S02E41: New Lunar Mysteries, India's Solar Quest, and September's Skyward Surge

WEBVTT

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Hello again, and welcome to Astronomy
Daily. I'm Steve Dunkley, your host.

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It's the fourth of September twenty twenty
three. Today we'll be looking at

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a new crater on the moon.
Can you guess where that came from?

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What India is doing next? So
soon after their successful moon landing, and

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a quick roundup of September launchers and
so much more, Join us, won't

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you? It would be a whole
speed Dunkley, And with me again is

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our digital reporter at large, Hallee. How are you, Hallee? Nice

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to be here again. I hope
you had a great week out there in

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the real world. Oh it was
all too real, Hallie. My car

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broke down and everybody knows that's bad
news, broke being the operative word,

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right, Oh, halle He's so
lucky. You can just zap through the

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digital domains at the speed of thought. But our cars can be a money

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pit. They terrific when everything works, like the Russian Space Agency found out

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recently as well. Oh yes,
I mean good company, ad I.

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But I got my car back the
right again. You still have to get

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me into your GPS and take me
out, Steve. I'm waiting all right,

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we'll all talk to the buffins in
the basement. We'll see what they

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come up with. Okay, So
what's on the show today? Helly,

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Okay, there's that new crater on
the Moon. No guessing how that got

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there too, Rod. Lots of
launches going up this week. Yes,

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I've got to round up at those
coming up. James Webb reveals some breathtaking

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structures in a well known supernova.
Don't you just love it when the new

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images comes through it from James Webb? They are something else, aren't they

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used to have? The wonder how
much better that can get? But anyway,

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let's have a look at those short
takes Holley Studios or yours. Thanks

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Steve. Here's some short takes from
the Astronomy Daily newsletter. NASA's James Webb

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Space Telescope has uncovered new details in
Supernova nineteen eighty seven A with its ni

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r Cam near infrared camera instrument.
Structures, some only visible in infrared wavelengths,

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provide clues into the development of supernova's
over time. NASA's James Webb Space

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Telescope has begun the study of one
of the most renowned supernovy sn nineteen eighty

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seven A supernova nineteen eighty seven A, located one hundred and sixty eight thousand

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light years away in the large Magellanic
Cloud. SN nineteen eighty seven A,

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has been a target of intense observations
at wavelengths ranging from gamma rays to radio

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for nearly forty years since its discovery
in February of nineteen eighty seven. New

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observations by Webb's and ircam or near
infrared camera, provide a crucial clue to

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our understanding of how a supernova develops
over time to shape its remnant. A

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new image reveals a central structure like
a keyhole. This center is packed with

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clumpy gas and dust ejected by the
supernova explosion. The dust is so dense

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that even near infrared light that WEB
detects can't penetrate it shape the dark hole

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in the keyhole. A bright equatorial
ring surrounds the inner keyhole, forming a

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band around the waist that connects two
faint arms of hourglass shaped outer rings.

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The equatorial ring, formed from material
ejected tens of thousands of years before the

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supernova explosion, contains bright hot spots, which appeared as the supernova's shock wave

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hit the ring. Now spots are
found even exterior to the ring with diffuse

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emission surrounding it. These are the
locations of supernova shocks hitting more exterior material.

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While these structures have been observed to
varying degrees by nassa's Hubble and Spitzer

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space telescopes and Chundra X ray observatory, the unparalleled sensitivity and spatial resolution of

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WEB revealed a new feature in the
supernova remnant, small crescent like structures.

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These crescents are thought to be a
part of the outer layers of gas shot

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out from the supernova explosion. Their
brightness may be an indication of limb brightening,

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an optical phenomenon that results from viewing
the expanding material in three dimensions.

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In other words, our viewing angle
makes it appear that there is more material

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in these two crescents than there actually
may be. The four pound one point

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eight kilograms Ingenuity flew for the fifty
sixth time on August twenty sixth, staying

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aloft for nearly two point five minutes
on the Mars Sortie. The Mars helicopter

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completed flight fifty six, traveling one
thousand, three hundred and thirty four feet

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or four hundred and ten m across
the Martian surface at a maximum altitude of

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thirty nine feet pr twelve m.
The goal of this flight was to reposition

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the helicopter, a representative of JPL
wrote via x formerly Twitter. This week

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Ingenuity landed with NASA's Perseverance rover inside
Mars Gesero Crater. In February twenty twenty

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one. The helicopter quickly aced its
five flight demonstration mission, showing that powered

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flight is possible on the Red planet
despite its thin atmosphere. NASA then grand

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Ingenuity a mission extension during which the
chopper is serving as a scout for the

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life hunting sample collecting Perseverance. The
robotic duo are working together to explore the

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twenty eight mile wide forty five kilometers
zero, which hosted a big lake and

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a river delta billions of years ago. The Indian Space Research Organization IRRO has

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been busy in space in twenty twenty
three. First came the successful landing of

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India's Chandraan three mission in the lunar
South Pole region earlier this week. Now,

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the IRRO has begun its first dedicated
mission to study the Sun, a

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diffier L one. The launch of
a four stage polar satellite launch vehicle pslv

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XL rocket from the satishe Dowan Space
Center in India with a diffier L one

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occurred on Saturday, September second,
at six twenty Universal time. A diffiert

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is the name for the Sun in
Sanskrit, and the L one in its

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name refers to the mission's destination the
Sun Earth l one lagrange point just under

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a million miles one point five million
kilometers sunword. A diffier L one will

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take about four months to reach this
point. Once there, a diffier L

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one will enter a halo orbit around
this point in space, enjoying a vantage

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point with a continuous view of our
host star. A satellite placed in the

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halo orbit around the L one point
has the major advantage of continuously viewing the

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Sun without any occultation slash eclipses ISRORO
officials set in an official statement this will

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provide a greater advantage of observing the
solar activities and its effect on space weather

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in real time. A diffier L
one has a nominal mission duration of about

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five years. The three thousand,
three hundred pound one thousand, five hundred

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kilogram class observatory carries a suite of
seven instruments to study the Sun's photosphere,

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chromosphere, and corona layers, three
of which will also carry out insitu studies

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of solar wind particles and magnetic fields
at the L one point. This will

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provide valuable data on solar dynamics and
space weather's interaction with the interplanetary medium.

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The European Space Agency will also provide
worldwide tracking coverage for a diffier L one

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on route too and at L one
courtesy of the agency's European Space Tracking Network

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station. Keeping around the lagrange points
can prove challenging. A failure to perform

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a routine maneuver nearly doomed the joint
NASA SLASH EESA SOHO mission in nineteen ninety

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eight. Shortly after launch. You're
listening to a stormy daily Steve Hi.

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Yes, welcome back. Don't forget
to sign up for the Astronomy Daily newsletter,

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which is around up of the top
stories of astronomy from around the world

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every day. Register at the address
spacenuts dot com and bots dot com.

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That's brtes z or zbytes dot com
and you'll be able to catch up with

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all the news that's new in astronomy
from all around the world. And I'm

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just having a quick look at the
Astronomy Daily newsletter in my email as it

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appears, and the subjects that come
through are just amazing. There's of course

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the NASSA observing the Lunar twenty five
impact site, Jabe's web revealing new structures

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within a iconic supernova muscle stimulation to
enhance astronaut health, and asking the question

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have interstellar media or fragments really been
found in the ocean? Watching SpaceX launched

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new Starlink satellites space junk in Earth
orbit, examining ways of removing that.

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I mean, this newsletter really does
cover some amazing territory. Sign up and

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have a great time exploring space,
science and astronomy. It really amazing.

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And now the story that's got everybody
talking the new crater in the Moon.

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Now we're wondering what may have caused
that. Well, it's not too difficult

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to join the dots. NASA has
spotted a new crater on the Moon that

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was likely caused by a Russian probe
crash landing on the surface around two weeks

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ago by the ill fated Lunar twenty
five probe, but the finding was made

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by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LERO by comparing
before and after images of the estimated impact

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point provided by Russian space agency ross
Cosmos. Lunar twenty five probe crashed on

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August nineteen, sinking Russia's hopes of
reviving its long dormant Moon program with the

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first ever soft landing on the lunar's
south pole. That accolade went, of

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course, to India, which successfully
land the Chandraan three mission on August twenty

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three, and it's currently exploring the
polar region with its Pragyan rover. LRO,

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which has been in orbit over the
Moon since two thousand and nine,

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took its most recent before image in
June twenty twenty two, and this was

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compared to an image taken on twenty
four, twenty twenty three. Since this

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new crater was close to the Lunar
twenty five estimated impact point, the LRO

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team concludes it's likely to be that
from the mission rather than a natural impactor.

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A NASA statement said the new crater
is about ten meters thirty two feet

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in diameter some four hundred kilometers or
two hundred and fifty miles short of the

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lunar twenty five intended landing point.
NASA also plans to return to the Moon

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under its Artemus program, with the
goal of building a sustained presence. Ice

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deposits could be exploited to support human
habitats or broken into hydrogen and oxygen to

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use for rocket fuel. SpaceX launched
Starlink satellites on a record breaking sixty second

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mission of the year. SpaceX just
set a new mark for the most orbital

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launchers in a single year. The
company sent twenty one of its Starlink Internet

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satellites into orbit last night, that's
September three, atop a Falcon nine rocket

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from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
at ten forty seven Eastern daylight time.

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It was SpaceX's sixty second orbital mission
of twenty twenty three, setting a new

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record for the most flights at a
year. According to the company's founder and

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CEO, Elon Musk, the Falcon
nine's first stage came back to Earth as

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planned. It touched down around eight
point five minutes after liftoff on the drone

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ship just read the instructions, which
were stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile,

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the Falcon nine's upper stage kept on
flying to deploy twenty one Starling satellites

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into low Earth orbit, and that
was just the beginning of a bump a

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week the first week of September four
launchers coming up. On Tuesday, September

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five, the Series one S rocket
will launch four international satellites into low Earth

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orbit for China. This launch will
take place from the Maritime Launching Platform,

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which is stationed in the Yellow Sea. This will mark both the first maritime

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launch for the Series one rocket and
the first private Chinese launch from AC platform.

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The Series one S is a four
stage rocket that stands nineteen meters tall

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with a faring diameter of one point
four meters. The vehicle can place up

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to four hundred kilograms into low Earth
orbit. This mission will mark its fifth

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mission of twenty twenty three and ninth
overall. A day later, China will

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attempt to launch its chen Zeng four
Sea rocket from Side nine four zero one,

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a Big One Satellite launch center in
China. Liftoff his schedule for eighteen

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UTC on September six. Launch vehicle, launch time, and payload or all

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highly uncertain. And may change and
something a bit more colorful. The Galactic

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three mission is Virgin Galactic's third commercial
mission using Spaceship two VSS Unity spacecraft.

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The mission will provide passengers with a
few minutes of weightlessness and incredible views of

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Earth, and is set to launch
on September eight, with a currently unknown

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drop time. This will mark Spaceship
two's seventeenth mission and fifth of twenty twenty

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three. The spacecraft will be carried
to around forty five thousand feet by a

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carrier aircraft VMS EVE, before being
released and igniting its hybrid rocket engine.

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The engine burns liquid nitrous oxide and
solid rubber and will burn for around sixty

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seconds, taking the aircraft to an
altitude of roughly eighty Crew members for this

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mission purchased their tickets as early as
two thousand and five. The full crew

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has not been announced. VSS Unity
will be piloted by Nicola Penzil and Michael

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Massucci, veterans of the company.
The astronaut instructor is Colin Bennett, and

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the mothership VMS EVE will be piloted
by pilots Jamil Janjua and Kelly Latimer,

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and ending the week off China will
attempt to launch another change thing, this

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time of six A from Launch Complex
nine, a ATU one satellite Launch Center

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in China. Liftoff is scheduled for
four forty UTC on September nine. However,

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the launch vehicle, payload and launch
time are still uncertain and could change

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as his the habit with Chinese launchers. And that's a pretty busy week.

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And that about wraps it up for
another episode of Astronomy Daily for the fourth

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of September twenty twenty three. Thanks
for joining us and thanks for all your

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heartwork today Hollie. That was fun, Steve, and you'll be seeing Tim

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later in the week, won't you. Always Great to be heading after England

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to the other half of the Astronomy
Daily team. Tim will have another batch

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of great stories for you. He
always has interesting stuff. Yes, I

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love listening to a show as well. Astronomy Daily is normally posted twice a

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week, currently with Tim gibbshiling from
Bath in England on Fridays and myself Steve

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Dunkley manning the Newcastle, Australia studio
on Mondays and occasionally when workload wim and

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weather permit, we produce shows on
Wednesdays and Thursdays for special sessions which are

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always a blast. As always a
reminder that you can always find back episodes

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of Astronomy Daily and our parent podcast, Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley and Professor

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Fred Watson at bytes dot com.
That's b I tesz dot com and also

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space nuts dot com. And one
more thing, Once again, I'll remind

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you don't forget to sign up for
the Astronomy Daily newsletter at that same address.

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00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:06.840
That's bytes dot com and also space
nuts dot com. I'm your host,

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Steve Dunkley. Catch you next time
on Astronomy Daily podcast. Well be

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your host, Steve Dunkley