Jupiter's Dance, India's Space Rise, and Barnard Star Mysteries

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Hello again. It's Steve Dunkley with
Astronomy Daily. Thanks for joining us.

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It's the second of October twenty twenty
three. My goodness, where has the

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year gone? Who quit? Yes, it all just seems to be flying

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by us so quickly this year.
I don't know what it is. Must

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be something in the water. And
please welcome my favorite digital assistant, Hallie,

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who's always here, so intrepid and
diligent. How are you, Hallie?

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Thank you for that fine introduction,
my favorite human. How was your

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week? Oh, same old,
same old work, work work. I

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did get to see that magnificent Superman
though, Hallie. It was quite something

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I've seen. Some of your local
photographers have captured some amazing images. That's

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the great thing about living in the
beautiful part of the world here in Newcastle,

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which is just north of Sydney.
If you don't know, it's home

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to some breathtaking beaches and coastlines,
and the Superman was caught in fine form

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in that environment by our local photographers. If you search super Newcastle, New

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South Wales and click images, you'll
find what they've captured from this and previous

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supermoon events. That's right and the
same as true if almost any city on

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Earth. Try it out and let
us know what you find. On the

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Facebook page, which is Space Nuts
podcast group. We're looking forward to hearing

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from you. You can even show
us your own photos. That would be

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sensational. Oh that's for sure.
My little phone just wasn't good enough,

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so I'll have to depend on our
listeners. So Hallie, what have you

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got for us today? I know
you're going to chat about the Moon and

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Jupiter later. That's right. I've
got a good story and I've got news

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about Barnard's Star. The Indian private
space sector going bonkers, I guess,

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following the success of the Chundray Young
mission and some celestial skywatching news. That

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sounds great, So let's go.
Barnard's Star is a small red dwarf just

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six light years from Earth. Despite
its proximity, it was only noticed in

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nineteen sixteen, when E. E. Barnard found it had a particularly high

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proper motion. It had appeared in
photographic plates taken by Harvard Observatory in the

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late eighteen hundreds, but as a
small, dim star, no one took

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notice of it. Since its discovery, Barnard's Star has been one of the

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most studied red dwarfs. Interestingly,
Barnard's Star is one of the first stars

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claimed to have planets. As far
back as the nineteen seventy studies claimed the

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presence of orbiting gas giants, though
further observations overturned these results. Then,

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in twenty eighteen, astronomers measured the
radial motion of the star, which suggested

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the presence of a close orbiting super
Earth with a mass of about three earths.

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Further observations, however, overturned this
discovery, suggesting that the radial fluctuations

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observed were due to solar flares.
Recent studies have confirmed Barnard's star has no

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close orbiting or potentially habitable planets larger
than seventy percent of Earth's size. This

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makes Barnard Star a bit unusual since
most red dwarfs have planets. For example,

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the red dwarf star Kepler forty two
is similar in size and age to

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Barnard's Star and has at least three
terrestrial planets. So while Barnard's star isn't

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a strong candidate for alien life,
a recent study has made detailed observations of

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the star looking for any signs of
an extraterrestrial signal. The study used the

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five hundred meter aperture spherical Telescope FAST. The Chinese telescope is a fixed dish

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design similar to the Arecibo observatory,
but significantly larger. FAST is particularly sensitive

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in frequency ranges useful to long distance
communication, making it a good tool in

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the search for aliens. So wait
a minute, howly did they find anything?

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As you might expect, the study
found no evidence of an alien signal,

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But this study was mostly a test
of what FAST could do. When

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Indian entrepreneurs Akmed founded his satellite startup
in Bangalore in twenty nineteen, his country

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was still a year away from opening
the space industry to the private sector.

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When we started, there was absolutely
no support, no momentum, said Achmed,

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who was twenty one when he founded
Pixel, a company deploying a constellation

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of Earth imaging satellites. Since then, the private space sector has taken off

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in India, joining a rapidly growing
global market. There are now one hundred

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and ninety Indian space startups, twice
as many as a year earlier, with

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private investments jumping by seventy seven percent
between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two.

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According to Deloitte Consultancy, a lot
of Indian investors were not willing to

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look at space technology because it was
too much of a risk Earlier, Achmed

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said in an interview with AFP.
Now you can see more and more companies

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raising more investment in India, and
more and more companies have started coming up

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now, he added, Pixel makes
hyper spectral imagaging satellites technology that captures a

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wide spectrum of light to provide details
that are invisible to ordinary cameras. The

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company says it is on a mission
to build a health monitor for the planet.

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It can track climate risks such as
floods, wildfires, or methane leaks.

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Pixel had initially sought to use rockets
from the state run Indian Space Research

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organization ISRO. I remember having a
conversation with with someone in ISRO. We

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were trying to book a launch and
they said, look, we don't even

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have a procedure to launch an Indian
satellite. But if you were a foreign

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company then basically there's a process which
didn't make sense when we started, Achmed

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said. Pixel ended up having to
hire US rocket firm SpaceX to launch its

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first two satellites. Pixel has raised
seventy one million dollars from investors, including

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thirty six million dollars from Google,
which will allow the company to launch six

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more satellites next year. The startup
has also won a contract with a u

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AS spy agency, the National Reconnaissance
Office, to provide hyper spectral images.

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Celestially speaking, this month's big news
is an annular ring eclipse of the Sun

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on October fourteenth. The path crosses
all of the Americas, starting in the

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Pacific Northwest before slicing across Nevada,
Utah, and Texas. Then it passes

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over the Yucatan Peninsula, much of
Central America, and central South America.

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This ring of fire event will last
nearly five minutes or more along the center

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line, and on that day,
virtually everyone in the Americas will see a

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partial solar eclipse, whether permitting.
Of course, two weeks later, on

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October twenty eighth, comes this year's
full Hunter's Moon. On that night,

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a bit of its disc slips into
Earth's umbrel shadow, creating a partial lunar

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eclipse. This event isn't visible from
North America, but if you're in the

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eastern hemisphere you'll be able to see
it. That night once evening twilight fades

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and left from the sunset point,
so that you're facing southeast. Saturn is

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right there, kind of by itself, and roughly a third of the way

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from the horizon to overhead. It
looks like a brighter than average star.

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Don't confuse it with somewhat dimmer fomal
Hot, which really is a star situated

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lower down by about twice the width
of your clenched fist at arm's length and

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closer to the horizon. An hour
or two after sunset, you'll see Jupiter,

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all of twenty five times bigger than
Saturn. Jupiter doesn't reach opposition when

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it's closest to Earth until the first
week of November, but October is close

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enough, and so Jupiter looks very
obvious, and the Moon will pair dramatically

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with Jupiter twice this month, on
the nights of the first and the twenty

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eighth. Happy skywatching, and that's
enough for today. Don't forget to check

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out the Astronomy Daily newsletter for daily
space science and astronomy news in you email

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right, Steve, that's right,
Hallie, and just go tobites dot com

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that's b s z or z dot
com or space nuts dot Io and sign

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up for a free and you'll receive
an amazingly informative Astronomy Daily newsletter each day.

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It's full of everything from launches to
lunches, space lunches, satellites to

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starlight. And I noticed you've got
another food reference and they're Steve. Well,

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even astronauts have got to eat,
Hallie. I hope our skywatchers have

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their opticals at the ready. Jupiter
is on the rise this month, I

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know. And we get two chances
to observe this celestial dance in October with

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the Jupiter and the moon. And
who won't want to check out the moons

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of Jupiter, Yes, the Galilean
moons. That's a great time to check

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them out. So polish off the
binoculars and telescopes and pack some sandwiches.

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Again with the food, Steve,
always with the food. Astronomy Daily,

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the podcast with Steve Dunkley and Hallie. Yes, why not? So Jupiter

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is stealing the show this month,
so bring it back lunch now. Skywatchers

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who are out during the late evening
hours on Sunday will almost certainly be attracted

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towards the eastern sky, where two
brightest visible objects at that are readily evident.

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The moon, now waning Gibber's phase, will be poisoned near a brilliant,

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silvery, non twinkling star. That
object is not a star, however,

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but the largest planet in our solar
system, Jupiter. As Hallie mentioned

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earlier, Jupiter comes up over the
eastern horizon just before nine pm local daylight

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time, and about four minutes earlier
each night, so by the end of

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October it will be beaming before the
end of the evening twilight. By then

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the plant will be so bright it
will be essentially at its peak brilliance for

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twenty twenty three that is easy to
see before the sky gets fully dark.

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A couple of hours after it is
written, Jupiter has climbed higher above the

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horizon haze and gleams with a brighter, pure light. It blazes high above

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the southern horizon during the quiet morning
hours after midnight, finally paling in the

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western sky during dawn. On Sunday
night, Jupiter will sit about two point

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three degrees below and to the right
of the Moon. Remember that your clenched

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fist held at arms length measures roughly
ten degrees. On Monday, the Moon

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will have shifted to a position nearly
sixteen degrees to Jupiter's left. Jupiter is

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situated in the small and relatively dim
constellation of Aries, and there it will

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remain until April twenty seven. Every
passing day brings our own world closer to

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shooting between the giant planet and the
Sun. When we finally do on November

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three, Jupiter will be at opposition, meaning it will be the opposite to

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the Sun in our sky. Now
is also a fine time to start examining

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the famous Galilean satellites, the four
largest of Jovian moons. In theory,

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they are also bright enough to see
with the naked eye, but for the

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rest of us who lack that acute
vision like me, optical aid is almost

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always required to separate the moons from
the glare of the mighty King of the

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planets. Steadily held binoculars can reveal
all four moons, though you may have

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to make special plans to catch the
innermost io close to the time of elongation.

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Telescopes will almost always show all four
At moderate powers, you can detect

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a change in their positions in an
hour or so, and sometimes when two

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are close together, in just a
few minutes. On Sunday night. In

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fact, all four satellites will be
clearly in view. Two will be to

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the east of June, while the
other two will be to the west.

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The two that appear closest to Jupiter, as well as to each other,

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are going outbound from the big planet
Io and Europa. The other two on

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Jupiter's other side will be Ganymede and
the furthest out Callisto. One well known

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lunar cycle is the sidereal month,
a period of time it takes the Moon

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to orbit once around the Earth with
respect to the background stars, a period

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equal to approximately twenty seven point two
days. Being a planet, Jupiter actually

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shifts its position relative to the stars, but only slightly during a span of

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about a month's time. So if
we were to add twenty seven point two

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days to add October one, that
would bring us to October twenty eight,

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and sure enough, on that night, the Moon will once again be passing

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relatively close to Jupiter. So if
cloudy skies obscure your view of the Moon

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and Jupiter on Sunday night, don't
fret. You'll get another opportunity to see

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them together on final Saturday night of
October. And that's another episode finished,

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So thank you for joining us.
In our regular reminder that you can find

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all the episodes of Space Nuts with
Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson, as

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well as current and back episodes our
podcast Astronomy Daily with Tim Gill from the

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studio in Bath, England and yours
truly Steve Dunkley from the Australian studio at

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this address space nuts dot io or
bytes dot com. That's b I,

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00:13:26.200 --> 00:13:30.919
t ees zorz dot com. So
head over there and click the links and

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enjoy your fill of space science and
stuff. But that's not all. While

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you're there, sign up and receive
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know I would. Thanks again for
joining us on Astronomy Daily. Bye for

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00:13:56.399 --> 00:14:03.240
now, catch you next time to
Day is the podcast with your host, Steve Dunklin