Is Empty Space Really Empty? A 90-Year-Old Mystery Gets Its Answer (S05E168 — The Weekend Wrap)

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Anna: Hey, everyone, welcome back to Astronomy

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AstroDailyPod. And if it's the weekend where

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you are, welcome to a slightly different

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edition of the show.

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Avery: This is the weekend wrap. Same show, same,

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uh, us, same runtime. But on the weekend,

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we're doing things a little differently. One

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fresh leap storey you haven't heard from us

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yet. And then we round up the big storeys

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from the week. In case you missed any of

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them,

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Anna: it's Saturday, August 15th, series five,

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episode 168. And it has

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genuinely been one of the biggest weeks we've

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covered in a while. Total eclipse, triple

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black holes. A black hole hiding inside a

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star. A rocket possibly lost at sea.

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So today we're going to do two things.

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Avery: First, a brand new storey that landed just

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yesterday. Physicists may have finally

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confirmed something WERNER Heisenberg

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predicted 90 years ago about empty space

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not actually being empty, which is

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Anna: a great one to lead with because it's the

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kind of storey that would have been our

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Tuesday or Wednesday main storey any other

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week. It's just that this week had a lot of

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competition.

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Avery: Then we're going to run back through the week

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an update on Starship, which we told you

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Monday might be lost at sea. The black hole

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star we covered yesterday. Tuesday's eclipse

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and Virgin Galactic's rough few days.

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Anna: Lots to get through. Let's get into it.

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Okay, so this storey starts in

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1936, which is a very unusual

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place for us to start.

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Avery: Very unusual. Take us back.

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Anna: So, in 1936, the physicist Werner

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Heisenberg and his student Hans Euler

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proposed something that sounds like science

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fiction. That empty space isn't actually

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empty. That what looks like a vacuum is

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really the simmering sea of virtual

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particles, electrons and positrons,

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flickering in and out of existence for

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fractions of a second.

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Avery: Which already sounds made up.

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Anna: It does, but it follows from quantum theory.

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And here's the testable prediction that came

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out of it. If you put that empty space

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inside an extraordinarily strong magnetic

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field, light passing through it should get

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polarised in a specific direction, an effect

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called vacuum birefringence. Basically,

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the vacuum itself starts behaving a bit like

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a lens.

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Avery: And the problem, I'm guessing, is that

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nobody's ever been able to build a magnetic

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field strong enough to actually test that.

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Anna: Exactly the problem. We're talking about a

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magnetic field more than 100 million

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times stronger than anything we've ever

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produced on earth. So for 90 years, this has

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just sat there as an untested prediction of

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Avery: quantum electrodynamics, which is where the

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magnetar

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Anna: Comes in right, because it turns out the

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universe has already built the lab we needed.

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There's a magnetar out there, a dead star

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called 1E1547

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5408. Thousands of

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light years away. And its magnetic field is

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easily strong enough. A team led by Rachel

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Stewart, a, uh, physics grad student at

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George Washington University, used NASA's

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IXPE spacecraft, that's the

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Imaging X Ray Polarimetry Explorer, to

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cheque.

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Avery: And IXPE's whole job is measuring

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polarisation.

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Anna: That's exactly its job. It launched in

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2021 specifically to measure how

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polarised high energy X rays are.

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Stewart's team pointed it at this magnetar in

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March and April of last year and backed that

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up with observations. The International Space

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Station, Australia's Murrayang Radio

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Telescope and the South African Radio

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Astronomy Observatory.

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Avery: So what did they actually find?

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Anna: Two things that together made a pretty

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compelling case. First, the X rays

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coming off this magnetar were almost three

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times more polarised than standard models of

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a neutron star's surface could explain on

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their own. Second, and um, this is the

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clincher, the direction of that polarisation

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lined up with the star's magnetic field

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and matched the pattern they were already

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seeing in its radio waves.

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Avery: So it's not just more polarised than

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expected, it's polarised in exactly the

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direction the Heisenberg Euler prediction

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says it should be.

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Anna: Exactly. Put those two things together and

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vacuum by refringence becomes basically the

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only explanation left standing.

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Avery: 90 years is a long time to wait for a

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callback, really is.

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Anna: And Stuart had a nice line about what this

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actually means for how we use objects like

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this. She said we're not just studying

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astronomical objects anymore, we're using

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them to test the laws of nature.

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Avery: That's a good way to put it. The magnetar

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isn't really the subject of the study, it's

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the equipment.

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Anna: Right. It's a 100 million times stronger

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than Earth's best particle physics lab that

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just happens to be sitting out there

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thousands of light years away. One of the co

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authors, Marcus Lower at Swinburne University

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in Australia, put some scale on that. He

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said detecting vacuum birefringence

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requires a magnetic field over a hundred

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million times stronger than any we've ever

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made on Earth.

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Avery: So there's no version of this experiment that

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ever happens in a lab. You need a magnetar

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or nothing, nothing

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Anna: else will do it. And I liked Lower's other

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quote because it's a nice reminder of what a

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confirmation result like this actually feels

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like for physicists he said it's a bit of a

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relief because it means that our theories

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still work and there's nothing

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Avery: broken with physics, which is honestly kind

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of funny. The good outcome here is boring.

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Nothing broke, right.

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Anna: The exciting result would have been actually

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quantum electrodynamics is wrong and everyone

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would have had a much more interesting week

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and a much worse year. This is the

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quietly satisfying outcome. Instead, a 90

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year old prediction just got its first real

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observational backing.

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Avery: Where does this go next? Is this case closed

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or is there more confirmation needed?

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Anna: More confirmation is very much still wanted.

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This is a strong first detection, not the

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last word. There's a Future mission called

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GoSox that's specifically designed to chase

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this effect further and nail it down with

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more precision. But for now, this is the

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strongest evidence anyone's produced that the

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vacuum genuinely behaves the way Heisenberg

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and Euler said it would back in 1936.

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Avery: And just to place it, this research was

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published August 5th in Nature, so it's had a

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couple of weeks to circulate before really

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breaking into wider coverage

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Anna: this week, which happens a lot with these

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physics results. The paper drops and then it

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takes a beat for people to fully appreciate

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what it means. But once you explain this

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confirms space itself isn't empty, it

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tends to land.

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Avery: It's a great one to kick off the weekend with

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genuinely new physics, using the universe as

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the lab nobody could ever build.

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Anna: All right, on to the recap. It has been an

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absolutely stacked week, so let's go roughly

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in the order it happened, starting with

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Monday.

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Avery: Monday we told you SpaceX's Starship might be

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lost at sea. So let's start there with an

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update, because it's been hanging in limbo

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all week.

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Anna: Quick recap for anyone who missed Monday.

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This goes Back to Flight 13, which launched

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July 24. The upper stage, Ship

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40 did something no starship upper stage

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had ever done before. It survived a

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soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean off

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Western Australia, completely intact,

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Avery: which was actually the good news storey

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originally.

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Anna: It really was. SpaceX started towing it

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towards shore in Australia, and for a few

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days it looked like they might genuinely

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bring an intact Upper Stage home for the

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first time. But the weather didn't cooperate.

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Seas got rougher, conditions kept

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deteriorating, and on August 7th, Elon

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Musk gave the update. We led Monday's episode

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with. He said ship recovery is not looking

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good right now.

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Avery: And, um, where does that stand now, nearly a

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week later?

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Anna: Still unresolved, honestly. As of this

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weekend, ship 40 remains out there, still

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afloat as far as anyone's confirmed, but the

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recovery ship, Geo Australis has been

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holding position near it rather than making

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obvious progress. Prediction markets

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watching this closely have it at somewhere

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around an 18% chance of the ship actually

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making it back to shore.

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Avery: So not officially declared lost, but not

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looking great either.

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Anna: That's the honest summary, genuinely

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unresolved. The one bit of good news is that

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SpaceX already got what they really needed

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from this before the weather turned close up

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drone footage of the heat shield and engine

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sections, which is the data that actually

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matters for building the next ships. So Even

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if ship 40 never makes it to port, the

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programme's already moved

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Avery: on to the next one, and life goes on

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regardless. SpaceX isn't waiting around for a

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resolution, not at all.

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Anna: Ship 41's already working through its own

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test sequence for Flight 14, which is

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currently targeting around August 20th.

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Booster 21's finishing up engine

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installation for its own static fire testing,

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and there's repair work underway at the pad

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after flight 13. So whatever happens to

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ship 40, the programme's already moved on to

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the next one.

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Avery: We'll keep an eye on it and let you know if

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there's a final word either way.

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Anna: Next up, and honestly, still probably the

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single biggest storey of the week. Tuesday's

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total solar eclipse.

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Avery: We did a full deep dive Thursday, so quick

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version for anyone catching up. A, uh,

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182 mile wide shadow swept

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from the Arctic Ocean down across eastern

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Greenland and western Iceland and then out

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across northern Spain before heading into the

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Mediterranean.

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Anna: The longest totality anywhere on land was 2

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minutes 18 seconds at a dramatic

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bird cliff on Iceland called La Tribarg.

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Millions of people gathered across northern

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Spain too. Towns like Valoria, Labuina

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and Segur de Calafel were packed with

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totality, arriving low on the horizon about

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an hour before sunset for a genuinely

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golden dramatic show.

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Avery: And it wasn't just spectacle. Observers got a

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rare direct look at the sun's corona, a

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solar prominence and Jupiter, Jupiter,

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Mercury and Venus all visible in the darkened

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sky during totality.

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Anna: One line from that episode that stuck with me

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all week. An observer in Spain described it

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as something that strikes the lizard part of

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your brain that just tells you this shouldn't

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be real.

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Avery: Still the best description of totality we've

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heard. And if you're already plotting your

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next one, Spain gets another total solar

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eclipse on August 2, 2027.

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Anna: Less than a year away, eclipse chasers are

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having a very good stretch.

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Avery: Storey three. And, um, this one's fresh.

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Yesterday's episode in fact. So if you're a

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regular weekday listener. You've already

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heard the full version, but for anyone

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joining us just on weekends, here's the

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headline.

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Anna: Astronomers using the James Webb Space

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Telescope found what they're calling a black

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hole star bomb

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BH1 out of the

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Mirage or Miracle JWST

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survey. It's a young, rapidly growing

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black hole wrapped in such a dense,

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turbulent cocoon of gas that the who whole

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object glows almost like a star,

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even though a black hole is doing the work at

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the centre.

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Avery: And it's ancient. The light left it about

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660 million years after the Big Bang,

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roughly 13 billion years ago, making it

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the earliest confirmed object of its kind,

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led by

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Anna: Rohan Naidu at the University of Hawaii

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and Yorat Matthy at the Institute of Science

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and Technology Austria. And the reason it

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matters beyond cool a weird object is

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that it might explain a 50 year old puzzle

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how supermassive black holes got so

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big so early when normal gas

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accretion shouldn't have had time to do it.

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Avery: And, uh, it ties directly back to Thursday's

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storey too, doesn't it? The three black holes

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sharing one galaxy,

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Anna: exactly the same puzzle from a different

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angle. If black holes can hit these

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accelerated growth phases, whether through a

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gas cocoon like this one, or through merging

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with each Thursday's trio, that gives them

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a much faster route to becoming super

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massive. Two chapters of the same bigger

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storey,

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Avery: basically back to back AJWST

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just quietly having one of the best months of

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any telescope ever built.

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Anna: Last one Virgin Galactic. And this is a

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storey that actually got worse as the week

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went on.

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Avery: We flagged the headline Thursday. Their

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upgraded Delta class spacecraft, which was

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supposed to start flying paying customers

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this quarter, has slipped to February

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2027. Company says they need more time

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on avionics and systems installation before

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putting people on board.

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Anna: Shares dropped about 12% in after

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hours trading when that news broke.

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Avery: And then Wednesday the company reported its

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second quarter results. And that's where it

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got worse. Revenue came in at just

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$1.54 million, well under

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expectations, with a net loss of around

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$55.9 million for the quarter.

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Anna: The stock fell another roughly

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7.7% on that news, and

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management's now guiding toward some

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genuinely rough cash burn for the rest of the

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year, 95 to $100 million

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going out the door in the third quarter

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alone, 80 to 90 million in the fourth.

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They've also filed paperwork that lets them

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raise capital through stock debt or warrants

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if they need to, which is the kind of filing

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that exists specifically because a company

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thinks it might need it.

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Avery: That's not a great combination. Bigger

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losses, a slipping timeline, and now, uh, the

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option to dilute existing shareholders if

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cash gets tight.

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Anna: It's not, though there is one genuine bright

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spot buried in there. Their

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$750,000 a, uh, seat flight packages

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were oversubscribed and the CEO said

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they'll be offering higher price points when

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ticket sales reopen this autumn. So whatever

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else is going on, demand for an actual seat

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isn't the problem,

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Avery: which is sort of the whole Virgin Galactic

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storey in one sentence. At this point, the

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demand and the money are mostly there. It's

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the hardware and the timeline that keep

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slipping.

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Anna: That's it exactly. We'll keep tracking it as

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February 2027 gets closer.

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Avery: Okay, that's the weekend wrap. A brand new

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storey about empty space not actually being

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empty. Plus updates on Starship Still Adrift

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in the Indian Ocean, Tuesday's total solar

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eclipse, yesterday's black hole star

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Discovery, and Virgin Galactic's rough week.

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Anna: A, uh, huge week for space and astronomy

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news, and hopefully a useful ways to catch up

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if you missed any of it along the way.

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Avery: If you enjoyed today's episode, the best

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thing you can do for us is leave a rating or

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review wherever you're listening and share

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the episode with a fellow space nerd. Full

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show Notes, sources and links for every

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storey we covered today are @astronomydaily

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IO and you can find us on social media.

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We're AstroDaily Pod pretty much

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everywhere.

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Anna: We'll be back Monday with our regular weekday

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updates. Until then, keep looking up. Clear

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skies, everyone.

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Avery: See you next time.