WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:02.680
Hello, and welcome to Astronomy Daily.
2
00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:06.839
I'm Anna and I'm Avery. It's Wednesday, February twenty fifth,
3
00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:09.800
twenty twenty six, and you are listening to Season five,
4
00:00:10.039 --> 00:00:11.400
episode forty eight.
5
00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:15.519
Big Show. Today, NASA's Moon rocket is on the move again,
6
00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:19.480
James Webb has achieved a genuine first in a history
7
00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:22.079
of astronomy, and we're going to talk about a world
8
00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:26.039
out there that is becoming increasingly difficult to explain without
9
00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:28.320
considering the word life.
10
00:00:28.760 --> 00:00:31.640
Plus, the sun is taking a quiet day for the
11
00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:34.799
first time in years. There's some grippy new detail from
12
00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:38.679
China's incredible space emergency last year, and we close with
13
00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:41.119
something that might just make you want to send a letter.
14
00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:44.079
All that coming right up, let's get into it.
15
00:00:44.439 --> 00:00:46.640
We start with an update on a story we've been
16
00:00:46.679 --> 00:00:50.399
following closely all week and today there's a genuinely new
17
00:00:50.439 --> 00:00:52.840
angle that caught a lot of people off guard.
18
00:00:53.359 --> 00:00:57.159
Right so Artemis two. As of this morning, the enormous
19
00:00:57.200 --> 00:01:01.560
Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft have physically
20
00:01:01.640 --> 00:01:05.079
begun their four mile journey from launch Pad thirty nine
21
00:01:05.159 --> 00:01:09.040
B back to the vehicle assembly building at Kennedy Space Center.
22
00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:12.799
That rollback started around nine am Eastern Time and could
23
00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:14.439
take up to twelve hours.
24
00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:18.519
The reason, as we've covered, is a helium flow interruption
25
00:01:18.680 --> 00:01:23.000
in the rocket's upper stage. Helium is critical it pressurizes
26
00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:27.079
the propellant tanks. Without that working perfectly, you cannot fly.
27
00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:30.879
March is now completely off the table. The next realistic
28
00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:32.840
opportunity opens on April first.
29
00:01:33.319 --> 00:01:35.920
But here's what's new today, and it's a bit of
30
00:01:35.959 --> 00:01:39.519
a talking point. Last night, the four Artemis two crew
31
00:01:39.519 --> 00:01:44.519
members Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Cock, and Canadian astronaut
32
00:01:44.599 --> 00:01:47.519
Jeremy Hansen. They were sitting in the gallery at the
33
00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:51.040
US Capitol for President Trump State of the Union. They
34
00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:53.840
were guests of House Speaker Mike Johnson.
35
00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:57.359
And the speech ran for nearly two hours. The President
36
00:01:57.439 --> 00:02:01.200
praised the space force extensively. He called, in quote, his baby,
37
00:02:01.640 --> 00:02:04.280
but he made no mention of the four astronauts sitting
38
00:02:04.359 --> 00:02:06.599
right there in the room, and no mention of the
39
00:02:06.680 --> 00:02:08.280
Artemis program at all.
40
00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:11.639
Which was noticed. These are the first people who will
41
00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:15.479
travel beyond low Earth orbit since the Apollo era, and
42
00:02:15.639 --> 00:02:18.400
they were in the chamber. Some in the space community
43
00:02:18.520 --> 00:02:20.280
found the omission quite striking.
44
00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:23.800
The crew have now been released from their pre launch quarantine.
45
00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:26.960
Since there's no imminent launch, NASA has said the whole
46
00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:29.360
the media briefing in the coming days to lay out
47
00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:33.159
the path forward. For now. April first is the earliest
48
00:02:33.159 --> 00:02:36.879
the mission could fly, pending successful repairs, a likely second
49
00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:40.240
wet dress rehearsal, and the clean flight readiness review.
50
00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:44.240
We will absolutely keep you updated as this develops. The
51
00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:47.319
mission itself is still on, It's just going to take
52
00:02:47.360 --> 00:02:48.039
a bit longer.
53
00:02:48.360 --> 00:02:51.439
This story has still got a long way to go, methinks.
54
00:02:51.919 --> 00:02:55.879
Now this next story is a genuine landmark in astronomy,
55
00:02:56.199 --> 00:02:58.639
something researchers have been waiting years for.
56
00:02:59.159 --> 00:03:02.960
It has to do with supernovae, those spectacular explosions that
57
00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:06.879
mark the deaths of massive stars. Astronomers have long wanted
58
00:03:06.919 --> 00:03:10.800
to look back at archival images after a supernova occurs
59
00:03:11.159 --> 00:03:13.960
and find the star that caused it, the so called
60
00:03:14.039 --> 00:03:17.680
progenitor star. But for many of the most massive stars,
61
00:03:17.879 --> 00:03:20.800
they just weren't there. They seem to be missing.
62
00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:24.479
Well now we know why, and it's thanks to James Webb.
63
00:03:24.919 --> 00:03:28.479
On June twenty ninth last year, an automated sky survey
64
00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:32.919
detected a new supernova in a galaxy called NNGC one
65
00:03:33.159 --> 00:03:37.280
six three seven, about forty million light years away. The
66
00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:42.199
explosion was designated twenty twenty five PHT, and a team
67
00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:46.800
at Northwestern University immediately did something color. Instead of pointing
68
00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:49.919
their telescopes at the new supernova, they went to the
69
00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:55.080
archives to image's Web had already taken of that same galaxy.
70
00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:58.800
And there it was a single red supergiant star sitting
71
00:03:58.919 --> 00:04:02.120
exactly where the suit supernova now shines. This is the
72
00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:05.560
first published detection of a supernova progenitor by the James
73
00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:06.439
Web telescope.
74
00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:10.599
Ever, and here's the key thing. Hubble couldn't see it.
75
00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:14.800
The star was completely invisible in Hubble images. It was
76
00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:18.560
surrounded by so much dust that shorter wavelengths of light
77
00:04:18.680 --> 00:04:23.680
were blocked entirely. Only Webb's infrared instruments could pierce that veil.
78
00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:28.439
Lead author Charlie Kilpatrick from Northwestern described it as quote
79
00:04:28.759 --> 00:04:32.600
the reddest, most dusty, red supergiant we've seen explode as
80
00:04:32.600 --> 00:04:36.720
a supernova. And there was another surprise the dust composition.
81
00:04:37.240 --> 00:04:41.920
They expected silicate rich dust, the kind astronomers usually find. Instead,
82
00:04:42.040 --> 00:04:45.000
it was carbon rich. The team thinks that carbon may
83
00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:47.360
have been dredged up from deep inside the star in
84
00:04:47.399 --> 00:04:48.959
its final moments before death.
85
00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:53.319
This has direct implications for what's called the mystery of
86
00:04:53.360 --> 00:04:58.040
the Missing Red Supergiants. Theory predicts these massive stars should
87
00:04:58.040 --> 00:05:00.800
be easy to spot before they explode. They should be
88
00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:05.000
bright and luminous, but historically they've often not shown up
89
00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:08.560
in pre supernova images at all. Now we have a
90
00:05:08.600 --> 00:05:12.240
compelling answer. They're there, They're just hidden in dust.
91
00:05:12.759 --> 00:05:16.600
The findings are published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The
92
00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:19.800
team is now looking for similar dusty red supergiants that
93
00:05:19.959 --> 00:05:23.439
might be the next to explode, and Web's successor missions,
94
00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:27.319
including the upcoming Nancy Grace Romans telescope, should help that
95
00:05:27.399 --> 00:05:28.480
search enormously.
96
00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:31.319
A beautiful piece of detective work.
97
00:05:31.480 --> 00:05:35.759
From stellar deafs to potential life, because our next story
98
00:05:35.879 --> 00:05:38.680
is one that keeps getting more interesting every time new
99
00:05:38.759 --> 00:05:42.439
data comes in. The exoplanet K two eighteen B.
100
00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:46.079
If you've been following exoplanet science over the last couple
101
00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:49.519
of years, you'll know this name. K two eighteen B
102
00:05:49.800 --> 00:05:52.600
is located one hundred and twenty four light years away
103
00:05:52.680 --> 00:05:56.480
in the constellation Leo, sitting squarely in the habitable zone
104
00:05:56.519 --> 00:05:59.639
of its red dwarf host star and James Webb has
105
00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:00.839
been staring at it.
106
00:06:01.399 --> 00:06:04.480
What WEB found was an atmosphere rich in both carbon
107
00:06:04.519 --> 00:06:09.720
dioxide and methane. That chemical combination is significant. It points
108
00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:14.360
strongly towards what astronomers call a Hycian world. The idea
109
00:06:14.519 --> 00:06:17.800
is a planet with a warm, liquid water ocean beneath
110
00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:20.480
a thick, hydrogen rich atmosphere.
111
00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:24.319
And the intrigue doesn't stop there. Earlier analyzes of K
112
00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:28.519
two eighteen b's atmosphere had also hinted at possible traces
113
00:06:28.600 --> 00:06:32.879
of dimethyl sulfide, a molecule that on Earth is produced
114
00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:37.279
almost exclusively by marine life. Now that hasn't been confirmed,
115
00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:42.120
and scientists are appropriately cautious. There are non biological explanations
116
00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:43.639
being explored, but the.
117
00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:47.160
Ongoing analysis of WEB data is continuing to add layers
118
00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:50.759
to the story. The carbon dioxide and methane combination is
119
00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:53.639
precisely what you'd expect if there were a liquid ocean
120
00:06:53.680 --> 00:06:57.319
beneath that atmosphere. The current focus is whether those chemical
121
00:06:57.399 --> 00:07:00.839
signatures could have a biological origin, and that's one of
122
00:07:00.839 --> 00:07:03.399
the most consequential questions in all of science.
123
00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:06.920
K two eighteen B is one of the most watched
124
00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:10.920
targets in astrobiology right now, and with web continuing to
125
00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:14.480
accumulate data, we should expect more updates in the months ahead.
126
00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:17.720
Ivery If it turns out there is life on K
127
00:07:17.759 --> 00:07:18.920
two eighteen B.
128
00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:23.800
Then everything changes. That's all I'll say. Okay, something a
129
00:07:23.800 --> 00:07:26.959
little different now, a story about our own Sun behaving
130
00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:28.360
unusually quietly.
131
00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:32.600
On February twenty second, the Sun's Earth facing disc went
132
00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:36.120
completely spotless for the first time in one thousand, three
133
00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:39.480
hundred and fifty five days. That ends a streak stretching
134
00:07:39.560 --> 00:07:42.120
all the way back to June eighth of twenty twenty two.
135
00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:45.160
For nearly four years, you could look at the Sun
136
00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:48.519
on any given day and find at least one active
137
00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:52.199
sunspot region, not anymore for a few days at least.
138
00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:56.199
Sun Spots are regions of intense magnetic activity on the
139
00:07:56.199 --> 00:07:59.879
solar surface, and they're the source of solar flares and
140
00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:04.360
the coronal mass ejections that can send charged particles hurtling
141
00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:08.319
toward Earth. We are in solar cycle twenty five, which
142
00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:12.000
peaked in October twenty twenty four, with a sunspot count
143
00:08:12.120 --> 00:08:15.399
significantly higher than scientists initially predicted.
144
00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:18.879
Here's a fun wrinkle. While Earth was looking at a
145
00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:23.439
blink sun. NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars had a different
146
00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:28.040
view from the Martian service. Perseverance could see sunspot groups
147
00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:31.600
blazing away on the far side of the Sun, invisible
148
00:08:31.639 --> 00:08:35.360
to us here on Earth, but clearly visible from Mars's
149
00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:37.399
position in the Solar system.
150
00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:40.399
The spotless period appears to have lasted about two to
151
00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:44.200
three days before a new active region began emerging around
152
00:08:44.279 --> 00:08:48.120
February twenty fourth. So the Sun isn't shutting down, it's
153
00:08:48.279 --> 00:08:52.120
just having a quiet moment. Solar activity isn't expected to
154
00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:55.919
reach its next minimum until around twenty thirty, but this
155
00:08:56.039 --> 00:08:59.159
little pause is a signal that Solar Cycle twenty five
156
00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:02.120
is beginning. It it's long, slow wind down from that
157
00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:03.759
October twenty twenty four peak.
158
00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:07.960
For listeners who love Aurora hunting, The good news is
159
00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:11.720
there's still plenty of solar activity ahead, but the best
160
00:09:11.799 --> 00:09:13.720
years of this cycle are behind us.
161
00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:16.559
Now now to a story that we've touched on the
162
00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:20.120
four but which has taken on fascinating new depth this week,
163
00:09:20.279 --> 00:09:23.919
with the shen Zu twenty astronauts speaking out in remarkable
164
00:09:23.960 --> 00:09:28.440
detail about last year's in orbit emergency. China's first ever
165
00:09:28.679 --> 00:09:30.159
human spaceflight crisis.
166
00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:35.120
Just to recap the situation, China's shen Zu twenty crew
167
00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:39.200
commander Chen Dong, along with Chen shang Rui and Wing Ye,
168
00:09:39.799 --> 00:09:42.879
launched in April twenty twenty five for what was supposed
169
00:09:42.919 --> 00:09:46.080
to be a standard six month mission to the Tiangong
170
00:09:46.200 --> 00:09:49.799
Space Station. During pre return checks, on the day before
171
00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:52.759
they were supposed to come home, Commander Chen went to
172
00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:55.200
inspect the return capsule and.
173
00:09:55.200 --> 00:09:59.360
He spotted something on the viewport window, something triangular. His
174
00:09:59.399 --> 00:10:01.600
first thought, and he shared this in a new interview
175
00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:05.679
with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, was that a small leaf
176
00:10:05.720 --> 00:10:08.360
had somehow stuck to the outside of the glass.
177
00:10:08.679 --> 00:10:11.759
And then, as he told it, he quickly realized that
178
00:10:11.879 --> 00:10:14.080
couldn't happen because they were in space.
179
00:10:14.840 --> 00:10:18.039
What he was actually seeing was a crack, a triangular
180
00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:21.559
scar roughly two centimeters long in the outer layer of
181
00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:25.200
the three layer viewport window, most likely caused by a
182
00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:28.759
debris strike. The crew used a pen shaped microscope to
183
00:10:28.759 --> 00:10:32.759
confirm the damage, took photos immediately, and transmitted everything to
184
00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:33.240
the ground.
185
00:10:33.919 --> 00:10:37.600
The decision that followed was extraordinary. The crew could not
186
00:10:37.799 --> 00:10:41.919
safely return in their own spacecraft. Instead, they transferred to
187
00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:45.440
the Shenzo twenty one, vehicle that had just arrived days
188
00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:49.559
earlier carrying their relief crew. An uncrewed shen Zoo twenty
189
00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:53.879
two was then emergency launched carrying a porthole repair device.
190
00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:57.240
The whole response from finding the crack to the crew's
191
00:10:57.279 --> 00:11:01.639
safe return to Earth took just over twenty days, and.
192
00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:04.919
The damage sends you twenty capsule. It was eventually brought
193
00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:08.159
back to Earth uncrewed on January nineteenth of this year,
194
00:11:08.519 --> 00:11:12.480
after spending two hundred and seventy days in orbit, ninety
195
00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:16.559
days longer than planned. It survived reentry, which itself was
196
00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:18.360
a significant engineering achievement.
197
00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:23.279
Commander Chen Dong summed it up beautifully. The unexpected window
198
00:11:23.320 --> 00:11:27.600
cracks ultimately became a precious testament to the concerted efforts
199
00:11:27.639 --> 00:11:31.000
and shared commitment for safety between our two crews and
200
00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:33.200
all ground based space personnel.
201
00:11:33.799 --> 00:11:38.039
A genuinely remarkable chapter in human spacelight. The space debrie
202
00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:42.360
problem is real, and this story illustrates exactly why it matters.
203
00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:47.360
And finally, something a little lighter to close the show, avery,
204
00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:49.799
have you ever wanted to send a letter that was
205
00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:53.240
also technically a window to the Cosmos?
206
00:11:53.639 --> 00:11:57.879
I feel like that's a rhetorical question, but yes, obviously, well.
207
00:11:57.759 --> 00:12:02.399
The US Postal Service has you covered. Yesterday, February twenty fourth,
208
00:12:02.639 --> 00:12:08.080
the USPS officially issued two brand new Priority Mail stamps,
209
00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:12.080
both featuring images from the James web Space Telescope.
210
00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:15.600
The first is the Priority Mail Stamp, priced at eleven
211
00:12:15.639 --> 00:12:19.039
dollars and ninety five cents, and it features the crab Nebula,
212
00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:22.279
the spectacular remnants of a star that exploded in the
213
00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:26.200
constellation Taurus about six thousand, five hundred light years away.
214
00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:30.399
Web captured it in the infrared, revealing structural details that
215
00:12:30.440 --> 00:12:31.879
have never been seen before.
216
00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:36.399
The second is the Priority Mail Express stamp at thirty
217
00:12:36.440 --> 00:12:39.600
three dollars and twenty five cents. And this one is
218
00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:44.320
a real showpiece. It's a composite image called Galaxy Pair
219
00:12:44.840 --> 00:12:50.279
two interacting spiral galaxies ICE twenty one sixty three and
220
00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:55.440
NNGC twenty two oh seven, located about eighty million light
221
00:12:55.559 --> 00:12:59.679
years away. The image combines Web and Hubble data across
222
00:12:59.720 --> 00:13:05.360
in for read visible and ultraviolet wavelengths. It is genuinely stunning.
223
00:13:05.960 --> 00:13:09.159
Kansas City, Missouri, was the official city of issue, though
224
00:13:09.240 --> 00:13:12.480
there was no public ceremony. And here's a lovely detail.
225
00:13:12.519 --> 00:13:15.840
For collectors, you have until June twenty fourth to send
226
00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:18.879
your stamps in for a first day of issue postmark.
227
00:13:19.320 --> 00:13:22.200
The Postal Service will even apply the postmark for free
228
00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:23.720
up to fifty envelopes.
229
00:13:24.279 --> 00:13:28.120
And this is actually the fourth consecutive year the USPS
230
00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:31.960
has used web imagery on priority mail stamps. In twenty
231
00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:35.559
twenty two it was a Forever stamp featuring a rendering
232
00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:39.120
of the telescope itself. In twenty twenty four and twenty
233
00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:43.360
twenty five, the Pillars of Creation featured, now the crab,
234
00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:47.120
nebula and a galaxy pair. Web is becoming something of
235
00:13:47.159 --> 00:13:50.480
an annual tradition at the post Office, which, when you.
236
00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:53.639
Think about it, is rather wonderful. A space telescope that
237
00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:57.000
costs ten billion dollars and took thirty years to build
238
00:13:57.399 --> 00:13:59.799
is now sitting in people's junk drawers, next to the
239
00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:01.120
scissors and the tape.
240
00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:04.720
That is the most poetic thing you have ever said
241
00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:08.159
on this podcast. I have my moments, and that is
242
00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:12.519
Astronomy Daily for Wednesday, February twenty fifth, twenty twenty six.
243
00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:18.159
What a show, rollbacks, Red super Giants, Possible Ocean worlds,