Cosmic Speedsters, Satellite Shakeups, and a Milky Way Masterpiece

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Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your source

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for the biggest news from across the cosmos.

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I'm Anna.

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

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Today we've got five incredible stories that

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span from our own cosmic backyard to the very

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foundations of the universe.

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Anna: That's right. We'll be looking at a shocking

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discovery that our solar system is moving

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much faster than it should be. Then we'll

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cover a major rebrand for Amazon's satellite

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network and some high stakes drama unfolding

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aboard China's Tiangong Space Station.

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Avery: Pl. Europe is getting a sleek new spacesuit.

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And we'll dive into a mind boggling new

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simulation that has recreated our entire

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Milky Way galaxy star by star.

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Anna: It's a packed show. Let's get started.

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Avery.

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Let's begin with a story that genuinely

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challenges our fundamental understanding of

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the universe. A new study has found that our

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solar system is hurtling through space far

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faster than our best cosmological models

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predict.

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Avery: Wait, faster than we thought? By how much? We

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already know we're moving pretty fast.

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Orbiting the galaxy at hundreds of

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kilometers.

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Anna: Per second is significantly faster. The

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evidence is fascinating. It comes from

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observing the distribution of radio galaxies

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across the sky. According to the standard

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model of cosmology, the cosmological

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principle, the universe should be isotropic,

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meaning it looks the same in every direction

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on a large enough scale.

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Avery: Right. No specific direction or location.

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The ultimate cosmic democracy.

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Anna: Exactly. But when astronomers mapped

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out these distant radio galaxies, they found

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a lopsided distribution. There are more

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of them and they appear brighter in the

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direction our solar system is moving. This is

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a classic Doppler effect, similar to how a

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siren sounds higher pitched as it moves

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towards you. The light from these galaxies is

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being blueshifted.

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Avery: So because they look brighter in one

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direction, it implies we're rushing towards

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them much faster than we accounted for.

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Anna: Exactly. And here's the kicker. The

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statistical significance of this finding is

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five sigma.

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Avery: Five sigma for our listeners. That's the gold

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standard in physics. It means there's only a

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1 in 3.5 million chance.

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The result is just a random fluke.

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Anna: Mhm. It means this is very likely a

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real physical effect. This doesn't just

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mean our maps are a little off. It could mean

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the cosmological principle itself. This

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idea that the universe is uniform might

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have flaws.

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Avery: That is a massive implication.

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It's like finding out the whole ocean has a

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current you never knew existed. Truly a

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foundational shakeup.

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Anna: That's putting it mildly.

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Avery: All right, from the cosmic scale back down to

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low Earth orbit, our next story is about a

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big shift in the satellite Internet race.

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Anna, uh, you've probably heard of Amazon's

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ambitious plan, Project Kuiper.

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Anna: Of course. Their answer to SpaceX's Starlink.

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The goal was to provide affordable broadband

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Internet to underserved communities around

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the globe. A, uh, very noble and very

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challenging goal.

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Avery: Well, it seems the branding and perhaps the

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focus is changing. Amazon has

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officially rebranded the network. It's no

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longer Project Kuiper, it's simply now leo.

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Anna: Leo, as in low Earth orbit?

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That's certainly more direct. Does this name

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change come with a, uh, strategy change?

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Avery: It appears so. The marketing language is

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shifting away from that initial pitch of

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connecting individual homes in remote areas.

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The new emphasis is squarely on larger

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commercial and enterprise contracts. Think

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telecommunications companies, governments and

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large corporations that need reliable, high

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speed data connections for their operations.

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Anna: That makes sense from a business perspective.

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Those enterprise contracts are where the big

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reliable money is. It also puts them in more

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direct competition with the higher tier

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services offered by Starlink, which has also

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found a lucrative market with aviation,

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shipping and enterprise clients.

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Avery: Exactly. So while the name LEO is new,

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the real story here is the strategic pivot.

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It's less about Internet for everyone and

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more about becoming a dominant player in the

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high stakes commercial satellite data

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market.

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Anna: Now for some developing news that sounds like

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it's straight out of a movie script. There's

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some serious drama unfolding aboard China's

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Tiangong Space Station.

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Avery: Oh, this sounds intense. What's

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happening?

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Anna: Well, the most recent crew to return to

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Earth, the Shenzhou 20 crew,

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had to come home in a replacement

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spacecraft. Their original ship, which was

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docked at the station, was damaged by a

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small piece of orbital debris.

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Avery: Whoa, okay, so a replacement ship, the

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Shenzhou 21, had to be sent up to

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bring them home. That's a good contingency

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plan.

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Anna: It is, but it's created a very

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serious secondary problem. The

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replacement ship, Shenzhou 21,

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was also carrying the new crew for

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the station. So it went up with the new crew

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docked. The old crew got in and it

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returned to Earth.

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Avery: Okay, I think I see where this is going.

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The new crew is now on the

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Tiangong Station. But their ride home

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just left.

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Anna: Exactly. For the first time, the crew

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on Tiangong is without a lifeboat

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vehicle. Every docked spacecraft, like

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a Soyuz at the ISS or a, uh, Shenzhou at

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Tiangong, serves as an emergency

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escape pod. If there were a major fire,

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depressurization, or a medical emergency,

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they have no way to evacuate.

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Avery: That is a terrifying situation. What is

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China doing about it?

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Anna: They are moving fast. The next spacecraft

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Shenzhou 22 is being prepared

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ahead of schedule to be launched as soon as

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possible. But there's another complication.

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The damaged Shenzhou UH20 spacecraft

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is still docked to the station, taking

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up a valuable port. They have to figure out

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how to safely undock and deorbit

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that damaged ship to make room for the new

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one. It's a tense and complex

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orbital chess game with human lives at

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stake.

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Avery: Well, on a lighter note, let's talk about

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space fashion, or more accurately,

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spacewear. The European Space Agency is

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getting a brand new European designed

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spacesuit.

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Anna: This is exciting. For a long time, astronauts

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on the ISS have mostly used either American

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or Russian suits. Is this a suit

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for spacewalks?

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Avery: Not this one. This is an IVA suit, which

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stands for intra Vehicular Activity.

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It's the suit you wear inside the spacecraft

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during launch, docking and re entry, the

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high risk phases of a mission. It's your last

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line of defense if the cabin loses pressure.

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Anna: Ah, ah, the so called pumpkin suits. They're

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crucial pieces of safety equipment. What's

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special about this new European one?

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Avery: The big design feature they're promoting is

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speed and ease of use. It's designed to be

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put on or taken off by a single person

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in under two minutes without any

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assistance. In an emergency, every second

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counts. So that's a huge deal. French

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astronaut Sophie Adenot is scheduled to be

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the first to test it on the ISS in 2026.

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Anna: That's fantastic. And uh, this is more than

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just a new piece of hardware, isn't it? It's

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part of a larger strategic goal for Europe.

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Avery: It is. The ESA has explicitly

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stated that this is a step towards achieving

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the sovereignty in human space exploration.

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By developing their own critical technologies

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like spacesuits and eventually their own crew

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vehicles, they reduce their reliance on

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partners like NASA and Roscosmos. It's about

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securing Europe's independent access to

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space.

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Anna: And finally, Avery, we have a story that is

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simply staggering in its scale.

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Scientists have successfully created

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the first ever simulation of our entire

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Milky Way galaxy that tracks the evolution

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of over 100100 billion

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individual stars.

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Avery: 100 billion with a B.

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That's. I can't even comprehend that

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number. How is that computationally possible?

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Previous simulations could only handle a tiny

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fraction of that.

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Anna: That's been the exact problem. The

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huge hurdle was modeling supernovae.

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These are incredibly important for galactic

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evolution. They spread heavy elements and

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energy, but they are also extremely

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fast and chaotic event. Simulating

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their blast waves and chemical reactions in

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detail requires immense

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computational power. A single

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supernova could grind an entire galactic

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simulation to a crawl.

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Avery: Right. It's a spaling issue. The physics at

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the micro level of the explosion tanks, the

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macro level simulation of the galaxy. So

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what was the breakthrough?

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Anna: Artificial intelligence. A team of scientists

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developed an AI Deep learning model. They

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trained it on countless high resolution

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simulations of individual supernovae.

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The AI learned the patterns and outcomes so

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well that it can now instantly predict the

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effects of a supernova without having to run

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the full slow simulation each time.

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Avery: Wow. So they essentially outsourced the

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hardest part of the calculation to a

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predictive AI. That's brilliant. What

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kind of machine did they run this on?

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Anna: They used one of the most powerful machines

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on the planet, the Fugaku

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supercomputer in Japan. By combining this

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clever AI shortcut with Fugaku's

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raw power, they were able to simulate

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the whole galaxy. This is going

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to revolutionize how we study everything from

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star formation to the distribution of dark

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matter. We can now watch a digital version

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of our galaxy evolve over billions of years

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and compare it directly to what we see in the

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sky today.

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Avery: It's like having a galactic time machine. An

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absolutely monumental achievement. And

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that's all the time we have for today. What a

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journey. We learned that our solar system is

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a cosmic speedster, challenging the very

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principle of a uniform universe.

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Anna: We saw Amazon's Project Cooper rebrand

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Talea with a new Enterprise Focus. And

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we're watching a tense situation at the

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Tiangong Station as China rushes to

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send up a lifeboat for its crew.

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Avery: Plus, Europe is gaining independence with a

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new quick change spacesuit. And scientists

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have used AI and a supercomputer to

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build a stunningly complete simulation of our

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Milky Way.

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Anna: Thank you for joining us from all of us here

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at Astronomy Daily, Keep looking up.

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Mhm.

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Avery: The stories the to

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stories we told.