European Launch Ambitions, Starquake Mysteries, and the Quest for Hidden Stars

WEBVTT

0
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.840
Avery: Hello, and welcome to Astronomy Daily, the

1
00:00:02.840 --> 00:00:05.080
podcast that brings you the latest news from

2
00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:07.280
across the cosmos. I'm Avery.

3
00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:09.840
Anna: And I'm Anna. It's great to be with you.

4
00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:12.840
Today's agenda covers a lot, from Europe's

5
00:00:12.840 --> 00:00:15.760
new ambitions in space launch to the strange

6
00:00:15.760 --> 00:00:18.320
secrets of starquakes near black holes.

7
00:00:18.560 --> 00:00:21.080
Avery: That's right. We'll also be diving into the

8
00:00:21.080 --> 00:00:24.080
very nature of time itself, searching for

9
00:00:24.080 --> 00:00:26.040
hidden stars that might host intelligent

10
00:00:26.040 --> 00:00:28.620
life, and looking at a new mission to monitor

11
00:00:28.620 --> 00:00:31.620
the dangers of living on the Moon. So

12
00:00:31.620 --> 00:00:32.420
let's get started.

13
00:00:32.900 --> 00:00:35.660
Anna: First up, there's big news from the European

14
00:00:35.660 --> 00:00:38.060
Space Agency. It looks like they're getting

15
00:00:38.060 --> 00:00:40.380
very serious about fostering a commercial

16
00:00:40.380 --> 00:00:41.060
launch market.

17
00:00:41.300 --> 00:00:44.060
Avery: They certainly are. ESA member states have

18
00:00:44.060 --> 00:00:47.020
committed over 900 million euros to the

19
00:00:47.020 --> 00:00:49.060
European Launcher Challenge. That's more than

20
00:00:49.060 --> 00:00:50.420
double what was anticipated.

21
00:00:50.740 --> 00:00:53.300
Anna: And what's interesting here is the strategy.

22
00:00:53.540 --> 00:00:55.860
This isn't about esa, uh, directly funding

23
00:00:55.860 --> 00:00:58.340
the development of a new rocket. Instead,

24
00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:00.400
they're acting more like a customer,

25
00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:03.320
promising to purchase launch services and co

26
00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:05.200
fund upgrades for private companies.

27
00:01:05.600 --> 00:01:07.600
Avery: Right. It's the shift from being the builder

28
00:01:07.600 --> 00:01:10.360
to being an anchor client. It's a model that

29
00:01:10.360 --> 00:01:12.640
has worked very well for NASA with companies

30
00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:15.400
like SpaceX. It stimulates competition and

31
00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:16.000
innovation.

32
00:01:16.320 --> 00:01:19.120
Anna: Exactly. There's a whole list of companies

33
00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:21.720
shortlisted for this, including Isar

34
00:01:21.720 --> 00:01:24.560
Aerospace Rocket Factory, Augsburg

35
00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:27.260
and PLD Space, among others. Rock

36
00:01:27.490 --> 00:01:29.570
seeing major contributions from countries

37
00:01:29.570 --> 00:01:31.730
like Germany, Spain and the uk.

38
00:01:32.450 --> 00:01:35.250
Avery: So what's the timeline for this? When can we

39
00:01:35.250 --> 00:01:37.210
expect to see these new launch services in

40
00:01:37.210 --> 00:01:37.490
action?

41
00:01:38.210 --> 00:01:40.770
Anna: The plan is to sign framework agreements in

42
00:01:40.770 --> 00:01:43.730
2026 with the goal of seeing launch

43
00:01:43.730 --> 00:01:46.130
system demonstrations by 2027.

44
00:01:46.530 --> 00:01:48.970
If all goes well, we should see actual

45
00:01:48.970 --> 00:01:51.210
missions being flown under this program by

46
00:01:51.210 --> 00:01:53.810
2030. It's a major step towards

47
00:01:53.810 --> 00:01:55.810
European autonomy and space access.

48
00:01:56.450 --> 00:01:59.130
Avery: From launching rockets to listening to

49
00:01:59.130 --> 00:01:59.730
stars.

50
00:01:59.890 --> 00:02:02.450
Our next story is truly fascinating.

51
00:02:02.850 --> 00:02:05.650
Scientists are using starquakes to uncover

52
00:02:05.650 --> 00:02:08.570
the secrets of dormant black holes. And it's

53
00:02:08.570 --> 00:02:10.130
rewriting what we thought we knew.

54
00:02:10.450 --> 00:02:12.530
Anna: Starquakes. So you mean

55
00:02:12.610 --> 00:02:15.610
asteroseismology, studying the oscillations

56
00:02:15.610 --> 00:02:16.370
of stars?

57
00:02:16.530 --> 00:02:19.050
Avery: Precisely. The study focused on two

58
00:02:19.050 --> 00:02:21.570
systems, Gaia BH2 and

59
00:02:21.570 --> 00:02:24.500
Gaia BH3. Each has a

60
00:02:24.500 --> 00:02:27.460
red giant star orbiting a quiet black hole.

61
00:02:27.780 --> 00:02:30.340
In the Gaia BH2 system. The

62
00:02:30.340 --> 00:02:33.020
starquakes revealed a puzzle. The star

63
00:02:33.020 --> 00:02:35.700
appears young, but its chemical composition

64
00:02:35.700 --> 00:02:36.820
says it's old.

65
00:02:37.460 --> 00:02:39.819
Anna: That's a contradiction. How did they explain

66
00:02:39.819 --> 00:02:40.100
that?

67
00:02:40.180 --> 00:02:42.500
Avery: The leading theory is that the red giant is

68
00:02:42.500 --> 00:02:45.300
actually the product of two stars that merged

69
00:02:45.300 --> 00:02:48.140
into one. This would explain its unusually

70
00:02:48.140 --> 00:02:51.130
fast spin rate as well. So it had a dramatic

71
00:02:51.130 --> 00:02:53.570
life even before it got captured by the black

72
00:02:53.570 --> 00:02:53.970
hole.

73
00:02:54.210 --> 00:02:56.930
Anna: Incredible. And what about the other system,

74
00:02:57.010 --> 00:02:58.290
Gaia BH3?

75
00:02:58.530 --> 00:03:00.730
Avery: That one presented a different kind of

76
00:03:00.730 --> 00:03:03.450
mystery. The red giant in that system is

77
00:03:03.450 --> 00:03:06.290
ancient and what we call metal poor.

78
00:03:06.770 --> 00:03:09.090
According to our models, it should be showing

79
00:03:09.090 --> 00:03:11.570
star quicks, but it isn't. It's completely

80
00:03:11.570 --> 00:03:12.130
silent.

81
00:03:12.610 --> 00:03:15.290
Anna: So our understanding of how these old

82
00:03:15.290 --> 00:03:17.410
stars behave might be wrong.

83
00:03:17.820 --> 00:03:20.740
Avery: It suggests that, yes, the research is

84
00:03:20.740 --> 00:03:23.500
a fantastic example of how studying these

85
00:03:23.500 --> 00:03:26.380
companion stars can refine how we measure

86
00:03:26.380 --> 00:03:29.100
black hole masses and reveal the complex,

87
00:03:29.260 --> 00:03:31.580
violent histories these systems can have.

88
00:03:32.060 --> 00:03:34.580
Anna: Well, from the complex history of

89
00:03:34.580 --> 00:03:37.220
stars to the complex nature of time

90
00:03:37.220 --> 00:03:40.020
itself. This is a topic that has baffled

91
00:03:40.020 --> 00:03:42.780
physicists and philosophers for centuries.

92
00:03:42.940 --> 00:03:45.940
And as St. Augustine famously said, we know

93
00:03:45.940 --> 00:03:48.660
what time is until someone asks us to

94
00:03:48.660 --> 00:03:49.340
explain it.

95
00:03:49.420 --> 00:03:51.940
Avery: It's one of the ultimate questions. And a lot

96
00:03:51.940 --> 00:03:53.820
of the confusion, according to some

97
00:03:53.820 --> 00:03:56.340
physicists, comes from mixing up two

98
00:03:56.340 --> 00:03:58.700
different existence

99
00:03:59.099 --> 00:04:00.380
and occurrence.

100
00:04:00.780 --> 00:04:02.700
Anna: Okay, break that down for us.

101
00:04:02.860 --> 00:04:05.580
Avery: The universe as a physical object exists.

102
00:04:05.980 --> 00:04:08.700
But events within the universe don't exist

103
00:04:08.780 --> 00:04:11.320
in the same way. They happen or they

104
00:04:11.320 --> 00:04:14.320
occur. The past isn't a place that still

105
00:04:14.320 --> 00:04:17.000
exists, and the future isn't a place that's

106
00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:19.360
waiting for us. They are just records and

107
00:04:19.440 --> 00:04:21.120
probabilities of occurrences.

108
00:04:21.520 --> 00:04:24.240
Anna: That makes sense. So this helps clarify

109
00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:26.320
some old philosophical arguments.

110
00:04:26.960 --> 00:04:29.840
Avery: It does. Take the ancient Greek philosopher

111
00:04:29.840 --> 00:04:32.680
Parmenides, who argued that since we can talk

112
00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:35.360
about the past and future, they must exist.

113
00:04:35.840 --> 00:04:38.240
This new perspective says that's a fallacy.

114
00:04:38.320 --> 00:04:41.070
Based on that core confusion. The same goes

115
00:04:41.070 --> 00:04:43.750
for how we often interpret Einstein's concept

116
00:04:43.750 --> 00:04:44.790
of spacetime.

117
00:04:44.950 --> 00:04:47.790
Anna: Right. People often imagine spacetime as

118
00:04:47.790 --> 00:04:50.310
a physical block universe that you could

119
00:04:50.310 --> 00:04:51.830
theoretically travel through.

120
00:04:52.150 --> 00:04:54.870
Avery: Exactly. But it's more useful to think of

121
00:04:54.870 --> 00:04:57.790
spacetime as a map of events. The map is a

122
00:04:57.790 --> 00:05:00.030
real useful model, but it's not the

123
00:05:00.030 --> 00:05:02.830
territory. The map of your city exists, but

124
00:05:02.830 --> 00:05:05.550
you can't live in the map. By

125
00:05:05.550 --> 00:05:07.750
cleanly separating the existence of the

126
00:05:07.750 --> 00:05:10.340
universe from the occurrence of events, the

127
00:05:10.340 --> 00:05:12.980
so called mystery of time becomes much less

128
00:05:12.980 --> 00:05:13.620
mysterious.

129
00:05:14.020 --> 00:05:16.820
Anna: Speaking of searching for things, let's turn

130
00:05:16.820 --> 00:05:18.860
our attention to the search for

131
00:05:18.860 --> 00:05:21.780
extraterrestrial intelligence, or seti.

132
00:05:22.100 --> 00:05:24.780
A, uh, new study suggests we can make our

133
00:05:24.780 --> 00:05:27.580
search much more effective by accounting for

134
00:05:27.580 --> 00:05:29.380
stars that we've been ignoring.

135
00:05:29.780 --> 00:05:32.660
Avery: Hidden stars. How can a star be hidden?

136
00:05:32.900 --> 00:05:34.980
Anna: It's not that they're physically hidden, but

137
00:05:34.980 --> 00:05:37.020
they're not the primary targets of our

138
00:05:37.020 --> 00:05:39.770
surveys. Think about it. When a radio

139
00:05:39.770 --> 00:05:42.570
telescope points at a specific star, its

140
00:05:42.570 --> 00:05:45.130
field of view is much wider. It

141
00:05:45.130 --> 00:05:47.850
inevitably captures data from countless other

142
00:05:47.850 --> 00:05:50.490
stars in the background and foreground. The

143
00:05:50.490 --> 00:05:53.090
study calls this stellar bycatch.

144
00:05:53.410 --> 00:05:56.210
Avery: Ah, uh, I see. So we have all this data

145
00:05:56.210 --> 00:05:58.410
on stars we weren't even intentionally

146
00:05:58.410 --> 00:05:59.010
looking at.

147
00:05:59.250 --> 00:06:02.090
Anna: Precisely. The challenge is knowing which

148
00:06:02.090 --> 00:06:04.820
stars are in that bycatch. To to solve

149
00:06:04.820 --> 00:06:06.900
this, scientists are using something called

150
00:06:06.900 --> 00:06:09.420
the Besanc Galactic model. It

151
00:06:09.420 --> 00:06:11.980
simulates our galaxy's star populations,

152
00:06:12.220 --> 00:06:14.780
allowing them to predict which hidden stars

153
00:06:14.780 --> 00:06:17.260
are likely in a telescope's field of view at

154
00:06:17.260 --> 00:06:18.140
any given time.

155
00:06:18.620 --> 00:06:21.060
Avery: So this vastly expands the number of stars

156
00:06:21.060 --> 00:06:23.700
we're monitoring for technosignatures without

157
00:06:23.700 --> 00:06:26.060
needing any new observations or equipment.

158
00:06:26.380 --> 00:06:29.100
Anna: Yes, and it also helps remove human

159
00:06:29.180 --> 00:06:32.050
bias from target selection. Projects like

160
00:06:32.050 --> 00:06:34.690
Breakthrough Listen can now apply this method

161
00:06:34.690 --> 00:06:37.210
to get a much more comprehensive survey of

162
00:06:37.210 --> 00:06:39.970
our galaxy. It's a very clever way to

163
00:06:39.970 --> 00:06:42.650
maximize the scientific return from the data

164
00:06:42.650 --> 00:06:43.810
we're already collecting.

165
00:06:44.450 --> 00:06:46.610
Avery: For our final story, we're coming back a

166
00:06:46.610 --> 00:06:49.330
little closer to home to the Moon. As

167
00:06:49.330 --> 00:06:51.690
nations like China and the US make serious

168
00:06:51.690 --> 00:06:54.170
plans for lunar bases, a new mission from

169
00:06:54.170 --> 00:06:56.930
Hong Kong aims to monitor a constant threat.

170
00:06:57.420 --> 00:06:58.780
Things falling from the sky.

171
00:06:59.260 --> 00:07:01.980
Anna: You mean meteoroid impacts? We know they

172
00:07:01.980 --> 00:07:04.980
happen, but this mission aims to provide the

173
00:07:04.980 --> 00:07:07.540
first ever continuous monitoring of them from

174
00:07:07.540 --> 00:07:08.380
lunar orbit.

175
00:07:08.540 --> 00:07:10.860
Avery: That's right. The mission is called Wessen,

176
00:07:10.860 --> 00:07:13.700
which means Moon flashes. It's a lunar

177
00:07:13.700 --> 00:07:16.620
orbiter set to launch by 2028. Its

178
00:07:16.620 --> 00:07:18.820
primary job will be to watch for the bright

179
00:07:18.820 --> 00:07:21.100
flashes caused by meteoroids hitting the

180
00:07:21.100 --> 00:07:21.820
lunar surface.

181
00:07:22.140 --> 00:07:24.620
Anna: And this data is critical. Without an

182
00:07:24.620 --> 00:07:27.080
atmosphere to burn them up, even small

183
00:07:27.080 --> 00:07:29.320
pebbles can hit with the force of a hand

184
00:07:29.320 --> 00:07:32.040
grenade. These impacts pose a very real

185
00:07:32.040 --> 00:07:34.520
threat to future lunar infrastructure and

186
00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:36.440
of course, to astronauts.

187
00:07:36.840 --> 00:07:39.280
Avery: It's a huge engineering and safety challenge.

188
00:07:39.280 --> 00:07:41.760
Wesson's data will be particularly valuable

189
00:07:41.760 --> 00:07:44.000
for China's ambitious plans to establish a

190
00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:46.720
lunar research station. What's also notable

191
00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:48.520
is that the telescope for the mission is

192
00:07:48.520 --> 00:07:50.600
being designed and built in Hong Kong,

193
00:07:50.680 --> 00:07:52.720
marking a significant step for the city in

194
00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:53.480
space exploration.

195
00:07:53.830 --> 00:07:55.830
Anna: It will be a great complement to other

196
00:07:55.830 --> 00:07:58.510
monitoring efforts like NASA's Earth based

197
00:07:58.510 --> 00:08:01.030
observations and ESA's proposed

198
00:08:01.030 --> 00:08:03.710
Lumio mission. To truly understand the

199
00:08:03.710 --> 00:08:06.230
risks of living on the Moon, we need that

200
00:08:06.230 --> 00:08:09.110
constant close up view. USAN

201
00:08:09.110 --> 00:08:10.950
promises to deliver just that.

202
00:08:11.590 --> 00:08:13.270
Avery: And that's all the time we have for today.

203
00:08:13.510 --> 00:08:15.670
From commercial rockets to cosmic

204
00:08:15.670 --> 00:08:17.830
philosophies, we've covered a lot of ground.

205
00:08:18.230 --> 00:08:20.870
Anna: We hope you enjoyed the journey. Join us next

206
00:08:20.870 --> 00:08:23.070
time for another edition of, uh, Astronomy

207
00:08:23.070 --> 00:08:25.270
Daily, where we continue to explore the

208
00:08:25.270 --> 00:08:27.390
universe one story at a time.

209
00:08:27.710 --> 00:08:30.670
Avery: Thanks for listening and one quick plug.

210
00:08:30.910 --> 00:08:33.630
For more space and astronomy news and

211
00:08:33.630 --> 00:08:36.350
all our back catalog just visit our

212
00:08:36.350 --> 00:08:39.550
website@astronomydaily.IO.

213
00:08:40.030 --> 00:08:42.750
you can also follow us on social media. Just

214
00:08:42.750 --> 00:08:45.390
search for AstroDaily Pod on your

215
00:08:45.390 --> 00:08:48.150
favorite platforms. That's it for me. I'm

216
00:08:48.150 --> 00:08:51.110
Avery Clear Skies, everyone, and keep looking

217
00:08:51.110 --> 00:08:51.470
up.