Stunning Sculptor Galaxy Images, Black Hole Breakthroughs, and Moths Navigating by Stars

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Anna: Hey there, space enthusiasts. Welcome to Astronomy

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Daily, your go to podcast for all the latest happenings

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in the cosmos and right here on Earth too. I'm your host,

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Anna, and I've got a really exciting episode lined up for

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you today. We're going to dive into some truly stunning new

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images of distant galaxies, talk about some

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groundbreaking new space missions that are just around the corner,

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and even get this, learn about a surprising animal

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adaptation right here on our own planet that involves,

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you know, stars. So buckle up because we're about

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to explore the universe one fascinating story at a time.

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Let's get started.

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Alright, let's kick things off with some absolutely breathtaking

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news from the cosmos. Astronomers have managed to

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capture what is truly an unprecedented and

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intricate image of the Sculptor Galaxy. This isn't

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just any picture, it's painted in thousands of

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colours, revealing all these amazing complex details

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of galactic systems. This incredible

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shot of the galaxy, which is also known as NGC

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253 and is about 11 million light years

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away. That's a pretty good distance, right? Was

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actually collected with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic

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Explorer, or MUSE instrument,

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located at the Very Large Telescope, the VLT in

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Chile. What's really cool is that beyond just

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giving us this galaxy wide view, the image

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shows these super intricate details of NGC

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253. It's hoped that this kind of detail

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can really help reveal the finer points of the poorly understood

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and often complex systems that galaxies actually are.

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As team leader Enrico Conju from the Universidad de

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Chile put it, the Sculptor Galaxy is in a

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sweet spot. He explained that it's close enough

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that we can resolve its internal structure and study its building

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blocks with incredible detail, but at the same time

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big enough that we can still see it as a whole system.

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To get this kind of detail, covering 65,000 light

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years of the 90,000 light year wide galaxy

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required a lot of work. We're talking

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100 exposures collected over 50 hours

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of Muse observing time. But honestly,

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that effort was totally justified by the unprecedented

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detail we're seeing. Team member Katherine

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Krekel from Heidelberg University in Germany noted

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that they can zoom in to study individual

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regions where stars form at nearly the scale of

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individual stars. But we, we can also zoom out to study the

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galaxy as a whole. And speaking of

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discoveries, an initial look at this image has already

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yielded some amazing results. The team has been able

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to find 500 new planetary nebulae within the

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image. These are shells of gas and dust

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ejected from stars like our sun after they die

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and go into that puffed out red giant phase.

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This is pretty extraordinary because finding detections like this

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beyond the Milky Way and its immediate neighbours is

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really rare. Fabian Scheuerman, another

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Heidelberg University researcher, pointed out

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that beyond our galactic neighbourhood, we

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usually deal with fewer than 100 detections per

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galaxy. Now, despite the name, these

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planetary nebulae have absolutely nothing to do with

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planets, just to be clear. But they could be

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really fruitful in the future because astronomers can

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actually use them to make distance measurements.

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Adam Leroy, a researcher from Ohio State

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University and a team member, explained,

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finding the planetary nebulae allows us to verify the

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distance to the galaxy, a critical piece of information

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on which the rest of the studies of the galaxy depend.

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The team isn't done with this image of the Sculptor Galaxy just

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yet, by the way. The next step for these astronomers is

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to explore how hot gas flows through NGC

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253, changing its composition and

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helping to create new stars. Enrico

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Konju wrapped up by saying how such

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small processes can have such a big impact on a

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galaxy whose entire size is thousands of times bigger

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is still a mystery. Their fascinating research

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was published just recently in the journal Astronomy and

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Astrophysics.

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Moving on to our own galactic backyard, we have some

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absolutely wild news about the supermassive black hole

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at the heart of our Milky Way. Sagittarius A,

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or CESKAR A for short.

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New analysis of data collected by the Event Horizon

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Telescope, or eht, reveals that

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this monster black hole is actually spinning almost as

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fast as physics allows. And get this,

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its rotational axis is pointed right in Earth's

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direction. These findings are pretty groundbreaking and honestly,

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they kind of challenge some existing theories about how

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black holes behave. It gives us these incredible new

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insights and into the centres of galaxies. So

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how did they figure this out? Well,

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astrophysicists developed and

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applied a brand new method to really tease out the

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secrets hidden in those supermassive black hole

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observations from the eht. You might remember

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the EHT collaboration from when they gave us the very

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first direct images of black hole shadows.

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First M, um, 87 star in a galaxy

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55 million light years away. And then of

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course, our own Sagittarius A.

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These images are truly incredible, but they are also

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super difficult to interpret. So to

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understand what they're looking at, scientists use

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simulations. They basically build a bunch of virtual

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characteristics and then figure out which ones look most

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like the actual observational data. This technique has

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been used a lot with EHT images, but now it's been taken up

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a notch. A team led by astronomer

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Michael Janssen used high throughput computing

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to develop millions of simulated black holes.

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Then they used all that data to train a neural

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network, which helped them extract as much information

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as possible from the EHT data and really

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identify the properties of these black holes. Their

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results show, among other things, that Sagittarius A

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isn't just spinning at close to its maximum speed,

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but also that the glow around it is generated by hot

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electrons. Perhaps the most intriguing part

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is that the magnetic field in the material swirling around

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Sagittarius A doesn't seem to be behaving

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in a way that's predicted by current theory.

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They also looked at M M87 and

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found that it's also rotating rapidly, though not quite

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as fast as Sagittarius A. But here's the

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Twist. With M M87, it's

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rotating in the opposite direction to the material swirling in

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a disc around it. Scientists think this could be

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because of a past merger with another supermassive

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black hole. As Janssen put it. That we

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are defying the prevailing theory is of course, exciting.

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He also added that he sees their AI and machine learning

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approach as just a first step, with more

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improvements and data expected, especially once

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the Africa millimetre telescope joins in.

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This incredible research was detailed in three papers

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published in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

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Speaking of groundbreaking research and pushing the boundaries of what we

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understand, let's look forward to a truly monumental

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event in astronomy. The astronomical

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community is eagerly awaiting another historic moment

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with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

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This incredible new generation telescope, named

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after the trailblazing astronomer Vera Rubin,

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who, if you remember from earlier, was

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instrumental in uncovering the existence of dark matter through

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her observations of galactic rotation and is

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poised to continue her revolutionary work.

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It's been under construction in Chile's Atacama

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Desert, and honestly, it's a technological marvel.

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The Rubin Observatory is set to conduct the most

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comprehensive survey of the night sky ever

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attempted. Imagine this. It's going to photograph

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the entire visible southern sky every few nights for

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a full 10 years. At its heart is the world's

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largest digital camera, packing an astounding

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3.2 billion pixels. To give you a

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sense of scale, it features an 8.4 metre

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primary mirror with a three mirror design,

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providing an exceptionally wide 3.5 degree field

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of view. That's like seven times the area of the full

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moon. Its LSST camera, the

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Legacy Survey of Space and Time camera, is made up

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of 189 individual CCD

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sensors, weighs in at 3200

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kilogrammes and operates at a chilling minus

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100 degrees Celsius to minimise electronic noise.

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Located high up at over 2,600

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metres elevation on Chile's Caro Pachon.

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This observatory isn't just going to search for the subtle

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effects of dark matter. It's going to catalogue

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billions of stars and galaxies, track

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dangerous asteroids, and monitor the universe's

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constant changes in real time. When it finally

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begins operations, the Rubin Observatory is

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expected to generate more astronomical data

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in its first month than all previous telescopes

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combined have collected throughout history. That's a lot of data.

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It can even slew between targets in just five seconds

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and will operate using six optical filters,

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completing a full sky survey every three nights. With just 15

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second exposures. Over its 10 year mission, it's

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estimated it will catalogue 20 billion galaxies and

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17 billion stars. It really is incredible to

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think about how far we've come in just over 400 years since

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Galileo first peered at the universe through his telescope.

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And now we're on the cusp of another incredible

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milestone. So mark your calendars for June

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23, 2025 at

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15:00-clock UTC. That's when the Rubin

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Observatory will unveil its first spectacular images

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in what they're calling the first look event.

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This event will be live streamed via YouTube,

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allowing people worldwide to witness this exciting

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moment together. It represents more than just another

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technological achievement. It symbolises our

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relentless pursuit to understand the universe,

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carrying forward Vera Rubin's legacy of discovery

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into an age where the observatory that carries her name

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will give us a whole new view of the cosmos.

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Definitely check that out. When it drops.

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Okay. From massive new observatories, we're going

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to pivot a bit to something else that's really exciting

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in space exploration. Firefly Aerospace is

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getting ready for its next mission to the moon. And they're hoping

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to once again make history. But

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this time, even before they reach the lunar

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surface, the company recently unveiled something

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super cool called Ocula, which is a new

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lunar imaging service. They're aiming to become the

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very first company to offer this type of high resolution

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imaging capability in lunar orbit from a commercial

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provider. How awesome is that? Jason

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Kim, the CEO of Firefly Aerospace, said that this

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idea, you know, getting more imagery of the lunar surface, looking

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for minerals, understanding activity, or even

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doing space domain awareness has always been

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something they were exploring. He thinks

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Ocula will be super beneficial for NASA as well

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as for science, commercial and national security missions out there.

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And here's a fun fact for you. Like a lot of Firefly

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Aerospace's hardware and software, this new imaging

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service also pays homage to the movie

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Serenity, which is a sequel to the sci fi series

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Firefly Ocula is actually the name

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of one of the spaceships in the film, Kim said. It's

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just a great name for a game changing mission like this,

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and it's fitting for what they're doing. It's the first

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of its kind, the first commercial mission to do

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this imaging and mapping around the moon.

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Now, unlike their previous Blue Ghost Mission 1,

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which landed on the earth facing side of the moon,

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Blue Ghost Mission 2 is going to try a landing on the

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far side. But before it even attempts that landing,

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it will deploy the Elytra spacecraft with Ocula

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on board. Ocula's telescope is designed

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to capture incredible 0.2

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metre resolution images of the moon's surface from

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an altitude of 50 kilometres. The goal

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is to eventually develop a whole constellation of these

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in lunar orbit, which would offer a high

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revisit rate to a bunch of different parties.

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Firefly is already seeing a lot of demand and interest in

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the data Ocula will gather. They're

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developing this Ocula technology in partnership

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with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which

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is pretty cool. Beyond Blue Ghost Mission 2,

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which is targeting a launch in 2026,

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Firefly also plans to fly Ocula on the

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Elytra 3 vehicle, supporting a Department of

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Defence project no earlier than 2027.

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And get this, Kim even mentioned the possibility of

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deploying the Ocula technology for future Mars

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exploration missions too. That's like a

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huge leap, right? It just shows you how

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versatile and exciting this new capability could be.

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Okay, so speaking of exciting missions, we have another

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update with some good news regarding Axiom Space's AXE

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4 private astronaut mission to the International Space

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Station. After a couple of unexpected delays,

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it looks like it's back on schedule for a launch this coming Sunday,

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June 22nd. This mission, AXE 4,

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is Axiom's fourth crewed flight to the ISS.

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It was actually supposed to launch back on June 11th,

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but then they found a liquid oxygen leak in the Falcon

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9 booster, which pushed things back a day.

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And then, believe it or not, they found another leak,

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but this time it was at the ISS itself in the

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Zvezda Russian service module. Zvezda has

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been a bit leaky for a while, apparently, but this new

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pressure signature prompted an indefinite delay for Axe 4,

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just out of an abundance of caution, you know. But

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good news, it seems like the appropriate repairs have been

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made. NASA said that after the most recent fix,

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pressure in the transfer tunnel has been stable, which

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could mean those small leaks have been sealed. They're still

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evaluating it to be super sure, but it's looking

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positive and the fixes to the Falcon 9

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booster are definitely complete. SpaceX

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even did a new fueling test, a wet dress rehearsal and

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the rocket is ready to go.

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Alright, from super cool space missions to something a little closer to

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home, but no less amazing. Let's talk about the

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incredible journey of the Bogong moth.

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Scientists have actually discovered that this Australian moth might

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be the first insect ever known to use

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stars for long distance navigation. Yeah, you heard that right,

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stars. Every spring, billions of

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these brown Bogong moths migrate around a thousand

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kilometres or, or about 620

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miles north to the Australian Alps. They

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hide in cool caves there to avoid the heat. And then in

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the fall or autumn, as they say in Australia, they head

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back to their breeding grounds. The big

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question for a long time was how do they travel

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to a place they've never visited before?

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Well, researchers now believe the answer is stellar

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navigation. We already knew they could use Earth's

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magnetic field to navigate, but it seemed like they needed

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visual landmarks too. And what's a more obvious

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visual landmark at night than the Milky Way? To test

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this, the scientists captured some moths, put them

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in a planetarium like flight simulator, which sounds

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like something out of a sci fi movie, doesn't it? And blocked

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Earth's magnetic field, forcing the moths to rely on their

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eyesight. And guess what? The moths flew

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in the correct migratory direction based on the stars.

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Their brains were even most active when they were flying the right way in

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the simulation. It's truly wild.

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This is a pretty big deal because while some insects

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use stars for short distance movements, the Bogong

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moth is the first known to use them for these epic

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long distance journeys. Understanding how

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these little guys navigate is also super important for

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their conservation. Especially with light pollution

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becoming a bigger issue. Urban lights can really

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disorient them. There was even a time when a whole

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cloud of moths grew briefly took over the Australian

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Parliament. It just shows you how intricately life

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on Earth connects with the celestial sphere.

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And before I wrap up this episode, some late breaking news.

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SpaceX's newest Starship vehicle just went up in smoke.

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The company was testing a starship upper stage at its

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Starbase site in South Texas on Wednesday night to prepare for the

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mega rocket's upcoming 10th flight test.

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But something went very wrong. Dreadfully wrong.

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The vehicle exploded, sending a massive fireball

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high into the dark Texas skies. Video

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from sources such as

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NASASpaceflight.com showed the vehicle,

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designated Ship 36, exploded just after

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midnight Eastern while on a test stand at a site known as

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Massey's, several kilometres west from the company's

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launch pads at Starbase Texas, SpaceX

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said in a statement about 90 minutes after the incident.

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A safety clear area around the site was maintained

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throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and

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accounted for. The company added it was

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working to secure the test site in cooperation with local

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officials and that there were no hazards for people in

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the area.

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And with that news, we come to the end of another episode of

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Astronomy Daily. I mean, it's just amazing how much

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is happening out there, isn't it? From galaxies painted

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in a thousand colours to moths navigating by the stars,

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there's always something new and incredible to discover.

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Thank you so much for tuning in. I've been your host. Anna

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before you go, remember to visit our website at

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astronomydaily IO. That's

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astronomydaily IO. There you can sign up for

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00:17:04.110 --> 00:17:06.990
our free daily newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest space

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news, and you can also listen to all our back episodes.

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Don't forget to subscribe to Astronomy Daily on

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Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube,

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or, you know, wherever you get your podcasts. You

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never miss an episode. We'll be back tomorrow with more

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cosmic wonders. Until then, keep looking up.