large telescopes, there's

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an extra special treat interstellar comet

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3I Atlas. Also visible

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as a 11th magnitude object, it'll just look

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like a dot, but it's a rare interloper from

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beyond our solar system. Precise coordinates

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are needed, but sites like Kevin's above

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offer excellent comet pages.

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Anna: Astrophotographer Elliot Herman noted that if

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a comet is three or four, it will be a

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nice binocular object, suggesting apps like

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Stellarium to locate it. Observing Comet

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Asics LEMMON is as easy as sweeping at low

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power, and even a tripod mounted DSLR

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with 10 to 30 second exposures should reveal

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it as a small green blob.

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Avery: That's fantastic advice.

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And speaking of interstellar comets, Anna,

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let's dive deeper into three IAT

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LAs. This object has really

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captured the astronomical spotlight since its

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discovery in July 2025.

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Anna: It's definitely captured a lot of attention.

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To clarify, 3i Atlas is actually the third

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interstellar object ever discovered after

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1eye Oumuamua in 2017 and

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2i Borisov in 2019.

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It was found by the Atlas station in Chile.

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Avery: 3I Atlas, like Borisov,

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is clearly a comet, but it's thought to be

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quite large with a nucleus estimated at about

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a kilometer in diameter, roughly the length

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of 10 football fields.

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Anna: One of its most unusual features is that its

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dust tail appears to point towards the Sun.

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Normally, solar radiation pushes comet tails

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away. 3i Atlas has that

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faint normal tail but also heavier dust

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grains pushed by its own internal activity.

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Avery: Because the Sun's energy increases that

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internal activity, dust is primarily

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pushed out towards the sun, creating this

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backward looking tail. Initial studies

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suggest this comet may be between 3 and

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14 billion years old, potentially older

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than our solar system, an.

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Anna: Ancient relic Tracing its exact galactic

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origin is almost impossible as its

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trajectory has been nudged countless times.

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However, JWST and SphereX

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observations show it's rich in carbon

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dioxide, suggesting it formed far from its

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parent star in a very cold environment.

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Avery: So while we don't know where it came from, we

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do know where it's going. 3i

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Atlas reaches perihelion, its closest point

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to the sun around October 29th.

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Then it will pass 0.65 AU

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from Venus on November 3rd.

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Anna: And here's an exciting ESA's Juice

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spacecraft en route to Jupiter will attempt

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to observe 3i Atlas. Its

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closest approach to Earth will be December

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19th. After passing Jupiter in

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March 2026, it will leave our solar

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system.

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Avery: It's incredibly fast too, at

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perihelion it's expected to hit 68

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kilometers per second. 3 IA

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Atlas certainly won't be the last. With

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powerful survey telescopes like the Vera

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Rubin Observatory coming online,

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astronomers expect to discover many more

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interstellar objects, giving us unique

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insights into the universe from interstellar

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wanderers.

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Anna: Let's turn our attention to the very

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beginning of everything. New research from

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astronomers in Australia suggests that the

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early universe was surprisingly warmer than

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expected, particularly around 800 million

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years after the Big Bang.

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Avery: This discovery specifically probes the epoch

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of reionization. The universe

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originated 13.8 billion years ago.

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Initially, it was a hot soup of particles,

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then cooled enough for hydrogen and helium

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nuclei to form with three electrons,

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making the universe opaque.

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Anna: About 380,000 years after the Big

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Bang, it cooled further, allowing the first

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neutral atoms to form and light could finally

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travel freely, creating the cosmic

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microwave background we observe today.

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Then came the Dark ages. For about 200

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million years, a dark expanse of mostly

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hydrogen.

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Avery: The epoch of reionization ended these

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dark ages when the first stars ignited.

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These early stars emitted ultraviolet light

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energetic enough to ionize the surrounding

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hydrogen gas, clearing the cosmic fog

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and making the universe transparent, allowing

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starlight to eventually reach our telescopes.

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This period is incredibly important because

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it's when the first stars and galaxies

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formed.

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Anna: So what about its temperature? Researchers

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used the Murchison Wide Field Array radio

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telescope, analyzing a decade's worth of data

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from 2013 to 2023. They looked for

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the faint signal of the 21cm

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hydrogen line. From this extremely distant

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epoch, red shifted to longer radio

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wavelengths.

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Avery: The challenge, as Ridima Nun Hoki explained,

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was meticulously cleaning the data to remove

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all the foreground signals, emission from

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closer objects like stars and galaxies,

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interference from Earth's atmosphere, and

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even noise from the telescope itself. It's a

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massive data science undertaking, and.

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Anna: After all that careful work, they didn't find

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the telltale characteristics that would

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indicate a very cold universe. This implies

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the gas between galaxies was heated.

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Catherine Trott noted this rules out very

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cold reionization. A, uh, really interesting

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finding.

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Avery: The new research suggests this warmer early

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universe was heated by x rays from early

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sources, specifically nascent black holes and

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the remains of dead stars. And it helps us

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understand the conditions that allowed light

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to eventually break free.

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Anna: Looking ahead, the team will apply these

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cutting edge data analysis techniques to even

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higher quality data from the Square Kilometer

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Array telescopes currently under construction

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to fine tune our understanding of this

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critical epoch.

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Avery: Moving from the early universe to our own

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star, the Sun. Prepare for a surprising

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revelation. Scientists at the University of

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Hawaii have finally discovered why it appears

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to rain on the Sun. Changing

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elemental makeup, um, drives these mysterious

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downpours of plasma.

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Anna: That's right, Avery. This solar rain

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involves cooler, denser clumps of plasma that

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condense high in the sun's corona and then

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descend back towards the surface. Researchers

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were puzzled by how rapidly this could happen

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during intense solar flares, and.

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Avery: The long standing mystery has been solved by

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Luke Bennevitz, uh, a graduate student, and

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astronomer Jeffrey Reap. Their findings,

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published in the Astrophysical Journal,

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provide an essential update to solar models

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that have puzzled scientists for decades.

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Anna: Bennovitz explained that current models

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assume the distribution of elements in the

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corona is constant, but their work shows

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that when elements like iron are allowed to

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change with time, the models finally match

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what's observed. This means the physics truly

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comes alive and feels real.

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Avery: This is a significant breakthrough. Earlier

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models assumed elemental distributions were

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constant, which didn't match fast acting

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solar flares. This new understanding

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of shifting elemental abundances explains

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how rain can form so quickly. As Arip

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noted, if our models haven't treated

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abundances properly, cooling times were

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likely overestimated, meaning a lot of new

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work is needed on coronal heating.

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Anna: This discovery has implications far beyond

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coronal rain, challenging long standing

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models that assumed fixed elemental

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abundances in the Sun's atmosphere. It

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pushes researchers to rethink how the sun's

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outer layers behave and how energy moves

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through its atmosphere, potentially aiding

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space.

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Avery: Weather prediction that's crucial for our

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technological society.

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Now let's blast off into our launch

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roundup. For the first week of October

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2025, SpaceX is

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absolutely dominating the manifest with

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five Falcon 9 missions scheduled.

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Four of these will launch more satellites

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into their Starlink Internet Constellation,

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and the fifth will carry satellites for

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Amazon's Project Cooper first.

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Starlink Group 1059 lifted off on

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Tuesday, October 7th at 12:10am

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EDT from Cape Canaveral. Its

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Falcon 9 booster B1090

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completed its eighth flight and landed

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successfully just hours later. On Tuesday

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Evening, Starlink Group 1117

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launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in

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California, carrying another 28

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Starlink V2 mini satellites into low

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Earth orbit. That's a rapid turnaround even

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for SpaceX. Blue Origin also

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joins the schedule with their 36th New

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Shepard mission, planned for Wednesday,

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October 8, carrying six people to

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suborbital space. This marks New

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Shepard's 15th crewed mission and its eighth

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flight this year, doubling their total

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flights from 2024, a significant

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increase. Then on October 9,

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another Falcon 9 will launch the

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KF03 mission for Amazon's Project

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Kuiper sending 24 communications

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satellites into LEO. This adds to the

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12 nine Kuiper satellites already deployed,

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aiming for a total of

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3,336. Booster

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B1091 will be making its second flight with a

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quick 60 day turnaround. Meanwhile,

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in China, CASC is expected to launch

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the fifth Changzang 8A rocket from

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Wencheng, a mission initially delayed by

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Typhoon Makmo. And to cap off SpaceX's

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busy week, two more Starlink missions, Group

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1052 and 1119, are slated

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for October 12th. This will make Falcon

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9's 130th mission of

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2025 and 548th over,

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what, a week for launches?

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Anna: That's an incredible pace, Avery finally

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today, Johns Hopkins astronomers have

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developed a new algorithm that can render

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images from ground based telescopes as clear

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as those taken from space. This

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groundbreaking method uses algorithms to

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strip away atmospheric interference, making

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it possible for earthbound instruments to

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produce the deepest, clearest images.

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Thomas Budavari says it allows us to see

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farther, fainter targets Even the most

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powerful ground based telescopes struggle

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with Earth's atmosphere. Variations in

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temperature, pressure and air conditions

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cause subtle but significant distortions.

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Traditional techniques often blur fine

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details or introduce grainy artifacts.

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The new solution, called ImageMM,

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models how light travels through our restless

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atmosphere, effectively stripping away

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distortions. Yashil Sukhardeep

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described our algorithms learn to see past

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that curtain, reconstructing the still sharp

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image hidden behind it. Early tests

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with images from the Subaru Telescope, one of

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the world's largest, restored blurry and

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noisy images in a matter of seconds,

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revealing intricate spiral galaxy structures

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with unprecedented clarity. These

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images were specifically acquired to test for

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similar quality as future captures by the

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Vera C Rubin Observatory.

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Sukhardeep explained that their framework can

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recover a near perfect image from a series of

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imperfect observations, getting as close as

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possible to ground truth. This is

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critical for astronomers who need to

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accurately measure the shapes of objects.

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While space telescopes offer superior deep

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imaging capabilities, they cover only a tiny

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fraction of the observable sky. Ground

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based facilities like the Rubin Observatory,

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however, will image the entire visible sky

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every few days. With this new technique,

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hundreds of ground based observations can be

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turned into images almost comparable to what

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was previously only achievable with a space

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telescope. This is a massive leap for ground

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based astronomy.

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Avery: What an incredible collection of stories

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today. Ana uh, it's clear the cosmos is

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always full of surprises.

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Anna: It certainly is. Avery and that's all we have

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time for today. Thank you for tuning in to

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Astronomy Daily.

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Avery: Join us tomorrow for more space and astronomy

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news. Until then, keep looking up.