Lunar Lander Mishaps, Milky Way Mysteries, and Venus's Hidden Asteroids

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Anna: Welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm your host, Anna, and

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I'm thrilled you're joining us for another exciting dive into

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the cosmos. Today we'll be exploring the recent

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challenges faced by some ambitious spacecraft,

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uncovering surprising new discoveries about our very

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own Milky Way galaxy, and discussing a

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potential hidden family of asteroids that might be sharing

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Venus's orbit. Plus, we'll take a look

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ahead at what promises to be a very busy week for space

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launches around the globe. Stay with us.

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First up, let's talk about the challenges of lunar

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exploration.

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Japanese company ISPACE has announced that it believes its

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second lunar lander mission, named Resilience,

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crashed due to problems with its laser rangefinder.

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This crucial piece of equipment is designed to determine altitude

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during descent, but it reportedly suffered a

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hardware issue. During a press briefing,

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company executives explained that the laser

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rangefinder, meant to provide the first altitude data

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at 3 km above the surface, didn't give

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its initial measurement until the lander was less than

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900 meters high. By then, the

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spacecraft was traveling much faster than planned,

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reaching 66 meters per second compared

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to the intended 44 meters per second. The last

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telemetry from the lander at an altitude of

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192 meters, still showed it descending

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rapidly at 42 meters per second.

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Images later released by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance

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Orbiter show a 16 meter wide crater

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marking the probable crash site.

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ISpace's executive vice president

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Yoshitsugu Hitachi clarified that this

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incident was different from their first mission in

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2023, which failed due to a software

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error. While the software on Resilience worked as

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intended, the laser rangefinder was a different

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model but sourced from a new unnamed

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supplier. Investigations ruled out improper

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installation, leading the company to conclude the unit's

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performance simply degraded. Several factors

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could have caused this, including lunar surface

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conditions, reduced laser power, or even

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effects from the space environment like vacuum and radiation.

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Looking ahead, ISPACE is taking significant

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steps to prevent future issues. Chief

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Technology Officer Ryo Ujiya stated they will

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enhance testing for the laser rangefinder and and related

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sensors to better simulate high speed and low

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reflectivity conditions. They're also considering

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using a different flight proven laser rangefinder

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and augmenting it with other sensors like LIDAR or

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cameras for more robust navigation. These

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efforts will be supported by a new external review board,

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including former engineers from NASA and the

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Japanese space agency jaxa. Despite

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the setbacks, ISPACE remains committed to,

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with CEO Takeshi Hakamada emphasizing their

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resolve to keep improving and moving forward with their next

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missions, both still scheduled for

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2027.

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Moving on let's turn our attention to Europe, where the

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exploration company recently faced a setback with its

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Mission Possible Test vehicle. This

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European company, which aims to develop orbital

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spacecraft for cargo and eventually human transport,

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achieved a partial success and a partial

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failure in its latest test flight.

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The vehicle powered up and flew successfully in orbit

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before making a controlled RE entry into Earth's

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atmosphere. Crucially, it managed to

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re establish communication after the blackout period,

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suggesting it navigated the most thermally challenging part

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of reentry effectively. However, the

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company lost contact with the spacecraft just a few minutes

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before its planned touchdown in the ocean. In a

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candid update, the exploration company indicated

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that the most likely culprit was an issue with the

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deployment of its parachutes, which were designed

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to deploy at specific velocities during descent.

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This demonstration vehicle, measuring two and a half meters in

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diameter, aimed to test four key

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structural performance in orbit, surviving RE entry,

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autonomous navigation, and recovery in real world

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conditions. It only clearly failed in this final

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critical task of recovering the vehicle M.

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Despite this challenge, the company's transparent and rapid

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communication acknowledging the partial failure

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within hours of the launch is quite refreshing in

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the space industry. The Mission Possible vehicle

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was developed at a relatively low cost of about

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$20 million in just 2.5 years,

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demonstrating the company's aggressive timeline and commitment.

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While it's possible the exploration company might conduct another

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subscale demonstration, this mission

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represents a significant step forward for Europe's

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commercial space sector, which has historically

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lagged behind the US And China. The

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ability to launch a fairly large vehicle and bring it

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back through Earth's atmosphere less than four years

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after the company's founding is a credible and promising

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start. They are now focused on developing

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their full size Nix cargo spacecraft with

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a potential flight as early as 2028.

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Now let's shift our gaze closer to home within our own

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cosmic neighborhood.

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Astronomers have recently developed a groundbreaking new

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method for accurately mapping the outer gas disk of the

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Milky Way, and what they've found is quite

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surprising. It turns out our galaxy's structure is

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far more complex than previously thought, complete with what

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they describe as flocculant or tufty looking

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gas clouds. This innovative approach, pioneered

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by Sukanya Chakrabarti of the University of Alabama

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and Peter Craig from msu, relies on

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determining the precise distances to very young

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stars within the outer disk. They leverage

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data from the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite,

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which has meticulously measured the brightness,

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positions, motions, and, crucially, the

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distances to nearly 2 billion Milky Way stars.

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As Chakrabarti emphasized, distance is one

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of the most Fundamental things you can measure in the universe.

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Unless you know distances, you can't map anything.

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This is a significant departure from traditional mapping methods

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that use kinematic distances which assume

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a model for the galaxy's velocity fields.

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These older methods can be imprecise, especially

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for gas clouds which appear much fleecier and more

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disturbed than the smoother patterns seen in stars.

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To overcome these inaccuracies, the team used a clever

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pattern matching technique. They observed that

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the spiral structure in the gas clouds of nearby

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galaxies closely mirrors the structure of young

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stars less than 400 million years old,

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which are born from these gas clouds. By

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pairing young stars with known locations to nearby

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clumps of gas, they created a new map that isn't

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dependent on the problematic kinematic assumptions.

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For highly accurate distance markers, they relied on

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Cepheid variable stars which

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pulsate with a, uh, regular rhythm, allowing

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astronomers to calculate incredibly precise distances.

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The results are transforming our understanding.

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Craig noted that their new maps nicely

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demonstrate that the spiral structure in the gas disk of

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the Milky Way is highly flocculant and

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that the overall structure of the disk is complex.

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This technique combining pattern matching with

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accurate stellar distances promises to

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significantly improve our understanding of the prevalence and

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shapes of the clouds in the hydrogen disk.

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Beyond that, these more accurate maps can

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enhance three dimensional dust maps of the entire

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galaxy and help astronomers identify

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disturbances within the disk, such as

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interactions with nearby dwarf galaxies or

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even the presence of dark matter. It's a

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truly exciting development that paints an even more

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intricate picture of our home galaxy

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moving from the intricate patterns within our own Milky Way.

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Let's turn our attention to an exciting discovery much closer

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to home, right in our solar system.

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Astronomers are currently delving into a little known and

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largely unseen group of asteroids that

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quietly share Venus's orbit around the Sun. These

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fascinating space rocks, dubbed Venus Co orbital

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asteroids, might be far more numerous than we ever

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imagined. To date, only about 20 of

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these unique asteroids have been confirmed. However,

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a new study led by Valerio Carruba from Sao

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Paulo State University in Brazil the suggest that hundreds

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more could be lurking just out of sight.

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Karuba excitingly compared this potential discovery

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to discovering a continent you didn't know existed.

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The reason so few have been found until now is their

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elusiveness. They appear close to the sun in our

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sky, making them difficult for ground based telescopes

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to spot. And their rapid movement adds to the

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tracking challenge. To investigate this

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hidden population, Karuba's team ran

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extensive computer simulations modeling

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the orbits of hundreds of hypothetical Venus Co

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orbital asteroids over a staggering

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36,000 years into the future,

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they found that many of these objects could remain

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gravitationally bound to Venus's orbit for an

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average of about 12,000 years.

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Interestingly, their orbits appeared chaotic,

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meaning small shifts over long periods could

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eventually push them onto different paths, including

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some that might bring them closer to Earth. However,

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there's no need for alarm. Experts,

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including astronomer Scott Shepard from the Carnegie

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Institution for Science, emphasize that none of the

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known asteroids pose an immediate threat, and the

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timescales involved span many thousands of years.

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The likelihood of one colliding with Earth anytime soon is

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extremely low. Despite the low risk,

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understanding these objects is crucial for building a more

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complete picture of near Earth space. Because

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they're so hard to spot from Earth, the team also

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explored new detection methods. Their

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simulations suggest that a spacecraft orbiting closer to

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Venus would have a much better chance. And the

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newly commissioned Vera C Rubin Observatory,

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though not specifically designed for the inner solar system,

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could potentially catch some of these hidden asteroids during

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its special twilight observing campaigns.

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Further into the future, a proposed mission concept called

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Crown and envisions a fleet of small spacecraft

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near Venus specifically designed for this search.

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These efforts promise to unveil many more of these

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dynamically intriguing objects, adding another

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layer to our understanding of the solar system's diverse

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inhabitants.

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From hidden asteroids to perplexing planets,

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astronomers have been busy unraveling cosmic

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mysteries. And speaking of mysteries,

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scientists may have finally cracked the curious case of what are

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known as double hot Jupiters. These are

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rare exoplanet pairs found in binary star systems,

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with one scorching gas giant orbiting each of the twin

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stars. This arrangement has long puzzled

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scientists, seeming to defy our understanding of

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how planets form. But now a team of

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astronomers believes they have the key to this celestial

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puzzle, a process known as von Zypolidov

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Kozai or zlk. Migration team

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leader and Yale University astronomer Melena Rice

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describes it as a dance of sorts of

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essentially in a binary star system, the gravitational

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influence of the second star can significantly shape

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and warp the orbits of planets, causing them to

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migrate inward towards their parent stars.

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The researchers propose that this mechanism leads to a

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mirrored migration process, resulting in both

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stars in the binary system ending up with their own hot

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Jupiter. To reach this conclusion, Rice and her

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colleagues performed numerous simulations of binary stars

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with two planets using powerful computing clusters

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and data from sources like NASA's Exoplanet

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Archive and the European Space Agency's Gaia

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mission. The unintended yet

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exciting consequence of this research is that

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it makes our planet formation models a whole lot more

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interesting. We typically expect giant planets

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to form much further away from their host stars.

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Which is precisely why Hot Jupiters, especially

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pairs of them, have been such a captivating subject

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of studying. For future discoveries, the team

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suggests revisiting binary systems where just one

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Hot Jupiter has already been found. The crucial

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factor, however, is that these parent stars need

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to have a moderate separation, not too close

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and not too far apart, just the right distance

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for this gravitational dance to unfold.

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Next up, the global launch manifest continues to be

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as busy as ever. As we approach the halfway point of

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2025 this week, we're looking at a packed

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schedule highlighted by multiple SpaceX Falcon

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9 missions, including a significant private

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crewed flight to the International Space Station.

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First up, Axiom Space aims to return crew to the iss

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with its fourth private mission, AX4, launching

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today if all goes according to plan. From Florida

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Commanding this flight is Peggy Whitson, a former NASA

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astronaut, making this her second commercial mission and further

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extending her record for the longest cumulative time in space by

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an American. Joining her are Shubanshu

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Shukla from India and mission specialists Slawash

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Usnanski, Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of

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Hungary, all making their first space flights and marking

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significant milestones for their nations. This

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mission also debuts crew Dragon

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C213, the final capsule ever

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manufactured completing SpaceX's fleet. The

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Falcon 9 booster will attempt a, uh, return to launch site

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landing. Beyond the crewed mission,

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SpaceX is maintaining its impressive pace with three

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Starlink satellite deployments also on the docket. This

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week, two Falcon 9 flights will launch from Cape

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Canaveral carrying Starlink V2 mini satellites

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into low Earth orbit, while the third lifts off from

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Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. These

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launches underscore SpaceX's aggressive goal of

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completing 170 orbital flights this year.

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Elsewhere on the launch pad, Rocket Lab aims to continue its

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record cadence with the 67th electron mission,

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symphony in the Stars from New Zealand.

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Slightly delayed for checkouts, this confidential

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commercial payload is set for a 650

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kilometer orbit. Blue Origin also has its

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fifth New Shepard suborbital flight of

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2025 NS33, expected

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to carry a crew of six passengers, just above the Carmen

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line for a brief period of microgravity after being

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scrubbed last weekend. And

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finally, a momentous launch marks the end of an

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era, the 50th and final mission for the

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Japanese H2A rocket. This

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swan song flight, delayed due to an

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electrical issue, will carry the GOSAT GEO

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Water Earth Observation payload from the

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Tanegashima Space Center. This satellite is designed to

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monitor greenhouse gases and measure water on

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Earth's surface and in the atmosphere. The

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H2A, with an impressive track record,

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is being phased out in favor of its successor, the

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H3 family.

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And with that news, we wrap up today's episode of

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Astronomy Daily, where we explored everything from

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lunar lander challenges and a European spacecraft's re

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entry setback to the clumpy nature of our

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Milky Way and the hidden asteroids of Venus.

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Plus the fascinating dance of double hot Jupiters

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and a look at the busy week ahead for space launches.

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Thank you for joining us. I'm Anna your your host

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and I hope you enjoyed this dive into the cosmos.

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Remember, you can visit Astronomy Daily IO

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to catch up on all the latest space and astronomy news with

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our constantly updating newsfeed and listen to all our back

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episodes. Subscribe to Astronomy Daily on

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Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or

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wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you again

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tomorrow. In the meantime, keep looking up

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stories be told

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stories.