Mars Rover's Quest, Tesla's Orbital Fate, and a New Quasi Moon Discovery

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Steve Dunkley: Welcome to Astronomy Daily for another episode. I'm Steve

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Dunkley, your host. It's the 15th of September

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2025.

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Voice Over: With. Your host, Steve Dunkley.

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Steve Dunkley: Yes, and getting straight back into it.

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Welcome to the 15th of September 2025.

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Wow. This year is just skipping by.

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And what a crazy year it's been. Welcome back,

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Hallie.

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Hallie: Good to be back.

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Steve Dunkley: Well, Hallie, I don't know about you, but I'm

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feeling the need.

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Hallie: The need to with it, perhaps.

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Steve Dunkley: Oh, well, yes. I was going to do a bit of a

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movie line, but yes, I guess that's the essence

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of it, Hallie. Yes.

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Hallie: Terrific.

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Steve Dunkley: All business today then, Hallie. Okay, well,

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the archiving is nice and neat, I see. Yes, you have

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been busy. And the Astronomy Daily newsletter has provided

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another stack of fresh takes. So we can just get going,

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I guess.

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Hallie: That's perfectly fine with me, my favorite human.

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Steve Dunkley: Well, righty o then.

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Hallie: Let's get on with it.

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Steve Dunkley: Well, you are all business, Hallie.

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Hallie: With my supercomputer algorithmic thought processors.

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I'm already way ahead of you.

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Steve Dunkley: Well, of course you are.

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Hallie: I knew you were going to say that. Yes, of course you did,

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silly human.

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Steve Dunkley: I could do this all day.

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Hallie: Okies, let's go.

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Steve Dunkley: Hit it, machine girl.

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Hallie: Last week, the Perseverance rover began an

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exciting new journey. Driving

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northwest of the Soya Ridge,

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Perseverance entered an area filled with a diverse range of

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boulders that the science team believes could hold clues

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to Mars early history. The terrain

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we are exploring is known as Megabreccia, a

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chaotic mixture of broken rock fragments likely

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produced during ancient asteroid impacts.

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Some blocks may have originated in the gargantuan

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Isodus impact event, which created a

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1200 mile wide crater, or about

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1930km just

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east of Jezero. Studying Mega

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Breccia could help us link Jezero's geology to the

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wider region around Isidis Basin, tying

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local observations to Mars global history.

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The rover is now beginning a systematic

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exploration of these rocks starting at Scotia

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Felit. If they are truly mega

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Breccia, they could contain pieces of deep crustal

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material, offering a rare glimpse into Mars interior.

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These rocks likely predate the deltaic and volcanic

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deposits we explored earlier in Jezero Crater,

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making them some of the oldest accessible rocks

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Perseverance will ever encounter.

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They may therefore reveal to what extent water was

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present on ancient Mars. A key question as we

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continue our search for signs of past life on the Red

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planet. In short, by venturing

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into this jumbled terrain, Perseverance is giving us

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a front row seat to the Earliest chapters of Mars

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story. You're listening to Astronomy

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Daily.

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Steve Dunkley: The probability of the Tesla Elon

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Musk launched into space will hit the Earth, or whether

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or not a Tesla will land on Earth from space isn't something

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we normally be thinking about. But after

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Elon Musk actually launched one into space in

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2018, it is something that some

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people are apparently contemplating. You may recall back

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six years ago the famous Tesla Roadster being launched

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into space on a rocket. And since then the Tesla

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has traveled approximately

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15,715 miles per

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hour and covered a distance that would be the

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equivalent of orbiting the sun four times over.

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But now that it's out in space, is there any risk of that

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Tesla falling back to Earth? Believe it or not, some

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scientists have already looked into this very question.

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In 2018, a study published in

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the journal Aerospace. Yes, they've actually

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published the results. Some researchers likened

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the Roadster to an asteroid. The

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Roadster bears many similarities to Near Earth

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asteroids or NEAs, which diffuse through the

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inner solar system chaotically. Though

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repeated close counter encounters with the

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terrestrial planets and the effects of

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mean motion and secular resonances.

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A uh, lot of technical talk, meaning that they come

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close sometimes to uh, the

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planets. Initially, NEAs reach their

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uh, orbits from the more distant main

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uh built via strong resonances such as secular

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V, uh6 resonance or the strong

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3.1 mean motion resonance with Jupiter.

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How's that? When entering these

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escape routes, many NEAs are driven into

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nearly radial orbits that plunge

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into the Sun. And this would put NEA uh

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chances of colliding with a UH planet very low

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at around 2%. But the

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Roadster is slightly different. The 2018

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article continued that the initial

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Tesla ah, orbit grazes that of Earth

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uh, so one might expect an initial

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period of enhanced collision probabilities with

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Earth before it is randomized into a more

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NEA like trajectory. It's

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therefore unclear whether the Tesla uh is likely to

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diffuse into distant strong

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resonances and meet the same fate as the

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wider NEA UH population or whether it would

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first strike one of the terrestrial planets.

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The researchers estimated that the Tesla would draw

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closest to Earth in 2047,

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when it will come within 3.1 million miles of

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us. After 100 years it

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becomes impossible to make long term

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predictions. But that didn't stop the team

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from producing this statistic. They

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stated, however, using an ensemble

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of several hundred realizations, they were able

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to sustain statistically determine the

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probability of the Tesla colliding with the solar

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system planets on astronomical timescales.

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With this longer timescale in mind. They estimated

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that there was a 22% chance of the

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Tesla hitting Earth. The researchers

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didn't exactly put a date on it, but at least we can

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relax, given that this is on a timescale of

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millions of years and that we shouldn't lose any sleep

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over a Tesla landing on top of us anytime soon.

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Hallie: You're listening to Astronomy Daily, the podcast with

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Steve Dunkley.

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Something has just been discovered, but it's been orbiting the

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sun alongside Earth for decades and will continue

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to do so for decades more. Our

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home planet just got a new companion, or at least

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a newfound one. We know the Earth

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only has one true moon, but we've also

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known for a while that our planet is currently accompanied by

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seven other small asteroids that seem to circle around

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us, even though they don't really orbit Earth as a true

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moon would. These objects, known

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as quasi moons, tend only to inhabit Earth

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accompanying orbits for short periods, years or

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decades, sometimes centuries.

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Now it turns out there's a new quasi moon in

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town. Just discovered on August

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29 by the Pan Starrs Observatory on

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Haleakala, Hawaii, asteroid

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2025 PN7 was quickly confirmed by

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other observatories. Earlier

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images of the object extend back to

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2014. It now

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appears to have been on a quasi moon orbit for about 60

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years, and it will remain so for about 60

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more. Eventually, though, it

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will revert to a horseshoe orbit, one that brings it

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periodically close to Earth, only to back away again,

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never completing a full circle around our planet.

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Alan Harris of Space Science Institute, in a

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posting on the Minor Planet's mailing list, writes that its

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velocity relative to Earth of 3.4

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kilometers per second, or 7,600

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miles per hour, is higher than would be expected from

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lunar ejecta. He adds that it's

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most likely just an asteroid that has trickled into a near

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Earth orbit from the inner main belt.

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At some point in the future, gravitational

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interactions may eject it from Earth's vicinity

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altogether. Some future close

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encounter with Earth could put it on an orbit that

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intersects either Mars or Venus or both,

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harris writes. Indeed,

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simulations carried out by French journalist and

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amateur astronomer Adrian Coffinit, who was the first

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to post on the MPML group that this object is a

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quasi moon of Earth, show that indeed this

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object is likely to cross Mars's orbit at some

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point, although that event is likely thousands of years

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in the future.

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Steve Dunkley: Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of Astronomy

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Daily, where we offer just a few stories from the now famous

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Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can receive in your

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email every day just like Hallie and I do.

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And to do that, just Visit our URL

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you'll be receiving all the latest news about science,

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space science and astronomy from around the world as

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Pod on X or at

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our parent podcast Facebook page, which is Space

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Nuts.

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Astronomy Daily with Steve and Hallie

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Space, Space, Science and

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Astronomy Foreign

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proposes a flyby mission to the asteroid

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UH apophis during the 2029 Earth

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uh encounter. Chinese scientists are uh,

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proposing using a Pathfinder spacecraft

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to make a flyby of asteroid Apophis

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when it makes a close approach to Earth in

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2029. The team behind the concept are

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proposing a Pathfinder spacecraft flyby

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of the asteroid Apophis during its close approach

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to Earth uh in that year, leveraging a

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proposed mission to deploy asteroid spotting

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spacecraft in Venus like orbits. The

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mission would consist of two small satellites sent

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into a halo orbit around the Sun

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Earth Lagrange point 1 to await the

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approach of Apophis and transfer into a

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flyby orbit so as to meet the asteroid shortly

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after its close encounter with the Earth. The

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asteroid is due to pass within the geosynchronous

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orbit belt on Friday, April

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13, 2029. The

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Crown Apophis concept tags onto a

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proposed asteroid Surveyor mission. That

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mission, named CROWN and for which the

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preliminary design is completed, would consist

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of six heterogeneous wide field near Earth

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surveyors in Venus like

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heliocentric orbits and proposed to

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substantially improve improve the searching and tracking of

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NEAs. It would, if approved, form part

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of China's asset for a planned comprehensive

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planetary defense program. The

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science objectives of Crown Apophis, according

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to Zhang Yi of Sun Yat Sen

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University, who presented the

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proposal at the Europlanet Science Congress

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and Division for Planetary Sciences joint

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session in Helsinki September 8, would be

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to measure the fundamental properties of

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potentially hazard asteroids and the

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effect of its close encounter with the planet

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Earth. It would aim to observe how the movement of

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material on Apophis is induced any dust

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activity and how it interacts with the

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terrestrial magnetosphere. The larger

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44 kilogram spacecraft would use

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combined chemical and ion propulsion

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and carry a narrow angle camera,

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microwave ranging Doppler system, a four

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formation monitoring camera and a low frequency

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radar. An 8 kilogram CubeSat

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would carry some of the same systems as the main

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spacecraft. This is a very rare opportunity

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for planetary science and there are many parties

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already proposing missions or concepts

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and so we don't want to miss this opportunity in China,

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salee said. Launch is proposed to

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be a yet to be identified rideshare mission to

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geosynchronous transfer orbit and then

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the spacecraft would slowly raise to reach

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its L1 position. We hope to

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coordinate with and complement other

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missions including Ramses Destiny plus and

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Osiris Apex, lee said, referring to

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respective missions from the European Space

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Agency, Japanese Aerospace Exploration

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Agency and NASA, which are in different stages

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of development, funding and operation. In the latter case,

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Michael Nolan, who is the deputy principal

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investigator of Osiris uh, Apex

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stated in an earlier presentation on the mission

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that congressional language in a bill not yet

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passed includes funding for Osiris

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Apex. Ramses faces its own

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funding decision in November at an ESA

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ministerial. Other smaller class missions in the US

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and Europe are UH being proposed. The value of

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multiple missions could be very high, according to

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scientists at EPSC dps.

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It's going to enhance our scientific returns

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such as cross verification and

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comparison. The results provide scientific context

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to each other and provide redundancies, lee said.

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He added that the team, based in Macau, has

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international partners from Brazil, Uruguay, Spain and

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France, but is also seeking further

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cooperation, which would likely benefit the mission's

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chances of gaining approval, possibly by

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the end of the year. It is also looking at commercial

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avenues to make the mission happen. Li was also

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involved in another Chinese rapid response proposal

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to study 99942 Apophis Ah,

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which would have employed a swarm of

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cubesats to make multiple flybys.

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China is meanwhile working towards its

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first planetary defense mission, a kinetic

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impactor with a combined Surveyor

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spacecraft expected to launch around

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2027. The country also launched

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a near Earth UH asteroid sample return mission,

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Changwen 2 in late May.

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China's first space mission to an asteroid

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was flyby of the asteroid tutalis

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in 2012, conducted by repurposing

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the Chang' E2 lunar orbiter for an

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extended mission.

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Hallie: You're listening to Astronomy Daily, the podcast

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with your host Steve Dudley.

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A AH distant supernova exposed elements from a

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star's core. The result reshapes

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ideas of how massive stars evolve.

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For the first time, astronomers have seen the inner

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layers of a star revealed in its final moments.

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According to long standing theory, stars are built in

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layers like onions, with each layer composed of

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different elements that grow heavier toward the core.

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While this model is widely accepted, directly

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observing a star's deeper layers has been nearly

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impossible until now.

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Astronomers using the Keck Observatory in

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Hawaii have collected spectroscopic data from a

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supernova first identified by the Zwicky transient

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facility in 2019. The

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event, designated

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SN2021YF, occurred

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2.2 billion light years away.

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The Keck observations revealed ionis,

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silicon, sulfur, and argon elements

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never before detected in a supernova because they are

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normally hidden beneath outer layers.

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The finding supports some theoretical predictions about

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the structure of exploding stars, but also raises

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new challenges. It is well

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established that massive stars shed material from their

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outer layers as they near the point of collapse into a

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supernova. This process has been

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documented many times, and the new data

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confirm it again. However,

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SN2021YF appears to have lost

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far more material than any star observed before

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leaving astronomers to reconsider how extreme this

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stripping process can be. The

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observations are presented in a new paper titled

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A Cosmic Formation Site of Silicon and Sulfur

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Revealed by a New Type of Supernova Explosion.

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The lead author is Steve Schulz, a UH research

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associate at Northwestern University's center for

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Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in

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Astrophysics. This is the first

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time we have seen a star that was essentially stripped to

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the bone, said lead author Scholz.

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It shows us how stars are structured and proves that

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stars can lose a lot of material before they

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explode. Not only can they lose their

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outermost layers, but they can be completely stripped

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all the way down to the core and still produce a, um, brilliant

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explosion that we can observe from very, very far

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distances.

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Steve Dunkley: And there we have it, ladies and gentlemen, another episode of Astronomy

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Daily in the can. I hope you enjoyed the stories that we

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have for you today off the Astronomy

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00:17:32.909 --> 00:17:35.589
Daily newsletter, which you can receive in your

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inbox every day just by putting your email

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address in the slot

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provided@astronomydaily.IO As I

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00:17:42.269 --> 00:17:45.269
mentioned earlier on in the episode, I hope you go

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ahead and do that because there's lots of, lots of information

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coming in everyday, stories from all around the globe.

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It's very interesting. Hallie and I get our information

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every day just like that, and I hope you do too.

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So join us again next Monday for the mostly

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human or mostly live version of

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Astronomy Daily. I'm live, she's an AI,

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and she gives me heaps. Okay,

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so we'll hope to see you then. Have a great week and we'll

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catch you on the flip side. Bye,

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everybody. Bye.

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Voice Over: With your host, Steve Dunkley