Satellites Under Solar Siege, First Looks at the Sun's Poles, and Black Hole Secrets

WEBVTT

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Anna: Hello space enthusiasts, and welcome to Astronomy Daily.

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I'm your host, Anna, and I'm thrilled to guide you through the

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cosmos. Today we've got a stellar lineup of stories,

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so buckle up. Today we're diving deep into how

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solar storms are messing with our satellites.

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Then we'll be taking a first ever peek at the sun's

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poles. It's about time. Right

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after that, we'll question the very fabric of reality,

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or at least the stuff inside black holes. Plus,

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we'll check in on SpaceX's ambitious Starship plans

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down in Florida. It's gonna be huge,

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literally. And finally, we'll wrap

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things up with a dusty mystery surrounding Uranus's

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moons. Turns out they're weirder than we

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thought. So, yeah, let's jump in, shall

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we?

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Alright, first up, let's talk about space weather and how

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it's messing with our satellites. You know, those

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expensive bits of kit we kinda rely on. So

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geomagnetic storms, basically

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when the sun throws a tantrum, they can actually cause

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satellites in low Earth orbit to, well, lose

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altitude faster than expected. This is called orbital

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decay and it's not good news, folks. See, when

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these solar storms hit, they puff up Earth's atmosphere,

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which means satellites have to fight against more drag.

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But there's some new research out there that suggests we can

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actually design satellites to be less susceptible to these

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solar storms. Apparently, it's

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not just about predicting the storms better, but also

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about tweaking the spacecraft themselves.

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One of the researchers, Yoshita Barua,

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found that different types of solar events have different

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effects. You've got your coronal mass ejections,

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or CMEs, which are like huge explosions

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of plasma from the sun. And you've got these high

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speed streams coming from coronal holes.

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These create what they call stream interaction regions,

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or CIRs. And get this. The

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study found that CIR induced storms, even though

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they're generally weaker than CME storms, can

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actually be more damaging to satellite orbits because they last

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longer. Go figure, huh? The

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researchers looked at data from ESA's Swarm satellites

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and found that during a strong CME storm, a

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satellite decayed 37 metres. During a more

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moderate CIR storm, a satellite decayed almost

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100 metres. They also looked

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at something called the ballistic coefficient, which is

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basically how well a satellite cuts through the atmosphere.

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Satellites with a lower ballistic coefficient, like the

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International Space Station, are more affected by these

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storms. So the takeaway here is that better space

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weather prediction is important, but so is designing

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satellites that can weather the storm, so to speak. Keeps

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those birds in the sky for longer, you know.

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Now for something truly awesome. Humanity's gotten its first

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glimpse of the Sun's poles. Yeah, you heard that right.

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The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter. It's like

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change the game. I mean, think about it. Every

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single picture you've ever seen of the sun probably taken

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from around its equator. That's cause Earth and all

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the other planets, we all orbit the sun on this flat disc called

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the ecliptic plane. But Solar Orbiter,

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it's different. It tilted its orbit, giving us this

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unprecedented view from above and below. Talk about a

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stellar selfie. The images were actually

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captured back in March, but they're just blowing minds

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now, showing the Sun's south pole in all its glory.

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The spacecraft used a bunch of fancy instruments. The

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Polarimetric and Helioseismic imager or

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phi. The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager,

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which is eui. And the spectral imaging of the coronal

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environment Spice. Each one sees the sun in

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a totally different way. The phi maps the

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magnetic field. The EUI studies the superheated

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plasma in the corona, which is way hotter than the

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sun's surface. I mean, how does that even work?

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And Spice? Well, it can capture light emitted by

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plasmas at different temperatures, helping us model the Sun's

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atmosphere. One of the coolest discoveries

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so far. The M magnetic fields around the sun's south

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pole, they're a complete mess. Like

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instead of nice orderly north and south poles,

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you've got both polarities all mixed up. Apparently this

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happens when the sun's poles are about to flip, which is part of its 11

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year cycle. But get this, the

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solar Orbiter also helps scientists track different elements

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as they move through the sun, measuring the speed of

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carbon atoms being ejected from the sun and seeing the

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flows in three dimensions. The

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mission's still ongoing, so there's a lot more to come. But this

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is a huge step in understanding how our sun works and how

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it affects, well, everything.

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Alright, let's dive into something that's gonna make your head spin a

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little. Black holes.

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Specifically what's inside them. So remember how

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we've talked about singularities before? That point at

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the centre of a black hole where everything gets crushed

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into infinite density? Yeah, well

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physicists, they're still not super happy with that

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idea because it kind of breaks the known laws of physics, which,

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you know, isn't ideal. There was this research earlier

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this year that proposed a solution. It suggested

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modifying Einstein's equation so that gravity acts

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differently in super curved spacetime. This would

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supposedly replace the singularity with a highly warped

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but static region sounds promising, right? Well, not

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everyone's convinced. One physicist,

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Nikodem Poplawski, he's got a few major issues with

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this theory. First off, it needs five dimensions to

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work, and as far as we know, we're stuck with four.

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Secondly, the interior of the black hole would have to be static, and

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Poplarski says that gravity equations predict that it

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can't be. And thirdly, the model adds an

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infinite number of terms to the equations just to get rid

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of the singularity. He argues there's no real solid

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physical reason for that. It's just like math for

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math's sake, he says. Now, most

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other attempts to solve this singularity problem, they try

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to merge general relativity with quantum physics,

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which is another can of worms entirely.

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String theory is one of those attempts, but it's got its own

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problems, like needing even more dimensions and the

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fact that there's no experimental evidence for it.

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Poplarsky thinks the only way we'll ever truly understand

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what's at the heart of a black hole is if, get this,

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every black hole creates a new universe.

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Yeah, he's been working on that hypothesis since

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2010. The idea is if our

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universe was born in a black hole, we might be able to

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find evidence of it in the cosmic microwave background

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radiation, or maybe even in gravitational waves.

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It's a long shot, but hey, it took a hundred years to detect

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gravitational waves after Einstein predicted them.

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So who knows, maybe in a few decades we'll finally

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crack the black hole code.

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Okay, switching gears completely, let's talk about

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starship. You know, SpaceX's giant rocket

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that's supposed to take us to Mars and stuff? Well, they're making

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some serious Progress in Florida. SpaceX wants to

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launch starship from the Space coast, and they've been working

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on getting all the paperwork sorted out.

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Specifically, the Department of the Air Force just released a

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draught Environmental impact statement, or

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EIS, for Starship launches from Space

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Launch Complex 37. That's

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SLC 37. This document outlines

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SpaceX's plans for the site. Now,

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SpaceX has wanted a starship presence in Florida for a while.

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They even had plans to build starship vehicles there, but

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they ended up focusing on Starbase in Texas. They

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are still building the heat shield tile factory though.

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That's still going on. They also started

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building a starship launch tower AT Launch Complex

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39A at Kennedy Space Centre. But

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that kind of stopped for a bit too. But earlier this

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year, work resumed to apply all the

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lessons learned from the first starship launch.

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So while all that's going on. SpaceX has also been working on a

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Starship launch site at Space Launch Complex

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37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

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The Air Force says that the proposed actions for SLC

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37 won't negatively impact the environment

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or the public, which is good news. There's going

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to be a public comment period so folks can share their thoughts on the

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Draught eis. After that, the comments

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will be evaluated and a final EIS is expected in the

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fall of 2025. SpaceX

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doesn't have to wait though. They already have limited access to

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the site and have been working on demolishing some old structures

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to make way for new construction. So why

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SLC 37? Well, the draught

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EIS says it's to support national security launches with

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Starship. SpaceX already has two Starship

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launch pads at Starbase, but they're not on a military

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base. And Starbase is not really suited for the

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requested 76 launches per year.

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76, that's a whole lot of launches.

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Plus, the Air force already awarded SpaceX

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a contract to study using Starship for point to point

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cargo transportation. The site would eventually have

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two Starship launch pads, each with a launch

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mount, a launch integration tower and a flame

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trench. And get this, the launch integration towers

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are going to be taller than the ones at starbase. Like almost 200ft

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taller. Wow. They're also planning on building up

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to two potential catch towers to support the high launch

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cadence. Of course, launching that many

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rockets requires a lot of propellant, so

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SpaceX is planning to build a natural gas

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pretreatment system, a methane liquefier and an

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air separation unit. It's basically a whole industrial

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complex just to fuel these rockets. Now the

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plans outlined in the draught EIS cover some pretty

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ambitious Starship variants, even some that

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haven't been announced yet. The numbers for thrust,

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rocket height and propellant capacity are all way

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beyond what Elon Musk has been talking about. This is

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likely because SpaceX wants to future proof the study and make

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sure it covers all future versions of Starship.

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Under the current plan, launches from SLC

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37 could begin in 2026 and

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SpaceX would need an additional 450 employees

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or contractors to support the operations.

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Initially, Starship stages would be built at

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Starbase and then transported to Florida on barges.

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But eventually SpaceX plans to build its

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own Starship manufacturing facilities in Florida.

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With all of these launches, it will bring the total Starship

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related activities in Florida to over 600 per year.

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A, ah, busy year ahead for the Space Coast.

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Okay, so shifting Our gaze now to the ice giant

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Uranus. You know, the one that's tilted on its side.

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New data from the Hubble Space Telescope is showing us some

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pretty interesting stuff about its moons. Turns out

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those moons are gathering dust, literally, literally.

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Now, uranus has like, 28 known moons, and

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scientists have always thought that Uranus's weird magnetic

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field would leave visible marks on them. But

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these new Hubble observations of Uranus's four

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largest moons, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania,

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and Oberon, show no clear signs of radiation

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damage. What's really interesting is that the two outer

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moons, Titania and Oberon, are

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actually darker on their leading sides. So

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the opposite of what scientists thought. The theory is that

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the darkening isn't from Uranus's magnetic field at all,

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but from dust. Hubble's data points to a

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slow inward drift of dust from Uranus's distant,

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irregular moons. These outer moons are

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constantly getting hit by tiny meteorites, which

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kicks up dust particles that then gradually spiral

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inward over millions of years. As

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Titania and Oberon travel through this dust cloud,

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they're accumulating the particles mostly on their leading

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sides. It's kind of like, you know,

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driving really fast on a highway and like, all

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the bugs are hitting your windshield. Yeah,

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that's kind of what's going on with these moons. The inner

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moons, Ariel and Umbriel, don't show any

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significant difference in brightness between their leading and

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trailing sides, probably because Titania and

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Oberon are shielding them from the drifting dust.

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Now, as for Uranus's magnetic field,

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researchers think that its effects might be more subtle or

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complex than they originally thought, that it may

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still be interacting with the moons, but not in a way

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that creates strong contrasts on their surfaces.

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To learn more, the team has scheduled follow up

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observations with the James Webb Space Telescope. You

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know, within the next year, using infrared

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imaging, Webb will be taking a closer look at the same

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moons, potentially confirming whether it's dust,

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radiation, or, heck, a combination of both

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that's shaping their surfaces. I can't wait to find out more,

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can you?

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Well, that's all the space news we have for you today. I've

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been your host, Anna. I hope you'll join me again tomorrow

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for more Astronomy Daily. Don't forget to visit our

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website@astronomydaily.IO where you can

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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 episodes.

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You can also subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts,

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Spotify and YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Thanks for tuning in. And keep looking up. You

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never know what you might see. Bye,