Dec. 24, 2024

Cosmic Holiday Traditions, Quasar's Oceanic Secret, and Artemis's Dusty Dilemma: S03E240

Cosmic Holiday Traditions, Quasar's Oceanic Secret, and Artemis's Dusty Dilemma: S03E240

Astronomy Daily - The Podcast: S03E240
Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your ultimate source for the latest in space exploration and astronomical wonders. I'm your host, Anna, and today we're diving into a festive episode as we explore how astronauts...

Season 3
Astronomy Daily - The Podcast: S03E240
Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your ultimate source for the latest in space exploration and astronomical wonders. I'm your host, Anna, and today we're diving into a festive episode as we explore how astronauts celebrate holidays in space and uncover some astounding cosmic discoveries.
Highlights:
- Holiday Traditions in Space: Journey through time from the Apollo 8 crew's historic Christmas broadcast from lunar orbit to modern-day celebrations aboard the International Space Station. Discover how astronauts maintain holiday spirit, from makeshift trees to creative Hanukkah traditions, even in zero gravity.
- Cosmic Water Reservoir Discovery: Learn about an extraordinary find near a distant quasar, revealing a water reservoir vast enough to fill Earth's oceans 140 trillion times, offering insights into the early universe's composition.
- Lunar Dust Challenges: Delve into NASA's ongoing battle with lunar dust as they prepare for the Artemis missions. Explore innovative solutions like the Clothbot and electrostatic experiments crucial for future lunar exploration.
- James Webb's Chiron Discovery: Discover the unique characteristics of Chiron, a centaur with comet-like activity and a mix of ices and gases, as observed by the James Webb Space Telescope.
- December's Launch Schedule: Get updates on a bustling month of space launches, including SpaceX's ambitious Starlink missions, Russia's historic Soyuz launch, and India's private sector breakthrough with the Spadex mission.
- Tracking Santa from Space: Delight in the heartwarming tradition of NORAD's Santa tracking, a festive blend of aerospace technology and holiday magic, tracing its origins to a simple wrong number.
For more cosmic updates, visit our website at astronomydaily.io. Sign up for our free Daily newsletter to stay informed on all things space. Join our community on social media by searching for #AstroDailyPod on Facebook, X, Tumblr, YouTubeMusic, and TikTok. Share your thoughts and connect with fellow space enthusiasts.
Thank you for tuning in. This is Anna signing off. Until next time, keep looking up and stay curious about the wonders of our universe. Have a very happy Christmas wherever you are.
00:00 - In this episode we'll look at how astronauts celebrate Christmas far from Earth
01:07 - The tradition of celebrating holidays in space dates back to 1968
03:47 - December has been an exceptionally busy month for space launches with 24 attempted
05:59 - Astronomers have identified an enormous water reservoir 12 billion light years away
10:42 - The James Webb Space Telescope has made another groundbreaking discovery on Chiron
12:38 - NORAD helps children follow Santa's journey around the globe each Christmas Eve

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Welcome to another exciting episode of Astronomy Daily as we

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find ourselves in the holiday season. Today, we're taking a

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fascinating look at how astronauts celebrate special occasions far from Earth,

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from the historic Apollo eight crew who first spent Christmas

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circling the Moon to today's International Space Station residents finding

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creative ways to maintain cherished traditions in zero gravity. We'll

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explore how space travelers keep the holiday spirit alive while

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orbiting our planet. But that's not all we have in

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store for you today. We'll also dive into some remarkable

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space discoveries, including an astronomical find that would make any

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ocean seem like a drop in the bucket, a massive

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water reservoir discovered near a distant quasar that contains more

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water than you could imagine. Plus, we'll look at the

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challenges NASA faces with lunar dust as they prepare for

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future Artemis missions to the Moon. We've also got updates

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on December's busy launch schedule, the latest fascinating discoveries from

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the James Webb Space Telescope, and even a space themed

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h Holiday treat about tracking Santa from orbit. So stick

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around as we journey through these amazing stories from across

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the cosmos. Here we go. The tradition of celebrating holidays

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in space dates back to nineteen sixty eight, when the

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Apollo eight crew became the first humans to mark Christmas

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beyond Earth's orbit. As Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William

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Anders circled the Moon that Christmas Eve, they shared a

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profound moment with Earth, reading the opening verses of Genesis

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while broadcasting breathtaking images of the lunar surface. Their historic

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broadcast reached an estimated one billion people across sixty four countries,

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creating one of the most memorable Christmas celebrations in human history.

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Five years later, the Skylab four crew showed remarkable creativity

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in bringing holiday cheer to space. Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson,

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and William Pogue celebrated not just Christmas, but also Thanksgiving

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and New Year's aboard the station. They crafted a makeshift

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Christmas tree using leftover food container, decorated it with colored decals,

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and topped it with a cardboard comet, proving that the

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holiday spirit can flourish even with limited resources. A particularly

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meaningful celebration occurred in nineteen ninety three, when NASA astronaut

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Jeffrey Hoffman brought Hanukkah to space after completing a space

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walk during the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing mission. Hoffman marked

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the Festival of Lights with a traveling manora and dridle,

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bringing ancient traditions into the space age. The arrival of

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the International Space Station in two thousand ushered in a

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new era of holiday celebrations in orbit. The first ISS

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crew established what would become an enduring tradition reading goodwill

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messages to Earth during the holiday season. William Sheppard, the commander,

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even honored a naval custom by composing a poem for

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the first New Year's entry in the station's log. These

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traditions continue today, with modern crews finding innovative ways to celebrate.

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Just recently, Expedition seventy astronaut Jasmine Belly's family created a

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felt manora for her Honka celebration on the station. Since

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open flames aren't allowed in space, she marked each night

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by adding felt lights to the minora. Even something as

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simple as spinning a dreadle takes on new meaning in microgravity,

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where it will keep spinning until it bumps into something

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unable to land on any of its fore sides. For

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more than two decades now, the International Space Station has

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maintained an unbroken chain of holiday celebrations, with at least

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one American astronaut spending Christmas in space every year since

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nineteen ninety nine. These celebrations, while far from traditional, remind

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us that human traditions and festivities can adapt and thrive

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even in the most extraordinary circumstances. December has been an

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exceptionally busy month for space launches, with twenty four launch

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attempts already completed and at least seven more planned before

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the year ends. SpaceX continues its ambitious pace with multiple

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men on their manifest including several Starlink satellite deployments and

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customer payloads. While they're pushing to reach their target of

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one hundred and thirty six launches for the year, recent

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scheduling changes have made achieving this goal increasingly challenging. Looking

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at the upcoming launches, Russia is preparing for a significant

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mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Their Soyuz two Dot one

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B rocket, adorned with special decals marking it as the

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two thousandth R seven rocket launch, will carry the resoers

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P Number five Earth Observation satellite. This mission continues the

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legacy of the R seven rocket family, which has been

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serving space exploration since nineteen fifty seven. Meanwhile, India's space

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program is preparing for an innovative mission called SPADEX, the

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Space Docking Experiment. This mission will launch two two hundred

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twenty kilogram satellites designed to demonstrate autonomous docking technologies in orbit.

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What makes this launch particularly notable is that it marks

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the first time India's private aerospace sector has completely assembled

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and tested satellites for ISRO, representing a significant shift in

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their space industry. China is also maintaining its presence in

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space activities with a planned launch from the Juquan Satellite

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Launch Center. Their Connetica one rocket is scheduled to carry

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an undisclosed payload, though details about this mission remain limited.

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SpaceX will round out the year with several more starlink missions,

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including launches from both Vandenberg Space four Space and Kennedy

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Space Center. They're also preparing to launch the astrainus from

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one to Many mission, which will deploy four micro geo

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satellites designed to provide broadband services to various regions, including

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the Philippines, and services for aircraft and cruise ships. This

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flurry of launch activity demonstrates the growing accessibility and commercialization

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of space, with multiple nations and private companies working simultaneously

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to expand humanity's presence beyond Earth mixtup. In what might

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be the most remarkable water discovery ever made, astronomers have

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identified an enormous water reservoir in a distant corner of

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the Cosmos, circling a quasar more than twelve billion light

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years away. This isn't just any water supply. We're talking

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about enough water to fill Earth's oceans one hundred and

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forty trillion times over. This massive reservoir surrounds a super

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massive black hole that dwarfs our Sun by about twenty

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billion times. The black hole powers a quasar known as

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a PM zero eight two seven nine plus five thousand,

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two hundred and fifty five, which releases energy equivalent to

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one thousand trillion suns, making it one of the brightest

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objects we've ever observed in the universe. What makes this

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discovery particularly fascinating is its location in both space and time.

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At twelve billion light years away, we're seeing this water

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as it existed when the universe was still in its youth.

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The water vapor spans hundreds of light years around the quasar,

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existing in conditions quite different from what we're familiar with

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on Earth. While the gas is considerably thinner than Earth's atmosphere,

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it's surprisingly warm at minus sixty three degrees fahrenheit and

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much denser than what we typically see in normal galaxies.

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According to Matt Bradford from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this

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finding demonstrates that water has been a fundamental component of

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our universe since its earliest days. The presence of water vapor,

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along with other molecules like carbon monoxide, suggests that this

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region contains abundant raw materials, feeding the growth of the

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central black hole. This discovery does more than just add

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to our understanding of water distribution in the cosmos. It

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provides crucial insights into how galaxies formed and evolved in

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the early universe. The presence of water molecules plays a

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vital role in how gas clouds cool and collapse to

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form stars, making it an essential element in the cosmic

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story of galaxy formation. These observations were made possible through

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collaborative efforts using multiple observatories, including the California Institute of

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Technologies Submillimeter Observatory and the Combined Array for Research in

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Millimeter Wave Astronomy. The findings not only expand our knowledge

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of the early universe, but also demonstrate that the building

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blocks necessary for life as we know it have existed

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for billions of years now, a problem we all understand

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and have had to deal with, though probably not on

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this level. As NASA prepares for long term lunar missions

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through the Artemis program, they're facing a deceptively simple, yet

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persistent challenge. Moondust. This isn't your ordinary household dust. We're

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talking about. Lunar regolith, as it's formerly known, is incredibly fine,

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electrostatically charged, and surprisingly destructive. What makes lunar dust particularly

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problematic is its jagged nature. Unlike Earth, sand, and dust,

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which has been smoothed by wind and water over millennia,

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moondust particles are sharp and abrasive. Imagine microscopic shards of glass.

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These particles haven't experienced any weathering in the Moon's airless environment,

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leaving their edges razor sharp. The dust sticks to everything

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it touches due to its electrostatic charge, causing numerous operational challenges.

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It can scratch helmet visors, clog equipment, wear down seals,

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and coat solar panels, potentially reducing their efficiency during crucial

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lunar night survival periods. Even more concerning is its potential

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impact on astronaut health, as these particles can irritate eyes, skin,

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and lungs if they make their way inside habitats or spacesuits.

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To address these challenges, NASA is currently developing and testing

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seven different dust mitigation technologies. These experiments will be evaluated

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during an upcoming flight test on a Blue Origin New

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Shepherd rocket. One particularly innovative solution is the cloth Bot,

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a compact robot designed to study how dust behaves in

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pressurized environments, mimicking what happens when astronauts return from moonwalks.

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Another fascinating project is the Electrostatic Dust Lofting Experiment, which

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examines how lunar dust becomes airborne when electrically charged. This

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is crucial because in the Moon's low gravity environment, kicked

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up dust can remain suspended for extended periods, creating visibility

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and operational hazards. These technological solutions aren't just about keeping

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things clean. They're fundamental to the success of establishing a

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permanent human presence on the Moon. As Kristin john from

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NASA's Johnson Space Center points out, the challenge is particularly

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tricky because dust particles can be smaller than the human

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eye can see, making contaminated surfaces appear clean when they're

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actually not. The James Webb Space Telescope has made another

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groundbreaking discovery, this time focusing its powerful instruments on a

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fascinating object known as Chiron, located in the outer reaches

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of our Solar System between Jupiter and Neptune. This one

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hundred and thirty five mile wide body is what scientists

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call a centaur, a cosmic hybrid showing characteristics of both

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asteroids and comets. What makes Chiron particularly intriguing is its

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unique mixture of ices and gases, unlike anything we've seen

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on similar objects. Web's observations have revealed a surface containing

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carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide ice, while its thin atmospheric

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coma contains carbon dioxide and methane gas. This unusual combination

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sets it apart from all other centaurs observed so far.

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Despite temperatures never rising above minus two hundred and twenty

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degrees fahrenheit. The limited solar heating Chiron receives is enough

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to cause these ices to sublimate directly from solid to gas.

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This process triggers chemical reactions, producing organic compounds like acetylene, ethane,

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and propane, all of which web detected as ices on

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Chiron's surface. This celestial odd ball exhibits other peculiar behaviors too.

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It periodically displays comet like activity, possesses rings of material,

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and may even have a field of debris orbiting around it.

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Scientists are particularly excited about studying Chiron because it's considered pristine,

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remaining largely unchanged since the Solar system's formation four point

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five billion years ago. As Chiron continues its fifty year

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orbit around the Sun, it will gradually move closer and

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become more active, offering scientists an unprecedented opportunity to study

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how these ancient bodies react to solar heating, whether it

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eventually becomes a short period comet or gets flung back

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into the outer Solar system. Chiron's unique properties are helping

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us better understand the early days of our cosmic neighborhood,

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and speaking of tracking objects through space, here's a delightful

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holiday tradition that started with a wrong number. For nearly

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seventy years, nora AD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command,

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has been helping children follow Santa's journey around the globe

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each Christmas Eve. But this heartwarming tradition began entirely by accident.

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Back in nineteen fifty five, a Colorado Springs sar store

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printed a newspaper ad inviting children to call Santa. However,

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the phone number was misprinted, and instead of reaching jolly

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old Saint Nick, the calls were connected to the Continental

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Air Defense Command Operations Center. Colonel Harry Shop, who received

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that first misdialed call, could have simply explained the error. Instead,

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he saw an opportunity to spread some Christmas cheer and

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instructed his staff to provide updates on Santa's location to

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any children who called. Today, NORRAD has turned Santa tracking

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into a high tech operation. They employ their North Warning

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System RADAR, early warning satellites and forty seven installations along

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North America's northern border to monitor Santa's progress. Children and

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families can follow along through Norrad's website, mobile app, or

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social media platforms, watching in real time. As Santa makes

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his way around the world. The tracking begins at four

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a m. Eastern Time on Christmas Eve, and volunteer's staff

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special hotline throughout the day. Last year, they fielded countless

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calls from excited children eager to know when Santa might

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reach their homes. It's remarkable how a simple wrong number

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has evolved into a beloved holiday tradition that combines the

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wonder of Christmas with the sophistication of modern aerospace technology.

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This blend of holiday magic and space age capability shows

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how even the most serious organizations can help keep the

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spirit of Christmas alive for children around the world. And

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that brings us to the end of another fascinating episode

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of Astronomy Daily. From holiday celebrations in space to massive

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cosmic water reservoirs, lunar dust challenges, and Webb's latest discoveries,

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We've journeyed across the universe together today I've been your host, Anna,

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and I want to remind you that space exploration never stops,

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and neither does our coverage of it. To stay up

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to date with all the latest developments in space and astronomy,

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head over to Astronomy Daily dot io. There you can

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sign up for our free daily news letter and access

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our constantly updating news feed with all the latest space

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news as it happens. Want to dive deeper into the

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stories we've covered today, or revisit some of your favorite episodes.

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Our complete archive is available on the website, and don't

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forget to join our growing community on social media. You

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can find us as astro Daily Pod on Facebook, x, Tumblr, YouTube,

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and TikTok. Until next time, keep looking up and wondering

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about the mysteries that await us in the cosmos, and

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may I wish you a very happy Christmas no matter

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where you are. This has been Astronomy Daily and I'm

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anna signing off. Stars